Thursday, September 1, 2011

From the E-Mailbag #1: Putt-R-Golf/Ontario Dept. Store

A nice thing about doing this nostalgia blog is hearing from someone who said that something they read here brought back a happy memory. What's even better is providing a forum for people to share their own memories.

Comments make things a lot more fun, and I've come to rely on my regulars – led by Alan Hopewell – to liven things up with an informative or funny observation.

One of the neat things about the blogger interface is that I can pull up all of the comments ever left on my blog, and read them from most recent to oldest. What's interesting is that something I wrote 1 or 2 years ago is still getting fresh comments.

In case you missed them, here's a few of them.

A couple of weeks ago, Doug Majka shed a little light on the old Putt-R-Golf on Oberlin Avenue (which I blogged about back in March 2010). Doug commented, "Today I talked with one of the owners of the Putt-R-Golf on Oberlin Avenue (he later started Hallmark Cleaners which he ran for 44 years). He mentioned the second year they put in batting cages. He said he gave out a lot of rainchecks the first year, so for the first six weeks of the second year almost all the customers were free."

David Pavlak commented on my post about Ontario Department Store (from February this year). David noted, "In the early 1970's, I was sent there by my neighbor to pick up some interior latex house paint because it was the cheapest at $3 a gallon and she wanted me to paint her living room and kitchen. OMG, it was the worst paint I ever used."

Terry Thomas is a former staff photographer for the Lorain Journal who worked with cartoonist Gene Patrick, who produced The Passing Scene (which I blogged about here). Terry commented that Gene worked in television in Los Angeles. "He was one of the background actors in the offices of The Mary Tyler Moore show and can be seen in reruns."

I just may have to rent the Mary Tyler Moore DVDs from the library and see if I can find him!

Terry Thomas has his own company down in Atlanta.

Lastly, I recently received a request from Bob Scheufler ("The Bob") from Tucson, Arizona to mention his new Facebook group; it's called "You Know You're From Lorain If..." and he is seeking new group members! (The Sandusky version and the original Lorain one are a lot of fun.) Good luck with your endeavor, Bob!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

-Alan says....

Thanks for the compliment, Dan! You and your blog have helped me and my blog stay in cyberspace, and it's just plain FUN to read, to boot!
(Do people really say, "to boot"?)

Lisa said...

Waiting for the post about the Lorain County origins of "to boot" now - thanks Alan! :-D

You do great work here, Dan - keep it up!

Doug Majka said...

Thanks for the mention, Dan. I had been following the Facebook "You know your from Lorain.." group when someone posted about the putt putt course on Oberlin Ave, so I added a comment from information I got reading your blog. Two of my Facebook friends are the daughter and wife of one of the owners of Putt-R-Golf. The daughter read the post and sent me a note saying her father and grandfather had owned that business in the mid-60's. It just so happens her father is currently my boss, so I asked him about the putt putt course the next day. He also mentioned it wasn't a very good investment, so he sold the property to developers, who built the two buildings that still stand on the property to this day - the old Kenny Kings KFC chicken and Pizza Hut - both of which have been closed for years, though I believe there is an internet cafe in the Pizza Hut building now. I'll check it again tonight as I drive right by it on my way to Rebman's.