Cincinnati

All aboard!

sbradford — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 16:19:49 +0000

All aboard!

December 1, 2023

Jody Davis got his first electric train for Christmas when he was 8 years old. But his love affair with trains started even earlier.

“Railroad tracks ran behind our house,” says Davis, a member of New Concord-based Guernsey-Muskingum Electric Cooperative. “When I was about 2, I remember insisting on being lifted up to stand in the kitchen sink and watch the train, even though it was the middle of the night.” Davis says he went back to sleep immediately after the trains passed, but he doesn’t think his parents were so fortunate.

Davis joined Associated Model Railroad Engineers of Coshocton when he was 14, and currently, at 55, serves as president.

An early start

It’s a familiar story with model railroaders: A childhood fascination with trains leads to a Christmas or birthday gift of a model train set. Retired music educator Bruce Knapp, 81, of North Bend, is still an active participant and member of the National Model Railroad Association’s Cincinnati chapter.

“For my fourth birthday, my parents gave me a Marx windup train,” Knapp recalls. “When I was 8, I got an American Flyer at Christmas. My interest in model railroading grew from there.”

Knapp still has that American Flyer train and, he notes, “It still runs.”

American Flyer’s manufacturer, the Lionel Company, still makes electric trains. The American Flyer became a popular Christmas gift through advertising in the December issues of national magazines. The print ads usually featured a boy and his dad running their train near a Christmas tree. If a girl was included in the picture, she was in the background watching.

Such gender-specific advertising was typical of the way toys were marketed in the 1940s and 1950s, but Knapp says he has known many women who have been involved in model railroading for years. “Some of the best model railroaders are female,” he says.

All shapes and sizes

Model trains come in different sizes, measured by a particular scale. All of the components of a layout — the tracks, train cars and locomotives, buildings, and scenery — are made proportionate to that scale. This consistency adds to the realistic look of the entire layout.

Knapp’s railroad is made to HO scale, 1:87, which is among the most common and most popular. N scale is 1:160. Larger scales include S at 1:64 and O, which is 1:48. The tiny Z scale is 1:220.

Model railroaders can design their layout to portray an imaginary railroad, a railroad that is typical of a particular time period, or a real railroad traveling through a real geographic location.

Davis and the 50-member Coshocton club’s current project is the creation of an HO-scale layout of the Detroit, Toledo, and Ironton Railroad, which became part of the New York Central System. Club members meet every Friday to run the trains and work on the layout.

Knapp, meanwhile, is working on a model of the Santa Fe Railroad going through the Raton Pass. “I’m modeling the railroad as it was in 1951,” he says. “That was about the end of Santa Fe’s steam locomotives and also the first generation of diesels, an interesting combination of equipment.”

The Raton Pass is on the border of southern Colorado and northeastern New Mexico. Knapp has actually ridden through the railroad tunnel there numerous times when he travels on Amtrak from Chicago to Los Angeles to visit his brother.

One member of the Cincinnati club has designed his train layout to show the present-day CSX Railroad. Another member’s model railroad replicates the Colorado Western Railroad.

Knapp says that model railroaders search through old books and photographs in their efforts to make their layouts look as realistic as possible. This background research increases their knowledge of local history.

The hobby evolves

Model railroading is a hobby that adults and older children can enjoy together. Davis says some folks enjoy running the trains while others prefer doing construction or electrical work on the layout. “Personally, I enjoy building the buildings and adding colors on the locomotives.”

Knapp says that kids can learn a lot from it, including “history, geography, basic mechanics, carpentry, electronics, and more.”

In years past, analog control allowed a model railroader to run one train at different speeds and move it forward or backward, or stop it. Knapp says this type of setup is ideal for a beginner.

But model railroading isn’t a hobby stuck in the past. As with other hobbies and leisure interests, computers have changed it. The development of digital command control, or DCC, has given model railroad operators many more ways to enjoy their hobby. Knapp says DCC makes it possible to run several trains through larger, more complicated layouts at the same time.

“With DCC you can add lights flashing on and off and sounds, such as a diesel locomotive’s horn,” he says. “DCC has made a big change in my layout because it allows for precise control. It’s the ultimate for a model railroader.”

Knapp advises people who want to get started in model railroading to “go to a train show. Talk to the experienced model railroaders there before you start spending money. Also, check your public library for books on model railroading. Our club donates books every year to the Cincinnati Public Library.”

He adds, “When you are ready to buy, make sure you get good equipment that will hold up. Lionel makes models sized to most scales, though some are really expensive.”

Join the club!

There are model railroad clubs all around Ohio. Both Knapp and Davis urge anyone interested in model railroading to contact their nearest club, as visitors are always welcome.

Being involved in a model railroading club offers members several advantages. Besides the friendship of other members, expert help is readily available. Some model railroad clubs host a holiday open house for anyone who wants to watch their members’ trains in action. These events are especially fun for kids.

Here are only a few selected clubs around the state (most have websites and/or Facebook pages):

All Trains Bunch (Piqua); Associated Model Railroad Engineers of Coshocton; Central Ohio Model Railroad Club (Worthington); Central Ohio Ntrak (Columbus); Central Ohio S Gaugers (Gahanna); Cincinnati Northern Model Railroad Club (Hamilton); Crossroads Model Railroad Club (Vandalia); Cuyahoga Valley S Gaugers (Cleveland); Cuyahoga Valley Terminal Model Railroad Club (Cuyahoga Falls); Delaware County Model Railroaders Group (Sunbury); Guernsey Valley Model Railroad Club (Cambridge); Lima Model Railroad Club; Massillon Railroad Club; Mid-Ohio Valley Model Railroad Club (Parkersburg, W.Va.); National Model Railroad Association, Div. 5 (Mentor); National Model Railroad Association, Div. 7 (Cincinnati); Sebring Model Railroad Club; Southwestern Ohio S Scalers (Mason); Zane Trace and National Trail Model Railroad Club (Zanesville).

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Cincinnati

Ohio attractions

hobbies

Roadway robots

sbradford — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 18:39:20 +0000

Roadway robots

May 1, 2023

Sarah Jaquay

Features

Sam Bell, a retired auto mechanic, and Wyatt Newman, a retired Case Western Reserve University professor of electrical engineering, have been friends and bicycling buddies for years. “We talk about everything on our rides,” Bell says. “We make bad jokes, we laugh, and we complain.”

On one of their rides, for example, Bell recalls telling Newman how frustrated he was that his suburban hometown city council couldn’t approve funds for bike lane markings. Told by city officials that it would take $30,000, Bell wondered why it cost so much for such a seemingly mundane task. There were several answers, but the main reason was the cost of person-power both to paint the markings and to maintain them, since water-based paint fades quickly.

Newman’s response, as it often is when Bell complains about human folly: “Can we get a robot to do it?”

Not long after, the pair launched RoadPrintz, LLC.

The common, labor-intensive practice is that all those turn arrows, handicapped space designations, sharrows (shared lane markings), and other specialty markers are stenciled by hand. It’s not only costly, it puts America’s road workers in danger every time they do their jobs. RoadPrintz changes that by producing a truck-mounted robotic arm that can paint even custom markings that are too complicated for striping trucks.

“My favorite part of the process is when the robotic arm is mounted on the truck,” Newman noted. Their first truck-mounted robotic arm, called Lester, was a prototype. They worked out some kinks in their second truck, Stella, and the current iteration, Electra, “is a template for manufacturing vehicles for our customers,” Newman says.

Bell and Newman had collaborated before. They worked together on a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) competition in 2007 to build a vehicle capable of autonomous operation in an urban environment — Bell working on the automotive aspects while Newman took on the robotics. It was that experience that led them to believe they could make a concept like RoadPrintz actually come together.

Why would a municipality, department of transportation, or other potential customer want to buy an Electra or one of its progeny? “Cleveland, Cincinnati, or Columbus would benefit because the person-hours would be cut in half,” says Newman. He explains that when specialty road markings are painted manually, several trucks and a four-person crew are involved, including flaggers and a couple of painters. With a RoadPrintz robotic arm-mounted truck (that can do the pre-work coning automatically), only two trucks and their drivers are required. The painting is accomplished robotically from inside the truck. “We don’t want the driver to get out. That’s when bad things happen,” notes Newman.

Newman and Bell can rattle off national statistics about how many road workers are injured and killed doing precisely the work these robotic arms can do. Those numbers hit home last August in Stow, Ohio, when a driver careened into a coned-off work zone, critically injuring the two workers who were painting a crosswalk at an intersection. Impaired or careless drivers may always be a threat, but the damage they do will be greatly reduced if they collide with a huge truck versus workers protected only by cones.

RoadPrintz has conducted successful demonstrations of its technology in northeast Ohio, including painting bike lanes on the Payne Avenue Bridge over Cleveland’s Innerbelt with green boxes, white bike symbols, and white arrows. Bell and Newman estimate that a typical long-line road painting truck can sell for about $500,000. “RoadPrintz expects to be about 20 percent cheaper,” notes Newman.

For more information, visit www.roadprintz.com. To see the company’s video of the process, search “Road Printz” on YouTube.

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Pee Pee Creek?

sbradford — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 14:17:22 +0000

Pee Pee Creek?

February 1, 2023

Craig Springer

Features

An Ohio map reads like an autobiography. The names pinned to places — the towns, counties, watercourses, and junctures that you may have never even heard of — tell stories of experience, chance encounters, longings for a better future, or the wistful wishing for a place left behind. Some pay tribute to heroes of the past. Others are curious and comical, leaving one to wonder, “Uh, what were they thinking?”

The gouging push and soggy pull of glaciers and the long steady movement of water shaped the land we see today, and strongly influenced names given the sinuous blue-line waters draining north to Lake Erie or south toward the Ohio River.

Then there’s the spilling of blood — the clash of cultures and struggle to possess what Native Americans, the British, and a fledgling United States of America all wanted to call their own.

Let’s consider the latter first.

Four Mile Creek, for example, rises in the uplands along the Indiana-Ohio state line, picking up the waters of small rills and runs and seeps. It bumps into glacial moraines and purls through pastoral farmsteads on its downhill destiny with the Great Miami River — by which time it has become a substantial stream. Its placid form and lyrical name belie the fact it was born from warfare.

In October 1791, the entirety of the U.S. Army set out from a freshly built Fort Hamilton (named to honor Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton) and nested on a bench of land above the Great Miami River. The autumn foray would become a march to massacre. The soldiers, in a slow slog north, cut a road in a wide swath through virgin forest. Four miles from the fort’s gate, the army camped for a night along a stream. The next day, three miles on, they crossed Seven Mile Creek. A month later, on the headwaters of the Wabash River, they met a confederation of Indian tribes and suffered a crushing defeat.

It became known as St. Clair’s Defeat. The battle site where upwards of 800 soldiers exhaled their last is today’s Fort Recovery. Those vanquished under the command of the Miami leader, Little Turtle, or the Shawnee leader, Blue Jacket — such as Arthur St. Clair, Richard Butler, and William Darke — live on in stream, county, and township names.

Of course, Native American place names also persist in Ohio. The difference is that they tend to be descriptive, rather than tributes to people or commemorative of experiences. “Miami,” of course, lives large in Ohio. According to linguist David Costa of the Myaamia Project at Miami University in Oxford, the Great and Little Miami river names include an adopted English use of the original Myaamia, meaning “downstream person.”

According to Costa, Miami Indians knew the Great Miami River as ahseni siipiiwi, literally “Rock River.” Lake Erie was known as ciinkwihtanwi kihcikami, literally “sea of the falls,” referring to Niagara Falls downstream. St. Mary’s River on the Indiana-Ohio state line was nameewa siipiiwi, literally “sturgeon river.”

You won’t find any of those on a map, though you will find numerous Anglicized versions of Algonquin and Iroquois words — Coshocton, for example, comes from the Lenape/Delaware word goschachgunk, which simply signified a river crossing.

Ohio has a fair number of communities with stilted names that speak to high aims of its early settlers. Akron derives from Greek for “high place.” Gallipolis evokes a sense of the Greek city-state self-governance. Xenia reflects the hospitality expected in the home in classical Greece.

Alert Station is a curious hamlet near Ross (formerly Venice, corrupted from Venus), northwest of Cincinnati (so-named after the Roman soldier-farmer Cincinnatus). Alert was and remains a crossroads. But those pioneer settlers valued literature and ensured early on they had a library populated with the classics, and the folks there were considered “alert,” as in “intellectual.”

Ohio had no shortage of volunteers answering President Polk’s call to action against Mexico in 1846. A good many Ohioans served in the Mexican War, and the effect of their return in 1848 was certainly felt in new place names. The soldiers may have desired to memorialize those killed in action, or they romanticized the places and people they had met in what is now New Mexico, California, and interior Mexico. Most prominent is Rio Grande, Ohio, pronounced “RYE-O Grand.” And there are the Buckeye burgs of Vera Cruz, Monterey, and Montezuma, as well as the City of Holy Faith: Santa Fe, Ohio.

One cannot consider the topic of Ohio’s place names without addressing those that leave you scratching your head. Ever heard of No Name, Knockemstiff, or Pee Pee Creek? All three exist in southern Ohio, and it’s the origin of the last that’s well-documented. Pee Pee Creek trickles through Pebble Township in Pike County, which had been named by Peter Patrick — who had carved his initials in a stream-side tree circa 1785.

Ohio’s place names run the spectrum from commonplace to implausible. One can go to Russia, visit Rome, London and Paris, and take a drive through Mesopotamia — without ever leaving the state. Every place name relates to desires, experience and perception. And what they have in common across that spectrum is enchantment in the spirit of their origins.

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Worth the weight

sbradford — Wed, 28 Dec 2022 15:43:10 +0000

Worth the weight

January 1, 2023

Damaine Vonada

Features

For her 6th birthday, Cora Stover went to the Cincinnati Zoo’s Hippo Cove exhibit to visit Fiona, her favorite hippopotamus. Cora was born shortly before Fiona and has practically grown up with the remarkably charming and friendly hippo. When Cora’s mom, Randie Adam, got ready to take her birthday photo in front of Hippo Cove, Fiona was right on cue and got into the photo by positioning herself directly behind the smiling little girl.

“Cora has told me that if Fiona ever goes to another zoo, we’ll have to move too,” says Adam. “She doesn’t want to live anywhere but where Fiona lives.”

Like Cora, people everywhere feel a personal connection with Fiona. Born so small she nearly died, Fiona defied the odds, and the story of how she survived and thrived made the plucky hippo an international celebrity. Fiona has been called a symbol of hope, a source of inspiration for overcoming obstacles, and an ambassador for her species.

Since Fiona — and now her half-brother, Fritz — is such a phenomenon, we think you might be curious about her and her rotund relatives, a group (officially called a “bloat”) of hippos who exclusively inhabit Hippo Cove.

Henry

HENRY, FIONA’S FATHER

Birthplace

Henry was born at the San Francisco Zoo on Aug. 29, 1981. At the age of 7 months, he was transferred to Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, Missouri, where he was named after one of the zoo’s benefactors. Henry spent more than 30 years there and sired five calves (only one of which survived) with a female hippo named Patsy. After Patsy died, he lived alone for two decades, but Henry’s distinctive pink coloring and fondness for watermelon endeared him to the Missouri zoo’s visitors.

Cincinnati Zoo residency

To remedy Henry’s solitary lifestyle and provide him with a pool suited to his 4,500-pound frame, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan (SSP) for hippopotami recommended his transfer to the Cincinnati Zoo in 2016. Its new, $8 million Hippo Cove offered Henry state-of-the-art accommodations as well as the companionship of a female half his age, 17-year-old Bibi. Henry was immediately smitten with Bibi, and after Hippo Cove opened to the public on July 21, 2016, the couple delighted zoo-goers by cavorting like honeymooners in its 70,000-gallon pool.

Claims to fame

Henry became a father for the sixth time when Bibi gave birth to Fiona on Jan. 24, 2017. Though out of practice as a parent, Henry gradually accepted her and patiently kept his mouth wide open while Fiona curiously inspected his teeth. By mid-summer, dad, mom, and baby were one big happy bloat and cuddled together during naps.

Demise

After contracting a chronic infection, 36-year-old Henry’s health declined rapidly. The zoo humanely euthanized him on Oct. 31, 2017.

Postmortem

In 2018, Dickerson Park Zoo honored Henry with a plaque that reads: “The world’s most handsome hippo. Father of Fiona. Loved by our community for more than 30 years.”

Bibi with Fritz

BIBI, FIONA’S MOTHER

Birthplace

Born Feb. 7, 1999, at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida, Bibi became one of the first — and most mischievous — residents of the St. Louis Zoo’s Hippo Harbor when she was transferred there in 2001.

Cincinnati Zoo residency

Bibi moved to Cincinnati to inaugurate Hippo Cove in 2016 and keep her blind date with Henry, the first male hippo she ever encountered.

Currently

Bibi is 24 years old and weighs some 3,200 pounds. She has two offspring: Fiona, who turns 7 this month, and Fritz, a baby boy fathered by Bibi’s latest flame, Tucker, whom she met four years after Henry died.

Claims to fame

Fiona’s premature birth and struggle for survival made her an internet sensation, which likewise turned Bibi into one of the world’s most famous mothers. Apparently, she’s also one of the most dedicated mothers; incentivized by treats, Bibi patiently stood still for ultrasound procedures while pregnant with Fiona, and as a result, the Cincinnati Zoo made history by capturing the world’s first image of a Nile hippo in the womb. When her newborn proved too weak to stand and nurse, Bibi also walked into a chute twice a day and allowed her milk to be collected.

Singularly Cincinnati

The human care needed to keep Fiona alive meant that the zoo separated her and Bibi for months. When they were reunited, Bibi was so steadfastly protective and attentive that Fiona’s caregivers started calling the mother-daughter duo “BiFi” (pronounced “beefy”).

Fiona

FIONA

Birthplace

Fiona was the first Nile hippo born at the Cincinnati Zoo in 75 years. She arrived six weeks earlier than expected, and at 29 pounds, she weighed 25 pounds less than the lowest previously recorded birthweight for her species. Because Fiona was so small and frail, zoo staffers immediately intervened to save her and even enlisted nurses from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to administer IVs. “Team Fiona” provided intense, round-the-clock care, and the first indication that their extraordinary efforts were paying off came rather quickly, when the zoo announced that the week-old calf had been given a name: Fiona, a Gaelic word meaning “fair.”

Cincinnati Zoo residency

The zoo started posting photos and videos on social media so that people could follow Fiona’s progress. Well-wishers around the globe sent Fiona messages and cheered her every milestone, and on Aug. 25, 2017, The Fiona Show, documenting her growth and development, debuted on Facebook Watch. It garnered 34 million views in its first season. In mid-December, the zoo announced that Fiona had transitioned from bottle-feedings to solid foods, and by the time she turned 1 year old, Fiona tipped the scales at 650 pounds. With her cute face and perky personality, she also possessed tons of charisma and was undoubtedly the zoo’s star attraction.

Currently

As she nears her 7th birthday, Fiona currently weighs more than 2,100 pounds — and is still growing. She devours lettuce, veggies, beet pulp, and hay; consistently makes a big splash diving and playing in Hippo Cove’s pool; and appears to love people as much as people love her.

Claims to fame

Fiona is the first premature hippo raised by humans; the first animal voted the No. 1 Cincinnatian (five years in a row!); the first hippo to predict Super Bowl results; and the world’s most beloved hippopotamus.

Singularly Cincinnati

On Fiona’s first birthday, all of Cincinnati seemed to shout, “Hip-Hip-Hippo-Ray!” While herds of fans signed her birthday card at Hippo Cove, businesses and zoo partners celebrated with Fiona-themed products. Graeter’s made Chunky Chunky Hippo toffee-and-peanut ice cream; Rookwood Pottery did a coaster featuring Fiona, Bibi, and Henry; Cincy Shirts sold Fiona birthday tees; and the zoo announced that pre-orders were available for Fiona, the Hippo, a book by bestselling illustrator Richard Cowdrey (a member of The Energy Cooperative in Newark).

Fast-forward to 2023, and Fiona remains queen of the Queen City. Graeter’s still churns out Chunky Chunky Hippo; Rookwood’s growing Fiona collection includes ornaments, plates, bookends, and coin banks; and Cincy Shirts has multiple items saluting Fiona’s entire family. Cowdrey is working on his sixth Fiona book, and of course, the zoo’s hippo-rific gift shop stocks them all (www.cincinnatizoo.org).

Tucker

TUCKER, BIBI’S BOYFRIEND

Birthplace

Like Bibi, Tucker is a native of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, where he was born May 18, 2003. At age 6, he went to the Topeka (Kansas) Zoo to be a companion to a female hippo named Mara. Their son, Vision, was born on Aug. 20, 2010, and shortly afterward, he was relocated to the San Francisco Zoo because Topeka’s hippo enclosure could accommodate only two animals. Tucker lived without a mate in San Francisco until the SSP program suggested he should go to Cincinnati and get acquainted with Bibi.

Cincinnati Zoo residency

When he arrived at the Hippo Cove on Sept. 6, 2021, Tucker was described as “huge, dark, and handsome,” and he and Bibi were soon hanging out by the pool and feasting on squash, melons, and hay during dinner dates. They got along so swimmingly that in April 2022, the zoo announced that Bibi was expecting her second calf.

Currently

Tucker is 19 years old and weighs about 4,300 pounds. He was officially introduced to his then-2-month-old son Fritz last October, and Tucker now happily occupies Hippo Cove with Bibi, their not-so-little bundle of joy, Fritz, and Fritz’s half-sister, Fiona.

Claims to fame

To date, Tucker has surprised the staff at two different zoos in two different cities by conceiving two sons with two different females who both were on birth control; Tucker confounded expectations in Topeka when Mara became pregnant, and the same thing happened again at Cincinnati’s zoo.

Singularly Cincinnati

Although christened Tucker at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, he was called “Bruce” at the San Francisco Zoo in honor of Giants manager Bruce Bochy. In a nod to Cincinnati Reds catcher Tucker Barnhart, the Cincinnati Zoo reverted to Tucker’s given name, and Barnhart reciprocated by welcoming the hippo with a video message.

Fritz

FRITZ, FIONA’S BABY BROTHER

Birthplace

Fritz was born at the Cincinnati Zoo on Aug. 3, 2022. In contrast to Fiona, Bibi carried him to full term, and his birthweight was estimated at 60 pounds.

Cincinnati Zoo residency

After nursing and bonding with Bibi indoors, Fritz, with his ever-watchful mother, finally ventured into Hippo Cove’s pool at the tender age of 2 weeks old. A few days later, he made his public debut in the glass-sided pool, staring back at the media and visitors who were staring at him. On Aug. 24, Fiona met Fritz for the first time, and on Oct. 13, Tucker completed the family circle by joining them in Hippo Cove.

Currently

By this past November, 3-month-old Fritz weighed more than 300 pounds. He has a spunky personality and appears to have inherited Tucker’s bulging eyes.

Claims to fame

When the zoo asked the public to help name him, it received 90,000 suggestions from every U.S. state and more than 60 countries. The zoo selected two finalists — Ferguson and Fritz — and asked folks to choose. The response was enormous: 223,542 votes, of which 56% favored Fritz. While the winning name alliterates nicely with Fiona, it also alludes to the fact that Fritz exists because Bibi’s birth control was, well, on the fritz.

Singularly Cincinnati

Virtual zoo members can access the live Hippo Cove webcam to view the everyday lives and playful antics — including nose bumps, blowing bubbles from their nostrils, and the occasional hippo “kiss” — of Fritz, Fiona, Tucker, and Bibi (www.cincinnatizoo.org). Tip: The weather must be 40 F and sunny for them to go outside.

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Cincinnati

zoo

wildlife

Stars and Stripes forever

sbradford — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 20:18:22 +0000

Stars and Stripes forever

June 30, 2021

Damaine Vonada

Features

Ask Artie Schaller how many stars the American flag had in 1869, and he instantaneously answers, “Thirty-seven.” The question would stump most people, but Schaller has a distinct advantage: He grew up in a family business that’s one of the nation’s oldest flag manufacturers.

The National Flag Company originated with a Cincinnati printing business that opened in 1869. “Our founders printed all kinds of things but also made flags on the side,” says Schaller. “By 1894, flags were their most popular item, so they incorporated The National Flag Company.” The Schallers’ involvement started in 1903, when 12-year-old George Schaller was hired as a stock boy. He became National Flag’s president in 1948. Today, Artie serves as general manager, and his father — Art Schaller Jr. — is president.

Although National Flag produces more than a million flags and banners annually, it remains a small, customer-oriented business, with 21 employees. “They’ve been here an average of 17 years, and six have been with us more than 30 years,” says Schaller. Phone calls to the company are answered by a real person, and the public is welcome to walk into its factory building in Cincinnati’s West End and purchase flags at the front office’s service counter. National Flag made some 5 million American flags for the 1976 bicentennial, but demand for Old Glory skyrocketed after the 2001 terrorist attacks. “When 9/11 happened, we sold every flag we had in two-and-a-half days,” recalls Schaller. “Then people lined up to buy flags as soon as we finished making them.”

National Flag focuses on manufacturing handheld “stick” flags commonly used for parades, July Fourth festivities, and other patriotic events. Using a century-old press, employees print the miniature American flags and affix them to wooden dowels.

The company also creates made-to-measure American flags and, of course, state flags. With the only swallowtail state flag, Ohio presents something of a challenge. “Because of Ohio’s burgee cut, it’s not the easiest flag to make and takes extra time,” says Schaller.

Since National Flag’s forte is customization, its equipment ranges from a digital printer for producing vinyl banners to hand-operated sewing machines used for its nylon, polyester, and cotton flags. Recent projects include 20-foot by 30-foot American flags designed to hang in Amazon warehouses and flags for a Disney hotel that feature appliquéd artwork and letters. “There are four rows of double stitching on each letter,” says Schaller, “and every flag takes about 20 hours of sewing.” In addition to its 152 years of signifying the pride and passions of individuals, organizations, businesses, and nations, National Flag has branched out to installing residential and commercial flagpoles. “We’ve evolved,” observes Schaller, “into a full-service flag company.”

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American history

Cincinnati

Changing with the times

aspecht — Mon, 03 May 2021 18:28:21 +0000

Changing with the times

May 3, 2021

Jamie Rhein

Features

Coney Island, the iconic Cincinnati park, has a history of envisioning possibilities and changing with the times — times that have included two world wars, the Great Depression, floods, integration, and now two pandemics.

As the second pandemic of its lifetime seems to be on the wane, Coney Island will open yet again come Memorial Day weekend, more than 130 years after folks first gathered on the spot. “When amusement parks do their jobs,” says Tom Rhein, the park’s senior vice president, “they make time and worries disappear.”

Coney Island has seen its share of transition during its long history. When James Parker bought a 20-acre apple orchard on the banks of the Ohio River east of Cincinnati in 1867, he planted the seeds of a summer-fun treasure. As the story goes, a few Cincinnati businessmen on horseback asked Parker to rent the orchard for a picnic and, smelling success, Parker added a dance hall, a bowling alley, and a carousel.

Parker’s Grove became a daytrip escape from city bustle. After riverboat captains William and Malcolm McIntyre bought Parker’s paradise in 1886, the amusement park became Ohio Grove. Dubbing it “The Coney Island of the West,” the McIntyres brought passengers there from Cincinnati by steamboat.

Over the next few years, Coney Island gained rides and attractions — and popularity. A former cornfield became Lake Como in 1893. By 1925, the park had added an open-air dance palace called Moonlight Gardens and a stone gate to greet passengers arriving by riverboat — including the Island Queen, which brought 4,000 paying customers at a time to the park.

The most impressive addition, however, was Sunlite Pool.

Opened May 22, 1925, Sunlite Pool is still the largest recirculating-water swimming pool in the world, covering almost 2 acres.

During the Depression, a Coney Island and Sunlite Pool trip was a special treat. “We didn’t go on vacations back then,” recalls 90-year-old Joyce McCord, who grew up near Cincinnati. She and her twin sister, Joan, first visited Coney Island with their parents and 3-year-old twin brothers. The girls were 8. “We loved to go to the pool, and a hot dog always tasted better at Coney Island,” she laughs. Joan’s highlight was soft-serve ice cream and listening to the calliope on the Island Queen.

The park’s location by the river, so crucial for its early success and growth, has also been a challenge, as periodic flooding has taken a toll. In 1937, for example, 85 feet of flood water covered Moonlight Gardens, and the park had to be almost entirely rebuilt. Coney Island was also submerged in 1964, and Rhein remembers boating in to his park office after water covered the grounds in 1997.

Through it all, Coney Island remained successful, and in fact, may have been a victim of its own success. Because of ever-increasing crowds (and the precarious flood threat), ownership decided the park had outgrown the space, and in 1972, Coney Island’s amusement park closed upon the opening of King’s Island, north of Cincinnati. Several of Coney Island’s attractions moved there — including the iconic 1926 Grand Carousel.

That could have been the end, of course, but a wave of nostalgia brought the reopening of Coney Island’s amusement park by 1976, and the rides stuck it out until 2019. Now, though Coney Island’s rides are gone again, the park lives on as a water park and picnic ground.

Along with the renowned Sunlite Pool, the stone gatehouse still stands as a historic landmark, and the Parker’s Grove picnic area offers shelters and catering for group events.

Upon the park’s Lake Como, guests can try a Storybook Paddle Boat and glide across the water in gigantic swans or dragons.

This summer, Challenge Zone, the largest Aquaglide swimming pool obstacle course in the U.S., will open in Sunlite Pool’s deep end, joining the Twister, Cannonball Cove, and Typhoon Tower as part of Sunlite Adventures. The Silver Bullet, a 30-foot metal slide erected in 1945, also still stands in the middle of the pool.

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amusement parks

Cincinnati

20th century Audubon

aspecht — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 16:18:54 +0000

20th century Audubon

December 31, 2020

W.H. Chip Gross

At the corner of Vine and West 8th in downtown Cincinnati, a giant mural covers the entire side of a six-story building. It depicts a colorful, swirling flock of birds: passenger pigeons, now extinct. The last passenger pigeon, Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo on Sept. 1, 1914.

That 2014 mural, which commemorates the 100th anniversary of Martha’s death and the species’ sad passing, was the work of internationally known wildlife artist John Ruthven — one of Cincinnati’s most famous and beloved native sons. Ruthven died Oct. 11, 2020, at the age of 95.

If it has to do with birds in or around Cincinnati, Ruthven probably was part of it.

Born in 1924, Ruthven knew he wanted to be a professional artist from an early age, preferably a wildlife artist. Like so many young men of that era, however, his dream was deferred by World War II; John enlisted in the U.S. Navy after he graduated from high school in 1943.

After the war, Ruthven returned to Cincinnati, married, began a family, and opened a commercial art business. One of his first jobs was to create the image of the young boy found on cans of Play-Doh, the children’s modeling clay. He also continued to draw and paint wildlife pictures in his spare time.

It was in 1960 that he submitted an entry to the federal Duck Stamp contest. The picture depicted a pair of swimming redhead ducks, male and female, followed by their small brood of young ducklings.

To Ruthven’s surprise and elation, his painting was chosen as the contest’s winner that year and appeared on the 1960–61 federal Duck Stamp. The win gained Ruthven instant fame as a wildlife artist and changed his art career forever. He made the decision to close his commercial art studio to pursue wildlife art exclusively, full time. It’s a decision that he and tens of thousands of wildlife-art enthusiasts never regretted.

Ruthven had always idolized John James Audubon (1785–1851) and his art. Audubon had even spent time in Cincinnati painting bird portraits. It’s not surprising, then, that Ruthven’s painting style eventually evolved to resemble that of Audubon’s — so much so, that John Ruthven would become known as the “20th-century Audubon.”

Counting his many sketches, drawings, and completed paintings, Ruthven produced thousands of pictures during a career spanning some 60 years. It was a career that took him around the world in search of new and exotic wild species to paint. In 1972, Ducks Unlimited named Ruthven its first Artist of the Year, and prints from his paintings raised nearly $2 million for North American wetlands preservation.

Ruthven also painted Ohio’s first annual Wetlands Habitat Stamp and a cardinal for Ohio’s most popular vehicle license plate, raising millions of dollars for the Ohio Division of Wildlife in the process. Today, Ruthven paintings hang in countless homes, businesses, and museums, including the Smithsonian.

Ruthven received commissions to paint three pictures of the bald eagle for presentation to presidents of the United States — Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush — and the official unveilings all took place at the White House. A fourth president, George W. Bush, presented John Ruthven the 2004 National Medal of Arts.

Late in life, Ruthven was asked if he would still paint were it not for the continued commissions he received. “Oh, yes,” was his quick response. “I’d paint for myself. I’d have to. One lifetime is not enough to do it all.”

John and me

In 1996, I had the privilege and honor of collaborating with fellow Ohioan John Ruthven to produce the Ohio Wildlife Viewing Guide. Published by Falcon Press, it listed 80 of the Buckeye State’s best wildlife viewing sites, part of the national Watchable Wildlife Program. Ruthven created the original artwork for the 96-page booklet, while I provided the text.

I’d never met John before, but quickly learned during the project that he was the consummate professional. Not only was his artwork scientifically accurate and detailed — six full-color plates of six wildlife species each — it was also beautiful.

I found John, as most people did, to be extremely outgoing, friendly, and down to earth — quickly able to make you feel as if you were a friend he’d known all his life.

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art

wildlife

Cincinnati

Holiday at the museum

hgraffice — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 20:25:10 +0000

Holiday at the museum

November 23, 2016

Damaine Vonada

Features

When people visit a museum, its gift shop is usually the last thing they see. During the holidays, however, museum stores should be your first destination for gift ideas. These very special stores reflect the collections of their parent institutions, and they carry a wide range of items — regional publications, landmark photos, works by local artists, tasteful toys, and elegant accessories — that are sure to inspire, surprise, and delight everyone on your list. Here are some of our favorites.

Air Force Museum Store, National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base

This spacious shop is located inside the world’s largest military aviation museum and accordingly contains a top-flight assortment of merchandise related to air and space. That includes a superb selection of military, history, and aviation books; leather A-2 pilot’s jackets and green nylon B-15 jackets; Air Force One backpacks and bookmarks; Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman music; kid-pleasing space ice cream; patriotic flag ornaments; and even camo Christmas stockings.

Columbus Museum of Art Museum Store

Located near the Ohio Statehouse, the recently expanded art museum also has a smart new store dedicated to “Creative Goods and Good Design.” Its global inventory includes Shinola watches; chic socks patterned after the museum’s colorful Schokko painting; and an inimitable umbrella displaying a detailed map of Columbus.

A Christmas Story House and Museum Gift Shop, Cleveland

Fans of A Christmas Story love touring the house where Ralphie lived and viewing props from the beloved 1983 movie. They also love the gift shop’s nostalgic memorabilia — pink bunny suits, Parker family figurines, and leg lamps just like the one in the house’s front window.

Decorative Arts Center of Ohio Museum Shop, Lancaster

Lancaster’s historic Square 13 is a veritable textbook of 1800s architecture, and the classic Greek Revival residence that houses the center is one of its treasures. The eclectic museum shop has locally made products ranging from designer Eric Burchwell’s original jewelry to teacher Jane Hill’s organic soaps.

Edison Birthplace Museum Gift Shop, Milan

Fittingly enough, the small shop at the home of the mighty inventor who created the lightbulb, phonograph, and movie camera sells ingenious items — think lightbulb-shaped ornaments and T-shirts brandishing clever quotes (“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration”) from Thomas Edison.

Ohio History Connection Store

Ohio History Connection Store, Columbus

Because the Ohio History Connection is the state’s ultimate archive, its museum store likewise is a prime resource for anything and everything related to the Buckeye universe. From Adena Man pipe replicas to Charley Harper wildlife posters to cookbooks with Cincinnati chili recipes, it has something for every Ohioan.

Ohio Glass Museum Gift Shop, Lancaster

Focused on Fairfield County’s glass industry, the museum boasts an in-house studio, and its artisans provide the shop’s blown glass vases and bowls, flameworked bead jewelry, and gorgeous glass ornaments. Another option: Take a studio class to give ornaments or paperweights you’ve made yourself.

Pro Football Hall of Fame Museum Store, Canton

Since the Pro Football Hall of Fame salutes America’s gridiron greats, its store stocks clothing and collectibles for every NFL team and Hall of Famer. “Legends” shirts and replica team jerseys are popular, while autographed helmets and footballs score with the signatures of enshrined players.

Molly’s Shop and Café

Molly’s Shop and Café, Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, Akron

The pleasures of Stan Hywet’s annual “Deck the Hall” event include warm gingerbread cookies made from Gertrude Seiberling’s recipe. Seiberling and her husband, Frank, who co-founded Goodyear Tire and Rubber, built the grand estate that now ranks among America’s finest house museums. Named for the draft horse that pulled yule logs into Stan Hywet’s Great Hall, Molly’s sells an array of affordable fashions and accessories, commemorative books, and holiday goodies that include festive ornaments and frozen gingerbread dough to bake in your own oven.

Zanesville Museum of Art Museum Store

The museum has outstanding American art pottery and Ohio galleries, and its shop features pretty and practical items from Ohio artists. Look for Maddy Fraioli’s exuberant, floral-patterned redware; Jessica Gray’s ceramic pieces; wool dryer balls by fiber artist Jane Evans; and dinosaur-shaped crayons hand made by the shop’s personnel.

WACO Air Museum Store, Troy

Located on an airstrip, the museum celebrates the famous civilian biplanes that were manufactured in Troy. Its store sells the most uplifting present you’ll ever find — gift certificates for $100-per-person rides in a shiny, open-cockpit WACO plane.

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Ohio attractions

Cincinnati

Cleveland

Pro Seniors: Cincinnati company helps older citizens

hgraffice — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 20:06:04 +0000

Pro Seniors: Cincinnati company helps older citizens

December 22, 2016

Kevin Williams

Features

Middletown was once a bustling steel and paper manufacturing hub along the banks of the Great Miami River in southwest Ohio. The majority of manufacturing jobs disappeared in the downsizing waves of the 1980s and 1990s, leaving behind an older population — including many elderly on fixed incomes and government assistance.

It was against this backdrop that T.E. Baines, a volunteer for Middletown-based advocacy group Ohio Pro Seniors, met Bill Rogers, a longtime resident of the area. Baines had given a presentation on navigating Medicare, and during the question-and-answer session afterward, Rogers spoke up and remarked that he was a victim of the very Medicare fraud that Baines was counseling how to prevent.

“Did you report it to police?” Baines asked.

Rogers said he had. In fact, a Middletown detective had been trying to get to the bottom of it for quite some time to no avail. The man had been receiving statements showing that a provider he had never heard of had been billing him and Medicare for services he never received, and it was causing problems for Rogers when he went for his various medical appointments.

Baines decided to get Pro Seniors involved.

Pro Seniors, founded in 1975, is a nonprofit organization with a mandate to help society’s oldest members with the sometimes complicated issues of aging. The organization dispenses legal assistance, serves as a Medicare watchdog, and offers an ombudsman service for those in long-term care. Pro ’ mission is to help the quality of life for Ohioans over 60.

After a lot of sleuthing and back-and-forth with Medicare and the errant biller, Pro Seniors figured out the problem and recovered the man’s money. In this case, Rogers hadn’t been a victim of anything intentionally malicious. His is a relatively common name, and an innocent mistake (a wrong digit was entered by someone, somewhere) had snowballed into a big problem.

“Medicare can be confusing, but the answers are there if you know where to find them,” Baines says.

His role gives him a great deal of fulfillment. “I like the idea of helping, and I believe in service,” he says. “I think part of being a citizen is doing more than your share.”

Life for those in the aging population can be one of dizzying change and speed, even for the sharpest minds. And in a predominantly rural area without the menu of services that many cities are able to offer, that can add to a feeling of isolation. Pro Seniors serves as a lifeline to those in rural areas, with help literally a phone call away.

The phone line is busy at Pro Seniors’ Cincinnati office. Calls to the legal hotline, which has served the state since 1981, come in from all over the state. Pro Seniors serves as a vital line of defense for older Ohioans, and services are available to any Ohioan age 60 or over.

Retirement communities and senior centers across the state, in fact, practically have Pro Seniors on speed dial as a means to connect their customers with the help they need.

“I have worked with Pro Seniors for many years and have referred hundreds of older adults and their family members to Pro Seniors,” says Karen Hill, director of independent living for the Otterbein Lifestyle Community, a senior residential living complex in Warren County. “They do a wonderful job of sharing information and helping people with all kinds of concerns with their many different programs.”

Scammers take advantage of a trusting population that has wealth, and Pro Seniors has become a versatile and valuable resource to combat these scams.

“There are just so many more different types of media today to reach victims,” says Mary Day, program associate for Pro Seniors. “All the different ways of communicating today have created more opportunities to try to victimize that target audience. They are home, they pick up the phone and read every piece of mail.”

While someone taken in by the Jamaican lottery scam and others of its ilk have little chance of recovering their money, Pro Seniors can help ensure it never happens again by dispensing sound advice: “Close the bank account, notify credit bureaus, and we highly recommend a credit freeze,” Day says, adding that for $5 one’s credit can be essentially “locked” so that a would-be scammer runs into a firewall when trying to take out a loan or open a credit card.

“We provide victims with information as to what their next step is, what their rights are and what their responsibilities are,” Day says. “We equip people to take the next step.”

Kevin Williams is a freelance writer from Middletown.

Tags

Cincinnati

technology

Beyond the Buckeyes: Ohio's other nutty mascots

hgraffice — Wed, 24 Jun 2020 20:08:29 +0000

Beyond the Buckeyes: Ohio's other nutty mascots

October 4, 2017

Paul Batterson

Features

Aesculus is hardly a word that would strike fear into anyone’s heart. Yet Ohioans take pride in their Buckeyes — the traditional nickname for the sports teams at The Ohio State University that was formally adopted in 1950, but informally used before even the turn of the 20th century. The nickname was derived from the innocuous-looking native tree nuts that can be poisonous to Gophers, Badgers, Wolverines, and many other more fierce-sounding mascots across the country.

As unusual a mascot as it might be, however, Brutus Buckeye has lots of out-of-the-ordinary company, even within the state of Ohio. With football season in high gear, here are our choices for the most unusual mascots around the Buckeye State — Brutus not included.

5. The Big Blue Blob

Xavier University’s teams have been known as the Musketeers since 1925, honoring the Cincinnati-based institution’s French origins and culture. Its primary mascot, D’Artagnan, projects a powerful presence when he roams the sidelines at basketball and soccer games (XU does not field a football team). But the university made a not-particularly-startling discovery in 1985: Characters from 18th-century novels by Alexandre Dumas don’t always appeal to children the way, say, big, hairy blobs of blue fur might. Hence, the creation of The Big Blue Blob.

“Blobby,” as he/she/it is affectionately called, is well-known for both his friendly demeanor and his 22-inch tongue, which he uses to gobble up tickets, crackers, or whatever props might be handy — including, during an iconic “This Is SportsCenter” commercial on ESPN, the Hall of Fame jacket of former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly, after Blobby defeated him in a game of “Rock, Paper, Scissors.”

4 and 3. Fightin’ Quakers and Battling Bishops

Wilmington chose its “Fightin’ Quakers” nickname and mascot to pay homage to the school’s roots, having been founded in 1870 by members of the Religious Society of Friends, known as Quakers. Of course, Quakers hold pacifism as one of the basic tenets of their belief system, so “Fightin’ Quakers” makes for quite the unlikely moniker.

Ohio Wesleyan’s “Battling Bishops” is almost as much of a contradiction. The Delaware school has long been affiliated with the United Methodist Church, so the bishop part makes sense, though Methodist theologians are not normally known for their pugilism. Interestingly, the mascot underwent a facelift in 2010 to become less friendly looking.

2. Zippy the Zip

There are not many modern-day college marketing departments that would even consider an overshoe as a mascot. That was the choice, however, in a 1927 contest to pick a mascot at the University of Akron. The winning entrant had suggested the “Zippers,” in reference to a popular rubber overshoe that was then manufactured in Akron by the B.F. Goodrich Company. The name was trimmed to the “Zips” in 1950.

The idea of a large rubber overshoe prowling the sidelines, however, seemed neither inspiring to U of A teams nor intimidating to foes, so in came Zippy the Zip, a red kangaroo — one of the fastest mammals on the planet. Zippy captured the Capital One Mascot of the Year Challenge in 2007.

1. Student Princes

Heidelberg University in Tiffin took the rare path melding college athletics and musical theater to produce its nickname, the “Student Princes.” As legend goes, the school’s publicity agent was strolling around Tiffin one evening in 1926 when he came across a marquee promoting The Student Prince of Heidelberg, based on Sigmund Romberg’s operetta. Butcher liked the name so much that he began using it to promote the school’s football team. It spread to all of the university’s athletic teams, and eventually replaced the former nickname, the “Cardinals,” as the school’s official moniker.

Siggy, the orange-plumed, armor-clad mascot with arched eyebrows and a self-satisfied smirk, fought off an attempt to change mascots again in the 1990s, when officials pondered “The ’Bergs of Heidelberg,” as a nod to the school’s oft-used colloquial nickname, but popular demand kept Siggy on his throne. One other fact to note: Women’s teams at Heidelberg are called, interestingly, the Student Princes.

Best of the rest

Here are a few other interesting Ohio college mascots and nicknames:

Dayton Flyers: One of only a handful of colleges in the country with this nickname, UD pays homage to Dayton native sons Wilbur and Orville Wright, who created and flew the first powered airplane, and to nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Kent State Golden Flashes: Winner of a 1926 contest to replace the former nickname, the “Silver Foxes.” There is apparently no significance to the name other than the fact that it won the contest.

Youngstown State Penguins: The nickname came as the result of fans describing the players on the school’s basketball team before a January game in 1933, when the players stomped their feet and swung their arms to warm up.

John Carroll Blue Streaks: The college’s original name was St. Ignatius, and its teams were referred to as the “Saints,” which was no longer appropriate after the name changed in 1923. A dying alumnus watching football practice described the team as a “Blue Streak” in 1925, and the name stuck (it remained singular until the mid-1930s).

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Ohio history

Cincinnati

Columbus