Happy Belated Birthday Wes!!!

[charlene]

so sorry this got past me!
HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY WES!!
hope it was a good one!

char

[joveski]

happy birthday!

[Jesse Joe]

happy birthday !

[Dream Street Rose]

Hi Wes,

I hope you had a birthday as special as you are.

DSR

[geodeticman.5]

Happy Birthday! Too a Man from the Land of CLeve's, like me. While transport to Colorado in 75 for the rest of High School, I still wander the Terminal Tower of older days - b4 it was a mall. Do the trains still run there ? I was a North Olmsted'er - to the West edge of Cleveland, by Fairview Park, under Bay Village, East of North Ridgeville, off of Loraine RD (10), and was in Forest Ridge Subdivision, with my great Bradley Woods Reservation to play in when little to the west, behindthe house...wooods good til I hit Stearns Rd, or Bradley in some directions. I understand a large amount of those woods are gone, with more Highway and Subs in there now. Yes ? . When older and returned to see old friends in late 70's, went to (do you know these places ?) - "Spanky's", Cyrus Erie West (when younger), Porky's ?, andof course - La Cave. Gord's 1st ...ws it Ohio, or US gig ? I think US.... !.

Down an hour's drive on 287 eg Columbia rd and then... (?) too long ago... soouth to Brunswick area....beautiful in fall, and Wipp's (or Wiff's ) Ledges...showed my friends some Colorado handiwork there w/rack, rope and all , I do also remember a larger "Ledges" - Nelson's Ledges ? - I think there was a Raceway there, too. Mohican State Park. Much caoeing and Camping with friends.

In town - Rapid Transit still on-line ? - ised to call the Rabbit Transit when littlem then later with assumed adult disdain at 16 lol , the Rabid Transit.... it runs still ?

Down in the - oh man so many memories there - "The Valley". The Horseshoe shaped Park 75 miles long around Cleveland....then Metro Parks, now I understand its a State Park ? Man used to be the big hangout on the weekend... when little, summer of weekend - "bike-hike' - c 45 minutes from N Olmsted to the Cedar Point Hill entrance off of Columbia Road. Camel-back ridge at bottom of the Roller Coaster drop Cedar Point Hill was the start of that old ride your stingray up if you dare, and ove rthe Camel-Back, and downnnnn crash to the picnic area there...

Later in High school - everybody in the Parl on Sunday, Cook-outs with friends, smell of Charcoal, burgs-n-dogs, pull your ride off onto the grassy fringes in the trees outof the sun, and wax it.....then Cook-out, frisbee...lotsof memories there. Is Cedar Point Amesement Park still running in Sandusky ?

Got to pilot a 32' Egg Harbour 9for the straight shot near due West at Aximuth/Bearing 287 degrees.... 7 off of due west... when I was 11... but believe me... Daad and his boat-owning boss did not let me TOUVH that flying Bridge until we were way clear of Celveland West Harbour (?) - some Hi fallutin/ Yacht Club there at the put-in..... but any way.....out into open water, then the owner said OK Son....see this compass ? yea yea yea..... keep the wheel so were are pointee at 278 degrees, in about 40 minutes or so, I'll check on ya cause we'll be gettin near the Sandusly Peninsula, where Cedar Point Amusement is......

He was a little soused to let an 11 yr old pilot a ...shhh back then I thin it was $10/ft boat... I dunno, now a 32' twin v8 below decks, state romm twin berths 2, galley, and fishing (drinking ) deck off of the Stern End...and the flying bridge secondary controls I was High-n Dry on - thought I was a Newfoundland Whaling Captain at 11.....lol....he was a fool to let an 11 yr old run her.... no knowledge of giving right-of way, passin on the (right ?), buoys, etc., could of run er aground and he'd never of felt any pain....lol...

Dad just kept coming up and checking on me....pat my shoulder... good job son....you see- azimuth versus bearing is...'i KNOW ..i KNOW Dad - 4 bearing portionsin a circle, say North-something by something,. or South -something by something... but I am not doing that, an I ? I'm on an AZimuth of 278 - thats almost WEST , huh Dad ? - Pat on the shoulder... You'll do fine sun... you see ANYTHING - U call ME. Rgith , Dad..... thought I was King of the Oceans..no crew to bark orders too, though......

My old buddy Frank from High School is now the Pres. of the Cleveland (Joiners? Union) - or Labour Union for Carpentry and High steel, too...sounds nebulus to me, but he's a houncho.... from his humble carpenter days.... and U know his reasoning for taking the posititon offerred by Union vote I believe ? - He said he as more likely to work year-round amd feed his family. Cn't fault that motivation fair pay for fair work...as you explained so correctly quite along ways back in corfid - the only correct definition of 'Makin Hay with no gravy - brings the good folk down ? - what does it mean? - thread... - from Make Way for the Lady - great tune of Gord's with a hint of his early Jazz interests..... anyway.... you defined it dead-on, with (roughly) - Making Hay (timely work reaping timely results...strike while the iron's HOT - cutt grass when its right to make dry hay no ROT) - with no gravy (non-commensurately low pay for fair work done) - as I recall U said ? Yes ? Been awhile on that one, came up again recently new crop of old questions... cyclical it seems huh ?

Well Wes(t) Eel ( ), Happies of Birthdays and a grand one to ya...

Jealous of your recent Ohio Cleveland Gord gig you atteneded - suit and all I read...I'd of payed Good money to fly out and ....well... ask to join you and your lovely family If I remember right yes ? for that one....only sat Gord in The Lands of the Western Reserve area (Case U radio station jingle) down to Blossom Music Center - wasn't that near AKRON ? And the Stan Hyet (pronounced Hyouoo-ett) Mansion and tours now ?

Treat yourself well.... as I recall - they built a Morton's of Chicago Steakhouse out there huh ? Original one it was said was a favourite of Tony Bennet.... I do believe when he had steak , everynight was an open-mic night for him ..lol.... Or maybe dinner at Stouffer's Top-o-The-Town. near small Airport edge of water front I recall ? . Dad always took us to Girve's Brown Derby for steak in Fairview Park I think, you been there ? THAT's the only steak dinner I can speak to..

You have a good one. I'm going to root around for a minute and see if I find an old file I ment to send to you with real sepcific Cleveland area thoughts (as if this was not lol ?) - a long time back....stored it as a too-long file to post....when I tried to maek ny posts shorter - lost and gave up !

Happy Birthday, and hopefully included-attached will B my memories of Cleveland file/post to you....in any event - take care....

WAIT - Found it, the older file, some overlap in subject matter - well, a lot lol.. with this post... I'll see if 10,000 characters max will permit this "Birthday Present" 2 U here in same post - here goes.... anyway - Enjoy old memories, build even better new/old memories today !

The file: (this'll bore non Clevelanders, probably Wes, too....lol) - fair warning

Old FILE to Wes; I'll let 'er rip - probably max out > 10,000 c:

OOPS yes it did...I'll send it in a seperate 2 follow post next !

[geodeticman.5]

PART 2 - old file Belated B-day present to Wes Steel ! - more Cleveland memories to share...dubious if good, 2 long, but its a present - no complaints ! lol

'ere ya go: part II retro-actively past yer birthday - hope it was a good one:

Wes, great review ! The Home of The Rock-and Roll Hall of Fame Lives !

As a fellow Clevelander ( I grew up there 1958 - 1975, If you count the move

out to N. Olmsted when I was 3; still a suburb of Cleve., Dad worked at LERC,

now Glenn Research Center, out in BrookPark - the Fed complex NASA , and also

some days out to PlumBrook - wonder if that reactor is still live?) and

finished my senior yr of High School in our new location for home out in Estes

Park, Colorado; I "townied" there a couple years after High School and worked

to save money and traveled; got that bug out, finally went to CSU, then met

Merry in Estes, married for life 28 years ( you might not have been around when

I posted about my loss of Merry, don't think so...)

Anyway from a fellow Clevelander, excellent job on the review. I appreciate it.

You know, as a Great Lakes State, and Cleveland being a waterfront City on Lake

Erie, I recall TWOTEF being A VERY big song there when I went back to visit,

Summer after High School graduation in '76. What with Cleveland mentioned in

the song, I doubt that made MUCH difference, It was just real big for like 6

months as I recall. Do you mind mentioning what part of Cleveland you are from

(if you are) ? &if so, do you remember North Olmsted ?
Home of "The Eagles" - our team , not the band..... We were: 'sports-wise', in

the Southwestern Conference - I ran the 1/4 , pole-vaulted (badly...), and ran

cross-country in the Rocky River Valley alot,which I understand is a State-Park

now, or something bigger than what it was when I ws a kid - a metro-park system

city park - all 75 miles of it horse-shoeing around Cleveland (The Diamond

Necklace Trail).

Other Cleland area (mostly suburbs) cruisng with friends in the "plush-chamber

vans" - with black lights, sea-faring-eqsue fishing-nets strung in the ceiling

with those weird blown coloted glass balls...., shag carpeting, the mini-

fridge, bean-bag passenger chairs (I'd roll back head-over-heals when Frank

would "nail it" lol....., and 'South-side Johhny and the Asbury Jukes' playing

on the 8-track, along woth Gordon, The Boss, Aerosmith, PinkFloyd, Van

Morrison, Cat Stevens, and Led Zeppelin.... , cruisin, hanging out at 'Cyrus

Erie West' when we were 16 ( pretzels and soda) , and a 3.2 that was named

after some big pink pig ? Porky's ? LOL I can't remember,

Sunday; friends, summer cook-outs down in the Rocky River Valley; charcoal lit,

"The Rascal's Sunday song" playing on a car-stereo, tossin the pigskin and

frisbees with the dog and us "motor-heads" all parked out on the grass radial-

style- hoping to impress the 'chics" driving by lol....oh the cars....polishing

the wash, rinse and wax with a $20 chamois. My car was the '70 GTO 'Goat' Judge

edition, 400 autmomatic with a shift kit, painted forest green metallic with

silver-metallic hood raised 'rocket' ; fully driveway 'built', ( no rotisserie

-style state-of-the-art ground-ups on a 5 yr. old car anyway on tomatoe-

picker's agricultural minimum wage ...lol) - anyway that 'goat' had an after-

marjet "1/2 race-cam" - 580 lift 260 duration if I remember right) - so it

woukd still idle at stop-light w/o dieing, and I had Holley Double Pumper 650's

x 2 on it, headers.


Here are a couple of 'locals' blasts from the pat that might or mght not still

be there, you tell me:

* Terminal Tower (our 3/4 scale Empire State Bldg.) that had the "rapid

transit" electric mass-transit trains converge down in the sub-basements of

that very-spooky-to-a-little-kid-train "basement" . Man some of the train cars

looked 'so old', many off to the side; off the tracks - Like the yellow Shaker

Heights ($$$) train cars, and - just a bunch of what must have been before the

uniform rapid transit authority, previously each suburb of Denver , i.e.

Shaker Heights, Berea, Parma, etc. seemed to have OLD cars of their own off to

the side of the tracks, each decorated different, very colorful when new I am

sure, lot of Ferous-red (rust! duhh ) ones, but they looked to be WWII-era....

do you know if *real* trains went throught the terminal tower besides just the

electric Rabbit Transit ? -

And I recall the 'mysterious' Easterly end-o-the-line shown on the map in the

trains as : (what was it, Wynsor, Westvacott:Chilicothe, something unusual

sounding and it started with a 'W' I think-- - I know ! - it ws 'Willougby -

the Edge of the World to a kid"

-but I was REAL little - I thought "Rapid Transit" was pronounced "Rabbit

Transit" until I was about 5. The whole system did not get out to WASP'y North

Olmsted at all, I recall we had to drive to Fairview Park to get on board to go

"downstown" - that was a BIG deal when I was 3 - 5. So NOW i hear the Terminal

Tower is converted to a SHOPPING MALL inside where the trains used to

come....,multi-floored... what happened to mass-transit ? My old High Scool

Friend Frank who's now moved south of Cleveland (he was in Lakewood) out into

the south of Brunswick area, but still drives into Cleveland for big jobs -

high-steel and wood millwork both - last time we talked - he was VP of the

Cleveland Labour Union - the Joiners- - think. He said it was the best way to

ensure year-round work.Old High Scool girlfriend is an att'y in Brunswisk now,

too.

He did a lot of the retro-fit of the terminal tower ---- turned - mall in th3

lower 8 floors or something. Dand it the East end of the line on the rapid

transit is going to drive me crazy....the name ofthe town is on the tip of

my tongue.... and as a 4 year old, seeing the electric-litmap inside the train

as we road through huge, vasr areas of junkyards and steel works refuew - which

I here are gone now and paved over and subdivision and all...but at 4 yrs old-

looking at that map, lghts blinking for the upcoming stop, like '68th st

station' etc,or 'Berea', etc. seeing that LAST town I'd otherwise never heard

of, must have ben another 30 miles or so down east along the waterfront of Lake

Erie. seemd like it had to be the EDGE OF THE WORLD to me....lol.

[BILLW]

Happy Birthday Wes !

Bill