rak college road trips

I had two college "roads trips" with fraternity brothers Summe and Daly (or maybe Daley; first names lost in the fog).

Daley had a Corvair.  I always got the back seat.

The first adventure I remember was local.  Daley had been drinking.  Summe was allegedly sober.  I had not drunk any alcohol.  (There may be a cameo appearance here of one of the Ossenbeck sisters here but I am not sure.)

Daley gave Summe the keys.  We were in that main road from west Covington into Covington (KY8).  We are coming down the hill.  On a half curve to the left, Summe lost control, spun the car, and we landed in bushes.  It was a good thing.  The next curve was the sharp right at the river.  If he had lost it there, we might have drowned or at least been injured.

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The second adventure was a weekend in Chicago.  The freeways had not then yet been built.  So it was a long hard schlogg.

On one road which was straight and two lane, someone in the other direction passed and could not make it.  We had just enough shoulder that there was a one point three cars abreast.

We got there Friday night.  I remember no incidents then or Saturday.  Sunday morning I slept in while they looked for a church.  They went out and found one.  Their story is this:

We went into a church and asked the usher if this was a Catholic Church. He assured us it was.  The Mass began but something was not right. [E.g. the service was in English and VII had not yet happened.]  So we go back and asked the usher again: Is this a Catholic Church?  Looking stern and discomfited, he said:  This is an English Catholic Church.  The Roman Catholic Church is down the street.  He pointed for them.

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The third adventure was setup as a visit to their friends returning from a mission trip in Honduras.  Remember this was before freeways.

We left Cincinnati and went to Louisville and then worked our way to Memphis.  They had been told there were these new things in Memphis called "Holiday Inn"s.  Unfortunately, the Church of God got there first and filled them all.  So through the night we went south on the Mississippi River road.

On a two lane road, straight but with no shoulders, the car came to a stop.  The Covair had a ser4pentine belt that had a tendency to fail.  We had a spare but no tools.  Luckily a man came by with tools.  He was the local game warden and had just come from delivering a baby.  I never did learn of what species, but I had a strong suspicion it was human.

We got going again and came to the town of Clarksville (or was it Clarksdale?).  It had a "hotel".  We checked in.  omg.  Nasty smelling room of cigarette smoke and beer and maybe vomit.  Which didn't seem to bother the four legged night visitors.  It did keep at least one of my crew awake all night.

I was always amused when later in the decade there were civil rights protests about blacks not being able to stay in that hotel.  Either they were misguided or maybe we got a room normally offered to blacks.

The next stop was New Orleans at a time I don't remember.  We went to Bourbon Street and got drinks.  I don't know if mine was alcoholic or not.  I think there was a stripper.  Not too long after I got tired.  I got the car keys and went back to the car and went to sleep.  I think we were parked on the street around a public building which had a huge lawn on all sides.

The dynamic duo stayed.  One or more bar girls appeared.  One of them gave Summe a real good feel.  He was both embarrassed and a bit proud.

The next day, we headed down US90 along the Gulf coast to Florida, all the way to Miami Beach.  The friends were in a nice high rise hotel.  We hung out for a day and headed north.

I think by this time we were low on money.  We stopped at a grocery store and got a bit of food.  Given my natural practical bent, I got a box of vanilla wafers and a large bottle (64oz?) of apple juice and got back on the road.

Before there were freeways, there were a lot less gas stations everywhere.  And there were a lot less people in northern FL.  As we were not on the coast road, we did not go near any of the coastal cities (e.g. JAX).  So there were cities, no rest stops, no gas stations, therefore no bathrooms.  I was getting desperate.  And this was not going to be a #1 stop.  Eventually we did find a small station in one of the small towns.  I was directed to the outhouse behind the building.  I barely got my pants down when I was relieved is a single spasm.

That Saturday night we did not stop.  We drove through to Knoxville.  They somehow found the Catholic Church in Knoxville.  I slept.

How we survived these trips with just a single driver must have been a blessing from God.

Alternate version: Daley & Summe

rak pgh 1

previously

After a few weeks I rented a "house" on Tripoli.  It had a stove but no other furnishings. It had three floors (two rooms per floor) and a "basement".  There was a bathroom on the second floor landing.

It was the middle slice of a building w/three identical "units".  The other three slices had been subdivided into one room "apartments", all sharing a single bathroom.

In the basement was my gas furnace   To save energy, I shut off heat to two upper stories, including the bathroom.  It was not until I left that I learned that a single vent from my furnace heated both my bathroom and three of my neighbors.

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My new employer was wonderful, one of the two best jobs I ever had.  The only one on which I ever got a real promotion.  My contract gave me some living money for the first few months living expenses, moving expenses, and three weeks vacation.

rak pgh 1 work link

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Four weeks after I arrived I drove on a Friday night  before Thanksgiving to Cincinnati.  (I-279 > I-79 > I-70 > I-75)  I stayed overnight w/mother.  I then drove straight through to Houston.  (I-71 > road around Louisville > I-65 > I-40 > I-30 > US59 > I-10)  I was desperately lonely.  As bad as my marriage was, I loved my wife and missed her.  I missed my children

From Cincinnati to Houston is about 19 hours of driving.  I got gas in Pgh and then in a station in NKy.  On later trips, gas on I-70 in OH just west of Wheeling.  I got gas at a station on I-65 north of Nashville, a station in WMemphis AR, a station around the AR/TX border, and then HOU.  Back then TX gas was cheap.

I did not usually eat at restaurants because I was trying to save money.

We had Thanksgiving.  I remember nothing except I was home and had chores to do.  The following Saturday I packed up and reversed direction.  At some point I either bought or brought from home a small toaster oven.  So maybe there was no stove.

I did this same process at Christmas.

rak pgh 1 choir link

to be continued

Western & Southern Life Insurance Company

Either summer or Fall of 1961, Gertrude (via Kelly Employment Services, aka Kelly Girl) got me a job at Western & Southern Life Insurance Company in downtown Cincinnati on 5^th over near where the garden in front of the P&G world headquarters is now, probably Broadway. I stayed there either until I graduated from VMC or until the end of that summer.

W&SLI, on the top floor of the new building on the corner of 5^th & Broadway, had what today we would call their data center. The processing was using punch cards with no other media storage. They had a brand new 1401 which they were learning how to use. Our crew of college students worked second shift.

There were 18 model 083 card sorters, one new model 101 statistical sorter, a number (more than 5 and less than 10) of model 407 printers with attached "summary" punches, a few model 557 "interpreter"s that printed information on a card from its contents. There was an old model 604 calculating punch seldom used. There was a model 650 drum memory computer in the corner used for statistical calculations for actuaries. It ran so hot that it had a large pipe (~2' diameter) above it to vent its heat out the roof.

Repetitive work included printing the books the agents carried to manually record the premiums paid by the policy holder (so called "industrial insurance".

One special job I can remember came one day when we were told we had to make a test file for the 1401. The doors of the freight elevator opened and out came a forklift holding a pallet of boxes of IBM punch cards. In the end we used 3000 boxes of 2000 cards in each box.

We went to a lower floor where there were large machines holding trays w/about 1000 cards per tray. The trays were on a device in the machine which rotated front to back so all trays could be accessed. There were ~ 10+ trays across.

We took the trays up to the top floor where we reproduced the contents and put the cards back into the same tray. We then ran a pass through the interpreter, before going to the sorters. That many cards required block sorting on policy number. Instead of the the usual low (right) column to high (left) column sort, we sorted first on the high column. Because the high column had alphabetic values (two punches per column) from policies of acquired companies, the first pass was on the "zones". The top hole is the "12" hole for A-I; then the "11" hole for J-R; then it was tricky. The "0" hole could be a numeric if only one punch or else a signal of S-Z if two punches.

The output was 3 or 4 stacks of cards placed in large metal vertical trays. The next person took a tray, say "12" punch, and sorted that numerically. The pockets 1-9 would contain letters A-I. These were placed in other tray or in boxes marked with the letter contained..

When the column was done, the next lower column could be done.

Sigma Alpha Lambda fraternity

Villa Madonna College had its roots in the post-secondary education of young women to be elementary school teachers by the Benedictines of St Walburg convent in the diocese of Covington.

Later it admitted all women.

After WWII and the GI bill, it admitted men.

As group of those men formed a men's club and called it a fraternity.

I pledged in my sophomore year, not my freshman year.

It had a "house".  The original one was facing Madison on the east side, part of the group of buildings at 11^th.  The back of the building faced Latin School across the Cathedral parking lot.

There were a group of buildings at that corner on Madison.  At some point, the one on the end was condemned and torn down.  But it had been holding up the one next to it.  So one by one all the buildings came down.

The next one was above a medical office on 10^th or 11^th west of Madison but before the railroad tracks. I think it lasted one year. My senior year, it was the second floor of a building on Madison above 12^th street on the east side.

The first floor of that building was a small church of the evangelical variety.  I don't remember if it was ever done, but a one time there was a casual proposal to screw a speaker to the floor of a closet and attach an amp and a mike.  The goal was to "talk" to the assembly below as "God".

I was part of the crew that emptied that building.  It was Memorial Day.  For some reason there was no new building and the detritus left over could not be just left for the garbage people as is done today.  A pickup truck was loaded.  One of the brothers from Campbell county (tall, heavy set, can't remember his name) said he knew we could use one of the dumps over there.

But when we arrived at the dump, it was closed.  The fence was low but for some reason the stuff was not just tossed over the fence.  Instead he had a new idea.  We went to a one lane road with woods and no buildings on either side.  We heaved the stuff over the side.

Of course this road was a short cut used by police to get back to the station.  We were arrested and had our day in court.

I cannot hear the song "Alice's Restaurant" without having a flashback about this event.

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I don't know when the fraternity ended but it exists no more.

Requiescat in pace

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See also:   .College Road Trips.

rak_4

<1966>

I remember little about the day other than being called into my advisor's office on the second floor of the John Millis Science Center of Western Reserve University. Karl J Casper said he had been denied tenure and was leaving to take a position at the newly forming Cleveland State University. He would no longer be my advisor. I think I was being transferred to Berol Robinson.

He said that, if I wished, I could go to Oak Ridge TN and do thesis research at the Chemistry Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

I chose to do that. I packed up my things and put them into my VW bug. I had a carrier on the top. On it I placed a large heavy box of "stuff", probably books and left. Neither I-71 from Cleveland to Cincinnati nor I-75 south from there were finished.

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My social life in Oak Ridge was minimal. There were few people of post high school age in Oak Ridge, other than graduate students. In the summer, someone, possibly the local Baptist Church, had a volleyball game night on a tennis court.

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At some point, I went to Knoxville and found the Newman Club.

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This story reminds me of one outing the Newman Club made. We went to a house in LaFollette TN where we celebrated Mass in the "pool house".

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rak_2

previously

In the fall of 1959, I entered Villa Madonna College in Covington KY. The buildings were several old buildings from 12^th St to 11^th St and from Madison two streets east to Greenup, where on the corner was the old St Joseph Church used as an auditorium. An old Benedictine convent next door on 12^th had administration on the lower levels and the library on the fourth floor. At 12^th and Scott was the old St Joseph's Elementary School used as classrooms.

Down on 6^th was the old Mother of God Elementary School, which had on the first floor the physics department.

The tuition of the first two years was covered by a scholarship I received from the school related to the fact that I had graduated from a Catholic high school. Of the other 4 semesters, I paid for 3 with my earnings and my parents paid for the fourth.

<1959>

Freshman and Sophomore years I had: "honors History" with Sr Mary Philip Trauth SND;  "honors English" with Sr Lorotto Marie Driscoll CDP.

Freshman year I had: Chemistry - lecture and lab; Math; Religion. Note somewhere along the line I started taking the religion classes in the summer in the mornings, two "semesters" per summer.

At Christmas time, I got a job @ Shillito's downtown Cincinnati selling toys.  I remember I (and possibly a parent) had to go downtown Cincinnati to the Board of Education to get some form so I could work @ age 16.  I don't remember if Gertrude found me the job, or just pointed it out.

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Either January 1960 or 1961, Gertrude got me a job as a stock clerk in "Linens & towels" at McAlpin's downtown Cincinnati.  I worked the January white sale.  My stockroom was on an upper floor.  One of my tasks was inventory.

All items had a machine-attached tag attached by a pin.  At the time of a sale, the sales clerk tore off the end and placed it in a jar.  I had to manually sort and count by what is now called SKU.  A manual, "real-time" sales analysis.

I worked there again the following summer, including the August white sale.

The white sales were quite busy.  The department manager cut the prices on all items more than usual and included items not usually on sale,such as "odd size" sheets such as Queen and King.  Apparently the prices were good, because owners of small motels would come in and buy unopened boxes of sheets.  (As many as 12 to a box, depending of the physical size of the folded and packaged sheet.)  At the peak, I would bring a large cart of merchandise to the floor and people would take items from the cart.

I remember it being said that some of the specialty sizes sold 2 to 5 times the expected volume.  We had to do emergency reorders.

One of the towel brands was Martex.  I think the "in house" sheet brand was First Lady.

<1960>

Sophomore year I had: Physics - lecture and lab; Math; Religion; Logic (taught by the Philosphy department Fr Rooks?); Philosophy of Man

<1961>

Junior and senior years physics - lecture and labs, some math (one of them extra beyond requirements to raise my grade point average), religion, philosophy, a speech class.

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Western & Southern Life Insurance Company and me

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My social life in college was minimal, partly because I was two years younger than other students at my grade level, and partly because of "shyness".

In my sophomore year, I pledged Sigma Alpha Lambda fraternity.

Road trips in college.

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VMC class of 1963 reunion 2013

First a thank you to those who organized it, both college team members and celebrating alumni.

Second a sadness that at least 29 of our 132 members are deceased.

Third a sadness that so few showed up. There was talk as the last attendees left that there needed to be a "post mortem". I suggest a "post partum". One of the lessons to be learned might be that organization of the events was not started soon enough. By several decades. A graduating class exists as a community up to the point of graduation. After that, it takes work to maintain any community.

Fourth joy at seeing those who showed. My personal sincere thanks for that.

Fifth the class of 2013 baccalaureate Mass or should I say Mess. The point where the liturgical incense set off the smoke detectors, may have been prophetic, or merely a point made by the Spirit that form is less important than substance.

requiescant in pacem to those who have gone before

ad multos annos to those who remain

See: Villa Madonna College

South Fort Mitchell KY

history links w/ads 1

City clerk 1952-71
Treasurer 1952-67

rak_1

previously

Covington Latin School (good history at link including group picture in 1929 contining our father) today would be called a prep school. My father, a maternal uncle, both brothers, a paternal first cousin and at least one maternal cousin (Lubbers) graduated from the school.

The curriculum was heavy on the classics lead by Latin (prima forma - the first year - 7 of 30 weekly class periods were Latin; then 6 5 5 and culminating in an oral test before the bishop). When Bishop Malloy started a seminary, he sent high school students to CLS.

At the time I attended (1955-9), all faculty were local diocesan priests, except for Sr Evangelista OSB who taught 5 of 6 math classes, Omer Westendorf who taught chant and led the Bishop's Choir staffed by students, and a drill sergeant who had a drill class for prima forma to make up for our having no athletic facility.

The curriculum also included Greek.  Initially it was one period a week.  After the first year, it expanded to three periods a week.

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I graduated and received the Schwegman science award.  I also received a two year scholarship to Villa Madonna College.

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Somewhere around this time, or perhaps earlier, I had a few customers cutting their lawns, besides cutting our lawn.  One was the SFM city Hall.  Once or twice I cut the lawn of the lady next door on Dixie Hwy.

I also cut Gertrude Trimpe's lawn at 115 Highland.  She had bought a top of the line lawn mower.  Instead of being stamped metal, it was cast.  It was very heavy.  It was "self-propelled" by a friction drive on the back wheels - a rotating metal rod w/grooves in the ends.

To get the machine to the back yard was quite a task.  I couldn't lift it, so I had to take it down concrete stairs.

One time, when the grass was quite high in the back, I had tilted the rotor so I could get through the grass.  Unfortunately, the back yard had metal posts in the ground, into which, at one time, clothes line posts were placed.  I succeeded in breaking the shaft on the lawn mower.  As I remember, I continued to cut the grass for free.

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Another adventure occurred when Dad came home and said the windows at City Hall needed cleaning.  It was apparent they had not been cleaned for time (years?).  Since most people smoked at that time, the dirt was partially smoke deposits.  I had never cleaned windows and didn't know what I was doing.  First I used newspaper and plain water to cut through the mess.  Don't remember what I used for final cleaning nor what I was paid.

continued here

rak_0

I was born in Covington KY at William Booth Memorial Hospital at the mouth of the Licking River. The obstetrician was a woman. I was baptized in Covington, with Bill Trimpe and Emma Kuebbing as sponsors.

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Mother was living on Holman street, which had a streetcar.  I remember nothing about the place except a vague memory of it being on the second floor.  As you went down the street, it was on the left side.

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Her father- and mother-in-law lived on Pike Street with their daughter Emma in a three room house w/indoor bathroom & basement. The Pike Street front yard was tiny. The house sat on the property line on the left side (when facing the house). It had a paved right side yard which gave access to the door to the kitchen, which was the main entrance.

The front room was the bedroom. It was narrower than other rooms because of a covered external porch on the right side. The porch gave access to a door to the middle room.

In the back yard grandpa had previously grown and bred roses and peonies. The yard sides had fences, probably wrought iron. The back of the yard was a wall with a fence on top of it. The yard behind was several feet higher than my grandparents' yard. In the far right corner was a compost pile. I think my attraction to green issues and to composting comes from my paternal grandfather Joseph.

The house was still standing 2013May when I went to my 50^th college reunion

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For the first several years of my life, my father was in the Army in the South Pacific. I think he did gun repair.

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My mother found me an inquisitive child. To keep me quiet, she bought or was given puzzles. She claimed I quickly grew to solve 1000 piece puzzles. I attribute my ability to do analysis to this training.

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While living on Holman street, there was an episode where I went with other children to a place where there was standing water. I took off my shoes and walked around. I got a piece of glass in my foot. It is somewhere in my baby book.

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We moved to South Fort Mitchell before I started kindergarten.

I went to kindergarten at Beechwood School on Beechwood Rd in SFtMitchell. It was what in TX would be called an independent school district. All schools were on one site. The school was highly rated because most elementary and many high school students went to Catholic schools. In addition, its catchment area was above average income. The tax base was strong and the children came from middle class families.

At the time, Blessed Sacrament School in SFM did not have a kindergarten. The church was one of the wealthiest in the Covington diocese. There was a story that Fr Streck (sp?) asked the bishop for permission to start one. He even offered to support a kindergarten at ever school in the diocese. He was turned down.

Mother said she walked me to kindergarten every day since we had to cross the Dixie Highway. I have only the fragment of one memory about going to Beechwood and it is not clear.

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The first six elementary grades I spent at Blessed Sacrament School. It was staffed by Benedictine nuns, who had a spacious convent next to the church. During my time there it went from one room per grade to two. While I never experienced it, there was one room that was split between two grades. I think just before I entered the school, a large three story addition was made on the back. The lowest level of the addition was the cafeteria.

The BSS cafeteria was run by one paid employee (Nellie Willen?) who lived up Highland on the right from us just past the Ross interesection. (I might be confused with Nellie Wallace, who lived between Mrs Willen and us on Highland.) The cafeteria was staffed by the mothers of students. The meals were good and somewhat nutritious. I say somewhat because this was the time of the federal milk support program. The schools got free milk, cheese and butter. Mrs W used butter to "season" the vegetables she used. Because this was before the wide availability of frozen vegetables and before cheap fresh vegetables became available, the veggies were canned.

One of my favorites was "chili". It was soupy chili, not "Cincinnati recipe". But one mother would have a large pot of it in the middle of the lunchroom for seconds.

Because the neighbor across the street was one year ahead of me in elementary school and high school, and since both schools were Catholic, and since we went to the same high school, at the end of each school year my parents would go across Highland to the Colette's house and buy the next year's books.

I am sorry to say I don't remember any of my elementary school teachers. I remember first grade as being large -- perhaps 50-80 students -- 5 or more columns of 10 or more students. I remember no students, but a few last names like Ruh. I don't remember any of my classmates joining me at Covington Latin School.

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HB poem 2013Jan13

In the corner of the yard
Where the bushes are
Where the weeds grow
Where the flower tree is
Where the bees go
That's where my dad shined my bike
Where I once did my homework
That's where the shed is near

-HB 2013Jan13

New Year's Day

My son and his mother are in the kitchen at 8939 Turriff Houston TX on New Year's Day. The kitchen window looked out past the utility room door and past a large oak tree. It had twin trunks each about 18-24" in diameter.

Beyond the utility room door, on the outside wall was successively, the electric meter and the window of the bathroom for the "master bedroom" which was a converted two car garage.

There was a walkway of concrete pavers that paralleled the outside wall.  Just beyond the electric meter, there was a gate to the backyard fence.  The fence, six (?) foot chain link I had installed my self, was perpendicular to the outside wall.

After the gate, the fence turned toward the house at a 45 degree angle to the gate.  The tree was inside the fence.  Just beyond the fence on that end of the back yard, was a fig tree, a shed and another fruit tree.

The fence went to the back property line where it turned again to follow the line to the far corner of the lot.  Later this part of the fence was torn down by the neighbors behind us (without my knowledge or permission) and replaced with a six foot wood fence.

It had been raining and the ground was soaked.

She is preparing black eye peas and telling our son that Southerners do this on New Year's Day for good luck in the new year.  Whereupon the tree comes out by its roots.  It falls away from the house.  It rips down the electric line, pulling the meter partly off the wall.  It damages the phone line.  It damages the fig tree, the shed and the other fruit tree.  It just misses taking out the neighborhood power, which lines ran along that side of the house.

8939 Turriff Houston TX

This house was purchased in 1971 while empty for some time for less than $30k.  It was occupied late in the year (November?).

With a two car garage converted into a "master bedroom", it had more than 2400 sq.ft.

Starting in the summer of 1980 and finishing the following year, I reroofed this house myself.  The roof being replaced was an asphalt roof over a rotting cedar wood shingle roof.  The roof had four valleys and therefore four separate ridges.

After removing both roofs, I replaced about 25-33% of the 1x4s used to support the wood shingles.  I also replaced one of the rafters.

It took about 100 sheets of plywood to replace the roof.

I moved to Pittsburgh late October 1986 to work at Duquesne Systems.  The children came up January 1987 by Greyhound bus.  Their mother came up in the middle of the year (May?) and we looked at houses. We purchased 3823 (?) Baytree around July.  I moved the family and some household goods up August 1987.

Summer of 1987 S returned to this house and stayed beyond of the summer.  She returned only after a discussion she and I had on the subject.

She returned to this house for several additional summers.

This house was sold 1992, probably at a loss.

New Year's Day