Trip back to Cleveland
This was the house we grew up in. When we moved there I was about 3 years old. There were 3 boys who shared one bedroom. The house is lucky if it has 800 sq. feet living space. The road we lived on was a dirt road. It was a wonderful place to grow up. We had the river, the woods and plenty of space to be boys. And of course after it rained there would be really cool looking colors in the oil they used on the roads. So, of course you had to walk in it and turn your feet black. Winter time was pretty special. The favorite thing was bombing cars with snowballs. I mean what else is there to life. When there was nothing else to do the questions would be.. Hey, you wanna go bomb cars.
The river provided many things. In the summer you could find swimming holes, fishing holes, go rafting on inner tubes, and for the old grandpa across the street you could catch snapping turtles to make soup. In the winter time you could ice skate, jump across the open spots to see who could jump the farthest till somebody fell through the ice.<grin> Somebody always fell in and brrr it would be cold. We could also play hockey. We were allowed to go on the ice when the neighbors dog Brutus went on. He weighed more then any of us and my mother figured he was smarter. So if it was OK for Brutus it was OK for us.
Looking up river this is the area where old grandpa used to catch his snapping turtles. I have no idea just how big they really were but to us kids they looked mighty large. They would hold out a stick for the turtle who would snap on it and they would pull his neck out and whacko... The turtle was still dangerous at this point because even after it's head was cut off the head could clamp onto an object. Of course it also made us afraid of the Mrs. who would do the deed with the axe. You never knew who's neck she might whack off next.
Just another one of the local bridges. Currently this one is closed. It was built in 1888 by the Canton Wrought Iron Works. There are steel beams across that have wood on top of that then pavement on top of the wood.
This photo is at what we called the duck pond. It is at the Cleveland Metro Parks North Chagrin Reservation There would usually be hundreds if not thousands of ducks at this pond and we would go to feed them. Today they decided it was not a good idea to feed them anymore so the ducks no longer come in large numbers.
Still another shot of the Duck pond.
This place is named Squires Castle. It was built in 1890 by a Cleveland oil pioneer named Feargus Squire. Feargus planned on building his large country home on 525 acres named River Farm Estate. This structure was only intended to be the gatekeepers lodge. Squire used it as a weekend retreat in the early 1900's. When Squires wife died he lost interest in the estate an never finished the country home. It is now part of the Metro Parks property.