Birthday Season #103

Mother was born Oct. 17, 1921, which means she would be 103 had she not died in 2015. While rooting around in some old boxes, I discovered some photos of her that I had never seen before.

I love this shot of her wearing a jaunty hat and a saucy smile. It was a tiny print that still had tape around the edges, so it must have been pasted in something.

8 or 9 at house that burned

A note on the back said she was 8 or 9 in this picture in front of her family’s house in Advance that burned. I don’t know any details.

1938 graduation pictures

This sequence was slugged “1938,” so I have to assume this was when she graduated from high school.

A pack of den mothers

Mother was a Pack 8 den mother. She’s in the back row, second from the right.

She the only one with a medal pinned on her. It might have been a Purple Heart for injuries sustained while herding a bunch of Cub Scouts around.

Christmas in the dining room

Mary Steinhoff Xmas

We called this side of the living room the dining room, even though I pretty much sure we never dined there. In fact, we hardly ever lived in the living room except for special occasions.

We were kitchen, basement and porch folks.

A pensive moment

She’s all dressed up, but I don’t know where she was going.

Slipping in a Dad and Mark moment

LV and Mark Steinhoff at Easter

I don’t want to steal Mother’s thunder, but this never-before-remembered shot of Dad and Mark at Easter is going to become one of my favorites.

Lots of Mother links

Mother was the subject of many blog posts.

Here are some links I pulled together for her obituary.

Mary Welch Steinhoff 1921 – 2015

Here is the day of her funeral

I Guess It’s Time

Does Anybody Recognize this Mailbox Killer?

Driver who destroyed my mailbox 09-11-2024

I came home from grocery shopping to find my mailbox flattened. The guy above mowed down a rose bush, destroyed my mailbox, missed my wife’s van by about a foot, bounced off a manhole cover in my front yard, and kept going down Kingway Drive at 10:14 a.m. on Sept 11.

I’d like to have a serious discussion with the driver about covering the cost of replacing the mailbox.

Dead mailbox

Flattened mailbox 09-11-2024

I thought I’d never have to replace it

When I put it in several years ago, I endeavored to make it as bulletproof as possible. I filled the pipe with concrete and rebar and set it in concrete two feet deep. I wanted some kid with a baseball bat to get a big surprise.

I  hoped whoever ran over is going to have some serious body work to fix. They not only literally flattened the box, but they yanked the post out of the ground. I didn’t see a trail of liquids, so the vehicle might have had a strong enough bumper to protect it.

Yanked right out of the ground

Flattened mailbox 09-11-2024

I can view the security camera video, but it’s in a weird format that was going to take more trouble than it was worth to post.

By the way, the driver appeared to be bald or have short hair. If this was a crime show, some tech would be able to pull up the license tag, but I don’t have the skill or equipment to do it.

When the rains stop, I’ll replace it with something even more substantial.

P.S. In case you were wondering, I didn’t have any political signs in the yard.

Storms and Strawberry Pie

It’s been a rocky start to the severe storm season. Grant Dade, KFVS weatherman, reported “43 county tornado warnings and 204 county severe thunderstorm warnings in our viewing area yesterday (May 8). We can all be thankful the low level shear was weaker than advertised or instead of sporadic storm damage today it would have been catastrophic.” 

For the record, KFVS claims to cover 50 counties in four states, including all of SE MO, Southern Illinois, Western Kentucky and Northwestern Tennessee.

So, what’s with the pie?

 

Last year, I dilly-dallied around and missed strawberry season at Beggs’s Berry World at the Benton I-55 exit. I came within about a week of missing it again this year because of weather.

When I was checking out with my plastic gallon bucket of fresh strawberries, the cashier asked if I’d like one of the strawberry pies they had left. My arm didn’t have to be twisted.

I’m Johnny Strawberry Seed

Shortly after I had mastered the art of making cheesecakes, I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.

I was lamenting on my status to Museum Director Carla Jordan when she gave me a good piece of advice: “You don’t have to eat the whole cheesecake. Cut off an allowable slice, then distribute the rest to deserving folks so you won’t be tempted.”

With that in mind, I made the rounds of Cape friends and relatives, muttering, “Get thee behind me, Satan,” as I dropped off the goodies.

FYI. the unsliced berries in the pie pan was just to fill up the space.

In case you go looking, Beggs has moved to the opposite side of the I-55 exit. I went to the old location,  proving that my GPS Lady in the Sky was wiser than I was.

May 4 déjà vu

Ohio University Protests

Several years ago, John J. Lopinot, my old friend and chief photographer, thought that after half a century we were pretty much done with the topic of May 4.

He’ll probably continue to send me “NEVER FORGET” notes, though,  until we lose either the transmitter or the receiver (or both).

What caused me to take another bite of an aging apple?

Why the change?

I was listening to an old playlist the other afternoon when John Fogarty came on singing this snippet:

Did you hear ’em talkin’ ’bout it on the radio
Did you try to read the writing on the wall
Did that voice inside you say I’ve heard it all before
It’s like Deja Vu all over again

Day by day I hear the voices rising
Started with a whisper like it did before
Day by day we count the dead and dying
Ship the bodies home while the networks all keep score

I’m hearing some of the same red-hot rhetoric that we heard in the 60s. 
 

We’re getting older

[Note: this was taken when I was having breakfast in Scott Quad in 1967. The annotation was done by an irreverent Curator (now Director) Jessica of the SE Ohio History Center ]

A Facebook friend posted some memories noting that we were coming up on the 54th anniversary of the Kent State killings. I’m thinking about what could be a major project for Year 55.

The sad fact is that a lot of us may not be around to observe Year 60. So, we have to tell our stories while we’re still around.

I’m going to post links to many of the photos I took during the protest era. I’d love to have names and current contact info for as many as possible so I could interview and photograph some of us who lived through this era.

On our way to get riot gear

We were on our way to Kent

This post appeared on my bike blog in 2009. It recounted about how another photographer and I were going to stop at a surplus store in Marietta for gas masks and other riot gear before heading up to Kent State.

Along the way, we got the word about the shootings, picked up our gear and headed back to Athens.

Shortly after we crossed over into Athens county, a deputy pulled us over.

 “We got a call from a surplus store over in Marietta that some student hippy-types were buying up riot gear and heading to Athens. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

I confessed that “that would be us.”

“Do you know anything I should know?” he asked.

“Just being ready,” I replied. “Your guess about what’s going to happen is as good as mine.”

Protest era timeline

From start to finish, first pass

This was my first pass at going through my film an creating a timeline from peaceful marches to the closing of the university.

There’s a huge gallery, but the software that created it was “improved,” so it’s a little hard to navigate. Sorry.

Frat boys attack

Student vs students

 A line of frat boys and jocks lined up to administer some street justice to students who didn’t look like them. It was one of the few student-on-student encounters I saw, and it didn’t last long.

Chubb Library occupied

A night spent in Chubb Library

The empty Chubb Library was occupied. Damage was minimal, if any.

On the other hand, this was the night newlywed Lila was going to host her first ever dinner party for us newsies. Unfortunately for me, all of us were otherwise occupied, and cell phones hadn’t been invented yet.

Sings of the times

A mixture of sign-carriers

It might have been a cold night in Athens when I shot these in 1968.

O.U. is not your mother

The birth of student rights

Restrictions on OU women were less draconian that those at SE MO State College, but the women challenged dorm hour rules.

Martin Luther King National Day of Mourning

Not the usual rites of spring crowd

A solemn salt-and-pepper crowd  spontaneously took over Court and Union. A miscue by Athens PD Capt.  Charlie Cochran came close to touching off a serious riot.

Dean Kahler is an inspiration

Kent State 08-25-2015

Paralyzed by a Guard bullet

Dean Kahler,  was paralyzed when the National Guard opened fire. He was an innocent bystander 300 feet away from the closest shooter.

Follow the link to hear Dean in his own words.

“I knew I had been shot because it felt like a bee sting. I knew immediately because my legs got real tight, then they relaxed just like in zoology class when you pith a frog,” he said.

Kent State Pagoda

Kent State 08-25-2015

Seeing it made it real

I remember the first time I went to Washington, D.C., and was overwhelmed when I discovered that buildings I had only seen in print and on TV were real.

Seeing the Kent State Pagoda where the Guard went on their killing spree brought May 4 to life for me.

It’s not all grim

I was amused at this exchange

The student was offering a state trooper sandwiches and drinks. The lawman’s good-natured expression seems to be saying, “You’ve got to be kidding me if you think I’d eat something you made.”

Different memories

Compare and contrast

Jackson High School students were preparing for their prom in 2014. They will have entirely different memories of May 4 than us Boomers.

How soon they forget

You mean something happened here?

I climbed the steps of Lindley Hall to recreate this photo in 2013 when I was in town for an exhibit.

Some students saw me, so I walked over and said, “You know, the last time I stood on that landing and took a picture looking down Court Street it was May 15, 1970. Tear gas was wafting through the air and there was a National Guardsman with a rifle spaced about every 25 feet.”

“Really? Something happened here?” one of them asked, giving me a “is this old geezer harmless?” look.

Portrait of a pandemic

Ken Steinhoff in mask 05-02-2020

So much for going back to Athens

Curator Jessica and I were well on the way to making plans for the 50th anniversary of May 4 when the plug was pulled on the world.

Maybe you all will give me the info I need to do a proper accounting for 2025.