Will I, Won’t I – Don’t I, Do I

Happy Saturday. And a happy Memorial Day weekend.

Spring is quickly passing into summer. This week summer vacation started for our local school kids. And I experienced my first summer special of the year. At last weekend’s Regatta at East Fork Lake park, I wanted a mid-day pick me up. Asking if anyone else wanted a coffee I was asked to bring an iced coffee. Asking the window person at the Food Truck – if they had cold coffee; and they did. Yes, that one item solidified it, summer has sprung.

The Ceremony – Thursday afternoon I attended Dinah’s graduation ceremony. 400-strong was her class of 2025. With that size the ceremony was held at the University of Cincinnati’s Bearcats basketball arena.

Aside from her athletic scholarship she was also the recipient of a financial grant – proud parents to be sure.

Years ago, two of our kids graduated from Dinah’s school, plus her brother Marin and mother Cathy. It was announced that their school, Walnut Hills High School, this past year was ranked #1 out of the 864 High Schools in the State. Even though a public school an entry exam is required. Each student must take Latin for 3 years.

The net result is that each one of my gang is substantially smarter than me.

Climbing Around – After all of that ceremony stuff, when heading home I couldn’t find my car. OK, has the laughter died down yet? I do know that this was a ‘geezer’ move. The UC campus is TOTALLY different from anything I remember. Several new and expanded buildings have been ‘shoe-horned’ into what is already a tight campus. Add that everything is a series of staircases, both up and down, and a multitude of ramps.

I knew I left the car in one of the 11 multi-level garages on campus. The problem was that we were escorted out of the basketball arena from a different exit than how I entered. Once outside it’s impossible to just turn a corner to retrace your steps in. The sun had set, making it difficult to pick a direction. Ultimately the ‘coup de grâce’ was that when I finally discovered the garage, I was not aware that it was actually two buildings which initially only appeared to be one.

Yes, I know, I know that on my mobile phone a GPS location pin can be placed as an aid. But this is easily not thought of when preoccupied with other matters – such as meeting up with the rest of the family.

After all of this, when I finally got home Marcia was sound asleep.

Old Radio – Driving earlier this week I tuned in to one of our local ‘oldies’ stations. It wasn’t that long ago that it was exclusively “Big Band” sounds and radio comedy or drama from the 1930s ‘40s, and 50s. Now music from the 1960s and ‘70s has entered the “oldies” lineup.

Day dreaming (while driving in traffic is not a good idea) nevertheless, it’s what I was doing. And so, I remembered that back in June of 1985 (I had to look that up later) almost every local radio station ran a series of ads daily. The ads were for an under-construction underground mall – Plummet Mall!

Secretive, coy, hints galore, perfect shopping temperatures, and escalators directly into any store is what the ads promised. In fact, the Chamber of Commerce was upset that they hadn’t been informed of a new mall. The then Cincinnati Gas & Electric Co. pointed out construction couldn’t start because no one had applied for service. Listen to what I enjoyed back in 1985, 2 of the ad spots plus the final one:

You should know that the brainchild of the Plummet Mall spoof was a guy named Jerry Galvin who then had a NPR radio show called Talk Back. Jerry lived nearby in our neighborhood and he and Marcia played sandlot Volleyball together. Fun times!

The Square – Our first home was in the Hyde Park neighborhood of the ‘Nati. Our kids, then little tykes, were all pushed around the place in strollers. One of the ‘go-to’ areas was Hyde Park Square. The quiet, live able, ambiance of the area is what has stuck over the years – till now.

Times are a ‘changing. Out of State developers, big ideas, lots of money, little sense of community other than their version of growth, big-ness, and similarity. All couched in an ’improved’ Connected Cities boondoggle of an idea to increase population density. All coupled with something which magically then begins to look like an every other town designed with similarly planned cheap facades. Bye, bye ambiance.

Currently our city is a one party ‘progressive’ government. No opposition voice to force second looks. In a “follow the money” move the city government ram-rodded the developer’s concept without an ear for the Hyde Park neighborhood counsel’s ear and quick railroaded an approval for the Square redevelopment scheme.

Ah, but there are elections. To get the opposition to the proposal on the November ballot 12,000 signatures were needed. The neighborhood activists wanted 15,000 signatures to allow for ones tossed. Yesterday, the last day to load City Hall with the petitions, they were inundated with 18,340 petitions.

Somewhere in one of those boxes lies a petition which contains my signature.

Oh, that Corner – Don’t forget that we live on the Corner of Chaos & Mayhem. Mid-week, mid-day, we heard a massive Bang. I calmly told Marcia that a truck tire must have blown, explaining that to her at the very moment a second ‘tire’ blew. This convinced me that it was something else.

Looking out the front/side window Police had blocked off the street. Out back five or so houses away I saw the Swat team armored truck and police with their big guns running into a yard. I went outside and talked with the cops blocking traffic. Turns out they were serving a search warrant. Non-compliance required a couple of Flash grenades. Two characters ran and were quickly collared and put in a cruiser. In 15 minutes, Swat left, and all was quiet once again. Once more the Corner was ready for its next adventure.

FIFA – (FIFA, world governing body of association football was founded this past week on May 21st in 1904)

But I digress, the start of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 soccer tournament is only a few weeks away. As I’ve ‘crowed’ for weeks, I am a volunteer for some of the activities. All instructions and subsequent quizzes have been completed successfully. Tomorrow I’ll join a virtual final role specific training course. In the meantime, I’ve I locked in the games I’ll be working at.

Here is the exciting news. I will a role at the first tournament game held at our TQL stadium in what for me will be a truly massive event. Two of the world’s pre-eminent soccer teams; Fußball-Club Bayern München (Germany) against Auckland City FC (New Zealand). This is too cool!

Understand that last summer a few of my favorite days were in Munich right as soccer fever was raging there. Then, for years, I represented a company headquartered in Auckland. Can you now see why being at TQL stadium with these two teams on the pitch is special to me?

Marcia’s probably Thought – “You can likely judge a person’s character by just how quickly they can break down a cardboard box.”
Did I mention that we had recycling collection this week?

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

What term for a broken car was used in a 1960 Volkswagen ad?:

1) “lemon”
2) “rustbucket”
3) “squished bug”
4) “junker”
5) “hooptie”
6) “clunker”
7) “beater”