A BJ love story: paths that crossed and changed lives

People, like planets, go along in their separate orbits. But then paths cross and criss-cross even more and good things happen.

Take retired Beacon Journal printer Carl Nelson. He was working at a Zanesville newspaper. But he came to Akron to be near his then-girlfriend. Well, that relationship fizzled out and Carl found himself singing in a church choir but his mind wandering to two of the choir's female singers.

"I went up to them after choir," Carl said at the monthly lunch for BJ alums at Papa Joe's, "and said, 'Would you like to go out to dinner with me?' "

Both women had the same reply: "Which one of us?" Carl, not being slow on the draw, said, "I picked the shorter one." That would be Barbara, who grew up in Canton.

Well, one thing led to another and Carl and Barbara got married. They still are, and have been, for 51 years.

What about the other choir possiblity? She married someone else, Carl said, but tragically her husband died within five years.

Carl and Gene McClellan, also at Papa Joe's for the monthly Wednesday lunch, both worked at Akron Legal but later switched to the Beacon Journal, because it had better benefits.

Carl also regaled the lunch bunch with his tale of the time he picked up entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. at the Columbus airport. Sammy was scheduled to perform in the Columbus area. Carl had a new car so he was designated Sammy's driver from the airport to the hotel. The story involves Sammy's quest for female company and his tonsilatory habits. That's as far as I dare go on here. But it is hilarious.

The Zanesville newspaper also had Carl picking up Edie Gorme and husband Steve Lawrence at the Columbus airport.

Others laughing at the Papa Joe's lunch were Cathy Moore, there with her dad, Tom Moore, a BJ newsroom retiree known for using the term "goddammit" more than anyone in Akron newspaper history, and John Olesky, another newsroom retiree. Cathy is still fixing up her new home in Cuyahoga Falls after her retirement from 35 years of being part of the Washington, D.C. governmental bureaucracy.

If you'd like to share in the laughter and stories of yesterday and today, be at Papa Joe's on Akron-Peninsula Road at Portage Trail at 1 p.m. the second Wednesday of the month. You'll miss out on a lot of fun if you don't.