Tom Moore's memories of parking deck

By Tom Moore
Hey, we write about our memories of a colleague when he/she is no longer with us.
So why not a parking deck that’s seen so many great journalist (and some who just thought they were) drive in and park their cars.

I first became acquainted with a parking space there when I was named wire editor. Since I had to be in at 4 or 4:30 a.m. I needed a near by and safe place.
Otherwise, I’d probably not have gotten a space since the only vacancies at that time came about when somebody left…retired or died.

I wound up on the roof which could be a hassle in winter, especially with snow.
The boys who did the clearing usually piled most of the snow about my car since it was one of the first in.

But I survived and enjoyed having to only walk down a couple of flights and all under cover.

I eventually wound up with a space on the fourth floor and that was nice. Except for one Saturday night when I got ready to leave about 1 p.m. Started up the car and the red heat light immediately came on. I pulled into a space on the 3rd floor by the entrance and checked under the hood. Now I know little about mechanics, but this was one problem that stood out.

Somebody had stolen my radiator hose!

I went back to the newsroom and fortunately the managing editor, Scott Bosley, was still around. (He was one of those ME that took his job very seriously and stuck around all hours or the night and day.)

He couldn’t help chuckling a bit but we let the car sit there and he took me home.
The next morning, with a new hose, my neighbor and I replaced it and I drove out.
You had to be a bit on your guard when driving in the old deck. I almost had two collisions on one of the ramps…one time with Bob Henretty and the other time with Ben Maidenburg!

And you didn’t park in the first slot on the fourth floor. That was Jack Knight's.

And for those who happened to park in one of the printer’s reserved spot, they better have a scrapper with them. Somebody would take a pot of that old sticky glue we used and a couple newspaper sheets and cover their windshields.

Ah yes, another memory of days gone by and another sign of the shrinking at what was once a premiere site in Akron.