Trio attends retiree lunch

 Carl Nelson, Tracy McClellan and Tom Moore

It's getting a bit lonesome at the retiree luncheon these days.

For the second month onlythree showed: Tom Moore, Carl Nelson and Tracy McClellan, daughter of the late Gene McClellan.

Tracy is still in town settling her dad's affairs. So far she's gotten rid of his cars and there's an open house Saturday for those interested in buying the house.

She expects to stick around for another month. Her husband will rejoin her soon.

She told us about her trip to Japan a few years ago. Her brother lives and works there.

We asked if she found any Japanese men that interested her? She said there was one good-looking fellow, but he was looking to marry an American so he could move to the states.

She talked about growing up in the area and going to Our Lady of the Elms school and some of her driving experiences after she learned to drive.

She said she and her mother made many trips to the Beacon to visit Gene at work...so many that the guard knew them by sight and they had no trouble getting into the building.

When Tom Moore mentioned the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway where he volunteers as a trainman, she said a ride on the train sounded great and she hopes to take the trip with her husband went he comes back into town.

Tom noticed Carl doing a bit of limping. Seems he's got a bad hip and will schedule a hip replacement in the next month or so.

Carl is always good for a good story.

And this week was no exception.

He told us about going through a tornado that hit the west side of Akron, I think he said in the 40s when he was a kid.

He was just getting ready to take a bath when things got rough. His mother and dad were in the basement in front of the fireplace. And the lights went out.

He made his way downstairs when the fury of the storm hit...knocking out windows, hitting the chimney and causing embers from the fire scatter all l over the carpet.

So the family spent the next few minutes stamping out the embers.

When the storm had subsided, he said he was glad he didn't try to take that bath....the bathtub was filled with glass and debris.

And the next day, on the way to school, he said a neighbor's car had been lifted off the ground and deposited in an upstairs room where it remained for a week or so.

Great story and I'm sure a lot of us has a few to share with our colleagues, so mark the second Wednesday of August about 1 p.m. at Papa Joe's in Merriman Valley on your calendar .

We'll exchange “war “ stories and any others we can come up with.