BEST ROUND OF GOLF IN MY LIFETIME

 

No Mulligans, either!!!!

 

Hill Top golf course in The Villages, Florida.

 

Drive #3 hit "Carts" sign, deflected toward the pin.

 

2nd shot on #4, the water hole, hit raised part of cart path, deflected toward the pin.

When the golf gods are on your side, just roll with it!

 

I've been playing golf for 75 years and I finally got a 30! At the age of 85!!!

 

Played with Paula and her brother, Tom, my partner in the Ohio senior leagues at Kent’s Sunny Hill and Cuyahoga Falls’ Brookledge, who can verify that I took NO mulligans.

 No 3-putt greens after FIVE 3-putt greens the day before at El Diablo.

 We teed off first, no one in front of us, no one for 3 holes behind us, so we set our own pace. Temperature was about 45 when we teed off, which explained why the course wasn’t crowded. But there was no wind, which helped. Skies were blue and sun was brilliant.

 

So was my golf game ... finally!

 

Sometimes the bear gets you; today, I got the bear!

 

Now if my luck can rub off on my Mountaineers tonight against Texas Tech in the Big 12 tournament I can die a happy man with Paula by my side.

 

This felt like the next best thing to sex. I do not know what I was doing differently, but the nectar of the gods was in my body.

 

I feel like I drank a gallon of moonshine!

 

As the shirt I wore said, "Mountaineers Climb Higher." Wow! Do NOT awaken me.

I want to save this euphoria.

 

We will be in Paula's house till late April when we return to our Ohio home in Tallmadge, an Akron suburb. We are in Florida for our usual four winterizing months.

We will take the auto/train from Samford, Florida to Lorton, Virginia, then drive the 2012 Honda Accord to Tallmadge.

Hot damn! Oh, what a feeling!

 

John Olesky (BJ 1969-1996)

 

I've waited a LONG time for this day!!!

 

I should either play the lottery or retire from golf, huh?

 

Former BJ chief librarian Cathy Tierney is enjoying three weeks in southern India and Dubai, United Arab Emirate.

She visited northern India years ago, but decided to tour the south, “which is very different in so many ways from the north,” Cathy writes.

When I asked Cathy for a photo showing HER on the trip, with the background proving that she was there, she was reluctant.

After I told her I needed her in a photo, she later replied:

“John, the Lord Ganesha was with you. Someone took a photo of me, mostly obscured, at the Brihadishvara Temple, with the elephant blessing me. Feel free to include any other photos of mine -- I've had a ball taking them all.”

Cathy also had a ball outside her hotel on the Bay of Bengal, “watching four cows stretched out, enjoying the sun, water and beach, like any other hotel guest -- so very Indian!”

She provided a Facebook video of the cows getting a suntan without wearing so much as a coverup bikini.

Cathy also has visited Vietnam and Cambodia. Paula and I made it together to Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, but not Vietnam and India.

Cathy has been to more than 75 countries, which makes my 55 countries visited pale by comparison.  When I inquired, she replied:

“I've been to more than 75 countries. I started in my 20s. Some of the countries don't even exist anymore.

“My next trip that is already booked for 2018 is to Burma & Laos -- both new countries for me.

“I think it's great that you and Paula love to travel as much as I do!”

Another BJ Cathy -- Cathy Robinson Strong, a 1970s State Desk reporter -- spent three years in Dubai teaching the daughters of royalty before returning to New Zealand, where she has lived for about a half-century when she’s not visiting America, as she is now, and other places around the globe.

Cathy Tierney “fully retired” from Ol’ Blue Walls in 2013.

Her early trips have included Cherry Blossom season in Japan, a 2,000-mile riverboat cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow, Morocco . . . and an Amtrak trip to DC that began her retirement travels.

Dave Scott, BJ regional issues reporter and deputy Business editor before the April 2014 BJ buyouts exodus, traveled back in time by taking an Amtrak train from Cleveland to Oakland, California.

The Ohio University and Ashtabula Harbor High graduate who lives in Copley with wife Jane Gaab Scott provided this tale of his trip (he’s qualfied since, like me, he's been to the Blarney Stone in Ireland):

Hi,

Here are some details from my Amtrak trip from Cleveland to Emeryville (Oakland) last month.

The station in Cleveland is sometimes called AmShak and it’s easy to see why. Stuck between the football stadium, science center and Rock Hall and the skyscrapers downtown, it is humble. Add in the dim lights and the half-asleep people waiting for the 3 a.m. arrival and it can be depressing.

However, I found the people there pleasant, helpful and anything but threatening. I realize that Amtrak is favored by some wealthy people, but in Cleveland it is chosen by people looking for bargain travel. Some did not have proper luggage, preferring shopping bags.

I took a lower coach from Cleveland to Chicago and when I showed up there were just three people for eight seats, two were asleep. We all had two seats to sit/sleep on.

It was a smooth, quiet ride and the only reason I didn’t get more than a couple hours of sleep was because I was enjoying the ride so much. I also enjoyed a conversation with a woman from the Washington area who explained that the lower coach was partly for disabled people, so it had room for wheelchairs and an extra large restroom.

The train staff will bring you dinner from the dining car if you ask. The seats were larger than you would get in an airplane, recline and have a nice foot rest and retractable table. If you are lucky like me, you can stretch out over two seats.

I went up to the observation car at dawn and enjoyed rolling through the center of Indiana, including the older, industrial sections of many towns and a lot of farmland. It was a treat to see a big tom turkey on his morning walk.

Chicago's Union Station was a bit confusing and involved a bit of walking but staffers there offered a cart, which I declined, but did give clear directions to the El’s Blue line. My trip to Logan Square was uneventful.

Thanks to John and Kate for being great hosts, including a trip to whatever the White Sox are calling their ballpark these days and a nice walk through Wrigleyville Sunday morning.

Advice: get to Union Station early. I was late but not comfortably early.

I rode a lower coach from Chicago to Denver and started with a nice conversation with two couples from downstate Illinois who were coming back from the Science March in Chicago.

Unlike the airplane which usually includes people who are locked into their own lives and tuned out to much of what is happening around them, the folks on the train seem to be eager to talk and engage and tell their story. These two couples sat next to each other, the only folks who had to do that on my entire time in the coach section.

There were several stops in Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska, but only one seemed to offer enough time to get out and walk trackside. That was Ottumwa, Radar’s old home.

There were plenty of opportunities to get up and move around in the train. Getting to the dining car required walking up some steps and sashaying down the aisles of several cars. Same for the observation car and snack bar. I did this several times just to keep blood flowing in my legs.

There were only a couple times when the train lurched in a way that made me recapture my balance. I consider planes far more wobbly.
In coach, you must pay for your dinner. Expect at least $15 plus whatever you drink. The menu is very limited but the food is of decent quality. You need to make reservations for dinner.

For all meals, you will be seated with strangers unless you are traveling with three companions. I found this a great conversation opportunity.

I met a couple from Ireland, a couple from Manhattan/Miami and others. We took so much time talking, we were “invited” to move on to allow another group to eat.

Union Station at Denver is fabulous – Clean, easy to navigate, complete with a good breakfast restaurant and coffee shop. Uber was available, but I chose to walk through the city because it was a sunny day and not too cold. Snow and hail followed a few days later.

I found a nice bookstore and, of course, the Coors Field box office, which was open at 10 a.m. I was told the cheapest seat was $9 but on the day of the game was reduced to $4. Then I got a senior discount and saw a Major League game for $1!

Yes, I was about 550 feet away and I saw the hits about three seconds before I heard them, but I had fun with the bleacher folks. It’s a nice clean, roomy stadium and hope to go there again.

Uber service was excellent in Denver. The La Quinta was what you could expect for $99.
I had a roomette for the trip from Denver to California. It is about the size of a closet with face-to-face reclining seats.

There is a place to stash your luggage, power outlets and great window views. Any consideration of climbing into the hammock above was done for comedic value. The lower seats were easily turned into a bed.

I had intended to do some reading but that ended after I got into the Rockies. They were so beautiful and different at every turn, I felt I would be cheating myself by putting my attention anywhere else. The PA system offered a few highlights.

The most memorable part was when I put on the headphones and listened to Rachmaninoff and Mozart as the mountains went by.

I slept through Utah and some of Nevada.

One thing that became clear throughout the trip was that the droughts are over. I saw standing water everywhere. The mountain streams were nearly overflowing and I saw lots of rapids.

Lunch in California was a problem. All they had left was the hamburger I had the day before or a hot dog or mac n cheese off the kids’ menu. Meals were free for those of us in sleepers or roomettes.

Sleepers are larger rooms with real beds and bathrooms, but I did not go in one. The showers were roomy enough, but a little wobbly.

I expect to ride Amtrak again and will prefer it over air travel if I have time. I left on a Friday morning and arrived in Emeryville on a Wednesday afternoon. I took whole days in Denver and Chicago. Nonstop, my trip would have been from 3 a.m. Thursday to 4 p.m. Monday. I doubt I will every travel without at least one stop.

Thanks for reading.

Another former Ol’ Blue Walls inhabitant, Webb Shaw, is married to Katie Gaab-Shaw, Jane’s sister. Webb retired in 2014 as Vice President of Editorial Resources at J. J. Keller & Associates in Neenah, Wisconsin.

Dave and Jane and met on a blind date arranged by Webb and Katie Shaw and Rick and Diane Reiff. Rick, another former BJ newsroom inhabitant, and Dave had crossed paths during their Norwalk and Elyria newspaper days.

Our amazing winter in Disneyland for adults

6 months for Paula in her Florida home, 4 months for John between WVU football games.

 To enlarge photos, change the 100% on your computer to 150% or more.

 

To enlarge any photo, just click on it; then click top left arrow to get to rest of photos

John played 80 rounds in 90 days; Paula took up golf for first time ever

There's free golf, outdoor live music & dancing, softball, pickleball, tennis every day

Paula's family visited at her house. Sister Janet, brothers Tom and Raymond came from Ohio.

John had reunions with fellow Mountaineers, former BJ printer's widow, former Monongah, WV neighbors

But, as Dorothy said, "There's no place like home" ... as long as it isn't winter!

Mike and Jane Williams at Mexico City's
 Metropolitan Cathedral

Land of ole for Mike & Jane Williams

Advertising Art retiree Mike Williams, once Johnny Grimm’s sidekick at the BJ, and his wife Jane are meandering through Mexico again.

Places like Mexico City, at the Capilla San Antonio de Padua, at the western edge of Coyoacan.
 

Mike and Jane got off the kick of visiting Peru, where Jane’s previous husband hung out, because Jane no longer can handle the high altitudes without getting sick.

Ecuador also has been their stomping grounds.

Mike and Jane, married 40 years, have two sons, independent trucker Nathan Williams and chemical engineer Trevor Williams. Mike retired in 2012 after 44 years, coming under Grimm’s wing in 1976.

Mark started in Advertising part-time in 1968 after bugging Ben James for a job during visits home from a freshman year at Ohio State. Retail Ad Mgr. Jim Muckley hired Mike full-time in 1971 in the Ad Services department. 

Mike’s sister, BJ information technology retiree Linda Williams Torson, is married to Akron-Summit County Metroparks retiree Tim Torson. Linda was with the Beacon Journal for 42 years.

Another sister, former clinical dietician Cindy Williams Chima, worked in the BJ classified phone room in the 1970s and writes fiction novels for young adults.

Cathy meandering through Morocco mountains

Cathy Tierney is enjoying Morocco, one of the favorite trips for me among the 155 countries that I visited.

Olesky had to really suck in his gut
 when this guy ambled through

In my case, the thrill came when I had to flatten myself against the wall to avoid getting my toes trampled by a donkey carrying goods for sale at a Morrocan market in Medina. The space between the tents only left enough room for a burro loaded down with products and a Mountaineer who glued himself to the outside of one of the vendor’s tents.

Cathy reports:

“Wifi is spotty, so Pixs will be slow in coming. I spent the whole day traveling over the Middle Atlas Mountains today -- an adventure. Tomorrow will be heading to the Sahara camp -- probably no wifi. As for the camp, no roads, no people except an occasional nomad -- camping where few foreigners come, along routes known only to camel and goat-herding Tuareg nomads ... travel only in 4 x 4 vehicles and camels, of course.......what an adventure!”

Indeed, Cathy. Not the usual place for a BJ librarian, even the chief librarian.

Cathy also has visited Vietnam and Cambodia, probably Thailand, the #1 country on my list of visits (amazing people, amazing Buddha statues). And Egypt, where Paula and I also saw the Giza Pyramids, floated down The Nile River and saw amazing temples where the wall markings looked like they were put there yesterday even though they were centuries old -- two weeks before the Arab Spring revolution broke out!

In our case, our trip included Spain (and my hero, Don Quixote, since I also have spent my life tilting at the windmills of injustice), Portugal (and Vasco de Gama) and Morocco, with the Rock of Gibraltar as a bonus although there are mountains in my native West Virginia that dwarf The Rock.

By the way, in Morocco, there’s a Rick’s Place every other block. Guess “Casablanca” and Humphrey Bogart are a big hit there.

 

Meander marvelously ‘mongst Morocco mountains, Cathy. It’s a lot different than Ol’ Blue Walls!

Somebody put a GPS chip into Tom Marvin, former BJ photographer, Ridgewood School District transportation supervisor and Monroe Township trustee who lives on a farm in Guernsey County, just north of Salt Fork State Park, near I-77 and north of Cambridge.

When he stays there, that is.

On September 30, Tom and Kay celebrated their 28^th wedding anniversary at a restaurant in nearby Cambridge, where east-west I-70 and north-south I-77 cross paths.

A few days later, they are in Golf Shores, Alabama having “a great dinner” (Tom’s words) with wife, Kay Ann Shaffer Marvin, and sister, Marty Marvin Stiner.

Tom darn near worn out one camper before he sold it, traveling to Yosemite National Park and roaming all over Alaska. They put in nearly 20,000 miles.

 

Even former BJ photographer Don Roese, no slouch himself when it comes to campers and traveling Alaska for months on end, gets a run for his money from Tom.

Tom and Kay have seven children between them. His are Steve Marvin, a bank assistant vice president who lives in Cambridge; Brian Marvin, who lives in Worthington, Ohio and is a Reynoldsburg, Ohio police detective; Misty Bellon, a registered nurse living in Eunice, Louisiana, who is married with a son, Nick; and Beth Marvin Stevens, a Los Angeles attorney, from Tom’s marriage to former BJ staffer and retired Hoover High School English and journalism teacher Pam McCarthy.

Kay’s children are Tim Wilson, an electric company forester in Florida; Debi Geese, who lives in Fresno, Ohio and is married with two children; and Brett Wilson, a contractor in Coshocton.

Tom and Kay have eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

And, apparently, a lot of time to travel around this great country of ours, including a flight to Hawaii for their 25^th wedding anniversary.

Tom retired from the BJ in 2001. Later, from the Ridgewood school district. His feet haven’t touched the ground since.

Quips Tom: “We travel a bit.” Ya think? They have been to all 50 states.

Hell, I think I’m a guy who gets around and I’ve been to only 44 states.

(But, Tom, you may need to spread your wings more if you want to catch up to me and the 55 countries that I’ve visited.)

 

Once we leave Ol' Blue Walls, the world is, indeed, our oyster.

Cheryl Scott Sheinin, retired after 45 years in the BJ Finance Department, and husband Neil Sheinin, a former BJ staffer, spent a glorious two weeks enjoying America’s majesty.

That included trees, trees, trees.

And the Sioux Falls, South Dakota Falls, Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Badlands National Park (I’ve been there, on my way to a job as the one-man reporting staff for the Glendive, Montana Daily Ranger that lasted 5 weeks), Devil’s Tower National Monument and Mount Rushmore and the lesser-known but equally impressive Crazy Horse Memorial.

Her return home isn’t too shabby either, since she frequents Portage Lakes.

Cheryl and Neil will celebrate their 37^th wedding anniversary AND Cheryl’s birthday on September 29. That was very accommodating of Neil to let Cheryl get married on her birthday. Or was it a way for Neil to buy ONE present for both a wedding anniversary and a birthday? J

Cheryl is a Garfield High graduate. Neil is a baseball aficionado. He threw out the first pitch at a 2012 Akron Aeros baseball game (they are the RubberDucks now, but still play minor league ball in Canal Park). In two decades he made his way to 350 baseball stadia, mostly in minor league parks.

Cheryl was good friends with the late BJ security guard Anna Nitz, even attending the spreading of Anna’s ashes into the Atlantic off South Carolina.

Let Cheryl discuss their trip, which she emailed to me at my request:

“Neil and I had a super nice vacation heading West.  Neil has bought trees from the Arbors Day Foundation for more than 10 years for friends to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries or for memorials and in appreciation they offered us a two-day stay in their Lied Lodge at the Arbor Day farm in Nebraska City, Nebraska.

"So many trees! We took a tractor-pulled tour of the area and had some great meals at the lodge. The farm features eco-friendly reusable power sources.

“We then journeyed to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to visit the Pettigrew Home (U.S. Senator and land owner in South Dakota) and the Falls in Sioux Falls that is compared to Cuyahoga Falls in terms of the size of the falls but has a huge, beautiful park around the falls.

“From there we went on to Williston, North Dakota to visit the Lewis and Clark museum.

“Then to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and got some nice pictures and saw many of the park animals in their natural surroundings. Bison, Prairie Dog 'villages,' mule deer and wild horses.

“Devil’s Tower was our next stop. We stayed in the Devil’s Tower Lodge Bed and Breakfast with a view of the Tower from every room.

"Took pictures of climbers on the tower …. no way!!

"Devils Tower is a laccolithic butte composed of igneous rock in the Bear Lodge Mountains near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River.

"In September 1906 Devil’s Tower was named a National monument by Theodore Roosevelt. A sacred place for many Indian tribes.

“On to Custer, South Dakota, 20 miles from Mount Rushmore Memorial and Crazy Horse Memorial.

"Drove to Custer State Park where we traveled the Needles Highway and Wildlife Loop. Needles features stone spires 300+ feet high. Narrow tunnels you have to inch through and again natural wildlife roaming around the area.

"Bison, mountain goats, longhorn sheep and again Prairie Dog 'villages' and wild burros that came right up to our cars and one stuck his head in my window.

“Last stop was Badlands National Park with spectacular views of rock formations and flat lands. Again the animals were in their natural habitat. Adding to our list of spotted wildlife we saw the pronghorn antelope and Rocky Mountain Big Horn sheep.

“A great 2-week vacation but always good to get home …. traveled cross-country and first travel holdup was when we got back to Ohio and had more than an hour delay on the turnpike.

“Cheryl           

   “May you always have a shell in your pocket and sand between your toes. “

Rita Fay Stapleton, who retired in 2011 after 42 years at the BJ, is enjoying the scenery and exercise of being on Madeira, which is 1.5 hours by commercial jet from Lisbon, Portugal.

She’s taking a break from helping with the USO in North Canton and playing tennis in Stark County.

Madeira temperatures have hit 101 degrees in September, so hopefully Rita has plenty of sunscreen. But she should have a rousing good time since Madeira is famous for its Madeira wine, made famous in a 1981 Limeliters song, “Have Some Madeira, M’Dear,” about an elderly rake seducing a teenage girl with Madeira wine.

 

I still remember when I first heard it at a dinner-theater in Dayton.

Glenn Yarbrough, Alex Hassilev, Louis Gottlieb, Red Grammer, Bill Zorn, Rick Dougherty, Mack Bailey, Andy Corwin, Gaylan Taylor, Ernie Sheldon, Don Marovich and John David all sat and played a spell as part of that group from 1959 through 2012.

Rita visited 25 Fontes ("25 Springs" in English), a group of waterfalls in the Madeira Islands. The waterfall is almost 100 feet high, consisting of a group of different water streams lubricating the mountainside.

avRita began as a typesetter at Ol’ Blue Walls in 1968. She went from job to job there for the rest of her career.

“It was a blessing to work for such a fine newspaper,” Rita wrote.

Madeira is in a Portuguese archipelago in the north Atlantic Ocean, southwest of Portugal, and 250 miles north of the Canary Islands.

Prince Henry the Navigator’s folks who shipwrecked in a storm found the archipelago in the 1400s. Well, really, it found them and saved their soggy butts.

The British occupied it from 1801-1814. The Germans attacked it during World War I.

In 1976, following the democratic revolution of 1974, Portugal granted political autonomy to Madeira.

Rita's email is riorita@neo.rr.com and her phone number is 330-699-4407.