Hastings, Nebraska

Panoramic View of Hastings, Nebraska. Photograph taken in 1909. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

            Another yearly stop for the World of Fantasy Players was Hastings, Nebraska which is about 25 miles south of Grand Island.  This was one of those towns that we would just go into to play the show and then leave. When I managed this troupe of performers of family oriented stage productions, I tried to make it so we could stay in the same motel for more than one night whenever possible.  The proximity of Hastings to the other play date town of Grand Island made a multiple night stay in the latter town an ideal situation.

           Hastings is a quaint little town of twenty-some thousand people.  It's a heartland town surrounded by farm country.   Hastings experienced a boom in the late 1800s with the advent of the railroad.  One of the notable claims to fame of Hastings is that it was the birthplace of Kool-Aid in 1927.

           Since we basically just popped into town to perform our production, we never got to experience much of the town.  I'm not sure we even ever ate there.  For us it was a matter of arrive in town, do the show, and leave.

           Our performance was always at the wonderfully ornate Masonic Temple.  Probably built in the earlier part of the 20th century, the building was impressive with an elegantly decorated interior that had been well maintained.  The stage was a vintage vaudeville era fixture with elaborate backdrops hung in a high fly loft.  There were several scenery changes that depicted palace scenes and Egyptian themed backgrounds with pyramids and date trees.  Despite its age the entire rigging and lighting system was in impeccable working order.

          The "house" or audience seating area was also immaculate with plush theater seats and fancy carved wood-paneled walls.  I would walk around the inside of the theater and admire everything inside the performance hall and in the outside hallways and lobby.  This theater never failed to amaze me and the others in the show.

         The biggest difficulty was the load-in.   The stage loading door was at the top of a steep narrow ramp that was barely wide enough to back our show truck on.  We would manage with careful maneuvering and a precarious climb out of the truck window for the driver.

           Once we were in and had the stage set and props in place, it made for a truly magical performance.  We always had a good crowd in Hastings and they always seemed to be quite appreciative of the show.  The performances in Hastings were a special part of each year's tour.

            Do you have any unique old theaters near where you live?    Is there something that makes your workplace especially memorable?


       

Grand Island, Nebraska

Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, Grand Island, Nebraska. Building designed by Edward Durell Stone. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

       
         I'm not sure what it is about Grand Island that fascinates me so much.  It's kind of like right in the center of the country.  The true center of the contiguous states lies about 100 miles south, but Grand Island kind of seems like the center.   Grand Island is about half-way across the state of Nebraska on Interstate 80. If you're crossing the country on I-80 you go right past Grand Island and there's a good chance you might even stop to eat or fill up with gas.  Or you might stay there like we did.

       We weren't just passing through, but we were working there.  When I was with the World of Fantasy Players we played Grand Island every year.  We would also play a few of the surrounding towns and always have at least one day off while we were there so we used Grand Island as a home base.  It was a welcome respite from our typical one-nighter schedule.

       Every year we would visit the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer.  The museum is a beautiful facility with a fine collection of artifacts and exhibits depicting pioneer life.  There is a recreation of a railroad village and other outdoor exhibits.  When we used to visit they had a steam train that would take visitors around the sizable grounds, but apparently the train is no longer operational which is too bad since that was one of the highlights as far as I was concerned.

        One year we went to the horse races and bet on horses.   I've not had much experience with betting on horses--in fact I believe this is the only time I've done it.   We had a grand time at the horse race in Grand Island.

         As was often the case in our repeat yearly visits to towns, I had certain places where I looked forward to eating.  In Grand Island I always made at least one visit to Runza Burger.  Runza is a regional fast food restaurant where the specialty is a stuffed pastry filled with ground beef, onions, and cabbage.  The bread  was not really like the typical hamburger bun, but the German influenced concoction was so savory that I looked forward to it every year.

          If I could I'd go to Grand Island just for the Runza burgers, but another visit to the Stuhr wouldn't be bad either.  Grand Island sits there in the middle of the United States hoarding Runzas and Americana.   Most Americans probably don't even realize what they're missing.

          Have you ever been to Grand Island?   Am I overstating its appeal?   Have you had a Runza sandwich?




       

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Framingham, Massachusetts

Faneuil Hall, Boston, Massachusetts Deutsch: Faneuil Hall, Boston (Massachusetts) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

       
          It's not that I remember much of anything specific about Framingham, Massachusetts as much as I remember the generalities of circumstance.  Framingham just happened to fit the bill at the time.  It was a convenient location that suited our needs.

        In March of 1981, I was in New England on tour with the World of Fantasy Players' stage production of "The Magical Land of Oz".  I'd just begun managing the show and one of my goals was to make the tour as comfortable  as it could be for the players, yet cost effective for the show owner who was paying the expenses.

         Since most of the cast members were couples I tried to arrange things so we could set up housekeeping of sorts whenever I had the opportunity to do so.  We would be working a number of towns around the Boston area and also have several days off.  Staying near the city made sense.

          Checking before we arrived, I found an extended stay hotel in Framingham that had efficiency apartments and adequate parking for our show truck.  It was conveniently located about 20 miles from city center so that we could easily commute to our shows on work days while being close enough to visit the city on our off days.

           The hotel was clean and comfortable.   For the next week or so we were able to move in and not have to lug suitcases in and out of rooms like we normally would on our schedule of one-nighters.  We could actually cook meals and save money not eating in restaurants.  For a short period I felt like I was living in Framingham, Massachusetts.

            On the days off we visited Bunker Hill, Faneuil Hall, Downtown Boston, and Salem among other places.  The work days were almost always pretty easy and the days off were like being on a vacation where most of our expenses were paid.

             What do I remember most about Framingham?  The bagels, lox, and cream cheese.  The market where we shopped sold freshly made bagels and lox by the pound at the deli counter.   We ate a lot of bagels with cream cheese and lox.  It was all I really needed.

           Have you ever stayed in an efficiency when traveling?  Do you like bagels with lox and cream cheese?

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Euclid Beach

Image via Wikipedia

          My first six years of life were spent in the city of my birth--Cleveland, Ohio.   The fragmented puzzle of my memories has many disconnected pieces.  Over here I find the piece that shows Euclid Beach, an amusement park that I seem to recall visiting several times as a child.

          Nearly any child is wonderstruck by the gaudy carnival atmosphere of an amusement park.  Thus I was with Euclid Beach.  Now I only vaguely remember being there.

          I was afraid of the roller coasters which was fine with my Daddy.  My younger sister was fearless about it and rode with our Mommy while Daddy and I watched.  I envied my sister Joy, but couldn't bring myself to ride those scary roller coasters.

            However, I was okay with the fun houses and dark rides.  There's an image in my mind of riding through a swirling tunnel of stars while Sousa marches played through loudspeakers.   I don't know if this was real or only a dream, but I relate that image to Euclid Beach.

            An iconic image that I do know was real was Laughing Sal, the mechanical woman who seemed to  never stop her maniacal laughing.  My sister and I would pay tribute to Sal as we joined in her laughter until we too laughed like loons.

            My research shows that little of Euclid Beach remains.  The last time I was there must have been about 1957.  The amusement park apparently closed about twelve years after that.  Hopefully one day I can return to Euclid beach to see if there are still any cotton candy memories to be found or a distant echo of Sal laughing.

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Downey, California

Downey Avenue (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

           I was given a choice between Downey and Chicago.   The pay and benefits would be the same job-wise. I'd lived in the Chicagoland area before and knew the weather could be much less pleasant than Southern California.   The job site in Chicago was not in an area where there was good housing so that would mean a commute and traffic hassles.   In the end, the decision was easy.   I chose Downey, California as the location of my new job, my new home.

         Downey was all about decisions, but that's what life is after all.  In the chosen home for my family the decisions were many.  I had taken a job as the manager of a wholesale costume company--the job of a manager requires daily decisions.  However, it was the decisions I faced at home that impacted my life the most.  They were not just my decisions, but also the decisions of my wife who soon became my ex-wife.

        There were tough times.  Emotional times.  Sad and happy times.  In the end though, it was a time of hanging in there and doing what needed to be done.  That was the crux of my biggest decisions--the responsibilities of raising kids, running a business, and eventually meeting a woman who would become my next wife.

         Over all, things turned out okay despite the job ending after eighteen years.  The kids all graduated from Downey High School and went on to be responsible adults.  I'm still with the wonderful woman I met and married in Downey.  We moved out of Downey after we got married, but not far--it's only a couple miles away and I'm still there several times a week.  I guess I could say I live in the Downey area, but for anyone not familiar with that I'd say the Los Angeles area.

         I guess what I can say is that when I moved away from East Tennessee in 1991, I moved to Downey, California.   And that's all I have to say about that.  It was a decision that now I live with.

         What decisions have you made that changed your life in a major way?   Are you happy with where you live now or would you prefer to live elsewhere?

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland Skyline (Photo credit: digipixguy)

        If you've seen the movie A Christmas Story, that is in some ways what my first years of childhood were like.  Like in the narrator of the story I too lived in Cleveland, Ohio--the city of my birth.   I had a sister a year younger than I and my family lived in a working class neighborhood where houses were small and packed neatly together.

         My father worked as an accountant and my mother stayed at home with my sister and I and had dinner on the table every night when my father came home.  My parents rented the house where we lived.  The back yard seemed big to me then with a weeping willow tree and a flag pole in the center.  There was an American flag neatly folded in the front room closet but we never ran it up the flagpole because the flag belonged to the landlord and wasn't ours.  I didn't question much about this--I just knew that the flag was there wrapped in brown paper and that flagpole was in the middle of the yard.

         In the living room we had a television with a small screen, but in the mid-fifties I guess everyone who had television sets had sets with small screens.  There was also a framed glass covered picture of two swans floating among the lily pads in a pond.  I was intrigued by the work of house art and would often contemplate it.  It looked old, but I knew nothing about it.   None of the furniture in the house was ours and neither was the swan picture.

         We seemed to have frequent visitors at our house.  My parents welcomed relatives, neighbors, and entertainers--mostly jugglers.  Since my parents worked as a professional juggling act on weekends and occasional week nights they were often visited by other jugglers, entertainers, and one of their booking agents, Sally West and her husband Duke.  I typically enjoyed these visitors because they talked about things that seemed interesting even though much of the time I had no idea what they were talking about.

        I spent my first seven years living in and around Cleveland.  We probably lived in the house on West 143rd Street for about four years, but it seemed like a long time to me.  Of course, I had little perspective then.  Everything seemed like a long time.   And the house, the people, the city all seemed old to me then.  But I was a child and everything seemed old.

         And now from where I am and look back on those days, it seems like a  long time ago.

Big Bend

Big Bend 09 (Photo credit: auntie rain)

       
           In Spring of 1974, Art Jennings, one of the founders of the International Jugglers' Association (IJA) and long time family friend, came to visit my family in Maryville, Tennessee.  At the time I was attending the University of Tennessee, but still living with my parents.  When Jennings pulled into town with his young wife and his Airstream trailer we were excited to welcome him into our home.

           My father was a young man not yet married when he first met Art in the late 1940s.  The older Jennings was a sort of renaissance man with diverse interests and a high intellect who was outgoing and bonded with my father.  As a child I recall seeing Art Jennings on various occasions and always being fascinated by him, perhaps in part because of his alternate persona of juggling clown Happy Daze.

          We hadn't seen him in a while but my parents had remained in contact with him via mail that always included his yearly newsy Christmas greeting message.  Now in his 70s he was back on the road presenting a bicycle safety program as Happy Daze at schools throughout the United States.  Since the passing of his wife he had also acquired an attractive wife many years younger than he was.

         Jennings was quite the raconteur and I enjoyed listening to him and my father reminisce about the early days of the IJA and show biz stories.  Having recently taken an interest in film making, I was particularly interested when he hauled in his 8 MM projector and collection of films taken on his travels.  Much of his recent travel had been in West Texas and since I was not too familiar with this part of the country I was quite interested in his films.

          His film making was above par compared to typical home movies.  He had edited them into very watchable travelogues. The portion that caught my attention the most was the sequence about Big Bend National Park.

           Coincidentally, I had just read a newspaper story about Big Bend and therefore had already developed a curiosity about the place.  Seeing the sights on film increased my interest in the area.  It was then that I became convinced that I needed to go to Big Bend.

            It didn't take much for me to convince my friend Vernon to go there for his summer vacation.  He'd just bought an older van that had once been owned by the telephone company and he was anxious to give it a real road test.  A trip from East Tennessee to West Texas was just the thing.  He began working on the van to make sure it was worthy of this epic road trip.

             In July of 1974 Vernon and I set out in the old van and made the trip.  We were not only not disappointed by the experience, we were amazed by the place.  The rugged desolate landscape was so different than what we were accustomed to seeing in Tennessee.  We camped in several locations in the park and savored every minute of the magical time we were there.

             So enamored were we with Big Bend that we made a return trip in the same van--this time accompanied by our friend Dave.  In some ways the second trip was even more amazing.   Big Bend became one of the highlights of our lives.

             Since those trips I returned to Big Bend one more time after I married my first wife.  It was still as magical and amazing as ever.  Big Bend is one of those places I still long to go back to visit.

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