Aha Moment - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Aha Moment

Did you ever have something occur that leads from one thing, to another and another? Well, recently that’s exactly what happened to my wife and I as we were walking around our yard this spring checking out what landscape plantings survived the winter. We came upon two ornamental plums pictured above next to our deck that I’ve been trying to nurture back to health for the last couple years. Once a farmer, always a farmer, I guess!

The plums have a fungus in the form of a black canker on many of the branches and this spring the seriousness of the problem was much more evident than it had been last fall before the leaves fell. My wife concluded it’s time to “pull the plug” on these plums, as the only effective treatment is to prune out all the branches with cankers, which would leave nothing but the trunk.

As we continued around the yard, my wife had an aha moment and said that when she’s on her deathbed, I’d be pushing the doctors to try anything to prolong her life and would never “pull the plug”, just like my desperate efforts to save our plums and many other plantings around the yard over the years. To my chagrin, she was probably right! So I wondered out loud what was actually stated in our “advanced directives” document about such end of life decisions.

That moment led us to conclude we not only should check our estate planning documents, but also review them as it’s been about 15 years since the last update. And if we were going to do that, let’s look for a younger female estate planner as several of my wife’s widow friends wished they would have had such an arrangement when their spouse passed away, since statistically the wife outlives her the husband by 12 years.

So once our yard tour was over, I opened up the safe, pulled out the documents and began searching for a new estate planning attorney. We found one who several friends recommended and met with her yesterday to kick off the process, including updating the wording in our advanced directives.

All this end of life talking got me thinking about our life together and suddenly the wall in my office with all the framed mementos had more meaning. I took a closer look at each item and thought about the consequences, especially how one step led to the next and to the next; and before long here we are talking about end of life stuff! The framed birth certificate, high school and college diplomas and marriage certificate shown below definitely set the stage for the rest of my life. How lucky I feel to have been guided to attained those early milestones (study hard and marry a Roo-shee girl!).

Shown next are some of the framed mementos from our married life and my working career with Ford. From building our lakefront home to traveling the world for both business and pleasure are reflected on that wall. Also include are keepsakes from playing and watching sports of all kinds.

And finally are items reflecting my work after retirement such as running for public office, becoming Mayor in our small city of 2200, some charitable work and various projects that came along since I had the time. The wall is full and that’s just fine at this stage of my life.

Just before Covid another fortunate occurrence involved fully retiring from most everything except the charitable work, a few unfinished projects and of course the honey do’s which will continue until the unfortunate day comes when my wife “pulls the plug” on me!

Speaking of that, the “plug has been pulled” on the ornamental plums. Aha!

PS: Check out my Roo-shee frog ornament - lower right.

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Auto Vue Drive In - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Auto Vue Drive-In

While my wife was visiting her mother this past weekend at the Landings Assisted Living Center in Sidney, I decided to explore the old Auto Vue drive-in located just down Russell Road from the Landings. It’s been about 55 years since my last visit to the venerable old drive-in way back in my high school days. Pictured above is the vintage marquis with the big screen and concession stand in he background.

Several cars parked next to the concession were surprising as I had assumed the old drive-in was abandoned and due for the wrecking ball. So curiosity got the best of me as I drove to where the cars were parked and went inside, running into Teresa Rees, who I was pleased to discover is the current owner of the drive-in. She’s pictured with Bill Smith, as both were preparing the concession stand for the upcoming season.

Teresa is the second generation owner of Auto Vue, taking over from her parents as described in the following blurb from their website:

The Auto Vue Drive In was built in 1956 by the late Russ Negelspach. Russ, along with brother Norm and sister-in-law Betty, ran the Auto Vue until 1987, when it was purchased by Sam (Kathryn) and David (Kelly) Rees. Many of you may remember Mrs. Shue, who met you at the ticket booth for years, working for Russ and staying on to work with the Rees family as well. Generations of the Rees family still operate the drive in today.

During the almost three decades our family has owned the Auto Vue, we have survived significant obstacles. December 1987 saw the drive-in lose the concession stand after a winter storm ripped off 1/2 of the roof and cracking walls, requiring the demolition and rebuilding of a new one.

In June 1994 another storm tore almost 1/2 of the all-steel screen away, with special made panels having to be trucked in from Georgia for the repair. A few years later, the neon sign and one of the marquis fell victim to yet another storm.

We are one of only about 310 left in the entire country. It is the love of the drive-in experience that keeps us working, year after year. We are committed to providing an affordable family-oriented experience to our communities and know you'll create those "special" memories. It's a night like no other!

Auto Vue will be opening soon for the new season, featuring wholesome family movies. During the off-season, Teresa sells the handmade items her mother makes as outlined in this video, which also gives you a sense of how the concession stand looks these days.

The movies are projected using a state of the art digital video projector pictured here. I found it interesting that the cost of the $60,000 digital projector was partially paid by GoFundMe donations from customers and supporters who wanted to make sure the drive-in survived the digital revolution. It’s a far cry from the old reel-to-reel projectors of the past, that as I recall could be readily seen when visiting the concession stand back in the day as the door was wide open. Likely the same person running the concession stand had to change the reels periodically. Made sense since the concession stand was mostly vacant while the movie was running, and during intermissions, an ad track always ran, with a big countdown to the end of intermission.

Having also worked at a drive-in along Salem Avenue in Dayton during summers while in college to earn some extra cash, I wrote this 2017 blogpost about those and other memories from the era.

After leaving the drive-in, I headed west on Russell Road having recalled a junk yard that Dad and I would frequent for spare parts. It was a fun place back in those days seeing all the wrecked cars and to scrounge around for whatever we were looking for. Lo and behold, it was still there just like the drive-in. About the only difference noticed were the junkers from the 2000’s rather than the 1950’s, plus you can scrounge for parts on-line instead of the muddy junk yard. That’s no fun!

Russell Road was a real roller coaster of a highway as I would go to work at Copeland's (now Emerson’s) the summer before college driving from Ft. Loramie to Sidney, usually running late. At the time, there were no stop signs the entire way, but since then several have been installed; maybe because of resident complaints about the noise from the Thrush mufflers salvaged from a junker and installed on my 1962 Chevy that I was driving just a little over the speed limit early each morning? My father-in-law-to-be always commented that he could hear me coming a mile away!

Speakers are another thing of the past, as now each customer simply tunes into the radio for the dolby sound broadcast by the new digital projector. So they gave away the old speakers to their patrons, and here’s one Fish Report’s Craig was given by Teresa's mother Kathryn back in the mid-90’s now on display at his place.

Teresa, thanks for the tour and renewing my drive-in memories.

No these are not junk yard dogs! 

PS: Here’s my favorite view of the old drive-in, with my bother-in-law Fred and his brand new Mustang Mach 1 in the foreground.

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Spring Sports - Dave's Midwestern Ohio Memories

Series of Guest Blogs by an out-of-state Fish Report reader originally from this area about fond memories of growing up in Midwestern Ohio during the 50’s & 60’s

Spring Sports

It’s a great time of year to be a sports fan, with an exciting March Madness, Opening Day for MLB and the Masters golf tournament. Basketball, baseball and golf are my three favorite sports, going way back as both a player and as a fan. As evidence, since starting this weekly blog in 2015, I’ve written 5 posts about basketball, 6 about baseball and 7 about golf. Fortunately, over my lifetime, I’ve had the opportunity to attend several March Madness games, a number of Opening Day games, and a couple of Masters rounds. All were a thrill to attend in person, literally absorbing the crowd's excitement and enthusiasm.

The NCAA Tournament games were in 2000 and 2001. The first was at the Palace of Auburn Hills, seeing the MSU Spartans beat Syracuse and Iowa State in the Regionals on their way to a National Championship. The second was the first play-in game at UD Arena with Northwestern State beating Winthrop.

The Opening Day games included the Reds and two with the Tigers. The Reds’ Opening Day was in 1973 during the Big Red Machine era when as a newcomer to my in-laws family, I was invited to attend the game as they had season tickets. The first of two Tigers Opening Days were in 1984 at old Tiger Stadium when the team eventually won a World Series and the last was the inaugural game at Comerica Park in 2000. Read more about these memorable ball games and check out the photos in this blogpost.

The Masters golf tournament is totally different than the stadium scenes during March Madness or Opening Day games. The golf course is spectacular and the fans are in so much respect for the history and tradition of the Masters. I attended a Thursday round in 2000 including the Opening Ceremony and a Sunday finals in 2006 when Phil Michelson won (that’s me tipping my hat just to the left of Phil doing the same). On my bucket list is a return someday with my son. Here is the blogpost about the two Masters events I had the privilege of attending.

To my knowledge, Michael Jordon is the only person to play each of these three sports professionally, which is an amazing accomplishment if you think about it. Jordon was definitely an outstanding athlete to be able to master those three sports at the professional level so effectively. Had he been able to focus on baseball and golf like he did basketball at a young age, he likely would have been a hall of fame baseball player and golfer just as he is in basketball. But it could have been four professional sports considering this video of Jordon tossing a football 65 yards in the air, tongue out and all.

Enjoy spring, Fish Report readers! Take in a round of golf, watch some high school baseball or just go for a walk outside after the long winter.

Postscript: Really enjoyed Craig’s outstanding blogpost this past Friday about his visit to Rich Romie’s shop in Ft. Loramie. Check out this previous blogpost from 2016 about Rich’s father John and many other Loramie proprietors from that era.

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