One of the nice things about losing so much weight and being in good shape is that you can take time and really visit those places that are from your childhood. With all the hard training I have been doing, last Saturday I decided it was time to slow it down a bit and go for a run through the old neighborhood.
My mother still lives in Ellet and she graciously took my wonderful children for the night on Friday so I could run my awesome wife to the airport on Saturday morning. After I dropped off my wife, I headed straight for my mom's, packed up, and took off on a beautiful 11 mile run.
I left my mom's place and headed up Leeds, then onto Tyro toward Dorset. The first stop on my route was the old Pratt house. Many a day was spent watching the Simpsons and plotting out numerous attacks on the poor innocent enemies we had. Then I went down the hill and turned right on to Newton, moving toward the Goodyear Metro Park. The Metro Park in the winter was the main site for all my sled riding excursions.
Once I was at the Metro Parks I ran through the trails past Adler Pond; I headed up to the Brooklands and down to visit my best friend from high school, Douglas Bruce Harrison! Doug is still single and was out the night before so I felt obligated to stop by and wake him up! Well the joke was on me because he was already awake and had his awesome dog Alex out back playing.
I took off from Doug's and went down Congo to route 91 and followed that up to Eastgate. Going up Eastgate I approached Windemere School...the place it all began for me. It was the place I went to 1st through 6th grade and where I met some of the greatest people. It was torn down last year and a new building is being put up in the same spot.
Down Emmons and on to Edgehill to Dougie's childhood home. This is a place that I played a lot of catch with baseballs and footballs we even jumped over a few bushes in the process. After leaving there I went down to East Market Street past the EBA hall and on to Gleason Avenue.
This is the home of the Gleason Ave Gang. John Jarvis, Jeff, Dan, and Julie Conner, Jim Dudones, and me. A few others were also residents like the Sarver family, Aaron Plum, Scottie and Chrissie Miller. The memories on this street were fun to think about. Playing softball day and night on the street, football in the yards, and my favorite memory, playing kick the can at the Conners' house.
I went down Gleason, onto Cramer, and then up Hillbish to Wedgewood and to Hyre Park. If you lived in Ellet and do not have a memory of Hyre I would be shocked. Many a football game, practice, baseball, and soccer games were played in this park. Today they are building the new middle school there so no baseball fields are there.
I ran up to the old junior high school's front doors and started to think about some of the times I had at this school. I looked into the lunch room and could remeber the mornings we would wait in there for school to start. The benches where we would huddle around and socialize with friends. I looked to the end of the parking lot and I could see the entrance to the woods.
Hyre Woods and the Hyre Pond! I entered the woods for the first time in about 25 years. Boy I immediately started thinking about the many walks I had through these woods to school, to football and baseball practice, and to the pond itself. This was a pretty cool run!
Through the woods and down into Lions Park I went. They really had spent a lot of money in the woods putting steps in and grooming the path. The same could be said for Lions Park. They had put in a path to walk around the field and also a fence to close in the field. Across the bridge I went looking at the creek I used to wade in and catch crayfish in. I continued up the hill and down toward the corner of Bender and Cramer.
I started to crack up at this point because I could remember the numerous times we had stolen the Bender sign. The funny part (and I could never explain this well enough) is my buddy Dougie trying to climb the pole to get up to the sign. Doug was never very good at climbing and this pole proved that point completely. He would jump up on to the pole and then try to pull himself up. However, he would not make any progress and would slowly start to slip down the pole until he was back on the ground. I could go on but I will leave the rest to the imagination.
I went down Cramer, to Benton, and then up Benton to Ellet High School. I ran around the back and into the stadium for a few moments. Boy I had a lot of memories in this place. From Football games as a spectator to football games as a player and the same in soccer. During the season I do not think one person practiced and played more on that field than I did. I was a place kicker and I would spend 2 hours a night kicking balls through the post there. Ahhhhh, good times!
Out of the stadium and down the hill to Highgrove I went. I took it to Davenport and ran down it toward Mogadore Road. Along the way I went past so many old friends' houses, Jenny Young, Jenny Sudler, Danny Hammer, and of course, Davenport Park or the home of Ellet's youth baseball league. This is where I learned to play baseball. Coaches like Mr Schultz, Mr. Beard, Mr. Harrison, Mr Givens, and Mr. Casalonova went through my head. Park games, playing hoops and meeting with friends there was just the tip of the events that took place. Davenport Park is full of some of my best memories.
Back out of the park and down Davenport to Mogadore Road I ran. Once on Mogadore I was reminded of Steve Melton, a friend that lived right off the road. I continued down Mogadore and back up Canton Road to the end of my run. In the end I ran 11 miles and what I thought would be an easy day I ended up running at a much faster pace than I wanted to keep.
It felt pretty good to be able to run this area and it surely distracted me from the mundane task of just running for speed. Memories are pretty cool and being able to go and relive them a bit is fun as well. It really helps you to see all that you have done and further helps you realize that the Lord was by your side through it all. Maybe next time I will run the Hatton neighborhood and include more of the Betty Jane and Ritzman area!
If you have memories of this area I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to comment here or on my Facebook page. Pictures of this are in an album on Facebook marked neighborhood run.
Let's see.... You definitely hit most of the highlights given the track you chose but you missed alot too. You could have run up Middlefield to see the Boarman's house-they still live there. You didn't mention Izzy's at all (shame on you). Did you notice that Janie and Karen's old house (was next to ours) on Gleason is gone now. Remember the guys who rented the lower apartment used to hate us because we would play hoops all night in our back yard with the flood light on? They would practically beg us to go to bed. What about the field down on the corner of Hilbish and Market where we would gather every night in the fall after school to play football with the Weirsbecky's and Matt Boso? Remember there was a corn field there too that the ball would occasionally get lost in?
ReplyDeleteDid you see the old Mick house? Jamie and Victor-I wonder what they are doing now-besides of course 10-15 in Lucasville? How about the Tucker complex that still exists and is filled with more Tuckers than ever! Lots of games in their backyard as I remember it.
Too bad you couldn't run all along the creek from Lions down to Hilbish. Lots of times spent there-how about the time you fell through the ice into the creek. I remember you were so cold that you cried (like a baby). You wouldn't move because you were too cold and you wouldn't warm up unless you moved and got home! I had to basically drag you home that day. Also, remember the woman who lived right on the creek at Prarie who would give us giant coffee cans to put our crayfish in?
As much as you covered, and I will grant you that you covered a lot, you didn't really even scratch the surface.
Last one, remember the giant warehouse that was sort of in our backyard across Prarie? We used to line a batter up against that wall and use tape to outline a "strikezone" and pitch tennis balls as hard as we could against that wall. It was such a thrill when you connected on one and hit it over that guardrail fence at the edge of the parking lot. No wonder my arm is so screwed up even today....