Last Boat Ride of the Season

The old Arrowhead Club, Willoughby, Ohio

Barry O'Donnell at the Helm

Nancy and Jim

Moi. Willoughby in the background.

Interesting Structure on the Willoughby Shore

Happy Birthday to Jimmy Fenton Coughlin!

My brother Jim chose to be born in the absolute depths of winter 54 years ago today. I can't locate the weather data for that day--but it probably was brutally cold. Cleveland's record cold temperature was on Jim's birthday in 1994, -20 degrees (the high was -3!). When Jim was days over 4 years old, January 24, 1963, Denny and I took him and his 7-year-old brother Kevin for a long long walk, down East 272nd in Euclid, then over the I-90-Rt. 2 Wickliffe spur (which was still under construction), to Fairway Discount Depatrment Store--a cheap-ass department store on Lakeland Boulevard in Euclid. At that point we got scared that we were going to kill Jimmy (and Kevin too!) if we walked them back home. So we begged a dime and called my Dad and asked him to pick us up. That day 50 years ago, the low temperature was -19 and the high was 1. In 1985 on January 20th, the high was -5 and the low was -18.

To sum up, Jim's birthday is usually the darkest  snowiest, most miserable day of the year. And Jim always brings his great humor, kindness, and goodness to light up and warm up the day!

Pictures of Mom, from 1940 to about 2000

Today would be my Mom's 88th birthday. My brother Kevin sent me these photos of Mom spanning almost 60 years. At the top, Mom and Kevin's visit to Ireland in the late 1990s; then Mom with Mary Ellen and Jimmy in the early 1960s in Euclid; next is Mom and Dad on their wedding day, August of 1947, in Willoughby; and finally, Mom with her brothers Skip (Fenton) and Don Fitzpatrick, circa 1940 in Cleveland (probably at Tarrymore Drive, off of Neff Road, near Lake Erie).

Strawberry Lane Adventure, 1963

The cold winter of 1962-63 was a great one for misadventures. In late January, on the coldest day in Cleveland history, Denny and I took our little brothers, Kev, about 6 years old at the time, and Jim, about 4, on a long walk that took us over the I-90/ Rt.2 "Euclid Spur," which was then under construction, over to a cheap-arse discount store called "Fairway Discount Department Store," on Lakeland Boulevard. Well we discovered that you shouldn't be taking out a four-year-old and a six-year-old on such a long walk when it's 18 below zero. Dad had to rescue his little ones, Jim and Kev, and the older brothers, Bobby and Denny, who should have known better.

Not long after that, Denny, Buster Zylowski, Kenny Z, and I walked the new freeway-under-construction from behind Forest Park Junior High up to SOM Center Road, then south on SOM to North Chagrin Reservation, Strawberry Lake Pond to be exact. The route we took was about 7 to 9 miles in length, and we walked that distance through the ice and snow. When we got to Strawberry Lane we skated on the pond and when tired of that went over to the shelter house. It must have been Buster's idea (with help from Denny!) to build a fire--a big fire. We set our rubberized shoe-boots near the fire to dry out. It wasn't long before we could smell the rubber burning and melting. The shoes were pretty much ruined by the tremendous heat of the roaring fire. A guy in the shelter house offered to drive us back to Euclid, saving us from a 2 1/2 hour walk in melted boots.

When we finally got home, Dad wasn't there. When it got dark he jumped into his car and headed to Strawberry Lane to find us. When he got there, the Willoughby Hills Fire Department seemed to be working at the pond around a hole in the ice. My Dad's heart sunk as he thought the firemen were retrieving his sons' bodies from under the ice. Dad approached the firemen and asked them what was going on. No, they were not there to retrieve bodies that had fallen through the ice. They were adding a layer of fresh water on top of the ice to smoothe it out. Relieved, Dad jumped back into his car and headed home--hoping his boys had made it back.

When he got home, Dad was both happy and angry at the same time. Happy to see us alive; angry that we had caused him so much grief. Such was my dad's life with four boys!

Jimmy Coughlin Out of Prison!

At last we can announce that Jimmy Coughlin is out of the Wabash Valley Correctional Institute--way out there on the Indiana-Illinois border.

All his friends and family members--let's help Jim readjust to society!

Footnote: Jim claims he was in the prison to do a repair job on a printing press, something about a plate. I'm guessing Jim was making license plates. It will be interesting to see what kind of story he makes up to explain this mess!