My brother (Ken Novak) sent me the link to your
website, and I thoroughly enjoyed viewing the
photos...with some sadness, though, for the
demise of so many beautiful old buildings. The
1909 photo of the high school shows what
magnificent architecture existed then.
My connection with Conneaut goes back to my
great-great-grandfather David Cummins, who lived
in the Liberty Street octagon house and owned
Cummins Canning. As a child I got to see the
factory in action only once or twice, but still
remember the seemingly endless stream of bright
orange pumpkins in the metal troughs and the
wonderful cacophony of noise from the equipment.
In the 1950s I loved taking the train from
Cleveland to visit my grandmother, Althea
Cummins Webb. She lived in the yellow house at
the corner of Main and Stadium, and my brothers
and I spent many hours across the street on the
playground of West Main Elementary. I
always loved the sound of the cables clanking
against the flagpole.
Shopping rituals included going to John Tusa’s
market on Broad Street for dried beef...and
numerous samples from the huge wheel of Canadian
Cheddar kept under a large clear dome at the end
of the counter. The original shop area had
wooden floors and all purchases were wrapped in
paper and tied with string. What a wonderfully
‘biodegradable’ era!
The Electric Maid bakery across the street sold
Salt Rising Bread only one day each week
(Tuesdays?), so Grandma made a point to shop on
that day. Shopping for clothes at The
Children's Shop was always fun, and I remember
being fascinated with the pneumatic tubes at
Pelton’s.
Other regular outings were for chocolate malts
at Lakeview Dairy, picnics at Farnham/Conneaut
Creek (where wading occasionally resulted in
getting a disgusting leech on one's foot),
roller skating in a very old wooden building
down by the lake, trips to the White Turkey
Drive-In, fried perch dinners from Brown's,
occasional lunches at the Sugar Bowl, 'brazier
burgers' and tin roof sundaes from the Dairy
Queen not far from the cemeteries on Main, and
sitting at Conneaut Harbor in Grandma's big aqua
and black Buick to watch sunsets or 4th
of July fireworks. We never tired of playing on
the seesaws and the hand-pumped swings at
Township Park, climbing the enormous (or so it
seemed then) dirt hill and, of course, swimming
in
Lake Erie.
And I have fond memories of frequent
trips to the beautiful
Carnegie Library. During the hottest hours of
each afternoon I loved to read on Grandma’s
front porch, screened-in at the time.
Christmas vacations my brothers and I would go
sledding down the Center Street Hill on genuine
Flexible Flyers. The fact that it seemed
dangerously steep (and Grandma deemed it unsafe)
made the rides all the more thrilling.
I also loved to ice skate on the Liberty St.
tennis courts, which the city would flood for
that purpose. And oh, the frozen fingers and
toes from making snowmen! But it was wonderful
always being able to count on having a White
Christmas in Conneaut.
Sharon, I very much appreciate all your efforts
compiling this website. Thank you for
bringing to mind many wonderful moments of
nostalgia!
