Back on the Train

Scenic Railway, Coney Island [1908].

Via Shorpy.

Here again, folks. It's been one heck of a long, quiet ride over placid lakes of workaday redundancy since my last visit here almost a year and a half ago. 

I've jumped ship from my most recent professional escapade - one that kept Cincinnati Revisited in hibernation - and it feels great to be back on the gut-shaking, knobby rails of "reality" again.  The blood is finally flowing.

New attractions imminent here at Cincinnati Revisited.  Thanks for reading.

• Another great image from the Shorpy archive above.

• Learn more about the early coaster days of ole Coney Island at the indelible Cincinnati Views library here, and the great "classic" rides at today's Coney here.

Thank You Notes

 Not the original foundry, but production started on Thanksgiving Day (1880).
Source: Cincinnati Views. 

Thanksgiving has become as much of a birthday celebration as it is for all of the traditional familial gatherings and gratitude. Still, some candid offerings are definitely due this year - a long list of commendations will be handed out to kin and comrades on a silver platter, in one way or another related to these recent events...

Elizabeth is due to deliver child #2 in December.
Amazing to think that: (1) We'll have another wonderful addition to our family - a little girl!, (2) my son is now 2 and will have to deal with some serious Mommy-withdrawal, (3) just when we're getting into a rhythm that's bearable, our nights are most likely going to elongate dramatically again, and (4) the amount of work that Elizabeth currently entails day-in and day-out, and the amount added to that to come, all with the perspective of a full glass, is completely inspiring.

After long and hard searching (studio and soul), our decision to stay awhile longer culminates with a new job downtown.
We thought laboriously on many areas of the country, but this is a good move all-around - for family, friends, and us - and ends the feeling that we're on a never-ending cusp of transition. So, since we'll be here for the foreseeable future, hopefully we can make some long-lasting contributions to the city that have been swept under the rug for far too long.

We moved. Again.
Elizabeth and I have a storied past, but no one could have predicted the number of legs of this trek we've already completed. Actually, maybe a better way of putting it would be: No one would have guessed how many legs this trek was going to be comprised of, and how many markers we've already passed. Heck - any way you put it, moving five times in five years back and forth between two different cities is tiring enough... then add in all of the other fun stuff and you've cooked up an official bowl exhaustion. But, it's good exhaustion... and we're in a new part of the city. Both having grown up and lived a substantial portion of our lives here, neither of us have resided in this particular local, nor have any friends or family members. It's a little reinvigorating in that way - new places to explore, fresh perspectives on old memories, and welcome solace from another one of Cincinnati's great neighborhoods (not proper, but still Cincinnati to me). It's a good compromise... and it's on the bus line.

There's other stuff of which I won't break the code of silence, but is well worth explicit gratitude as anything else. All I can say is that I am completely humbled by the amazingly supportive people near and far that I'm lucky enough to call my family and friends. Hopefully, one day, this perseverance will echo favorably and I'll be able to reciprocate that generosity to those in kind.

Have a good holiday, everyone.

• Now if this would just happen again, I'd be really thankful...
 

Milwaukee Sentinel (p.2) [1958].
Source. 

Related Post
Turkeys of Thanksgiving Past

Auf Wiedersehen

After very little deliberation, I've decided to halt this site indefinitely.

I've enjoyed posting here about my thoughts and reflections of Cincinnati, as well as being part of the local blogging community, but my time has become increasingly limited for activities such as this.

Several posts ago I listed a multitude of topics that I planned to explore, and had grand ideas of fulfilling them all within a short time frame (to the extent that they deserve), but the progression on these topics slowed with their respective problems. Currently, I have about 6 different articles started, but with them all, I've encountered rough spots that require travel, external research, scanning, editing... lots of time.

Overall, the necessities to complete well thought out, informative, and engaging articles, are unnecessary (and possibly detrimental) to the growth of my familial and professional life. I obviously have never had the intention of living-and-dying with this blog, and right now, every minute counts.

I'll leave this site up for awhile with the hope that I might be able to return to it, but for now, consider it vacant. That being said, if anyone should care to comment on past articles, or send me a personal email, I'll surely respond. Additionally, I'll still be occasionally perusing through (and possibly commenting on) your sites as well.

I appreciate those who have added me to their blogroll, and those who have commented on posts, but don't consider this a total loss unless you come back one day and see that the site no longer exists.

To everyone who contributes to the positivity and progress of Cincinnati:
Keep up the good work!

The Ross Family Truckster

 Vacation (1983). 
Clark and Rusty checking out their
new metallic pea-green Wagon Queen Family Truckster.

Lets start at the beginning:  The mode of transport used to explore the city in my younger years. A car that helped to ingrain our routine travel escapades into memorable occurrences...

Not unlike the 'love' that the Griswold's had for their Truckster, we celebrated these trips in an army-green behemoth with faux-wood siding, aluminum luggage rack, and hidden rear-facing back seat (with green synthetic carpet) exiting to the back "5th door". A glorious masterpiece of automotive aesthetics.

 The Ross Family Truckster (1978).
That's me in front, burning my fingertips on
our 1970s Buick Estate Station Wagon.

This picture was taken in the late-70s, a time when the summers seemed extremely arid and the winters deeply lush. Maybe I'm just associating this with the vinyl seats - scalding and sticky in the summer, cold and rigid in the winter - or the weak ventilation in the car, but nevertheless, the encompassing faded-grey urban environment showed increasing wear - an abundance of cracked concrete and worn metal. This was especially apparent with our frequent trips down Fort Washington Way: 

 Fort Washington Way overpass (January 1977). 
My sister cheerfully eating cotton candy in the middle of winter
near the now-extinct Riverfront Coliseum. 

We were Eastsiders (specifically, Andersonians), so to get to this location, we normally ignored the outerbelt and took Columbia Parkway (eastern artery from downtown). 

The interesting thing about the parkway at that time was that residents living on the hill above could temporarily park their cars on the side of the road, then climb steps that were built into the hillside retaining wall to their homes. I always thought that was so cool, yet hazardous because of the high speed limit, lack of stoplights, and proximity to passing traffic.

Also, the hillside and surrounding environment were always overgrown (maybe remnants of Longworth's experimental vineyards), and again, during the summer everything looked kind of scorched, which made an imaginary trip up any of the multitude of stairways a little disconcerting - you could never really see where the paths ended.

Regardless of these immature environmental perceptions, this was Cincinnati in its heyday to me - the muddy-toned late-70s and early-80s.

Aside from the basics of analog technologies - AM/FM radio tuners, free four-channel TV, and pea-green wall-mounted telephones with 50' spiral cords - there were no "modern" tools of mass communication being used yet en masse. You could only just barely catch the scent of cell phones, cable TV, and personal computers (gaming systems, internet, etc.). Thus, there always seemed to be people on the streets, events in the air, and a general love for your neighborhood. Everything seemed to have a purity - every action was a wholesome, somewhat enigmatic, yet fully-anticipated destination...

   

...the good ol' days.

Foreward

This site is history book + sketch book.

Reflection and prognostication, urban planning and scenic design, artists and architecture that are the fabric of the city.

Reflection of little and well-known local history, saddled with firsthand conversations between local artisans and notable Cincinnatians, conceptual illustration of the city's development, and Blue Sky solutions to support local optimistic vision.

For contributions to this archive - history notes, concept art, news, etc. - please email me at:
matt @ matthunterross.com