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Tucker created little more than memories

It was dawn on Labor Day 1947, my last day of freedom before beginning classes in the seventh grade at East Junior High. Dad and I climbed into our 1947 Chevy and drove to Rocky Santo’s place to pick him up for the ride to Cleveland. (Some of you, dear readers, will recognize Rocky as my hero barber who gave me my first haircut.) We were going to the 1947 Cleveland National Air Races for its second annual postwar event. On the way, Rocky began to expound about a new automobile called the Tucker. He, another local barber, and maybe two other guys were going to open a Tucker dealership ...

Trip to museum in the ’Burg

I live on the west side of Warren. My little street leads west down to the Mahoning River. I could toss a stone across the river, and it would land in Leavittsburg. In fact, the first three digits of my phone number are the same as residents of Leavittsburg. Maybe that makes me a pseudo native of the ’Burg. On my way to the nearby hardware store in Leavittsburg, I must have driven by a certain place dozens of times without noticing. (I dutifully pay attention to the road.) It’s called the Leavittsburg Heritage Museum, which is a neat little gray and white building quite close to ...

We always counted on mom

Things didn’t vary much on Sunday mornings when I was a kid. We were always late for Sunday school. Mom and Dad loved to play cards with friends very late on Saturday nights, so Mom would invariably shut off the alarm on Sunday morning and fall back to sleep for a few too many extra winks. As a result, it was a mad dash for us to get into the Chevy and be on our way across town to Emmanuel Lutheran Church for Sunday school classes. So, there was Mom, with her housecoat hastily pulled on over her nightgown, and bedroom slippers flapping; my sister, with her Sunday outfit on and ...

Easter experience tipped balance

By Don Mumford Special Easters come to mind that have been quietly locked away in memory for many years. One very special Easter was back in 1964. I was part of a young singles group at a tiny little rundown church in Hollywood, California. It was my rock during my stay in California. The church was in need of repairs for everything imaginable. I was just about out of money. I had just dropped out of The Art Center School, then located in Los Angeles, where I was majoring in automobile design. I was half-heartedly seeking employment in the L.A. area. To put it mildly, I was adrift in ...

100 years of business in Warren

When I was a little kid in the early 40s, I often walked past a little business known back then as Thumm’s Tire Shop on my way home from Sunday school each week. I called it “Thumb’s,” but Dad corrected me and told me it was pronounced “Toom’s.” Thumm’s, located on the curve of West Market a bit west of the West Market Street Bridge, was founded in 1909 by August Frederick Thumm. The little business specialized in tires (like Fisk, Goodyear, and Firestone), bicycles, and Harley Davidson motorcycles. William Doud Packard and James Ward Packard, founders of Packard Motor ...

Rescue of little cabin cruiser

This is the second part of a story about four stalwart sea adventurers from Warren who became stranded in the Indian River Bay in Delaware when their little cabin cruiser wouldn’t start. The only light we could see in that pitch darkness was coming from the drawbridge in the distance that carried the road over the bay’s inlet just before it flowed into the Atlantic. If our boat would slip its anchor when the tide turned, we would rapidly drift out to sea on the outgoing tide, if we didn’t smash into the pilings that supported the drawbridge first. That meant that there must be a ...