The jumping off discussion area for the rest of the Deck. All things Lakewood.
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You have to understand how surreal these walks can become. Those that know us, know we are real down-to-earth guys. Ken had just returned from a vacation on Fire Island, and asked if I felt like walking and having and ice cream cone.
We hit Sugar Bear's Ice Cream, grabbed a medium twist waffle cone, and head off down Madison Avenue for a walk in the walkable community. We decide to walk to Harrison School as Ken speaks of the financial crisis and bubble on the East Coast and how Lakewood is protected partially because of our much lower cost of living and more realistic housing prices.
Walking in the cool night air, the streets are so quiet it becomes like walking in a very small town. Every now and then, a person on a porch with a friendly "good evening" or "hello." It takes on the feel of a movie set that is on large rolls and moves as we walk. The evening with the Cicadas generating a low white noise hum, an occasional TV or stereo, a car driving by slowly, are the openly things heard.
Turning the corner on Dowd , we could see a car in the parking lot at Harrison with vanity plates. The conversation turns to Rick's idea of having some of the Cleveland Cavilers coming to Lakewood in September for a charity game with no hoops. Wondering if we will ever see hoops again, or for that matter playgrounds again. Now that safe parks have been labeled dangerous on the radio and unusable, it seems to make sense to flatten them out. Better to see the enemy/children approaching from afar, than in a last minute surprise.
8:30p.m. on a summer night, and we gaze at the empty playground, and looking at the homes packed around this state of the art facility, we are amazed at how quiet the neighborhood was. Almost like a ghost town. If we are to believe the works and words of Jane Jacobs, our panic and crack down had made the streets more dangerous not safer!
We sat on the bench finishing out ice cream, in a strange silence that fell over the community and the night. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and not a pin at Mahall's.
Leaving Harrison and headed south towards the LEAF Community Gardens. Strange how night time, moonlight, and quiet can make different buildings stand out. Always something new and different. Walking the LEAF Garden brought a smile. Food was growing, flowers blooming it was healthy.
As we headed back to Madison, amazed at the quiet, it was decided to check out the action at Madison Park. At the entrance we had some new impromptu gate keepers checking out our ride. Then NO ONE! The lot was filled with cars, and we thought a midnight swim. Pool was closed.
The table at Madison Park we normally sit at to change the city was surrounded by empty tables. Not full with unruly kids, and their United Way books of different ways to have sex, with the Hot Dam Condoms they love to leave around. Silence, no one. Getting up and starting feel like we were part of a Twilight Zone show(black and white of course), we headed off to pool, then the brick building.
Rounding the corner you are blinded for a brief second by the sodium lights. These add a unique yellow to the area, turning the visuals into sepia colored TV retro TV show. Then we came upon the security camera, with a large sign proclaiming "Under Surveillance." Tempting fate we decided to sit in what had to be considered the most dangerous bench in Lakewood! Why else would the city place a 24/7/365 security came aimed right at it, if it was not trouble with a capital "T"?
Talking about how dead quiet the park was, we wondered who was actually watching us on TV. Enjoying the night air the discussion fell back to how bad Lakewood's pizza is, and if it was not summer Ken would have brought back some New York pizzas for people that could appreciate them, and not me! About this time I started my usual immature act of faces and gestures, then finally written signs to the camera.
Feeling tough, while sitting on the most dangerous bench in Lakewood, had not stopped me from thinking about who was watching us. What would happen if I stepped over the line? The tennis courts close at 11:00pm, and are not lit, they became foreboding as these dark exercise cages loomed over the camera, the brick building and the MDBIL where we were sitting and us.
Those that would give into the Big Brother fears, no doubt would have seen these tennis courts as the future prisons of whoever was caught crossing the line to the sole TV camera at Madison Park. Tennis courts like these are perfect for detainment centers. As we looked over the soccer fields, the pool, the courts, the swings, there was nothing. No activity. Still the parking lot was filled with cars.
Assuring ourselves it was bowling we started to walk to the front of the park, and saw Tom Mahall turning off the sign early. Only a couple drunken bowlers left, and the neon bowling pin went dark. Looking up and down Madison at 9:00pm, we could not believe no one was anywhere! Lakewood was a ghost town, but where were the people with the cars?
Grace Lutheran was dark, and we checked out a home next to the park that was going for $65,000, and thought of what it would cost in New York, Seattle, even Cleveland Heights. One hundred feet from a park, a pool, tennis courts and soccer fields. A steal at $65,000! I could not help but wonder if they got rid of that dangerous bench would this house be worth more?
In the dead silence we heard a door and some cackling. Three hundred feet away was the front door to St. Gregory's. We could see two woman, smoking cigarettes, and talking about life and love. On a night this quiet words traveled forever. Crossing the street walking past the hair salon we noticed a lizard scampering, hanging upside down watching our every move with coal black eyes. Ready to run, with the slightest movement from us. So we just stood there and stared.
Walking up the walk to St. Gregory's the two women became three, then a fourth emerged and looked at Ken and I with eyes that could be referred to as "Tombstone Eyes" looked up and raised a hand and said, "Don't go in there, whatever you do do not walk in. It is worse than crack cocaine." she then took a long draw on her cigarette and started going through instant lottery tickets.
Now my wife and I had bought these before at church socials and played puling each tab one at a time and seeing what we could win. This woman was taking stacks, bending them in half, and dragging her palm over them exposing all 6 boxes at the same time in under a second. Throwing sometimes a hundred of them away each night into the trash can. When asked how much she mentioned $1.00 and $5.00. I asked her if she ever wins and she mumbled "Worse than cocaine. Sometimes there is a winner in every box. Just not her night. Worse than crack"
I walked through the front door and found every room packed with people playing. Every age and economic group was represented. Numbers we called from the stage I photographed children graduating from. These numbers were then sent via closed circuit TV to every room in the building. Instantly with people dotting out numbers on the score cards. As I looked many looked away, acting embarrassed. Overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of people in this building I spoke with the manager. "Oh yeah it is like this every night we have bingo." We bring them in from all over, Avon, East Cleveland, Glenville and other places.
Fifteen minutes later I was home on more porch, posting photos.
Lynn I hope that answers the questions.
Jim O'Bryan
Lakewood Resident
"The very act of observing disturbs the system." Werner Heisenberg
"If anything I've said seems useful to you, I'm glad.
If not, don't worry. Just forget about it." His Holiness The Dalai Lama
This night we walked north of Birdtown, and found all quiet as well. Madison Park, dead quiet.
North Lane, we drove into a dead end and found ourselves in a possible drug deal. Finding ourselves pointed at a chain link fence with two SUVs up to no good behind us, we pulled slowly past the possible dealing, making sure we could write down the plates, and id any individuals. We moved into an area where we could watch, and the SUVs had emptied and were watching us from the front steps. No call to police was made as we could not positively say we saw a drug deal.
The rest of the streets seemed quiet, and unused.
.
Jim O'Bryan
Lakewood Resident
"The very act of observing disturbs the system." Werner Heisenberg
"If anything I've said seems useful to you, I'm glad.
If not, don't worry. Just forget about it." His Holiness The Dalai Lama
Check out this end of town, late on a Friday or Saturday nite, not at all quiet. Kind of reminds me of how Geneva-on-the-Lake used to be in the 70's.
(Down by the Hairy Buffalo down here.
"When I dare to be powerful -- to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid." - Audre Lorde
So let's see if I have this right....
Lakewood is calm, but Lakewood is bright?
Though some might say it's a great big bore?
Where nothing ever was as before?
And then we go on to another beat,
With people spilling out into the street,
That's also a problem, we may hear,
When people start lifting their second beer?
Through all of this we might just find,
A balance somewhere, if we are kind?
A mix you say, 'tween go and woe?
Aw heck, I guess we'll just go with the flow...
Now, with the Hairy Buffalo and Geneva on the Lake circa 70s coming into view, I am beginning to understand why you brought me wearing my Lakewood baseball cap to the Biker Bar on Lorain in Cleveland and kept us there until closing.
Now, with the Hairy Buffalo and Geneva on the Lake circa 70s coming into view, I am beginning to understand why you brought me wearing my Lakewood baseball cap to the Biker Bar on Lorain in Cleveland and kept us there until closing.
Kenneth Warren
Ken
Indeed as you have taught me, it is all a test and preparation for the next stage in life. Hairy Buffalo, then back to my other neighborhood... East 116 and Quincy at Bailey's after hour club. Party starts at 2:00am and goes until the $1.00 a glass gin/rum/whiskey runs out.
What does not kills us only makes us stronger. The diving into life, cultures, and neighborhoods around this county has made us stronger in our love for the hollar. Lakewood. After all it is cooler by the Lake, in da Wood.
.
Jim O'Bryan
Lakewood Resident
"The very act of observing disturbs the system." Werner Heisenberg
"If anything I've said seems useful to you, I'm glad.
If not, don't worry. Just forget about it." His Holiness The Dalai Lama
We just got back from a short working vacation. When we go away, we visit another Lakewood: Lakewood, NY.
So there we were, taking a rest break, when we heard very loud knocking on the back door. It was a deputy Sheriff, who was going door to door, warning vacationers and residents to keep an eye out for a bunch of kids that have been running amok. They started stealing stuff from unlocked cars, but have recently graduated to vandalism.
We were to call the non-emergency number if we saw them.
