I know amazingly little about the formative years of Richard Lewis Woodard, considering that he’s my father and everything. I know he was the youngest of five children, the only boy. I do know he had an interest in cars and guns. And he was a consistent athlete. He played basketball and baseball in school.
He isn’t the most majestic arboreal specimen in Lakewood – but he must be among the most mighty. When I bought the property at 2257 Emily in 1997, the front yard was tree-less. A few years later, I planted a Bradford pear tree – “Brad” – near the middle of the yard. Brad grew, and…
My buddy Cal is in his mid-70s, has Parkinson’s disease and lives in a comfortable retirement community. I visit him twice a week, encouraging him to get out and move as he is able. Some days are better than others. I try to discourage TV viewing. Cal frets enough without the droning blare of the…
In a world increasingly wrought by fright, the tiny region between my two ears remains one of the scariest, volatile places I know. The analytical left brain continuously locks horns with the creative right, and it can get take-no-prisoners ugly. I am the byproduct of parents I cherish. They are my best friends. One operates…
Like a seasoned skier successfully schussing to the bottom of a run, best-laid plans can be pulled off. Witness Virginia Kendall Park. One of the country’s most uniquely designed outdoor recreational vistas, it remains the 1,574-acre playground its developers envisioned 65 years ago.
The Guinness Book of World Records credits 1,036 Colgate University students with playing Twister for 3½ hours on May 5, 1984. Fine, says Yvette Hanzel, but when “The Biggest Twister Party Ever” takes place this weekend at the Western Reserve Historical Society, expect more than a mangled mass of chiropractic appointments waiting to happen.
Winds of change have a way of whipping up the unexpected, the out-of-the-oridnary. So when Hurricane David blew a 4-pound squirrel out of its nest and into Chuck and Lou Ann Bests’ lives in 1978, few could have forecasted the phenomenon unfolding.
Take time, turn back, tune in: All the world’s a radio dial. Golden agers read Shakespeare. Youth theater members provide sound effects. Audiences lend an attentive ear. If your imagination isn’t cooperating, take a cue this weekend from the Willoughby Fine Arts Association. In conjunction with the Great Lakes Theatre Festival’s “Total Willpower” program, the…
Imagine a land where classical music makes teenage girls go gaga. Where Bach and Brahms rule. Where life transformation begins. That land is the biggest city in America, those girls make up The Harlem Girls Choir, and while they may be shaken up about Ricky’s bon-bon or feverish over 98 Degrees, they’ve also been moved…
It’s become New Year’s tradition in Port Clinton, Ohio: Hype heightens. Excitement escalates. And Capt. Wylie experiences a big letdown. Come Dec. 31, all eyes in an expected crowd of 10,000-plus will be looking up to Capt. Wylie – a 20-foot long, 500-pound fiberglass walleye. As the waning seconds of Y1K tick away, a crane…