Tood's Town X

This a Dillard Farnsworth "Believe it or not" blog.

I am immune to mosquito bites. It wasn't always so. When I was a youngster I was very much allegic to mosquito bites. A bite would itch so badly I couldn't sleep and I couldn't keep from scratching it until it bled. The bites on the webs between the fingers and around the ankles created especially severe reactions.

This unpleasant allergy continued until I was about 14 or 15 years old.

The Cairo baseball diamond was at the Memorial Park. I have described some aspects of the Park in earlier blogs. One feature of the Park not previously discussed was a drainage ditch that ran East and West along the Southern border of the Park about 100' to the South of the right field line of the ball field. This ditch was very nasty. It had a one foot thick mucky bottom that was full of leaches. If you stepped in the ditch, intentionally or unintentionally, and it took more than 10 seconds to extricate your foot, forget any shoe you were wearing. After leaving the ditch, you could count on having a minimum of two and perhaps as many as 10 of the 1 1/2 to 2 inch blood suckers attached to any bare skin.

The ditch also had a good population of snapping turtles.

My friend Bob Paulin and I used to set one line tied to a fence post with turtle hooks and beef brisket and suet and almost always we would catch a medium or large size snapping turtle after a day or two.

In any event, the ditch was a prolific producer of mosquitos.

The baseball diamond was laid out with home plate near the West end of the Park. Right field was to the East and left field to the North. The ditch ran parallel to the right field line and was, as I mentioned about 100' South of the right field foul line.

Most of the baseball games we played in the early 1950s would start at about 6:00 p.m. This was prime time for mosquitos.

As a poor fielder, I frequently got to play right field. The grass of the outfield was a perfect place for the young, hungry mosquitos emerging from the ditch to congregate and ambush the right fielder. And congregate they did. In huge numbers.

Being in right field, I became a primary target for the pests. Literally hundreds of mosquitos would attack at one time. They would cover my bare skin and were especially fond of the ankles where they would bite fiercely through the baseball socks we wore.

I would go home from the games in abject agony. Scratching the bites on my arms with my finger nails and those on my ankles by rubbing my lower legs together. Northern Ohio summer is a high temperature, high humidity area and this was in the days before air conditioning was common. Itching of mosquito bites is particularly severe during 80 plus degree and 80 plus % humidity nights. In fact, it is almost all consuming.

After several years of suffering through the several times per week experience of excruciating itching, I became immune to mosquito bites and have not had a mosquito bite that caused a reaction in 50 plus years.

Dillard Farnsworth

Tood's Town IX

About 3/4 mile south of Cairo along the Baltimore & Ohio railroad right of way was a railroad bridge over Rattlesnake Creek. In the early 1900s there may have been rattlesnakes along Rattlesnake Creek, but in the 1940s, the rattlesnakes were long gone.

Under the bridge the creek formed a wide and relatively deep pool. A childhood friend, Bob Paulin, was an avid sportsman at a young age. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, at Bob's urging, we would often take a fishing line and walk down to the railroad bridge and fish for sunfish and other species of small fish that lived in the small pond defined by the bridge.

We hoped to catch a large fish, but never did. However, we almost always caught a few small fish and would sometimes build a small fire and fry the fish and eat them. We spent many hours at and near the bridge exploring the creek and bothering its inhabitants.

The creek meandered through an old slightly rolling pasture at the eastern end of what was then the Arnold farm. On warm summer days, the creek and the pasture were serenity personified.

The creek was only a couple of yards wide and a foot or two deep at most places. However, it was a year round tream. It was filled with minnows, crawdads, frogs and several beds of clams. There were a few snapping turtles that buried themselves in the mud along the banks of the creek.

A few feet above the creek, the dragonflies zipped back and forth and hovered. There were birds, mostly redwinged blackbirds and wild canaries (goldfinch).

We also went to the creek in the late Spring and early Fall to hunt for mushrooms (sponge morels in the Spring). Occasionally, we found some of the morels and took them home where we fried them in butter. What a taste!

The trip to and from the Creek was as interesting to us as the Creek itself. There was an abandoned interurban rail right of way about 40 yards west of the B&O right of way and the Detroit Toledo and Ironton right of way was about 40 yards to the east. With the exception of the frequent passage of trains, that area of land was quiet, undeveloped, uninhabited and a little bit of wilderness. We explored it thoroughly. In between the rights of way were several small bogs and ponds filled with critters, mostly tadpoles and minnows, and frogs.

On most of our journeys to and from the Creek, we would encounter and sometimes catch various species of snakes. There were corn snakes, milk snakes, blue racers, black racers, black snakes and garter snakes. I remember that we once caught a black snake that was over 5 feet in length. Snakes have nasty tempers and those we encountered would strike and bite repeatedly as we tried to press their heads to the ground with small sticks to facilitate their capture.

At that time we had a small yellow part Spitz dog. She was our primary snake detector. When she discovered a snake, she would get a distinctive look on her face. It was a type of sneer, half smile and half fear. She would approach the snake with what appeared to be a combination of fascination, fear and hate. In any event, whenever we saw that look we knew she had found a snake.

The summer days along the railroad tracks were educational, warm, happy and peaceful. After almost 60 years, I still miss them.

Dillard Farnsworth

Tood's Town VIII

September 21, 1947

The red, white and blue Freedom Train carrying dignitaries and documents relating to German and Japanese surrenders in World War II passed slowly through Cairo on the B&O railroad. Residents gathered along the right of way to admire the colorful red, white and blue train and honor the veterans of World War II.

Dillard Farnsworth

Tood's Town VII

A small but great personal experience.

In the previous posting, I talked about baseball as a primary social event in Tood's Town. Over the years, the Cairo Merchants' team played most of the local towns' teams and a variety of good semi-pro and professional baseball teams including the House of David, the Mansfield Post Office, and the Kansas City Monarchs.

The Kansas City Monarchs were a AAA league baseball team. In the 1950s, they were an all black team. In addition to playing regularly in the AAA league, they had a traveling team that traveled throughout the country playing baseball games against the locals. It is my understanding that the members of the Monarchs rotated between playing on the AAA team and the traveling team so that there was no big difference in the level of play between the two.

They would play for a percentage of the gate. That is, an admission fee would be charged and a percentage would go to the Monarchs.

The Monarchs had visited Cairo on several occasions and each time they had defeated the Cairo Merchants.

On one occasion however, David beat Goliath, Cairo beat the Monarchs.

After losing that game, the Monarchs promised to stop in Cairo at every opportunity and play Cairo for free. The Monarchs were true to their word and stopped in Cairo to play whenever they were near. Cairo was never able to win a second game.

I remember one such later game. The Monarchs traveling team had Satchel Paige as its pitcher. Satchel Paige was, at that time, a baseball legend. He had pitched for many years in the old Negro League and at an advanced age pitched for the Cleveland Indians major league team.

As I mentioned in another episode, I was a great fan of the Cleveland Indians and listened to every game on the radio. As a result, I was very familiar with Satchel Paige, his sayings, and his pitching.

Very much like Yogi Berra, Satchel Paige had many clever sayings. One that I remember is "Don't ever look behind you, someone may be following."

In any event, Satchel Paige pitched for several innings that summer night in Cairo. I was the lead off batter for Cairo and was fortunate to get two hitting appearances with Satchel as the pitcher.

As it turned out I was able only to give the appearance of being a hitter. I had baseball uniform, spikes, hat and a bat. But otherwise, I didn't hit anything. Hell, I didn't even swing at anything. Satchel Paige threw me, and every other Cairo player the same 3 pitches. Fastball, change up, curve. Strike, strike, strike. I took all 6 pitches I saw in my two at bats against Satchel Paige. I set down after the first 3 each time.

I think we were all star struck. I don't know if any of the Cairo players were able to even foul off one of Satchel's pitches let alone hit anything to the field. Obviously, it was a small but lasting personal experience for me to appear in a baseball game with one of the best ever -- Satchel Paige.

Dillard Farnsworth

Tood's Town VI

There is a Cairo Memorial Park. It is located about 200 yards west of the B&O railroad tracks and about 200 yards north of Main Street.

The Park is a triangular piece of land located at the east end of the Gudekunst farm and bounded on the east by the B&O railroad. It has a lighted baseball field, parking area, a shelter house, a small concession stand with an announcer's booth located above, and a swing set for children.

The baseball field was well maintained by volunteer members of the Cairo Recreation. A small farm tractor dragging a 10 foot length of chain link fence was used to level the bare infield. The outfield was grass and the entire field was generally level with no gopher holes or other depressions that could cause an outfielder to break an ankle or leg. In fact, I don't remember an injury that was related to the condition of the field. The foul lines and batters' boxes were carefully, but often crookedly, marked with lime before each game. The field was hard and somewhat gravelly. In the early days, there was no fence but a slatted snow fence was added in the early 1950s, probably shortly after the the lights.

I would characterize the Cairo baseball diamond as fair. The nearest neighboring village, about 5 miles to the West, Gomer, had an excellent baseball field, but no lights. One of the Cairo area residents, Ed Sandy, was a AAA level pitcher who also coached high school baseball in Gomer. He saw to it that the Gomer baseball diamond was first class. The infield was a mixture of sand and clay and was kept in great condition. The outfield was also much better kept than Cairo's. Baseball was big in Gomer as a recreational and social activity too.

Ed Sandy would have "baseball camps" at the Gomer field about once per summer. I remember one in particular. I believe that camp was sponsored by the Philadelphia Phillies. One of the former major leaguers who came to teach (scout) at the camp was Dale Mitchell. Dale Mitchell played most of his career as an outfielder with the Cleveland Indians and retired with a lifetime (21 years) batting average of 0.314 or higher.

My brother and I were Cleveland Indians fans who listened to almost all of their games on a Fremont Ohio a.m. radio station (WFRE?). We had only a small brown Bakelite radio with an internal antenna and the reception was as much static as comprehensible description of the game. To hear the games, one of us had to keep his hand on the back of the radio to supplement the effect of the antenna. Jimmy Dudley ("hotter than a $2 pistol") and Jack Graner were the Indians announcers at that time but that is another story.

In any event, we knew from listening to the Indians' games that Dale Mitchell as a very good hitter and outfielder. The weather on the day of the camp was outstanding, clear and warm. My brother Harry and I rode our bicycles over to Gomer to attend the camp.

At the time of the Phillies' training camp, I believe that I was 15 years old and thought I might have a chance to play in the major leagues. However, at that camp, I watched Dale Mitchell throw the baseball as a major league outfielder would have to do. His throwing, far, fast and accurate, made me fully aware that I was not major league material. I figured that if a person could throw like Dale Mitchell and not be known for his throwing ability, there was absolutely no chance for someone with my poor throwing (slow, short and inaccurate).

However, that camp had another bright spot for me. I was the only kid there that had any experience as a catcher so I got to play full time, no matter which team was at bat. I didn't get an invitation to Philadelphia or elsewhere to try out as a catcher or otherwise.

After that camp, I gave up on my major league career but did go to a few other try out camps for the experience of playing with some very talented local ball players. On the other hand, my brother was a good infielder and did get invited to Detroit on several occasions to try out. He had (ambliopia) a lazy left eye and couldn't see the ball well enough to hit major league pitching.

Baseball was in the 1940s, 50s and 60s the primary form of recreation in Tood's Town. My dad served as manager of the Cairo Merchants team and I recall as some of my earliest memories that dad was actively involved in raising money to finance lights for the ball field.

If I remember correctly, the first couple (maybe several) attempts to raise the money failed, but eventually the money was raised and lights were installed. The presence of a lighted ball field changed the evening social life of Cairo. In the early days of the lighted field, night games were not common because of the cost of electricity to run the lights. Again, my memory may not be entirely accurate, but I recall the number of $100/hour to run the lights. That was a lot of money in Cairo in the mid to late 40s and the voluntary contributions and refreshment sales were not nearly sufficient to pay for the cost of electricity for a night game so most games were scheduled for early evening or Sunday afternoon.

Many of the games played there were memorable and may become the subject of later Tood's Town blogs, but another point of this blog is the quality of entertainment other than baseball that occurred at the Cairo Park during my childhood.

The headquarters of the Horse Association of Allen County was located on Wall Street in Cairo. Despite the name, most of the officers and members were horse and pony owners in the Cairo area. Among the most active members were Tink and Wanda Breda, Boone and Mildred Alstaetter and my parents. The Bredas (von Breda) lived about 3/4 mile south of Cairo on the west side of Route 65. The horses were always present in a half acre lot located adjacent Route 65. They were Palomino horses. Wanda was the one that rode and showed the horses.

The Horse Association was active in promoting social activities around Allen County including horse shows and trail rides. They also owned a dirt track speedway used for stock and modified car racing that was located just north of the village of Elida Ohio. In addition to Friday and Saturday night stock car races, the Horse Association would hold horse shows there a couple of times a year.

Mostly, the Horse Association sponsored western style horse shows around Allen County and supported horse shows in the surrounding communities and counties.

They also held horse shows at the Cairo Memorial Park. The annual Cairo horse show drew horses and riders from Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. It was a pretty big deal. The horses, riders and tack were for the most part first rate. Prizes of $100 for first prize were awarded. Some years, the prize money was paid in silver dollars.

At one horse show held just a few years after the end of World War II the Horse Association brought in the Lipizzaner Stallions. This group of probably 20 grey-white horses travelled the world and performed a wide variety of synchronous manuevers including rearing and walking for significant distances on their hind legs. These were part of the herd of Lipizzaners that had been hidden from the Nazis in Czechoslovakia during World War II. This was in the days before television in Cairo and no one there had seen the Lipizzaner stallions on the Ed Sullivan show or anywhere else.

More to follow.

I am still waiting for someone from the greater Cairo metropolitan area to read and comment on this blog and provide information/suggestions for additional discussion of Tood's Town and the history of Cairo.

Dillard Farnsworth