The Dimeling Hotel

In the early 50’s, on the way to my uncles funeral (I believe), we stayed in Clearfield, PA at the Dimeling Hotel. I have no idea how I remember such a thing, and it may be simply because of a late night milk shake at a local creamery where we had an “experimental” milkshake called blue moon, colored blue, and my food memory is in full bloom. I do remember the owner gave us a taste, I believe one small paper cup full for each member of our party, and I think my cousin knew him.

I also remember having Swiss Steak for dinner, which I had never had before, and that stayed with me. I must have been about 8 years old so I should remember some of that anyway.

The Dimeling Hotel stands at the corner of Second and Market Streets in the center of downtown Clearfield, PA. This seven story structure was constructed in 1904 to 1905.
The Dimeling Hotel was built by the Beezer Brothers Company of Pittsburgh, a nationally known hotel architect and builder.

Today, the Dimeling Hotel has been closed, and the structure restored and in use as apartments. Dimeling Hotel, also known as Clearfield County National Bank, is a historic hotel located in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, United States. The seven story, 120 room hotel is located across from the Clearfield County Courthouse. The hotel ceased operating in 1977.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

I've done this one before but it's so good.......

I've done this one before but it's so good.......

It was our friend’s 38^th anniversary, and they wanted to do something special, so they decided, after years of Motel 6 accommodations, that they would splurge on a suite at the Niagara Falls’ new Fallsview Casino and Hotel. They checked into their room, and it was fantastic! They had a full glass wall overlooking the falls, they had a huge, king size bed and a hot tub. It was solid luxury!

 

They opened a bottle of wine and went into the hot tub that evening before dinner. As they sat and drank, the wife thought what a great photo it would make of her husband sitting in the hot tub toasting with his wine glass. She got out of the tub and ran to get the digital camera. He posed; covered up to his chest in bubbly water and raised his glass. She took the photo.

 

The next day when they came home, he downloaded the photos from their good time, and sent several photos to their kids and families, and to several of their good friends (unfortunately, not to me). Their son came by the next day, having not seen the email yet, and he was shown a slide show of the event.

 

“God, how horrible”, he said, when the photo came up. “How could you send that out?” Friends wrote to say “We now know you are a true brunette!”

 

They were confused, as it looked fine and our friend was covered up. Then, when it was pointed out, they saw a hotel mirror they hadn’t noticed, with his nude wife reflected, showing her nude from her neck to her knees, taking the photo.

 

 

In 2006 I wrote:

 

 

In 2006 I wrote:

My slightly stressed wife went out yesterday afternoon with my oldest daughter and Max, our dog. After two blocks, she turned, remembering to do something, and fell down. Having once broken her wrist in a bad skating accident, she remembered to save her arms, and fell straight onto her face. Her glasses hit and jammed her nose, cutting the nose in several places, but probably not breaking it.

We stopped the bleeding and went straight to the hospital.

The triage nurse and the doctor both had to investigate to see if I had beaten her. It was a tense time as twice I was made to leave the area so she could be spoken with alone. I sort of expected it, of course, as the world has changed, and there were posted signs all around the emergency room about abuse. It was the way people looked at me that was scary. I was being judged!

I passed all tests, and instead of arresting me they repaired her nose and sent her home. Stitches and probably some black eyes are the result, and my neighbor, our optometrist, has ordered a new lens for her glasses.

 We went out for mid-east carry out to celebrate her completion of the ordeal.

 Life is sure tough these days.

 

The car next door.....

This got so complicated.

My neighbor went away and put us on house watch. We turn on lights and turn off lights while the kids on the other side feed the cat. It’s a simple job and we always help each other when one of us goes away.

At about 5:15 the other night my wife screams at me, “Arthur, get outside, someone is stealing our neighbors car!”

I had to make some decisions fast. This being Canada, I have no hand gun. Actually, I wouldn’t have one anyway but I thought I’d throw that one in. I thought about any weapon but quickly realized I wouldn’t die for my car, so I sure as hell won’t die for my neighbors. The weapon of choice was my cell phone because I could take a picture and dial 911.

I ran out and found a man in a Mercedes sedan waiting while a woman I didn’t know was driving my neighbors BMW sports car down the driveway. I decided quickly not to throw myself on the hood because it would hurt, but I did run out in front (or side) of the car and stop her.

She rolled down the window and when confronted explained that her boyfriend was going to fix the car and she was just driving it. She showed me she had the keys. OK, I guess it’s OK so Linda (she said  that was her name) drove away. She did have my neighbor’s keys and they were not in the car originally, at least I thought not. My wife had written down the Mercedes license plate number so we at least had a lead.

The email explaining the guy coming to take the car was sent at 11:00 a.m. that morning. It arrived at 11:00 p.m. that evening, making me feel much better.

I waited until Sunday morning to call my neighbor and woke him up (I didn’t care) to let him know what had happened. Thankfully they didn’t get away  with the car before we got out there, or we would have called the police and reported a stolen car. It would have been considered stolen until 11:00 p.m. when the email arrived.

Pianos in my life...

It started when I was a kid, at about 5 we moved into an apartment which was the top floor of my grandparents’ house. In the house, in the living room/dining room jumble was a Steinway upright piano.

In my time, no one other than my father ever played it, and even then my father played it once, much to my surprise. A piano was just a fixture of the less than modern home, I figured. I did take a few lessons from the very nice piano teacher across the street, but I was no good. I had trouble reading music, or I just didn’t care. It was fun to bang on it a bit every now and than but never a fixture in my life. That piano still sits, I believe, in my Aunt’s basement in Baltimore.

Later on, when I lived with my wife and sons in Pikesville, MD, a veterinarian friend had an assistant who was moving to a new place and had a piano. She was willing to dispose of it to a good home, if someone would pay to have it moved. I had space and three children and it was a great idea. I paid movers to get it to the house. It was an upright player piano with the player guts removed. I have no idea if any of us played it, but it was a great fixture.

By then I played a guitar and understood chord progression a bit, and got a piano chord chart (still have it) which allowed me to play and scream (sing) and rock and roll. I do not remember if the boys played it, my wife at the time did not. (My oldest son says he did, in fact, use the chord chart.)

I sold it right before I moved to Detroit, as the new house came with a player piano (an upright of course) which fully worked and had lots of player rolls. It was in the basement and we found out later it simply was too heavy and cumbersome to ever move and it’s probably still there.

Everyone played it a bit, especially everyone took a turn playing piano rolls, not much skill involved here.

I moved away from the family home in 1984 and had no piano but by then had bought a keyboard or two. I still can’t remember if any boys actually played this, but at this juncture in life I know my oldest son has a piano from his uncle, which he plays a bit, as he is a musician. My youngest son has a piano which he purchased but I don’t know if anyone in his family plays it and my middle does not own a piano, at least I don’t think so. (My youngest son says his kids bang on it and it's pushing the floor down into the basement.)

My girls loved to play the keyboard, and my wife and I played it a bit and enjoyed it. For Christmas one year we got a large keyboard and loved it, and eventually, we had to buy a real piano, a Kawai which sits in our living room. My wife continues to play and take lessons, my youngest daughter is more of an ear musician but she took lessons until she learned “enough” and is a chord player and really good and my older daughter, the actual musician, is still mad we didn’t force her to take piano when she was a little kid as she would be good now! Both daughters have keyboards as well.

While none of this makes much sense, I still bang out my 4 or 5 chords and yell tunes to the sky. The girls can’t be home if I play any instrument or sing as they think I’m horrible, which is true but as it says in “Mr. Tanner”  (Harry Chapin reference)

“But music was his life, it was not his livelihood,
and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good.
And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul.
He did not know how well he sang; It just made him whole”.

Tire time plus.....

The sensors in my car have been firing off like crazy and I knew something was wrong. Either the car had died or the sensors were blitzed. In the end it was the left rear wheel sensor which controls them all and needs to be replaced, and only comes in by changing the whole thing, including the bearings.

 On top of that my tires looked bad and upon further inspection, one had a roofing nail in it as well as sidewall cracking all around. I had 55,000 kilometers on them which always seems to be about right for giant, heavy cars like mine always are.

 So, we also had to add tires, and as it says in the manual:

The tires on your vehicle are different sizes front to rear.

Due to this, your tires should not be rotated. Each tire

and wheel should be used only in the position it is in.

All this means find tires that are made in two different extraordinary sizes.

But it is great on the road trips. And so it goes....