Bellaire, OH Memories

Here are memories and comments about Bellaire from some of the visitors to our site...

Name: Kim Roseberry
Email: KRose60@aol.com
Homepage:  
Location: Shadyside, OH
Timestamp: 11/24/2006 10:24:26 PM

Memories:

I remember my 4th grade teacher at Key Ridge reading us The House that Jack Built. They should have restored that building instead of tearing it down. Now there is just that crappy looking old motel.

Name: Ruth (Johnson) Burge
Email: blarrytoni@sbcglobal.net
Homepage:  
Location: Akron, Oh
Timestamp: 2/17/2007 9:38:25 PM

Memories:

I was born in Bellaire and almost graduated from Bellaire High in 56. I remember the park and walking down town to have coke at the City. I remember the french fries and gravy. Of course the Isaly's ice cream. The pool in the summer and the matinee movies . Sitting in the park at night to watch people go by. The summer concerts in the park. The parades and the bi-centenial. I remember the kangaroo court and the men growing beards for the celebration. I remember the carnivals in the street. Later they were in the parking lot across from the ball park. I still have family in Bellaire and I visit often. The town has become a ghost town, but I still have all the memories of home. My step-dad was Eddie Heatherington and I remember buying a bedroom set from a couple living in The House that Jack Built. Thank you for such a beautiful site.

Name: Jim Piatt
Email: PIATT904@AOL.COM
Homepage:  
Location: Bellaire
Timestamp: 5/9/2007 8:48:03 AM

Memories:

This is a true story, and thought I would share. In 1961, I was a member of the 983rd Engineer Battalion stationed at Camp Picket, VA. Our outfit had a basketball team and played on weekends. In one of those games, I had to jump ball with a guy by the name of Jim McCloud,Now known as JIM BOB and has been around Bellaire forever and was a pretty good player in his time at BHS. Anyway, several times when we would jump ball, Jim Bob would grab hold of my shorts and step on my foot, not allowing me to jump and he would beat me every time. I never forgot that and in 2001, 40 years later, I met Jim Bob ask him about his actions when we jumped ball again, 40 years ago.He was amazed that I still recalled him doing that and said that Coach Cribbs trained his players to do as he did. He wondered why I waited so long to tell him about this, I told him that it bothered me so much I couldn't hold it back any longer.We still laugh about this when we meet.

Name: Valerie (Pritchett) Daniel
Email: Buckeyebabe1515@aol.com
Homepage:
Location:

Memories:

Name: Bob Glaser
Email: rglaser@ncada.com
Homepage:
Location: Raleigh, North Carolina

Memories:

I am the last of the "Bellaire Glasers" having graduated from St. Johns in 1979. My Dad is Thomas Glaser, the 13th child of "Gramma Glaser" who lived to be 103 years old.... most of them in Bellaire.

My entire family grew up in Bellaire.... along with my cousins.

I still call Bellaire "home" and look forward to getting back to Gulla Hot Dogs and DiCarlos Pizza.

The web site is fabulous in that it show the old pictures of Bellaire the way it was during my childhood. I remember the pool when it was still "the place to be" in the summer.... Capital Theatre when it showed movies and Nelson Field when Bellaire played St. Johns in the fall. The town was alive and it was fun to be there!

I look forward to getting back sometime soon to see the new road and the impact on the town that I remember.

Bob Glaser
48th and Noble St.

Name: SHARON (ARNO) WALTERS
Email: Lawsonw1@hotmail.com
Homepage:
Location: Bradenton, Florida

Memories

I GREW UP ON CLINTON STREET IN BELLAIRE, 1938. I HAVE TWO BROTHERS. "SONNY" STILL LIVES IN THE VALLEY. MY HUSBAND AND HIS WIFE ARE BROTHER AND SISTER. THEY ALSO GREW UP IN THE VALLEY. MY FONDEST MEMORIES IS GETTING ON OUR SLEDS IN THE WINTER WHEN THE SNOW FELL AND RIDING ALL THE WAY DOWN TOWN. IT'S A WONDER WE DIDN'T GET HIT BY A CAR. I AM THANKFUL FOR THE WONDERFUL CHILDHOOD WE WERE PERMITTED TO HAVE AND I AM SORRY THE CHILDREN OF TODAY COULD NOT GROW UP IN A TOWN AS WONDERFUL AS BELLAIRE WAS BACK IN THE 40'S TO EARLY 60'S. THEY WERE THE "GOOD OLD DAYS"!

Name: Caroline Burdyn
Email: v@comcast.net
Homepage:
Location: Harrisburg Pa

Memories

I was born and raised in Bellaire, Ohio. I left when I was 17. I moved to Charleston WV. and then to Harrisburg Pa. Everytime I go home, it's a wonderful feeling. I miss good ol' Bellaire. It makes me sad to see the way it has dwindled in size to a mear village. I guess you can take the people but not the spirit. I have a great sense of pride being form Bellaire. Everytime I go home to visit my family, I never want to leave. Maybe some day I'll return home.

Name: Denise Schreiber
Email: ddschrbr@aol.com
Homepage:
Location: Pittsburgh, Pa.

Memories

My mother used to visit Bellaire when she was a child. Her Uncle Sam Zumpano had a grocery store and he used to give her candy when she would visit.This would be back in the 1930's and a little later. Sam had 3 wives (widowed) and several children including Albert, Freddie, Frances, Cora and Gemma. I am looking for any pictures of the store and any descendents of the Zumpanos. My mother is the last of her generation and I've been helping locate what's left of her family. If you have any information, please email me. Thanks.

Name: Jim Piatt
Email: PIATT904@AOL.COM
Homepage:
Location: Bellaire

Memories

Having lived in Bellaire most of my life except for service time, jobs, school, I always returned. Being around for a while, I got to thinking about the number of "Watering Holes or bars around our town. Mostly neighborhood bars where the miners, glassworkers, steelworkers, business executives could go after work and on weekends to have a cold one and meet their friends. Around the 50-60's there were among others the following: The organizations, VFW, DAV, LEGION, SONS OF ITALY and IAC, ELKS, and EAGLES who catered to their members. Then there were the Spot, Dempseys, Cassies, Dempseys, Murrays, Ford Lunch, Haps, Belmont, Last Chance, Pinch Run Tavern, Piccinini's,Silver Star, Columbia, Roosevelt, Freddies, Russian Club, Ledo Bar, Roxy, Echo, Profs, O'Bannans, Gravel Hill Tavern,Rays Bar, Midway, Savoy,Franks, Paris Inn, Ohio Restaurant, Golden Goose and the White Front.Thats all I can recall and it should be noted also that there were more bars than churches in Bellaire.

Name: Jim Piatt
Email: piatt904@aol.com
Homepage:
Location: Bellaire
Date: 06/04/2004
Time: 03:39 PM

Memories

Nick Names,,,,,,,,, Ever stop to think about nick names of your friends, relatives and buddies you grew up with in Bellaire? They really had real given names but were never called by them,, for instance: PICKLES, WEAZEL, BOOTS, PEE WEE, SHOVELS, BULL, FUZZ, MUZZ, BUZZ, GABBY, DIGGITY, RED, TARZAN, WIMPY, CUE BALL, SOUP, CHUB, HUCK, NEMO, SPOOKS, BLACKIE, WHITEY, EARS, JUMBO, AND CHAP.  ANYONE HAVE ANYMORE, THERE HAS TO BE MORE OUT THERE!

Name: Joe McClain
Email: jmm13@case.edu
Homepage:
Location: Cleveland
Date: 04/15/2004
Time: 12:50 PM

Memories

The two homes I grew up in were taken by "the road." Whenever I go back home--and Bellaire always will be "home"--I drive down Route 7, of course. I get such a weird dissociative feeling by many of the sights. The first time I drove down the new highway, I thought I could locate the site of my old house by orienting myself by Gravel Hill School. We lived directly east of Gravel Hill, on Guernsey Street. When I was approaching Gravel Hill, I looked toward the other way, I had no trouble identifying where my house was because of a tree that grew just over the hill. It is a locust tree, and it's still there. When I was a kid, I would sneak my pellet gun out of the house and shoot from my porch at this locust tree. I was astounded to see it not only was still there, but that it didn't even seem to have grown or even changed at all. I had forgotten all about the tree until I saw it again.

Speaking of Gravel Hill. I have plenty of memories of that place, topped by the day Duke the Wino convinced Miss Butts that he was some kind of government agent and came into geography class to identify one of the guys as "the one." This is the kind of thing that could only happen in Bellaire, not even in a Garrison Keillor story.

I graduated from BHS in 1973. Hope you all are well and prosperous. God bless you.