Day 14 - Ode to Siegel and Shuster + Little Ralphie

Cleveland, Ohio:

Drove through Cincinnati, Columbus, then to my destination, Cleveland, OH. I suppose I've taken liberties and strayed from my 'Southern' route. Since I'd already planned to visit my sister (who leapfrogged to California for a week) in Maryland and my brothers in Boston, I thought I might as well visit the Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster sites. They're the creators of Superman and we can thank them for ratcheting up forgetable comic books into something out of this world. Jerry Siegel's house was intact, but unfortunalely Schuster’s home had been demolished. Man, if it were up to me, every single toilet stand and phone booth they ever used would be on the National Register of Historic Places.

I went down to a public clock tower dedicated to the pioneers of the Golden Age of Comic Books. The tower turned out to be a hangout for the down and out. A man asked me, “Do you want music CDs or movies?” I couldn’t hear so I asked him twice to repeat himself. “No thanks. I’m here for Superman,” I informed him.

He gave me a blank look, and I pointed at a bronze plaque commemorating the creative partners. “Superman was created here…in your city!” I said. He followed me while I snapped some pictures. An old man sitting on a bench and missing at least five teeth said, “Ain’t you never seen that thing there about Superman?” My friend shook his head, still amazed.

He turned to me and said, “You know, I’ve lived here all my life and I never knew that.” “You should be proud. We don’t have anything like this where I come from,” I said sadly.

Another worthy venture today was the A Christmas Story House Museum. The owner/curator bought the original house from eBay and restored it to all its glory. We toured the house, which accurately recreates the interior shots that had been filmed on a sound stage. And as a surprise, Ralphie’s little brother was on hand, looking like a man now.

Long drive ahead tomorrow, so I'm cutting this short...

Today's Hits...

+ Jerry Siegel’s house
+ Superman Clock Tower
+ Peter B. Lewis Building by Frank Gehry at the Case Western Reserve campus
+ Drove around downtown Cleveland – awesome
+ A Christmas Story House Museum
+ Terminal Tower

Day 11 - Monkey trial's still bringing up bananas

Dayton, Tennessee:

Folks might say I made a bad decision in driving 287 miles to a little town close to no one has heard of to check out a brick courthouse. I began to think the same as I came across mustached men smoking and looking soused in the neighboring towns, but maybe that’s just me falling back on my preconceived notions. But on Tuesday I continued the drive to Dayton, the site of the infamous 1925 Tennessee vs. Scopes court case sometimes called the Scopes Monkey Trial.

To refresh your memory, it was about a high school teacher indicted for teaching Darwin's theory of natural selection in defiance of a Tennessee ban on teaching evolution. William Jennings Bryan, a three-time Democratic presidential nominee, joined the prosecution, and his earnest knowledge of the Bible frequently ended in soliloquies in court. Then there was my hero, Clarence Darrow, a man for humanitarian causes, women's rights, and civil liberties, and the attorney for controversial defendants such as strikers and even accused killers.

When I saw a statue of Bryan outside the courthouse while a similar monument to Darrow was conspicuously absent, I laughed. Of course they wouldn’t erect a statue of the man who, point by point, blew up the prosecution's attacks by using scientific method and reason. Anyway, I can’t say enough about Darrow. I’d drive anywhere to see where the great man debated in the courtroom still much preserved. I’m hoping in the next couple days to find his birth home somewhere in Ohio. And someday I'll go to Chicago and visit his museum/home that's supposedly haunted. That would be icing on the Beard Papas.

On a frustrating note, I was stopped by the police Tuesday when a sleek black SUV flashed me over to the shoulder with the blue lights. I swear, this city has the neatest cop cars. Anyway, same old same old. He had nothing on me. The officer just went straight to the point. "Do you have firearms...cocaine...marijuana...meth, etc." He let me go not even five minutes later. The combination of my milk truck Scion and California license plates is going to get me in trouble deep before this trip is over.