We’re doing some spring cleaning today at “This Place, This Time,” sweeping up some odds and ends from research into local history.
These out-of-the-ordinary items were discovered during scans of newspaper microfilm and digital archives. Today’s theme seems to be law and order. Enjoy!
Cussing and fussing
Akron police arrested Helen Clark, 28, a native of Wellsville, Ohio, for creating a public disturbance downtown in June 1917 at the Northern Ohio Traction & Light terminal.
According to the official report, Clark was fined $10 and sentenced to 30 days at the workhouse for “swearing and raising Cain.”
Officers reported finding the woman “cussing like a trooper,” but they could not ascertain the reason for her discomfort.
Watch your step
Winsome divorcee Mary Merritt, 24, filed suit against the M. O’Neil Co., complaining that she suffered injuries after falling down a flight of stairs at the Akron department store in 1928.
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Lionel S. Pardee dismissed the case in 1930 after lawyers determined that Merritt had settled an earlier lawsuit with the Akron Dry Goods Co. after falling down a flight of stairs at that store.
Identifying Merritt as a scam artist, Pardee took the occasion to criticize “chattering, gum-chewing, gad-about” women who didn’t use handrails on “shopping expeditions.”
No fooling
Akron police officers Howard Robinson and Ray Wemmer caught a man smashing a fire alarm box at North Main Street and Tallmadge Avenue on April Fools’ Day 1936.
The patrolmen jumped out of their cruiser and grabbed the sputtering suspect.
“This is no joke,” Ralph Shafer protested. “Look at the roof of the Klein Kars Inc.”
The officers wheeled around and saw smoke pouring from the building.
“OK, buddy, turn in the alarm,” they agreed.
Firefighters arrived quickly to douse the blaze, which caused $75 damage. Shafer, a former suspect, was hailed as a hero.
Horse of different color
Authorities were on the lookout for teen pranksters in 1939 after a white horse unexpectedly sported a distinguished new look in a lot on 27th Street in Kenmore.
R.L. Root discovered that someone had painted a pair of black spectacles on his old horse Sparky. The pranksters also put zebra stripes on Sparky’s legs and painted the word “Bones” across his ribs.
Oblivious to the makeover, Sparky happily munched grass while officers searched the neighborhood for the culprits.
What the hay?
Akron police called Florence Oren on Election Day 1944 to report that her missing pony was found safe and sound on Brittain Road.
After she fetched the animal and returned home to Eastland Avenue, she found a small donkey tethered in her yard.
The only problem: She didn’t own a donkey.
“I have fed this donkey religiously for a week,” she complained to Police Lt. I.J. Davis. “It’s costing me money. I wish that, if this is a Democratic joke, the responsible party would get his laugh over and remove his donkey from my property.”
Just put it in park
Donald Nolder, a 20-year-old student at Kent State, was tired of not being able to find a parking space for his car on University Drive, so he created one.
In June 1955, he took a can of red paint and a brush and transformed the no-parking yellow curb into a free-parking red one. As luck would have it, an officer happened to drive past before Nolder was done.
City officials admired the student’s ingenuity, but the law was the law. Nolder was fined $18.75 for defacing city property. Mayor Carl Meeker ordered Nolder to repaint the curb yellow — and find another spot to park.
Justice is blind
Chandler D. Cutlip, 62, was driving erratically in a panel truck when Lt. Anthony Destro pulled him over in May 1957 at Cedar and Broadway in downtown Akron.
“You know I don’t have a license,” Cutlip told the officer. “I can’t see well enough to get one.”
Cutlip’s main source of income was a $42 monthly check from a blind pension in West Virginia.
The driver voluntarily turned over his license tags and pleaded guilty to driving without a license.
Going out in style
Connie Collier, 14, a ninth-grader at Woodridge High School, learned what it was like to suffer for fashion in May 1967.
School administrators sent her home twice because they thought her miniskirts were too short. A third time, Connie had to stay hidden in a schoolroom by herself while a school receptionist tried to reach her parents to have her change skirts.
The parents, Mildred and Richard E. Collier, attended a school board meeting to iron out the problem once and for all. “We want to know what the standards are,” Mrs. Collier told the board.
“It’s a matter of personal opinion,” Superintendent Wilfred J. Gregg explained. “I don’t know who would do the measuring.”
Mark J. Price can be reached at 330-996-3850 or mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.