God Works in Mysterious Ways
Wednesday, 25 June 2014
Yes, yes indeed He does!
I settled into the South East Branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Bedford, Ohio Monday morning, and finished the last part of the previous post on this Blog, and when I was complete, solely as an afterthought, I announced it on my FB Page as the reason I had been MIA for over a week on FB.
I did not expect responses, I had merely wished to explain my silence because of my battles recently to get a PO Box to satisfy County Services so they would communicate with me about my (now 2nd) application for Emergency Food Stamp Assistance, including cash and other services within 24 hours per what the questionnaire I completed 3 months ago, said I was eligible for!).
With my sister's help and infinite patience, and the taxing of mine by both the USPS and the CCPL printer, I was able to obtain a PO Box (read the last post for details), and informed County Services in person Monday morning after a lengthy wait!
Well, not 5 minutes after I posted the status and the Blogspot link, an IM from my friend Kerry in Portage County appeared on screen. He was asking me to call him right away.
I did so, and was flabbergasted that he was on the road driving up from Garrettsville (30 miles away!) to bring me some cash!
About 40 minutes later, he picked me up, and we had lunch across the street at the Burger King (that charbroiled beef never tasted so good!) and chatted for awhile.
He passed me a folded wad of $20's and asked if he could drive me anywhere. I picked my laptop and duffel back at the Library, then he drove me to the Giant Eagle Pharmacy where I refilled 2 of my meds (90 day supplies this time!), and then on to the Get-Go, where I am now. (I did meet another regular from the Library, Ken, at the Tavern Off Broadway Monday night, where I was going to get a pizza for us to share, but the kitchen had closed early.)
I wish to extend my most gracious thanks to both Kerry and his wonderful wife, Donna, for sharing.
Bless you, bless you both!
I ate Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I also shared with James and 2 other regulars! And then this afternoon, around 1500, the paralegal, Patrice, from my attorney's office sent me an email... SSA has made 2 M.D. appointments for my evaluation!
I see a state shrink next Wednesday, and a physician the following Wednesday! Now I am finally being taken seriously!
I even chatted with Patrice on the phone to see if I needed any coaching before visiting the shrink. She said "No, just be myself, as is!"
Of course right now that is with a year's worth of uncut, currently unwashed gray hair, 3 months of untrimmed beard, no shower in 6 weeks, and unwashed clothes! (EWWW!)
I hope that is the light at the end of the tunnel I see, and not an oncoming train!
We will find out very soon, and I will Blog, and Blog, and even Blog LOUDER as necessary!
As my friend, and fellow Homeless Vet, James, says: "The closed mouth doesn't get fed!"
So listen hard, my friends, and heed the call for help, the loud gurgle of a thin and rumbling stomach, or the advocate's plea for assistance with their charges!
There are many, many, more of us out there than you actually see on the streets!
I still don't truly consider myself a Vet, but I have been accepted into the brotherhood (sisters too!) with open arms and hearts!
Oath Keepers, ALL!
OORAH!
End of rant. (To be continued... )
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Monday, June 23, 2014
Hunger as a Daily Quest
Saturday, 21 June 2014
Well today is my 4th day without eating. Thankfully on Tuesday morning, a good Samaritan awoke me while I was sitting on a bench on Broadway in Historic downtown Bedford, and presented me with "Breakfast" as he announced it, about 0630 while I was waiting for the Library to open a few hundred feet away at 0900.
I thanked him, and devoured the 2 Burger King sausage, egg, and cheese croissants, and even enjoyed the medium Seattle's best roast coffee with 3 creams and 3 sugars! (I am not a coffee devote.)
I hadn't even realized that I had dozed off on the bench, where I had sat down about 45 minutes earlier! But the sky was threatening rain again, and I finished the coffee and headed towards the Library to wait there.
I spent the day alternating between watching old westerns on YouTube, and researching recipes for my cook book I am compiling for possible publication. I find that my interest in food has piqued quite a bit in the last several months!
I find myself dreaming (awake and asleep) of food! I create entire meals and buffets in my mind for large parties, but then in the end, eat it all myself! A side effect of being homeless and hungry? I seem to think so. But the upside is that my interest is as much in the cooking and preparation as in the eating.
I have always enjoyed cooking, even to the point of becoming a food snob, and having definite ideas on how things should be prepared. Probably one of the many factors in my high blood pressure, stroke, and Congestive Heart Failure. Stress is the major factor. But other lifestyle choices (like fatty and high sodium foods) affect these conditions too.
So, my plan is gather together many of my favorite recipes (mostly comfort foods that I have enjoyed my entire life) and some family classics I grew up with, and offer them both as is, and rendered Heart Healthy as an alternative for folks like me now who must read food nutrition labels and limit sodium and fats in our diets.
But that alone is not reason enough to not have easy to prepare and tasty foods that can be made in the simplest of kitchens! Or doctored to spiciness and taste preferences.
I spend hours at the Library cruising cooking videos, online recipes, and reading the food periodicals available here. In fact Food Channel Magazine and Bon Appetite are my best sources!
I was hooked on Bon Appetite many years ago while landscaping with a classmate of mine from High School in Shaker Heights, and one of the cool things was being able to garbage pick in Shaker Heights (an upscale Cleveland suburb) where the garbage is picked up in your back yard by service department workers in customized 3 wheeled Cushman carts, and hauled to the large trash compacting truck in the street. And, as a service that was voluntary in the 1970's and is now the local law, recyclables are sorted and picked up in separate bins.
So, when we hit a regular customer in a 6 room manse on Aldersyde, I was flabbergasted to find a couple of years worth of monthly issues of Bon Appeite all tied into neat bundles by year with heavy twine! That and some other kitchen cast offs were my day's bounty! Of course I had asked the lady of the house upon here arrival back from the store first, and she was very happy to see the magazines be used by someone who would appreciate them! She said she had subscribed for many years, and had trained as a chef, but she didn't have the space for the backlog of issues, and had copied the recipes she wanted to keep. She also gave me permission to help myself to anything else I wanted in their trash retention area!
Well upon taking these home and showing my mother (I was back at work after an 11 month hiatus recovering from my broken neck and back in 1986 and back at my folk's house on Huntington in Shaker Heights). She was excited too, as she knew I would be experimenting on the family! She encouraged my experimentation, and was even able to explain many of the cooking terms and identify the cooking vessels that I was unfamiliar with! Pretty amazing from a woman who's cooking was on the plain and bland side! Though she had a repertoire that included Tex-Mex (my fave), some continental, and many American classics, she tended to prepare things on the bland side.
But, I was continually inspired to improve upon her basic recipes and bring some life and spice to some really great foods! The first thing I found out about, was the limited range of cooking I could do on her 1950's Reverware pots and pans. Though well built for the day, they were made of stainless steel with copper washed bottoms, and were inefficient for heating and could not be used in the oven.
So, I found myself preferring to use her even older cast iron skillets for most of my creating. It took some experimentation, and a few years of research, to finally learn how to properly season cast iron and clean the pans without having to re-season every time they are used! (The same technique is used for iron Woks.) I thought I had found my niche.
But I was looking forward to returning to law enforcement, and applied for a position as a patrol officer on the Security staff at the Historic Shaker Square historic District, a block from my parent's home across the border in Cleveland. But instead, the parent agency providing the service, placed me downtown as the supervisor of the 25 strong security detail for the Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper.
This position was challenging (though I detested it), and allowed me to network with the PD staff and visitors to the Editorial Department, including many chefs, and restaurateurs.
During this time I was still hanging out with my classmate (and landscaping boss), Bill, and we were regular denizens of the Harbor Inn, an 1895 sailor's bar on the less popular West Side of the old Flats Industrial Area that was the hot Entertainment area of Cleveland.
From our Friday and Saturday night forays there to drink, smoke cigars, and play darts (Harbor Inn was the home of the Cleveland Darter Club-CDC), we would be on the prowl for all night eateries to quench an appetite after a night of good beer and lots of salty potato chips!
Among our regular haunts were Burger King and McDonald's which had late night drive thrus, to the 24 hour eateries like, the Big Egg (notorious for being repeatedly shut down by the county health department!), Best Steak House, the Old Brown Derby in Shaker Heights on Kinsman, Denny's (quite a few in Cuyahoga County), and a place that didn't last long, Shorty's Deluxe Diner in the Flats (East Side under the Detroit -Superior Bridge, it was previously Jim's Steakhouse a mob HQ in town, and was originally the Erie RR Passenger Station in Cleveland, until the Erie moved into the Cleveland Union Terminal in the 1960's) which I enjoyed the most!
Unfortunately, we were forced to sit at the counter one Saturday night when they were jammin', and I had the misfortune to watch the expediter who was assembling the burger platters, drop 2 plates of buns and toppings on the dirty floor, then promptly pick up everything, wipe the plates with his dirty apron, and place all of the food items from the floor back on the plates! In spite of this, I still liked the food there! They would make my soft scrambled eggs on wheat toast he way I like it, with melted cheddar cheese and a little mayo!
But their Meatloaf was to die for! I asked for the recipe, but they refused to share!
But fortunately for me, when I was at the PD, I found out that the Friday! entertainment section of the paper was publishing a bunch of recipes from famous Cleveland restaurants, and Shorty's Meatloaf was included!
Though I had canceled their subscription at my mother's request, I bought a Sport's Final edition that had the Friday! insert, and clipped the recipe. My dad had been retired and working out of his study by then, and was doing all of the cooking at the house because I was working all shifts at the PD, and was rarely at home for dinner with my folks.
My sister had done her graduate year of French Linguistics in France in 1985, and then got a job in Georgetown, moving there in 1986. My brother was in Sacramento, attending Photography School, so I was the only other regular at my folk's dinner table. So when I wasn't there, they usually ate in their bedroom or in the kitchen, and settled in to TV or reading for the night. But when I was home for dinner and not sleeping, we would eat in the dining room, and usually the same few uninspired dishes my dad rehashed over and over again.
I had bought him James Beard's cookbook for Christmas, in the hopes that it would expand his cooking horizons. It didn't. It only allowed him to give his few repeated dishes new names and some added ingredients. Who reading this doesn't understand that when using whole black peppercorns, Bay Leaves, and certain other seasonings, that you must remove them after cooking and not leave them to be ingested? Real cooks use a cheese cloth made into a bag to season, and remove before serving!
But with my dad, it became a game. He would tell us how many peppercorns and Bay Leaves he used, so we could account for all of them while fishing them out of stews, soups, and casseroles!
Well, all aside,I gave him the recipe for Shorty's Deluxe Diner's meatloaf (which is 2/3rds ground sirloin, 1/3rd ground pork, and filled with bread crumbs and onions, before being shaped into a loaf, and coated with plain ketchup before baking in the oven).
He actually followed the recipe, and it came out as good as the diner's!
It was even better reheated, and made cold into sandwiches! (Ah, cold meatloaf subs! That was my fave at the old Hungarian Deli/Grocery, Tassi's, that used to be at Shaker Square! They served subs, $1.75 regular, and $2.50 for a Super sized, and my regular choice was their cold homemade meatloaf. The secret that made all of the subs so tasty, was their homemade zesty coleslaw with fresh green onions!
I am still searching for Shorty's recipe! And until I have regular access to a kitchen, I will have to wait to experiment and recreate it!
God how I enjoy talking and thinking about food!
I want to cook all day long! Just cook, only grazing as the day goes by. I wish I had the patience to be a sous chef or short order cook, but making the same things over and over would become too boring, too quickly for me. What I need is to have access to a professional kitchen to experiment and act as a commissary for a Concession trailer/field-camp kitchen for sharing my tasty creations with Jane and John Q. Public!
Just imagine, gallons of zesty hot chili, hundreds of tacos for a taco bar spread, General Tso's Chicken, Egg Pu Young, and specialty crafted burgers and chicken sandwiches/wraps, with a bevy of sides like Loaded Nachos, Loaded tater skins, chili-cheese fries, and grilled brandy soaked bananas with French vanilla ice cream. All from the same kitchen!
Slow cooked ribs dripping in sauce, hot wings with a selection of sauces, a full selection of sub sandwiches and good old southern fried hot chicken!
Sauteed fish, hush puppies, Chihuahua Dogs (both traditional deep fried with cheese in a tortilla, or ala Dave baked with shredded cheese and diced onion with salsa in a flour tortilla), and many, many other items that probably wouldn't even make it onto a permanent menu!
My mouth is watering! Hmm, an 18' trailer with a broiler, deep fat fryer, gas burners, a griddle, sinks and freezers/fridges, would fit the bill nicely!
My friend Cory had an idea to buy a concession truck last spring and do the fairs and festivals in the area, and I was interested in investing and working it, but the truck he was looking at got sold, and he became enthused about opening a take out restaurant in Cleveland Heights on the old Coventry Strip (yeah the old Hippie Village that prospered and grew from the 1960's to 1990's with alternative shops, international and healthy/natural restaurants, and just plain non mainstream shopping!), though now heavily commercialized with chain restaurants, markets and shops, there is still Coventry Cats and a couple of unique family owned shops still operating! He wound up leaving town and going back to NY state where he grew up.
Well perhaps when I get a huge check from SSA for my retroactive disability (2 1/2 years now), or sell a book or two, I can indulge in food as a money making hobby!
I'd love to own and operate a restaurant, but in this economy, especially locally, the family owned eateries are dying off by the dozens, as regular patrons can't afford to eat out as often!
Even many of the chains, franchises, and corporate restaurants are struggling.
Oh well, when you've got a local county and city government, and federal administration that are more proud to have aborted more babies, than have jobs created, there you go!
Yes, every small business person I know, many who have been in business for generations, are struggling to stay open. Most have closed. A few Cleveland standby's seem to do OK, but only by benefit of a lucrative location close to many businesses downtown, and boasting a brisk lunch trade, like Otto Moser's (who moved from E-4th where they had been in the heart of the theater district since before the turn of the 20th century, to their current location at the revitalized theater district on E-14th at Euclid, after Jacob's Field and the Gund Arena were completed in 1996), Slyman's (still famous for their corned beef sandwiches), Captain Tony's (A NY state Franchise group with 4 family run locations in Cuyahoga County), the Winking Lizard (now 6 locations from Cleveland to Canton, and one in southern Ohio), and Luchitas (a family Mexican Restaurant that has 2 locations and has moved one of them several times).
Well enough about food for now. It is now Monday morning the 23rd of June, and I am disgusted with myself. I did something Saturday night I swore I would never stoop to: I fished a slice of pizza and 3 pieces of garlic bread out of a Giovani's Pizza box in the trash 2 doors down from the shop. I was doing my evening constitutional about 2200, and saw the closed box in the top of one of the sidewalk trash cans. I glanced about to see if anyone was watching, and was delighted to see a whole slice of pepperoni pizza, undisturbed. And there was what looked like a square of cheese sheet pizza!
I snatched them up and examined them. The slice seemed fine, and the square turned out to be flat garlic bread cut into small sections. I quickly broke off a slice of garlic bread and ate it. It was lackluster, but it was FOOD!
I continued my walk, and remembering my previous problems trying to eat after not eating for many days at a time, I stuffed the garlic bread in my jacket pocket (yes, it was 75 degrees out, and i was wearing a sweatshirt and my Gore-Tex parka!), and worked on the pizza slice as headed north on Broadway.
I was going to pace myself and not eat it all at once, but my brain wouldn't let me. I was suspicious of the last slice of garlic bread as it was soggy. And in my mind as I tried to figure out why. most of the possible reasons disturbed me, so I decided to eat only the dry portion and toss the wet section.
No dice, I ate it down to the wet part, and said I'll trash the rest, but then I figured I was still ravenous, and what would it hurt? Well that soggy section tasted nasty! I immediately threw out the remaining bit. Eww! It is 2 days later, and I still have that taste in my mouth! Even after brushing several times and using mouthwash!
So, I am at the Library, still hungry, broke, and unsure of my future.
It is now 1000, so I should plan on heading to the post office to check my PO Box, but I was stopped this morning at 0730 by a Bedford Police Officer, because I had fallen asleep in the Historic Bedford Commons Gazebo while charging my cell phone with the outlets there.
So I think I will wait a while before I meander through downtown again to reach the Bedford Branch.
There is moisture in the air, so it will be humid (probably hot as well) and possibly rain today. Well, I am running out of options for laces to hang out when not at the Library or the Get-Go. I spent Sunday morning at the Willis Picnic Area of the Cleveland Metro Parks, a section of the trail on Tinker's Creek that makes up the Bedford Reservation, but even though I was sitting up at a picnic table in the pavilion, doodling in my notebook, i had apparently dozed off and was awakened by a Park Rabger that inquired about my safety and health.
He truly surprised me, as I am again a light sleeper, roused by the slightest disturbance in my immediate perimeter! (A later conversation with another regular at the Library, Fernando, who is a widower and on SS Disability and starving, he said the he has been hassled by them too, and noted that they intentionally sneak up on people in the parks! Fernando lives in the apartment complex across the street, and yet he has been banned from the park, the Bedford Medical Center, and other local institutions, for merely loitering!
So what is one supposed to do when unemployed/disabled/retired, with nothing to do and no money?
I see a regular parade of these folks at the Library, the Get-Go, and walking the streets of Historic Downtown Bedford. I know McDonald's has free coffee and a breakfast sandwich for seniors on Wednesday's, but the nearest one to me now, is 3 miles away in Maple Heights near Randall Park Mall. Too far to walk, and no bus up Northfield. There used to be one on Dunham Road just past the border of Bedford and Maple Heights, but it closed over a year ago when the new 24 hour Green McDonald's opened on Rockside Road in Garfield Heights.
Here I am talking about food again!
And even here at the Library where there are no vending machines like at the newly constructed branches, during the summer the CCPL provides a free box lunch to kids under 18! But yet us old farts with a fixed or no income, are excluded.
I am listening to a classical music feed from Laramie, WY online via WKSU the Kent State University public radio classical station, with Jeanne Lamon and Tafelmusik playing Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #5 on original Baroque instruments, and wishing I had a sack of hamburgers & fries, a meatball sub with onion rings, or a very large classic pizza!
Well, since I have been "warned twice" about sleeping on the city benches, I need to head farther away from downtown Bedford and find some safe places to hang out. I promised myself after a full adult working life dealing with the homeless as both a law enforcement officer and encountering them on my jobsites in construction, that I would never mimic their behavior by trespassing, begging, stealing, or intimidating/assaulting people for money.
I know I broke one of my own commandments on Saturday by eating out out of the garbage (though I did grab a half full large bag of spicy Doritos that someone had left in the Southgate Transportation Center a couple of weeks ago, only to find that the remaining chips were soggy and had other partially chewed food that seemed to have bacon bits in it, I tossed it after eating several chips), I hope to keep my other commandments wholly and not become a pest or threat to others.
I am considering using a funds I can acquire to renew my fishing license, buy a new inexpensive rod and reel and some minimal tackle, and go fishing at Shadow Lake in the metro Parks and on Tinker's Creek. There are perch, bass (large and small mouth), trout and bluegills to be had if you are patient. I will need my little tabletop gas grill, or a supply of charcoal to use in the park grills if I want to cook them up.
I cry thinking about the mostly complete Field Kitchen I have stored in Sheryl's back yard in Canton, that includes 3 propane burners, a charcoal grill (a tiny Weber), open fire grill, canned foods, heavy duty pots and pans, flatware, tableware and utensils. All items from the trailer I sold in January, and includes a folding Coleman cot, my 2 sleeping bags, sleeping pad, 2 ponchos, several tactical items like USGI Kevlar Helmets and web gear, my GI boots (2 pairs including my US Navy Nomex Flight Deck boots), my brand new steel wagon and my once only used Husqvarna 18" chainsaw!
If only I had ready access to them! I could eat, build a shelter (there is a small tent and a larger tarp from an old GI tent too), and travel lighter! Oh well.
I've been prattling too long, I am gonna end this here, and pick it up again in a few days or a week.
I'll end by saying that I am losing patience with both Social Security and County Services after 8 months of inaction, and my now 4 months of homelessness! Charlotte says I have to be nice and kiss bureaucratic ass to get my benefits, otherwise I will be intentionally excluded from collecting anything.
And people wonder why I am angry and talk about changing the system!
End of rant.
Saturday, 21 June 2014
Well today is my 4th day without eating. Thankfully on Tuesday morning, a good Samaritan awoke me while I was sitting on a bench on Broadway in Historic downtown Bedford, and presented me with "Breakfast" as he announced it, about 0630 while I was waiting for the Library to open a few hundred feet away at 0900.
I thanked him, and devoured the 2 Burger King sausage, egg, and cheese croissants, and even enjoyed the medium Seattle's best roast coffee with 3 creams and 3 sugars! (I am not a coffee devote.)
I hadn't even realized that I had dozed off on the bench, where I had sat down about 45 minutes earlier! But the sky was threatening rain again, and I finished the coffee and headed towards the Library to wait there.
I spent the day alternating between watching old westerns on YouTube, and researching recipes for my cook book I am compiling for possible publication. I find that my interest in food has piqued quite a bit in the last several months!
I find myself dreaming (awake and asleep) of food! I create entire meals and buffets in my mind for large parties, but then in the end, eat it all myself! A side effect of being homeless and hungry? I seem to think so. But the upside is that my interest is as much in the cooking and preparation as in the eating.
I have always enjoyed cooking, even to the point of becoming a food snob, and having definite ideas on how things should be prepared. Probably one of the many factors in my high blood pressure, stroke, and Congestive Heart Failure. Stress is the major factor. But other lifestyle choices (like fatty and high sodium foods) affect these conditions too.
So, my plan is gather together many of my favorite recipes (mostly comfort foods that I have enjoyed my entire life) and some family classics I grew up with, and offer them both as is, and rendered Heart Healthy as an alternative for folks like me now who must read food nutrition labels and limit sodium and fats in our diets.
But that alone is not reason enough to not have easy to prepare and tasty foods that can be made in the simplest of kitchens! Or doctored to spiciness and taste preferences.
I spend hours at the Library cruising cooking videos, online recipes, and reading the food periodicals available here. In fact Food Channel Magazine and Bon Appetite are my best sources!
I was hooked on Bon Appetite many years ago while landscaping with a classmate of mine from High School in Shaker Heights, and one of the cool things was being able to garbage pick in Shaker Heights (an upscale Cleveland suburb) where the garbage is picked up in your back yard by service department workers in customized 3 wheeled Cushman carts, and hauled to the large trash compacting truck in the street. And, as a service that was voluntary in the 1970's and is now the local law, recyclables are sorted and picked up in separate bins.
So, when we hit a regular customer in a 6 room manse on Aldersyde, I was flabbergasted to find a couple of years worth of monthly issues of Bon Appeite all tied into neat bundles by year with heavy twine! That and some other kitchen cast offs were my day's bounty! Of course I had asked the lady of the house upon here arrival back from the store first, and she was very happy to see the magazines be used by someone who would appreciate them! She said she had subscribed for many years, and had trained as a chef, but she didn't have the space for the backlog of issues, and had copied the recipes she wanted to keep. She also gave me permission to help myself to anything else I wanted in their trash retention area!
Well upon taking these home and showing my mother (I was back at work after an 11 month hiatus recovering from my broken neck and back in 1986 and back at my folk's house on Huntington in Shaker Heights). She was excited too, as she knew I would be experimenting on the family! She encouraged my experimentation, and was even able to explain many of the cooking terms and identify the cooking vessels that I was unfamiliar with! Pretty amazing from a woman who's cooking was on the plain and bland side! Though she had a repertoire that included Tex-Mex (my fave), some continental, and many American classics, she tended to prepare things on the bland side.
But, I was continually inspired to improve upon her basic recipes and bring some life and spice to some really great foods! The first thing I found out about, was the limited range of cooking I could do on her 1950's Reverware pots and pans. Though well built for the day, they were made of stainless steel with copper washed bottoms, and were inefficient for heating and could not be used in the oven.
So, I found myself preferring to use her even older cast iron skillets for most of my creating. It took some experimentation, and a few years of research, to finally learn how to properly season cast iron and clean the pans without having to re-season every time they are used! (The same technique is used for iron Woks.) I thought I had found my niche.
But I was looking forward to returning to law enforcement, and applied for a position as a patrol officer on the Security staff at the Historic Shaker Square historic District, a block from my parent's home across the border in Cleveland. But instead, the parent agency providing the service, placed me downtown as the supervisor of the 25 strong security detail for the Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper.
This position was challenging (though I detested it), and allowed me to network with the PD staff and visitors to the Editorial Department, including many chefs, and restaurateurs.
During this time I was still hanging out with my classmate (and landscaping boss), Bill, and we were regular denizens of the Harbor Inn, an 1895 sailor's bar on the less popular West Side of the old Flats Industrial Area that was the hot Entertainment area of Cleveland.
From our Friday and Saturday night forays there to drink, smoke cigars, and play darts (Harbor Inn was the home of the Cleveland Darter Club-CDC), we would be on the prowl for all night eateries to quench an appetite after a night of good beer and lots of salty potato chips!
Among our regular haunts were Burger King and McDonald's which had late night drive thrus, to the 24 hour eateries like, the Big Egg (notorious for being repeatedly shut down by the county health department!), Best Steak House, the Old Brown Derby in Shaker Heights on Kinsman, Denny's (quite a few in Cuyahoga County), and a place that didn't last long, Shorty's Deluxe Diner in the Flats (East Side under the Detroit -Superior Bridge, it was previously Jim's Steakhouse a mob HQ in town, and was originally the Erie RR Passenger Station in Cleveland, until the Erie moved into the Cleveland Union Terminal in the 1960's) which I enjoyed the most!
Unfortunately, we were forced to sit at the counter one Saturday night when they were jammin', and I had the misfortune to watch the expediter who was assembling the burger platters, drop 2 plates of buns and toppings on the dirty floor, then promptly pick up everything, wipe the plates with his dirty apron, and place all of the food items from the floor back on the plates! In spite of this, I still liked the food there! They would make my soft scrambled eggs on wheat toast he way I like it, with melted cheddar cheese and a little mayo!
But their Meatloaf was to die for! I asked for the recipe, but they refused to share!
But fortunately for me, when I was at the PD, I found out that the Friday! entertainment section of the paper was publishing a bunch of recipes from famous Cleveland restaurants, and Shorty's Meatloaf was included!
Though I had canceled their subscription at my mother's request, I bought a Sport's Final edition that had the Friday! insert, and clipped the recipe. My dad had been retired and working out of his study by then, and was doing all of the cooking at the house because I was working all shifts at the PD, and was rarely at home for dinner with my folks.
My sister had done her graduate year of French Linguistics in France in 1985, and then got a job in Georgetown, moving there in 1986. My brother was in Sacramento, attending Photography School, so I was the only other regular at my folk's dinner table. So when I wasn't there, they usually ate in their bedroom or in the kitchen, and settled in to TV or reading for the night. But when I was home for dinner and not sleeping, we would eat in the dining room, and usually the same few uninspired dishes my dad rehashed over and over again.
I had bought him James Beard's cookbook for Christmas, in the hopes that it would expand his cooking horizons. It didn't. It only allowed him to give his few repeated dishes new names and some added ingredients. Who reading this doesn't understand that when using whole black peppercorns, Bay Leaves, and certain other seasonings, that you must remove them after cooking and not leave them to be ingested? Real cooks use a cheese cloth made into a bag to season, and remove before serving!
But with my dad, it became a game. He would tell us how many peppercorns and Bay Leaves he used, so we could account for all of them while fishing them out of stews, soups, and casseroles!
Well, all aside,I gave him the recipe for Shorty's Deluxe Diner's meatloaf (which is 2/3rds ground sirloin, 1/3rd ground pork, and filled with bread crumbs and onions, before being shaped into a loaf, and coated with plain ketchup before baking in the oven).
He actually followed the recipe, and it came out as good as the diner's!
It was even better reheated, and made cold into sandwiches! (Ah, cold meatloaf subs! That was my fave at the old Hungarian Deli/Grocery, Tassi's, that used to be at Shaker Square! They served subs, $1.75 regular, and $2.50 for a Super sized, and my regular choice was their cold homemade meatloaf. The secret that made all of the subs so tasty, was their homemade zesty coleslaw with fresh green onions!
I am still searching for Shorty's recipe! And until I have regular access to a kitchen, I will have to wait to experiment and recreate it!
God how I enjoy talking and thinking about food!
I want to cook all day long! Just cook, only grazing as the day goes by. I wish I had the patience to be a sous chef or short order cook, but making the same things over and over would become too boring, too quickly for me. What I need is to have access to a professional kitchen to experiment and act as a commissary for a Concession trailer/field-camp kitchen for sharing my tasty creations with Jane and John Q. Public!
Just imagine, gallons of zesty hot chili, hundreds of tacos for a taco bar spread, General Tso's Chicken, Egg Pu Young, and specialty crafted burgers and chicken sandwiches/wraps, with a bevy of sides like Loaded Nachos, Loaded tater skins, chili-cheese fries, and grilled brandy soaked bananas with French vanilla ice cream. All from the same kitchen!
Slow cooked ribs dripping in sauce, hot wings with a selection of sauces, a full selection of sub sandwiches and good old southern fried hot chicken!
Sauteed fish, hush puppies, Chihuahua Dogs (both traditional deep fried with cheese in a tortilla, or ala Dave baked with shredded cheese and diced onion with salsa in a flour tortilla), and many, many other items that probably wouldn't even make it onto a permanent menu!
My mouth is watering! Hmm, an 18' trailer with a broiler, deep fat fryer, gas burners, a griddle, sinks and freezers/fridges, would fit the bill nicely!
My friend Cory had an idea to buy a concession truck last spring and do the fairs and festivals in the area, and I was interested in investing and working it, but the truck he was looking at got sold, and he became enthused about opening a take out restaurant in Cleveland Heights on the old Coventry Strip (yeah the old Hippie Village that prospered and grew from the 1960's to 1990's with alternative shops, international and healthy/natural restaurants, and just plain non mainstream shopping!), though now heavily commercialized with chain restaurants, markets and shops, there is still Coventry Cats and a couple of unique family owned shops still operating! He wound up leaving town and going back to NY state where he grew up.
Well perhaps when I get a huge check from SSA for my retroactive disability (2 1/2 years now), or sell a book or two, I can indulge in food as a money making hobby!
I'd love to own and operate a restaurant, but in this economy, especially locally, the family owned eateries are dying off by the dozens, as regular patrons can't afford to eat out as often!
Even many of the chains, franchises, and corporate restaurants are struggling.
Oh well, when you've got a local county and city government, and federal administration that are more proud to have aborted more babies, than have jobs created, there you go!
Yes, every small business person I know, many who have been in business for generations, are struggling to stay open. Most have closed. A few Cleveland standby's seem to do OK, but only by benefit of a lucrative location close to many businesses downtown, and boasting a brisk lunch trade, like Otto Moser's (who moved from E-4th where they had been in the heart of the theater district since before the turn of the 20th century, to their current location at the revitalized theater district on E-14th at Euclid, after Jacob's Field and the Gund Arena were completed in 1996), Slyman's (still famous for their corned beef sandwiches), Captain Tony's (A NY state Franchise group with 4 family run locations in Cuyahoga County), the Winking Lizard (now 6 locations from Cleveland to Canton, and one in southern Ohio), and Luchitas (a family Mexican Restaurant that has 2 locations and has moved one of them several times).
Well enough about food for now. It is now Monday morning the 23rd of June, and I am disgusted with myself. I did something Saturday night I swore I would never stoop to: I fished a slice of pizza and 3 pieces of garlic bread out of a Giovani's Pizza box in the trash 2 doors down from the shop. I was doing my evening constitutional about 2200, and saw the closed box in the top of one of the sidewalk trash cans. I glanced about to see if anyone was watching, and was delighted to see a whole slice of pepperoni pizza, undisturbed. And there was what looked like a square of cheese sheet pizza!
I snatched them up and examined them. The slice seemed fine, and the square turned out to be flat garlic bread cut into small sections. I quickly broke off a slice of garlic bread and ate it. It was lackluster, but it was FOOD!
I continued my walk, and remembering my previous problems trying to eat after not eating for many days at a time, I stuffed the garlic bread in my jacket pocket (yes, it was 75 degrees out, and i was wearing a sweatshirt and my Gore-Tex parka!), and worked on the pizza slice as headed north on Broadway.
I was going to pace myself and not eat it all at once, but my brain wouldn't let me. I was suspicious of the last slice of garlic bread as it was soggy. And in my mind as I tried to figure out why. most of the possible reasons disturbed me, so I decided to eat only the dry portion and toss the wet section.
No dice, I ate it down to the wet part, and said I'll trash the rest, but then I figured I was still ravenous, and what would it hurt? Well that soggy section tasted nasty! I immediately threw out the remaining bit. Eww! It is 2 days later, and I still have that taste in my mouth! Even after brushing several times and using mouthwash!
So, I am at the Library, still hungry, broke, and unsure of my future.
It is now 1000, so I should plan on heading to the post office to check my PO Box, but I was stopped this morning at 0730 by a Bedford Police Officer, because I had fallen asleep in the Historic Bedford Commons Gazebo while charging my cell phone with the outlets there.
So I think I will wait a while before I meander through downtown again to reach the Bedford Branch.
There is moisture in the air, so it will be humid (probably hot as well) and possibly rain today. Well, I am running out of options for laces to hang out when not at the Library or the Get-Go. I spent Sunday morning at the Willis Picnic Area of the Cleveland Metro Parks, a section of the trail on Tinker's Creek that makes up the Bedford Reservation, but even though I was sitting up at a picnic table in the pavilion, doodling in my notebook, i had apparently dozed off and was awakened by a Park Rabger that inquired about my safety and health.
He truly surprised me, as I am again a light sleeper, roused by the slightest disturbance in my immediate perimeter! (A later conversation with another regular at the Library, Fernando, who is a widower and on SS Disability and starving, he said the he has been hassled by them too, and noted that they intentionally sneak up on people in the parks! Fernando lives in the apartment complex across the street, and yet he has been banned from the park, the Bedford Medical Center, and other local institutions, for merely loitering!
So what is one supposed to do when unemployed/disabled/retired, with nothing to do and no money?
I see a regular parade of these folks at the Library, the Get-Go, and walking the streets of Historic Downtown Bedford. I know McDonald's has free coffee and a breakfast sandwich for seniors on Wednesday's, but the nearest one to me now, is 3 miles away in Maple Heights near Randall Park Mall. Too far to walk, and no bus up Northfield. There used to be one on Dunham Road just past the border of Bedford and Maple Heights, but it closed over a year ago when the new 24 hour Green McDonald's opened on Rockside Road in Garfield Heights.
Here I am talking about food again!
And even here at the Library where there are no vending machines like at the newly constructed branches, during the summer the CCPL provides a free box lunch to kids under 18! But yet us old farts with a fixed or no income, are excluded.
I am listening to a classical music feed from Laramie, WY online via WKSU the Kent State University public radio classical station, with Jeanne Lamon and Tafelmusik playing Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #5 on original Baroque instruments, and wishing I had a sack of hamburgers & fries, a meatball sub with onion rings, or a very large classic pizza!
Well, since I have been "warned twice" about sleeping on the city benches, I need to head farther away from downtown Bedford and find some safe places to hang out. I promised myself after a full adult working life dealing with the homeless as both a law enforcement officer and encountering them on my jobsites in construction, that I would never mimic their behavior by trespassing, begging, stealing, or intimidating/assaulting people for money.
I know I broke one of my own commandments on Saturday by eating out out of the garbage (though I did grab a half full large bag of spicy Doritos that someone had left in the Southgate Transportation Center a couple of weeks ago, only to find that the remaining chips were soggy and had other partially chewed food that seemed to have bacon bits in it, I tossed it after eating several chips), I hope to keep my other commandments wholly and not become a pest or threat to others.
I am considering using a funds I can acquire to renew my fishing license, buy a new inexpensive rod and reel and some minimal tackle, and go fishing at Shadow Lake in the metro Parks and on Tinker's Creek. There are perch, bass (large and small mouth), trout and bluegills to be had if you are patient. I will need my little tabletop gas grill, or a supply of charcoal to use in the park grills if I want to cook them up.
I cry thinking about the mostly complete Field Kitchen I have stored in Sheryl's back yard in Canton, that includes 3 propane burners, a charcoal grill (a tiny Weber), open fire grill, canned foods, heavy duty pots and pans, flatware, tableware and utensils. All items from the trailer I sold in January, and includes a folding Coleman cot, my 2 sleeping bags, sleeping pad, 2 ponchos, several tactical items like USGI Kevlar Helmets and web gear, my GI boots (2 pairs including my US Navy Nomex Flight Deck boots), my brand new steel wagon and my once only used Husqvarna 18" chainsaw!
If only I had ready access to them! I could eat, build a shelter (there is a small tent and a larger tarp from an old GI tent too), and travel lighter! Oh well.
I've been prattling too long, I am gonna end this here, and pick it up again in a few days or a week.
I'll end by saying that I am losing patience with both Social Security and County Services after 8 months of inaction, and my now 4 months of homelessness! Charlotte says I have to be nice and kiss bureaucratic ass to get my benefits, otherwise I will be intentionally excluded from collecting anything.
And people wonder why I am angry and talk about changing the system!
End of rant.
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