03-27-2008
( Reply#: 1921 ) |
Tom J |
Did he recognize you from the maternity ward? :)
That is truly an amazing story, Bill. Something like that would totally blow me away, if it happened to me.
Thanks for sharing that with us!
Tomster
P.S.
I'm a St. Margaret's Hospital Maternity Ward alumnus too. (June 1949) I'm not sure, but I THINK Mom's doc was Dr. Ellege.
A 1967 Graduate of Hammond High who cherishes his memories of growing up in the Hammond of the 1950's and 1960's. Bring back those days!
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/tsjay/Tom%20and%20Georgeann/img014.jpg[/IMG] |
03-27-2008
( Reply#: 1922 ) |
wvcogs |
Here's another "It's a Small World" story. In 1975, my wife, kids and I left da Region when I took a job at a small state college in West Virginia. About six or seven years later we hired a new librarian. His wife happened to be a 1959 graduate of Morton High School, the same year my wife graduated, and she attended the same church and was one of my wife's friends in high school. A few years after that, we hired a faculty member who also had attended the same church in Hessville that we had.
Sometime in the early 2000s, a lady stopped by our place to see if we had any jobs available. Her son's family had just moved to this area and she was considering moving here to be with them. Somehow the conversation got around to where are you from, etc. It ended up that she was born in Hammond, but currently lived in Indianapolis. A very close friend of hers was the daughter of the long time football coach at MHS, yes MZ. In fact, her father also was a coach at Morton even before I attended there.
Yep, it sure is a small world.
Ken -- Morton High School 1960 |
03-27-2008
( Reply#: 1923 ) |
S C Jones |
About four years ago I was in Santa Fe, NM where I met with friends to enjoy a weeks vacation. One of my friends has a friend (a Chicago banker) who has a home in Santa Fe and he was there for the week also. He got us in to the Santa Fe Open Air Opera. We went to dinner before the opera and the guy who sat beside me at dinner had been born in Hammond. At the Opera during the intermission, our party met up with the banker and his party--2 men from da region who were there on business.
And, I too was born in St Margarets Hospital, as was my mother--I met her soon after I was born. [:)] (sorry, just had to say that.)
Grand Park Subdivision 1940-1961 Boondocks of Hessville! |
03-29-2008
( Reply#: 1927 ) |
svea3 |
Dr Jones- St Margaret's for me. Does anyone remember Dr Dr Ramker? Korean War vet. How about Dr Budzik, the Dentist.
I was thinking about Indiana State Bank this morning with no hours on Wednesday. I think they gave 1% interest! How did my parents make any money???
My son's UM Art prof is from da Region. A fellow, I know from Politics running for the State Board of Education, is married to a Bishop Noll grad and he is a Missouri Synod Lutheran Minister! She supervises student teachers from Central Michigan.
[?]
|
03-29-2008
( Reply#: 1932 ) |
duane |
Not many (or any?) Region rats here in Northeastern Minnesota. Least ways none I've run into. |
01-27-2009
( Reply#: 2702 ) |
dilligaf717 |
I have a "Small World" story relating to the Hammond area.
About six years ago, my wife and I were on our way home to Texas from Colorado. At the time I was involved in Boy Scouts and we stopped at the Philmont Scout Ranch on our way through Cimmaron. The camp store was open and I went in and bought some items. When I was standing in line to check out, I noticed a Calumet Council patch on the guy in line in front of me. I said hello and started a conversation with him. It turns out that he was the Order of the Arrow lodge chief that called me out as a lad. Really a small world. I was more impressed by the irony of us meeting there than he was. Of course, I've always been easy, LOL.
Jim
"Still runnin against the wind"
Still runnin against the wind. |
01-31-2009
( Reply#: 2718 ) |
Cindy M |
Small world...
About a year or so ago, I was searching on the internet for any kind of information about where my mother used to work as a nurse; what its address had been, what happened to the building and the business, etc.
She worked at the Kuhn Clnic, which was somewhere in downtown-ish Hammond. It was an Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat clinic. There were at least two Dr. Kuhn's there (related), one a man, and the other a woman. A wonderful Dr. named Dr. Bruce (I think), who I always called Uncle Bruce; as well as several other Dr.'s. I went there frequently as a child due to eye and ear troubles.
Anyway, the woman doctor was Dr. Hedwig Kuhn, who as it turns out was very renowned in her field. She once dug a piece of metal out of my eye though, and I thought she was horrid. It hurt!
As I was searching the internet, I finally got a hit for Dr. Hedwig Kuhn, and of all the strange things to be, it was for an item for sale on eBay. Some sort of little card for a political campaign she was involved in decades ago. How weird!
I wrote to the seller. Turns out the item had been in her mother's things, and she had at one time worked for Dr. Kuhn. Of all the sweet things to do, she sent me that little card. |
02-02-2009
( Reply#: 2730 ) |
Tom J |
quote:
Originally posted by Cindy M
Small world...
About a year or so ago, I was searching on the internet for any kind of information about where my mother used to work as a nurse; what its address had been, what happened to the building and the business, etc.
She worked at the Kuhn Clnic, which was somewhere in downtown-ish Hammond. It was an Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat clinic. There were at least two Dr. Kuhn's there (related), one a man, and the other a woman. A wonderful Dr. named Dr. Bruce (I think), who I always called Uncle Bruce; as well as several other Dr.'s. I went there frequently as a child due to eye and ear troubles.
Anyway, the woman doctor was Dr. Hedwig Kuhn, who as it turns out was very renowned in her field. She once dug a piece of metal out of my eye though, and I thought she was horrid. It hurt!
As I was searching the internet, I finally got a hit for Dr. Hedwig Kuhn, and of all the strange things to be, it was for an item for sale on eBay. Some sort of little card for a political campaign she was involved in decades ago. How weird!
I wrote to the seller. Turns out the item had been in her mother's things, and she had at one time worked for Dr. Kuhn. Of all the sweet things to do, she sent me that little card.
Oh, WOW! The Kuhn Clinic sounds SO familiar to me. I know that I am supposed to know about that place, but it is just a very, very familiar name to me right now, with no details.
I used to see Dr. Friedman, an eye doctor, whose office was in the Calumet National Bank building when I was a kid. I started wearing glasses when I was only two and a half years old. I had a "lazy eye."
I wonder if he was part of the Kuhn Clinic? I don't really think so, though.
Where WAS the Kuhn Clinic, and why does it seem so familiar to me???
Tom
A 1967 Graduate of Hammond High who cherishes his memories of growing up in the Hammond of the 1950's and 1960's. Bring back those days!
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/tsjay/Tom%20and%20Georgeann/img014.jpg[/IMG] |
02-03-2009
( Reply#: 2735 ) |
Cindy M |
I had that same eye condition Tom. Gosh the kids were cruel to me about it. Some time around or before the age of 2, I had surgery on those eye muscles at an important hospital in Chicago, which made a vast improvement in alignment. Not complete though, so throughout childhood I went through a long series of further therapies including wearing an eye patch, and doing specialized exercises. Improvement continued, but unfortunately never enough to be 100 percent perfect. I cannot recall the names of whichever doctors guided that therapy, however. My mother knew a great many physicians.
I recall the Kuhn Clinic building itself as being at least two stories. Now comes the sketchy part of memory...in my minds eye, it sat at an angle on a corner, but that memory could be wrong.
I found an article which stated the Kuhn Clinic performed large numbers of procedures daily for industrial eye injuries during WWII, brought on in the course of war production in local plants.
I know that Dr. Hedwig Kuhn passed away in 1973, and that prior to that, the Kuhn Clinic had been closed and its staff merged into the bright shiny new Hammond Clinic. That is where my mother worked after the merge, until we moved away.
The "other" Dr. Kuhn, a male, which I mentioned was Dr.Hugh Alva Kuhn, her husband. |
02-04-2009
( Reply#: 2739 ) |
Tom J |
quote:
Originally posted by Cindy M
I had that same eye condition Tom. Gosh the kids were cruel to me about it. Some time around or before the age of 2, I had surgery on those eye muscles at an important hospital in Chicago, which made a vast improvement in alignment. Not complete though, so throughout childhood I went through a long series of further therapies including wearing an eye patch, and doing specialized exercises. Improvement continued, but unfortunately never enough to be 100 percent perfect. I cannot recall the names of whichever doctors guided that therapy, however. My mother knew a great many physicians.
I recall the Kuhn Clinic building itself as being at least two stories. Now comes the sketchy part of memory...in my minds eye, it sat at an angle on a corner, but that memory could be wrong.
I found an article which stated the Kuhn Clinic performed large numbers of procedures daily for industrial eye injuries during WWII, brought on in the course of war production in local plants.
I know that Dr. Hedwig Kuhn passed away in 1973, and that prior to that, the Kuhn Clinic had been closed and its staff merged into the bright shiny new Hammond Clinic. That is where my mother worked after the merge, until we moved away.
The "other" Dr. Kuhn, a male, which I mentioned was Dr.Hugh Alva Kuhn, her husband.
I did the "eye patch thing" too, Cindy.
Like I said, my doctor was Dr. Friedman, and he was somewhere above the main floor of the CNB building, but I don't remember which floor. I remember Mom and I taking the elevator to get to his office.
Seems like I remember that he chewed gum all the time while he was examining me. I believe he was a very good doctor.
Tom
A 1967 Graduate of Hammond High who cherishes his memories of growing up in the Hammond of the 1950's and 1960's. Bring back those days!
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/tsjay/Tom%20and%20Georgeann/img014.jpg[/IMG] |
02-04-2009
( Reply#: 2740 ) |
wvcogs |
Okay, you want to know the location of Kuhn Clinic back in the old days. Well here goes. This information came from Mr. Richard Lytle at the Hammond Public Library Local History Room. Mr. Lytle is very good at providing information about the history of Hammond.
If Cindy remembers the building being on a corner, it could have been on the corner of Ann Avenue and Rimbach Street. By the way, check the Google satellite image of Rimbach Street. You will see very little remaining there except empty lots and parking lots.
Ken...
The Kuhn Clinic was located at 112 Rimbach Street and, according to my 1956 Hammond City Directory, between the Rimbach intersection with Morton Court and the Rimbach intersection with Hohman Avenue the following were located:
# 103 Rimbach was Curtis Reagan, Albert Matthews and A. C. Reagan.
#105 Rimbach was Carroll Anderson, Atham allen, Warren Horton and B. T. white.
#106 Rimbach was Peter L. Keil's auto parking lot.
#108 was Mrs. Lillian D. Mikesch.
#109 was Dr. Lindsey Morrison.
#113 Rimbach was the Buchanan Hotel.
#117 Rimbach was the Neidow Funeral Home, Inc.
#119 Rimbach was William J. Ahlborn's parking lot.
#120-128 Rimbach was Basile & Roger's parking lot.
#131 Rimbach was Ellyson Realty Co. & the First Federal Savings & Loan.
#132 Rimbach was Dr. Richard L. Mason.
#134 Rimbach was Dr. Leo C. Arkin, Optomology.
#135 Rimbach was Dr. Lawrence M. Merkley, Dentist: Mrs. Cora Polen, dressmaker; Dr. & Mrs. Marcella F. Phillips, dentist; and Mrs. Dollie Jamison.
#137 Rimbach was O'Brien & O'brien, Lawyers; and Mrs Mary K. Jackson on the second floor.
#138 Rimbach was Harris parking lot.
#141 Rimbach was vacent.
#142 Rimbach was the Oil Workers Hall were the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers, International union was located.
Next came Hohman Avenue.
|
02-04-2009
( Reply#: 2741 ) |
Cindy M |
Oooh, hoorah! Thank you! An exact spot to google on, which I did.
Yes, alot of vacant lots and parking lots. Well...they can trash and tear down our buildings; our friends and loved ones can move away or pass on; but they just can't manage to destroy our memories!
My Mom, by the way, said that building was haunted, as was our little house on Cherry Street where I lived until about 1 year old.
Hauntings...maybe we should start a thread on Haunted Hammond!
The Cline Avenue ghost or Cudahee Lady, anyone? |
02-04-2009
( Reply#: 2743 ) |
cartoonguy |
Is the Cline Avenue ghost the same one that haunted Rita Road, in Black Oak Indiana? |
02-09-2009
( Reply#: 2751 ) |
Cindy M |
Wow...well, the things we can find tucked into our Bibles.
Folded into thirds, tucked between the gospels for more than 40 years, I have a little note penned to me by "Uncle Bruce", having to do with havng overlooked something at Christmas.
It happens to be written on a slip of Kuhn Clinic printed stationery, or half a sheet.
The Doctors listed:
Hedwig S. Kuhn, M.D.
Herbert A. Lautz, M.D.
Arthur J. Kuhn, M.D.
W. Bruce Sargent, M.D.
Lee H. Trachtenberg, M.D.
|
02-09-2009
( Reply#: 2752 ) |
Paddy |
quote:
Originally posted by cartoonguy
Is the Cline Avenue ghost the same one that haunted Rita Road, in Black Oak Indiana?
I don't remember talk about the ghosts that you mentioned. But back in the Fifties, Black Oak itself was known as a ghostlike danger zone.
If I recall correctly, the eastbound freeway through South Hammond dead-ended beyond Cline Avenue. Unsuspecting drivers who did not exit in time would end up in Black Oak. According to lore, they would disappear into a maw of lawlessness and never be seen again.
At the time, a friend Ron Dietrich had access to his father's 1951 Ford. On nights that he got the car keys, we would just drive around for the sake of driving. If each rider coughed up a quarter, Ron could top off the tank with four or five gallons, depending on whether we had four or five riders. (In those days when the gear shift was on the steering column, the front seat could accommodate three people sitting upright. It also accommodated couples in deep embraces). But I digress.
We often ended our drives with a high-speed ride on the dead-end freeway to the end of the earth that we called Black Oak. Our thrill was to lower the windows in the Winter and play Freeze Out.
I guess that we were naive about a lot of things back then, Black Oak and its citizenry being just one of them.
|
02-09-2009
( Reply#: 2753 ) |
duane |
I remember hearing about the Black Oak Ghost, but not the Cline Avenue ghost. Given the proximity, they were either one and the same, or at least relatives?
As I recall, the Hammond Times did a story on the Black Oak Ghost. I'm not good at searching newspaper archives (don't even know if you can do that on the web ...without paying that is) but perhaps our resident researcher can find something. |
02-10-2009
( Reply#: 2754 ) |
wvcogs |
Our friend Tom J has a subscription to Newspapers.com, but said there is a big hole in the Hammond Times issues in the 1950s and '60s. I did look up the Cline Avenue Ghost on the web. The one story I found sounds very corny. Who ever heard about a taxicab going on Cline Avenue to pick up a fare in Hammond?
Ken... |
02-10-2009
( Reply#: 2755 ) |
Tom J |
quote:
Originally posted by wvcogs
Our friend Tom J has a subscription to Newspapers.com, but said there is a big hole in the Hammond Times issues in the 1950s and '60s. I did look up the Cline Avenue Ghost on the web. The one story I found sounds very corny. Who ever heard about a taxicab going on Cline Avenue to pick up a fare in Hammond?
Ken...
I didn't have time to do a very thorough search, but I got some hits on the words "black oak ghost." It looked like most of them had nothing to do with the subject we are interested in, they just happened to contain those words. I can refine my search and try again tonight after work.
Tomster
A 1967 Graduate of Hammond High who cherishes his memories of growing up in the Hammond of the 1950's and 1960's. Bring back those days!
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/tsjay/Tom%20and%20Georgeann/img014.jpg[/IMG] |
02-10-2009
( Reply#: 2756 ) |
wvcogs |
Here's what the intersection of Black Oak Road (now Orchard Drive) and Cline Avenue looked like back in the early 1960s, a few years later than what Paddy was talking about. That's a freeway exit ramp in the background. Take a look at the Google satellite image of the area to see just how much it has changed since then. This is another photo from the Purdue Calumet Library Archives.
Ken...
[url="http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g268/wvcogs72/BlackOakRoad.jpg"]Black Oak Road and Cline Avenue[/url] |
02-10-2009
( Reply#: 2757 ) |
wvcogs |
For a few short tales about the Cline Avenue Ghost, take a look at items 39-42 [url="http://books.google.com/books?id=-xqSIsUF76QC&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61&dq=Cline+Avenue+Ghost&source=bl&ots=icLKe20H-6&sig=fyX3Uoh65pI2tgCTrPCmL9722cY&hl=en&ei=16-RSZm7DITYNITU3YEM&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result"]on this site.[/url]
Ken... |
02-10-2009
( Reply#: 2758 ) |
Jim R |
Yeah, I remember my father telling us those stories when I was a kid.
Harding K thru 7
Morton 8 thru 12 |
02-10-2009
( Reply#: 2759 ) |
Tom J |
No luck in my searching for either the Cline Avenue ghost or the Black Oak ghost.
A 1967 Graduate of Hammond High who cherishes his memories of growing up in the Hammond of the 1950's and 1960's. Bring back those days!
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y145/tsjay/Tom%20and%20Georgeann/img014.jpg[/IMG] |
02-10-2009
( Reply#: 2760 ) |
duane |
Ken - those were the stories I remember - A lady in white.
Although I agree with you about the cab. What would a cabbie be doing out around Cline Avenue. The story doesn't say he was ON Cline Avenue, just that he was on one of the roads that run under Cline. Still, not many fares out that way, I'd guess! I bet he didn't have any luck getting the dog to pay the fare either. |
02-11-2009
( Reply#: 2761 ) |
wvcogs |
[url="http://books.google.com/books?id=fKHCuFfsIQ0C&pg=PA55&dq=%22The+Ghosts+of+Cline+Avenue%22&ei=dsySSfu4LpHEMb7I-bYK#PPA55,M1"]And another story...[/url]
Ken |
02-11-2009
( Reply#: 2763 ) |
Bill Bucko |
If ya ask me, someone was listening late one night, in the dark, to their scratchy old 45 of Dickey Lee's "Laurie (Strange Things Happen)," * and got carried away. On pages 59-60, talking about the Griffith cemetery ghost, they even repeat the jacket-on-the-tombstone story!
* Peaked at # 7 on the WLS Silver Dollar Survey, July 1965.
Bill (the Oldies guy)
Warren G. Harding Class of '63 |
02-11-2009
( Reply#: 2764 ) |
S C Jones |
Hey, Guys---
The section of Cline Avenue that runs through the unincorporated settlement of Black Oak was from 15th North end (169th in Hessville) to 25th Avenues into "Calumet Township" and up to Ridge Road and until I left Da Region in 1960/61 Cline deadended at 15th or perhaps sooner--at about Hammond's 173rd which deadended into Cline ahso!
So, the tales of the Ghost (which I had never before heard of til this blog) would put it in Gary or maybe Griffith??
By 1956, the people of Black Oak, while living in squalid quonset huts and small homes for the most part, had become affluent enough to own cars to get to the mills and factories--the that were maintained well were --Black Oak Road (25th Ave.), Cline Avenue, Colfax Avenue and Burr while the side roads and from the tracks to Burr were set in swampy low lying smelly coal black dirt and often standing water. I went to church in Black Oak from 1953 until I left Da Region, so I know what and whereof I speak. So, it wasn't completely godforsaken, but did possess for those of us from the Hessville area an aura of squalor and the forbidden---It was Burr Street where the change began in earnest for those of us in Hessville who saw for the most part Polish, Hungarian, German, Russian, Irish, Italian, even Swedish immigrants in our classes at school. So I do know our stories of ghosts existed in the form of what were euphemistically called "spooks." Surely and hopefull, we have progressed beyond that, though....[?]
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02-11-2009
( Reply#: 2765 ) |
wvcogs |
The first I heard of the ghost stories was when Cindy mentioned them in her post. After reading them, I did begin to question some of the locations; but they were fun to read.
By the way, S C, my wife's family had some good friends who lived on Burr St. Her father was Romanian and the father of the family on Burr was an old Romanian buddy of his. Whenever we visited them back in the 50s and 60s, the two fathers spoke Romanian the whole time. I don't think anyone else, even the wives, understood that language.
Ken... |
02-11-2009
( Reply#: 2766 ) |
S C Jones |
Yes, Burr Street was the eastern boundary we were admonished not to go beyond. Since I don't remember ever going beyond Burr, what I envisioned from what I was warned about was Juke Joints, Honky Tonks, and "women of the night."
One of my current neighbors is German born and Romanian raised. Have any of you seen the current movie, Frost/Nixon? I haven't, but the guy called Swifty Lazar was a first cousin to my neighbor--both had the first name IrvingÑÑtheir fathers never knew they had both named their first son Irving because one fled Germany for Romania and the other fled Germany for Hungary. Both sons ended up in the U.S. and met late in life when my neighbor moved to Las Vegas--his cousin, Swifty, was a Hollywood agent and he began getting good seats and royal treatment when he would give his name as Irving Lazar. Has nothing to do with our discussion, but I thought it an interesting story probably familiar to a lot of immigrant families within the U.S.
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02-12-2009
( Reply#: 2767 ) |
Cindy M |
It actually was probably around 1965 that I first heard of these ghosts. My first recollection of them was that my younger sister and I were being driven to our older sister's home in East Chicago by her husband, and he started telling us about these ghosts, right as we were in that vicinity.
I would have been only about 8 years old, and I can say with great certainty that the stories scared me silly!
We recalled "her" most as "the Cline Avenue ghost", but it was definitely always a she.
At other instances, a "Cudahee Lady" was refered to as being the same or perhaps another ghostly lady of the area. I have found out that there was supposedly an "old neighborhood" of Gary known as Cudahee, but I have not found much on such a place.
Now, many years later, in 1976, my next older sister and I were driving westward from Lake Station towards Hammond, on what we then called the Kennedy Expressway. We were not yet at Cline Ave., so oddly enough we might have been closer to Burr.
It was night, dark. Directly in front of our car, passing right in front of it, I saw this white "thing" glide straight across the road in front of us. For whatever reason, the first thought impression I had of it was "baby", or tiny child.
Well, I looked over at my sister, to ask her if she had seen it, and her face was as white as a sheet. We both blurted out simultaneously..."Did you see that!?" Man, our eyes were as big as saucers and watery. |
02-14-2009
( Reply#: 2769 ) |
seejay2 |
The most frightening story I remember from all of this was in the 60's and had to do with the Cline Ave ghost. Right around Halloween, everyone would head for the wooded Cline area to "see the ghost". In reality, it was a great excuse to get beer and party back in there. Well, one night the cops came around to roust everyone out of there. Several guys hopped up on the hood and trunk of a car while the car was hightailing it out of there. One of the guys, Kermit, fell off of the car and was run over by it. It didn't kill him, but he had to have a sleel plate put in his head and from that day on was always a much slower person than I had known before that happened....Cj |
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