Remember When...

My dad recently sent me this picture on the occasion of the last space shuttle launch. One thing led to another and we began talking about how aviation has developed since he was a boy over 80 years ago. He remembered walking with his father to the "Flying Field" several blocks from his Chicago home. There, he saw his first airplanes...biplanes with wing-walkers...that surely must have been part of the barnstorming shows so popular in the 1920's.
Along these same lines, I continue to meet people at Findlay Market who tell me they haven't been to the market for years. Then they proceed to tell me how they used to come to the market with mom or dad, how they'd buy this or that at one stand, what business used to be on that corner...There are folks who remember Over-the-Rhine during Prohibition and others who remember the bustle of Union Terminal train station in the 1930's.

What's exciting is that these visitors have come back to Findlay Market...We've weathered the racial turmoil of 2001 and taken giant steps in the last few years to bring both locals and tourists to downtown Cincinnati. These visitors are finding out that history and progress go hand-in-hand in Over-the-Rhine, and they're flocking to the neighborhood to experience the market, take walking tours, or sip Christian Moerlein in a biergarten.
It certainly makes me wonder what the small children visiting Findlay Market today will remember when they are grown...