Iced In - Lake Erie Islands From 25,000 Ft. *dangerous times*

Submitted by Zebra Mussel on Sat, 02/10/2007 - 15:08.
Iced In - Lake Erie Islands From 25,000 Ft. *dangerous times*

I was flying back from little auditing in Chicago and we were routed over lake erie.  My phone camera resolution sucks!   Islands visable include South Bass Island (AKA Put-in-Bay), North Bass Island (Closest), Middle Bass Island, and either Sugar Island, or Rattlesnake Island.

My father tells me storeies of folks driving accross from Sandusky / Catbwa out to Pelee back when he was young (1950's).  The lake use to freeze.   These days, just about every year some fools 4-wheeler or snowmobile falls thru the ice.

My folks grew up just east of Easterly Waste Water Treatment Plant on Dalwood Drive (Mom) and Groovewood Club Drive (Dad).   They both knew a family where  2 kids and their mom fell thru the ice, one after the other, as they tried to rescue each other. Mrs. Mull, and her sons Johnny and Joey from Dalwood Drive.

Johnny and Joey Mull came to get my mom (then 8) to go play a day or two after Christmas.  My mom was still getting over chicken pox so she did not go play.  Joey and Johnny went down to the beach.    Much like today, you could not tell where the beach ended and the ice started.
Joey fell thru and was in over his head.  He was holding on to the ice that surrounded him.  Johnny ran for help and got his mom.  Stevie (her other son,2 years old) followed his mom out the door.  She ran frantically out the door, to the beach.   Joey went under.  His mom Mrs. Mull went in and fell thru while putting her leg out for him to grab.  Stevie ran out after his mom and went in Johnny watched the whole scene unfold and the rescue squad took him to my mom's house.

Easter Sunday weekend they found Joey (the eldest) under the Euclid Beach pier as the ice was thawing.

Unless you know how to core ice and are familure with thickness to weight capacity guides, dont do it.

 

AttachmentSize
_original41.28 KB
( categories: )

ICY TRAGEDY - RIP MULLS

Young minds remember this type of story...probably connected with survival instinct.  Sorry it struck the Mulls and was so close to your Mom and her family.

Wow is that heartbreaking

Hard core tragedy - thanks for sharing that. I have been looking at all the cool waterways freezing over and thinking how interesting it would be to explore some by foot. But your warning is serious. Perhaps a group of us could meet someplace cool and frozen where we could do a core test to make sure it is safe and then walk to see something we usually wouldn't - I'd love to walk on the Cuyahoga someplace around the Flats.

Disrupt IT

The skinny on ice walking

Umm moving rivers, especally ones that have a navigable channel dredged to 30+ feet regularly, would not be high on my list of places to go skating.  Uneven currents and thermal pollution (central waste water treatmetn plant) lead to uneven ice.   Ya'll got a core drill? 

So does the Cuyahoga freeze?

I didn't think we could skate on the Cuyahoga, but perhaps walk around a bit. I don't have a core drill or a rope (which seems like a good thing to have, too) so I'll stay off the ice, but I think I'll check out Whiskey Island tomorrow to see what the conditions look like - photos to come.

Disrupt IT

"I grabbed a pile of dust,

"I grabbed a pile of dust, and holding it up, foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust...I forgot to ask that they be years of youth."

Publius Ovidius Naso

Mall deaths on Dalwood Drive

While surfing the net, I stumbled across Zebra Mussel's post from February, 2007 concerning the deaths of Lois, Joey and Stevie Mall on the Dalwood Drive beach.

My grandmother and aunt (the Graces) lived at 363 Dalwood and I spent many, many summers with them during the 1950s.  I knew Joey and Lois his mother quite well.  Joey and the gang of us would play on the beach near the old stone beach house at the foot of the hill to their place.  Lois was always good for a quick snack if we didn’t feel like making the trek to the Lakeshore end of Dalwood and my grandmother’s house.

I was young at that time but recall that the original family name was Malois (sp) which had been shortened and Anglicized to Mall.  Lois was an incredibly sweet lady who often told my grandmother that she thought I looked like the actor Joseph Cotton.

I have been literally haunted by their tragic ends since they occurred.  I have visited that beach over the years when family or business brought me back to the places of my youth and am always moved when I think of the tragedy that occurred there.  That MAY flow from my own near-death by drowning off that same beach in 1948.  My father saved my life that day.  I am plagued by guilt that there was no one there to save Joey, Lois and little Stevie.

For years, I have been trying to locate a newspaper story or some other data giving more specific information on the events of that day but my recollection of the events (given to me by my grandmother at the time) squares with those of Zerba's.  My purpose for trying to "get it right" is to write a book or short story about growing up in that time and place. And I want to memorialize these three tragic deaths which I simply cannot allow to slip from our national memory without a mention.

Let me run  a few names by those of you who would happen upon this post:  Buddy Cosgrove, Russ Anderson, Paul Beining, Woody and Peggy Crowley, the Ellison twins, Lee Courtney.

All except Russ Anderson lived on Dalwood.  Russ lived on Groveland Club Drive (the next street east).  Years later, I saw Russ -- who was a Marine en-route to Vietnam -- at Hopkins Airport where I worked at the time.

If any in here who may have lived in the vicinity of Dalwood Drive in the 50s and/or may have knowledge of this tragedy would like to enter into a dialog about those simpler times or, more specifically, the events of that day, I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks.

 

 

"I grabbed a pile of dust, and holding it up, foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust...I forgot to ask that they be years of youth."

Publius Ovidius Naso