September 26, 2001

“What Was I Thinking?”

There isn’t a year that goes by when I fail to not gaze into my subconscious and recall the events that caused me to join Lake View Country Club in May 1983. 

For starters, I had been home from Penn State since May of 1980.  Therefore, I had toiled at my dad’s lockshop for almost three years.  During that time many unusual events had occurred, several of which were bad, many others good.  On the bad side, some of dad’s key employees quit.   It was not specifically because of me but certainly due to my presence.  It seems that the guys (Greg, Dick, Charlie, and Glen) were nervous because I was considered to be somewhat of a “psycho” back in those days.  I could never figure out what gave them that idea!

However, it should be noted that Dick was nearing retirement age.  He moved into a cushy desk job at Lyons Transportation before they went belly up.  Then he moved on to retirement in the late 80’s.  Charlie, who was also a “psycho” was married to a German chick who was a “super psycho.”  This broad used to call every morning.  Charlie, the poor devil, would just there stand nodding, “yes, dear, right away dear, etc. etc.”  Chuck ended up back in Germany and I havn’t heard from him since.  Glen was a hard working guy who moved up the locksmith ladder to become a representative of Schlage Lock Company.  He now lives in Philadelphia. 

Greg was always a mystery to me.  When he came to work at the shop, his previous experience was as a car lot boy at Rick Weaver Buick.  After working at Car-Paul for about seven years, he decided to go out on his own as a locksmith.  In the process, he managed to “acquire” several of Car-Paul’s clients.  Then, after five years, he came back to work for us.  This lasted another five years.  He subsequently started another side line business but abruptly closed it down and became a  maintenace locksmith at Gannon University.

My friends were generally individuals who I had gone to high school with.  We did a lot of harmless carousing.  The beer(s) of choice were Rolling Rock, Labatts and Goebel’s (The Famous French Blend).  Parties were frequent.  Especially on the weekends.  Between 1980 and 1983, I had numerous beer bashes at my pad which was located directly behind my dad’s shop at 153 West 23 Street.  The theme’s were consistent.  Numerous kegs, cases of whiskey, chicken wings, pizza, hard rock music that could sterilize frog’s at 300 yards and just about any controlled substance known to man.  If it was actually possible to kill brain cells, my mellon was DOA.  I don’t think more fun could have been had. However…

The bar scence was also fun.  During the summer we went to the “Penninsula Inn a/k/a “Pee Eye.” What a joint.  Lots of great bands, cold beer and hot chicks.  Another popular bar of choice was the Three D’s.  Perhaps my favorite was the Stadium Lounge.  My good friend, Mike Callaghan, was a bartender there.  He had previously worked at the Alternative on McClelland.  The Alternatve was the home of one of Erie’s greatest bands, The Snowmen.  During the summer of 82, they rocked just about every night.  The crowds loved them. 

During this period, I also visited several bars that catered to “punk” music including: Molly B’s,  Oliver’s, Sherlocks and The Winery.  The bands included: The Peens, X-Whites, Wiggling Judys, Visitors and  Tripod Jimmy,  The Peens were an interesting group.  Len Bove, Kevin Bort and Jan Linnendahl.  Lenny and I had gone to grade school together.  He was a short, energetic fire ball of energy.  Jan and I partied off and on for a few years.  I haven’t seen them in years.  I actually bumped into Kevin at Lakeview a couple of years ago.  He hadn’t changed a bit.

A new joint that started rockin in the early 80’s was the Kings Rook.  Originally the Rook was upstairs only.  The bar area had a bandstand which featured live music by The Frenchmen, Nightmoves and The Pulse.  The back room was a sea of pool tables, shuffleboard tables, pin ball machines and video games.  Generally the Rook was considered a weekend bar.  The regulars would generally go to a place like Olivers for a drink special then stumble up the stairs at the Rook to wait for sunrise.  I probably fell down those same stairs many a night on my way home.  The Rook’s theme was “Boogie On The Bus With Us.”  That’s because Jimmy Wallen dismanted an actual yellow school bus and put it back together next to the bandstand.  It was great.

The Straw That Broke…

Mixed in with all that good stuff was the tragic death of one of our buddies.  His name was Joe Coogan.  He had gone to Gannon with my brother Paul.  They were brothers at the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternitry.  PIKE House for short.  The PIKE House was another widely recognized source for cold beer and hot babes.  Since my brother was a brother, I got special dispensation to attend any and all parties.  Therefore, I took advantage at every  opportunity.   After graduation, Joe had scored on a nice job as an accountant at Teledyne in Edinboro.  He was dating a nice girl.  Things were going great. 

Joe found it necessary to travel to the west coast in the fall of 1982 to attend a seminar.  While on the coast, he figured to visit the familiar scapes near Carmel.  Joe was attempting to have his picture snapped while he stood perilously close to the cliff, high above the Pacific Ocean.  Unfortunatly, he lost his footing and to the horror of his companions, he tumbled down the slope.  Aparently he must have lost consciousness during the fall, perhaps suffering a concussion when he bounced off the jagged rocks that exist around the roiling surf.  His body was never located.  I think about Joe often.  I keep fixating on the moment when the smile on his face turned to astonishment.  That was an awful way to die.

Chrismas in Erie in 1982 was miserable.  It snowed relentlessly.  All of the coterie were depressed about Joe Coogan.  Grandpa Carneval was gone.  Grandpa Gehrlein was going.  There was nothing to do.  I tried getting involved in the Erie Jaycee’s.  That was a mistake.  That group was built around civic pride and massive drinking parties.  I could accomplish the drinking on my own.  I didn’t need to build a haunted house that extorted money for charity out of the general population to do it.

Hello Old Friends

When the snow finally melted in about the third week of April, us golfers were anxious to hit the links.  During 81 and 82 I had been playing at some fine tracks.  Downing, Erie, JC Martin and Overlake were my favorities.  The Times published their annual Golf Section on May 1, 1983.  The cover showed John Crishock (a clerk at J. C. Martin), eyeballing the gorgeous ass of a chick from Holiday Valley named Darlene Lentz while she put some body English on a short putt.  There were a number of interesting goings on from the previous year.

At Lawrence Park, Brett Kieffer, was the low handicapper with a 1.   Brett’s sister, my future wife, Krista, had carried a 17 handicap at Lawrence Park the previous year.   Sams World Of Golf was having their grand opening in the Eastway Plaza.  A set of Wilson 1200 Woods and Irons were sale priced at $279.00.  George Munro was the pro at Erie.  He was assisted by Dan Cantoni.  Paul “Buzz” Lichtenwalter was clerk and Ray “Bunker” Massing was foreman.

Included in Kahkwa’s Mens Handicap list were over 40 doctors.  Our friend Don Fessler, not yet a member of Lakeview was carring a five handicap.  His brother John was playing to an 8.   At Gospel Hill, David O. Hewett was playing to a 1.

Moving to Lakeview, I found Ric Carlotti, whose greenish 72 Corvette had the vanity licence plate “MUNST,” playing to a 1, while Tom Bean began the year at 2 and big hitting Ellery Tarbell was playing to a 4.  The Capotis brothers, Homer and Mike played to 4 and 3 respectively.  Future city champion Dario Ciprianni played to a 2.  Popular local golfers still playing at Lakeview included Tom Amendola,  Rick Amendola, Jerry Mack and Mark Salvia. 

As usual, nothing much was going on at Lake Shore except planes, trains and automobiles.  However, at Erie, Lou Natalie was playing to a 4, Mark Weibel was a 6.  Strangely, Doug Fugate started 1983 as a 15.  Maybe it was a misprint and should have a 5.  I met Doug at Lakeview shortly after that.  I was playing the 11^th tee and Doug had just finished putting out on 10.  It was either Rob Ricart or Steve Danch who introduced us.  Doug was not too happy about his game because as he walked up to the tee, he removed his bag from his shoulder and tossed it about 10 feet onto the tee.  Way to rock…Curley!

Included in the 1982 Highlights were these tidbits:

“George Slupski won the EDGA Junior Match Play title at Downing when he eagled the first extra hole to edge Chris Keim.  Slupski used driver, 4 wood and one putt for his eagle three.”

“Turk Hamilton and Mary Ann Fessler treated fans to one of the most exciting championship matches in local annals when they battled 4 ½ hours on a hot Sunday afternoon at Lake View before Hamilton finally eaned her second straight EWDGA crown on the 21^st hole.  Kahkwa’s Fessler fell victim to some poor putting.”

“Nineteen-year-old Kevin Benovic shocked the local golf world when he captured the EDGA Amateur Championship.  Benovic opened with a 71 at Downing, followed that up with a 68 at Gospel Hill and claimed the crown with a solid 74 at Lake View.  Dave Smith finished second, one shot from the lead.  Brett Kieffer, who was looking for an unprecedented third straight crown, never got untracked after opening with a 78.”

“Brett Kieffer earned his second EDGA Match Play title in four years when he topped young Tom Bean 7-6 at Lawrence Park.  For Bean, it was his second loss in two trys in the finals- the Penn State linkster bowing to Rob Yeager in 1980.  Kieffer was methodical in the championship match as he made par-after-par while Bean fell victim to some poor putting.  And oddly enough it was Bean’s hot blade that sparked him into the championship match.”

This all seemed like interesting stuff to the future self-nicknamed “Raptor”  However, page 7 also had the most interesting tidbit of all.  It seemed that The LakeView Country Club had submitted an advetisement stating that they had a “limited number of memberships available at $550.00, initiation - $200.00 stock accrual.”  Could it be true, I wondered.  Could I pony up $750.00 and be a member at LakeView?  I called club manager Pat Cook on May 14 (a Saturday) and she confirmed the truth.  All I had to do was come out a fill in an application and I’d be golfing in a week.

My first task after hanging up was sitting there in my hovel, trying to figure out where I was going to come up with $750.00.  I had no money.  However, I did have a great comic book collection.  That’s right…comic books.  During the past three years I had accumulated a large number of comic books.  Most were popular and included titles like Spider Man, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, X Men and Superman.  I also had lesser known issues from up and comers like ROM and The Spirit.  So I drove over to Larry’s Bookworm where I normally purchased my comics and told him I wanted out – lock, stock and barrel.  Since I kept my collection in impeccable condition, with each issue packageged in acid free plastic bags and the whole collection stored in acid free cardboard boxes,  Larry agreed to buy my books back.  After some wrangling, we arrived at a price of $700.00.  Therefore, I had my money and I was about to become a member of Lakeview.

Hesitant Steps

My first season at Lake View was a learning experience.  For starters, since it was almost June 1^st, I had missed out on the early part of the season.  My first visit to the club occurred on May 21, 1983.  I played alone.