Recently at the 2009 SGS Chapter Associates meeting the Union-Miles troupe started a near riot when they claimed that their neighborhood produced the best sandwiches in town. Representatives from Central, Kinsman, Riverside, and Collinwood begged to differ and all gave their best arguments about their communities mouth watering corned beef, grilled cheese, pulled pork, and cheesteak options. Yet it was Ant from the St. Clair-Superior crew that transfixed the carnivorous audience by telling them about the eggplant parm sandwich  at Gust Gallucci’s. He almost lost them at eggplant but when he described the roasted red peppers, the heavenly bread, and mounds of melted cheese others started to listen. He offered to buy the non-believers a sandwich after the meeting, but only Scorpio Diamante from the Chagrin/Kinsman border area took him up on it. Diamante later admitted that for $5.25 the eggplant parm was a ridiculous deal.  He also added that, “what made this eggplant different was that it was not slimy but firm and full of flavor.” Next time you are in Midtown take a trip to Galluci’s for this delicacy. Most likely you will also end up buying something else from one of Cleveland’s oldest Italian specialty shops.     

This Higbees ad was printed in the Plain Dealer on March 30, 1909. SGS was struck by this 100 year old ad for a few different reasons. Although the artist fashioned a mighty handsome woman it is hard to believe that her waist could support this hairdo.  It is also always interesting to compare the prices of yesteryear to the current market.  Check out the current price for waist lingerie from this undergarment house. Please also check out this nice companion piece below that we found in the Call and Post. 

Dainty “Underneaths”Make Summer Pleasant: Cleveland Call and Post; June 10, 1961 

The Cleveland IMPACT Program was an initiative put forward in 1973 by Cleveland’s beloved Mayor Ralph J. Perk. Mayor Perk, noting a great migration from the City, instituted this program in hopes of allaying the public’s fear of poor people. This 30 million dollar six pronged effort*, set its sights on the externalities of the drug trade.

Of the efforts that IMPACT touted as effective remedies for our city’s ills was the Ohio State Bureau of Drug Abuse’s (BUDA) storefront methadone program on West 25th Street. Affectionately known as “Buddha” this operation is remembered by old-timers as a hot mess of a treatment program. Prior to opening in the morning “patients” swapped Leonard Faymore stories, ingested barbiturates, and mapped out capers for the upcoming day. (more…)

The accordion may be a joke of an instrument to some but in Cleveland this musical contraption is held in high reverence.  SGS was thumbing through some old photographs when we came across this pic of Buday Music Shop.  It had us talking about how amazing and fantastic it was that Cleveland was able to support a business such as this one from the early 1950s to 1990.  Owner John Buday passed away in 2001, but his legacy of tinkering away at countless squeezeboxes on West 25th is not forgotten. For more photos of Buday Music Shop click here.

 Machete Snacks

SGS promotes the way it is, not the way it was or should be. A four client action team providing Universal Services to those in need.

Telephone polls courtesy of Broadway Avenew.

 If you like fizz in your Ginger Ale don’t buy it here.

SGS ALL-WAVE STANDARD!

Stunningly combined all-wave standard! See the controls, insert the access, and enclose your function. The SGS Standard is an individual program with a 3-position reject system. Just return to the forefront and your vision is illuminated. For a fantastic price a life-cycle system is at your fingertips. Program select features allow you to manually eject your indicator. Always remember there is no standard unless it’s the SGS Standard! Frequency response to children under 12 is limited.

This phenomenal piece of signage decorates Fulton Rd. on the building of the Geijin Ryu Minjutsu Academy.

One of the more picturesque moments in this bailiwick occurred not too far from Geijin Ryu Minjutsu. During the summer months of ‘93 an enterprising individual parked the spoils of a truck hijacking near the corner of Meyer and Fulton. In less than 6 hours the entrepreneur and his crew managed to sell off 50 preassembled blue mountain bikes to the neighborhood’s youth. Blue bikes floated through 2nd district as though they were a flock migratory birds.  For the remainder of the day fiends and foes alike vicariously took part in the innocence of a child’s aimless summer ride. A brief reprieve from summer suffering this day was.

Soon thereafter the neighborhood returned to her normal state; fiends had appropriated most of the bikes, liquidating them for their sins of choice. The few that remained were commandeered by older kin whose dream it was to one day get beyond retail and return to Meyer with a truck of their own.