Christmas In Downtown Cleveland

This is the second year that the Cleveland Christmas Tree has been located in Playhouse Square. Here’s a photo of the tree. Enjoy the holiday!

Photo copyright by/courtesy of chriszimmer.blogspot.com

Check out my blog home page for the latest Cleveland information,
All Things Cleveland Ohio.

Cleveland “Must Read” Christmas Gifts

I had the opportunity to read 4 books received from publishers Gray & Company that Clevelanders - past and present - would enjoy. With the Christmas holiday fast approaching, any of these four Cleveland-based books would be a welcome gift for that special Clevelander in your life!

 My favorites – “Cleveland TV Tales” and “Cleveland TV Tales Volume 2”, both authored by Mike and Janice Olszewski (Gray & Company, Publishers). The first book gives an extensive background on the start of television in Cleveland, laced with stories about people whose names are easily recognizable to Clevelanders: Ghoulardi, Dorothy Fuldheim, Page Palmer, and Captain Penny, just to name a few. Volume 2 looks into more recent TV personalities of the 1970s-1990s. Being a lifelong Clevelander, born here in the mid-1950s, these books were a delight to read and brought me back to the time when there were few TV channels from which to chose and how local TV stars came to be. While these books are nostalgic for Cleveland “lifers” like me, they would still be very interesting to anyone who has spent any time in our wonderful city.

My husband is reading “Glory Days in Tribe Town: The Cleveland Indians and Jacobs Field 1994-1997” by Terry Pluto and Tom Hamilton (Gray & Company, Publishers). This book covers the Cleveland Indians in their first years in Jacobs Field and the period of winning seasons. (I remember it well!)  Pluto and Hamilton give a great behind the scenes look at what made the team tick, plus interesting commentary on how “Indians Fever” gripped the city. Sports fans will certainly enjoy reading these insights and reliving such an exciting time in Cleveland’s sports history. (As all Clevelanders know, winning seasons here for any sport have been hard to come by!)

And on the subject of sports: Every Cleveland Browns fan knows The Bone Lady. In fact, even non-Browns fans knows of her. She’s hard to miss on game day with her creative dog bone and Browns themed attire, an homage to the Browns “Dawg Pound.” Her book “The Bone Lady” by Derba Darnall (Gray & Company, Publishers), has the subtitle “Life Lessons Learned as One of Football’s Ultimate Fans.” This story tells how she evolved, both as a person and as The Bone Lady. It’s a fun read that tells of sports but also of personal discovery.



So if you’re stuck in what to get someone for a holiday gift, any one – or all four - of these books would make an affordable gift that would bring some Cleveland joy even after the holidays are over.

All four books are available in most local bookstores and at the following links:

Cleveland TV Tales

Glory Days in Tribe Town

The Bone Lady: Life Lessons Learned as One of Football's Ultimate Fans – A Memoir


(Please note: The link to Amazon is provided for your convenience: I receive no compensation or consideration from Amazon or anyone else if you purchase these books!

Enjoy!

Check out my blog home page for the latest Cleveland information,
All Things Cleveland Ohio.