Listing Through Life

In early 1813, American troops and militiamen under General William Henry Harrison built Fort Meigs on the Maumee River to protect Ohio from attacks by the British and Indians.

The enemy attacked on May 1, besieging the fort and bombarding it from across the river. The siege lasted for five days until 1,200 reinforcements arrived. An American force crossed the river and attacked the British guns, but instead of securing their gains and returning to the fort, they chased the retreating British and Indians through the woods where they were counter-attacked. Many Americans were killed, but the fort held. The Indians got bored and left and the British lifted the siege.

Two months later, in July, the enemy attempted to take the fort again. They had no artillery this time, so they tried to fool the Americans into thinking a battle was taking place nearby to lure them out of the fort. It didn’t work. The British and Indians gave up again.

The Americans tore down the large fort and built a smaller one on the site as a supply base. They then went on the offensive and pursued the enemy into Canada. The fort was abandoned after the war and not rebuilt until the 1970s.

We toured the visitor center and then ran a gauntlet of wedding guests to get to the fort.

The monument was erected in 1908.

The 10-acre interior is criss-crossed with traverses, built originally to keep cannonballs and artillery shells from bouncing across the grounds.  The longest one (seen in the photo below), called the Grand Traverse, is the only part of the original fort still in existence, although it’s a lot lower than its previous 14-foot height.

The Grand Battery, overlooking the Maumee River.

One of the blockhouses was set up as it would have looked in 1813. A guy in a uniform was there to tell us about the life of soldiers and their equipment. He was friendly, but uncomfortable when I asked questions outside the bounds of his spiel.

The view from the upper level of the blockhouse

The Maumee River from Croghan’s Battery

This blockhouse had a display on soldiers’ living quarters. The item in front was a punishment device. Offenders were made to straddle it for a period of time.

Looking back into the fort from Wood’s Battery

I’ve watched a fair number of episodes of M*A*S*H, but I wouldn’t call myself a huge fan. I can’t remember Jamie Farr’s character, Corporal Klinger, mentioning Tony Packo’s Cafe in Toledo, but the Internet informs me that he did so in seven episodes. In fact, it was this that made the place famous.

The Internet also informed me that it’s one of the best restaurants in town, so we stopped for lunch when we were in town to visit Fort Meigs.

It’s been around since 1932, serving Hungarian hot dogs and other ethnic foods. I went with the Hot Dog Combo #1 — a “world-famous Tony Packo’s hot dog with  mustard, diced onions and our drippingly delicious secret sauce”, a bowl of  chicken noodle soup and a bowl of mac and cheese. I’m pretty sure the “secret sauce” was just chili, which isn’t my favorite hot dog topping, but everything was undeniably delicious.

My wife got the Cabbage Combo #1 which had a stuffed cabbage with paprika dumplings. It doesn’t sound good to me, but she loved it.

Years ago, Burt Reynolds stopped in for lunch. The owner asked him for an autograph, so Burt grabbed a hot dog bun and a marker. This started a tradition, with every celebrity signing a bun. Cute, but not a good idea. The buns crumbled to dust over time. Since then, they have custom made Styrofoam buns for celebrities to sign, and they’ve hung these all over the restaurant. We weren’t asked to sign.

Here’s one of the buns Jamie Farr signed. I think I spotted four and I didn’t even begin to look at all of them.

They only have two of the original autographs on bread buns remaining — Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. These are on display in a special case.

I can only recall being anywhere near Toledo once before since I was a kid, but if I’m ever in the general vicinity in the future, I’ll go back to Tony Packo’s.

We had some time to kill in and about Springfield, so we spent Saturday afternoon and part of Sunday morning at two huge antique malls along I-70. We made a list of things we wanted to find and by the end of the two days, we’d found them all. I’ve been in quite a few antique malls and these were by far the best. There was a lot of the typical junk — McDonald’s collector glasses from the 70s and stuff like that — but there was also a lot of very nice furniture and other items.

The one we visited on Sunday, Heart of Ohio Antique Center, is advertised as the largest antique mall in the world. I asked the woman at the checkout counter if that was true. She said, “That’s what they say.”

Here’s a random shot of one aisle inside. There were dozens more like this.

I took a series of photos that I posted on facebook under the heading of “Antique Store Nightmares.”

There were some strange items too.

This sign is strange mostly because it was priced at $449.

Some other things I liked that I didn’t buy. This Whistle Soda sign cost $1,789, which is oddly precise.

This bar, from a tavern in Collinsville, Illinois was priced at $4,000.

And a chuck wagon stove that was priced at $895.

I ended up with a couple Pepsi crates and three books by Richard Halliburton. My wife bought a two-drawer end table, a deviled egg plate, an old pair of ice skates, and a fancy plate for display in the dining room. We also bought a biscuit cutter for our daughter.