Twelve O’Clock Club

By HELEN C. JOHANNSEN

In the winter of 1973, Helen C. Johannsen conceived the idea of organizing a fun meeting for the senior citizens of the Birmingham area. On January 18, 1973, fifteen interested people met at the Birmingham Church Fellowship hall for a tureen dinner. The afternoon was spent in singing old time favorites, playing cards and games.

Since we always met at noon, it was decided to name our group the Twelve O’Clock Club, meeting the second Wednesday of each month. Now we have several younger people who enjoy fellowship with us.

Through the years we have visited many points of interest, have seen slides of various places and have had several enlightening speakers.

One interesting visit was to Dr. Byron Merrick’s home at Berlin Heights with his fine collection of music boxes and dolls from around the world, as well as his beautiful tree peonies in full bloom in May.

We toured Edison’s birthplace and museums at Milan, Rutherford B. Hayes’ birthplace and his museum at Fremont, known as Spiegel Grove.

We were escorted through the South Shore Packing Plant at Vermilion where we observed olives and pickles being packed for shipment.

We toured the huge greenhouse at Kipton, now known as Green Circle Growers.

One summer we chartered a bus to go into Cleveland to take a boat trip up the Cuyahoga River on the steamer, Goodtime. We also broused through the West Side Market and traveled through the flats of Cleveland.

By chartered bus we have gone to Mohican State Park and Kingwood Gardens, the Amish country where we went through Heini’s Cheese Factory, a quilt shop, the Warther Museum and Button House and saw the huge 180 foot cyclorama in Berlin, depicting the evolution and history of the Anabaptist faith, which is painted in oil by Heinz Gaugel, a Mennonite. While in the Amish country, we dined at the Alpine- Alpa Restaurant where the largest cuckoo clock in the world is housed on the roof of the restaurant.

Speakers who have proved most interesting and informative were Judy Prince Robinson, loan manger of the Citizens Home and Savings Bank, John Goebel, director of Firelands Boy Scout Camp, who talked on patriotism and Professor Adrian Karmazyn of Lorain Community College who talked on his native country Russia.

Leah Blackert of Norwalk entertained us at one meeting with her inspirational accordion music and singing.

Slides shown by people who had been on a Delta Queen cruise up the Mississippi River, a tour of Alaska and the Holy Land, as well as slides of flowers grown in the Birmingham area were most interesting.

Mary Lou Frazier, a nurse in Birmingham, has been at several of our meetings to take blood pressures.

Many picnics have been enjoyed over the years.

We have had as many as 42 in attendance at our tureen dinners.

The club is not organized, has no officers and no dues. Each member takes a turn in acting as hostess.