It's a pitcher. It's a storage bin. It's meant for beer beverage but came loaded with burgers and fries. It's from a park that was on borrowed time. If you're from Cleveland, you surely know of Cedar Point. Cedar Point is in Sandusky, Oh. It'a about an hour from Cleveland. Of course, ask anybody from Cleveland and they will say It's Cleveland's amusement park. Now, if you lived in Toledo, it's your park. The rest of Ohio? King's Island.

Even myself, I didn't know much about Geauga Lake. I'd only been there once. It was for a work party, and we had beer beverage even though most of us were too young to drink. It was the year after they had opened the "Raging Wolf Bobs" wooden coaster. I think the year before, the party was held at Sea World Cleveland which was across from the actual Geauga Lake (a real lake!)

I guess back then, the place wasn't known for being a tidy amusement park. It was sort of old and run down.  Still, it served the locals and every summer they had a slew of commercials. When they added the water park and had one of the first giant wave pools, they really pressed. It sounded like a toilet to me. The wave would swoop over and you'd piss yourself. Lot's of fun to be had. Wear shower shoes.

Ahhh, but you see Snoopy... He wasn't Geauga Lakes' mascot "Geauga Dog". That was a fursuited character. I did see his molded/furred head for sale in the gift shop for $450 when they were selling off all the remnants of the amusement park. More on that in a moment.

The park was bought by the Six Flags corporation several years ago. They decided to pump a bunch of money into Geauga Lake and make it an exciting place to spend a day without driving that hour to Sandusky. They added several rides and major state of the art roller coasters. There was one you hung from a chariot seat to ride, one where you sat four across and had no floor. There was a new hybrid wood/steel coaster that hauled ass and gave you a fly from your seat feeling. They added a coaster that shat you from one side, went through a loop and then you went backwards the same way. They added another "shatting" coaster that sent you up a spiral and backwards up a straightaway and rocked you back and fourth several times. Then they added a coaster where you flew like Superman.

WOW! That meant, with the addition of a kiddie coaster, Geauga Lake was now an 9 coaster thrill park called "Worlds Of Adventure". Plus they had several "flat" carnival rides and then they bought Sea World and put a all new water park on the other side. Six Flags really made a go of it.  They were the major attraction all up and down the super slab. Ohio had three MAJOR parks. Holy Pirogi's, it didn't work!

I wasn't a amusement park goer at all. I would have loved to experience the Six Flags era. It must have been great, or at least less grubby than it had been. Maybe they actually had someone roaming the park scraping bubble gum and grease and vomit from the concrete. Yeah, Six Flags did too much, too fast. As well as some of their other properties, Cleveland was not making that much money. Other than American Coaster Enthusiasts, I don't know that anybody flew to Cleveland to go to Geauga Lake rather than to Cedar Point.

So, Six Flags sold the whole sheebang to..... wait for it... CEDAR POINT! *dun dun dun* Hmmmm, it really wasn't a winner but it took away the competition and got some really new coasters that they could use at their other Cedar Fair parks. That's GREAT. We want the park! We will keep it open! Whoops, two years went by and gee wouldn't this coaster be much better in that park?

Herbie Bearclaw (Mutt from the Sunday Funday Pawpet Show) is a huge fan of the coasters and his enthusiasm led me to get a season pass for the Cedar Fair parks in 2007. Of course, they had removed their impulse spiral thingy and their fly like Superhost thingy, closed the former smaller  water park (which went to green algae we'd see when riding other rides) and never ran the broken down space needle tall landmark thingy. I even told the gal that signed me up for a season pass that I'd be using it mostly at Cedar Point. (Season pass works at all the Cedar Fair parks.)

But then, I went inside and rode the rides.  I was working overnight and the park was a short detour from where I worked. Therefore, I'd leave my house by about 6:30, ride the rides for a few hours, get dinner and work all night. The best ride was the floorless "Dominator". It really made you feel like you were flying several times. I think I had 156 rides total on it. (Yes I counted.) When September came, the last weekend was "Octoberfest". I enjoyed it, but the rumors were flying and then, it was gone.

If you do look on the web, you'll find all sorts of stuff about the closing and pictures of it's condition now. While I was going there, it was really well kept. Like Cedar Point. Geauga Lake also had a small "resort hotel" that was most likely a former Holiday Inn with a indoor "Holidome". It had a really nice enclosed pool area and they had a few restaurants and a gift shop. I stopped in only once to see it and get some grub. That's where I got the above. "Geauga Lake and Wildwater Kingdom" plastic pitcher with lid. It came with 5 "slider" burgers on top of some fries. It was pretty good with a cold beer BURP beverage.

The next year, I had purchased another season pass, but this time I bought it at Cedar Point. I decided I'd go back to check out "Wildwater Kingdom" which was the part of the park Cedar Point decided to leave in business. I got this bag from the gift shop that was loaded with debris from Geauga Lake. I bought a magnet with Woodstock and Snoopy with their backs to us looking at an evening picture of all the rides that existed from the years before 2007. Crap like that. I'm sure they likely still have some of that stuff all these years later.

I use this piece of junk to house a few other pieces of junk. It has SNOOPY on it. It can't be junk! Speaking of places that don't exist anymore...

You just don't find anything more worthy of the title "junk" until you see that I save plastic bags! I'm no hoarder. Really. Everybody saves plastic bags and kazoos and fake cigars right? RIGHT? It's an ALCO bag. When I first found ALCO, they were a small "WallyKmarTargay" like store that was open in Vermilion, Ohio. They were a small company, but they were making a profit each year. Not a ton of profit, but a profit. I think they only had 5 stores in Ohio, most in Northwest  Ohio near the Indiana border.  Vermilion was the company's northernmost store and it was a good hour from the next outlet. They made money on it? According to the internal awards about sales numbers on their walls that went to the bathrooms, they were in the top third of the company stores. Makes sense, the nearest KWalTar was at least a half hour away.

I liked the store, and would visit every few months. I didn't buy much, but I liked the fact that it was in a former Fishers Big Wheel. A former chain from the 80's when Zayre and Gold Circle were still around and one that was in my then hometown of Avon Lake.  I even bought their generic ALCO pops a few times.  Unfortunately, the owners sold the company to an investment firm. That meant the good ship ALCO wasn't long for the world and sure enough, three years later, a 103 year old company was no more. What a BAG! Low prices, EVERY DAY!

Two other bits of junk are in the Geauga Lake beer pitcher and dust catcher. Some darts and decorative marbles. Don't I throw ANYTHING out? You should see my stacks of old entertainment news rags and Guitar Center catalogs.

I bought these darts from a dollar store. I don't have a dart board. Well, I do, but it's for the kind that have magnets at the end. My brother played darts and was in a dart league. They were a dollar. The feel like they might be pro darts, but I don't know. Hmmm, think these will go in the trash. Nahh, they are in my Geauga Lake Snoopy Beer Kooozie and porta potty. Better not poo when these darts are in there. If I #1, just make sure I'm not bombed and fall on top...okay I'll move on...

Come on! While we're YOUNG! Decorative marble glass.  Close up taken with a Schneider-Kreuznach lensed Kodak cam. There are a few tasteless and even bad jokes I could make up about these, but, the hell with it. More junk I'm never even going to use. Besides, I was looking for a blue one. :)

ARF! -Ric