11 Comments
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Andrew's avatar

I would read more!

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Irv Oslin's avatar

Thank you. Feedback is vital now.

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Roger Karkoff's avatar

Ah yes. The rats of Cleveland. I remember some of my Dad's battles to keep them away. More later, as you say.

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Irv Oslin's avatar

Indeed. Keiper Court and West 40th Street — So many encounters with cat-size rats. I’m sure the W. 65th Street area had its share. When taking out the trash on Keiper Court — which was not far from a Lorain Avenue restaurant’s trash cans — I would talk really loud, saying things like, “I ain’t afraid of you rats. Hear me? Get out of here.” Hoping to scare them away before they jumped out of the cans or shadows and scared the shit out of me.

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Roger Karkoff's avatar

Yes, the trash area was scary. Then there's brother Bill with a fishing rod baited with cheese. Even then, I wondered. What the hell are you going to do if you caught one?

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Irv Oslin's avatar

That’s hilarious. I can just see it.

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Cecil Neighbarger's avatar

Not me thinking back to working the Flint, Michigan salvage yard, hucking our Jack knives at the more emboldened trash dragons so we could maintain a relative chain of command.

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Becky R's avatar

My ex used to work at the grain elevator in Jeromesville back in the day. Mid to late 60s. They had huge rats there. He would tell me that they would shoot them during lunch break while eating their sandwiches!

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Irv Oslin's avatar

It was probably safer hunting them with Buicks. Fewer bystanders likely to get killed or maimed.

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Becky R's avatar

You’re probably right. However, there is a bit of a difference in population between Cleveland and Jville. And I think they shot toward the corn cribs with only fields/woods behind them.

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Jan Roberts's avatar

Holy mackerel, Andy!

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