Seeing Cincinnati Like A Kid 

In what what ways do you enjoy child play in your life these days? 

“When we engage in what we are naturally suited to do  our work takes on the quality of play and it is play that stimulates creativity.“(Linda Naiman)

A genuine fascination with my Midwest U.S. upbringing took a huge nostalgic leap during a pleasurable activity at the Cincinnati Museum Center on our recent road trip visit to this southern Ohio region. Understand to begin that I’ve accumulated in this region of travel so many fun memories of my mid 1960s childhood centered mainly around Cleveland where I grew up. But  I never expected that allotting only one day to visit Cincinnati, two hundred and forty eight miles south on Interstate 71 would  also capture that feeling of youthful playfulness that I so vividly recall. So in this blog I take notice of my observance that morning of Cincy’s  municipal planning decision to convert their old Union Railroad terminal built in 1933, into an extraordinary public space of Art Deco half dome design centered around the city’s historic  lifestyle perspectives. That feat meant for me taking a lengthy tour of its three tier history museum annex on a busy July weekday. This time travel adventure into Cincy’s past thus revealed  to me a fascinating look at the growth of this metropolis in such distinctly different ways in agriculture, industry, transportation, and touristic  travel. 

Of particular interest to me on this visit happened as I browsed the museum’s extensive collection of mid 20th century items for I found  plentiful opportunities to fixate on moving images there through touch, sight, smell, or sound. Take for example the featured  exhibit at the museum entrance depicting a scale model representation of downtown Cincy as I pressed exhibit buttons with sheer fun intentions. For in visualizing these 3-D designs, I imagined myself as a young boy making efficient use of his toy building blocks set to fill our house’s basement play space with self made structure creations. Or along the corridor aptly named “ You Are Here”, I idolized once again several major league baseball stars of my youth by watching films of classic Cincinnati Reds games, listening to their old radio broadcasts,and photographing rare collections of vintage baseball cards, bobble head dolls, stadium scorecards, and dusty fielding mitts. 

Keep in mind that I used to daydream alot as a child upon being cooped up so much in class all day during those frigid Northeast Ohio winters and often longed to find fun places to just be  outside. So to that end I relived such restless memories at the museum section called “Cincinnati In Motion” having fun sitting inside an old street car, admiring the shiny texture of a vintage Studebaker vehicle and strolling along a simulated cobblestone village. Remembering once again my enjoyment in being of rebellious temperament in my youth, I also amused myself in this manner by watching younger kids defy customary rules at the “Public Landing” annex exhibit as they gathered in such a forbidden place as a reconstructed beer parlor.

How rewarding thus it had seemed on this Cincinnati visit to have been given the choice to step back into the spirit of juvenile joyful play I once embraced so powerfully. An important question however remains as to whether I am willing to sustain such fun times to last a lifetime.  Enjoy the photos. 

Key Source:

https://www.cincymuseum.org/historymuseum/