A stroll down memory lane

Like most people during the pandemic, I'm spending much more time at home than I'm used to. Finding things to do during this isolation can be difficult. Personally I have found that I can take a nap in the morning, another in the afternoon and still sleep through the night.My wife, on the other hand, is a bit more resourceful than me. She thought cleaning up the basement would be a better use of our time. OK, mostly HER time! Remember I spend a lot of time napping.I can credit her for this week's column. While working in the basement she discovered a box full of items from my father's house that we acquired when he passed away over 20 years ago. As I went through the box, I discovered a couple of sports pages from the Advertiser-Tribune dated Feb. 24, 1964.So if you are ready for a stroll down memory lane …Sports editor Bob Harmon wrote about the last Seneca County League basketball tournament. In those days a team had to win or be the runner-up in the league tournament to advance to sectional play.In the 1964 tournament, Attica High School coached by Glenn Brooks, played a Hopewell Loudon squad coached by Duane Warns. There was a lot of pressure in this tournament since only the top two teams moved on. In fact, in 1963 Bloomville came to the SCL tourney undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the entire state. When they lost the opening game to Old Fort, their season was suddenly over.A packed Seiberling gym was the site for the contest and even though both teams knew by then that they would play at least one more game, there was a trophy at stake. Attica was the regular season SCL champ and made it two pieces of hardware for the trophy case by edging H-L 56-52 in overtime.A multitude of awards were handed out after the game was over. Paul Steffani from Bettsville won the J.F. Hoffman Memorial Sportsmanship trophy. I don't recall what kind of sport Steffani was, but I do remember what kind of shooter he was. He averaged 34.5 points per game as a senior and I can tell you this much, he could fill it up!Cheerleaders were also recognized with Bloomville being selected as the best squad. The four team members included Marlene Valentine, Janet Zellner, Sandy Altman and Carol Hossler.Bettsville and New Riegel tied for second with the Bobcat cheerleaders being Phyllis Hull, Debbie Hansen, Margaret Lynch and Grace Baker. The NR squad included Susan Reinhart, Sharon Clouse, Diana Logsdon and Betty LaFontaine.The All Seneca County League teams were announced. I found it interesting that Attica, which won both the regular season and tournament trophies, did not land a player on the first team. That first team consisted of Stefanni of course, Bloomville's Jim Thallman (who averaged nearly 25 points per game), Ed Schubert of Hopewell-Loudon and Old Fort's Pete Cantu and Jim Magers.The Eagles of Attica had three second-team members including Paul Bordner, Chuck Wentz and Bob Keaton. Republic's Duane Lewis and Hopewell-Loudon's Ron Crum completed the team.The All-Tournament team was selected by veteran official Art Corfman. It included many of the guys mentioned above as well as Attica's Dick Hosang, Hopewell-Loudon's Jim Omlor and Bloomville's Larry Kuntz.A couple of other basketball scores were mentioned as Columbian, coached by Harry Groman and led by the "Big Three" of Cliff Dull, Carl Assenheimer and Jim Eisenhard, beat Huron to advance to the Class AA sectional finals. The other score to catch my eye was York defeating Green Springs to advance to sectional action.How many of you remember those two schools? If so, you might remember that York High School advanced to the state finals before losing in 1963!Another sport had some coverage as a local bowling team took the lead in the State Elks bowling tournament. Marvin's Delicatessen from the Bowl-O-Drome rolled a 3,042 total that included 343 pins of handicap. Bill Valentine led the way with his "soaring" 583 series. Other team members were: Wayne Zahn 574, Captain William Felton 556, Bob Moses 518 and Marvin Nesselhauf 468.With two more months of competition slated, I wonder if that score held up.I was fascinated with some ads I found on the pages. The LK Restaurant had their weekly specials listed for the week with Tuesday's being salisbury steak. The remainder of the week included creamed shrimp on rice, beef stroganoff, scallops (this must have been before the all-you-can-eat fish on Fridays), barbecued ham sandwich and chow mein.All of these meals sold for just 97 cents!A Firestone store ad hawked new tires for $12 (plus tax and trade in tire) with your choice of whitewalls or blackwalls. The offer came from manager Joe Ritzler. Ed Garcia's Tiffin Ford was offering no cash needed for car repairs. My favorite though had to be the ad from E.A. Bush Chevrolet.Their February special had a coupon. You could get your headlights aimed for 49 cents with the coupon. Normally it would cost you a buck and a half. I do remember those days when one headlight would be pointing at the sky while the other one would allow you to search the ditch beside the road!There was also a two-line item that seemed out of place considering it came from a city much more famous for a treaty that was signed there. Here's the clip.GHENT – A Swedish car maker will open a shop in Belgium. Sometimes you feel like a little more information is needed.Finally, a small message at the bottom of one of the pages announced that The Original OLD German Beer Is Coming To TIFFIN. I have no clue. If you do, let me know!