Beachwood Village Hall (1936) Hangers, Crofuts, Gales, Judds, Neffs, Popes and Lindermes) and his childhood. Lee recalls riding bicycles between Community Drive and Cleveland Trust Company, then located on the corner of Cedar and Warrensville Center Roads. He and his friends would also frequent the bowling alley just down the road, and hung out with friends at the Standard Oil station on the southwest corner of Cedar and Green Roads, owned by Tom Sexton, who was also Beachwood Police Chief. “I recall lazy summer days, chasing butterflies with my friend, Scottie Forbush; throwing baseball cards against the garage wall with the Blossom boys; riding bikes with friends through the newly developed (1948-50) housing behind our home (developed by Vincent Aveni of Hilltop Realty), walking in the back fields with friends; and climbing large Maple trees on Community Drive to carve our initials at the very top,” Lee recalled. He also remembers singing Christmas carols while riding in a wooden sleigh led by strong draft horses, and pulled by Ben Gale. “I remember being told one year, just before Christmas, that Ben Gale had died suddenly of a heart attack and we would no longer have a sleigh ride. Ben’s wife, Emily Gale, ultimately married Dudley Blossom, Jr. and became well known as the founder of Blossom Music Center,” Lee recalled. “Mr. Blossom also died of a heart attack.” “My memories of the Hangar are vivid,” Lee continued. “I became a swimmer and diver, beginning at age six, under the tutelage of Edwin Godfrey, who had been an Olympic high diver in the 1932 Olympics and came to the Hangar to teach young children of the member families.” Among his great memories were the neighborhood barbecues in the community’s park where families would gather twice a week in the summer months. After dinner, the children would leave and parents would sit by the fire and drink together until the wee hours, Lee told us. “I have great memories of roaming the neighborhoods with Susan Fisher, Martha Hanger, Emily Gale, Bun Blossom, Scottie Forbush, David Judd, Eddie Judd, Clay Hanger and Sally Hanger during these barbecues,” Lee said. “We were constantly in each other’s houses and lives, and the memories and bonds are still very strong. “Beachwood has always been a tight-knit city,” Lee concluded. “It’s been that way since the community was built.” 23500 East Baintree Rd. – Walker family gives children a ride in the sleigh being pulled by the horse named Fannie. (1935) “I recall lazy summer days, chasing butterflies with my friend, Scottie Forbush; throwing baseball cards against the garage wall with the Blossom boys; riding bikes with friends through the newly developed (1948-50) housing behind our home (developed by Vincent Aveni of Hilltop Realty), walking in the back fields with friends; and climbing large Maple trees on Community Drive to carve our initials at the very top.” – Lee Chilcote Ratner, Albert Levin and Vince Aveni. “Homes on the streets off Cedar Road were developed in the ‘40s, and the roads off Richmond, between Cedar and Fairmount, were developed after the war,” Lee said. “One of my great memories is of my uncle, Bill Chilcote, returning from World War II. He had been in the Army Air Force, stationed somewhere in the United States, and was discharged in 1946. Although I was only four at the time, I can clearly remember a huge fire starting when my Uncle Bill was firing flares into the back fields behind our home. My father was a volunteer fireman, and he, along with other neighbor volunteers, had to go put the fire out. I vividly recall standing on the window sill in my sister’s room and seeing the flames off in the distance,” Lee told us. “My father told me later that the fire had come dangerously close to our house. I can still remember seeing the blackened fields the next morning and for many months thereafter. Growing up on Community Drive in the Village of Beachwood shaped Lee’s life. He remembers the old-time families (Chilcotes, Fishers, Cronins, 10 Beachwood Buzz n July 2015