Other sports and recreation

Although Mom and Dad followed the Cleveland Indians baseball and Cleveland Browns football teams, I don’t remember them as being avid fans who had to stop everything else to listen to or watch the game. Maybe I’m wrong??

Mom and Dad were both good swimmers and enjoyed this sport. They shared their love of water and sun with us at our Lake Erie beach holiday each summer. They were our first swimming teachers. While growing up, Mom took us out to Sandy Beach on Main Street Extension (?) on [one of the] Turkeyfoot lake(s) for formal Red Cross swim lessons during the summer. And Dad swam laps daily at the downtown Akron YMCA as a measure of physical therapy after he was diagnosed with MS.

But I’m willing to bet that if we could ask them, they would both claim that dancing was their favorite thing to do. When we lived on Forge Street, and before MS took away this pleasure from them, I remember that if there was a babysitter taking care of us on Friday or Saturday night, it was probably so they could go out dancing: Myers Lake, Chippewa Lake and the dance hall that predated Borie’s Bowling Alley on Market Street where Big Bands would play when they came to town.

Hazel Mae enjoyed golf and racquet sports

I seem to remember that Mom took up golfing for a while in her 60s but I’m kind of vague on this. It runs in my mind that she might have used a set of clubs that Cindy didn’t need anymore. I suppose she played with a woman’s league but I’m not sure. I don’t remember hearing that she played golf when she was younger. I do know that she enjoyed watching golf and tennis matches on TV.

She had enjoyed tennis since high school, although there might not have been such a thing as a girls’ tennis team back then so she probably played informally with friends?? I can’t remember ever hearing that Dad played tennis or seeing Mom play with friends when I was a child like I can remember Dad playing golf with his friends. But I think she got a kick out of trying to teach us how to play the game as we children got old enough. I can remember trying to play tennis with her at the Firestone Park courts in the mid-1950s. And those old wooden racquets were sooo heavy compared to today’s equipment. She took great pleasure in watching Rick take up the sport and play well on the Garfield HS team.

I do remember both Mom and Dad playing badminton with friends at summer picnics and even after Dad couldn’t participate anymore you could usually talk Mom into joining a game. For several years we had a ping pong table in the basement at Ido Avenue. It was tough to play down there because the heating pipes were only slightly above our heads so shots that bounced too high would boomerang off the pipes at crazy angles. Seems like Dad could play a ‘mean game’ even when he was holding on to the table with one hand for balance. I think Mom was pretty good too – but I don’t remember playing with her as much.

Dick and golf

I’m not sure when Dick took up the sport of golf. Maybe it was after he joined Akron Advertising Art and found friends there that introduced him to this game? But I do know that he owned a set of golf clubs and somewhere in the 1940s, if I was very good during the week and he didn’t have a golf partner (or maybe if I was getting totally on Mom’s nerves and she needed some time away from me), once in awhile I would go out with Dad on Saturday morning for his practice round of golf. I would walk the course with him, he would let me wash his ball after each hole and maybe, if there was no one close behind us, he might let me take a practice putt or two. I can’t remember him using a golf cart or caddy – I’m guessing that he carried his clubs. I certainly was too little at 7 or 8 (?) to carry them. He probably played only 9 holes on any given day. Although I’m not positive where he played, I think I remember going to a course on Bailey Rd between Cuyahoga Falls and Tallmadge and Akron (MapQuest says it is called Brookledge Golf Course) and maybe to a little course “down in the valley” on Peninsula or Ira roads. Maybe. Golf was one of the first things that Dad had to give up when MS destroyed his balance but he always maintained an interest in the sport and loved to watch golf matches on TV. And it puts a smile on my face to think of the pleasure he must get from watching Jim’s near-professional golf game.

My parents – my heroes

I would like to echo something that Rick said recently. I was so blessed by God to have the parents that He gave me. Before I start to remember all the little details and stories about them I need to acknowledge the love and stability that they rooted my life in, the brave way they faced their own devastating health problems. If they despaired and wept over their broken dreams, it was in private. They never reached out in anger to hurt those not suffering as they were, to blame God for deserting them. They accepted those imperfections of the world that could not be changed and got on with their life, enjoying the family, friends and hobbies that made them the fun and personable people to be around that they were. They provided a model that I hope I will always remember to strive to emulate.

Hazel Mae Bock – the basics

She was born Hazel Mae Malkmus on 4 Jul 1915 in Tiffin, Ohio. She loved having a birthday that coincided with our national holiday because it was always an occasion for a picnic and gathering of family. She graduated from Tiffin High School and attended the Business School at Tiffin University for a year (I’m not sure, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2572&nm=Tiffin-University ). Her schooling was interrupted by a lack of tuition (this was during the Great Depression) and she found a job working as a secretary in Columbus in various State offices. It was in Columbus that she met Dick Bock. She married on 13 Apr 1940 when 25 years old and devoted herself to being a full-time homemaker and mother from that time forward. After Dick died in 1972, Hazel Mae rejoined the work force as a clerk in the Summit County Treasurer’s office. After ten (?) years of service there, she retired to enjoy time with her family and travels with friends. In the early 1990s as it became apparent that Hazel Mae’s memory was failing, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. She died at Rockynol Nursing Home on 30 Nov 2000 at the age of 85.

Dick Bock – the basics

He was born Charles Richard Bock on 8 Nov 1911 and died on 26 Mar 1972 at the age of 60. As a child at home in Sandusky, Ohio, he was called Dick so as not to be confused with his father, Charles Bock (1881 – 1947). Dick graduated from Sandusky High School where he participated in sports, prepared to go to college, and pursued his hobby of drawing. After graduation he attended Ohio State University for a semester or two, studying to become the [family recommended] engineer. But finding that his talents lay elsewhere, he switched to the Columbus Art School (I’m not sure, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_College_of_Art_and_Design ) and studied commercial art. In 193n he officially changed his name to Richard Charles Bock to reduce the confusion about what his name really was. In 1940 he married Hazel Mae Malkmus. They began married life in Marion, Ohio, but soon moved to Akron (1943) when Dick took a new job with Akron Advertising Art. Together, Dick and Hazel Mae raised a family of four children: Judy, Jim, Kathy and Rick. In 1950 (?) Dick was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. He continued to work at [modified] art jobs with AAA but eventually had to take early retirement because of the severity of his disability. As this disease progressed he managed to stay mobile using a walker but in the spring of 1972 he fell and broke an arm. He was hospitalized at Akron General during the beginning of his convalescence but died there from a stroke on Palm Sunday.