One More for Donnie

Written by CHARLES A. PETERSON, The Newark Advocate

GRANVILLE -- Retired Aladdin Restaurant chef Don Snelling is being remembered not only for the scrumptious omelets and burgers he made, but also for his contributions to Granville High School sports.
  Snelling was found dead Thursday morning at a friend's home. He was 55.
  A spokeswoman for the Licking County Coroner's Office said an autopsy will be performed today. The cause of death was ruled as not suspicious, she said.
  Snelling died just six days after he retired as the operator of the Aladdin. He worked there for 45 years, taking it over in the mid-1990s. He started busing tables there at the age of 10.
  Among the reasons Snelling retired were his health, he said in an Advocate story about his retirement published Dec. 30.
  Ben Rader, who owns the downtown Granville building in which the Aladdin is located, said many old friends and well-wishers stopped at the Aladdin on Dec. 31 to wish Snelling luck on his last day.
  Rader added that he saw Snelling on Wednesday and found him in good spirits, planning to relax for a while before deciding what to do next.
"  He will be missed," said Rader, who plans to reopen the restaurant under new management. "Don was a master of the grill, and a pleasure to watch when the place was busy on Saturday mornings."
  Linda and Steve Scott, of Granville, often had breakfast Thursday mornings at the Aladdin and already had missed their routine visit this week.
  "Steve and I have been regular breakfast customers for years," Linda said. "Whenever you walked in the door, you knew Don was going to be there and you knew you were going to get a great breakfast."
  Snelling, a 1973 Granville High School graduate, had not retired as the scorekeeper for the GHS boys basketball team, however, and manned the book at the team's home game Monday night against Zanesville. A replacement was being sought Thursday for tonight's Blue Aces home game, athletics department secretary Laura Whittington said.
  Besides keeping the basketball and baseball scorebooks for the Blue Aces, former GHS athletics director Tim Dennison said Snelling often provided banquets for athletic teams at a reduced cost or even no cost, never asking for anything in return.
  "He did a lot of meals for the teams. He was just the best fan in the world," Dennison said. "He wouldn't cheer from his position at the scorer's table, but he was always supportive and always there."
  GHS teacher Scott Carpenter, who stepped down as boys basketball coach in 2010 after six seasons, estimated Snelling kept the scorebook for 17 years.
  "The entire time I was here, before the first-round tournament game, he provided the team and coaches with a steak dinner -- completely donated," Carpenter said. "When we won a few games, he would do it at cost for us a couple more times.
  "I can't say enough positive things for his relationship with our basketball program."
  GHS classmate Bill Cost, who owns a photo studio in Newark, said everybody knew Don.
  "Donnie was a great guy," Cost said. "We grew up together, and I've known him since we were kids. He worked hard, and he did everything he could to help the community and schools."

This is probably only of local interest, but it has affected me. For the last probably forty years, when I thought of going to Granville or Denison, it always included a visit to see Don and have lunch at the Aladdin. A politician you expect to get voted out, a businessman to lose his job or get transferred, but Donnie was a "constant" .... you always expected him to be there. He had a long list of friends and acquaintances, Denison Alumni, some very famous people knew Don. If you went to Denison, you knew of the Aladdin and Don. Eisner, Davidson, Holebrook and so many more. Now, the Aladdin will close, the building remodeled, a new business, a new name, and a part of my history, and that of the area, will be forgotten. The tragedy of the situation, leave a business that has been your whole life, and then pass away. To me it is a very sad, tragic ending, and his passing will be noted for a while, and then forgotten. R.I.P. Don Snelling.

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3 - The Fateful Moment

The Fateful Moment

In that fateful moment, Jessie looked up in to the eyes of Walt, and some spark in her was kindled, it was a feeling, an emotion that she had never experienced. She was left breathless, as if some unseen hand had brushed across her face, she blushed, she knew something was going to change in her life, and she was both full of wonder, and somewhat dazed.

Jessie was aglow with emotion. She believed she had at last found a path in her life that she had been searching for. She was happy with Jim, but, there was something lacking in their relationship.

"I must find an excuse to meet Walt again," she said to herself. She had met him on one other occasion, at the Arcade, Jim had hastily introduced them, but they barely looked at each other, it was a brief encounter. Without further argument with herself she turned back toward the feed store, deep in thoughts of how she could arrange her meeting with Walt. She felt a strange attraction to him, as if she had known him for a long time, he was so familiar to her.

Walt skillfully backed his loaded truck toward the rear coal chute at the Arcade, as Jim was giving him hand signals to insure correct alignment so that he did not hit the rubber bumpers too hard. Jim had placed them carefully at the rear of the building. Jim knew that Walt was some sort of a scoundrel, but never let on, and was always extremely cordial to Walt on his tri weekly deliveries. But Jim was always guarded with him, never too open.

"A little more Walt, easy, that's good .... Go ahead and drop the load, Jim instructed. As the huge truck stopped, Walt swung the door open, and with a trained flourish, swung back up on the rear of the truck, and with the motor running, reached for the transverse drive lever, that operated the stuffing box, that operated the "dump box," as Walt called it.

Walt slipped, ever so slightly, but enough for his hand to slip off the lever, and the momentum of his weight forced his right hand and arm in to the cam nut bolt adjuster, which was the essential moving part of the transverse drive. In an instant, it pulled his arm in up to his shoulder. Jim instinctively moved in to action, pulled the lever to its neutral position, and cautiously went to Walt's aid.

"Walt, its in all the way up your shoulder, can you feel anything?"

"Jim, I can't feel anything, but I think I am getting weak ... I'm losing a lot of blood, I don't think I am going to make it. Is there someone we can call to get me to the hospital, Walt inquired?"

Jim shouted to Harold, "Quick, get on the Power Plant Phone, and call the hospital, they have to get someone over here right away ... NO, I think I can drive this rig, come with me, and we will take him directly to the hospital, I think it will be quicker."

Jim had observed Walt before, and had seen how deftly he moved through the gear sequence, and was confident that he too could drive the big rig.

Jim was finally able to back the truck out, head up Church Street, and make his way over to Hudson to the City Hospital. He came to an abrupt halt in front of the entrance marked Emergency, and had Harold go inside to find some help.

Shortly, three white uniformed orderly's came rushing out and jumped up on the big rig. They hurried to Walt, asked a few knowledgeable questions, and slowly helped Walt extract what was left of his arm. Walt slumped to the cold steel deck of the rig, and his lifeless body fell in a heap. One of the white uniformed orderlies shook his head after checking for a pulse.

"Its too late, he has expired, I think from a tremendous blood loss," the white uniformed orderly stated.

Later on, Jim called the trucking company and informed them of their loss, and told them the location of the now idle big rig, and then, he and Harold started the sad walk back to the Arcade.

There was a slight chill in the air, the temperature was dropping rather fast, so Jim knew he had to get back to the Arcade basement, and increase the coal consumption of his precious auger driven unit, that in turn would produce more heat for his beloved Arcade.

As Jim headed down the stairs, he looked up and saw Jessie standing there .. "I heard there was an accident and that you took someone to the City Hospital. Who was it Jim, she asked?"

“It was Walt, the big rig truck driver, remember, I introduced you to him on one occasion here. I realize it was a brief introduction, but I think you might remember him."

Jessie turned pale and slumped to the floor in a feint.

"That's strange," Jim thought to himself, "it was such a brief introduction, Hmmmm."

Mr. Snedeker .....

A few people have asked me recently about my encounter with Mr. Snedeker, and coincidence or not, we were driving down Granville Road two days ago, drove in front of "that" house, and something got my attention. Something, or someone, was silhouetted in a second floor window, with an arm raised, in a waving motion. It made me remember my first encounter with him.

The incident I will never forget. In 1969, I had a tavern here in town, and one evening, a good friend, will call him Jim, was going to "do the town" with one of my customers. I drove them to the customers home, so he could get out of his work clothes and get in to something more appropriate for the evening ahead.

It was an old house, as all of them were in this particular neighborhood of Newark, Ohio. I pulled up in front of the house, and was able to park. We walked up the walk, on to the porch, and through the large, heavy, glass front door, and in to the foyer of this older, but well kept home.

The foyer connected to a large hallway, filled with interesting objects, that intrigued me. Jim went in to the study to wait, and I stayed out in the hall, roaming around.

The family cat came up to me, and I petted him behind the ears and said a few nice things to him. He apparently accepted me, and went off in to the study where Jim was waiting.

A number of times I thought I felt something touch me, or something game me some very strange feelings. Each time I would turn to look, nothing would be there. I continued checking everything out, but for some reason, I did not feel that I was alone, yet nothing was there.

They were all ready to go, so I drove them downtown and dropped them off, and went home, thinking no more about the incident.

The next afternoon, Jim came in, and we got to talking about the evening before.

"Darndest thing, I was sitting there, waiting, and a cat walked into the room and came over to me. I was just getting ready to pet him, when suddenly I felt a cold draft, and just that time that cat stopped and I swear the hair on his neck stood straight out on him, and his tail shot up in the air. It was the strangest thing. The air in that room got cooler, and it was a few moments until that cats hair settled down and he got back to normal."

He said he mentioned the incident to his friend, who replied, "Oh, that's just Mr. Snedeker, a ghost that lives here. The story goes that he was a caretaker here when this was the parish house for the Catholic Church down the street. Those who happened to be here when it happened said he was a devout Catholic, had a heart attack and died on the stairway. There were no Priests available, and he died without receiving his last rites. So, they say he still lives in this house. He doesn't bother us much, moves things around sometimes. Last night, I was reading in bed and lit a cigarette. Put the lighter on the night stand. Next morning, he had moved it to my dresser. He just does things like that, we've just gotten used to him."

Since that time I have talked with a number of people who have entered that house, for one reason or another, and either had strange occurrences, or felt strange sensations of cold.

Over the years, the house has sold, but I have often thought of Snedeker, especially when I drive by the house.

A short time ago my wife was talking with a lady she had worked with, and during the course of their conversation she mentioned that she was working at a "half way" house on Granville, and further mentioned that they had a very devastating fire in the house one night, but, fortunately, everyone got out safely. There were about 25 people living in the home, some with varying degrees of being handicapped.

She further mentioned that when the fire started, everyone was asleep, but that they said they were all awakened by something, or someone, but no one saw anything, they were just awakened, and led to their doors, to get outside and to safety.

My wife asked which house it was, and they she realized that it was the house of Mr. Snedeker, and she related the story to her.

She said that explained, to her, what happened, because no one in the house had done, or been able, to do anything to lead the people to safety. She said she originally thought that perhaps a "divine hand" had done it, but now, she could give Mr. Snedeker credit for the rescue. After the fire, they all agreed that some miracle had happened, to get all those people out of that smoke filled house.

The interior of the house has been fixed, the exterior looks the same, but every time I drive by that house I get the strangest feeling that someone is taking a ride with me in the car. I generally just say "Hi Mr. Snedeker," and keep on driving.