The Daily Alaska empire., 1948-07-17
DIDN'T SLEEP BUTHADG00D TIMEATA AKRON
Frank Maier, Last Year s Winner, Relates of
 Ohio Trip '.
By FRANK MAYER

By FRANK MAYER
 After the first thrill of going up in an airplane wore off, amused myself by counting the fish traps between Juneau and Annette Island. I still don't see how the fish manage to get past them all.
 The Mayor and I arrived at Se- attle during the night and I've never seen prettier sight than all those lights and neon signs.
 Enroute to Akron from Seattle, we flew continuously. making only short stops of an hour or two. guess the most important events on that leg of my trip were meal times. They sure serve swell food When we crossed Lake Michigan, coming close to Akron, the weather got kind of rought. I didn't get airsick until just after we landeA in Akron, but I guess some peo- pie aren't that lucky.
 We were met at Akron by some Derby officials and rode in a con- vertible to the Mayflower Hotel, Derby Headquarters. A few blocks from the hotel they had me put my parka on and I had to swejt out the last few blocks. At the hotel they had a band playing and a nice friendly group of pho- tographers They took me to a nearby drugstore and took pictures of me with my parka on a big dish of ice cream went with the picture I ate it, too.
 I was given a room on the 18th floor with another champ. You should have seen the nice clean alley there was behind the hotel before we went there. But still, I think maybe the Akron folks need ed a little air raid practice and the small amount of water that we released couldn't have done any harm. They needed some rain,  anyway.
 But to get down to solid facts. 1 sure had a good time. The Derby Committee at Akron had our three days there packed full Of activities. We went through the Goodrich Rubber factory, through barrage balloon hangar, had whole play land to ourselves for an afternoon with outboard races speedboat rides, swimming and many other amusements. In one stand there were floating ducks with numbers on the bottoms. By picking out the ducks you would get prizes for certain numbers. The best prizes were for number five. The champs played that stand for quite a while, but not a single five, so they just picked out all the ducks and there wasn't even five in the bunch. We didn't play that stand any more. Then comes another eve ming with more bombing practice from our room. I wonder why they took the wastepaper baskets out of our rooms while we were gone. They held water so we'll Oh, well, we found something else.
 The race was big event even though lost my first heat. The parade preceding the race was really something to see. Bands, Marines, soldiers, scouts and everything; the parade must have been a mile long, After the parade they had the ban quet. Boy, they sure had some vaudeville performance. There was one act put on by dogs that acted and were dressed just like people. Well, then, another evening of I guess you know what. That street was getting kinda full.
 The next morning we said good bye to Derby Town and boarded our plane for home, ho, hum, whew don't think I had nights sleep in the whole stay put to- gether. so goodnight zz zzz :.
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