Arts & Entertainment

Author Pens Book of Stories from Growing Up in Avon Lake's 45 District

Frank Rocco Satullo's "Here I Thought I was Normal: Micro Memoirs of Mischief" is now in print.

Frank Rocco Satullo is now 45 and living near Cincinnati, but some of his fondest life memories go back to his years growing up in Avon Lake.

“I grew up in the 45s, and back then it always had a reputation of being one of the worst neighborhoods,” he said of what is not the “Cottage District” off Lear Road.  

“I lived on Grove; it was a good working neighborhood.”

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Satullo lived with both parents, including a father who was raised in a big Italian family and taught him a solid work ethic.

Avon Lake began rapidly expanding and bringing in new money. And while Satullo learned the importance of hard work, he was also impulsive and strong headed.

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“If I got an idea in my head I couldn’t stop myself from doing it,” Satullo said. “I pushed the edge of the envelope.”

That led to a few memorable moments in Avon Lake, many of which Satullo, who runs OhioTraveler.com, recently put into a book.

“In high school we used to jump off cliff of North Point,” he said. “It was something we did our whole lives. We used to play in the woods that are not all there anymore.”

It was only as he grew older, sharing in conversation with others, that he began to realize, perhaps his life wasn’t all that normal. He seemed to have more stories of mischief than most folks. Some pushed the boundaries of comfort. But the stories left listeners at the edge of their seat asking for more.

Those stories, more than 100 of them, are now a collection, Here I Thought I was Normal: Micro Memoirs of Mischief.

 The book captures what Avon Lake used to be and how it changed quickly.

“The book capture that in a funny way,” Satullo said.

One vignette tells the story of jumping into Lake Erie.

“One was cliff jumping,” he said. “A friend would go down and he would determine if the water was deep enough, to you know, not cripple us.”

The story tells how a friend came back up and had to use the bathroom, opting for a vacant lot near a house. When a woman came out of a nearby house, his friend jumped.

“The lady freaked him out and he just ran off the cliff,” Satullo said of the event that happened in the mid-1980s. “Then the rest of us jumped off. Long story short, the police came. Someone died soon after and the police started cracking down.”

The event occurred just before his 18th birthday and Satullo was charge as an adult with criminal trespassing. He went to Avon Lake Municipal Court where the prosecutor was hoping to make an example of his. The judge dismissed the case. The story ends with Satullo, who had just joined the Army, leaving the courthouse and “walking into adulthood.”

Read the story here. 

With many stories based in Avon Lake, Satullo said readers can expect to have memories triggered.

“Our favorite store at the time was Matt Donohue’s,” he said. “They sold baseball cards, candy and freezer pops. Mrs. Donohue ran it.”

The collection includes “must read” story names such as Streaking, Gore Orphanage, Wrestling a Bear, Crazy was in the Air, Walk of Shame, Practical Joke Gone Bad and Pleasure Attic. They occurred mostly in Avon Lake.

Amazon.com offers the book in print for $12.95 and as an e-book for $9.95. Here I Here I Thought I was Normal: Micro Memoirs of Mischief is published by ZoneFree Publishing.


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