"Where Everybody Knows Your Name"

4 years ago, March of 2014 to be exact, I finalized my divorce and needed to find a place to live. The search was on. I first focused my search on condos. I looked everywhere: North Olmsted, Westlake, Rocky River, etc. I found the majority of them run down, outdated and quite frankly just basically like an apartment. I did finally find one I liked in Bay Landings in Westlake. But there was one problem, well according to my dad, : It was all electric. He was adamant that buying that condo would be a huge mistake because the electric bills alone would be crazy. Plus the HOA fee was something like $300 a month. Once I did the math, I decided a condo wasn’t for me. Also, the resale value on a condo sucks quite frankly.

I went back to my realtor and said, “Lets look at some homes in Fairview Park”. I knew the area because I grew up there from a baby until I was 4 and spent the rest of my life until college in North Olmsted. My agent took me to multiple houses. The first one, I wont forget, was on West 227. It was a cute house until I noticed the neighbor had some crazy anti-abortion sign right in their front yard. “Cross that one off of the list”, I told my agent. She then told me about a “cute” house on West 214. We drove over to it and I fell in love with it right away. What really sold me on it was the long back yard. Although you are close to your neighbors on the side, at least the neighbors behind you were far away. What I also loved was how well maintained the street was. You could tell people gave a shit about what their property looked like(well for the most part). If you went 10 streets over, it was a totally different story.

So I was sold. It took some negotiating but it was mine. All mine. I bought a house on my own. It was a massive adjustment at first. Coming from living in North Ridgeville for 10 years, it was so refreshing to have neighbors come up to you and introduce themselves. In North Ridgeville, we didn’t know any of our neighbors and we lived on a cul-de-sac! People kept to themselves. I always thought that was so weird and creepy. I came from living on a street in North Olmsted where everyone knew everyone. In Ridgeville, it was like my marriage: lost and confusing.

I am really not even sure how Gunselmans came into my life. About the time of our first block party, in the summer of 2010, Lisa and Eric just bought the bar. At this point I still didn’t really know anybody. I do remember the first block party and walking towards the Zellmers. I knew of Eric because we had mutual high school friends. Lisa I did not know but she approached me and shook my hand. There is one thing about Lisa that everyone can agree on who meets her: She makes you feel very welcomed and you feel like you have known her forever. And little did I know, how much we had in common and I am proud to call her my friend. The girl would do anything for you.

Christmas Eve 2010 was the worst for me. It was my first since my divorce. Having done the same thing Christmas Eve for 15 years and now you are sitting alone with your cats was depressing. I just wanted to get through the friggin’ holiday and be done with it. I remember sitting in the dark with the candles on, watching some crappy Christmas movie and just crying. My parents stopped by after church wondering if I was okay considering I was sitting in the dark. LOL. The following Christmas I told Lisa about my pity party from the previous year and she said to me “You need to make your own traditions. Come up to the bar. We close it to the public.”. So I did. And I had a blast. It was Lisa’s family, some food & drinks. I kept this tradition going the next 2 years. I don’t think Lisa knows how much that meant to me and how much then that bar meant to me personally. At dark times in your life you don’t forget who was there for you and who got you out of that hole.

Gunselmans, to me, meant more than a bar. It meant friends. It meant relationships. It meant going every Sunday and watching the Browns lose but cheering them on with the same people. It meant watching the parade from the best seat in the house for Summer Fest. It meant dressing up as the Cat Lady on Halloween and Lisa’s sister thinking I was dressed up as a Pussy Magnet. It meant going to the Christmas party and Brian drinking too much Christmas Ale and putting on Lisa’s sweater. I could go on and on and on but this blog would be 5 million words.

That being said, I want to thank Lisa & Eric Zellmer for giving everyone who went to Gunselmans a great time. It truly was a place where everybody knew your name---good & bad.

For the new owners, you have a lot to live up to. My only word of advice is: Don’t try and make it something it is not.

Cheers-
BT