DR. KNOW

Dr. Know is Jay Gilbert, weekday afternoon deejay on 92.5 FM The Fox. Submit your questions about the city’s peculiarities at drknow@cincinnati magazine.com

Q + A

On Columbia Parkway near Kemper Lane, there’s a large old house halfway up the hill. How in the world do the people living there get out of their driveway into the steady 50 mph traffic? It must be a death-defying experience every day. Do they have a special strategy? — DIE ON THAT HILL

DEAR DIE: The house you pass is the magnificent Benn Pitman House, built circa 1880 above a slim horse path called Columbia Avenue. After witnessing the transformation from path to Parkway and surviving more than 150 years of landslides (see my Living in Cin column in the August 2019 issue, which details the hillside’s history of slips and slumps), this rock-solid home (and its residents) would hardly be intimidated by something as puny and fleeting as an automobile.

The house’s current owners do have a master strategy, and we are pleased to report that it’s based upon Cincinnati courtesy. Motorists can see their vehicle nosing out at the driveway’s edge, and it’s never long before someone slows down and allows them a safe exit.

Returning home from downtown, however, is something else entirely. It’s a left turn, and it’s Columbia Parkway. The owners report that three vehicles have been lost to rear-enders.

The Pitman House has a few neighbors, meaning that the tally of casualties could be even higher. But the current residents say the beauty of their view and of their home is worth everything. We’ll check in with their attitude after the next landslide.

My dad went to a Jimi Hendrix concert at Xavier Fieldhouse in 1968. It was the high point of his youth. He saved everything—ticket stubs, newspaper articles, etc. Years later he even found pages from Jimi’s diary mentioning the show. Are they worth anything? Who locally might be interested?

— INEXPERIENCED

DEAR INEXPERIENCED: The Doctor regularly receives inquiries about the value of Boomer ephemera. Such a task is, to borrow from today’s youth lingo, “venturing beyond the boundaries of one’s lane.” We feel confident, however, that the image you provided of Mr. Hendrix’s diary—simply a photo of the authentic diary that resides in Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture—will most certainly not excite a collector.

But wait. Other images you have provided might interest social researchers. To wit, your March 8, 1968, copy of Xavier News mentioning the upcoming Hendrix concert. There were no bigger fans of the band known as the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1968 than college students, so a