Trains
Before we got the two overpasses, the excuse “sorry there was a train” could get you out of literally anything. I remember one time I was on the bus on the way home from school and three separate trains came, all one right after the other and we sat at the tracks for like a half hour. It’s absolutely ridiculous but now every time I hear a train I think of home so it’s kind of nice in a way.
Falls Family Ice Cream
This is literally the best ice cream shop I've ever been to. People can argue with me as much as they want but nothing will ever compare in my opinion. The portions are humongous and the flavors are delicious. It, and Amaretto Cherry Chunk ice cream, will forever have my heart as the best ice cream.
Grand Pacific Junction
The Grand Pacific Junction is the cutest old place in ‘downtown’ Olmsted falls. If you’re looking for much to do you’re not going to find much but you can definitely blow time by walking through all the little shops. You can also get ice cream from Falls Family and as stated before it is highly recommended. You can also play around on the old fashioned train that is parked in the parking lot.
Fortier Park and the waterfalls
Along with the Junction, there is a park and some trails leading you down to the Rocky River and some little waterfalls that people like to fish in or swim in. It's a nice place to sit and just kind of think or to go on adventures with your friends.
Swings-N-Things
Swings-N-Things is a place that almost all children in Olmsted Falls go for a birthday party at some point. We go there in sixth grade for our end of the year trip, it’s a known landmark in Olmsted Falls. It’s a place that even my almost twenty year old friends and I will end up on nights when we have nothing to do, playing in the arcade, living the good life just like the five year old next to us.
Knowing everyone and all the gossip
I feel like there is always some type of gossip going around Olmsted Falls and even when I’m not a part of it because let’s be honest, I’m oblivious to just about everything, people will always talk to you and be friendly. I didn’t feel like this in high school I think mainly because in high school it was a bigger deal to just talk to random people in your grade (thinking back on it now I have absolutely no idea why but oh well) but now I’m just kind of like ‘meh I see you every now and then and don’t have to see you every day and I don’t know when I’ll see you again so we might as well catch up a little bit'. Even if it’s just asking what they’re doing with their life. It’s super interesting to me to see where people went and what they’re doing after high school.
Bulldogs
Our sports teams may not always be the best, though I feel as though they’ve picked up a bit since I graduated, but we have such good school spirit. There are always fans and students at just about all sporting events (except for a select few like softball but hey, I’m not bias or anything).
No One Knows Where It Is
I dread the icebreaker at the start of the year in college that goes like this. “say your name, your major, where you're from, and a fun fact’. A. I don’t have a fun fact so I never know what to say, but I digress. No one ever knows where you're from if you say Olmsted Falls. So now I just say Cleveland and everyone is content. If they really want to know where exactly I’m from (which most people couldn’t care less about) I say “Olmsted Falls, it’s about 20 minutes southwest of Cleveland.” And then they can imagine it in their heads. Everyone also somehow gets it confused with North Olmsted. Like I get that we're right next to each other but they still aren't the same place.
The fact that you have to go to surrounding cities to get pretty much anything
Seeing as we have two Subways, a CVS, a Drug Mart, Shakers, and some random food places, we have to go to the surrounding cities for just about everything. And while they aren’t a far drive (like at all), sometimes it’s just annoying to think about the fact that we have to drive to a different city to go to Walmart or Target.
Drug Mart
Discount Drug Mart Food Fair #28 saves you the run around right? It has so much random stuff in it. As a cashier at drug mart I have experienced many transactions in which someone bought something as random as a saw paired with food or makeup accessories. I love to think in my head like ‘what in the world is this person about to go do with this stuff? Bake brownies and chop down a tree while they’re in the oven?’. This is also the only store I remembered as a child because of the signs hanging around the store that say ‘FREE RIDE IN A POLICE CAR for shoplifters’.
