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At 81, Solon man still slalom skis around lake
(by Tony Lange - August 11, 2010)
At 81, Solon man still slalom skis around lake
By TONY LANGE
He sat at the rear of the boat with his life jacket buckled and almost ready to go. The driver of the watercraft called him "Pape" (pronounced Poppy).
"It took you 82 years to get in the paper," his son told him as they worked together to re-adjust the gray swim cap that keeps the sun off his head. "At least you can look good."
After strapping his gloves and fitting his single ski, he plunged into the lake. He popped up coughing. "I swallowed some clear water," he said, joking.
When the 255-horsepower engine rumbled and the rope was taut, he said, "OK."
The driver shifted the throttle forward without hesitation.
On his first attempt, the handle of the rope flung from his grip.
"Why'd you let go of it?" his asked while maneuvering the boat around for another attempt. "Pretend you're holding onto your wife and she had too much wine."
Attempt two? He let go of the rope.
Attempt three? He was up for a moment, but then his back foot slipped out.
Attempt four? He hung on a little longer, then let go.
Attempt five? He started to look tired.
Attempt six? He got up, stayed up, circled the 500-acre lake and dropped the rope as he landed within 5 feet of his dock.
At 81 years old, Michael Finelli Sr., of Solon, spends his summer weekends slalom skiing at Lake Mohawk in Malvern in Carroll County, south of Canton. He's been doing it for more than three decades.
His son and driver of the boat, Michael Finelli Jr., said his dad bought their lot at Lake Mohawk in 1975 and for two years, all they had was a little cabana, which now stands between the house they built and their lakefront.
"We came down here for two years, Pape, with just a boat, a barbecue grill and picnic baskets, and hung out here all day, and we learned how to ski," the younger Finelli said.
The elder Finelli recalled the experience. He got tired of driving the boat while everyone else skied, he said.
"I used to take everybody waterskiing on the weekend. Then I said, 'What the heck. This is not right.' They have a good time and here I drive the boat every weekend," he said. "So, that's when I learned how to ski. Did I ever ski on two skis? I don't think I ever did."
"No. I think I taught you how to ski on one ski right away," the younger Finelli said. "That's the first time you skied."
About a 75-minute drive from his house on Solon Road, Lake Mohawk is usually the only place Finelli skis, but he recalled a trip to Aruba about 20 years ago and wanting to ski there too.
"When I asked this guy, I want to water ski and he said, 'OK.' He look at me, then I said, 'Just one ski.' So, he look again, he said, 'You ski one ski?' I said, 'Yes, one ski. I got an accent, buddy,' said the elder Finelli, who immigrated at age 18 from Italy to Ohio in 1947. "He could not believe it -- an old man on one ski."
Vacations to Aruba, houses in Solon and at Lake Mohawk as well as a winter home in Georgia, however, were not always a part of the elder Finelli's story.
In March 1929, a month before he was born, his father left Italy.
"He was going to come here, make some money, call the family here," he said. "But then the war broke out. No money. The war was over in 1945 and he sent for me. In 1947 I come over."
It took the ship 10 days to make it to New York and he arrived with $10, Finelli said. During his search for his father, he showed people an old photograph and asked if they had seen the man he had never met. When they finally united, they both started to cry, he said.
Soon after meeting his dad, Finelli went to work with his cousin in Washington, D.C., at an ornamental-iron business. After two years, he returned to Ohio and got a job as a welder with Republic Steel in 1950. That lasted four years.
"I met my wife. She didn't like that I was working nights, so I quit that," he said.
He worked a day job for two years and got laid off.
"When I got lay off, I had four kids, house payment, car payment," said Finelli, who worked the next two years out of his garage while borrowing money from his neighbors in Solon so he could afford equipment. He finally decided he wanted to build his own building.
"That's what I put in my mind. I said, 'Well, I'm going to buy a lot, then I'm going to put up, you know, building.' That's what I did," said Finelli, who started Finelli Architectural Iron and Stairs next to his house on Solon Road in 1961. "My friends said, 'You going to take a chance. You got four kids.' I said to myself, 'Nah.'"
He paid $8,000 for the lot. He was not supposed to build there because it was a residential area, but he finally got a permit and put up the building two years later.
"I didn't have nobody in the office," Finelli said. "I was a boss. I was a manager. I was a worker. Everything. I was a secretary. My wife, she used to help me."
Nowadays, his sons, Frank and Angelo, run the business, which provides iron balconies, railings, stairs, gates and fences as well as specialty ornamental works such as fireplace screens. Although the elder Finelli still works small jobs there, he spends a large chunk of his time at his lake house.
A couple weeks ago, he skied Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, he said.
"Of course, Tuesday, I was a little bit tired," said Finelli, who struggles to get up on the ski sometimes. "It goes in my mind, 'I'm too old. I can't do that.' But then I say to myself, 'No, wait a minute, you're not too old. You get up before, you're going to get up again.'"
He doesn't know how long he'll keep doing it, he said. Five years ago, he had to take some time off because he shattered his elbow when a guy on a scooter hit him while he was walking in Italy.
"If I didn't land on my elbow, I wouldn't be here," he said.
"Well, you don't know. You have a hard head," the younger Finelli said.
The summer following the surgery, he could not extend his arm, the younger Finelli said of his father.
"I said, 'Pape, let's go skiing and maybe it'll straighten your arm out a little bit," Finelli said. "He didn't get up the first time. I came back around. I go, 'Did you hear anything? Did you feel anything?' He goes, 'No.' I go, 'Does it hurt?' He goes, 'No, I don't think so.' I go, 'OK, let's try it again.' We tried it again and about the third or fourth time, I think you got up and you skied around the whole lake," Finelli said while laughing.
"I asked the doctor before I had surgery," the elder Finelli said. "He said, 'You can't go waterskiing.'
"When he said it was healing good, if you want to water ski now, you can water ski, you told him, 'Well, good because I've been going waterskiing two, three months now," the younger Finelli said while he continued to laugh.
Besides waterskiing, the elder Finelli spends spare time walking miles at a time, maintaining his three gardens at each of his homes and watching his favorite sports team -- the Cleveland Browns. He has had season tickets since 1954, he said.
"I'm perfect health," he said about staying active.
When asked what he eats, he said, "I'll tell you, but you'll probably think I'm crazy.
"For breakfast I could have pizza. I could have pasta. I could have greens like escarole at 9 o'clock in the morning," he said. "No, I'm not crazy. It's food. Why can't I eat spaghetti in the morning instead at night?"
"Pape, you weigh a buck 25," the younger Finelli said.
"No, no, I weigh more than that," the elder said.
"He eats as much as he wants to eat and he doesn't gain any weight," the younger Finelli said.
Waterskiing is his dad's summer priority, he said.
"He would miss graduation parties or weddings. People in the family would reschedule their functions for after summer because they wanted my dad to be there and they knew he wouldn't come if it was on a weekend because he's not going to miss waterskiing."
The elder Finelli said, "I don't plan. I take it day by day. My perfect day would be with all four of my kids, all my 14 grandchildren and see them all together. This would be my enjoyable thing."
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