Code,200013
Subject,Sheila Blecman
Date,11/17/2009
Interviewer,Dana Aritonovich
Abstract,"Sheila Blecman is the owner of Coventry Cats.  She was born in Elyria in 1946, and later went to Ohio State University before finding a teaching job in LA.  She moved back to Cleveland in the 1980s and opened Coventry Cats.  The interview is about her childhood in Elyria where she worked in her father's grocery store, race relations in the 50s and 60s, and her love of music."
Tags,"Coventry Cats, Elyria, CKLW, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, music, Elvis Presley, Motown, Bobby Rydell, Los Angeles, segregation, Beyonce, Kanye West, Vietnam War, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy"
Special Notes,
minutes:,
1,owner of Coventry Cats
,born in Elyria in 1946
2,neighborhood had only a few black families
,most of her friends were other Jewish girls from school
3,father owned a grocery store
4,listened to Detroit radio station CKLW and loved Chuck Berry and Little Richard
5,"first record she bought was Elvis' ""Heartbreak Hotel"""
6,mother questioned her musical taste
7,"parents liked Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra; ""Elvis was for the young people"""
,bought records in a store in Elyria
8,listened to records mostly at the kitchen table
9,"""Shindig"" TV show"
10,discovered Motown in 1967 or 1968
11,didn't really go to concerts
12,saw Bobby Rydell perform in Vermillion
,didn't know much about the riots
13,father's grocery store was in a black neighborhood in Elyria
14,family had a black cleaning woman
15,"music was for their generation, not their parents'"
16,"loved learning words to sonfs, mom watched them sing and dance"
17,"went to OSU from 1964-1968, then moved to LA for a teaching job"
18,"""culture expansion"" in LA, more Asians and Latinos than in Cleveland; Jackson 5 popular in LA"
19,schools in LA
20,kids in LA more socially advanced due to diversity
21,black kids sat together at Elyria High School
22,worked in father's grocery store; bought records and makeup with money she earned
23,went shopping with her friends
24,didn't hear racial comments from kids in Elyria
25,other parents seemed to have more problems with race
26,music brings people together
27,students inspired her to listen to Jackson 5
28,"""Bottom line, it's good music"""
29,"lyrics to those love songs were ""quite exciting"""
30,"Beyonce, Kanye West"
31,young people want to be current
32,most criticism of music was racial; music gave kids independence
33,1963 was landmark year for separating people; Vietnam inspired musicians to speak out
34,incorporating political messages in music is good
35,musicians not obligated to speak out
36,"listened to Motown in college, learned dances"
37,was offered a teaching job in Watts but she did not want to go
38,protests at Ohio State
39,college protests all over the country
40,JFK visited Elyria and Sheila got to touch him right before the election
41,Robert Kennedy's assassination
42,"Martin Luther King, Jr."
43,"Martin Luther King, Jr."
44,turmoil of the late 1960s
45,how different things might have been if assassinations had not happened
46,impact of social events on music
47,"""very unsettled time all over"""
48,some musicians may not have spoken out earlier because of fears for their career
49,Viet Nam protests vs. protests today
50,impact of TV on political activism
51,modern musicians afraid to speak out on political issues
52,black music industry professionals
53,young people probably won't be interested in political message songs
54,political message songs
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