Identifier,913033
Interviewee,Marilyn B. Bialosky
Date,3/21/14
Interviewer,"John Horan, II"
Abstract,"Marilyn B. Bialosky, Shaker Heights native, describes her well traveled life. She recalls what it was like growing up during the Great Depression and World War 2. She met her husband at Forest Hills Park, and at 16 years old she knew she was going to marry him. After 65 years of marriage, her feelings for him are still strong. Living in Shaker Heights around Shaker Square, Bialosky describes what it was like growing up with anti-semitism, and then what it was like teaching at Ludlow during integration. She also mentions her involvement with the League of Women voters and what she remembers of the freeways that were supposed to go through the Shaker Lakes. She discusses the Hough Riots and concludes by remembering her first date with her husband Jack, a memorable date indeed."
Tags,"Shaker Heights, Mt Sinai Hospital, Great Depression, World War 2, dating, arcitecture, Western Reserve University, Suburban Temple, Shaker Square, League of Women Voters, anti-semitism, Sussex school, Ludlow, travel, Cleveland International, teaching, Ludlow elementary school, Carl Stokes, Louis Stokes, George Forbes, American Crafts Gallery, Larchmere, Frank Porter, Shaker Freeway, Fair Housing Inc., restrictive covenants, Hough Riots, dancing, Twin Lakes, integration"
Special Notes,
0,"Introductions, born November 29, 1929; Lived within 5 blocks in Shaker Heights/Cleveland Heights for her entire life"
1,"Born at Old Mt. Sinai Hospital, her dad was on the staff - dentist; mother was a school teacher, but was an at home mom; Lived on Winslow Road in Shaker Heights, moved to Van Akin when she went to Jr High; Her dad was the head of the draft board"
2,"She was an only child, mother was very sick, grandmother stayed with them; She did all of the shopping, and had a special permit to drive at 14"
3,She did not notice the depression - too young; but they never went without food - dad did barterting and she got her first dog for someone's wisdom tooth; She went to Connecticut College for Women called it ideal;
4,"At the school, the women were all very bright and it was a beautiful setting; She did not miss the men; She was an officer in High School and was with men all of the time, wanted to blossom on her own; She got married between sophomore and junior year of college"
5,"Her husband went to Yale and she did not know that when she went to Connecticut College; The nursery at Mt Sinai was named after his family; They met between Junior and Senior year of High School, but they did not know that they would go to college an hour apart from each other"
6,"When they met, he had just been discharged from service during World War 2 and did not have civilian clothes; Says that they had been dating boys, but these men in uniform were men; He asked his sister, who was this woman and it was Marilyn"
7,Tells the story about how they met and their first date; It was a fraternity picnic; He was stationed on an aircraft carrier; she finished college at Mather College because she came back after she got married because her husband wanted to start working as an architect in Cleveland
8,"Yale architecture at that time had gone from Beaux Art to Conemporary, but the man that her husband worked for was more of a Beaux Art architecture; Worked for this man for two years"
9,"Her husaband's first job was Suburban Temple; She was going to school meantime, she had to go for two years and it was year-round because the Western Reserve and Flora Stone Mather did not feel that women could take full classloads during the semester - she had to take summer classes so she could complete on time"
10,"As soon as she graduated she had a baby, but she graduated with philosphy and math which her father pointed out to her several times wouldnÕt help her get a job"
11,"They lived on Van Akin in Shaker Heights - lived there until their second child was born (2.5 years), moved into a two bedroom apartment and tells a story about their friend who was a realtor"
12,Tells the realtor that they want to be in Boulevard school district or Onaway school district - found a place that was a fixer-upper - lived there for twelve years and they completely redid it; talks about the previous owner; 
13,"Talks about the garden that they had, they learned by doing; Had a grape arbor by the garage with five varietials - very fruitful; It was in Boulevard school district which was like private school because there were only 25 kids per class; She went to Sussex Elementary school before there was a second floor there were 13 kids in her class"
14,She went back to school and got her master's in teaching - took her six years because she had four kids; They wouldn't let her teach kindergarten because she couldn't sing but they let her teach 2-6 at Ludlow Elementary School
15,"Talks about Mimi Isaacs, a judson Resident, was a founder of the Ludlow neighborhood organization; Marilyn was on the League of Women Voters - women stuck together and the husbands became friends; They said that when their kids were out of high school they would all travel together - about 40 of them"
16,Says that everyone involved with the League of Women Voters was a mover and a shaker; Describes the League as a body that investigaed issues and candidates; She wasn't on one issue but several committees; She was very interested in the issue of water - suburbs sharing with Cleveland and issues surrounding that
17,"she was also interestedi in the issue of recreation, had tennis courts that were facing the wrong way; Her husband was head of the Shaker Heights boys league; she was secretary to one of the presidents of the league"
18,As secretary she had to write all of the time and quickly; All of the women who were involved went on to do big things
19,"Describes her first memory, they were still on north moreland, had a little wooden dog that she would pull around Shaker Square; the Square wasn't completely built and she rememebers being lifted up and looking over the construction walls to see them builidng the square"
20,"The first movie she saw was Flirtation Walk which came out in 1934, she cried, and never went back to a movie until the Wizard of Oz which came out in 1939; "
21,Describes Sussex elementary school - seven grades and two semesters; She took an early entrance examiation to got in to the school for the right semester - recalls some of the questions
22,"She was one of 20 Jews in the school; she had a good taste of anti-semitism, had a fifth grade teacher that would teach terrible and false tales about the Jews, but the worst thing she did was hold class elections during Jewish High Holidays, which mean that Jews couldn't be elected - her mother complained and that was dealt with"
23,"A lot of anti-semitism in those days - which drove Jewish people to help with integration; She passed petitions around, she worked with education programs under the League of Women Voters; She also taught at the first inegrated school - Ludlow; "
24,"Goes back to the group of 40 that went traveling together - all arranged by the Unger family who was head of Cleveland International, which meant he had contacts across the world, and they would get a personal view of the countries they visited; It was a very threatening time - peristrokia had started in Russia, that's when they discovered the microphones in the Embassy walls in Russia"
25,"Went to Yugoslavia, Scandinavia - finland and Norway, they started out with 40, but different numbers went to different places, only 28 went to China because it was along trip"
26,"She went on all of the trips, China was a memorable one - doesn't remember when they went - but recalls some of the oddities that she experienced there, especially the airplane from Beijing to Xian which was a decrepid plane"
27,"Describes the problems with the plane; Then they went to Austrialia and New Zealand, and Spain"
28,"Her favorite was Spain, in fact, they went back to Barcalona for their 50th anniversary; the mission of the trips was to educate themselves on the culture of the countries - also to meet up with the people that Cleveland Internaitonal brought around on exchange"
29,Describe one of the women that they had from India through this exchange program; They would then write the people that they stayed with once they got back to Cleveland
30,One of the women from Russia settled in Cleveland; 
31,"She wanted to be a permanent subsittiute; she did that for a year but then she got very tired because they put her in the troubled classrooms because she had more experience; she especially had problems with the parents because they thought their kids were the best, these parents were the first ones to integrate - would help their kids in cleveland schools, but couldn't do it in shaker;"
32,"These kids would do well on their homework, but wouldnÕt do well on tests and quizes; parents had a fit; Parents accused the teaching staff of being anti-black; She had the Stokes Girls, Bruce Tull - her success story"
33,The Stokes girls were the daughters of both Carl and Louis - they were spoiled; Had George Forbes child too; she kept her head down and tried to stay out of trouble; She was a dancing school teacher as well - taught ballroom dancing to Jewish children for 18 years
34,She explains how she got the job of dancing instructor; She describes a friend's store that sold pottery and other contemporary accessories
35,She ended up being a partner and the store was called American Crafts Gallery on Larchmere for 20 yaers; She describes how she got to be the partner of this store
36,They ended up selling it and those who bought it ran it into the ground; Describes what they sold;Says that it was a very exciting life and it was her main income
37,She would suppliment it by teaching dancing school on Friday nights - overlapped for 4 years; wasn't teaching school at this point either because of the parents; Says that they were very friendly with the James's the legal aide for Carl Stokes
38,She was involved with fighting the freeway; They bought a house on southpark right in the way of the freeway and they thought that if the freeway did come through they would get a good price for it; Lived in the house for 32 years
39,Shaker lakes became a national preserve for animals; She passed petitions to help fight the freeways; mostly the people that she was trying to sign up were enthusiastic to help - says that everyone hated Frank Porter who was the county engineer
40,He laid out the free way which ended on his street in Pepper Pike; Called him  a real martinet which is a dictator; They beat him by numbers and the national audobon society which made it a preserve and a freeway cant go through a preserve
41,"She wasn't involved with bringing the Audobon society, but she did call the senator, Sen. Howard Metzenbaum; The movement had a huge groundswell; She knew they were going to win when she saw the numbers they had show up at city hall for open discussion - it was standing room only"
42,"They bought the house for next to nothing, it was a fixer-upper; tells a story about blacktopping the drive and her father; "
43,"She was called by realtors to sell, and she called it disgusting; Her sister in law was involved with Fair Housing Inc."
44,Talks about the first Jewish family that moved east of Warrensville Center Road after WW2 when the deed restrictions were broken; the house was designed by her husbands first employer
45,"She recalls the Hough Riots, they drove past her house and threw bottles at the homes; they were scared; She wasn't happy about the national guard being called out, but she thought it was the only thing they could do; Glenville is where her mother grew up and where she taught; But Glenville was not as close as Hough, so she did not feel it"
46,"During the Hough Riots, she had a cleaning lady who worked for her who had a son who was attacked during the riots; Switching gears, she taught fourth grade Sunday school at Suburban Temple - she was a charter member - talks about how her husband earned $35/week and she added $10 (5 for dancing school and 5 for sunday school) and they managed to live quite nicely"
47,"Talks about how her family came from Hamburg, Germany and her dad's family came from Russia - but they donÕt know where - only had the name of the boat that the family came on "
48,[Hands John a project she made in the Eighth Grade - a family tree] says that her family is buried in Lakeview in the section designated for Rabbi Brickman and Silver - major rabbis in the reform movement in Cleveland Her famliy knew them quite well
49,She has always been curious about social services
50,She says that her husband and her have been married since 1949 (she was 19 and he was 24); and she knew that she was going to marry him when she was 16 after their first date; Went to the Twin Lakes for their first date - between Cleveland and Akron - great place to go for a picnic
51,"Says that her husband's friends organized this picnic; she recalls that she had a 2 piece bathing suit - brand new, she went off the high board - and her bathing suit top went off in a different direction"
52,"She got herself together with a safety pin and went over to the slide, she went down the slide and her top came off again - decided it was time to sit on the beach"
53,"She often camped with her four kids around the country - went to badlands, mt. rushmore, Banff-Lake Louise - her favorite place; she says that she was very lucky"
54,Thanks and END OF INTERVIEW