Code,913056
Subject,Beth Hoffman
Date,10/27/16
Interviewer,Mark Souther
Abstract,"Beth Hoffman, a native Clevelander, was born to Hungarian immigrant parents. Her father was a pharmacist and owned two drug stores in the Buckeye and East Boulevard Area. She describes this neighborhood in detail and the Hungarian traditions and culture that was practiced and celebrated. Creative writing, especially poetry writing for elementary students, was a passion of hers. Hoffman became very successful in her profession and eventually earned a PhD. Even at Judson she is still educating people and making a difference through poetry. "
Tags,"East Boulevard Area, Buckeye Area, Hungarian immigrants, Western Reserve College, Hungarian traditions, University Heights, Young Audiences, World War II, Shaker Square, World War II"
Special Notes,The sound quality is excellent. 
minutes:,
0,"Introductions are made. Elizabeth Hoffman states her maiden name and explains how she got her nickname, Beth. "
1,She was born at University Hospitals and continues to discuss why she shortened her name to Beth. 
2,"She was born on May 31, 1926, during Memorial Day weekend celebrations. "
3,Her parents were both born on days that coincided with a national holiday. She first remembers living near her father's drug store on East 89th and Buckeye. 
4,She recalls living more specifically in the East Blvd. area. The family also lived on Manor Avenue. The family lived in the Mount Auburn School District. Her father was an immmigrant. 
5,Her father came to Cleveland in 1909 from Hungary. She explains why her father came to Cleveland and describes his first years in the United States. 
6,After he graduated from high school he enrolled at Western Reserve Pharmacy School. He became a registered pharmacist. He took out a loan and he purchased the drug store he had worked at while in high school. Later he purchased a second drug store. 
7,"In 1920, her father had amassed enough money to bring his father, mother, and two younger brothers to Cleveland. Greiner Drug, located at East 89th and Buckeye, was the name of the first drug store her father bought. The area near the store was industrial. "
8,Hoffman continues to describe the neighborhood around East 89th and Buckeye. 
9,A young violinist from Budapest came to her father's store and expressed his inability to converse in English. He asked her father to help him set up an interview with the Cleveland Orchestra. He father assisted the young man. 
10,He father learned how to play the violin. She and her mother played the piano. Hoffman provides street names to pinpoint the location of her childhood neighborhood. 
11,Hoffman continues to describe the East Blvd. neighborhood. She also provides insight to the changing names of streets in the general vacinity of East 89th and Buckeye. 
12,"Her father's drug store was located in a building that housed a number of stores and she lists the other stores, churches and schools in the vacinity. "
13,"Up Buckeye businesses lined the street and continued all the way past Woodhill, past East Blvd., and farther up to Upper Buckeye. She mentions what the distinguishing features of the area."
14,The Harvey Rice School had school gardens. Hungarian celebrations were observed in the neighborhood. 
15,She decribes the Easter Monday Hungarian celebration and a traditional sprinkling ritual. 
16,The Rose Water sprinkling was a tradition that was performed at home among families. People wore costumes during the Harvest Parade. 
17,"She continues to describe the Harvest Moon celebration. Each Hungarian village had their own traditional dress and the people danced in the streets. In ca. 1940, Hoffman's family moved to the Shaker Square area, primarily for the school system. "
18,"Hoffman's family moved into an apartment on North Moreland Blvd. When she graduated from Shaker High School it was 1944. During her graduation ceremony, she remembers there were a lot of empty seats. "
19,The seats were left empty by those young men who had already went to war. This memory expresses the differences between the interwar years and WWII. 
20,Most of the people that lived in the apartment building on S. Moreland had been there for a number of years. She lists the amenities offered to residents in the Shaker Square area. She remembers taking the Rapid to school. 
21,Many children from the neighborhood took the Rapid to go to school. After school let out for the day there were a wide range of options available to get back home. 
22,"After moving to S. Moreland, Hoffman still went back to the Buckeye area to help in her father's drug store. She attended college at University of Wisconsin-Madison. She continues to explain why she wanted to attend this institution. "
23,"The University of Wisconsin-Madison campus was located directly opposite of the Capital Building. The campus was located on a hill and during her first exam week, Hoffman fell down the hill. "
24,Hoffman continues to share how she fell down the hill and suffered a compound fracture of the right arm. 
25,"She did not suffer an injury to the wrist, but the injury required a long recovery time. She majored in English and minored in Music. She continued on to received her Masters and her PhD. "
26,She graduated from Mather College in 1948.
27,While she was completing her exams at University of Wisconsin-Madison men were coming back from WWII. 
28,"The fall down the Bascom Hill changed her life because it sent her back to Cleveland. Her future husband graduated from the Western Reserve Law School in 1948, and they were married for 61 years. "
29,"Her husband was an attorney and was involved in a number of organizations, including musical organizations. "
30,When she graduated in 1948 she had a Bachelors degree and her secondary education certificate in english and history. Due to the lack of avaliable high school positions there was a program to enable secondary certificate holders to switch to primary. 
31,"The program acted as a Masters. In the fall 1948, she started to teach at Anton Grdina School. She lists off the different subjects that she taught. "
32,She describes the close relationship that existed between the teachers and parents. Hoffman starts to share a conversation with a colleague that taught high school. 
33,The high school teacher asked Hoffman to send her samples of the poems that the 4th grade students had written. The colleague wanted to take the samples to a seminar at Harvard. 
34,"The remembrance continues, the colleague asked Hoffman to present a seminar on writing poetry with children in San Fransico. "
35,At the time the letter came she had been out of the classroom for approximately 7 years. To refamiliarize herself with teaching poetry to children she approached her son's principal and asked to conduct a poetry writing class. 
36,"On Thanksgiving 1963, regardless of President Kennedy's assassination, Hoffman and her husband flew to San Fransico. "
37,She describes the somber atmosphere in the cities and on the plane because of the President's death. She continues to describe that at the convention she and others observed the national tradgedy. 
38,A priest from Ireland conducted a service in the woods to pay homage to President Kennedy. 
39,Hoffman joins a study of teachers on a K-12 project with Harper & Row. Her work was published as Harper & Row School Readiness Treasure Chest. She continues to describe what all her work entailed.  
40,"Her work was published in 1965, however, she was not yet a PhD candidate. "
41,"In 1968, she contacted Mather College and hoped to pick back up her education."
42,She lists all of the different diciplines students at Case were taking. 
43,She taught four sections of freshmen English at Mather while she was in graduate school. 
44,Students from one of her classes wanted to perform an opera. 
45,"Due to the amount of interest in the opera, Hoffman was able to organize the opera. "
46,The classes performed the opera of Young Goodmen Brown at Harkness Chapel by the end of that semester. 
47,Souther and Hoffman discuss one of the notes on the biography Souther was presented of Hoffman. The Harper & Row work that she did was part of a series including a teachers guide and postcards for the holidays. 
48,"She was a member of the Cleveland art scene through Young Audiences, a national art program."
49,She became involved with Young Audiences while she was still teaching. This program helped her get more involved with art at the school grade level. She was involved with this program for 20 years. After she completed graduate school she and her family lived in University Heights.
50,Her son was born and they moved into the house in University Heights in 1957. She had a daughter three years later. They lived in University Heights for 32 years. 
51,She briefly decsribes the atmosphere of the University Heights neighborhood. After her children graduated from college Hoffman and her husband returned to Shaker Square. They downsized to an apartment at Shaker Towers and lived there for 25 years.  
52,Her husbands law practice was in downtown Cleveland. She did not venture downtown that often because of her other work and volunteer obligations. 
53,Hoffman starts to describe how she came to write a poem about the eviction of some of the residences from Judson. 
54,The garden view residents of Judson were to be relocated to other parts of the Manor that were more updated. 
55,Many of the residents that lived in the garden view wing were upset by this. She describes the poem she wrote about the garden view relocation situation. 
56,She describes why the garden view wing of the Manor was so important to her. 
57,"The poem was read at a creative writing session. The poem got attention from the residents, staff and Board. "
58,At the Board meeting the residents and families spoke out unanimously for the right to keep their apartments in there current location. 
59,The Board finally decided not to relocate the garden view residents from their current locations. She continues to describe the garden view wing.
60,She continues to describe the garden view wing. Hoffman comments on how integral the garden is to her life and to the lives of the other residents. 
61,She describes the poem. 
62,Hoffman closes the interview by praising Judson. 
63,Souther makes closing remarks and the interview ends. 
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