Code,999026
Subject,Janet Thomas
Date,3/27/07
Interviewer,
Abstract,"Janet Thomas was born to Italian immigrant parents and lived in the Gordon Square neighborhood. She describes the neighborhood's bakeries, theatres, drug stores, and ethnic shops. Thomas mentions how the Depression impoverished her family, but notes that the Depression brought the different ethnicities of the community together. Her family never fully recovered financially from the Depression, therefore the family's leisure activities included going to church and visiting nearby parks like Edgewater and Lakewood Park. Although she remembers the different ethnic groups getting along, the races remained segregated, with African Americans being barred from going to certain churches. After she married in 1965, she noticed that the neighborhoods started to change. She soon moved to the suburbs. "
Tags,"immigrants, immigration, Italians, Gordon Square, Detroit Shoreway, Great Depression, parks, Tremont, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, manufacturing, Capitol Theater, ethnicity"
minutes:,
0,
1,was born on West 65th lived there till 1945
2,"family, brother was active in sports, still plays cards at the Veterans club. Her parents were born in Italy, bought house on the 58th st"
3,"immigrants tended to create little replica villages of the old country. Neighborhood: Italians, Romanians, Irish, Germans"
4,"childhood memories about the neighborhood, factories, blue-collar workers, the Capitol Theatre"
5,"Detroit and 66th St, stores, streetcar line, the Capitol Theatre - a recreation place"
6,"Going to the Theatre on Saturdays, shows that were on"
7,Our Lady of Mount Carmel parades
8,"War years did not have a real impact on her, she was five when it was over, her parents' memories about the Depression"
9,parents had to struggle with poverty
10,the Capitol Theatre area from 58th to 66th
11,description of the theatre
12,
13,"Mario Lanza movies, Italian ethnic bands"
14,"Italian ethnic neighborhood, Italian and Irish clubs"
15,"movies that she saw, Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz"
16,"factories, the National Carbon"
17,most people stayed in the neighborhood where they worked
18,"Harris Calorific Co, the factories closed in the 1960s and 1970s"
19,"The Hunger Center, loss of manufacturing jobs, people moved to the suburbs"
20,"her mother struggled to make ends meet, nowadays people are more isolated"
21,"natural hospitality of their family, people would help each other, during the Depression people also needed public assistance"
22,memories of her old house and friendly neighborhood
23,"barber shop on the corner of 68th, Italian bakeries, storefront businesses"
24,description of the high school building
25,her brother
26,"her brother's wrestling team, championships"
27,"high schools - rivals, her sister's wedding reception, Italian style wedding"
28,"St. Mary's Church, weddings every Saturday"
29,family joining St. Stephen's Church after her mother went to work and the girl had to take all day long classes
30,"it was the German Church, sometimes ethnic pride excluded people of color"
31,"the river kept people separate by the color of their skin, race was an issue, but you never talked about it, ethnic groups got along"
32,in 1965 when she got married the neighborhood started to change racially
33,"riots in the 1960s, she was not politicized"
34,during the 1960s she was raising her two children
35,some relatives lived on the East side
36,July procession of Mount Carmel Church
37,"none of her parents completed high school, the education is important for political awareness"
38,"after moving out to suburbia, people would still come to the Mount Carmel Church"
39,"""it was good to live in this neighborhood, you could go to the library, to the stores"""
40,"memories of the neighborhood, local bakeries, ethnic stores"
41,"the theatre, the drugstore"
42,"prices for movies, cartoons, launch of television"
43,television helped to get the wider view of the world
44,"west of Edgewater, beach house, pier"
45,Lakewood park
46,"parks were recreation areas, ""we did not travel much"""
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49,"""the whole region had a competition"""
50,the Steelyard Commons
51,the Jewish cemetery
52,closing
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