Abstract
Joan Komic is a lifelong resident of Cleveland. Her family started out on the east side near Slavic Village, but moved to the Near West Side while she and her sister were still young. Komic describes growing up, maturing, and entering adulthood while living in the neighborhoods of Clark-Fulton, Old Brooklyn, and Brooklyn Center. Today she engages with her community through being active at a local church and the Jones Home Neighborhood Association.
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Interviewee
Komic, Joan (interviewee)
Interviewer
Nemeth, Sarah (interviewer)
Project
Metro West
Date
8-4-2017
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
63 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Joan Komic interview, 04 August 2017" (2017). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 956006_955042.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1109
Transcript
Sarah Nemeth [00:00:01] Hi, my name is Sarah Nemeth. I’m here today with Joan Komic. Today is August 4, 2017. We are at the Cleveland Public Library Digital Public Library on the third floor of the main building. And this is for the Cleveland Regional Oral History Project. Could you please state your name for the record?
Joan Komic [00:00:20] Joan Komic.
Sarah Nemeth [00:00:22] Thank you for being here today.
Joan Komic [00:00:23] You’re welcome.
Sarah Nemeth [00:00:25] And where were you born and when?
Joan Komic [00:00:27] I was born in Cleveland on September… 1952.
Sarah Nemeth [00:00:34] Well, early Happy birthday.
Joan Komic [00:00:35] Thank you. 65 this year. Oh, my God. I’m officially a senior.
Sarah Nemeth [00:00:42] So you get the card?
Joan Komic [00:00:43] I got the Medicare card and everything.
Sarah Nemeth [00:00:46] Good. Do you also get a Buckeye card?
Joan Komic [00:00:48] Yeah. So that. That came earlier. So I was a senior before this, actually.
Sarah Nemeth [00:00:54] And what side of town did you live on?
Joan Komic [00:00:57] When I was born, my parents lived on the east side of Cleveland on East 66th in the old Slovenian neighborhood around St. Vitus. But before we were two, I think probably when I was, my sister and I, twins, were one or two, we moved to the near west side on West 48th Street off of Clark, and we lived there until we were nine years old, and then we moved to the Old Brooklyn neighborhood. So I’ve always been in Cleveland. So then the Old Brooklyn neighborhood. So from age two to ten, the St. Procop’s area in the near west side by Clark, and then Corpus Christi area, you know, Catholic Church, Old Brooklyn from ten. And actually, my sister is still there, and now I’m in the Brooklyn Centre neighborhood.
Sarah Nemeth [00:01:56] Okay. So did your family have an ethnic background? Is that why they lived in-?
Joan Komic [00:02:04] Yes. My mother’s Slovenian family was all there on the East 66th Street in that St. Vitus neighborhood. My father, Polish, he came from Pennsylvania, but his brothers had moved to Cleveland also to get jobs. You know, they moved from the coal mines in the Pennsylvania area and came to Cleveland and got better jobs, you know, TRW and, you know, in machine, blue-collar. Yeah.
Sarah Nemeth [00:02:38] Okay. Did they ever tell you, I know you probably don’t really remember since you were two, but did they ever tell you anything about how that neighborhood, what was it centered around? Was it centered around the church?
Joan Komic [00:02:51] Well, I think St. Vitus, the Slovenian neighborhood, pretty much closely was by the time. But since that was, even though I was. Spent a lot of time there because my grandparents and everybody was there on the west side, I don’t know if you could say that it was church oriented. Our neighborhoods were definitely- We seemed to have a tight community. The neighbors all knew each other. We were close to a little playground, and the parents kind of watched each other’s kids. I don’t think. I went to St. Procop’s with a lot of my neighbors, though. I think a lot of my neighbors were in public schools. So. Does that answer your question? It wasn’t really. Yeah.
Sarah Nemeth [00:03:41] Can you maybe describe what your street looked like growing up?
Joan Komic [00:03:47] You’re talking now on the-
Sarah Nemeth [00:03:48] From two to ten.
Joan Komic [00:03:49] From two to ten, yeah. Which, that’s a very interesting question because now it seems it just, it’s so deteriorated since, since we were there. Everybody took care of their yards and things were neat and tidy and people knew each other. And when I would go back there later, after we, after, well, actually much after when I was adult, I mean, our house, my house was demolished. I mean, it had deteriorated so much. And really, it was kind of a little bit of a shacky type home anyway. But we made it, you know, kind of homey and interesting. Our neighbor down the street had chickens, you know, in their yard. And when we were, when I was a little girl, I remember that. So it was a neat and tidy neighborhood, and the neighbors knew each other, and then it deteriorated. And now there’s, I’m hoping there’s like a resurgence coming back because I know the Cleveland, Clark neighborhood, there’s a lot of people who are trying to do that, and I totally support them.
Sarah Nemeth [00:05:09] Do you remember what it was demographically? Do you remember the types of people that you lived around?
Joan Komic [00:05:19] It was White. It was pretty much all White. I don’t recall anyone in our school, in our neighborhood that was Black or Hispanic, which is very interesting, too, because right now, I mean, it’s totally diverse. And where I live now, on Daisy Avenue in the Metro West neighborhood, we have everybody, my neighbors are Spanish, they speak Spanish, and they’re wonderful. Some of them, my particular neighbors, I really like. And some of them are, you know, you know how that some neighbors, you get upset, they don’t keep up their property. They have loud music, you know, the youth.
Sarah Nemeth [00:06:12] Just as in any neighborhood- [inaudible]
Joan Komic [00:06:15] Yeah, certain. Yeah. We also have Middle East people on our street now in the Daisy area. So that’s a little bit more south than where I was from ten to two.
Sarah Nemeth [00:06:31] Were there any restaurants or anything that you guys went to when you were in the Clark neighborhood growing up?
Joan Komic [00:06:43] I don’t recall local restaurants, but I do recall us taking the bus downtown to the Silver Grill in the old Higbee’s building. So that was a big, that was the big, you know, lunch-type outing for mothers and their kids. You know, during the summer. My parents were not, you know, we didn’t have a lot of money, so we didn’t do a lot of going out to eat, so I can’t say.
Sarah Nemeth [00:07:20] Okay. Were- You said it was mostly White in the neighborhood. Do you remember if everyone was also like a blue-collar worker or were they Appalachian at all? Appalachian, like from that region, West Virginia?
Joan Komic [00:07:42] I don’t recall that. I think we were mostly all blue-collar, that’s pretty much for sure. There was an Italian family on our street, and people used to either joke or spread rumors about them being in the mafia. I do not know if that was true, but I made my first communion with the girl, and we went to each other’s parties. All I can think of is, Appalachia, that’s interesting, because I worked in the Wheeling area after college, so a little unfamiliar with that area. There probably were. I would think that. I don’t know. So sorry.
Sarah Nemeth [00:08:30] No, that’s fine. I was just wondering if there’s a lot of talk about the fact that it was like, hillbilly haven area.
Joan Komic [00:08:39] Yeah, on the near west side? That could be because my father’s brother and he both located there, and they were from Pennsylvania, and he would probably- I mean, the hills of Pennsylvania. I mean, he was like one of the original Little Rascals. I mean, he could have been like, you know, that could have been that kind of. But they were Polish, you know, so. And I don’t know how the associate, maybe an association would work, but, yeah, that would be kind of similar, I think.
Sarah Nemeth [00:09:19] That’s just maybe one of the ways that someone has described it before, the good old boys.
Joan Komic [00:09:26] Yeah. I could see my father and his brothers talking that way. Yeah.
Sarah Nemeth [00:09:32] Okay. What did you do for fun in the neighborhood?
Joan Komic [00:09:37] Well, there was a playground right across the street from our house, and so that was very convenient. We just played there every day. And at the time, the city had what was called Coaches and Teaches, a male coach and a female teach, two instructors, probably college age, like you. You’re college age. I mean, you work at Cleveland State, right?
Sarah Nemeth [00:10:07] Yeah, I’m going to graduate school.
Joan Komic [00:10:08] Graduate school, yeah. So who would, who would be, who would come to the playgrounds and they would organize us kids and do arts and crafts, and we would enter the Junior Olympics and we would place, we would play sports. So we had that in that near west side area off of Clark and West 48th street. And then when I moved to Old Brooklyn, the same thing in the neighborhood. We were close to a playground, Archmere playground. Same thing, Coach and Teach organized us into. I was on the junior Pigtail League, and then the junior Pigtail League and then the Pigtail League, which was like the seniors, and I was in the junior Olympics. And it was very. And so I think it was like a built in babysitter for the parents, you know, where the city stepped up and took care of the kids on summer vacations. It was real, and it was really a great experience. I mean, we’d have dance. We do Indian- I remember doing an Indian play or dances or something, and it was really fun. It was very fun.
Sarah Nemeth [00:11:21] So having a fun childhood, but it was supported by the city?
Joan Komic [00:11:26] Yes, definitely.
Sarah Nemeth [00:11:30] What did you- What sport did you play?
Joan Komic [00:11:32] Softball.
Sarah Nemeth [00:11:34] Okay.
Joan Komic [00:11:34] Softball.
Sarah Nemeth [00:11:35] What position?
Joan Komic [00:11:37] That’s a good question. Now, let me think. I seem to remember just being in the outfield. I wasn’t like a, you know, really great player. I wasn’t first base. I think I played shortstop a few times, but mainly I was in the outfield.
Sarah Nemeth [00:11:51] Okay. And then do you know why you moved, why your family moved up when you were ten to the Old Brooklyn?
Joan Komic [00:12:01] Old Brooklyn? I really think that my parents felt that the neighborhood was going to pot. They said, this is turning into a bad neighborhood. And one of the reasons they felt that way was because gangs started hanging out in the playground. Gangs of teenage boys, punks, as my father would call them, who would smoke and drink beer and become rowdy, and you weren’t safe. And then there was an incident where- And I don’t know if this had much to do with it or if it was just tip of the iceberg, but no I think that happened much earlier than ten. But one time my sister and I were out on the swings in the playground. There wasn’t anybody else around. And then some guy, some adult guy came and asked if we wanted him to push us. And he was pushing us on this swing. And my mother, of course, is looking out the window, because everybody, I think maybe her neighbor was looking out the window, called my mother, and some strange man is pushing your girls. And my mother, of course, runs out. You know, who are you? What are you doing? And he just, like, went away. And she, I think, reported to the police. And it turns out that there was, like. He matched a description for some- A guy who was- He didn’t try to kidnap, but he molested a child in the bathhouse. That was another thing. There was a bathhouse on Clark Avenue, a bathhouse that we went swimming at, the kids. So there were these rec centers, too, that we would go to. And so that connection with this guy, she thinks they’re going to get kidnapped or molested. Let’s get out of here. And then the punk kids. So it was really a move to improve, and we moved to Old Brooklyn. My father had a sister in Parma, so I think he was moving towards the suburbs, but he was too cheap to make that break over the border and pay those higher taxes, you know. So he got to old Brooklyn, but not past old Brook Park.
Sarah Nemeth [00:14:19] You mentioned the back houses. So was that just kind of like a public pool area?
Joan Komic [00:14:23] Yes, and we took swimming lessons there. So that was another thing that the kids had available for them at the time.
Sarah Nemeth [00:14:32] But you called it the bathhouse?
Joan Komic [00:14:33] Yeah, I think. I think maybe it’s a historic building or something. And it was. I don’t know, but I think they still use that place for a rec center. I think. I went to a couple meetings there, but I’m not sure.
Sarah Nemeth [00:14:50] it’s on Clark?
Joan Komic [00:14:51] Yeah.
Sarah Nemeth [00:14:52] Near- Do you know what it’s near? Like, what other street, cross street?
Joan Komic [00:14:57] Well, we lived on 48th, and it was in the higher numbers, so, on Clark, further down. And I don’t. I don’t think it was much further down on Clark ’cause I don’t think Clark is that long. So maybe in the sixties. I’m not sure. [crosstalk] Yeah. The bathhouse where we went swimming, and some kid was molested shortly before that guy came to our playground and pushed me and my sister on the swing. So I think my mother freaked out.
Sarah Nemeth [00:15:35] Sorry about that. And so, what was your neighborhood in Old Brooklyn?
Joan Komic [00:15:43] Okay, now, that was a little bit nicer neighborhood. Old Brooklyn is very nice still. It’s an amazing neighborhood. And my sister is still there, like I said. And we also had the playground, like I said, to hang out at. And so managed then to hook up with other kids in the neighborhood. And then we became this neighborhood group kids, you know, and hung out. And all of them, again, were. Most of them were public schools instead of Catholic. My parents were pretty much fiercely Catholic, so we were still in catholic school, Corpus Christi. But I think they were very relieved when I, After, at 8th grade, you had to trans- You know, you had to go on. I think they were very relieved that I didn’t want to go to Catholic high school because it’s so much more expensive. I wanted to be with my friends in public school. So then I went to Mooney public junior high and then to James Ford Rhodes and pretty much the kids that I grew up with in that neighborhood. In fact, we just had a little reunion this past weekend. We try to get together at least once a year, but we missed last year at least all of us together. Some of them are still more close than the rest of us. I’m kind of more on the outside because I was the only one in that group to go to college, even though I waited longer. I waited three years to go to college, but I think that move kind of split me from the core group. But we do get together regularly, you know, the old neighborhood, and reminisce.
Sarah Nemeth [00:17:30] What’s something that you might have reminisced about this past weekend?
Joan Komic [00:17:36] Well, everybody talks about the playground that we. That had the coach and teach. There was a creek that went around the playground, and we used to play on the- We had a cable that we would put up in the trees and swing across the creek. There was a swinging cable. And then one time we put two cables across the creek, and then you put your feet on one and your hands on the other and cross. And so we were always following in the creek and getting soakers. And that section of the playground by the creek we called Shangri-La because it was, you know, a nice little, you know, verdant little place. And as we got older, you know, that’s where you went to make out. And, you know, so we talk about that.
Sarah Nemeth [00:18:26] Okay.
Joan Komic [00:18:28] Our boyfriends and our, you know.
Sarah Nemeth [00:18:30] Right. And so you move there when you’re ten. So this is like the sixties?
Joan Komic [00:18:38] Yes.
Sarah Nemeth [00:18:39] Do you remember when I-71 was built?
Joan Komic [00:18:43] I-71 or I-480? Because 480 kind of. I don’t remember I-71, but because we were a little more south. But I do remember I-480 because where I-480 was, which is the southern border of Cleveland and where Old Brooklyn is, it was all woods. And we loved to go to the woods. And I was a big tree climber. I loved to climb trees, but we also loved Nancy Drew books, you know, the mystery stories, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden. So my girlfriend Meg, and another girlfriend, Susan, you know, she would be Nancy, and she would be Beth, and I would be George ’cause I was the big tomboy, you know, and we would go and pretend that we were detectives and we were into the woods. So when those woods left because of the freeway, that was a sad thing. And I remember when they were ripping that up. But I don’t remember 71. But I would have if I had been in Old Brooklyn, where I am now, I certainly would have remembered because my neighbors now talk about how 71 coming in totally split the neighborhoods up and, you know, pretty much destroyed a lot of things that were going, you know, the church and everything else. So I hear about that a lot in my present neighborhood.
Sarah Nemeth [00:20:12] All right. When did. How old were you when they started putting in 480?
Joan Komic [00:20:21] I don’t know. After 50 years, I really don’t know when that was. I just remember that the woods are gone. I wonder if it was even a matter of after the fact, after I was already gone. But I don’t know. No, I just don’t remember.
Sarah Nemeth [00:20:46] That’s okay. That was a really nice description of what you used to do there, though. And you went to, what was it, demographically in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood?
Joan Komic [00:21:02] The same. The same, yeah, it was. It was also, I thought, I think, blue collar. I don’t think any of us had professional-level parents. They were all in the machine, maybe, maybe proprietors. Like, I think one of us had- Her father ran a meat market or something like that. So not. So not machines like my dad, but, you know, in the- Owning a store, things like that, but nothing higher, like teaching in politics or anything like that.
Sarah Nemeth [00:21:49] What were some of the- Were there corner stores? Where did you go to a grocery store? At.
Joan Komic [00:21:57] Grocery stores. I guess we would go to the local croakers, but I didn’t do a lot of grocery shopping then, but we did have a lot of corner stores. In fact, corner stores were kind of a hangout. And there was, in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood between my house and high school, James Ford Rhodes, there was a place called. Well, there was one place called Snacks, and we would go there and hang out, but I think that was on State. And the other one was, shoot, it’s missing me. But it would be a place where we would go and sit and have milkshakes, you know, just like Happy Days, you know, like that kind. And in fact, there was a big boy Happy Days type place that’s still there out. When we finally got cars and were able to go and, you know, that would go where they would come out to the car and wait on you. When we got cars, we would do that, but we’d hang out at Snacks and this other little place for milkshakes before and during, after school, usually, or maybe for lunch. And the proprietors were really, really cool, really friendly, you know, they loved us, you know, the kids. And there was one proprietor that would even let us run the cash register and everything. You know, he was- He just trusted us so much. So it was very- Everything was much more neighborly, I think, than things are now. Although we do have this big effort with block clubs and things trying to bring all of that back.
Sarah Nemeth [00:23:40] Yeah, I think there’s a resurgence in people missing that connection from their place. Makes a lot of things better, just safer.
Joan Komic [00:23:51] I was the one who started the block club on my Daisy Street now. I started it in 2009. It was actually after an attack on my neighbor diagonally across the street, somebody broke into his house, bound and gagged him and stole something. And when I came home from work that day, my neighbor was waiting for me to tell me because I was living alone. I have a housemate, and he’s very sick, and he’s in and out of the nursing home. And he was in the hospital, in the nursing home, and he was in a nursing home for an extended period of time. So I was alone in the house when this attack happened. So my neighbors kind of watched out for me. So there you go. Even though you think, it’s not the same. There is. The neighbors waited for me. My Spanish neighborhood waited for me when I got home. And she said, Joan, you gotta know what happened across the street this morning or yesterday. And I go, that does it. We need to start a block club. So I started the block club, and now we’re like a neighborhood association. And we actually grew. We became a neighborhood association because we got people from other streets to join our group, or they wanted to join our group. So we had to expand, and then we got this big push from, there’s a little core group in our neighborhood that’s really into the historic architecture that’s in our neighborhood. And so getting a historic designation for our neighborhood, so they were the ones that kind of pushed for the change of the name and made it so we’re the Jones Home Historic District, and so now we’re the Jones Home Neighborhood Association, and the Jones Home Historic District is in the process of getting these historic signs for our neighborhood. So I’m really proud that my little block club kind of gave fruit to this. Although this historic group was probably on its own and we just got together because my block club also started a community garden in the neighborhood on one of the vacant lots. And it’s, you know, and so we’re. We. We have a little group. We have a little core group in our neighborhood that gets together every month since 2009.
Sarah Nemeth [00:26:17] So you’ve started a community garden?
Joan Komic [00:26:20] Right, now I should say that I personally was not involved in the garden, but when my group was interested in building a garden, I’m like, I support you guys, but I’m not a green-thumb person. I don’t want to be digging in the dirt, but I totally support you. So I helped with getting the grant money, and we applied for grant funds, and so I helped with all that paperwork.
Sarah Nemeth [00:26:44] Where did you go through to get the grant to start the garden?
Joan Komic [00:26:48] Neighborhood Connections. And then there’s this thing called the Summer Sprout program that’s, I think, through Ohio University or. I don’t know, something like that. But the. My neighbor Eric, who is the point person for the garden, he’s the one that has that connection, the Summer Sprout connection. I help mainly with the Neighborhood Connections grant stuff.
Sarah Nemeth [00:27:14] Okay, so do you, did your block club ever purchase the land, or did you just redevelop a vacant lot?
Joan Komic [00:27:25] The person who owns the lot is actually a worker in our community development office. And because he lives on, he owned a lot on Daisy, he started to attend our block club meetings. And when he heard that they were interested in doing a community garden, he goes, you could do it on my land. So he donated my lot. Yeah. So we kind of share the lot with him. He stores his firewood there and other things, and then we have the garden. It’s kind of like he’s letting us use it. We don’t own it. He still owns it, but. So it’s like partnership kind of.
Sarah Nemeth [00:28:06] Okay. I was just making sure that maybe because your neighborhood is kind of a neighborhood that could, like, pop. The next one. I mean, all around you, you have these trendy neighborhoods. Investors are kind of pushing.
Joan Komic [00:28:23] Right.
Sarah Nemeth [00:28:23] Knocking on your door.
Joan Komic [00:28:25] Exactly. Tremont, Ohio City, Metro Health is doing their expansion. Brooklyn center. Even though part of us is considered part of Brooklyn Centre, they’re a little bit separated from us by the freeway. So, yeah, we’re there. We’re hoping, and we keep praying that it will.
Sarah Nemeth [00:28:49] You would like it to pop?
Joan Komic [00:28:50] Yeah, there’s big- Yeah, they would like us to be like those other neighborhoods. There’s some groups that worry about, they don’t want to- They don’t want total gentrification. You know, they, you know, so they’re worried about, you know, they want to keep the culture and the diversity and just, you know, just improve. You know, just have more commercial stuff going on. You know, like, we lost Aldi, so we don’t have a grocery store. My church, which is in the heart of Brooklyn Centre, is doing a produce sale twice a month to try to fill in that grocery gap that we have now. Actually, one of the things I’m preoccupied with right now, I was really thinking, I’m going to do so bad because I’m so preoccupied with. I volunteered at my church to do the next two Sundays leading the service. So I’m actually going to do the sermons.
Sarah Nemeth [00:29:54] Oh, wow.
Joan Komic [00:29:54] I know. And I’m like, why do I volunteer to do things that I’m so unqualified for? I mean, it’s like, why do I do that? But our church is struggling. Like, all the churches are struggling, and we’re right now trying to run the church ourselves. We don’t have a full-time pastor. We just lost our part-time pastor. So until we get another part-time, we’re stepping up and trying to. And our worship committee was so burned out. And I’m like, okay, so I’m on the governing body, you know, so I do some building and administrative stuff, but I’m not a worship person. But I’m like, oh, help the worship committee out. And I’m like, oh, no. But we do these book studies at our group. We’re very progressive Christian, and we do these progressive books, Christian book studies. And I thought, I’ll just regurgitate the stuff I learned in the, in the book studies. And hopefully it’ll go well, but I am preoccupied with it.
Sarah Nemeth [00:30:48] Which church do you go to?
Joan Komic [00:30:49] It’s Archwood UCC.
Sarah Nemeth [00:30:51] Okay. Speaking of Archwood, is, do you still have the Archwood Fair?
Joan Komic [00:30:57] Well, it’s a, it’s a, it’s a street sale. Yeah, it’s the whole street. Archwood does, still does it every twice a year, the first weekend in June and the first weekend in September. And the church has normally participated in it, did rummage sales each year, but now we don’t even have the volunteers to do anything like that. So our property often just gets taken over by the people from outside that just take over our property and set up shop. So I’m sure there will be people on our lawn in this coming September, because I don’t think we have anything else planned. The girl that was doing, doing our rummage sale, I mean, when you have so few members, when one person leaves for everything that she did, you know, it’s just kind of like falls. Mary Beth was the one who did, you know, the rummage sale, and Cathy does the bake sale. And Cathy still- She still does bake sale stuff, but. So, yes, to answer your question, Archwood does. But the church is so small now that we haven’t been able to participate the last few times.
Sarah Nemeth [00:32:12] Could you maybe describe what it is, the Archwood sale, for someone that may not know that could be listening to this?
Joan Komic [00:32:19] This, what it is, it’s like a street-long garage sale. You know, it’s like somebody decides to have a yard sale. But on Archwood, a long time ago, the Archwood Neighbors said, let’s do it every year. Let’s do it twice a year. It’s such a big thing. And so they do, and it’s such a tradition that it goes on and on, I would think. I know that the people who started it, some of the houses have turned over and things so different houses will be setting up, but it’s so well ingrained now in the Archwood culture that it goes on.
Sarah Nemeth [00:33:06] Okay. I wanted to go back to when you’re moving out of Old Brooklyn. So did you move out when you graduated from high school? You said you waited before you went to college.
Joan Komic [00:33:23] Right, now, so I was in old Brooklyn that whole time until I went to college. And then I moved to Kent. Well, yeah, I moved to Kent when I was at Kent State and then after Kent State. So this was, so I graduated from high school, from James Ford Rhodes in 1970. I worked in downtown Cleveland and still lived in Old Brooklyn. For three years, I worked at a coffee company. And interestingly, I should say, I also built a coffee house in Brooklyn Centre, in that shopping center that’s at the corner of Archwood and Pearl, there was a Phoenix Coffee house there. When that shopping center opened. That was my child. That was. I did that. And we were open from 2000, open from 1995 to 2002. It was a total nightmare financially, but it was one of those things that, well, I’m getting ahead of myself, but I think, yeah, so I was also a business owner in the neighborhood. So I worked for, for three years after high school, lived in Old Brooklyn, worked downtown, and then I decided to go to college. You know why I decided? Because in the office, I knew how to do everything in that office. And when we needed a new office manager, they hired somebody from outside who had a college education, who I had to train. And I’m like, there’s something wrong with this picture. I’m going to college, you know? And like, it was like, I don’t know if it was a female thing, like people said, oh, Joan, they probably thought, oh, you’re going to get married and you’re not going to sit there, you’re not going to stay there. That’s why they hire these guys, you know, so back. But I’m like, that just sucked. You know, I thought, why didn’t they promote me? So then I went to college, and so after college, and then I was a journalist for a little bit. So I, because I was a journalism major, and right after college I got an internship on the Wheeling Intelligencer. And when that was up, the small news, smaller newspaper, competing newspaper across the river gave me an offer when they heard that I was leaving. So then I went back, you know, I went back to Cleveland. I’m like, I gotta find a job, you know. But then the Martins Ferry Times leader. So just for a couple years after college, I did that. I was not really a big. Are you a journalism major?
Sarah Nemeth [00:36:13] No, I’m history.
Joan Komic [00:36:15] History. I wasn’t like. I wasn’t like the big Woodward Bernstein person that everybody was at the time, you know, with Watergate and all of that. But I love to read. And I like, what do you do if you love to read? You know, what do you major in? And, like, they’re going, oh, you should major in English. I’m like, I don’t want to teach. You know, so I thought journalism would be interesting. So. And I loved- I did love doing journalism. It’s just that I wasn’t a passionate person at that. When my boyfriend from home wanted to get married, then I came back and couldn’t find a job because the press was folding and so then my career went into another direction.
Sarah Nemeth [00:37:00] Why did you choose Kent?
Joan Komic [00:37:05] When I was talking about going to college when I wanted to- Because that young kid came in and talking to people about what I would like to do, and we settled on journalism, one of my friends had gone to Kent and he said, Kent has a very good journalism school, so you should go there. So I said, okay. So I applied and got in.
Sarah Nemeth [00:37:31] Okay. And so what year did you?
Joan Komic [00:37:35] Yeah, I graduated from high school in seventies. So that’s when the shootings were. I got to Kent in 1973 as a freshman. And May 4 was still a very strong legacy. In fact, I’m mentioning May 4 in my sermon for next Sunday because I’m doing this thing on the politics of compassion, you know, of Jesus, you know, and Jesus was a radical. And so we were talking. He was a protesting radical. Let’s, you know, let’s own that and talk about what we’re doing radically today and what’s happening today with protests and things like that.
Sarah Nemeth [00:38:16] Sounds like a good one.
Joan Komic [00:38:17] Yeah. So I mentioned Kent State because I interviewed one of the kids that were shot. Was shot in Kent State. And so it was a rea
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