Abstract
Rob Pryor, co-owner of Record Revolution, provides a history of the legendary Coventry store and describes Coventry's youth culture in the 1980s and 1990s.
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Interviewee
Pryor, Rob (interviewee)
Interviewer
Nemeth, Sarah (interviewer)
Transcript
Sarah Nemeth [00:00:01] Hi, my name is Sarah Nemeth. I'm here today with Rob Pryor. Today is August 22, 2018 and this is for the Cleveland Regional Oral History Project. Could you please state your name for the record?
Rob Pryor [00:00:12] Rob Pryor.
Sarah Nemeth [00:00:18] And when and where were you born?
Rob Pryor [00:00:21] I was born January 1, 1973, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Sarah Nemeth [00:00:30] What neighborhood did you grow up in?
Rob Pryor [00:00:33] I grew up mainly in Cleveland Heights.
Sarah Nemeth [00:00:39] Okay, so you came, did you come down to Coventry frequently like as you were growing up?
Rob Pryor [00:00:44] I did. I, let's see. I moved to this immediate Coventry area when I was 12.
Sarah Nemeth [00:00:59] Okay.
Rob Pryor [00:01:00] 12, my mom had recently divorced my father and I moved we moved to Hillcrest, which is like four streets east of here on the north, north side of Mayfield.
Sarah Nemeth [00:01:15] Okay.
Rob Pryor [00:01:15] So, yeah, we could walk here. We mainly moved here because, yeah, you didn't really need a car. We walked to the laundromat. We walked to the grocery store. We walked to the drugstore. There was a Revco on the corner. Not sure that there's one there now. Nope, it was a CVS for a while, but now it's closed. It's something else, an art supply store, I think now.
Sarah Nemeth [00:01:44] How did you get involved in Record Revolution?
Rob Pryor [00:01:49] Well, I was a young man without a job, and I, well, it's funny because well. Yeah, I used to be a huge skateboarder. I was an avid skateboarder and all day long skateboard, skateboard and Record Revolution opened a skateboard shop. And after a while, I, I thought, you know, maybe I could get a job and use my expertise in skateboarding. Maybe they could use me. So, yeah, I came in and I applied, and I got the job.
Sarah Nemeth [00:02:32] And when was that?
Rob Pryor [00:02:33] That was a long time ago. That was in, funnily enough, it was in 1989.
Sarah Nemeth [00:02:44] Okay, so at the end of the '80s.
Rob Pryor [00:02:46] So at the very end of the '80s. Yeah.
Sarah Nemeth [00:02:48] Do you remember what Coventry was like in the '80s?
Rob Pryor [00:02:52] I do, yes, of course I do.Yeah.
Sarah Nemeth [00:02:55] Could you describe it?
Rob Pryor [00:02:55] Because I grew up here. I loved it. I thought it was, it was nice. It was fun. It was eclectic. There was always, you know, there were always people out and about here. It was almost like a kind of a little tiny, tiny corner of like of New York or like some kind of bustling city with a lot of, you know, just artistic and, you know, kind of just eclectic people. And, you know, during the day, you could go to up, up at the corner where before they kind of made those, like, giant concrete steps, it was just grass. And you could see all day long people of all kinds of different, all kinds of different people sitting on this grass up there and just like talking, you know. And it was, it was really something to see. I think that there was really not much like it or especially that I knew of anywhere, anywhere near here. And I mean, you know, I, I'd been a lot of places already, even as a teenager. And that wasn't something that you would see everywhere.
Sarah Nemeth [00:04:10] Was there any, well are there any characters that kind of stood out to you, the characters of Coventry?
Rob Pryor [00:04:16] Oh, boy. Yeah, there's over the years. Sure. You know, I think it's funny that because everybody has their own Coventry too, you know. And so for me, yeah, there were the, you know, there were like the people that kind of worked in the shops that were characters everybody knows of, like, you know, a Fred with his, you know, crazy way that he dressed and t-shirts on his head and, and all that stuff. And incidentally, he did work here as well. You know, I remember, you know, guys like I don't know there was a guy named Brian that worked at High Tide Rock Bottom. That was, that was a character that and, you know, he was always really friendly to me and, and I would go in there and all that. So there were the people that, that worked here. But, you know, and you can always get, you know, those stories. But well, for me, as a kid, like I was a punk rocker, you know, so we hung out on the street. So we knew even at, you know, 15, 16, we knew kind of like the, the, you know, I think right now I guess these people were probably mental patients or like, you know, I mean, I hate to, you know, say it like that, but and that's who, that's who, you know, we knew. And they, you know, they had their own stories as well. We had a, we had a cat named Benny that, you know, we used to go around with. And, you know, he was he was kind of an addict of, you know, crack cocaine, but he was also like a street prophet, you know? I mean, he would just say things that like, you know, in his crazy way, but they would make sense, you know, so there was that. And, and, yeah, we call him Benny. I think just he got that name because he one time he told me recently, actually, I think he just passed away just a couple of years ago. But, but I mean, he, he lived a long time but and he said he got, he got that name because his ma. He Was small. He was a small guy and, and, and his mom called him Bitty because he was an itty-bitty kid. And then people misunderstood that for Benny. And so he grew up being known as Benny. But yeah there, I mean, so when we were like 16, 15, 16, 17, these guys would be around and, you know, some of them we knew not to, you know, kind of go around with, you know, we were street smart enough to know, like, you know, there are some cats that you, they didn't look like fun, you know? And there was one guy we used to call the man who was seen too much. He had these eyes. And he would just always be scanning and looking around with these piercing huge, you know, glaring eyes. We never spoke to him, but he was always around. You know, I don't know there are some other guys, this guy named Skeeter, and he was real skinny and just kind of hung about.
Sarah Nemeth [00:07:38] So, I mean, but everyone kind of was tollerating of that work in the '80s, was there a large maybe clash between a more establishment and like a youth culture, a new youth age culture?
Rob Pryor [00:07:55] I think that I want to say that there was not that then I think that, you know, maybe I don't know if I was just too young to realize it or know about it or because I wasn't into the politics of the street. But I do, you know, recall that. Yeah. I mean, you could just walk around and be just be that. And I think that some merchants and building owners knew that what they had was special and didn't exist anywhere else. And I think that they kind of just tapped into that. Yeah. Do you need to pause?
Sarah Nemeth [00:08:43] Yes.
Rob Pryor [00:08:43] Alright.
Sarah Nemeth [00:08:43] So there, you could just hang out and walk around and everything was fine.
Rob Pryor [00:08:46] Yeah, right. It was fine.
Sarah Nemeth [00:08:48] As a kid.
Rob Pryor [00:08:49] It wasn't. As a kid and you know. Yeah. I mean, so from the time that I was 12, you know, I could walk up here, be around. And, you know. My mom was involved with the, with the neighborhood organization called Coventry Neighbors, and so there was kind of like for me, you know, I behaved because people knew, you know, people would know who my mother was. And when we lived in the neighborhood, you know, this was a neighborhood, it's Coventry Village. And then, there was a true village, you know, that that, you know, people knew who I was. People knew where my mom was. And, and even my father, my father hung out here even though they were divorced. You know, my, my dad frequented the, the, you know, there was a pub called Turkey Ridge where Seafood Shake is now. But so even his, you know, so even that side, like, you know, my dad's, you know, friends knew who I was.
Sarah Nemeth [00:10:07] So, I mean, you were maybe alternative and having fun, but at the same time, he being because you need... [crosstalk]
Rob Pryor [00:10:17] Right. Well, sure. Yeah, right. It was the neighborhood. Right, exactly.
Sarah Nemeth [00:10:20] You kind of mentioned that at that time, it was a neighborhood has that changed and when did that change if it did?
Rob Pryor [00:10:30] You know, it's like things always change, right? There's never it's, you know, if it didn't change, I guess, you know, sometimes things are stagnant, but. Yeah, I mean, I would say, yeah, there are some things they, they try to keep, some things, you know, it's kind of like the old saying, like the more things change, the more they stay the same. You know, there's, there are people that can change the businesses and they can change you know, they can try to charge more for rent or try to go for like a certain demographic in the, in the area. But organic change happens naturally; you can't affect that. That's the thing. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, yeah, there's not a grocery store, but there's Marc's, you know. So they sell, you know, they sell grocery items and they and I mean, I go there, that's you know, I live in the neighborhood still. I live two blocks from here. So my main grocery shopping is there. They have good produce and that's really mostly what I eat. So I, I go there.
Sarah Nemeth [00:11:43] So you can like this community is so self-sufficient maybe like you saw the grocery store and if you do drive there's a gas station and various, I mean, you can survive here without having to leave.
Rob Pryor [00:11:59] You can yeah, you can survive. Yeah, yeah, they right.
Sarah Nemeth [00:12:06] Now.
Rob Pryor [00:12:06] And now this is, is always how it happens. If I go to lunch, then everybody comes right we're doing something, then everybody comes. So, yeah,
Sarah Nemeth [00:12:17] Maybe you could talk a little bit, do you know the history of Record Revolution on the street now that you own?
Rob Pryor [00:12:25] Right. Yeah. I mean I know some of the history, you know, of course, I wasn't born, when they...
Sarah Nemeth [00:12:31] Right.
Rob Pryor [00:12:31] When they opened.
Sarah Nemeth [00:12:32] Right, of course.
Rob Pryor [00:12:33] Record Revolution. I know that, you know, there was a guy named Peter Schliewin who opened Record Revolution. I think that before it was Record Revolution, I think he and another guy had a small record shop. Kind of three, three doors to the north of this space, and then I think in like '68, they, they split. I think the one guy didn't want to do it anymore. And then, Peter decided that he wanted to continue. And I'm not really sure exactly what they did that first year, but, you know, eventually they, you know, they had, they had records and then they, you know, he added like. You know, the tobacco products, and that's something that's always been, you know, at Record Revolution and. I'm not really sure when the boutique items came in, it might have been after Peter's, Peter's untimely death, and then, you know, my partner now bought it, bought the, the shop from Peter's wife. And I want to say, I want to say it was 1984, 1985, something like that. And he was a, he was a big executive at or not, I mean, not big, but he was like a regional executive at Camelot. So he had a music store background. He bought the shop from Jan, Peter's wife. And I believe that he added like the extensive boutique so that we sell, you know, clothing, and the t-shirts, [the] kind of fashion items back then, it was really super high fashion, too. It was like New York, like it was New York boutique, so that we sold things that you could get here or in New York, nowhere else. So, yeah. So the Marche Noir stuff, Lip Service, these things were available, New York, here, and then later in Chicago, there was a store that opened called The Alley, and they sold kind of like stuff like that, but they didn't have records. They just did like a lot of lifestyle kind of stuff and the high end. But that Marche Noir, Marche Noir, Lip Service I'm trying to think of those early brands when we were the first place to have Doc Martens. You know, outside of London, you know, you could London, New York, and then Record Revolution in Cleveland Heights. And, and that would have been in like '86 that we probably started that like in '85, '86 we had that. Same thing, John Fluevog, same thing. We sold John Fluevog when they had three styles and now they have hundreds. But you could pick from three styles, you know, Doc Martens same thing. They had five styles when we, when we started the with our company. And then we, you know, we had more lifestyle items, such as like hair dye, people, you know, walking around here doing their hair and, you know, in a different every any color of the rainbow. We are today and, you know, still the oldest existing Manic Panic account, like, you know, whenever we get a new sales rep from in that company, they're like, oh, my God, this is like our account number is like 004, you know? So so there's that. And yeah, Urban Decay, you know, before they got in Nordstrom's and I don't even know if Nordstrom still sells that makeup line, but, you know, that started here. So this has been kind of a hub [of] like all things kind of alternative or subculture or something like that. I give you another on: Alternative Press Magazine. That's a big, you know, music, alternative music magazine started in our basement.
Sarah Nemeth [00:17:12] Oh, really?
Rob Pryor [00:17:12] That, that magazine started here.
Sarah Nemeth [00:17:13] Well, that's cool.
Rob Pryor [00:17:13] In Record Revolution in the basement. Yeah, it was printed on a newsprint back then. Yeah. So yeah. I mean I could go on and on about all this, you know, all these things
Sarah Nemeth [00:17:28] Did you have writers in the basement?. I mean were there writers in the basement?
Rob Pryor [00:17:30] Well, I didn't start the magazine.
Sarah Nemeth [00:17:32] Right but.
Rob Pryor [00:17:32] So I, I met the, the owner of the magazine, the guy and he still does the magazine of course. I mean obviously, it's still a big national publication. And you know, one day we were just talking we happened to meet on the on a street somewhere. It was down in Ohio City. And he's like, oh, man, yeah Record Revolution. And he's like, man, I got to tell you, you know, I started that mag. I started the magazine in that, you know, because I didn't even know about it, you know. So I was already a partner. I was already involved in it. And he's like, I've always wanted to make a plaque and just hang it on the wall and just say, like. This is where I started this magazine.
Sarah Nemeth [00:18:10] It seems like a lot of cool stuff happened in your basement here.
Rob Pryor [00:18:12] Yeah.
Sarah Nemeth [00:18:14] Well, that I didn't know about, but just I, a lot of people that talked about Record Revolution, they always had these really cool experiences that we're in the basement.
Rob Pryor [00:18:25] That's interesting. I don't know why that would be. I didn't, I don't know who you talk to, but I hope none of this stuff's illegal.
Sarah Nemeth [00:18:40] No. One of the ladies across the street said that she... You gave her for the first time, I think, Aerosmith, like cover and there was no record in it.
Rob Pryor [00:18:48] Okay.
Sarah Nemeth [00:18:48] But it was in the basement.
Rob Pryor [00:18:48] Oh, so yeah, she found it in the basement. Right.
Sarah Nemeth [00:18:51] Yeah, and you were like, oh no you can have it. She was like a little kid and she was like.
Rob Pryor [00:18:54] and stuff like that.
Sarah Nemeth [00:18:55] Yeah.
Rob Pryor [00:18:56] Stands out to people. Doesn't it?
Sarah Nemeth [00:18:57] It means a lot, I mean.
Rob Pryor [00:18:57] It does.
Sarah Nemeth [00:18:57] They still remember it today.
Rob Pryor [00:18:57] Right.
Sarah Nemeth [00:18:57] When they are like oh you got to go talk to them over there.
Rob Pryor [00:19:02] That's funny because you know what I, my first jazz record I got I was actually working here but we were when we take, you know, obviously, we take trades and somebody came in to trade in some, some records. And for some reason, we didn't take these two records. It was a Hank Crawford Mr. Blues and, and Sonny Rollins Way Out West. And I was working in the basement. I was, you know, just I sold the used CDs down there at that time. And the, and the guy who, you know, had the records, he said, hey, they didn't take these, but I'm going to give them to you. And he's like, just, you know, take a listen to him. Changed my life. Now, a big jazz head and you know, and I play in jazz bands. I play the saxophone, you know, the whole thing. So, yeah, another thing that happened.
Sarah Nemeth [00:19:55] It's just a magical place.
Rob Pryor [00:19:57] It's a magical basement we have here.
Sarah Nemeth [00:20:01] Speaking of the basement, somewhere else told me that I don't know. Alan Freed, did he ever broadcast out of this basement?
Rob Pryor [00:20:09] I could never know that.
Sarah Nemeth [00:20:11] Okay.
Rob Pryor [00:20:11] I don't, I don't know.
Sarah Nemeth [00:20:13] Okay, I didn't know. Maybe that's just urban legend.
Rob Pryor [00:20:14] He is, he did have a connection to Record Revolution in that like it might have been a loose connection. I know that, like, there's this old poster that I came across a reprint of and this is Alan Freed thing that he's doing some kind of show or some kind of broadcast. And the address is, it is Record Rendezvous with the address was for, was for that Record Rendezvous on, on Prospect, which we actually did take over. So when they went out, we took that space. So there's a chance that he still did that show in the basement. But that wouldn't be this location.
Sarah Nemeth [00:21:07] Oh, okay.
Rob Pryor [00:21:07] It would be another location.
Sarah Nemeth [00:21:10] So I have a black hole of Coventry history in the '90s.
Rob Pryor [00:21:13] Oh, okay. I graduated high school in 1991. So yeah.
Sarah Nemeth [00:21:19] Okay, everyone, I've been talking to they've moved out at that time and like started having families.
Rob Pryor [00:21:24] Oh.
Sarah Nemeth [00:21:26] So we're, so you were obviously still.
Rob Pryor [00:21:27] I was. Yeah I mean I was.
Sarah Nemeth [00:21:30] A kid.
Rob Pryor [00:21:30] Right, right in 1991, I was 18. So yeah I was around, I was in the thick of it.
Sarah Nemeth [00:21:37] Okay.
Rob Pryor [00:21:38] Yeah.
Sarah Nemeth [00:21:39] Could you maybe describe like what people looked at, like looked like rather on the street? There was kind of a new, new-age youth culture I think happening at that time. If there was, I don't know, I wasn't here but people kind of mentioned like maybe like the punk rock.
Rob Pryor [00:21:58] Yeah. That's what I was.
Sarah Nemeth [00:22:00] Okay.
Rob Pryor [00:22:07] Yeah.
Sarah Nemeth [00:22:08] Mohawks.
Rob Pryor [00:22:09] Mohawks.Yeah. For sure. Yeah. All my friends we, I had a mohawk, I had a double Mohawk and I had dreads in the front, you know, yeah leather jackets, spike, spike bracelets, several belts on at once. Yeah. Yeah. Those days were good and, I mean, not everyone looked like that. I mean that like sort of over-the-top punk look was kind of dwindling out. People weren't doing that as much. It started to kind of go to where that kind of like what somebody might consider a grunge look that, you know, a lot of my friends just wore jeans, you know, with a t-shirt and then, you know, a flannel shirt kind of either over top of that, if it was chilly or if it got warm, tied around their waist. Minimal sort of. Chains, you know, spike, leather bracelets, you know, dog collar type thing, but it was way more like toned down. It was starting to get, you know, it's a lot to maintain all that hair standing on and you know what I mean? And it's like, is this a fashion thing or are we doing you know what I mean? Is this a way of life? Is this, we're not doing this to be fashionable? So it kind of, you know, that whole, like, glam punk look was really, really going out. And you had other, you had other genres, kind of like subgenres of punk rock on the rise. So like things like the straight edge, straight edge movement of the '90s that was in full swing here. And most of the bands that we knew of at that time, local bands, they were all straight edge bands. So bands like False Hope, you know, that was a straight edge band, you know. Or, or if they weren't, you know, if they weren't a straight edge, like a hard-line straight edge band, their members were straight edge. And maybe they didn't talk about it as a band, you know, maybe like, you know, bands like Alt.Face or something like that where they're doing this like eclectic kind of melodic punk and like, you know, reggae songs mixed together. That was that music scene. Integrity that's a they're, you know, national. That's a big they started off, as you know, there was all straight edge guys, you know.
Sarah Nemeth [00:24:57] Could you maybe explain what straight edge, straight edge movement was?
Rob Pryor [00:25:01] Oh, so that was a youth culture movement that I believe started in D.C. was in like Washington, D.C. It, it was like Ian MacKaye and his kind of cronies, cronies. And he's he was the singer for a band called Minor Threat. And basically it was just saying that, you know, we're punk rock and into this music, but that's it. We're not into like they weren't into drugs. They weren't into like drinking. And they just were kind of saying, like, hey, you know, we're just, we're here for the music. So, so I think especially at, at that time in D.C., they the and they I'm using too many pronouns. The clubs that would have these bands come through, wouldn't, they wouldn't be all-ages shows because they'd be at bars, you know. And so these, these young people were saying, you know, we really want to come see these bands, but we don't want to drink anyway. Can we just, you know, watch? And so then they would, they the, the bars would mark an X on the top of their hand. And so it's funny because that grew into like their symbol. So they would come with those Xs marked on their hands already. And that's like, kind of like especially in the '90s, if you saw, you would see kids just walking around and they would, they would put, they would marker and huge, huge X is over the whole top of their hand. The opposite of their palm would be this huge X, and that was like the symbol for like the straight edge movement. So then, you know, and then, you know, as it progresses, they, they adopt some other, you know, ideologies. And of course, anything that evolves evolves with branches. And so there's all these different branches of just that kind of scene. But back then, in the early '90s, it was just straight edge and they hadn't, you know, made the other branches yet. So so, yeah, everybody was pretty cool and hung out. But, but what I was saying too about about that aspect is those kids seemed to dress more traditionally like normal kids, like they just liked the music, you know. And they, they kind of after a while, adopted their own style, which where they would wear even like sportswear. So they would wear these like champion sweatshirts and like Letterman jackets, which is really weird because it was the antithesis of like what we were doing was just like we're setting ourselves apart from like we're not these jocks, you know, that we go to school with who do things that we don't agree with. But, you know, we're in the music. We're in the, you know, this counterculture kind of thing. It, it's almost kind of like a volley. You know, it's like it goes back to like, well, we're into music, but we're not in there, like, you know, looking crazy and, you know, doing that. So they look normal. They look like any kid at school sometimes, but they would be at the shows and they'd be into like the music and stuff.
Sarah Nemeth [00:28:19] So you had all of these different flavors and all kind of like generating around.
Rob Pryor [00:28:19] Yeah.
Sarah Nemeth [00:28:19] The music of the '90s.
Rob Pryor [00:28:23] Right.
Sarah Nemeth [00:28:24] The alternative vibe.
Rob Pryor [00:28:24] Right. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah. Right there was. Yeah. Right. And everybody hung out. I mean everybody, you know, of course, there's personal conflicts. But I mean for the most part, I just remember everybody being, being cool.
Sarah Nemeth [00:28:50] Was there a large, like coffee, the coffee scene here?
Rob Pryor [00:28:55] Yeah. There, there was definitely, you know, I'm sure that people have mentioned Arabica and that that was, you know, definitely a hangout place for, for everyone. And that's, that's where everybody would be. Every, all the, the armchair intellectuals were there. We were there in the smoking section in the back. You know, the hippie kids and all that, you know, everybody was that was there, you were either outside, the back of Arabica, or if you were an older person, you were probably kind of in the middle somewhere.
Sarah Nemeth [00:29:34] Right.
Rob Pryor [00:29:34] Somewhere in the middle of the Arabic shop. But, but, yeah, my, you know, my cohorts and myself, that's where we were, we were in the back.
Sarah Nemeth [00:29:45] Well, I will close just with the question of
Rob Pryor [00:29:53] Just yeah, just. Okay.
Sarah Nemeth [00:29:55] So would you, how would you describe Coventry today?
Rob Pryor [00:30:00] Oh, that's a good question. I guess. I guess it's so, it's sort of the same idea of that, that everybody has their own Coventry, right? They have their own country experience. So for me, my Coventry experience now is business, you know? It's, you know, I mean, I live in the neighborhood. I, I don't find myself hanging out. You know, I don't, [I'm] 45 now, you know? So I, you know, and I think that I've always thought that kind of like that aspect of Coventry belongs to the youth, so I'm not in that group anymore. I'll go see a show at the Grog Shop. If that happens, it's like I'll leave here, walk home or drive home, maybe some walk, because I do drive to work a lot because I have to carry things a lot in and out or, you know, go somewhere after work a lot. But so I'll drive home and then I'll walk back and in walking back, you know, I'll see the show. Or if I'm going to go to a restaurant here, it's I walk down, I do that and then I leave. And I guess when I do that, I do real, I do kind of notice that it's like, where are all the people, you know? I do remember. I just, I guess sometimes, like I'm thinking of like yeah, when I'm walking down, it's like I kind of always wanted or had that in the back of my mind that, like, I would of, my kids would hang out here and like, you know, my dad hung out here, hung out here. I hung out here. I thought my kids would hang out here. You know, I know that, you know, you know, things change and things kind of move, but, yeah I always, you know, it's kind of I don't want to say like no, that there is nobody like here because that doesn't sound good, because there are people here. There is just still like the place for like foot traffic. I mean, there's, you know, I mean, where else are you going to go that there are people, you know, walking around and you go up to Shaker Square or Larchmere. I mean, you can walk down the street and never see anybody walking on the street. So you still have like people are walking up and down the street. And I know that there was a push by whomever, I don't know, to kind of keep people from hanging out at the corner there. And they put those, they put those big planters kind of in the way. And it's like, well, who, who gained from that? What, what did anybody gain from, from that? I don't really understand why, why they do stuff like that. But, but now I think they've taken those planters out. They've, they've taken them down. I think they have. Yeah. Yeah. There used to be the huge planters that kind of like blocked off the whole like that brick area where people kind of congregated. And I think you're seeing more people, more and more people up there doing that. I know that like on Sunday morning, you know, you can. You can. Go to the breakfast place and there's people, you know, there are people out there and they're sitting on those things and that's kind of you know, refreshing to see. That's fun to see. But okay, well, the question was.
Sarah Nemeth [00:33:54] Like what.
Rob Pryor [00:33:54] How, what do I see it now, today.
Sarah Nemeth [00:33:57] Right. As today.
Rob Pryor [00:33:58] Right.
Sarah Nemeth [00:33:59] It seems like the youth here, like that active youth were not very close.
Rob Pryor [00:34:02] The active youth, you know what the corporations have completely, like, gotten in the youths' heads. That they're, they're, you know, youth activists, it doesn't exist anymore, really. It's just really kind of sad and, and strange that people think that they are, they're alternative because they like monster drink rather than Coke is like, dude, it's the same company. You, you know, like, really, that's crazy. You know, that they are alternative because they wear Dickies instead of Levi's or something. It's like, it's all, it's all at the mall, man. It's all the same thing. Yeah, I, it's and, and they'll, they'll really be righteous about it, you know, like, wow, if you really only knew that you're not a corporate stooge just like anybody else, you know, that, that you are making fun of, you know, you're that same person. So yeah, it's kind of sad. But you know what, that things always come around, things always come around. So they'll.
Sarah Nemeth [00:35:09] And you're still here.
Rob Pryor [00:35:10] And I'm still here. Yeah.
Sarah Nemeth [00:35:12] So. Well, I appreciate your time.
Rob Pryor [00:35:14] Thanks for visiting today.
Sarah Nemeth [00:35:16] Thank you so much.
Rob Pryor [00:35:18] I appreciate you coming.
Sarah Nemeth [00:35:17] Yeah, and it's really important to me.
Rob Pryor [00:35:18] I hope that helped. So.
Sarah Nemeth [00:35:21] It helped.
Project
Cleveland Heights
Date
8-22-2018
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
35 minutes
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
"Rob Pryor interview, 22 August 2018" (2018). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 911095.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1173
