Abstract

Virginia Medvec recounts her early life growing up in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. She discusses her childhood memories, including the strong sense of community, family traditions, and the cultural influences of the Russian and Eastern European immigrant populations in the area. Medvec reflects on her experiences in school, the significance of Sundays and church activities, and the daily life of her family during the 1930s and 1940s. She also touches on the changes in the Tremont neighborhood over time and the impact of urban development.

Interviewee

Medvec, Virginia (interviewee)

Interviewer

Morris, Jessica (interviewer)

Project

Tremont History Project

Date

3-17-2003

Document Type

Oral History

Transcript

Jessica Morris: Hi, this is Jessica Morris. It’s March 17, 2003 at 11:00 AM. Uhm, What is your name and could you please spell it for me?

Virginia Medvec: My name is Virginia Medvec. M-E-D-V as in victor E-C.

Jessica Morris: First question for you is what are some of your early childhood memories in Tremont?

Virginia Medvec: Well, I was born in the Tremont area and the things that I recall are Sundays mainly, I had to dress and I had to be a lady on that day, that is when I learned to embroider. And I still do it now, it’s a comforting thing, I make baby things, little odds and ends, but I don’t keep anything. But uhm, I remember you could hear as you went down the street especially in the summer, baseball games, everybody cooking, you could smell whatever they were cooking, and uhm, mainly baseball. Not that I’m a fan. But uhm, that’s what I remember.

Jessica Morris: Now, this was on Sundays?

Virginia Medvec: On Sundays, that’s what I remember the most, the Sundays.

Jessica Morris: Now would this be uhm, after church usually?

Virginia Medvec: yeah yeah.

Jessica Morris: So it would be in the afternoon?

Virginia Medvec: Right.

Jessica Morris: When did your parents move to Tremont?

Virginia Medvec: I think they lived there before I was born, that was 1935. And my father was originally from Pennsylvania and my mom was from that area.

Jessica Morris: Do you know why they may have moved to Tremont?

Virginia Medvec: Well, I know my mom lived there, she was Russian, my grandparents belonged to St. Theodosius, so.

Jessica Morris: So did your grandparents also live in Tremont?

Virginia Medvec: Yes.

Jessica Morris: Did they live near you?

Virginia Medvec: Not too far, blocks.

Jessica Morris: Blocks you could walk?

Virginia Medvec: Yes.

Jessica Morris: Now did you spend Sunday’s evening perhaps with your family as a big meal, or how often did you see your grandparents?

Virginia Medvec: I didn’t, my grandparents uhm, basically holidays is when all of us got together, I mean all of my cousins and so forth. My grandmother was, I don’t know, I didn’t see her as much as I, I could go there anytime, but I was more interested in my friends.

Jessica Morris: Did you have any brothers or sisters?

Virginia Medvec: I had three brothers.

Jessica Morris: Older?

Virginia Medvec: Younger.

Jessica Morris: Younger, all younger, so you were the oldest?

Virginia Medvec: Right, my youngest brother didn’t, wasn’t born there.

Jessica Morris: Okay, Okay. Did your parents speak any different languages?

Virginia Medvec: My mom could speak a little Russian, but that was it.

Jessica Morris: Can you speak any other languages?

Virginia Medvec: No, I am so sorry, I know my grandfather signed me up for the Russian school at the church and I was a brat and said no. I wish now they would of made me go but [laugh]

Jessica Morris: Where did your parents work?

Virginia Medvec: Way, way back, I think my dad worked at what they call City Hospital, or which is now Metro. And then he worked from there, I am not sure where he worked, Harshall Chemical, I am trying to remember, and then he became a steam fitter and worked 3 through the union. And my mom, when I was younger she worked for Industrial Rayon, and then later she worked for Joseph and Fyce, but that was after we moved out of that area.

Jessica Morris: Now, when you lived in Tremont, how did they get to work?

Virginia Medvec: Well, my dad had a car, but I think, he didn’t always have a car, he used to take the bus a lot. My mom always loved going by bus anywhere. I just, I don’t know.

Jessica Morris: Did most people; was that the case for most people?

Virginia Medvec: Oh yeah, bus.

Jessica Morris: So the bus system was very good?

Virginia Medvec: Oh yeah, it must have been. Really, must have been good. I remember when I was ten years old, I was sent to the, excuse my sore throat, froggie, when I was ten years old I started classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art. With the recommendations from my teachers from Tremont school, and I would take the bus, then streetcar. Then go out to where the museum was, and my mother would wait, and I would go to classes, and after a while she got so comfortable with it, that she would go downtown and do her shopping. I would get on the streetcar and go to the art school, come back and meet her and go home.

Jessica Morris: So, back to your mom doing the shopping, would she do her grocery shopping downtown?

Virginia Medvec: No,

Jessica Morris: Just regular shopping?

Virginia Medvec: There was a super market on I think Professor Avenue. I don’t remember if it was a Fishers, I don’t know, cuz I never went that much. Plus we lived upstairs over a grocery store, so I guess..

Jessica Morris: You just went downstairs?

Virginia Medvec: [laugh] Yeah.

Jessica Morris: You had an apartment?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah.

Jessica Morris: Was it a one bedroom, two bedrooms?

Virginia Medvec: two bedrooms.

Jessica Morris: two bedrooms.

Virginia Medvec: Real small, as I remember. [laugh]

Jessica Morris: Did you have to share rooms with your brothers?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah.

Jessica Morris: Wow. Did you work while you were in Tremont?

Virginia Medvec: No. I moved before..

Jessica Morris: Okay. Back to your school. You said your great or your grandfather built the elementary school?

Virginia Medvec: Oh. My grandfather, my grandfather Tishco, he helped build Tremont school; he was probably a laborer of some type. He was not skilled, but he helped build a school.

Jessica Morris: What are your memories of the education you got through the Tremont schools?

Virginia Medvec: I went the Tremont elementary school. And I remember it being a very, very nice school. It distresses me now to see that they want to close it. To get rid of it, cuz I think it is one of the nicest schools we have. I remember the teachers, even in kindergarten, Ms. Bird, and Ms. Johnson, they were etched right here. I remember the classes even in upper classes. I was a very small child, tiny, and I had a teacher that used to pick me up and carry me around. I remember it as being a very, very good school.

Jessica Morris: Some of the other students that when they have been interviewing, some of the interviewers were mentioning that at the elementary school, there used to be a room upstairs that they would send children. Did you ever hear of that or know anything about it?

Virginia Medvec: No.

Jessica Morris: They were saying that there was a room that had cots up there, and doctors, and they would send certain students up to the attic.

Virginia Medvec: Huh. There was an older part of the building and the older part of the building, which is, not there anymore, had a big well in it. I remember Christmas everybody would gather on the different levels and we would sing and there would be a tree in the middle. I remember that very well. That was where the offices were, but I never got to go to the offices. So, I don’t know.

Jessica Morris: How were your classes racially?

Virginia Medvec: All white.

Jessica Morris: What about in your neighborhood?

Virginia Medvec: All white.

Jessica Morris: What about ethnic?

Virginia Medvec: Oh yeah. There was a large Russian, Polish, Slovak, group in that area. I don’t, Ukrainian, I don’t think there was any Hispanics, there wasn’t any blacks. In fact, I don’t ever remember seeing a black person until I was about three or four. As far as I remember.

Jessica Morris: They were not at your school?

Virginia Medvec: No.

Jessica Morris: Now where you lived was it by ethnicity, or was it kind of mixed throughout the neighborhoods or was there certain areas that were strictly..

Virginia Medvec: I think it was pretty mixed on my street.

Jessica Morris: Do you remember what the grocery store was, if it was owned by someone?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah it was owned by Mr. Lawmich, Sam Lawmich, and he was Ukrainian and he belonged to the Ukrainian church. Next door to me on one side was my friend who lived upstairs in an apartment. Her name was Janet and I just saw her a couple months ago. And my very best friend Christine lived on the other side of me and I am godmother to her oldest son and we have been friends since babies.

Jessica Morris: So you still keep in touch with them?

Virginia Medvec: Oh yes. Yes. When I’d have any kind of problem, she’s always there for me.

Jessica Morris: Well that’s nice.

Virginia Medvec: Really. After all these years, can you imagine having a friendship that long? The boy that lived across the street, I saw him at our grand reunion, and his mother kept in touch with my mom for a long time.

Jessica Morris: So it was a pretty close knit?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah, even though after moved their different ways they still kept in touch, it was nice. It was, at our grand reunion for Lincoln High school my neighbors from both sides and across the street were there which was really nice and my brother was looking so forward to that. But he, he passed away a year ago, so, he was looking forward to this reunion and seeing all those kids we knew. He lived in Florida for the most part. He didn’t keep in touch with them. I think girls keep in touch with their friends more than boys.

Jessica Morris: I agree. Now what did you do as a child for play?

Virginia Medvec: Okay. We did some crazy things. Kick the tin can in the street. The boys were jumping from one garage to the other. [laugh] I mean it was silly things. Games like that. Then there was the Merrick house. In the winter, you could ice skate there, cuz they would freeze, just one area. Uhm, what else did we do. We played bikes, so forth. The boys were more adventuresome; they would go all over the area. Do things they weren’t supposed to. Things like that.

Jessica Morris: As you got older did you go to any of the pool halls or the dance halls that were around in that area?

Virginia Medvec: No, I moved from there when I was eleven.

Jessica Morris: Oh from Tremont when you were eleven?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah. But I sort of cheated a little and lied about my address, so I could go to Lincoln where I was, had friends. Otherwise I would have had to go to West Tech and I didn’t want to go there.

Jessica Morris: Right, you already had friends.

Virginia Medvec: So, I sort of lied about my address and I stayed at Lincoln. As a seventh grader there, I had a lot of my friends there. And then two, I lived on close to West 41st Street, and I uhm, went to the Merrick house. We had a club, the girls I went to school with, we had our group of Zeta Epsilons, and we met at the Merrick house and we had a sponsor. And we did hay rides, oh camp outs and things like that. And I still meet, we still meet with those same ladies, some of them are gone but uhm, it was a really nice time. We had dances and so forth. I enjoyed the Merrick house so much that after I graduated from high school couple years later, I went back and I was a volunteer. And I sponsored girls clubs, the same type of thing that I had.

Jessica Morris: Did your school not offer such organizations for you to join, is that why you went to someplace outside the school?

Virginia Medvec: Oh, the school had different clubs but nothing that met in the evening and wasn’t as social. Plus, there was dances in the area, like Pilgrim church use to have one night a week a dance for the kids to go and dance. And there was this church on Scranton, I am trying to remember the name of it, I cant, that had a dance, and some kids would go from one to another. I wasn’t allowed to do that much. My parents were pretty strict. But, and I walked, I would walk miles every day. I just, maybe that’s why I am heavy now, I don’t do that anymore. But we did a lot of walking.

Jessica Morris: Right.

Virginia Medvec: Take the bus to school sometimes, but it was nothing to walk two, three miles.

Jessica Morris: From where you lived in Tremont to your school?

Virginia Medvec: Well, not to Tremont, from high school. But in the Tremont area, oh we always walked but it was like three, four blocks.

Jessica Morris: Right.

Virginia Medvec: It wasn’t bad. Everything was close. The church, everything. It was like a contained community.

Jessica Morris: Funny you mentioned contained. When a bunch of the highways were brought in and they were doing all the construction, Tremont virtually did become a contained community because certain roads you couldn’t get in through. I am not sure if you remember that but…

Virginia Medvec: Oh yes. I remember that. In fact they took my friends house on 14th Street. But I think it was a contained community before that, honestly, because of the people that lived there. And then when they moved out, the majority of them moved to Parma. It seemed, like, you know, if you’re going to go anywhere move to Parma. My parents didn’t but…

Jessica Morris: Do you know why people would move to Parma?

Virginia Medvec: Stay within their own groups, maybe. Probab, I would think. But I would say the majority of them went that way.

Jessica Morris: What was, do you remember crime when you were younger?

Virginia Medvec: I don’t remember it when I was younger. My mom told me about things later, but I didn’t remember.

Jessica Morris: You never felt un-safe?

Virginia Medvec: Oh no, no, no. I don’t think we ever locked our doors. I don’t ever remember having a key, I don’t remember having anyway, going anywhere I had to.

Jessica Morris: Were policeman visible?

Virginia Medvec: I don’t know. I don’t remember any.

Jessica Morris: So it wasn’t something that stuck out?

Virginia Medvec: No, I don’t ever remember seeing a policeman when I was younger, that’s strange. I never thought about it, hmm.

Jessica Morris: Where did teenagers go on dates?

Virginia Medvec: Like I said, the different dances at the different church halls, movies, oh then there was the Jennings Theater. Which was an all day affair when you to the movies. You would go on Saturday morning, well actually afternoon, and you would be there until night.

Jessica Morris: Really?

Virginia Medvec: Oh yeah there would be two or three movies, a matinee, and then they would have some kind of entertainment or drawing or something.

Jessica Morris: Now would this be something you would do often?

Virginia Medvec: Oh yeah!

Jessica Morris: Was this expensive all day?

Virginia Medvec: Oh it was very inexpensive! I don’t remember how much it was nickel or a dime or a quarter, but my brothers, my friends, and I would go and we’d be there all day, practically on Saturdays.

Jessica Morris: And you would just pay once price?

Virginia Medvec: That’s right. Yeah. I remember a lot of kids bringing their lunch, eating a lunch, or snack, ya know? I would get money for a treat but um, I do remember kids.

Jessica Morris: Do you remember, I guess one of my biggest questions that I am kind of zoning in is, how girls, how were, life was like for a woman then, you know when you were going to be dating. I guess because you moved out of Tremont when you were a bit older, but do you recall when you were younger being treated differently at school, or by your parents compared to boys, or?

Virginia Medvec: Well, in a way yeah. My dad was very strict, he didn’t believe in higher education for women and things like that. I had an Aunt that lived in the area, who was a teenager, and she used to work part-time at the Dime Store, which was a big treat. Oh I loved the Dime Store. I mean, she would take me to the Dime Store, you know, that was…

Jessica Morris: Can you explain what the Dime Store was?

Virginia Medvec: Oh, they had everything! [laugh] The, I really miss them. The last one I heard of was down in Loudonville, a Ben Franklins. But I don’t remember, it was a five and ten cent store and for ten cents you could buy something fantastic, some kind of toy, that are worth a lot of money now. [laugh] When you see it on antique road show. It was a big treat for me to go in there and get something. But my Aunt used to pick me up and then take me to the Dairy Dell which was down there by St. John Cantius Church. And that’s where the boys hung out and teenage girls and I was her excuse for going there. And I 9 remember that, all that was a terrific memory, my Aunt taking me to the Dairy Dell and then she could see all the guys you know? [laugh]

Jessica Morris: How old was she then?

Virginia Medvec: I would say she was probably 16, 17, yeah.

Jessica Morris: So did that seem like the typical age for young women to start dating?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah, I think children date much younger now. I mean 12, 13 they are going out. Not then, no, no, that was not, I would think at that time. My mom married very early. My mom married at 17 but I don’t know. I would imagine they got married young, a lot of them did. But I think as kids, it was girls and guys, you know, the girls had a club and the boys weren’t allowed, and the boys had a club and the girls weren’t allowed. I think that was true, I would say probably till 12 or 13, easily, easily. And I was gone by then. I think the kids stayed kids longer.

Jessica Morris: Mhmm. There wasn’t TV’s. Did you have a TV?

Virginia Medvec: No, not then, no.

Jessica Morris: Did you have a radio?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah.

Jessica Morris: Was that would, the main source of entertainment?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah, I remember all those, the mystery theaters and all; there was certain serials on the radio for children, that I remember listening to those. We had a couple radios, I think, but it was, that was the entertainment as far as I remember. But I don’t ever remember being bored, and I liked to read. We went to the library, the Jefferson Library. Once a week there was story hour, which I really, really liked. I hear my niece and nephews talk now as little children, “oh I am bored, bored”, I don’t think I was ever bored as a child. We had a nice big yard and played outside a lot, I just don’t remember being bored.

Jessica Morris: Did you do a lot as a family?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah, yeah. We did. We had a lot of picnics; we had a lot of get togethers with other members of the family. Aunts and Uncles, I had a very large, my mom’s family, there was 11 and 9 survived, and of those 9 all 9 married and had children so you can imagine the cousins. And my dad was from a family of 5, but they were more scattered. So it was mainly my mom’s family that, and being Russian, we would celebrate, say American Christmas, and then on January 7, everybody go to grandma’s and you would see all your cousins, and aunts and uncles. And everybody brought food and that was a get together. Same with most of the big holidays, we did that. That was a highlight 10 every year seeing your cousins and that. I am very close to some of my cousins, some of them I don’t know at all.

Jessica Morris: Did any of them live in the Tremont area?

Virginia Medvec: Oh yeah, yeah. My Aunt Paulie and Uncle Leo lived there and I had three cousins, which I still am pretty close to my cousin, Bev. I had an aunt that had a beauty shop down in that area. Couple cousins there, but the majority of them moved out to the farm areas, farm area was Parma Heights! [laugh] And Thompson, OH, so those were trips too. [laugh]

Jessica Morris: Going out to the farm?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah.

Jessica Morris: Was it really a farm?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah. I had an uncle who had 7 children and he felt sorry for me being a city girl. And he would pick me up, he drove a truck for St. Claire oil, big dinosaur on it, I’ll never forget it. And he would take me to his little farm on Stump Road in Parma Heights, all for a weekend, you know. With my cousins and that. Get some fresh air. We didn’t talk about pollution back then but it was a very polluted area.

Jessica Morris: Was it something you were aware of as a child?

Virginia Medvec: No, no. It’s not until modern times that we realize how polluted it was, from the mills and that.

Jessica Morris: Was there anything to do besides the Merrick place, outside, where there any woods or parks nearby that you would go to?

Virginia Medvec: There was a park in Lincoln Park on 14th Street. But, they had swings and things. But I had a swing in my yard, so I had my own sand box. I remember having rabbits as pets.

Jessica Morris: Did you have a telephone in your home?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah. I remember the number.

Jessica Morris: You do?

Virginia Medvec: It was 4 numbers, 4 digits, 3–4–3–4. Isn’t that funny? I remember, I never got any calls though [laugh] it wasn’t something that we were encouraged to do.

Jessica Morris: To use the phone?

Virginia Medvec: No, we didn’t use the phone.

Jessica Morris: Okay, did you know, I mean did a lot of your friends have phones?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah.

Jessica Morris: Okay. So everyone you knew had a phone?

Virginia Medvec: Right. It was an adult thing.

Jessica Morris: Okay, it was an adult thing.

Virginia Medvec: That’s the way we were brought up.

Jessica Morris: Did you, what were, did you guys, umm, were there any restaurants in nearby that you would go to or would you, most, what would be your family outings besides picnics if you and your family were to do an activity would it be mostly larger family activities?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah. But there was a bar, and we were not allowed to drink pop. My mother was strict about what we ate, but we were able to have Barley’s Orange once in a while there, when we would go for a fish fry. That was a big thing, the fish fry. And we allowed an orange drink, but other than that. I guess we were very poor and I really didn’t realize it until [laugh] I was around 12 years old. I went to the Cleveland Institute of Art summer sessions and I already had moved away from the area, Tremont area, but I was in a group because they told me that I had art talents. I was recommended to the Cleveland Institute of Art and I went there for summer sessions where Mr. Taravich was teaching. There was a whole gammit of kids, I mean, different, all different kinds. You know, I never was in an area like that before with classes. There was some young ladies, I think their last name was Ingles, and they got convertibles for their birthdays, 16th birthday and Russian Wolfhounds, as a gift, and they brought them to school. You know, at that time my dad had a junker car, which, and here are these girls, and I am thinking, wow, I’m underprivileged. And I never knew it because we didn’t need, we didn’t need that security back then, you know?

Jessica Morris: Did you notice more when you moved out of Tremont?

Virginia Medvec: Yes.

Jessica Morris: Now do you think maybe because in Tremont everyone was in the same sort of boat?

Virginia Medvec: Yes, yes. Everybody was pretty much the same.

Jessica Morris: Okay, so you didn’t know, there wasn’t someone you knew of that was extremely wealthy or?

Virginia Medvec: Well, my friend who lived next door, who’s still my, one of my best friends Chris, when her grandmother died, apparently her parents inherited money and they bought one of those big houses on 14th Street. So, and then her mother started buying antiques all the time, so that was a big change for me. But I never thought of it as a difference in class or anything like that.

Jessica Morris: So you felt pretty equal then?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah.

Jessica Morris: That’s nice. What about, uhh, what did your mom do during the day? She would work, you said she worked.

Virginia Medvec: Uh yeah, she worked evenings, for a while, not until we were a little bit older. She was stay at home mom for the most part. But then when we got older she got a job. I think I was already 10 and I help watch my brothers and when my dad came home she would work, go to work.

Jessica Morris: Would she have dinner, would she, I mean, did most of her activities include cooking and cleaning and laundry?

Virginia Medvec: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jessica Morris: So she would have dinner prepared prior to her leaving for work?

Virginia Medvec: Right, she worked very hard.

Jessica Morris: Was dinnertime a very big time for your family?

Virginia Medvec: Oh yeah. We all had to be there. There was no excuse why you didn’t sit down and eat.

Jessica Morris: Okay.

Virginia Medvec: I mean, I spent many evenings at the table until bedtime because I wouldn’t eat something. Liver, I could not stand liver. And I sat there for until it was time to go to bed.

Jessica Morris: Right. Did your mom as a young girl, did she teach you to cook or to clean at an early age, or when can you remember starting to learn those types of skills or did she not teach you?

Virginia Medvec: Oh she taught me, yeah, I can cook and I can clean. I have to tell you this, with all the men in our family; my mother always ironed their t-shirts and their underwear. Ironed them! And then I was taught to do that, well we don’t do it anymore, we just fold them. But we had to iron their

Jessica Morris: Do you remember doing those types of chores as a child?

Virginia Medvec: Oh yeah, right.

Jessica Morris: Compared to what would be the chores your brothers would do?

Virginia Medvec: Well I remember my brother, we all nicknames, we called him Sonny, he would have to take the rubbish out. That was his main job. Then doing the dishes, we would take turns washing and drying, washing and drying, we had to do that. Fixing our bed. Things like that, we each had to fix our own bed.

Jessica Morris: How would you describe the relationship between you and your mom, and then you and your dad?

Virginia Medvec: Well, I was closer to my mom. My dad was very strict and he did drink for a while when I was younger but I wasn’t as close to him, I don’t know why.

Jessica Morris: Were you and your mom, was it friend-like or?

Virginia Medvec: No

Jessica Morris: No

Virginia Medvec: She was my mom.

Jessica Morris: She was your mom.

Virginia Medvec: That’s right, she liked, after my dad died and she liked a lot of my friends, but she was still my mom not my best friend. I mean that’s the way I always felt about it. My mom just died in September, and I took care of her for I don’t know how long now. She had Alzheimer’s and it was like taking care of a child. I don’t know if she remembered who I was all the time or not, but she was just like my child then and I treated her the same way that I was taught. But she seemed happy about it, she was always smiling and in a good humor, which is really hard to take, you know.

Jessica Morris: Right it is. Was she always up, optimistic, and you know, did you have a lot of laughter in your house?

Virginia Medvec: Oh yeah, yeah. Well with my brothers there was always something going on. You know boys, boys will be boys. Bugs, snakes, lizards, whatever, it was always something like that, which I hated. I’ll never forget, my brother found these little lizards, little, whatever they were, some kind of salamander. And my mother said get rid of them. He put them in a coffee can under my bed and in the morning, when I got up I put my feet down and I felt something and when I saw them I start screaming. And I got yelled at! For screaming, because kids didn’t run around screaming then, you know.

Jessica Morris: I am going to stop the tape now and flip it before it cuts us off.

Virginia Medvec: Okay.

End of Tape 1, Side A Start of Tape 1, Side B

Virginia Medvec: We got money, as we needed it you know, for school, or whatever. I always had a pretty dress, I always had nice shoes, so I always was very happy with what I had.

Jessica Morris: Where did you go for, you know, clothes?

Virginia Medvec: Downtown.

Jessica Morris: Downtown.

Virginia Medvec: Took the bus.

Jessica Morris: Was that a big trip then, to do that?

Virginia Medvec: I don’t think it was that, major trip. It was just something that we did. Go to Maycompany. Of course we had to have an Easter outfit and you had to have a coat and a hat, shoes. The works, for Easter, you always had to look special. Even my brothers wore little suits. It was just something, when school started you got your school clothes, new shoes, whatever, it was just something that was always done, you know. And I think that’s true today but I don’t think kids get Easter outfits anymore like they used to. At my church they do, but I don’t see the kids the same way as. They used to have at Lincoln Park, Easter egg hunts, what else did they do? I think it was one of the Veterans group that used to sponsor it and things like that. I think Merrick house had something too for different holidays. Halloween, I remember Halloween. I had a little Bo Beep costume, my mother made it and my brother was a clown, I think my youngest brother, he was pretty small then, he was a convict. But it was a big to do and they’d have a band and a parade. They gave prizes, and then they had a dancing, where the parents came and danced in the street. They blocked off the street there, so it was not, you know, it was a really nice family thing.

Jessica Morris: Right.

Virginia Medvec: I think everything was more family oriented back then.

Jessica Morris: Okay. What it, did your parents ever go out, just the two of them?

Virginia Medvec: Occasionally. But now, they weren’t big on going out to dinner and stuff like that. They would go to a movie occasionally, weddings, things that adults did, where we didn’t go.

Jessica Morris: Do you remember any vacations as a child?

Virginia Medvec: Other than going to my aunt and uncle’s farms, that was it. It wasn’t until older, I was older that my parents took vacations.

Jessica Morris: About your church, you’ve attended there since you were born?

Virginia Medvec: No, well I became more involved once I was engaged and I was getting married, which I backed out of, but I continued with the church. I am very active now; I am done there every week.

Jessica Morris: Do you remember going to church as a young child?

Virginia Medvec: Not on a regular basis, cuz it was difficult for my mom to get us all ready and get there and whatever. But I do remember going for holidays especially and stuff like that. My dad belonged to the Holy Ghost, the Byzantine church and my mom belonged to Saint Theodosius. But I as I got older, and I was baptized at the Byzantine church, as I got older, I decided to check into the religions while I was still in high school and I went to some seminars and then I said, I am going back to Saint Theodosius and I did, I did.

Jessica Morris: When you would go to church as a child, would you drive or walk?

Virginia Medvec: Walk.

Jessica Morris: Walk. Now would you be dressed, it was a very formal occasion?

Virginia Medvec: Oh yeah. You, and its still should be. I mean you are going there, you are in the presence of god, you know? And you should always be dressed for that occasion.

Jessica Morris: Did a lot of your friends go to that church?

Virginia Medvec: No.

Jessica Morris: Okay.

Virginia Medvec: My friend next door, she went to the Polish-Catholic church and my other friend on the other side me, she belonged to the Ukrainian church. So.

Jessica Morris: Did it depend on your ethnicity?

Virginia Medvec: I would think so.

Jessica Morris: Was that really how the churches ended up going?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah.

Jessica Morris: Was your, was the mass in Russian?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah.

Jessica Morris: The whole mass?

Virginia Medvec: Liturgy, we called it. Liturgy was in, at that time. But then they start putting in more, and then they had an English and a Russian service. My grandmother, I, it’s a funny thing; I could understand well enough, she didn’t speak much English. But I could understand what she wanted and it never bothered me that she spoke just Russian, you know? She was an educated Russian, she could read and write in Russian.

Jessica Morris: Was she born in?

Virginia Medvec: Russia

Jessica Morris: And then she moved to, did she move all, right from there to Tremont or do you know?

Virginia Medvec: No, no. My grandmother was not a happy person. I don’t ever remember anybody sadder than her. She rarely smiled. She was from a wealth off family in an area that is now Poland. I think that they called her family like land barons. She came to this country as a young lady and as a visitor she met my grandfather, they got married. And they lived in New York and when she had to go to work, she didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know how to do anything. She, all she knew how to do was embroider. And cooking, cleaning, whatever, so as soon as she got enough money she went back. So she went back to Russia, her parents said no you can’t stay. Well my grandfather went back after her and said, you know, we’re married you have to come back. And, so she came back reluctantly, but she kept in touch with her relatives, nieces and so forth in Russia for a long time. Always wanting to go back, always. Even my grandfather I think always talked about going back but they never really realized what was going on, even though they were in touch by mail with relatives, they never. And her, she always would talk about house, big stone house and things like that. Got to the point where my mom wanted to find the everything. And we went to Russia in 1988, my mom and I, and of course in ’88 we would have had to get an interpreter, all this other stuff, so we never did find the area where my grandmother was from or whatever. But I have some old pictures. It seems like everybody wants to check into their roots now, you know? I’ve been trying to dig up some things, and its funny because my mom’s maiden name was Tishko and they spelled it T-I-S-H-K-O, but we found some papers where the name was T-Z-Y-K-O, you know? So they never, whoever when they come here they just change it to whatever spelling and my grandmother’s name was Xenia, X-E-N-I-A and on her papers its says Mary. But her name was Xenia! It was just what they did.

Jessica Morris: Wow. Now, I can’t remember if you said your parent, were your parents born in Tremont?

Virginia Medvec: My father was born in Pennsylvania.

Jessica Morris: Right, okay.

Virginia Medvec: I think, what we found out his parents were originally from the Cleveland area, but not the Tremont area. And they moved to Uniontown, Pennsylvania where my grandfather worked in the mines or they had a farm. Then my father came as a young man back to Cleveland.

Jessica Morris: Do you know why, why would they chose Tremont?

Virginia Medvec: I don’t know, well it could be my father’s brother, older brother married my mother’s sister, older sister, and it could be that, that relationship that brought them in that area.

Jessica Morris: Do you remember, was Tremont seen as a prosperous area when you were a little, when you were a little kid?

Virginia Medvec: I think so. There was work; there was work for a lot of these people. A lot of people coming in from different areas, even at the church, I remember there was this big old black building in the back of the church, which was I think a nunnery at one time. But anyway, I remember that families coming over, they were living in that building, until they could get a job and start an out on their own.

Jessica Morris: So it was almost like a shelter then connected to the church?

Virginia Medvec: But it was, yeah when they brought families over, yeah.

Jessica Morris: From Europe?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah.

Jessica Morris: So that would be a place for them to kind of get their grounds?

Virginia Medvec: Right.

Jessica Morris: Wow.

Virginia Medvec: They didn’t live there really long.

Jessica Morris: But a temporary place?

Virginia Medvec: But yeah, and they didn’t speak any English. There was classes going on in the school and there was different things, dancing lessons, choir, stuff like that. I am sorry that they tore that building down; it would have been a real treat for the area. The church is a treat for the area right now, I think. Lolley the Trolley stops there sometimes.

Jessica Morris: Mhm. What do you think now when you go back to the area, what are your impressions now?

Virginia Medvec: Oh it’s changed so much. The projects is a bad thing for the area. And there supposedly is this Phoenix program where they are waiting for government funding, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on that. That seems to make the whole area run down. They’re building newer homes in the area. I don’t know, how all those houses disappeared. A lot of them were burned down, and I don’t know if you go down the one street you’ll see lot after lot empty and they are building new homes in there and they are nice and there nice. And they are a government type of thing. And they’re one and two family homes, which are really nice. But the project is a not only an eye sore it’s just not a good way of life. There continually putting money into and it’s not, it’s not a good thing.

Jessica Morris: And your family moved out, why did you move out of Tremont?

Virginia Medvec: Well, it wasn’t enough room for all us, for our family you know? We had to get out of there, it was just too small.

Jessica Morris: And there wasn’t, your family didn’t chose to move just somewhere else in Tremont?

Virginia Medvec: No.

Jessica Morris: No.

Virginia Medvec: I don’t, I was 11, I don’t remember, they didn’t discuss anything with us, not the children.

Jessica Morris: Right.

Virginia Medvec: It was just move, cuz we needed more space. We needed our own house.

Jessica Morris: Instead of just another apartment?

Virginia Medvec: Yeah.

Jessica Morris: Okay. Was that your parent’s first place together then?

Virginia Medvec: I think.

Jessica Morris: Okay. They hadn’t lived anywhere else.

Virginia Medvec: I, I remember, I have a pictures of me there as a one year old, so it must have been. And once my aunt got married she moved down the street from us about four houses. But I was already five or six, I don’t remember. Probably five.

Jessica Morris: Well we are about done with the hour.

Virginia Medvec: See, it was a boring thing.

Jessica Morris: No it wasn’t. Thank you for speaking with me.

End of Tape 1, Side B

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