Abstract

Erich Hooper discusses his family's move to Tremont in the early 1960s and shares memories of his childhood, including the influence of sports programs and the ethnic diversity of the community. He describes the social dynamics, racial tensions, and changes in the neighborhood over the decades, highlighting the impact of urban development, such as the construction of highways and new housing projects. Hooper also touches on his personal achievements, including his work in the restaurant industry and involvement in various community activities.

Loading...

Media is loading
 

Interviewee

Hooper, Erich (interviewee)

Interviewer

Malecek, Kurt (interviewer)

Project

Tremont History Project

Date

10-22-2003

Document Type

Oral History

Transcript

Kurt Malecek: What is your name and can you spell it for me?

Erich Hooper: Erich Hooper, E-R-I-C-H H-O-O-P-E-R.

Kurt Malecek: Thank you okay so when did you move to Tremont?

Erich Hooper: We moved into Tremont I’d say around 1962.

Kurt Malecek: Okay and about how old were you when you moved here?

Erich Hooper: About six years old, seven.

Kurt Malecek: Okay and what are some of your early childhood memories from living in Tremont?

Erich Hooper: Tremont was a very interesting place. We moved here from the East Side of Cleveland and from there we were in New York City so I’ve seen a lot of people and different cultures. That was one of the things brought first to our attention about the Tremont area and the West Side of Cleveland.

Kurt Malecek: Okay. So what kind of things did you here when you first moved here like as a kid where did you go and play what kind of games did you play.

Erich Hooper: At that time then Cleveland recreation department director John Nagy had implemented a sports program and the AAUs in the Cleveland were really big. Such Olympic legends as Harrison Dillard, Ida Gene Hopkins who rode the luge and worked at Lincoln Park recreation center Lou Salchik professional football and basketball player at Ohio University as well as the NBA and the NFL Milt Morren these kind of people and adults were in the area through the sports program that was implemented. A lot of our free time was spent in the parks running and jumping and climbing just learning basic fundamentals of how to be agile and eventually get into sports.

Kurt Malecek: Sounds like fun stuff. What was the AAU?

Erich Hooper: The Amateur Athletic Union this was a track and field the Olympic junior Olympics if you will. This was a big push in the area. It brought together because of the diversity of the Olympics this brought together a lot of different ethnic groups intermingling when we were kids during sports activities, which was not really common in the Tremont area at the time. It was basically your Polish, your Czechs, your Germans, your Hungarians, hope I’m not forgetting anybody. [laughter] But there were a lot of different nationalities in the area in little pockets if you will and meeting the younger kids of those families through athletics is how I kind of and our family intermingled in the area at the time.

Kurt Malecek: Okay, When your family first moved here how were you treated in the community?

Erich Hooper: We pretty much stayed within the area that we lived in. Having to come outside the projects back then was sometime difficult. I know there wasn’t really a set curfew in the area, but you knew if you were caught out late at night you know probably there would be a gang of kids that were going to beat you up. There were a lot of little ethnic gangs if you will and just bad kids, punks that hung out at the park. They called themselves the Lincoln Park Rats.

Kurt Malecek: Oh.

Erich Hooper: This was kind of during the day of you know the West Side Story takeoff. It was pretty hilarious, but nonetheless if you know during the riots in the area at Lincoln Junior High School and some at Tremont you know a lot of our friends got beat up pretty bad so it was you know you kind of stayed within your group and took to your business.

Kurt Malecek: Were you ever beat up yourself, er?

Erich Hooper: No, I was pretty fast. [laughter] I could out run–. Most of my fights came one on one in the area being challenged or being caught you know and luckly at the time it wasn’t really a gang beating that you got back then it was more or less a man to man kind of thing fights that you got in, but still these roving packs [laughter] would have their way with you if they caught you.

Kurt Malecek: Oh boy. So what school did you go to in the area?

Erich Hooper: I went to Tremont School. Lovely school, huge building five different floors–. I spent a lot of my time of course in the gymnasium area with George Chandick who was our gym teacher, famous person in the area I think he’s now the mayor of Seven Hills. The top floors were the music floors and then the wings of the building there were higher level classrooms with different projects science, math, English of those natures and the arts. The basement was strictly for lunch and kindergarteners. [laughter]

Kurt Malecek: Did you play any sports through the school?

Erich Hooper: Tremont really didn’t offer sports. There was athletics per se and once a year the students would play the teachers in a softball game in the parking lot. And at these matches there would be anywhere from five to six hundred people including neighborhood people because this was an annual event. It was pretty awesome. There was a teacher that I had, Mrs. Gingrich I think her name was I hope I remember she was a very nice sweet lady. She was German and she kind of tutored me on the side in some of the classes that I had with her, but she actually gave a check for two hundred dollars to buy uniforms for our little league team and I remember that. And she was a very strong influence into Tremont School itself.

Kurt Malecek: [pause] Overall, how would you characterize like racial tension when you moved into Tremont or just in the 60s basically?

Erich Hooper: It was more ethnic in this area, different European cultures disliking them for whatever reason the Irish and the Italians, the Germans and everybody. [laughter] But there were Greeks in the area still are today. The Russian Orthodox cause I live closer to St. Theodosius but I know a lot of my time was spent at St. John Cantius cause those were the kids that were involved in the sports that we were dealing with. St. Augustine’s Church has always been a beacon in the neighborhood for minorities and different cultures coming together. They had a roller skating rink at the top of the church and that was pretty cool. And you know but getting up there and getting back was always the effort. [laughter] You would have to run across the park. [laughter

Kurt Malecek: What church did you start going to when you come here? Did you go to a church or?

Erich Hooper: Yeah I started going to St. Augustine and then for some reason–. Oh I had Boy Scouts at St. () excuse me I had Boy Scouts at Pilgrim Church. So it being in the area closer I could walk there and it was kind of a huge congregation. All the churches in the area had large congregations you know sometimes standing room only of course on holidays you know everyone would you know pretty () much attend church on a regular Sunday basis it was a strong ethnic, cultural [pause] presence if you will.

Kurt Malecek: Sure, sure. Has that changed at all the attendance wise, er?

Erich Hooper: Now I go to Imanuel Lutheran Church and it’s one of the older churches in the area–it’s a German Church–. Our congregation is about one hundred, one hundred and thirty five on Sunday and then on the German services in the morning at ten they’re usually getting about eighty nine to one hundred. That age group is slowly dwindling down and that’s one of the concerns in our church is retaining people–younger people–to come in reuniting families you know in religion and bringing them into church.

Kurt Malecek: [pause] Where did your parents work when you when they first moved here?

Erich Hooper: My dad was a musician nicknamed Boogey Woogey Red [laughter] he did the scene in Cleveland. He didn’t really live with us anymore–my parent separated–. My mother worked for CMHA and that allowed us to kind of move around into their different facilities. You know one of them of course was over here in Tremont after the riots. My mom was a great person. She went to college, she played basketball. Her mother LuEllen owned a beauty shop in the area on the east side and I remember as a kid going over there and sneaking pops out of her cooler. [laughter]

Kurt Malecek: So the house you lived in in Tremont when you were you were a kid, could you tell me a little a little about that?

Erich Hooper: It wasn’t really a house. It was an apartment, the projects if you will. It was a row building, up to five or six families per building made of stone, pretty nice, well maintained at the time. It being changed over from being a poor white facility doing to now being a poor black facility which was a transferring as the white flight was happening in Tremont. People were starting to move out and move into Parma, Lakewood, and North Ridgeville and these areas as you know things were east as minorities were pushing west. The Hispanics came in about that time also and had a strong pocket of people you know that helped mix.

Kurt Malecek: How many people lived in the apartment with you?

Erich Hooper: There was my older brother–. (Tape Edited)

Kurt Malecek: –did they have any problems with gangs in the area?

Erich Hooper: My brother–(Tape Edited)–me kind of thrived on things like that (). You would have to as I said you would have to be able to stand up to be able to walk around in the area you know and his age group–(Tape Edited)–so he was pretty much a man of his own as far as defending himself and the older guys that protected us younger kids you know those were things that they you know dealt with.

Kurt Malecek: What was Tremont like when Carl Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland?

Erich Hooper: Oh it was vibrant, it was scary. There was hope that things as the Constitution says in this country that it would be fulfilled. This was a very challenging time in America you know and these things exist and this was one of these chances that the promise could be kept.

Kurt Malecek: Do you think it had a good effect then, cause office as mayor or Carl Stokes being mayor then.

Erich Hooper: I don’t know if Carl was really a puppet if you will put up there to quell the riots at the time. I don’t know if you could say that it brought everyone together because there is still this same if you will division in Cleveland housing wise don’t date my daughter wise you’re not good enough mentality. You know that’s probably pretty much in the whole country.

Kurt Malecek: Sure, Sure. How about the ‘70s what was Tremont like during the ‘70s? It’s kind of a broad period but?

Erich Hooper: Yeah Tremont in the ‘70s was kind of funny. Believe it or not the culture of disco and dance and touching was rekindled and [laughter] I remember as a child seeing the older people doing the old traditional hand dances and holding each other. The ‘70s was kind of that kind of a feeling in the Tremont area. People were loosening up if you will socializing outside of the school structure they were socializing outside of the neighborhood confines you know they were mingling if you will on an older basis mentally.

Kurt Malecek: So the different ethnicities were mingling more so?

Erich Hooper: Yes well also a lot of them had left the older ethnics and the younger ones that stayed on were more excepting if you will–I am you you are me philosophy.

Kurt Malecek: That’s good. Were there still problems with gangs, then?

Erich Hooper: No they had pretty much dwindled down to zero. The gang thing in Tremont was more of an older guys being tougher than you know the next guy because you’re a Czech or you’re a Pole and you know that kind of thoughts.

Kurt Malecek: Okay. What about Tremont when Dennis Kucinich was mayor, what was it like?

Erich Hooper: Oh Dennis, you gotta love the guy I tell you what I’m so proud of him. He’s going to be inducted in the St. John Cantius football hall of fame and he was on the team, he’s a tough little gnat and I think it’s funny–. Times when Dennis was helping Tremont–as he still does–and trying to help Cleveland were special times in Tremont. This was a neighborhood person a virtual saint in political aspects and thoughts and what he wanted to do politically for Cleveland and open the doors if you will for total acceptance of everyone. The politics has kind of soured him I think that you know he really can’t get that job done. There’s too many rungs on a ladder to make a ladder and I think he sees that now and by running for president I think he can achieve those goals and make a difference as some of the great presidents have in this country. But in the area when he was councilman things were getting done there were stores that were staying in the area the jobs were still here in area any federal money that was available Dennis it was directed in our area as our councilman. He had a strong political voice in the those times, too, and what he said basically was verbatim the truth and he always spoke his mind. That’s why he was a menace.

Kurt Malecek: Now, do know the reaction around Tremont when the river caught fire?

Erich Hooper: You know that wasn’t really a Tremont thing. That was more in the Ohio City area and more of in the flats area if you will. Those separations through the natural barriers of the river the way the river winds and it takes fifteen minutes to get from my house to Shooters by canoe. It’s pretty cool [laughter]. It takes two hours to get back. But that was more or less on that side of the river. On our side of the river where the railroad and the industrial mill is at there really aren’t a lot of fish in the area anymore and I remember that as a child catching tadpoles and craw daddies and using those for science projects and bugs and water spiders. Now the area that river has pretty much maintained its sameness if not gotten a little bit cleaner because of the down slough of the mill itself you know not using the water ways as much. A lot of times we talk about canoeing down to Akron to see the Akron Aeroes and I say well it’s better to canoe down than to try and canoe back. [laughter]

Kurt Malecek: Did you have any did you ever have a job in Tremont did you work around here at all?

Erich Hooper: Yeah I worked constantly to help my mother so did my brother–(Tape Edited)– started our own little shoe shine stand and we would go to the neighborhood bars and shine the old guys’ shoes for whatever we could get. Another good one was to shovel walks for the elderly since there was a lot in the area and we could make money that way. The hard part was trying to get a shovel. [laughter] We’re poor what are we gonna make a shovel out of () get a street sign. But yeah so we shined shoes, we collected bottles–back in the old days bottles were worth money–we worked at the little grocery store in the area carrying bags for people. We eventually got paper routes although it was hard as a minority to get a paper route in the area they would give them to the Puerto Ricans at the time but you know in this area it wasn’t available to us I thought.

Kurt Malecek: Could you tell me a little about why your parents decided to move to Tremont?

Erich Hooper: It was basically my mother’s decision you know we were living with our mother of course. Tremont and the area visually was something that was going to stay the way it is. The beauty of it, the homes–. I don’t know if my mother foresaw this or this was just somewhere they stationed her for CMHA but–. And The long term goal of the area and what happening in the old projects now there’s a thing called the Phoenix project where they’re going to level some of the projects and they’re building these huge homes to overlook the valley and the ball fields.

Kurt Malecek: I’ve seen them.

Erich Hooper: I have a an acre land out here and I’m really scared because there have been houses being burnt down in the area you know and new houses going up on it. The number is quite alarming I feel per household.

Kurt Malecek: So how do you feel about the new houses being built around here?

Erich Hooper: They’re nice. I would rather see brick homes going up in that sort of nature to stay to the historic nature presence of the area. You know all the churches are huge brick, all the nicer homes are brick. These prefab things that they’re putting up they’re aesthetically they look nice overlooking the city, but the feng shui is all wrong for the neighborhood. It’s like putting a giant watermelon on top of a grape. [laughter] You know nice thought but in reality it’s going to squash the grape.

Kurt Malecek: It’s a good analogy. [laughter] What are some of the social places that you and your parents visited? Oh, oh you and your brother visited and your family when you were younger?

Erich Hooper: We would go up to Merrick House. Merrick House offered a lot of different educational things as well as athletics training if you will. They were the neighborhood center. There was also in the projects the Valley View Center where Mr. Hagherty, Joe’s dad would show movies and popcorn and candy and it was a place where the different nationalities that lived in the projects could mingle as kids also. That was a nice thing to do. Tremont offered a lot of different and the area we lived in in the projects offered a lot different venues. There was ball fields and playgrounds inside the compound if you will. There was a huge strip of land–Quiggly Road–where cars would drag race you know. There was the river itself you could play on and around. And then there were centers in the area that you could go to such as the Tremont opportunities center and Merrick House and St. John Cantius Church—they had a bowling alley there. I can bowl quite well thank you. [laughter] It was all learned as a kid. Pinball was a big thing in the time there aren’t really any pinball games left in the area, although Holdt’s bar still has a shuffleboard table top and that’s kind of a classic old world game and chess is still played up in the park.

Kurt Malecek: Did you ever go to Lincoln Park a lot when you were a kid?

Erich Hooper: Oh yeah, I played peewee football for the Milt Morns and that was a team sponsored by Lincoln Recreation Center and the Cleveland City Recreation Department. Playing baseball also for them we were city champs a couple of times. We had a fantastic team. Kind of an ideal situation where we had great Italian baseball players as kids, great Puerto Ricans, great blacks, and great ethnics you know. So it was kind of an all nations baseball squad and we basically dominated the Cleveland baseball scene as kids–as I showed you in some of the scrapbooks–.

Kurt Malecek: That’s great. How about some of your memories of the construction of the highways?

Erich Hooper: That was pretty bizarre because it took a really long time to actually happen. When they bought, burned and acquired land around the freeway area where it was where it is today. That kind of happened kind of mysteriously if you will. I remember as a kid again there were a lot of fires and that was a memory that stuck out. Whenever these things are happening there’s always quite a few fires in the area. There was a hill there that we could walk down or bicycle down. We were building soap box derby cars also soap box derby– was big in the neighborhood–and we would go up and down the hills on those. We you could sled down them in the winter. The freeway coming through–. It took along time. It took long enough that we could go through junior high school and some of elementary school by the time they completed the project. I don’t know why. It’s a marvelous system now. It moves a lot of cars daily. Aesthetically looking at it, there are no sound barriers to protect us from the sound like they do in some of the areas, so I can hear a lot of the car traffic and truck traffic. With the freeway coming in now, helicopters from the radio and TV stations are flying over the neighborhood 5 o’clock in the morning you know for some reason really low. And then there’s Metro life flight that follows the patterns over the freeway you know responding to accidents. It’s brought a lot more noise and I ‘ve noticed that the animals in the area have changed also. There used to be a lot of opossums and squirrels and chipmunks and beavers from the river and groundhogs and just you know wilder animals if you will, rabbits, cats, dog, plentiful deer in area now that’s dwindled down to a handful. Last time I counted–my wife and I–we counted thirty-six kinds of birds in our area in Tremont and I live by the park. We get a lot of fly overs from the zoo since the zoo is so close their birds– some of their birds–fly free are also in the area. Hawks, different kinds of buzzards if you will. Cleveland’s known for their buzzards.

Kurt Malecek: Oh. [laughter]

Erich Hooper: You know it’s in the area.

Kurt Malecek: So the freeway really changed the environment then? Erich Hooper: Oh yeah, definitely, definitely.

Kurt Malecek: Now you mentioned you were married?

Erich Hooper: Yeah, I’ve been married fifteen years.

Kurt Malecek: Now did you marry someone from the area?

Erich Hooper: No unfortunately I’m sorry, no, no I didn’t [laughter] no Heidi’s from Lutheran West and she grew up in Bay Village and Lakewood. I met her–I worked in the Flats at a jazz club—she worked in another restaurant across the street or the river if you will and that’s how I met her.

Kurt Malecek: Were you married in the area?

Erich Hooper: Yeah we got married at Immanuel Lutheran Church.

Kurt Malecek: Okay hmmhmm. And did you have a reception in the area?

Erich Hooper: Yeah, I’m a chef so I catered the wedding myself and had a friend bake the cake– Dave Green–both my wife and I being in the restaurant business we utilized our resources and I’ve got friends to play before the service with a slide guitar–someone in the restaurant business–I got the flowers from friends in flower shops. You know things of that nature cutting costs I use a friend’s warehouse down in the warehouse district. I use to–. When I met Heidi I lived downtown in the warehouse district and it was basically build your own bathroom and kitchen style you know five thousand feet for two hundred bucks. Now it’s like sixteen to two thousand bucks per flat. In those days in the old warehouse district you know you could do anything that you want. So we thought this massive reception party for all of our restaurant people friends that couldn’t attend the wedding and I’d say there was about two hundred people there.

Kurt Malecek: You sound like a man of many talents. [laughter]

Erich Hooper: Yeah, growing up in the area you had to have a lot of different talents to survive. It carried me through college, too. Down in Oxford and Athens where I went to school you know there weren’t a lot of jobs available. Being a minority they’re even tougher to get so you learn to be resourceful in other avenues and you learn to do different things. I’ve done stand up comedy for money, I’ve done vending you know you name it if it’s a good honest hard working living I can dabble my hand into it and put food on the table.

Kurt Malecek: That’s pretty cool. [laughter] Were you in the area in the 80s? In Tremont, er?

Erich Hooper: Yeah I went away to school in ’77 and came back of course every summer. I worked for the Cleveland Recreation Department. I got out in ’81 and came back. At that time during that period they had closed the Abbey bridge which cut us off from Ohio City and walking to the West Side Market so are food resource was really kind of stifled. Tremont’s always had a lot of gardening in its blood and everyone in the area has a garden. I have a nice garden. So keeping the food that way was a thing that always happened in Tremont. But being cut off form the West Side Market with the Abbey Bridge really hurt the neighborhood. It being back now is revitalized us and linked us back into downtown and the Ohio City area, which is our sister city.

Kurt Malecek: How long was it closed for?

Erich Hooper: I’m guessing maybe five years. The same thing happened when they tore down the Clark Avenue bridge that connected us over to Harvard and the east side and South High which had another large ethnic group of people in that area.

Kurt Malecek: [pause] How about when Voinovich was mayor? Did he have any kind of effect on Tremont that you noticed or er?

Erich Hooper: [pause] Mayor Voinovich’s itinerary and vision for Cleveland and Tremont and his projects that he set up that were carried out through Mike White’s administration–. When I was a chef for the city of Cleveland I worked at the Warrensville jail for five years. When George and Mike were in office a lot of the projects they set down were carried through. His influence being an ethnic also and his love for the church itself helped out the Tremont area. Mayor Voinovich was a good mayor for the city of Cleveland. Being a Republican, his political bedfellows and the pockets that were able to line the city’s coffers helped the city greatly and basically put it back on track to being the great city that it is now.

Kurt Malecek: Now you were mentioning that you would go and shop at the West Side Market, where would you get your food from when you first moved here with your family?

Erich Hooper: We would use the West Side Market’s facility. We would use the church’s hunger center for food if had to be. Mother was very frugal and she worked so it was not a problem of keeping food on the table, but the market offered an avenue that was really unique and old world if you will the way it exists today where if you go up there with thirty five cents and get a sandwich and some lunch meat and a piece of fruit and you could drink water and you could socialize and you could carry bags for people and make money. It was a basically a mini job market that was available that you could hang out all day on Saturday and Friday after school to try to earn money.

Kurt Malecek: Hmm. What kind of places do you shop at now in Tremont, do you still go to the West Side Market?

Erich Hooper: Oh yeah, I’ve worked at the market as I said I’ve had friends that own stands there. Over the years you see the vendor’s families changing and the kids coming in to run the business. Some of the older people are still there and those are special relationships where you know you talk to Mr. Fox the cheese guy “Hey you going over to Great Lakes to get a pint.” He says “I’ll see you in an hour lad.” [laughter] You know or I go up to some of the German stands and I talk about church business and the younger people in the church that I socialize with I can keep tabs on them also through that. Some of the newer stands that have come into the market the fresh pastas, the coffee stand, the new restaurant that they put in and some of the changes happening to the market now are interesting and the long term effect we’ll have to see if it’s been beneficial or was it correct the way it existed.

Kurt Malecek: Sure, sure. The shops in Tremont, have there been a lot of changes over the years?

Erich Hooper: Oh definitely as I said it was an old world kind of a neighborhood where there was a bakery and butcher shop and a beauty parlor and a candy store–the Choo Choo Penny Store down the street–a candy store, a clothing store, your basic dentist shops and banks and other businesses that made up a neighborhood that made up a city, because Tremont was a neighborhood within a city of itself. Having such diversity that all your basic needs you could take care of right up in the area.

Kurt Malecek: Are there any activities that you participate in now in the community? Any kind of sports activities or anything?

Erich Hooper: Yeah I’m still involved in the church area. I do some volunteer work in the area also. I go to the block club meetings and our neighborhood planning things of that nature. As far as the schools are concerned I go to career day at Lincoln West and still talk there. At Tremont School I always try to help out. I know a couple of the kids that went to school there with and there brothers and sisters they’re teaching now at Tremont school and you know they know I’m just a phone call away from helping and that’s kind of cool. St. Augustus Church I help during the summers when we have the Tremont Arts and Cultural festival as well as St. Mark’s I donate my time to help them fund raise a food stand at the booth and that’s a really strong and powerful thing I do for the neighborhood and the schools where that I get donations from the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, City Side Gardens to make these veggie stir fries and Orlando bakery donates bread to us and others Dave’s and Tops and Heinens stores they all donate money to us to help pull this off for them and we make this huge veggie stir fry that’s scrumdidlydicious and all of it’s donated from the city and the Botanical Gardens people like this and the Bratwurst we do for the German stand is for Five Star Meats and it’s an old world butcher shop that’s still in the area and you know they’re a pretty well strong hot dog. Wiener, excuse me wiener. [laughter]

Kurt Malecek: That’s really great. What’s the Arts and Cultural Festival like in Tremont?

Erich Hooper: It’s growing this was our past fifth year of doing it. Fifty five hundred people was last years attendance this was the first year it didn’t rain one day. It’s beautiful, it’s all the churches get together and the non-profit organizations and we fill the park with stands and there’s entertainment and art. Artist have booths there selling their wares and I think it’s just a year or two away from being a really major event in the city of Cleveland as well as for Tremont as far as opening our doors with the home tours and the church tours and the art galleries that have moved into the area and some of the top restaurants in the state of Ohio are located right here in Tremont.

Kurt Malecek: That’s really great, yeah. [pause] Were you around when they were refurbishing Lincoln Park? Er fixing it up in the 80s?

Erich Hooper: Yes, yes, yes and Lincoln Park is an interesting thing. Donated to the city, of course, and having restrictions on like Bay Village does on what they can do to their facilities. Lincoln Park is kind of an old dinosaur. There’s rest rooms in the park in a building but they’ve been locked probably since 1962. [laughter] You know so there’s no where to go to the bathroom when the pool is closed or in the summer. The pool is still there and is still being used quite vibrantly although I don’t see as much softball and football being played where that’s where you just don’t see much of those kids around anymore doing those kind of games. It’s more of a video culture now if you will. But you really don’t see kids utilizing the parks. What you do see now are people walking their dogs and using the park in that kind of nature which is kind of cool but still they don’t really clean up behind their animals and it is a city ordinance. They just don’t seem to care or think about the park and those kind of things. I noticed some of the churches in the area use it for their day camps and their day care centers in the summer and there’s quite a lot of activity in the park constantly you know except for after hours.

Kurt Malecek: Sure, sure. So overall would you say that just the park being there has had a positive effect on the community, or?

Erich Hooper: Yes the park in the center of the neighborhood has always been a heart of activity a lot. In the old days rallies were held there mass meetings if you will, it was one of the hubs that things could happen in larger numbers. If you know–.

Kurt Malecek: What kind of rallies went on there, er?

Erich Hooper: Political rallies as you said we were talking about during the Stokes days, during the Kucinich days, just during times of turbulence in the area, you know in Tremont itself.

Kurt Malecek: Okay. Well I think we can–.

END OF SIDE A START OF SIDE B

Kurt Malecek: () The mills polluted the river, there been any other kinds of pollution problems in the neighborhood?

Erich Hooper: The air products plant has always been a stench if you will. Burnings of different nature, garbage used to be burned in the neighborhood, old world style you know. They’d pick up the trash but people would still you know throw it out their back door it was that kind

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Download

Included in

Oral History Commons

Share

COinS