Abstract
This oral history interview with Edmund Ziemba, conducted by Dan Madigan on November 4, 2003, captures Ziemba's reflections on his childhood and upbringing in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. Ziemba shares vivid memories of growing up in a close-knit, predominantly Eastern European community during the mid-20th century, highlighting the strong bonds formed through shared cultural traditions, community activities, and a mutual respect for neighbors. He discusses the socioeconomic makeup of the area, characterized by hardworking, middle-lower-class families who took pride in their homes and neighborhoods despite financial hardships. Ziemba also recounts the simplicity of childhood entertainment, the importance of family gatherings, and the impact of World War II on the local community. He provides insights into the changing dynamics of Tremont over the years, including the migration of families to the suburbs and the subsequent decline of the neighborhood. Ziemba concludes with his thoughts on recent efforts to rejuvenate Tremont, emphasizing the importance of maintaining the neighborhood's working-class roots while acknowledging the challenges posed by economic disparity.
Interviewee
Ziemba, Edmund (interviewee)
Interviewer
Madigan, Dan (interviewer)
Project
Tremont History Project
Date
11-4-2003
Document Type
Oral History
Recommended Citation
"Edmund Ziemba interview, 04 November 2003" (2003). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 223009.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1327
Transcript
Dan Madigan: Could you say your name and spell your last name for me?
Edmund Ziemba: sure it is Edmund Z-i-e-m-b-a
Dan Madigan: What are some of your fonder childhood memories of the Tremont area?
Edmund Ziemba: Awh geez, a well that there is several things close friends and I explained to you before we started this interview that I still get together a couple of times a year with people I started Kindergarden with in Tremont grade school and there is about four or five of us that a a are still in the area see each other on a regular basis. Playing at Tremont school in the school yard, playing baseball with with pals uh, uh, family get-togethers during the holidays were a big thing back then. We didn’t have television. You know, ehh, Tremont, when I grew up there, was somewhat of a poor neighborhood but a well, well maintained people, took care of their homes, took care of the neighborhood, took care of each other, uh, and and holidays were were really a big deal back then. I mean, not because, Christmas was not, uh give you an example, Christmas was not a big deal because I expected to get gifts, because there weren’t going to be a lot of gifts but it was a lot of fun…not just with your own family, but fun with your friends, you know, going downtown where all the shopping was done, uh, uh, was a big deal because Downtown Cleveland was all spruced up at Christmas time I mean, it was beautiful and it was REALLY something to see. Uh, going to Cedar Point, uh, not Cedar Point but uh Euclid Beach Park in the summer time. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Euclid Beach Park. And it was a big deal for us kids, okay, to go to Euclid Beach Park, uh, uh going down to Edge Water Beach. Just uh, we did things that uh, were fun but didn’t cost a lot of money. Uh, (tsk) did ah, just a lot of things together as kids that uh didn’t cost a lot of money we just uh, my bother, my older brother and I, I can remember, we made a lot of our own toys. Out of orange crates with saws and hammers and nails, we’d make scooters. We’d, yeah, make all kinds of stuff, we just uh, that’s the way life was; we entertained ourselves. We, we uh, uh, a fond memory was uh as kids, there used to be a theater on West 14 and Fairfield called Majennings’ Theatre it’s no longer there it’s by the free… you know where you go on 71,”
Dan Madigan: Mm-hmm.
Edmund Ziemba: “it was right in that area. There’s a Greek Orthodox Church… right, right before you get on 71, if you look to your right, you’ll see, with an onion shaped dome, you’ll see the Greek Orthodox Church, if you, before, across the street from that used to be the Jennings Theater. Saturdays at the Jennings were a MUST. An absolute must. I mean, that’s where you went, you saw a double feature, and they had uh, and they had uh, serials. They ran, every Saturday, you’d have like a Tom mix serial or something where you’d get a fifteen-minute of some action and it’d leave them in a perilous point of time and you didn’t know what was going to happen till you went next Saturday, okay. And we’d all go to the theater show together and it uh only cost a nickel to get in and uh, we just, you know, we uh, enjoyed ourselves, we played a lot of games, we played tag, we played hide- and-seek at night. Our parents didn’t have to worry about us being out at night….Uh, people didn’t lock their doors; we didn’t have anything to steal [laughing]. It was, it was a different way of life. It was, we didn’t have a lot, we didn’t, but we had a lot of fun, as children, uh, we had an awful lot of fun, uh, you know, things were a lot different. Just a lot different. But yeah, I enjoyed my friends, and I certainly enjoyed our family, uh and we just had a lot of good times., uh, I can remember, uh my parents, when you went to weddings, there was no such things as baby-sitters, so the women would take, you go to a wedding, and, and uh, uh, the women would go in the ki… kitchen and cook. Weddings weren’t catered; the women chipped in and they cooked. And, and, and the kids all went along, and you know, weddings were fun, we used to run around the dance floor and slide around and this and that. And so, yeah, there were all kinds of things to do and they didn’t cost anything. Go up to the YMCA on Franklin Boulevard and we’d walk there [pause] it was no big deal, [chuckle] you know, just uh, but uh summer time was baseball, uh we always had, uh uh, at that time, Cleveland had, uh, had a muni-baseball system that was uh, probably better than any, any in the whole country. In other words, uh uh, in the summer time, they would have all these leagues that were based on age primarily. And and, you put together a team, and you’d sign up, and you’d go down, and they would supply all the equipment, except for gloves, you had to bring your own gloves, they’d bring the bats, the balls, the catcher’s equipment, tell you what field to report to, at what time to go play, and boy, that was great,”
Dan Madigan: I can imagine.
Edmund Ziemba: “It was really, I tell yah, that was, I can remember doing that, starting at the, I dunno, the age of 10 or 11, playing class F baseball, and just gradually working your way up, you know, through the different classes, and the competition got better all time and was just uh, it was an enjoyable thing to do and it didn’t cost you anything. So, but yeah, muni- baseball in Cleveland was uh, uh a phenomenal thing; there were hundreds of teams, playing hard-ball. NOT SOFTBALL, but hardball,”
Dan Madigan: Mm-hmm.
Edmund Ziemba: “So, you don’t see that much anymore. It was way before little league, okay, and and, the funny part about it is there was that there was no adult supervision,” [pause]
Dan Madigan: Wow.
Edmund Ziemba: “We, we formed our own teams! We just got together and said, okay, we’re going to have a team, and I’ll never forget our first game: we report for our first game, class F, and it was down, down the hill uh from where we lived and I lived on Jefferson and Professor and this was a ball diamond down on what we called the Flats Area, okay, and uh, so we go down there, and all of a sudden, it hits us: somebody’s got to be the catcher. Who’s going to catch? We’re all standing there, looking at each other. So we’re all standing…nobody knew who was going to catch, so I finally said, I’ll catch, [laughing] And, so I don all this gear and uh, uh, and I get behind the plate, having no idea what I’m doing at all, and, and I was the team catcher from that period on [chuckling]. It was just, you know, that’s how we, that’s the things that we did; we just had a lot of fun doing stuff like that [chuckle].”
Dan Madigan: “Wow.”
Edmund Ziemba: “Uh,”
Dan Madigan: “When, when did you…were you, were you born in the Tremont area?”
Edmund Ziemba: “Yes, I was.”
Dan Madigan: “Uhm, how long were your, how long was your parent’s, uh, how long were they living there?”
Edmund Ziemba: “Well, my father, I believe, was born there. Uh, his dad, uh, came from Europe when he was 18-years-old, by himself; he didn’t know anyone when he came to this area and uh, uh uh, raised a family. My mother came from Europe when she was [pause] [tsk] I dunno, maybe 14, or something like that, I don’t remember exactly, okay, uh, came here, with her older brother. Their father had died as a young man and my mother was like two-years-old when her mom left to come here from Poland to uh, uh, uh, start a new life and she was going to send for the kids. Well, she found a man and re-married, but he would never send for them. She had three sons with him and finally, after all those years, convinced, so when my mother came here with her brother, they really didn’t know their mother,”
Dan Madigan: “Wow.”
Edmund Ziemba: “It was REALLY a shocking experience for her for several years. So, she, she uh, she in the Tremont area, uh uh, was, you know, didn’t really get here, she was a teenager, uh, I think she was like 14, or 15, or something like that when she came here, so she didn’t essentially, you know, grow up here, but uh, she grew up on a farm in Poland, and then came to this area. But my dad was, was raised in this area, in the Tremont area.”
Dan Madigan: “Did your home, in your home, did uh, you, uh, speak any other languages besides…”
Edmund Ziemba: “My grandparents, my mom, and my dad, yeah, they all spoke Polish. And I could understand it,”
Dan Madigan: “Mm-hmm.”
Edmund Ziemba: “I never, they did not encourage me to speak it,”
Dan Madigan: “Hm,”
Edmund Ziemba: “Okay, they didn’t do that. They wanted us to, you know, to speak English, okay. Uh, they, uh, eh, eh, now, a lot of the people that I knew and grew up with, kids I grew up with, understood foreign languages. The neighborhood was predominantly, at that time, was Polish, Ukrainian, Russian. But still some Germans, uh German uh people were still there, but predominantly those three. And most of the young people that I knew who came from those families understood the languages. Uh, my best friend could speak fluent Russian, okay, but I could speak a smattering of Polish but I understood it quite well,
Dan Madigan: “Mm-hmm.”
Edmund Ziemba: “But I forgot it all. I just went to Poland and I couldn’t remember anything [chuckle]. But if you don’t, you know how it its, if you learn a language, and over the years, you don’t hear it, you don’t use it, you’re just not going to remember. I don’t, you know. You have to use it. You just have to.”
Dan Madigan: “I can, I can relate with that. I’m taking a Spanish right now,”
Edmund Ziemba: “Right.”
Dan Madigan: “and it’s, it’s difficult. I, I forgot half the stuff over the summer break,” Edmund Ziemba: “Sure, sure. Sure,”
Dan Madigan: “And, and they say, ‘oh why don’t you go down there for the summer and uh, go live there with a family through one of the foreign exchange programs and they say in two months, you’ll be fluent,”
Edmund Ziemba: “Right.”
Dan Madigan: “and it’s like wow, I’ve, I’ve never heard of that, but you just reinforced what I just heard.”
Edmund Ziemba: “Well, what happened was, when my grandparents died, my dad’s parents, okay, then the Polish kind of [pause] wasn’t being spoken anymore. It was predominantly English, so you have a tendency to lose it easily, although every once in a while, you know, you’ll speak it my, my mom would speak it or whatever, or this or that, but not very often.”
Dan Madigan: “What uh, what type of jobs did your parents do, when growing up?”
Edmund Ziemba: “Well, in those days, women didn’t work,”
Dan Madigan: “Mm-hmm.”
Edmund Ziemba: “Okay, women, they were the homemakers and and my dad, my dad just worked general uh, in, in factories, you know, Cleveland, remember, back in those years, Cleveland was a very big manufacturing town. Most people don’t realize how much manufacturing was done here. But [pause] in, up through the 1950s, 50 percent of all the durable goods made in the United States were made here.”
Dan Madigan: “I believe it.”
Edmund Ziemba: “Yeah, right, the, the machine tool industry [thud], the the, washing machines [thud] dryers, you know, you just, I mean, everything, transmissions, just, the factories were all over this; this place was a manufacturing Mecca. And so men could make a decent wage, you know, the work was hard, don’t get me wrong,”
Dan Madigan: “Oh, I know.”
Edmund Ziemba: “the work was hard; the guys had to work hard but uh, they could make a decent wage and, and raise a family, okay. And not to say, that that they made a lot of money, but they always had income, there was always food on the table, there was always a house to live in, food on the table, and uh, clothes to wear, okay, and they were not, we wore hand-me- downs. When my older brother was fitted, I had to wear it. Okay, but you know what? I wasn’t any different from anyone else in the neighborhood; it was, we were all like that, so it was not a big deal. Socks were darned. You got older socks, mother took em, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen these darning tools, it’s like uh a wooden round, wooden thing with a handle in it, they slip the sock over it, and they take the needle and thread and they sew up the hole.
Dan Madigan: “I’ve never seen that.”
Edmund Ziemba: “That’s right. They didn’t throw stuff away like we do today [chuckle]. [pause].
Dan Madigan: “Uh, we already discussed uh, the ethnic make-up you described as being pretty, pretty multi-cultured down there.”
Edmund Ziemba: “Predominantly, uh, Eastern European. There was, uh, uh, like I said, uh, primarily Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, some German, uh Greek. There was a Greek neighborhood up in uh, remember where I told you about that Greek Orthodox Church was there at 14th and uh, uh, uh, uh, Fair-whatever-the, the street was, I can’t remember the street now, but there, there, yeah I had a lot of Greek friends that I went to school with. When I went, when we went from Tremont, we went to Lincoln High School. Which used to be on Straton Road, okay. Uh, at one time, I forget what it was, they they did uh, they took a look at how many different uh nationalities were represented at that school. It was a phenomenal number. It was like, I dunno, 30-something or 40 different nationalities were represented by, by the students in that school. That’s that’s the diversity you had from that whole area, okay.”
Dan Madigan: “Wow, that is amazing.”
Edmund Ziemba: “Yes, it is. It was a huge number, I can’t remember exactly, but I remember it was a huge… it was a melting pot. It was truly a melting pot. We had, we had off of West 14th Street uh, uh, there was one or two streets that had a small community, this, remember, this was a long time ago, of Puerto Ricans [pause]. You had, you had, uh, uh, you had the Greeks, you had , you had a Lebanese community, you had, you just had [smack] it was just, and we got along great!”
Dan Madigan: “Hmm, yeah, that’s the key point, yeah,”
Edmund Ziemba: “We all got along terrific! There was never any, that I remember, in all honesty, there was never any, uh, ethnic bum, bum, bum, fighting back and forth, bum, bum, bum. Now I will admit this: we did not have any African Americans living in the community [pause]. And I will admit this: is that there were biases against that, in you know, even though none of us ever knew any, I was pretty fortunate, because my dad always told me that it’s crap; it doesn’t mean anything, don’t pay any attention to it. SO, I never did, but I will say this: 99 percent of the people I knew had a bias against black people only because, even though they haven’t met any in their life, which is very, you know, it’s what they heard in the houses, but I was pretty fortunate, my dad told me that it was all crap and not pay any attention to it.”
Dan Madigan: “Good man.”
Edmund Ziemba: “Eh, my dad was a very well-read person. He uh, my grandfather always wanted him to go to school and be a lawyer and he just didn’t want to be, he went to Western Reserve for a year and quit, and just worked in factories. And uh, didn’t want to be a lawyer. My grandfather was trying to force him down a path and he wasn’t going to have any part in it. So, unfortunately, because he was a pretty bright guy, very well-read person [pause]. So.”
Dan Madigan: “Did you come from a particularly large family?”
Edmund Ziemba: “No. Three brothers and well, sorry, there were three of us, uh, my two brothers, myself and my mom and dad. Uh, my uh, I told you my mother came to this country with her brother. Her mom, who was here, uh, I only remember to about the age of 11, because she died of cancer,”
Dan Madigan: “Mm-hmm.”
Edmund Ziemba: “Uh, [pause] Her three step-brothers uh, I never knew them that well. Although of them is still alive and lives in California and uh, uh, I, uh, can’t even talk to him. I haven’t seen him in a long time. He’s a nice guy. Uh, my uh, my father’s side, he had two brothers and a sister and only one of them had ever had a child , which is I only had one cousin from his side. And from my mom’s side, her brother he, he had six children, but the problem was is we were real close with them, uh when when his thrid daughter was born, she was born with a, back then was a defective heart and they used to call them blue babies at that time, years ago. It’s a term they used to use and the reason they use that term was with a defective heart, their lips were always kinda bluish,”
Dan Madigan: “Ohh, okay.”
Edmund Ziemba: “I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of that term before, look it up, go back, go back to about the 40s and 50s in your history books, or whatever, and see if you can find that term. But, so they moved to Arizona, and so we, you know, we were really tight with my cousins until they made that move out to Arizona, although my cousin Sylvia, I still talk to her, she still lives in Phoenix. So, on occasion, I talk to her on the phone, and uh, uh, but yeah, uh, uh, you know, from, from, the stand of uh, of my dad side, even though his brothers and his sister got married, they just never, neither one of them had one child and that was it. So. [pause]
Dan Madigan: “Could you describe the neighborhood that you lived in, like home-wise, like yards, I mean, I imagine…”
Edmund Ziemba: “They were all, tell you what, the houses were all uh, pretty similar, uh, they were all up and down, two-family, okay, And uh, in general, what would happen is, uh, uh, uhh, let’s say the parents would, would buy the house and one of the offspring, generally, would get married and live upstairs, okay, uh, whether it be a son or a daughter, or whatever, and and one of the reasons behind that was because in that way, the uh, uh, uh, if something, you know, happened to the parents, you’d always have someone close to look after them. It was one way families kinda took care of , remember, back then, families kinda took care of each other You didn’t have all this hospitalization and stuff, you know. People got sick, generally, they stayed at home,”
Dan Madigan: “Mm-hmm.”
Edmund Ziemba: “You know, they didn’t run off to the hospital, they couldn’t. They didn’t have the money, they couldn’t afford to go to the doctor, they couldn’t afford to go to the dentist, that’s why you always saw people in that era with a lot of people with false teeth, okay, uhh, they didn’t have the money to take care of their teeth and so forth. Uh, but uh, uh, uh, the houses were all you know, generally wood-framed houses, occasionally, you’d see a brick one. Uh, uhh, the yards were small uh, not a lot of grass, uh, uh, not a lot of trees in the neighborhood as I can remember, uh, it was a basic, inner-city neighborhood you know, it was concrete, and and houses close to each other and uh, uh, the, but it was clean! And one of the reasons it was clean, was that uh, uh, you know, the women were always out there, sweeping the sidewalks, cleaning up, you know, if, if I were walking down the street, when I was a kid, and there were paper blowing out into the straight, one of the neighbors told me to go pick it up, and generally tell me in Polish, or Russian, or Ukrainian, you know, I knew what she meant. I better go pick it up and give to her so she can throw it in the trash can. Otherwise, when I got home, I was in trouble [laughing]. Well, that was the way it was! When somebody older told you to do something, you went and you did it, okay? You know, you, uh, they weren’t going to tell you do something stupid, they just wanted, hey, you go pick that up, or gimme that, or this or that, or whatever, you just, okay, you gave it to them. It was just like, when you got on a bus, you were a young person, and there was an older women, woman, or older man standing there, you gave them your seat. [pause] You, nobody told you to, you just got up and gave them your seat. The old man was coming home from work, he was tired, you gave him your seat,” [pause]
Dan Madigan: “That’s courtesy now,”
Edmund Ziemba: “That’s called common courtesy.”
Dan Madigan: “Yeah.”
Edmund Ziemba: “And, and it’s not like I’m the only…my friends all did the same thing. That’s just the way it was. It was different. A different time.”
Dan Madigan: “It just goes to show that uh, your parents were definitely, uh they treated you to be respectful to other people, your elders,”
Edmund Ziemba: “Sure, you better, you better. Absolutely. There was a thing called discipline back then,”
Dan Madigan: [chuckle].
Edmund Ziemba: “And it was reflected in the school system also. Tremont grade school, I’ll give you an example. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Dallavant. All the teachers in Tremont grade school were women, except for two teachers: there was a male shop teacher, and a male gym teacher. That was it. But there was never a discipline problem because if any boy got out of line jn any one of the classes the teacher didn’t hesitate she left the room and in 30 seconds she would be back in the room with one of those two men she pointed out the guy that was the troublemaker and he walked over and grabbed hauled him out of the room and cracked him over the butt with his paddle. All right, the problem was solved very quickly and it was very effective but the worst part of it was and never understood how the system worked less then fifty percent of the homes in the neighborhood when I grew up had phones in them. Whenever something happened in school by the time you got home your mother knew, now you were in real trouble.
Dan Madigan: Oh geeez.
Edmund Ziemba: Real trouble, because what they did to you in school with the pattle was nothing. [Laugh out loud] You’re talking about people that were embarrassed if their children got in trouble in school.
Dan Madigan: Umm humm
Edmund Ziemba: And they were going to make sure that it never happened again. And that they were there to learn. Big difference.
Dan Madigan: Trying to learn and fit in? or ?
Edmund Ziemba: No they just wanted them to do and have better then they had, and going to school was the way to do that. They Respected education and they respected educators and they respected educated people.
Dan Madigan: Umm what has been the trend in population over the last, say twenty or thirty years, has it been falling until recently because they are trying to…
Edmund Ziemba: Rejuvenate Tremont. Dan Madigan: yeah
Edmund Ziemba: Well yeah, I haven’t lived there in a long time. My guess would be that the population trend has been probably similar to what it is today. Only what you have is you had migration. We lived on Jefferson Ave. My parents then bought a house up between fourteenth and Scranton on Starkweather Ave. When I graduated high school and got drafted by the time I came back from the Army my parents had moved to Parma. They were not the only ones, there was this exodus to get a way from the inner city at that time. When the working class moves out of a neighborhood like that it gets other people to move and take over those homes but they are generally lower income people and that’s why the neighborhood started to go down hill their. Not to say that the neighborhood was wealthy to start with, but its kind the story of inner city Cleveland. It is what it is. Look at me, my parents I got home from the Army and lived with them for a few years until I went of to school and eventually I lived in Fairview Park, north Olmstead and now I am living in Hinckly. So, even further out. And it seems to be what people are doing. And I don’t know why, because I have such fond memories of the inner city, Downtown Cleveland. The Downtown when I was a kid is just light years different then what it is today. It Really is, then people just moved a way.
Dan Madigan: Yeah that migration out of the city.
Edmund Ziemba: Took everything with it. It took Downtown with it. It really did. Uh when they started building the shopping centers to facilitate the people living the suburbs, it destroyed Downtown Cleveland. Because even when my mom moved out she would still shop Downtown because she could still catch the bus and go down there. But as soon as they built Parmatown and places like it, it was all over for Downtown, it was the death nail because there was no reason to go down there because May Company was in Parmatown. Why would you want to go to May Company Downtown? You didn’t have to. They had the same stuff? Right?
Dan Madigan: Yeah, umm, I’m going to back a little bit.
Edmund Ziemba: Sure
Dan Madigan: about some education, your schooling ummm when you were in grade school how were the buildings? Did you go to Parochial school?
Edmund Ziemba: No I went Tremont grade school.
Dan Madigan: Oh yeah I forgot
Edmund Ziemba: Tremont was a good school. It went through a sixth or seventh grade, I think seventh grade. And a a a and the discipline was great the teachers were good. And I can still remember some of their names, my Kindergarten teachers’ name was Mrs. Johnson.
Dan Madigan: Wow!!
Edmund Ziemba: My Fourth grade teacher was Miss Henry, my fifth grade teacher was Mrs. Miller. I do remember that my sixth grade teacher loved to play us Beethoven records. That’s where I learned to love Classical music.
Dan Madigan: It’s soothing
Edmund Ziemba: The schools would take the grade school to listen to the Cleveland Orchestra for a dime.
Dan Madigan: When did you a when did you head out to Parma?
Edmund Ziemba: Well like I said, I was in the service I graduated Lincoln high school in fifty-two and then a my folkes moved there something like fifty four. I don’t really remember.
Dan Madigan: Um, you went to college when you came back from the service?
Edmund Ziemba: Yeah I worked a couple of years first then I decided I would go to college.
Dan Madigan: Um if I remember correctly, I got descent history skills, didn’t there wasn’t there a plan or bill that was passed that paid for?
Edmund Ziemba: WWII veterans, yes uh and I am a Korean veteran a we had one but the WWII guys when they came back they had something like the G.I. Bill, ok, if the guys wanted to go to school, they I believe their tuition and room and board was paid for them. Korean vets we got a fixed amount a month. Ill throw a number out because I’m not sure. Let’s say I got a hundred bucks a month for every month I was in school. Yeah it doesn’t sound like a lot, but my last year at Ohio University my last year, my tuition was a 130 dollars for a semester. [Laughing] Ok, but with the room and board remember it was a struggle I got through it. I got together with a couple of vets and we pooled our money together in order to rent a house and we just chipped in whenever we could. It wasn’t a big deal.
Dan Madigan: How did your family spend time with each other or did you?
Edmund Ziemba: Well you have to remember, number one: dad worked hard when he came home he was tired. A man came home he ate his dinner, he might have a couple of drinks and he go to bed. He might read his newspaper you know because at that time in Cleveland you had three newspapers. You had the Plain Dealer, which was the morning paper like it still is. But you then had two afternoon papers. You had the Cleveland Press and the Cleveland News. You had both of them. And my dad would come home and read that evening paper and have a couple of belts just like every other guy in the neighborhood and have his dinner. My brother and I were playing, my mother was busy washing dishes after cooking, she worked her butt off all day. They were tired, they didn’t stay up late they went to bed early. Okay. [Laughing].
Side B
Edmund Ziemba: My dad and I loved to argue baseball ever since I was a kid, all the time. We would just argue all the time. My uncle Chet loved to argue baseball to. My uncle Chet used to take me to Indians games when I was a kid. I was like his son. It was 1948 when Cleveland last won a World Series. Were you familiar with the old stadium?
Dan Madigan: Oh yes, Municipal stadium.
Edmund Ziemba: Do remember the fence in center field?
Dan Madigan: Yes
Edmund Ziemba: The crowds were so huge that there was standing room behind the center field fence. That’s how many people were there. Something like 80,000 people. My Dad and my uncle and I all loved baseball. Games were affordable back then, not like they are now they weren’t making fortunes back then. Summer evenings everyone sat on the porch or took a walk. Believe it or not neighbors actually talked to each other back then.
Dan Madigan: If you had to describe the economic makeup of your neighborhood like, for instance middle class, lower middle class, or lower class.
Edmund Ziemba: I’d say probably middle lower class. But people were honest, hard workers and they took care of what they had. They didn’t ask for any handouts and they wouldn’t take any handouts they wanted jobs. They wanted to work, it was different time. I tell you what I don’t ever remember going hungry. WWII all the young men disappeared, in my neighborhood they were just gone for four years. There was rationing, food, gasoline my mother would get food stamps in the mail I guess she get them per person or month there was rationing. There was certain things you could not get. You know what nobody complained and the reason why nobody complained, because if you bitched you don’t know if your neighborhood standing next to you who had a son fighting his butt off on some island wasn’t going to turn on you and hit you over the head with an umbrella. [Laughing]
Dan Madigan: You’re lucky if it was only an umbrella.
Edmund Ziemba: Yeah your right. But people recognized they were all in it together it was a national endeavor and so nobody complained. It was a different time. I can remember when I was a kid they had these scarp drives we would go home to home asking if they had any metal they could spare and we take it the to the school and then it would be created into arms or something. The theaters would sell war bonds which are now called savings bonds, and war stamps were placed in binders and collected I don’t know if any were actually cashed in. It was a big effort most the young men in the area were gone for four years. The family that lived upstairs from had three sons. The amazing thing is that they all came back. My uncle was with the 101st airborne at Normandy he was one of the survivors he was the one that took me baseball games, my uncle Chet. My dad use to say that he was the toughest guy back in Tremont. [Laughing]
Dan Madigan: You were pretty young when the war broke out. You were in Grade school right? Do you remember where you were at and what you were doing when you heard that Pearl Harbor was bombed?
Edmund Ziemba: Yeah we were upstairs on Sundays my mom would help my Grandma prepare Sunday meal. That’s where we were upstairs at my Grandparents house. But I remember before that because my family was from Poland and I remember Germany invading Poland and my family crying.
Dan Madigan: Sounds like you were and your family were very fortunate not to lose any relatives in the war.
Edmund Ziemba: I don’t remember to many people that didn’t come back. It was really amazing. Dan Madigan: What was the political makeup of Tremont during that time?
Edmund Ziemba: Democratic, Democratic awh yeah big time, the republicans didn’t stand a chance during this time. When Roosevelt died, I’ll tell you something. You never saw such public display of emotion in your life these men and women were in the streets crying it was like the end of the world to them it was unbelievable it was 1945. Because he didn’t see the end of the war. Is there anymore about the neighborhood you need? There was these corner stores, general stores, shoe store there were also a lot of bars and churches. Bigtime I don’t know what there were more of bars or churches. It was kind of a toss up. [Laughing] Is there anything I can help you with?
Dan Madigan: Yeah sure maybe another thing if you don’t mind?
Edmund Ziemba: No, sure I don’t mind
Dan Madigan: Tremont has gone through a lot of ups and downs and they are trying to improve the area. What do think about the resent attempts to improve Tremont?
Edmund Ziemba: The area is a phenomenal location it really is. I have been there a few times since. And I have noticed some of their new upscale restaurants and homes but there is a lot of poor people in it. It has a tremendous disparity between have and have nots I don’t know how you can mix those to I don’t know how it works but maybe you need to live in it to see. I know that on West 7th the city of Cleveland at one time they were trying to encourage people to move down there they were building new homes and offering tax abatements for the first ten years and low interest loans on those homes. I think that is great. For working family people to go down there that is great. But what is really great about that neighborhood is, I don’t know if recognize this or not Dan? You can get downtown in five or ten minutes. It’s right there. I can show you short cuts down through that flat and I would go down to ball games with my daughter and I will show you how to get around all this traffic so if you are down in this area you can get around all that traffic. You got to grow up there to know all the roads [laughing]. I showed my daughter the back way into Tower City parking lot.
Dan Madigan: Oh yeah I got a friend that showed me the way and leads you out on 25th
Edmund Ziemba: It leads you over the river then over Scranton then to 25th. It just has great access to Downtown. It really does. Location is one of its great attributes. I thought they had t he right idea by offering homes to the hard working families then they go and build upscale house for people with a lot of money. I think the West 7th idea is the right way to go. Maybe they need more of that through out that whole community.
Dan Madigan: That would certainly seem to spawn a new working middle class there and shove out some of the more richer, because I’m hearing about some of these condos their building.
Edmund Ziemba: quarter million, three hundred, four hundred thousand-dollar homes. That’s absurd how many people can afford that.
Dan Madigan: No one really.
Edmund Ziemba: Yeah, so that was always a good neighborhood for the working class. I think that they should try and structure it more that way. Those types of people are a solid foundation for a city. They really are, they raise good kids they bring them up fundamentally right, they teach them right and I’m not saying I’m a perfect person or anything. They teach them to have respect for other people, and so you need more of that influx of people, you don’t need the super rich, ok the wealthy doesn’t necessarily mean your going to be a successful with a neighborhood, because a neighborhood is the people that live in it and that want to take care of it. When I lived there my parents were like that. People would also help each other out. People knew that everyone was having a hard time back then. Because people were all in it together.
Dan Madigan: Its all the ability to relate to each other.
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