Abstract
This oral history interview with Eddy Bugala, conducted by Charles McCandlish on February 22, 2003, provides a detailed account of Bugala’s experiences growing up in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. Bugala shares memories of his parents’ immigration from Poland in the early 20th century, their settlement in Cleveland, and the cultural dynamics of the diverse community they joined. He discusses the impact of the construction of the freeway on the neighborhood, including the displacement of residents and the closure of churches and schools. Bugala also reflects on the social and recreational activities of his youth, the role of local businesses, and the effects of broader historical events such as the New Deal and World War II on the Tremont area. Throughout the interview, Bugala offers insights into the strong sense of community that characterized Tremont, as well as his personal experiences and family life within this changing urban landscape.
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Interviewee
Bugala, Eddy (interviewee)
Interviewer
McCandlish, Charles (interviewer)
Project
Tremont History Project
Date
2-22-2003
Document Type
Oral History
Recommended Citation
"Eddy Bugala interview, 22 February 2003" (2003). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 223007.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1329
Transcript
Charles McCandlish: Eddy, can you spell your last name, Bugala?
Eddy Bugala: Bugala.
Charles McCandlish: Okay. I had it right. Can you spell it for me please? B-u-g-a-l-a
Charles McCandlish: Okay. When did your parents move to Tremont?
Eddy Bugala: Oh, I figured they came here about eighteen ninety-nine, and then they landed in Baltimore. Then, then my father and mother, well they actually came here by themselves. Because they met here in Cleveland.
Charles McCandlish: Oh, okay.
Eddy Bugala: So I’d say, I figured they came here about nineteen hundred.
Charles McCandlish: Okay. Around eighteen ninety-nine.
Eddy Bugala: No. It wouldn’t be that because my first sister was born in about nineteen hundred too. So they got married after nineteen hundred. It’s been around that time.
Charles McCandlish: And, where did they come from? What country?
Eddy Bugala: Poland.
Charles McCandlish: Poland?
Eddy Bugala: My father came from near Warsaw. My mother come from a town called Krosna. [Spelled by Bugala] K-r-o-s-n-o.
Charles McCandlish: Okay.
Eddy Bugala: And, well, my father, he come here with the same idea that everybody has in these times. See what he could make for himself. They were pioneers. You could say, from, from Poland. Come and see what they could see over here and make of themselves. So. Well. Naturally, these people all coming over from Poland. Migrating here. They congregated over here. And they have a neighborhood. And well, like my mother says, they got together. And they’re dancing. And well, my father took a liking to her. She to him. And well, they got married.
Charles McCandlish: [Laughter]
Eddy Bugala: [Laughter]
Eddy Bugala: And, I like, I say, my mom was renting from this Irish woman. And then, well she knew why they got married. And she, like most of them, were starting to move out of here. Originally, this neighborhood was more German and Irish people. That were in this area. And they were more wealthier people around here too. But as far as I know they were even planning on having, you may have heard this, but building a university here. That’s where we have the names of our streets. University. College. Professor Avenue. Literary and so forth. But, then they turned around. They started when these, I should go, just go on ahead and just say polish people. Ukrainians started coming here. Slovaks. Russians. Greek. Lebanese. Serbian. Few Japanese. Chinese. In other words, when we grow up. Remember when they formed the League of Nations? Well, we used to kid around on the corner. If they wanna see the League of Nations, they should come over here in our neighborhood.
Charles McCandlish: [Laughter]
Eddy Bugala: Because we got practically every nationality here. Russian and you name it. That is why we come to church this way. We are one of the holiest neighborhoods out. We got sixteen churches in this neighborhood.
Charles McCandlish: I want to talk a little more about your parents. Did your parents come through Ellis Island?
Eddy Bugala: No, No. They came through Baltimore.
Charles McCandlish: Okay, through Baltimore?
Eddy Bugala: That’s what mom said. That my dad came through Baltimore, and she did also
Charles McCandlish: What were their names and can you spell them for me please?
Eddy Bugala: My father’s name is John. Surname Bugala. My mother name is Anna Mallong. [Spelled by Bugala] M-a-l-l-o-n-g.
Charles McCandlish: What languages did they speak?
Eddy Bugala: Polish.
Charles McCandlish: Polish. Do you speak Polish?
Eddy Bugala: Oh, [Phrase in Polish possibly meaning, “I speak polish”]
Charles McCandlish: [Laughter] I don’t.
Eddy Bugala: I just said, you want me to say I can speak Polish. No. I can speak Polish pretty fluently.
Charles McCandlish: And you learned that from your parents?
Eddy Bugala: From the parents and from the neighborhood.
Charles McCandlish: So it was important to speak Polish?
Eddy Bugala: Because in general we figured this whole block here. You take this storeowner. Then we had a store here. [Eddy Bugala pointed behind him to the corner.] He was Polish. That’s Taravenis. We had Mrs. Kuris next store. She had about ten kids. Then we had Krusinski. Then we had Polanski, and well we could go down the line. The fact they were all Polish. And on the other side. There are couple of Polish and Ukrainian people. Russian. And all around the whole neighborhood, whoever you wanted they talk to the old timers, and when I was growing up, I’d be speaking to them like we are talking now. “Eddy I don’t understand talking for the Polish.”
Charles McCandlish: [Laughter] So the neighborhood was divided into blocks? Like each different, the Polish lived on one block–.
Eddy Bugala: Not necessarily. They lived. I’m just saying as an example here. They just happened, the majority coming in here where Polish. They were down the street here Ukrainian. Russian on one side or another. They didn’t divide themselves. Slovak families were living in the neighborhood too. Matter of fact when it comes to being neighbors why in general, the whole area they didn’t divide themselves. Whatever neighborhood, whatever block you lived in, whether you are Russian, Polish, Greek, why you were still a neighbor. There was no dividing what there was this polish group here. But although they did have their own, different clubs. Take the Polish. They had Polonia Hall. That was off of a, College Avenue, near Thurmond Avenue. And they had a couple of clubrooms. And upstairs they had a hall where you could dance. Dance, have dances and weddings and parties. Then a, and when beer was repealed and then put a bar in there, and then we had Polish Library Home. Up on Kennilworth, by Eleventh Street, the Polish library only got their own Polish Library Home. It is the Polish people. The library here didn’t have Polish books for them. So they established a little library above the hall. One room where these Polish people could come in and read. And take books out. Polish books. So that’s how you got the name Polish Library Home. And that’s the same thing. It was built as a hall. Rent out for weddings and other affairs. And upstairs they had for dining. They had like the other ones, beer was repealed, and whiskey they put a little bar in their too to make a little money for the group. But as time went by and people grew up, then the freeway kind of knocked the neighborhood apart. All these people had their homes there. Sixteenth Street, Seventh Street, the Polish, Slovak whatever, they had to move out. They bought them out Clarence Court. Bought them out. They had to go. Where’d they go to? First, they started Brooklyn, Parma, and Brunswick, Lakewood. You name it. Wherever they went to. But otherwise, it was a pretty good community. And like I said we have sixteen different churches. We got, if you want me to name them.
Charles McCandlish: Oh, no that’s okay. Talk more about the inner belt construction project. What are some of your memories about them?
Eddy Bugala: About them building it?
Charles McCandlish: Yeah.
Eddy Bugala: They wrecked the city. This part of Cleveland. Like I just got through telling you. They took all the people out of the neighborhood. You take St. John Cantius. They build a school. The schools standing there. And last year, the pastor had to close the school because they only have fourty children. And before they had a high school there and a regular attendance. Before the freeway came in. St. Augustines. They had a big school, up to eighth grade. They had to shut down. You take Our Lady of Mercy school they had to shut down, and that’s because of your freeway coming through here. And now they want to turn around and more, that got me puzzled. They’re talking about taking West Fourteenth Street apart, and enlarging the freeway. What are they gonna do now with the churches there. That’s supposed to be historical site. They gonna take and knock all those churches down. The churches I’m talking about are Zion’s Church. There’s Pilgrim Church. There’s the Baptist Church that was Episcopalian originally. Then there’s St. Augustines. And there’s St. Mary’s Church. That St. Mary’s Church is now a Korean Catholic Church. Then you go up to Fairfield; there’s a Greek Church. And you come on this side on the street. You got well, what used to be a museum. And then the Ukrainian National Home. I don’t know what’s in there now. A restaurant or what. But then there’s a couple of homes there. And you got Grace Hospital. Then you got Pelton Apartments, and now it’s a nursing home. And then you got Lincoln Park. What are they gonna do, knock that all out? Take this away from us people? Its nuts. Meanwhile, for me I don’t care. In way because I don’t that much years left. Okay, but how about all these other people that have youngsters in here. What are they gonna do with them; tell then to get the hell out, like they did with everybody else? Now the other thing that was unfair was when they took these homes. Take down Clarence Court. The people, older folks like myself at that time, another time, I was the one who grew up in that time. They were fathers of fellas I went to school with. They were all set to retire, and to live there. And they come there. We’re taking your home and giving you five or six thousand dollars. Go buy another home. They have to mortgage a house in Parma or Brooklyn or something. And they don’t give them an equal exchange of property. Even one of my friends, when they figured on putting the Jennings Freeway in. He was living on Redman Avenue. He just got established. Married. Got, got about four kids. They took his home, gave him about fifteen thousand and told him go buy a new house. He had to mortgage a new house he bought for about eight thousand dollars more. That’s not fair with the freeway coming through like that. They’re not being fair with the people who have been established. Looking forward to live their lives out over here. Well, they don’t give a damn about us. When they went to build Shaker Heights, they wanted to put the freeway in over there. They said oh, no, you can’t do it over there because of all the wealthy people. But now they are in Pepper Pike. So they don’t care.
Charles McCandlish: What was it like when some of the bridges were out? The Abbey Road Bridge?
Eddy Bugala: When that was out?
Charles McCandlish: The Clark Road Bridge?
Eddy Bugala: That just went out recently. That was a couple years back. The Clark Bridge. You always went from here to Fifty-Fifth Street. That was our mile bridge. The only reason why they took that down is from the steel mills turnaround all the corrosion was too expensive to rebuild it. All the steam, whatever, sulfur did that damage to it. When it came to the Abbey Bridge, it was an old bridge. It had to be. They had to rebuild it. When they got a grant for it. They knocked the bridge down. And for I don’t know how many years, anybody who wanted to go down to the market. Well then, they established a route with the Starkweather and Professor bus. They come down here and go up to Twenty-Fifth Street. And Wade Avenue and go up Barber Avenue now. And then go to the market. And then come back. Otherwise, you’d have to downtown take a bus from downtown and then go to Twenty-Fifth Street market. If you want. The market down at, the Sheriff Street Market, they didn’t care for that so much. They wanted to go to the one Twenty-Fifth Street. But when it comes to Abbey Bridge. When it was there. They had what we used to call a dinky. That was an all-city transit system. You went to the bridge and they would take you across. At that time if you wanted on a bus, the fare was a penny or two cents. A nickel. [Laugh]
Charles McCandlish: [Laugh]
Eddy Bugala: We joke about them when we go to League Park. We turnaround and get free tickets to the ballgame. We’d walk all the way to League Park just to save those four pennies. So that we could by a Popsicle. We would get a Popsicle out of it. [Laugh]
Charles McCandlish: [Laugh]
Eddy Bugala: When it comes to Abbey Bridge that was standing then too. Actually it was over five or eight years ago since they put that, maybe a little more. It was empty vacant then. They ignored. But it was from the government. Gave a loan. There was some other bridge on the eastside. An older bridge that they were supposed to rebuild too. And whoever complained to then that they’re not. The city of Cleveland. Whoever was mayor at the time was telling, you take and build the bridges, or the money we gave you, you have to return with interest. It was a couple million bucks. Well, you see, they put the bridge up there and they got another one on the eastside. They built that up too. And they were given either–, you build or return the money.
Charles McCandlish: Can you tell me a little bit more about League Park?
Eddy Bugala: League Park? That’s where they used to have the ball club. American League ball play. That was over on the eastside. And we would go over there just because you get a free ticket. In those days, when you got something free you went for it. And we’d hike up there most of the time. After a while they built the stadium up. The stadium, you didn’t have to go that far. And then people were. We used to get free tickets. As a matter of fact, from recreation. They turn around, and they would give free tickets. Even before that there was knowing–. Balla Vernon Milk that was up on Carnegie. One of the bigger dairies Cleveland. And they used to give free tickets to all the people to go to the ballgame. We used to go to the stadium to the ballgame, but then like everything else they go up in the price. People go now and the price is ridiculous. Forty dollars to go see a ballgame! Paying these ballplayers millions of dollars. They’re nuts! And in the old days, the ball player got paid ten thousand dollars. The highest paid I think was Babe Ruth. Was close to one hundred thousand bucks. And then he was in his prime.
Charles McCandlish: Where did you play when you were a child?
Eddy Bugala: Right here! On top the hill and down the hill. See originally, you take from Fruit Avenue and Tenth Street. This was farmland. Now when my folks, build. As a matter of fact, my uncle, was a contractor, my mother’s brother. When he came here with her and another sister. Well he was a carpenter at home. He saw opportunity to build homes. So he was building houses around here. And this tract of land from Fruit Avenue, if you go, see the new houses. You go back from this house one, two, three, fourth house. That’s, these are all the newer homes. This section here. Then you go on that side of Fruit Avenue. Its new sections. Then you go on Auburn. There’s about four homes standing there. Three homes now. There was four. What occurred was there were sinking in. And we have to move it. So they moved it here to Branch Avenue and Twelfth Street. From Auburn they went up to Eleventh Street. Then up to Branch. And now the freeway is through there. They took that away too. But they moved the house. It was a real nice home. But it was sinking in. And rather than lose a beautiful home they moved it over there. When it comes to playing, well, like I say, this is farmland. Then they build these homes in here. Then down the hill, the farmers, there was only one farmer, when we were kids. They called it Headlow Farm. He was the last one, way down near, near Clark Field. He was the last one that quit farming in there. And we played down and then we had a creek coming from Eleventh Street. All the waste would go through there. Then some city official got a bright idea, let’s cover the sewer. Cover the creek up with sewers. But they never thought of putting drainage in there. Oh we had, I got ahead of myself. We even had marshes after the farmer quit. Cattails, as they called them. The marshes, we used to play down there. We played like we were Tarzan in the jungle. And we played baseball down there. They had hardball. Clark Field had three hardball diamonds. And then we played on top of the hill. Baseball or down the hill. That was our play area. As a matter of fact, well when we grew up, they had things filled up. That one section near Clyde Square, we wanted our own football field. So we all got together. We got a sickle, scythe, and you got lawnmowers, not power mowers, hand mowers. We went down there all together a whole group of us guys. Then a group from Clyde Court, they saw us guys working. “Say what are you guys doing.” “We want to build a football field. The city doesn’t want to give us a damn thing. So we’re gonna make our own.” So we made a football field. So these guys turn around and say can we come play and help you guys. The more help you got we liked it. So we built a whole field there. So what do we do for markers and lining? In those days, everybody used to paint their basements with lime. So hey, your father’s got some lime left over. You got some left over. Bring it down here. And we made our own. Own boundaries. Ten yards and all. Well we didn’t have no official field goal. We had a couple of garbage cans. [Laughter] Well that was good enough.
Charles McCandlish: Okay.
Eddy Bugala: We used to go to Lincoln Park. Then they started putting in a little more playground equipment and then parallels bars and high bar. Well, we were like all young guys, let’s go. And then they had swings and teeter-totters there. And then they had a bandstand, which they used to have bands come and play music there. But then like everything else, it goes to heck and when they stopped having the bands come in, they showed movies for a while. Then they cut that out. Maybe because they had to take the bandstand down because it was falling apart after many years. And they did without it. And then oh I’d say oh, back in fifties. They got, we were always asking for a swimming pool to be put in the back of the bathhouse. As they called it then, Lincoln bath house. That actually was a bathhouse. And then when Franklin D. Roosevelt took over, to work for the people. That’s when they took all the bathhouses. St. Clair. Woodland. Clark. And converted then all into what recreation centers. And that was because there were people that were out of work at that time and was right after the Depression when Roosevelt took over. And the WPA. There were many talented people who they were teaching the kids how to tap-dance, ballet, drama, woodcraft, art craft, crafts and you name it. They had certain days they came certain hours. And the program was scheduled. And that’s how they started the recreation centers. With Franklin D. Roosevelt. Then after the years went by, they automatically kept them as recreation centers. Originally it was bathhouses because when the people come here like my mother and father, most of these homes didn’t have a bath in them. They had an outhouse in the backyard where you did your business. And then you had the honeydew collectors come clean them out. They didn’t have no—. If you wanted to take a bath, why mom had a big kettle over there. Put in the hot water. Dad takes a bath first then she got a couple of little ones shame to waste it. Wash the two kids in it. Then you, you’re next you get fresh water. So they got the idea to have a bathhouse so. Well for example, I am talking about the one on Starkweather. They had it split up and one side they had the entrance. They had women. Then they had a divider in between. Then this side was for women. Rather for men. Men on this side. Women on that side. And so, they had, on they had, on the main floor they had showers for the women. And downstairs, they had about four stalls. For usually, leave the little girls down there. They had partitions down there. For privacy so if they brought their children. Downstairs for the little kids. Then they the same thing where the men are. They had stalls up there. Partitioned off. And they had about six stalls. Large room where men when in. Then they had, like I was saying for the kids. They four showers in the back room. So the women had their own privacy if the youngsters come by they could take a shower over there. And then upstairs they had a dispensary. As they called it then. Today they call them clinics. It was for mothers to be in, — to give treatments to the kids and they had a doctor and nurse upstairs. They had an office and an examining room for them. And then like I said, that was the same thing in St. Clair. Same thing in Woodland. Clark Avenue. They call it Clark Recreation now. And they had a bathhouse at Edgewater Park. Many people in the summertime go and change their clothes in there too. It was a nice, beautiful building. In time they knocked that down to.
Charles McCandlish: I’d like to ask a couple more questions about your parents. Where did your parents work?
Eddy Bugala: My mother. She did work at home most of the time. But then my dad, unfortunately, he died when he was fifty years old. At that time they didn’t have medication like they had today. He got pneumonia and he thought he was better and he went out. He got worse and pluralsey set in. He died. He was fifty years old. I was five and a half years old then when he died. He used to work for a Ferry Cap. Ferry Cap used to be over there on Scranton Road. Ferry Cap and Screw Company. And mom would after dad passed away. Well my sisters, the one, she quit school, and got a job working at Higbees. To help support the family. Mom turned around and you have to have money to pay the mortgage off, and then you didn’t have welfare like you do today. Matter of fact, she went to the Merrick House, asked them just to give her a hand for three months. They says, “Mrs. Bugala sell your house and then we’ll give you help”. My mother turned to them and said, “I have nine children. Who’s gonna take and rent a home to a woman with nine children?” “Well that’s all we can do.” My mother got mad and she told them to “kiss my you know what”. She said I’ll take care of my kids. And she did. My brothers, one of my brothers, two of them, the little older ones and the rest of us managed to go to school. But in our own way, we always had jobs. We used to go down Fourteenth Street, where Mr. Smith was, the Provision Building. And Kili the mover had a son. And that. But we would go up to him and ask, “Can I cut the grass for you Mr. Kili, Mr. Smith?” There was a Dr. Smith. No relation to the Smith—. We’ll cut your grass for you my brother and I. I was seven or eight years old then. My brother and I he’s ten years old. We went cutting grass and we’d come home with fifty cents or a dollar, you know. That’s for us. Mom would say here’s a nickel, your good boys, go get some ice cream. Now that’s the way we had it then. Mom, what she did was she took in. She did house work. And she also took in laundry. And we had to help her when it came to, she didn’t have a washing machine, there was the old scrubber. Then we boys found one washing machine for her. But I remember it had big three pans on it. It would go up and down like that. So mom had that until she could get a better one. We always had to help her when it came to ironing clothes. My sisters turned around. That’s Sophia and Amelia. They were the ones that had to help iron clothes. Especially shirts and better stuff. When it came to flat stuff, towels, and you name it, napkins, or whatever. ”You do this." And Eddy after he’s done, she put the ironing board in the kitchen, newspapers on the floor. Bed sheets and that. You had to iron them too. “Watch you don’t burn it.” We had to iron too. Cause the girls say hey, what the heck, those two guys sitting over there, are doing nothing. Make them do some of the ironing. And that’s how we got along. We managed to make our own living. Everyone pitched in to help out.
Charles McCandlish: What church did you go to when you were growing up?
Eddy Bugala: St. John Cantius.
Charles McCandlish: What language was church service spoken in?
Eddy Bugala: That was a Polish church. In fact, when they founded that church, I could give you a little history if you want. When they founded St. John’s church, it was a barn, a car barn or CTS car barn. And CTS is moving out. To better quarters. So these people got together and they bought this barn. And they built a little church. And then they had classrooms. Until they could get more money built. After several years they got enough money going. Built up the congregation. Then they built what we call the new church. And that church is still standing. I don’t recall the year they built it. It could be in the late twenties. But they built that church with my uncle the contractor. He had his fingers in that, cause then they had a lot of nuns then. They needed a home for them. So my uncle donated the home for them. There’s a red brick building next to that church. Now, they had the upstairs was the church. And downstairs was classrooms. The basement was for first and second graders way up to the eighth grade. And then as years went on, they got a little richer. And then they built a church that standing there on corner of Professor and College. That’s a big large church there. Then, like I say, they had a big congregation. They had about four different masses on a Sunday. If you went there you had to be there on time, or otherwise you were standing in the aisles or in the back of the church. That’s the kind of congregation they had at that time. Today if you go in there, their lucky if they get one hundred people. And they only have one mass in Polish and one in English. Sunday and Saturday they have mass. Well the same thing happened at Our Lady of Mercy Church. Our Lady of Mercy Church they bought the church when they came here from another group. They had to go to St. Lundlens. That’s off of Woodland Avenue and Twenty Fourth Street. Slovak people. Then they figured why should we be traveling over there, over the bridge to Woodland Avenue to go to church service. They knew it was Slovak to they talked with the bishop. And they bought this place up on Eleventh Street. They built the church there and they got the church over there. It was a wooden one and now they got a new one too. The priest home was built in about the fourties, fourty five, about the fifties. The new church but he same thing. You go there to church. They only had one mass on Sunday or one on Saturday. You go down on Sunday, unless it’s a holiday you see, say sixty people in there. He’s doing good. And St. Augustines, same way. All the people were moved out.
Charles McCandlish: Where did you grocery shop when you were growing up?
Eddy Bugala: When it comes to grocery shop, let’s put it this way, we had grocery stores on practically every street corner. My mother always used to go over here to Mr. Teravisa and Moleski. And because one check exchanged hands, they sold it. The woman, the last one that got this place, couldn’t make a go so she just converted it into living quarters. The store she blocked it out. We had a store here. You go up the corner. There’s another thing you probably don’t know about, there was a German Hall over around the corner. By the corner of Jefferson, Starkweather and Tenth. The Heights Manacker Hall. Now that burned down in the year 43 or 44. It burned down and they had to take it down. Polish fellow by the name of Maiser. He had a grocery store there. And then there was a hardware store. And Mr. Koontz had the hardware store. Excuse me. There was a Jewish family. Mr. and Mrs. Brickman. They sold wallpaper and paints. Well that’s when the building had to be raised. Everybody had to quit the business. And then when you come to grocery stores. You go up to Jefferson and Tremont. There’s a grocery store there and one across the street. You go over there on Fruit. You have two grocery stores. Going on Starkweather and Eleventh Street. You have a grocery store that is still standing. Even though it is not a grocery store any more. And then another one on this end. Well on almost every other block, there was a family store. And then we also had before supermarkets come in. You take on Starkweather and Professor there was a Fisher store. Then you go down where the Lincoln Heights Bank is there was a Fisher store there. Then you go on Fourteenth Street here and we had a drug store there. Two nice Jewish fellas had it and they we there for over fifty years. Then we had a Fisher store. One with like a bakery first, then we had a Fisher store, then they expanded the building there and we got a Kroger store there. And then we also had a meat market. And then on this side, we had an A&P store. Then if didn’t anything to your satisfaction there, you went up to Twenty- Fifth Street, they had an A&P and Fishers over there. And we also had a man had a meat market over there. And I forget his name a Polish fella, in between University and Fairfield. He was well known for his meats.
Charles McCandlish: Okay I want bring it up to a little more recently. What was Tremont like when Carl Stokes was elected Mayor of Cleveland, 1967?
Eddy Bugala: Well it–It didn’t change that much. Well like I said when your freeway come in. people started going out. The only thing we did start to get more colored people with the projects. Well otherwise why went on living like always. There was no big changes here. He never contributed anything to us people.
Charles McCandlish: You spoke favorably of Franklin D. Roosevelt. What other changes in the New Deal affected Tremont?
Eddy Bugala: Well when he came why well one of the main changes he made was he had made work for the people. You take people that weren’t working and that was all over the country. That was your WPA workers progressives. He turned around when they built. When it comes to streets, they didn’t have tar roads. And they had guys come working put the bricks in. On West Fourteenth Street. Wherever they put new streets in. When it come like I said to recreation, he was the one who established the recreation centers and all these unemployed people that are more or less specialists in certain trade/field. Everybody when it came to Roosevelt everybody’s proud of that and the changes that he made were naturally. When they repelled liquor why then every other corner got a beer joint. They all start coming up. Well old man Hutchka he cannot that he sold kids beer before they made Prohibition. He was one of the oldest bar owners on the corner. He even had the old swinging doors and then you wanna get a can of beer you took a can over there one of these cans for beer and he’d fill it up. Take it home no bottle just a can. And when it comes to bars. Well, you take well, you probably heard of Dempsey’s Oasis. Dempsey first started. There was a fella the name of Giblonski that owned the building couple on the other side of the bathhouse recreation center. There was a movie theatre there at one time called the Royal Theatre. He started a beer joint there and where he had his place established now. Well his son sold it now but, when he opened up, there was a man by the name of Hot Dog John. He sold hot dogs and more or less hamburgers and cakes and pies. And he had the place there and when Dempsey took over, old Hot Dog John had to move on. He went over on Fourteenth Street there and he come back on Starkweather. He was there for at least fifty years, until he retired and went back to Greece. He was a Greek. He went back to Greece. And as a matter of fact, a young lady that bought the business from him, they went to visit him one time. They were Greek too and a couple of nice people and they turned around and they stopped in to see me and they say we saw Bill and he said to say hello to ya and "Eddy, you should see what he’s got there. A palace, we come see him, in a beautiful place, whenever he wants anything clap your hands,” [Eddy Bugala his claps twice] and a servant comes, “Yes sir what do you want?” He was living like a king over there. But the he made his money over here.
Eddy Bugala: When it comes to changes, why the only changes they made were to the recreation center. [Tape stopped to change side]
TAPE 1, SIDE B
Eddy Bugala: We got together the whole family and h
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