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Yolanda Steward-Barnes interview, 14 January 2025

Abstract

Yolanda Steward talks about growing up on E. 142nd Street between Bartlett Avenue and Glendale Avenue in the 1950s. She describes visiting stores on Kinsman Road and E. 131st Street such as a chicken market, a shoe store, and a movie theater. Steward describes her experiences at Moses Cleveland Elementary School, Alexander Hamilton Middle School, and John Adams High School. She discusses some experiences of segregation and discrimination: both within public spaces and within the public school system. She then describes changes in her family, working at the steel mill, and changes in the Union-Miles neighborhood. At the end of the interview, she emphasizes how much she loved growing up on E. 142nd Street and gives advice to young people.

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Interviewee

Steward-Barnes, Yolanda (interviewee)

Interviewer

Carubia, Ava (interviewer)

Project

Union-Miles

Date

1-14-2025

Document Type

Oral History

Duration

71 minutes

Recommended Citation

"Yolanda Steward-Barnes interview, 14 January 2025" (2025). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 483009.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1353

Related Resources

Union-Miles @ Cleveland Voices

Transcript

Ava Carubia [00:00:00] The recording. We’re recording now today is January 14th, 2025. My name is Ava Carubia, and I’m here in Warrensville Heights, Ohio. Interviewing Ms. Yolanda Steward.

Yolanda Steward [00:00:14] Yolanda.

Ava Carubia [00:00:17] Yolanda Steward for the Cleveland Regional Oral History Project. Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed today. And can you please state your name, your birth date and where you were born for the record?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:00:26] My birthday? Well, Yolanda Steward, you want the married name or the maiden name? It doesn’t matter.

Ava Carubia [00:00:37] You can say either.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:00:38] Okay. Yolanda Steward Burns Terry

Ava Carubia [00:00:41] Perfect.

Yolanda Steward [00:00:44] And […] 1945. I have a birthday next month for all of those who want to bring a gift. And what was it?

Ava Carubia [00:00:53] Oh, and where you were born?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:00:55] Oh, I was born in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ava Carubia [00:00:58] Okay. So we’re gonna start there. Can you talk a little bit about where you were born and what your life was like growing up?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:01:07] Well, I was born at St. Luke’s Hospital, 1945. And I lived on 142nd. I think when I was born, my my parents were still living at my grandfather’s house on Olivet. And then I think they bought the house on 142nd when I was like 2 or 3, something like that, between Barlett and Glendale. And it was a lot of,in that area back then, there was a lot of woods. They were still building. And I loved it. It was fun. Yeah, I really did. It was mostly Caucasian, Italians neighborhood, you know, growing up. Slowly, Blacks started moving in, but it was, I just loved it, you know, I did I loved that street. It was a bunch of fr-, I had a bunch of friends. And it was, it was like you see on TV, which, you know, it was just like you see on TV almost. My parents well, back then, most mothers didn’t work, you know, they were stay-at-home moms. And my father worked two jobs. And that was the only thing I didn’t like because he was hardly ever home. But and I was a daddy’s girl. Oh, my goodness, I was a daddy’s girl. So I would be so glad when he would have, you know, his days off and yeah. And then but as time went on and people started moving, it was still, it was still okay. We did all our shopping on Kinsman and 131st. There were no malls, so [phone rings and recording pauses]

Ava Carubia [00:04:02] So we were talking about the shopping you did on Kinsman and 131st.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:04:06] We shopped on Kinsman and 131st. And I remember there was a chicken market. So that’s where you went and got your fresh chicken. And I always like, when my dad was home I always liked riding with him, so he’d always take me with him to the chicken market on Kinsman. I hated going there because it stunk. Oh, my goodness. Because they killed them, you know, right there. Ugh. I hate the way it smell. But I just. I still didn’t mind because I was riding with dad, so. And then it seems like mostly on 131st when we shopped there, that was mostly like your meat markets and the bakery. And I remember there was a shoe store. And that shoe store, if I remember correctly, was up there where you all are now.

Ava Carubia [00:05:19] Like 131st and Miles, or?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:05:23] Yeah, close to there.

Ava Carubia [00:05:25] Okay.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:05:26] And then there was the theater, well you could see. I guess you could still tell that there was a movie theater across the street where we used to go to the show. There was a lot of movie shows around here. It was like that one right there near Miles. And then there was another one further down 131st going toward Union, which is. I guess it’s still a YMCA now. And then, there were like, two or three on Kinsman. They had so many movie theaters. And then I remember, like, on Miles, like, when we went to the shoe store. They have. All the shoe stores had them. You put your foot and they would X-ray your foot. Just, you know, make sure what. You know, it was. That it would show what size you wore. And it was a wild X ray, though, when you put your shoe on and you see how much room you got in. But they, they stopped those because they found out the X-rays weren’t good. You know, the radiation, I guess, whatever you want to call it. But they thought they banned them. That was always fun. I always enjoyed it. You know, when you’re a kid, you find fun in anything. But. Yeah, so on Sunday, we had to go to church and we wanted to go to the show. Didn’t you go to show, I mean, you didn’t go to church, you couldn’t go to the show. And now, it was still a predominantly white area. Although it, when we went to the movie theater, it wasn’t. It wasn’t like, down South where they would tell you, you gotta sit here, you gotta sit there. They didn’t say it. They just did little things. So it was like. So the blacks just automatically sat on this side and the whites automatically sat on that side. And then you had your ushers, and the ushers were white, you couldn’t. If you were Black, you couldn’t be an usher. And depending on the ushers, if you just said the least little thing, they would throw you out. So may. A lot of times you just got in there, bought your candy and sat down. And like, if they were, you know, like mean or really prejudiced, they would throw you out for the least little thing you don’t like. You can’t sit there and not say a word, you know. You know, then you’re young, two kids, you know, even when we’re teenagers. So they would do that, throw us out. We had paid, set out for the movie we start. Someone would do that. Which, you know, that’s just the way it was. And. But for the most part, I still loved the neighborhood. You know, most people were nice. Yeah. And let’s see, what else happened in other years.

Ava Carubia [00:09:02] Well, I have one question. What did your, What were your dad’s two jobs? What did your father do?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:09:07] His main job was the post office. He worked at the steel mill. But he got burnt really bad, almost died. But I don’t remember that. I just, you know, my mom told us about it. We were too small, and he drove the truck for the Cleveland Press was the newspaper. That was the other job, but the post office was his main job.

Ava Carubia [00:09:46] And were your parents from Cleveland?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:09:49] No, my dad was from Talladega, Alabama. He ran away when he was 13, never went back. My mom’s from Georgia. I always wanted to say Macon, but it wasn’t Macon. Can’t think of it. What was it? Because we never. We never went down South. My father, “You’re not going”. So we never knew what it was like other than other people telling us, you know. But my dad was like, “Mm-mm.” He wouldn’t let us go down there, see his people. And he wouldn’t take us down there to see my mother’s people. We saw them when they moved up here. Okay. I know my dad was 13, but my mother, she was really young because she went to Moses Cleveland School. And that was. It was an elementary and junior high combined, it was on 140- it’s still 147th and Harvard. They redid it.

Ava Carubia [00:11:13] So what year would that have been that she went there? It was early, right?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:11:21] Yes. And it’s so unusual because it really wasn’t hardly any Blacks. She lived on 144th. They hadn’t moved. We hadn’t moved that far down, especially when she was a kid. But she. I went to that school. She went to that school and she showed me a picture of the house that they lived in on 144th and Glendale. And it just so happened one of my friends lived there.

Ava Carubia [00:12:07] Wow.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:12:08] So I knew it was the truth because she was there at that house. Yeah. So I don’t know.

Ava Carubia [00:12:19] Well, you talked about how there weren’t a lot of. Well, yeah, you said it was a predominantly white area. What was the makeup of your street when you were growing up? Was it mostly white or?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:12:32] By the time I realized the difference, I would say maybe half and half.

Ava Carubia [00:12:43] In the area. You’re talking about being predominantly white, where would you say you’re talking about?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:12:50] Well, when I was really young, it was, like, from 140th back was all white. Harvard, all from 140th back. 142nd seemed to start where the Blacks were forward, going towards Shaker. And I think it was probably because I really think those were larger homes, so they probably cost more from 140th back That’s just my view, because when the Blacks did start moving on 140th, they did have more money. So that’s what I, conclusion I came to. And then, okay, Shaker, that was definitely people with money, white people with money for a long time. So Shaker started. It was so weird. It was like Shaker started on Barlett. When you got to. I think it was like, 147th or 149th. And then I remembered they moved as the Blacks were moving in. They moved the sign back. Then, they changed Kinsman to Chagrin. That’s why when you get up that far, that’s Chagrin, there was no more Kinsmen, because Chagrin still was, you know, like Shaker, and it was still predominantly white, and you had that. They. They had it changed. So.

Ava Carubia [00:15:10] So, oh-

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:15:21] Go ahead!

Ava Carubia [00:15:22] I was gonna ask. You went to elementary school at Moses Cleveland?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:15:25] Mmhm.

Ava Carubia [00:15:26] How was that?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:15:27] That was alright. Well, when we started going there, the year I started going there to kindergarten, they changed it because it was. It was elementary downstairs and junior high upstairs. And they had built. They built the other school down on Harvard. Elliott. That was the, they built Charles Elliot. The junior high school. So, yeah, now as the Blacks started, I guess, moving in and more Blacks at Moses, what the whites did. There was Catholic schools around there, and Catholic schools at that time, I don’t know about now, they didn’t have an elementary. I mean, kindergarten. So they would go to Moses Cleveland, a lot of them, not all of them. The kindergarten. And then they would go to the Catholic school down the street after that. Yeah. Still, I was blessed because I didn’t. Now, my brother and his friends, they had a problem when they got to be teenagers, and we were going to John Adams. And John Adams was the high school, which is still there, and they rebuilt it as well. And John Adams, if you were Black, you couldn’t be a cheerleader. You couldn’t get in any extracurricular activities. But there again, they would never just come out and say it. They always found a reason why, you know, and, you know, excuse, any excuse. But there again, I didn’t have a problem with it. I just didn’t. I just didn’t. I have white friends, you know, hey, we got along fine. And my little white boyfriend. We had a crush on each other in first grade, I think, but from the first to about the fifth grade, because we both liked to draw. So in, like, the fifth grade, the science teacher had a project. She wanted a mural so he and I could. Not the science teacher, the art teacher, and the science teacher combined, for whatever reason they were, it was for something. So they picked he and I and a couple of more kids because we could draw pretty good. He could draw much better than me, so. So we were so happy because we got to stay an hour after school and do our little art thing. His name was Michael Fair. Never will forget him. He was so cute. I would think, oh, Mikey, have a crush on me. He was so cute. And I never thought I was cute at all. But, yeah, that was my little boyfriend. I think about him every now and then. I wonder, whatever happened to Michael Fair? Yeah.

Ava Carubia [00:19:16] Do you have any other memories from that age? Elementary-school age? What did you like to do for fun?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:19:27] I was a tomboy. So baseball in the summer. And Gawron, we always called it Harvard Playground. In the summer. They had. But I liked. I love baseball. So they had the girls baseball team called the Pigtails. So I really loved that. And I loved roller skating. And my mom wouldn’t let me play football. Like, no, you’re not. And I couldn’t understand why. “No, you’re a girl.” Whatever. Yeah, because I had an older brother, you know, and he and I had the same friends. And I was always competing with him because we’re only, like, 14 months apart. So I liked competing with him. And my mom would be like, okay, my friend across the street, you know, she’s real proper. She played the piano, and she did ballet. And my mom was like, “Why don’t you go, why don’t you take ballet lessons? Don’t you want to take dance or something?” And like, “Mom, I’m now wearing a tutu.” I remember telling her that, no, because I was tall and skinny and awkward, but in a way, I wasn’t because I did love to dance, but I didn’t want to do ballet. I wanted to do tap dance. For whatever reason, she would not. She was like, no. She was so against that. So she really kept trying to make a lady out of me. Okay, now you’re gonna take piano lessons. I want to play a guitar. “Girls don’t, young ladies do not play guitars.” “Why?” “No, I’m gonna enroll you in and you’re taking piano lessons.” I used to go to the lady’s house. Go to the lady’s house to play, so I wait my turn. Well, the lady had a son about my age. So I’d go outside and play with him. My poor mother, she’s so sweet. She has so much patience with me. By the time it was my turn to come and play the piano, I’m dirty. I’ve been climbing trees. She was like “ugh.” I guess she finally got the hint. I hated piano, too. She kept taking me until she figured out if you don’t like something, you’re not even, you’re not gonna try. So now I tried the guitar thing again. She was like, “No. Do you see any girls playing guitars?” See, I was ahead of my time. Nope. She wouldn’t let me do that either. I forgot what else. She came up and I heard her talking to my dad one day. So “I don’t know what I’m gonna do with that girl,” she said, I fight, I fight. Make me mad. I fight. I fight with my brother. Say, “I don’t know what I’m gonna do with her. She’s so rough. I’m trying to make a lady out of her.” I remember my father saying, “Leave her alone. She’ll be a lady one day. Just leave her alone. She got a brother, you know. She’s a little rough around the edges, but she’ll be all right.” So I was all right, you know.

Ava Carubia [00:23:46] Do you have a distinct memory from your childhood?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:23:52] How far back you talking?

Ava Carubia [00:23:54] Just something that when you think about your past, it really sticks out in your mind.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:24:03] Unfortunately, it was when my dad died. He died very young. My younger brother was two when he died. My mom was in her 30s, he was too.

Ava Carubia [00:24:27] Wow.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:24:29] And he got sick. It seemed like out of nowhere. He had Hodgkin’s disease, which is cancer of the blood. And so he was in and out of the VA hospital for I guess about a year. And everything really changed. Then my mom had to go to work and I was twelve. I had to pretty much take over the house, especially with a two-year-old brother.

Ava Carubia [00:25:16] How old were you?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:25:18] I’ll be 80 next month.

Ava Carubia [00:25:20] Well, how old were you when.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:25:22] Oh, when that, when all that started? 12.

Ava Carubia [00:25:25] Okay.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:25:26] About 12. Yeah. And that’s when my whole world changed. Everything changed financially. And my mom was struggling. We didn’t realize it, but we knew it was a difference. You know. And she, bless her heart, she would. Now, 142nd is a long ways from that hospital. It was the only VA hospital at the time, and it was way on the west side. She would take the bus and go to work. She’d get off from work, get on that bus almost every day and go out to that hospital and see him. By the time she’d get home, it would be dark, you know, so she started teaching me how to, you know, cook and [unclear] some stuff, and then, of course, take care of my little brother. That was the worst day of my life when he died. He was such a good father. Sorry.

Ava Carubia [00:27:06] That’s okay. That actually happens all the time in these interviews.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:27:10] Okay.

Ava Carubia [00:27:12] You’re definitely not the first person. And if you get emotional again, you can let me know. We can always stop the recording. But what, so you said that John Adams was a pretty good experience for you. Can you talk more about

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:27:30] The high school?

Ava Carubia [00:27:31] Yeah. After, after you were 12, how did your life change and how did you change as a person after that?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:27:37] After that, it was like I didn’t care, you know, it was like. Well, it was depression. I just. I was the bubbly. You know, before then, you know, I was always bubbly. Everybody liked me. I was always making people laugh. And it changed. Yeah. By the time he died, I was 14, going on 14. My brother. I was 13. He was in the hospital about a year or so. So I was around 13. Yeah. My brother was 14 going on 15. And then, like I said, my little brother was 2. And, yeah, I just. I just did what I had to do, you know? Just did what I had to do. Worried about my little brother. I always felt so bad for him because he never knew dad. And I remember my mother saying to my uncle that before my dad, I didn’t know he was even dying, you know, still, you know, they didn’t tell you everything, but I heard her telling my uncle, her brother, that. That he was. He was dying. And he was saying that God gave her my little brother to replace him. That’s when it really hit me, you know, because I just kept hoping he’d get better, even though he wasn’t. But, you know, I was in denial. Yeah, things changed. Money got tight. Because even though mom was working, she wasn’t making anywhere near what he was. I guess my brother was the same because he started changing, too. He didn’t really, you know, he didn’t really get in trouble-trouble. But he just, he changed too. And I. Which looking back on it, years later, I gave up to the point where I got pregnant at 16. And it was one of my brother’s friends. He was older, and he reminded me of my father. And I got to the point where I hated school. I mean, I didn’t get pregnant on purpose, but I didn’t care. I was glad to leave school, you know, And I always liked school, got decent grades, but I just still couldn’t get it together. And, you know, he was gone. Yeah.

Ava Carubia [00:31:59] So what happened after you got pregnant?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:32:03] We got married, you know, back then, you got married. He went to the military. And my brother did, too. They all went to the military.

Ava Carubia [00:32:19] And what year was that around?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:32:22] That was in 1961. So they went. And my brother, his. His girlfriend was pregnant too. And so they went to the military so that, you know, we would get a check. I say all my children. I have four. I have four children. All of them. I stayed married to him. There were times when I left him, but I always went back. Then I got tired of going back. It was getting to the point where he just thought I was just gonna keep taking his mess. And he felt that because I had four kids, I would never leave. But I did. Yep. Me, my kids, and God. And I made it, too.

Ava Carubia [00:33:38] Where did you raise your kids? Was it all in the same area or did you move around more?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:33:45] Well, we wind up, when he messed up again. He lost. Okay. He lost our house. We had a house on Edgewood right there off of Harvard. Edgewood? Yeah, we had a house right there on the corner of Edgewood. Now, he had good jobs, but he was the type that could not manage money.

Ava Carubia [00:34:15] And how long was he in the military before he had-

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:34:19] He was in the military, Was it three years?

Ava Carubia [00:34:23] Okay.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:34:25] And then he was going to re-enlist. We were in Fort Riley, Kansas. He came back from Germany, and his last year was in Fort Riley, Kansas. So myself and my oldest son, but my only son was about two and yeah, two, four, three. We went to Fort Riley, the post. And then we came back. Okay. At first we stayed with his parents until he got a job. Then we stayed on 147th. We were renting, then we were renting, then finally bought the house on Edgewood. And how long we was here, I really don’t remember. Yeah, I had my daughter by then. My daughter’s the youngest. But he eventually, he was always. He would go buy a car instead of having the car. He was a car fanatic. Instead of having a car fixed, he’d go buy another one. But you haven’t finished paying for this one. Oh, he was horrible. And he wouldn’t let me manage the money. Ego. I’m the man. Yeah, back then, you know, the man took care of everything. But you’re not taking care of everything. I sure learned a lesson being married to him. I can manage money. But then I, I, I always could. He just wouldn’t let me. So it was still that area. When we lost the house, we moved to Cleveland Heights. Then he wasn’t half paying the rent over there because I found out he was going with some girl on his job. That’s where the money was going. Found that out later. So we wound up having to leave there. Came back to 131st and Miles. I mean, in 131st, not. Well, close to Miles. And he was back and forth and back and forth. And that’s when I was. Like I said, I was done. I filed for divorce.

Ava Carubia [00:37:22] And what year was that?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:37:25] Wow. I think it was late 60s, early 70s maybe. How old is my daughter? Oh, you don’t know that. I can’t remember. It had to be late 60s or early 70s. And we had a fire. And that’s, okay. I had divorced him. He had remarried, moved out of town. No child support. That was to keep him paying because back then that’s what deadbeat dads did. All they had to do is move out of town. You couldn’t find them, you know, there weren’t computers or anything like that. So that was their way out. So, yeah, we had the fire. Then I wound up having to move back in my mom’s house. Well, she was a widow. She never remarried. I moved back over there with her. And then eventually I got a job at the steel mill. He worked at the steel mill, too, but by then he was gone. So I first was working in the office. But things, you know, with four kids, I had to get something that paid more. So that’s how I wound up going to the steel mill. My brother worked there. My best friend’s husband worked there. So you knew somebody was easy to get in. So that’s what I did.

Ava Carubia [00:39:35] And at that time, what would you say the neighborhood was like?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:39:41] At that time, that as when I moved back?

Ava Carubia [00:39:44] Yeah

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:39:45] Oh, it was practically all Black then, but it was still okay. Now, it’s, I mean, but after a while, it got not real bad, but it was getting there, you know, you could feel it coming. So. But still there again. It wasn’t real bad. Nowhere near the way stuff is now, but you could still walk up and down the street. No. You know, nobody would bother you. It was still no big problem for me. But my boys got wild, you know, because they knew they didn’t have to worry about their dad. You know, he went on to have other children when he. And when he’d break up with the women he, you know, he divorced. They divorced him. He divorced the kids too. He told me that. I never thought he would. He would say that because he was my one and only boyfriend. Grew up in the same neighborhood. You’re a friend of my brothers. Never thought he would be like that. Never. And so my boys, Like I said, I had three boys. They started getting wild. Now I’m especially. Because, okay. At first when we moved there, my mom was there so I could work the swing because you had to work swing shifts now. So my mom was there, so there was some control, you know, as to when they came in. And, you know, now they’re getting to be teenagers, you know. Then my mom passed. Was at the steel mill.

Ava Carubia [00:42:04] When was that?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:42:05] I wasn’t there a year. That was in ’79. Mm. I got. Yep. Cause I. I got hired in February ’79. And she passed in November of ’79. Her cancer came back. She never complained. Never would have known it. I never heard my mother even say she had a headache. And she was still working, cleaning people’s houses. I happened to notice she was. Because she was a little chunky. Short and a little chunky. My dad was 6’4“. That’s what I’m tall, so tall. And she was. I was noticing her losing weight. She wouldn’t go to the doctor. Back then, you know, they hated going to a doctor. And I kept trying to ignore it, ”Mom, you feel okay?“ ”Oh yes, I’m fine.“ ”Last time you had checkout?“ ”I’m gonna go. I’m gonna go. I’m gonna go. Don’t worry about it. I ain’t got time to go now.“ Now I’m seeing. You know, months is going by. I’m like. I told my brother, I said, ”Something’s not right. Mom is not looking right. She’s losing weight." My brother worked at the steel mill too, so we’ll see. We both working swing shifts and holidays and. But he. I knew he could get her to go. So he came over and he says, mom, make an appointment sometime this week because you’re going to the doctor. And she did, but it was too late. Cancer had come back because she had breast cancer. Like, she had her breasts removed. It’s been about 12 years. It was just unbelievable how she just would not stop. She’d have kept on and kept on until she just passed out, you know, if you had to pay her any attention. Yeah. But it was. It had came back and it spread. It was too bad. Too far gone. Yeah. And she was 50. I think she was like, 53, 54. She wasn’t that old, you know. My brother and I. I didn’t know he felt the same way. My brother turned 81 in October, and if the Lord bless me, I’ll be 80 next month. And we were like, really? I never, ever, ever thought I would live this long because my parents died and cancer runs in my family something awful. My son passed from cancer in 2017 at 52. My daughter at 22 had thyroid cancer. But praise God, at least with her, they caught it. She felt it and felt like something was wrong, so. So I still got my daughter, but, yeah, I lost my son.

Ava Carubia [00:46:46] These are hard. These are hard interviews. It brings up a lot. Yeah.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:46:55] Yep.

Ava Carubia [00:47:01] So after your mom died, did you stay working at the steel mill?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:47:07] Oh, yeah, I had to.

Ava Carubia [00:47:09] How long did you work there for?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:47:11] I worked there till they shut down. I had been there 23 years by the time they shut down.

Ava Carubia [00:47:17] Wow. What year did they shut down?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:47:19] That was in. Oh, my goodness. Wow. This is what happens when you get old. Oh, what’s that? ’70, ’80. What was that? No, had to be ’90. [unclear] still? Yeah, ’90 and ’95. I think it was like ’98, ’97. ’98. Yeah. Because my brother had already retired. My brother worked there for 38 years. He came right out the military, and that was his only job. And that was ’97, ’98, something like that. I knew it wasn’t. It wasn’t 2000. Close to 2000. Yeah. Late 90s.

Ava Carubia [00:48:52] And what was the area like at that point?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:49:00] Well, of course, a lot of the stories were gone. And that movie theater was a church on 131st, then the YMCA. When I lived on 131st, the YMCA was old movie theater. I guess it’s still there. Is it still there, or you go down that far?

Ava Carubia [00:49:31] The YMCA? It’s closed down now.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:49:34] Is it? Oh, wow.

Ava Carubia [00:49:38] Yeah.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:49:40] That’s a shame. But that was. That helped me out when I lived on 131st because I lived right practically next to it. The first house.

Ava Carubia [00:49:51] Yeah. They’re trying to do something with the building, but it’s just been laying empty.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:49:56] I haven’t been that way in a long time. That library, is it still there?

Ava Carubia [00:50:03] That’s still there.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:50:04] I went there as a kid. And next door was ice cream. They made ice cream, but they also had ice cream in the back. It was like a factory. And then the front was like a. You know, the fountain, and you go up and you sit at the soda fountain like you see in the movies. Yeah.

Ava Carubia [00:50:26] What was that called? Do you remember?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:50:29] Oh, no,

Ava Carubia [00:50:34] That’s okay.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:50:39] I know one of the theaters was called the Avalon. I think that’s the one. That’s the church now.

Ava Carubia [00:50:47] Okay.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:50:49] I remember. Like I said, it was like two theaters on the 131st, two on Kinsman. Yeah. Yep. That was. I’m not sure that was the Avalon. Well, it might have been the one. That YMCA. One of them, too. The hardware store, that was the. I don’t know if that hardware store is still there. That was there when I was a kid. Right there on the 131st and Harvard, that corner. Is that a hardware still there?

Ava Carubia [00:51:35] I don’t even know. I can’t picture it in my mind. It might be. I know there’s still a hardware store, I think on 131st.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:51:45] There were two that was there a long time. The other one was across the street from where the Y is. Was right across the street. That one was there for a long time. I went to that one, on Harvard, maybe about five years ago. I went there to get some. And I just marveled at the fact that that’s that same hardware store when I was a kid. And then my son or somebody told me there was a meat store where you went and got your meat. And it stayed closed for years and years and a few years ago, but it stayed the same. You can look in there and see it stayed the same. And a few years ago, my son said they opened it back up. I was like, you got to be kidding. They just, it sat there all those years. I said I was gonna go over there to see it. I don’t go that way. I have no reason to anymore, you know? Did, I did come. Yeah, I think I came down. Like, if I’m going on my son’s house, he lives over there off of. What is that? Buckeye? He lives down there. So I’ll go. I go down 131st. I mean, not, Miles, when I go to his house. But I don’t like going down there. He got a nice house, but I don’t like that neighborhood. He likes it.

Ava Carubia [00:54:16] You were talking about the area getting bad. What did you mean by that?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:54:23] Like, that area?

Ava Carubia [00:54:27] Like, yeah, like the, Like, 131st area we were just talking about.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:54:30] Well, they started, like, back then was stealing cars mostly. You started hearing about gangs. My son was in one of them. I found out way later. Breaking in houses, things like that. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Ava Carubia [00:55:03] And then when did you leave the area?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:55:07] I left when I remarried in ’65. Why do I keep. Was that ’65? I’m terrible with dates. I am. My married husband number two. Said I wasn’t gonna ever marry again, but all the kids were grown and, shoot, my daughter got married before I did. And they were like, oh, mom, go ahead and get married. You know, we don’t want you to be by yourself. Oh, I married him and moved to Bedford Heights. That’s. I’m so stuck in the 60s. No way was that the 60s. That was like the 90s. Yep.

Ava Carubia [00:56:18] Well, I have just a couple more questions, but one of them is how do you think the places you lived shaped you in Cleveland?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:56:28] How they did what in?

Ava Carubia [00:56:30] How did the places that you lived in Cleveland, how did they shape you? How did they affect you as a person?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:56:41] Wow. I loved 142nd. Growing up there as a kid, my kids. When we had to move back with my mom after the fire, my kids loved 142nd. Mikel lived on 146th. That’s how my. Her and my daughter went to school together and became friends. It’s still even, you know, going back there. My fondest memories are still on 142nd. Yeah. Yeah. It was such a. I don’t know, it just seemed like such a beautiful street. And I love the trees and everybody was nice and everybody looked out after each other. And you didn’t lock your door. My brother and I used to sleep on the porch. There was no air conditioners back then. And mom had a glider on the porch. We had a big porch. I know you don’t know what a glider is. It’s like a swinging couch.

Ava Carubia [00:58:08] Yes, I do!

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:58:09] You do? Okay. Yeah. Had the pillow. It was like a swinging couch, the pillows and everything. My brother and I would sleep out there in the summer when it got hot, where if I kicked him off the glider or if he kicked me off the glider, then one of us would go in the house and get a blanket and a pillow and just lay on the porch, yep. Then we used to go to the dances in Hamilton. I went to Hamilton and that’s when I was telling. Telling her, Mikel, that I knew Ms. Taylor. I remember Ms. Taylor, Murtis Taylor.

Ava Carubia [00:59:05] Yeah.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:59:06] I remember her as a kid.

Ava Carubia [00:59:11] What was she like?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [00:59:14] She seemed very nice because what she. The only time we saw her was like at Hamilton on Fridays they would have after school dance, but it was like, I think it started maybe around six, from like six to eight or something like that. So every day, every Friday, a lot of the schools had. They would, you go up there to the dance. And Ms. Taylor was in charge of it. In the gym, you know, being, she’d have her little table right there at the door because you had to be at least 13, so the 12 year olds or whatever, they couldn’t sneak in. So at the, at the first of the year you had to get your little card saying you rolled up, you know, that you had to show so you can get into that. And she said then she checked your card and you know, and she, she just always seemed very pleasant with everybody. You know, if they had a question, she’d answer them. Always thought she was so pretty too. Oh, and her sons. Oh, she lived on 146th. And the reason I knew that is because when I went to elementary school, her sister and her and their family, they lived about three houses down the street from her. And I was friends with Beverly and they was. And Ms. Taylor lived here. Beverly lived down there. So I would see her sons when I go visit Beverly. They were much older, but oh, were they handsome. Everybody had a little crush on them. I think she had two sons. I remember one of them name was Howard. Yeah, I think, I think the Howard. Yeah, yeah, Howard Taylor. They were. But she was very nice, classy, very nice lady. Everybody liked her. Everybody did. So as years went on, I guess she got more and more into it. The reason they named it after her. So I didn’t know, you know, being a young teenager. I didn’t know what all she did. All I know, I saw her on Friday. Yeah, everybody, like I said, everybody liked her. And so, I was really shocked when I found out they had named that center after her or whatever it is up there. But they built all that way later, you know, I had been gone because we only had the school. Then they added the swimming pool and all that. And then that when we went. Yeah, very nice lady.

Ava Carubia [01:02:53] Well, I really have one more question for you and then there’s still time for you to add anything else I didn’t cover. But what message would you like to leave for future generations?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [01:03:04] Oh, wow. Oh, wow. First of all, they need to know Jesus Christ. And they scare me because everybody’s, you know, it’s like they’re turning into robots. They don’t know how to communicate or it’s hard to get a decent conversation going because they’re always. Oh, my grandkids. That drive me nuts. But I. But I’ve noticed that like, even with the young people in this building, everybody just walks, you know, if they’re not looking on the phone and you try to have just the smallest conversation and they may or may not respond or what they do, it’s real quick, I don’t have time. You’ll find, wow, there’s so much to learn and see and love that is not on the internet. Life is not on that internet. A lot’s there, a lot to learn. But real life, real love, loving people or really loving, doing the simple things is nothing like it. Nothing like it. You never find it on that. On that tablet or that computer or that Apple phone. Put it down. Look around. Talk to people, you know, Only take a minute, you know, just talk. You can’t feel a robot. I do. I feel sorry. I know you know what I’m talking about. Guilty. Maybe a little bit? I know, I know. But see, that’s why the Bible says in the last days, the children be weaker but wise. For years I couldn’t understand what that meant. The children be weaker? Then it dawned on me one day. They’re weak, vulnerable, easy to quit, easy to give up. So that’s the weak part. The wise part is they find out anything they want. In the Internet. But they can’t take much stress, can’t deal with it. I tell my grandkids that they get so upset over little stuff. Gotta learn how to accept no. It’s okay. You don’t have to have your way all the time. And we. I’m guilty. I do it to my grandkids too. I fuss at them, but I. You know, boy, if we broke down that easy would none of y’all be here. That’s true. We had to go through a lot. And it didn’t matter if you had money or not. People with money went through a lot. People didn’t have money went through a lot. But you figured it out, you know, you didn’t ask anybody for anything else or any help unless you had to, you know, the common sense would tell you, okay, now you gotta do this or do that. But most of the time you figured it out yourself, you know? So I do. I just really. It’s sad. It really is. All of you guys ain’t like that, but most are. No matter what situation. When you go in the store, for instance, a lot of times the person is just there, but not there. The cashier. It’s like. But, you know, you [unclear] a few that are really nice, but I just see it so much, it breaks my heart. It does. Don’t. You don’t know what you’re missing. You know? I don’t know what you’re missing. Yeah. I hate it. I hate seeing it.

Ava Carubia [01:08:57] Well, those are all the questions that I had ready, but is there anything else that you’d like to add? That I didn’t, that I didn’t ask about?

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [01:09:11] Oh, now that I’ve gotten off the soapbox about the kids, including my grandkids. As I said, I got lots of those. I don’t think so, but I got grandkids I’m proud of, too. I don’t on ’em too hard. Grandma’s still a pushover. My bark is not working too well. You know, I just. I wish you all well. But I’m telling you, this world is really getting ugly. Really getting ugly. Try to make it better if you can. Can’t do everything. I know. But you seem like a sweet person, so I’m not gonna fuss to you. Okay.

Ava Carubia [01:10:31] Well, I’m gonna go ahead and end the recording now. If there’s nothing else.

Yolanda Steward-Barnes [01:10:36] I don’t think so.

Ava Carubia [01:10:38] Okay.