Abstract
Mary Smith discusses moving to Cleveland from Alabama in 1972. She talks about her love for the Mount Pleasant neighborhood and the changes that the area has experienced since the early 2000s. She mostly describes her involvement with the Thea Bowman Center as a volunteer in the marketplace and describes how fulfilling her work is.
Interviewee
Smith, Mary (interviewee)
Interviewer
Carubia, Ava (interviewer)
Project
Union-Miles
Date
1-15-2025
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
15 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Mary Smith interview, 15 January 2025" (2025). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 483010.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1358
Transcript
Ava Carubia [00:00:00] Okay, so we’re starting the interview, and I have a little script I’m gonna read before we get started, just for the record. So today is January 15th, 2025. My name is Ava Carubia, and I’m here at the Thea Bowman center interviewing Ms. Mary Smith for the Cleveland Regional Oral History Project. Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed today. Can you please state your name, your birth date, and where you were born for the record?
Mary Smith [00:00:25] My name is Mary Smith. My birthday, […] 1954. And I was born in Orrville, Alabama.
Ava Carubia [00:00:34] All right, thank you. So can you talk about how you got from Alabama to Cleveland?
Mary Smith [00:00:41] Well, I left Selma, Alabama, when I was 17 years old and came to Cleveland in 1972, and I’ve been here ever since. And so far, I have been acting in Cleveland. And I enjoy being in Cleveland because Cleveland is the best place to live in.
Ava Carubia [00:01:03] What parts of Cleveland have you lived in?
Mary Smith [00:01:06] I have lived in Cuyahoga County for over 46 years.
Ava Carubia [00:01:16] And have you lived in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood or?
Mary Smith [00:01:19] I’ve been in the Mount Pleasant area for 46 years.
Ava Carubia [00:01:22] Okay.
Mary Smith [00:01:23] That’s how long I’ve been in it, and that’s how long I intend to be in it. Plan on going nowhere. I love this community.
Ava Carubia [00:01:32] Can you talk more about what you love so much about this community?
Mary Smith [00:01:37] Well, this is the only community I know. I don’t know any place else because I’ve been here for so long, and I just love the area. And so far, where I live at is peaceful, but it has the ups and downs. So the community can get high and low at times. But so far where I live at, I have had no incident with anything happening around my area in the Kinsman community.
Ava Carubia [00:02:08] Can you talk about one of your favorite memories about the community in Mount Pleasant and Kinsman?
Mary Smith [00:02:16] Well, that was in 1976 and ’77 when everything was up. But now we have a lot of vacant buildings. And that’s what I miss most about the place. Because right now, the community have went down. And whether it get built up or not, I have no idea. But just the same, I’ve been in the area for 46 years, and I don’t plan on going anyplace no time soon.
Ava Carubia [00:02:54] What were the businesses that used to be open before they went vacant around here?
Mary Smith [00:02:58] We used to have grocery stores, we used to have corner stores. We used to have dry cleaners. We used to have nightclubs and dry cleaning, and that’s about it.
Ava Carubia [00:03:14] And when do you think the area started to change a little bit?
Mary Smith [00:03:17] The area Started to change in 19, probably 19. Before 2000, probably 2001 is when the place started going down.
Ava Carubia [00:03:34] And what do you mean by going down?
Mary Smith [00:03:36] That means buildings been torn down, houses been torn down, and nobody ever moved in a vacant area. So it’s a lot of vacant lots around in my community. But we do have a corner store in that area. So there’s a lot of changes have been made to that area I live in. Cause, you know, that happened with age, you know, nothing stays the same, you know, so that’s what happened. It’s just that I’m still living there, plan on going nowhere.
Ava Carubia [00:04:23] Can you talk about how you’ve been involved in your community since you first started living here?
Mary Smith [00:04:30] Well, coming to Thea Bowman Place is the only place I ever been involved in, in the community. And I was asked if I would volunteer in the marketplace, and I said yes. First I said no, but then I changed my mind and said yes. And since I started working in the marketplace, it’s about four or five of us that worked in the marketplace. It’s Tony, it’s Kitty, it’s Bob, it’s Chris. Joan, I think that’s her name. She just started helping out. And myself. And I just enjoy what I do. I really do. You know, I have no ups and downs about it. And, you know, like I say, people come from all communities and they come to the Bowman building to find stuff that they need in the marketplace. And they enjoy shopping in the marketplace. And I enjoy helping them shop in the marketplace. Otherwise, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be working in there voluntarily. So I enjoy voluntarily doing what I do the most. That’s what I do best, is working in this marketplace. And I have a group of people that also work in there, too, that I enjoy. And they is very seriously in what they do in that marketplace. And they brings a lot of the stuff that comes into the marketplace. They brings it in. And what they bring in, you know, you can see the excitement and joy in people coming there because they get there. If we open up, they be there before we do. So that’s just how much they care about coming to the place. They be lined up ready to come in. So they enjoy coming too.
Ava Carubia [00:06:34] Can you talk more about the way that y’all do things like, what’s your job specifically when you work at the market?
Mary Smith [00:06:40] My job is to. Is to come and put the stuff out as the stuff come in. I’m the one that takes out the bags, the boxes or whatever come in and sits the stuff out for the people. So when they come, all they do is just shout and see what they want. I’ll be the first one to see what’s come coming in. Me, Tony, Kitty, Bob, they the one that bring most of the stuff that you will see that’s in the marketplace. And then you have a lot of more people that come to bring volunteer stuff in, too. So I just, like I say stuff came in today, I’m the one that got to put the stuff out for the people to be able to shop on Saturday to take.
Mary Smith [00:07:39] That’s what I do.
Ava Carubia [00:07:41] And what areas do people come from? You said multiple, but which ones?
Mary Smith [00:07:47] I don’t know what area they come from because I don’t ask them where they live or anything like that. But all I know is they come from different places, you know, different area. It could be from Kinsman, Union, Miles, Harvard, any place like that. And people come way out. You know, I would see people that I wouldn’t even expect to be over here, but they are here on Saturdays. So like I said, they look forward to coming in and take whatever they can for nothing. It’s free. You know, the marketplace is a free donation for you to come and see what it is that you need for your home, your clothing, your shoes, your household goods and all that is for people to come and shop and see what it is that they want. And like I said It’s intertime now, they mostly want covers like blankets, coats, hats, gloves, shoes, boots and shoes. And they mostly find it. They mostly find it. So you have no unhappy people that come in the marketplace. You really don’t.
Ava Carubia [00:09:12] And when was the first year you started volunteering?
Mary Smith [00:09:16] Three years ago, I believe. Three years? Yeah. What is this, 20? ’25? ’25, ’24, ’23. I say about ’22.
Ava Carubia [00:09:28] Okay.
Mary Smith [00:09:29] Yeah. Because I got talked into coming. I knew what the market, you know, we just gave it a name last year, the Marketplace. I knew what it was because I used to be a shopper myself, you know, come in on Saturday and shop. So I knew about it, but then I got more involved into what I was doing and that’s. I’ve been volunteering ever since.
Ava Carubia [00:09:58] And what do you love the most about volunteering here?
Mary Smith [00:10:03] It’s all about what I love doing, you know, it’s like sharing and seeing what the people come to take and what I’m able to help, you know, regardless of how they leave it, you know, just like I would have to fold it or whatever. And when they leave, you know, they leave it. It don’t be as folded. But I never complain about it cause that’s defeating my purpose of helping and giving. So I give open hearted and having to refold it for this Saturday to come. So I don’t complain about the volunteer work because if I did it would defeat my purpose of helping, you know. Like I said, I love seeing people come and take what they need. I really do.
Ava Carubia [00:11:07] Well, I want to go back to something you said earlier because I asked you why you like this community so much, but you said Cleveland is the best city. Can you talk more about that?
Mary Smith [00:11:17] Well, it’s the best city because this is the only city I ever known. You know, I’ve never been any place else. You know, whether I went to visit. Like I have a sister in California, I never went to visit there. And then I had a sister in Milwaukee and then she moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta. I never visited Atlanta. So Cleveland is the only home I know. If I was to ever move, I would go back to Alabama somewhere. But I don’t even see me going back there now at my age. And I’m 70 years old right now. So I can’t see myself going back to Alabama. So I think I’m stuck here in Cleveland. If I hadn’t moved when I was younger, I sure can’t move now.
Ava Carubia [00:12:07] Why did you move here in the first place?
Mary Smith [00:12:10] I moved here because my mother wanted us to come and get a better life, in which I did. So I’m very proud of where I’m at now. Yeah. And like I said, I left when I was 17, 1972 and I’ve been here ever since because I came to visit. When I left Selma, I came and lived with my auntie in Cleveland.
Ava Carubia [00:12:43] Well, I have a couple of more questions, but we’re ending, we’re starting to end the interview. And one is, what is one of your happiest memories volunteering here?
Mary Smith [00:12:58] One of my happy memories is that the people that works here, they get along with just about anybody and they have a, they have a kindness about themselves and they really care about the people that comes here. So that’s what most important to me about being at the Thea Bowman. They really do care about the people and they try to help them with whatever they need when they come here on Saturday. Yeah.
Ava Carubia [00:13:32] And then my final question is this because this is an oral history interview. What message would you like to leave for future generations and that can relate to your work here or just any personal statement you want to leave?
Mary Smith [00:13:47] Well, I say if they gonna work here, volunteer here, make sure they do it from the heart and not just to do it because they may be getting a paycheck or they might be volunteering. Just do it from your heart and enjoy doing what you do. That’s the most important thing I can say to them. Enjoy doing what they do. That way your heart will feel better and your mind will also feel a lot better, too. Come in with open heart, knowing that you’re working with the community. And when you work with the community, you have to have a giving heart and be ready to know how to approach people. So that’s the most important thing I can give.
Ava Carubia [00:14:42] Well, thank you. Those are all the questions I have. But is there anything else you want to say that I didn’t ask you?
Mary Smith [00:14:48] No, no.
Ava Carubia [00:14:49] Okay.
Mary Smith [00:14:50] No.
Ava Carubia [00:14:51] Well, I’m going to end the recording now.
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