Abstract
In this 2025 interview, Carol Ford talks about growing up along Miles Avenue in the 1960s and 1970s. She discusses the racial composition of the neighborhood, the variety of businesses on Miles Avenue, and her experiences of spending time outdoors. Additionally, she talks about racial tensions between residents of Union-Miles and Slavic Village. At the end of the interview, she talks about the changes of the neighborhood and leaves a message for future generations.
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Interviewee
Ford, Carol (interviewee)
Interviewer
Carubia, Ava (interviewer)
Project
Union-Miles
Date
4-8-2025
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
60 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Carol Ford interview, 8 April 2025" (2025). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 483022.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1365
Transcript
Carol Ford [00:00:00] A lot, so
Ava Carubia [00:00:01] That’s okay. All right, so I have a script that I read at the beginning of the interviews, which is. Today is April 8, 2025. My name is Ava Carubia, and I’m here in the Union-Miles neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. Interviewing Ms. Carol Ford for the Cleveland Regional Oral History Project. Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed today.
Carol Ford [00:00:22] You’re welcome.
Ava Carubia [00:00:23] And can you please state your name and the year you were born for the record?
Carol Ford [00:00:27] Carol Ford. July 10th, 1960.
Ava Carubia [00:00:31] Okay, perfect. And then where were you born?
Carol Ford [00:00:34] Cleveland, Ohio.
Ava Carubia [00:00:36] Can you talk about where you grew up in the very early years of your life?
Carol Ford [00:00:41] Well, you know, I grew up on Hough ’till I was 8 years old. Then we moved to Miles Avenue to 123rd and Miles. From 123rd and Miles. Well, when I was 8 years old on 123rd and Miles, I went to Miles Avenue. I mean, Miles Avenue, Miles Elementary. And when we first came onto Miles Avenue, it was diversity. You know, Italians, Caucasian.
Ava Carubia [00:01:17] And what year was that?
Carol Ford [00:01:18] Polish people, really. 1969. And I mean, you could count how many Black people was living on Miles Avenue on your hand. You knew exactly who all moved on Miles. And, like, a few people was younger and, you know, mostly were older. So when I went to Miles Elementary, I don’t know why I want to keep saying Miles Avenue. I went to Miles Elementary. Like I said, when I moved on Miles and 123rd. Puerto Rican family. I met the Sanabria’s. We went to school together. And I wanted they mother and them to keep me, so they mother kept me. And then there was a corner store on 123rd next to that Jake Bar. I remember we could stop in there and get candy on our way. There was a couple of little stores that was there. That store was there. That bar used to be called 123 Bar. And it was a corner. It was right in that middle. Right on that little building was the little store. And I want to say he was kind of like Italian. And we would get candy out of there and, you know, chips and stuff and go on to school. And then my friend Beverly across the street, me and her really got close. So I start staying at her house. And so then we’d walk. And then sometime we’d walk up to 116 because that was her bakery store. And then Ms. B’s and Poochie’s store was across the street from Miles Elementary. Ms. B store. She was a little old white lady with white hair. Her store was the green building on the corner. 119. Then it was The Ice Cream palace right there on the corner of 119th right across from Miles also. So when I turned, when I graduated from Miles School, we moved on 113th and Miles. Matter of fact, I didn’t quite graduate. Then we moved. I had to be about 10 because we ain’t stayed long on, you know, about 10 or 11. We moved to 113. Then I graduated from Miles Elementary school. So from 113th and Miles, we moved to 164. I went to Charles W. Elliot because I was supposed to go to A.B Hart. But we moved before then up. So I had to go to Charles Elliot, Charles W. Elliott. But when I got ready to graduate almost that last year, we moved back down because I had me some more friends. And I asked my mommy, can we move back down Miles? So we had a house on Elmarge to rent. But we had to move on 97th and Miles across from Red Barns. Church’s Chicken hadn’t came yet on the corner of 93rd yet. So Red Barns was there. And I had lived next door to the Milton family. So we was all friends. They were a bunch of guys and stuff. I couldn’t go nowhere with nobody off out the neighborhoods unless it was somebody on Miles. Even if I had a boyfriend that stayed on Harvard, maybe, I could not. It better be somebody for Miles to go with. So we had little neighborhood, you know, discos they called them back then. And that was, The Camelot wasn’t quite there yet. It was another little thing, was there, I want to say the royal something. Then The Camelot came. We had the game room. We hung out was next to the catalog and all our drawings. Kimball drew all the drawings in there. He lived on 114. It’s still inside there with their motorcycles. The Mystic Knight motorcycles. I went in there to see it. Pops was the owner of that little game room. And we used to go in there and everything and play the game. My mother. I ain’t had no curfew because I was a good kid. I would call her every hour of the hour. Plus I. We could walk 2 o’clock in the morning and I’ll go get my mother some cigarettes from the gas station because that was the only thing open. Then you had Horace store on the corner of 114th and Miles. They had chili dogs, all kind of Polish boys. The little fountain, you know that you sit up at the little bar light with the little stools. You sit up on there and get you a little fountain drink and stuff. Then you had Mr. Searcy across the street, that building on 114th that’s closed. They got the apartment building. You had him. He had all the fruits on the next. On next door with the fruit stuff this, vegetables and all that. Yeah, him and. Yeah, well, she was a few. Maybe a couple of years older than me. Peanut, she worked it there. Both of them are dead. Mr. Searcy was murdered. Yeah. And he. When I think about him, I think about. We used to get mad at him, be talking about his eyes because they was. That’s probably why I’m cross eyed when I got older. But anyway, Mr. Searcy, he got married. Peanut died, you know, I don’t know. Some kind of health issue. But we had a good life growing up then. I Remember when on 108th, like, you know, you was told about the park. I remember when it was built. But that wooded area was called the Gully. That’s where we put furniture and stuff down there. And nobody. If you in the Gully, you can hang in the Gully, but you better live on Miles. And only people knew about. It was people that was my age that lived on Miles and older, was the Gully. And the Gully is where you hung out. You could drink, because we were drinking beer. That was the thing back then. And wine with Kool Aid, you know, pop. That was the thing back then. And you be in the Gully just drinking your little drink. And then. Let me see. When I like I said it was The Camelot to go to. And then Playhouse east. When Councilman Barnes, he gave us things to do too. We always had things to do. Councilman Barnes had the Playhouse. He’s. His office was upstairs. I was a secretary. He’d give us little jobs and stuff. And for the summer then talent shows. We always in the talent show. Beauton Bishop, the Bishop family, they stayed 108. Beauton Bishop taught us how to wear makeup and all that stuff. Do your eyebrows, the lip line around your lips and all that. Put it on just right. And I mean, that Bishop family could wear some makeup. Not a lot, just, you know, the lip liner, the eyeliner, mascara and stuff like that. Taught us how to walk like ladies and stuff like that.So then we had the [unclear] house that was over there at Standard Motor, right on 136. It was upstairs. And I mean, you could hear the wood when you stomping. When we had fun growing up on Miles, we had a lot of places. And then, you know, later on in life came The Spectrum. But, you know, her bakery was right there on 116th on the corner. They had the best donuts. Lord have mercy. I don’t know why that store closed. But then it was the Ice Cream Palace right there on 119. I used to work there when I turned 18 or 19. Mr. Lewis gave me a job there and. But before then right there on Miles behind 119 was a boy’s home where, boy. You know where boys in detention would live. That was right there on 119. Right behind Ice Cream Palace. Not on 119 but on miles Avenue. As you going down Miles. But I told you Ms. B’s was on 119. Poochie’s. Then the gas station then we used to At 19 we used to go to this bar next to the gas station called Where the Ends Meet. Is that apartment building that’s empty. It was right there. Then the laundromat. They tell you about the laundromat on 116th? It was right there with the little old fashioned cigarette machine. And you could go in there, wash your clothes. That’s where everybody went to the laundromat at. And oh my God, it was just so much trying to see if I missed it then you already know. It was the YMCA if you went down Miles which is called Earl B. Turner now but the YMCA everybody went there. Lord have mercy. Play basketball, whatever. And I went to South High and John Adams. So I went to a lot of schools. Moving up and down Miles. I’m trying to think of what else did I miss. Oh the ice pond next to the garden on Miles, there was before they built them new houses there was the ice pond. That was the ice pond. When the ice was there we would go skating on the ice pond because we hated when they built them new houses. I’m like, they done took away the ice pond! And then I can’t think of the grocery store. It was either Pick-N-Pay or A&P right there on 131st and Miles. Then Woolworths. Woolworths was right there in that little square block where same, Savemores and all that. Next to Savemores was Catherine’s dress place and then a thrift store. And as you come around was Woolworths right there on Miles between 131st and 136. And we were going in shop Barbie dolls and all that was in there. Let me see what else. And then Ms. Lucy’s was on 100th and Miles. Well if she was living now and knew I was only 18 going to her bar. It was called the Midway. Right over the railroad tracks going across 104th and Miles. And it was a lot of stores and stuff then. You know, the Arcellanian brothers was on the corner of 100 street. That’s the people that do your rugs and all that. They was there for years, so many years before they closed down and moved up Miles all the way up. My mother worked at Value City for many years till I was about Lord 20, maybe 19 or 20, because it turned Revco inside of Value City. And she went to work for Revco. And then she went to work on Lee Road in Harvard. But we stayed there and then we moved back to 123rd and Miles. A lot of things was closing down.
Ava Carubia [00:15:09] What year was that?
Carol Ford [00:15:10] 123rd. I was 21. I got the picture in there. Let me tell you. I could be exact when I be subtracting, because my birthday, 1982. 1982, we moved back to 123rd and Miles. Then we didn’t stay long because for the simple fact that house had rats. Rats as big as my head. My mother thought I was smoking marijuana or something. I said, mom, something ran across my feet while I was in the bathroom. She said, Carol, is you smoking that marijuana stuff? I said, no, mom telling you, something ran across my feet. So later on, she looked in the kitchen, the bread was chewed out. And she said, we got to move. I said, I told you. Then she seen it. The rat was big as our head. She said, we definitely out of here. So we moved to 164th and Miles, back up that way. A lot of stuff had started closing down. You know, Mr. Searcy got murdered. Horace Store stayed open a little while. And after a while, you know, I worked at a nursing home called Harborside. And I worked for an agency. I took care of Mr. Horacetail. He died. I took care of his sister there. All them worked in the store. I took care of his sister in the nursing home till she died. And I remember she told me they had all our pictures. I like to have that whole thing of pictures. And she says she has still had it when we was teenagers and stuff and graduating from elementary. We will always give and they’ll put them on the wall on the board. And she had died. And then the store closed and became a hair store later on. But then, like the game room being closed, the Mr. Nice bought all that out, you know. And every drawing that Kimball ever made is still in there. You know, people shooting pool and all that. He had drew on the wall. He was a good artist. And let me see, then the game room it just closed down. Pops, he probably died. He was. So we had chips in there and everything he sold there, too. So we was never out of little snacks and stuff. And like I said, The Camelot was open on Sundays for us to go to the club. That’s where everybody came from, every neighborhood to The Camelot. But Miles was mostly there. And we dress up and everything. Then they had the Easter time. We dress up for Easter. And I wish I had them pictures and stuff out. You just laugh because it had everybody from every, you know, Miles that grew up on Miles and the clothes we wore and everything. But anyway, let me see what else there. Miles Elementary had the sunken garden, which is not there no more. That was the part of the history of Miles. I don’t even know why they let that go. Miles Elementary had the sunken garden where everybody. That was the guys would play football at. Right in the sunken garden. It seemed like a big hill when I was little. And as I got older, it wasn’t that big like I thought. But then, like I said, the New Rod, the Playhouse East and the Spectrum came later in the years. I was probably 19, 20 or 21 when that came. And Church’s Chicken and Red Barn. That’s all I could think of while I was talking. I missed that too, because Miles had a lot of history. And like I said, those houses on Miles, majority of them are tore down. Those were half mansions. And if you see them houses on Elmarge, them two houses, and there’s one big house right there on the corner. I want to say 110th, not 110th, 112th. Those was half-mansions. And 111th. They on the same side as Earle B.Turner. Those was half-mansions. If you. I went in there. I know, and it’s unbelievable. They done made them like in the two families and stuff like that. But that’s basically it.
Ava Carubia [00:21:07] Well, I have a question. You said that you, like before you were 8, you were in Hough, right? Why’d your family move over to Miles?
Carol Ford [00:21:17] My mother got that job at Value City. And it was closer for her to get to work. She was on the bus. She never drove. So my mother was the type you stay on the bus line. She always told this is the first place I lived that I never was on the bus line. She always made sure we knew wherever you live, you stay on the bus line. I stay in Ward Two, because my mother told me, never leave this ward. She said this in the 60s, she said, they gonna redevelop downtown, she said, and never, never sell your house, when you live, if you ever get a house, never sell it, she said, because the rich gonna try to come back down because of the taxes. How she knew all this back then, I don’t know, but she wasn’t lying. They done redeveloped downtown. And look, the wards have been redeveloped. We Ward Two. I don’t think we ever was Ward Two back then. I think back then we was Ward One. So she moved over here because she, she was close to the bus line Value City. Can you imagine? Hough is all the way across town to have to catch the bus all the way over here. It’ll be dark time by the time she get back to Hough. So. And when she got here and she got off about, I’ll say, four or five in the evening was still daylight. So I’ll be at home. And then I had a big German shepherd dog. He’ll be on the porch. And that German shepherd dog could jump off the porch. I get out in fights, honey. My German shepherd was jumping off that porch and was helping me. Didn’t nobody bother me. I go on and open the door to my house and go on there until my mommy got home. And I really didn’t have no curfew because most of the families I hung with has seven and eight kids. So my mother knew I was safe because we all hung together like Beverly, like the Youngs. When I was 14, going on 15, moved, lived on Elmarge. They had seven in their family. And they family considered me as their family. I called them my bonus family. The Young family and the Wyatts, they stayed 113. There was five of them. And we call each other sisters and brothers even though they was kin to the Youngs. You know, they was like my family too, because my mother, I didn’t have a big family on my mother’s side and my father’s side. I was basically older than all of them until I met my siblings and they were older than me. But during that time, it was just me and my niece that’s a year older than me. And then they moved all the way in Warrensville. So again, I was just by myself. So the Youngs, now I start hanging with them and we started running up and down Miles and we met every family that lived on Miles. Basically, I knew everybody that lived on Miles. I was hanging at their house. So they come and sit on my porch and hang in my house. And that’s how it was. We didn’t have to go off in other areas. We had a lot of families that we could play with, hang on they porch. Wasn’t nobody bothering you. You could walk up and down the street. Then I got a job at Gaylord’s. I was 19 years old. That was like a little bit up from 136 and Miles. It was on the right side. It became a strip bar after a while. But when it closed down. But I worked there. It was a discount store, Big old store. It used to be Giant Tigers. Then it became Gaylord’s. I worked there till it closed down and I was 21 years old. 1982 going. Well, I was going on 22. It closed down 1983 and that was the end. It started tearing majority of it down. A little place it did keep open. They turned into a strip joint called The Plush or something. I don’t know. But anyway, I’m trying to figure out what else I done left out. Because it was so much. It was so much.
Ava Carubia [00:26:17] Well, here’s the question. You said there were a lot of white families when you first moved into the area.
Carol Ford [00:26:23] And Puerto Ricans and Italians.
Ava Carubia [00:26:26] How did that racial composition like change throughout the time you lived off Miles?
Carol Ford [00:26:31] They started moving off. They started moving like west. I remember Lucy moved west and I never seen her again. First she moved down Broadway and Fleet next to South High. They family did and a lot at first. Dino, the Italian family, I remember his family moved off. They just started moving around.
Ava Carubia [00:26:56] What time would you say?
Carol Ford [00:27:02] We moved, I want to say about between 74 and 76. They were gone. 1974 through 70. 1976. I won’t even say that. I’m gonna say 1972 to 1974. They was gone. Yeah, it was majority, all Black folks. Just a couple of white might been there, but then they were gone.
Ava Carubia [00:27:35] Was there any like racial tension that you remember? Did people mostly get along?
Carol Ford [00:27:41] They got along when I first moved over there. But when they were gone, no, it wasn’t no racial attention until we went to A.B Hart and South High, down on Broadway, because that was Slavic Village area and that was Polacks. That’s what they called them. But they were Polish. But anyway, Holly, the Kotecki family, I remember them that. That monument on Miles? Holly Kotecki family. Holly went to A.B Hart and South. She was real cool and I was cool with Beth Kucinich, Dennis Kucinich’s sister. We smoked marijuana in the bathroom. She dead, though. Beth. I don’t know what happened to Holly. But wasn’t no racial attention until we went there. And it was only basically racial attention from the older kids. Then it brought down to us because we had to run home from school. 93rd was a cutoff. Once you made it over 93rd, John Adams and all them was at 93rd to meet us to make sure we got home safe. They was throwing boulders and bricks over our head. They was turning over the school bus. All that stuff was going on. A lot of racial attention was then. Because before then, when it was a diversity of people, we got along. We didn’t have that in our life to know, to fight each other. And one was Back and one was white. We didn’t care. You know, it didn’t get noticed till we got down to A.B Hart and South, going to Miles Elementary. We weren’t there. We was kids. All we did was play. And that was a mixed school. Mostly white and a few Polish. No, it was all Polish. Mostly Polish, White, Italian, Spanish. And we got along. There was no such thing as fighting battles with each other because one was one color. Till we got to A.B Hart. When we got the A.B Hart, we thinking that, wow, we going to a real nice school. You know what I’m saying? All of a sudden, these old kids come and turn our school bus over. And the school bus wasn’t a yellow bus. It was back then. RTA was CTS. It was a CTS bus line. And all them turned the bus over.
Ava Carubia [00:30:41] That actually happened?
Carol Ford [00:30:42] Yeah.
Ava Carubia [00:30:43] Wow.
Carol Ford [00:30:44] Yeah. And I mean, what else? They would throw big boulders. Oh, my God. One hit the girl’s head. I’ll never forget, Shanita Turner. And we had to pick her up and try to run with her, and she kept screaming, oh, my head, my head. And would you like some water?
Ava Carubia [00:31:09] I’m okay, thank you.
[00:31:10] And it was crazy. And then you see them fighting the older kids. When we get to 93rd, they were steady coming at us. The Polish was mostly Polish people running, chasing us. And me and Holly Kotecki then were still friends regardless, because, you know, you felt like you had nothing to really do with that. Why would it be happening? It didn’t change who your friends was. We still was friends. And Beth Kucinich And every time I see Dennis Kucinich he. You know who Dennis, he’ll be like, oh, pray for Beth. Beth is dead. You know, I’m sorry. I hate that she died, and I hate that so many have died. But. Yeah.
Ava Carubia [00:32:18] Well, another question I have is, like, as a kid, what kind of activities did you like to do? You talked about the different stores you went to. Oh, kickball. Yes, we played kickball on the streets. On different streets. We had, as, you know, they still do, like, block clubs. That was going on activities was at The Y swimming. And it was at Stella Walsh on Broadway. Because after a while that racial stuff went away, and we was hanging on Broadway, swimming and stuff. I mean, it was still a little bit there, but not as bad as it was. But mostly we swam that the Y. I liked the swimming and I liked it. The kickball. I never knew how to play football, softball, volleyball. We played all of that. We played in the cemetery. That was a hangout because we knew our parents couldn’t find us. The Gully and the cemetery. Calvary Cemetery. Sure did. Let me see. They told you about that mansion house. Now, I wasn’t born then, but I heard the story that that house that’s still standing as a church right across the street from the new houses they build next to the garden. That was a rich family house. I want to say I’m not sure because I don’t know where that log cabin came from, but I know that garage part, that was supposed to been the little child’s playhouse. And she hung herself. She killed herself or something there. I don’t know how that story went, but it’s been going on since I was little. So the only killing I ever seen or death was when the car ran into the big pillar and she was dead and we was looking at her. But other than that. That’s the story about that house there. That’s a church. Mm. Other than that. I told you. The sunken garden, the ice pond. Oh, I hated that. Them new houses there. Oh, and then we had the garden at. When you had this at the. In the summertime, you had a garden over there. You could build your garden. Because I had a garden over there in the garden house. My house, garden house.
Ava Carubia [00:35:24] What else do you remember from the garden?
Carol Ford [00:35:27] My sunflowers and my vegetables I grew, like collards. What else I grow? Carrots, tomatoes, stuff like that. That was the best time because you get to take that home with your little basket. Girl, you gonna make me cry when I talk about Miles. That was the best time of my life. I never want, everybody used to say, I can’t wait till I get grown and move off of Miles. I said, I’ll never leave Miles. And I didn’t. I stayed a long time, and I never moved off this area. Then, I wait. Me and him moved on 100th and Miles also. Yeah. In one of them new houses. Then we moved off to here because his friend made us an offer to buy this house. So that’s how I moved off of my house.
Ava Carubia [00:36:40] Do you remember anything about the roller skating rinks?
Carol Ford [00:36:44] Oh, yeah. Seven Bells on 131st and the one on 93rd at Tweedy’s. Yeah, I can’t think of what it was called on 93rd, but, yeah, I remember going skating there. I almost forgot about that Seven Bells. That was the best time, too. That was on Saturday and Sunday also. But we was making it home to go to The Camelot. Camelot was what was happening. We felt like we was grown, getting dressed up going there. But Seven Bells and the one on 93rd, after that, they had closed down, too. Yes. And there was a church on every corner. Yes, it was. Girl, you really make me about to cry. Because I could picture it all.
Ava Carubia [00:37:50] Well, here’s another question. Do you have, like, one. One particular happy memory that really sticks out to you, growing up on Miles?
Carol Ford [00:37:57] All of Miles sticks out to me. That was my happy moments, you know, Especially when you think all the people that died, that was living then. Those was my happy moments all on Miles. When I grew up on Miles, that was the best time of my life, you know, till I had my son. But, yeah, that was the best time of my life. Growing up on Miles, there was no certain part, because all of it was good. All of it was fun. All of it was happy. You couldn’t wait to wake up in the morning. Waking up in the morning, seeing the sunlight come through and getting dressed. You couldn’t wait to go outside, because there you had many choices. Like, I could wake up now. There’s no choices, you know. But when you wake up on Miles, everybody’s outside. Everybody. Because everybody probably had the same feeling I did. You couldn’t wait to wake up because you could go outside and go up and down the street. You could go get you a burger. Then McDonald’s came. Yes, McDonald’s came. Oh, my God. I hate it when Red Barn closed because of the Barn Buster. Oh, my God, that was the best sandwiches there. Red Barn. I can tell you about the best food. And that Hough Bakery. Those were the best food. But we had every store on the corner. And like I said, Ms. B’s, Poochie’s, the little store in between, 123rd on that block. Miles just had all kind of activities for us. The game room was the best thing to walk to. That’s what it was, the game room. Pops. Pops also sold marijuana. He dead and gone. I could tell that Pops also sold marijuana, but you couldn’t smoke it, like, in his place. And he only sold to certain ones. But, yeah, that was the best time. And Horace would tell you if you’re doing something wrong, him and Mr. Searcy, they knew our parents, too. They was gonna tell on us. So I never go near they store doing anything. Mmhm.
Ava Carubia [00:41:01] How do you think the neighborhood’s changed? And how do you think it stayed the same?
Carol Ford [00:41:07] Nothing stayed the same. All of it’s changed. I hated that. When I tell you I hated that. I hated that. The only family still on Miles that grew up with me is the Patrick family. Yeah, that’s the family should have been talked to also, because Ms. Patrick was our lunch aide at Miles Elementary. She watched the kids, too. Her, Ms. Bishop when she was living, and Ms. Ledger. Ms. Ledger and Ms. Bishop passed away. But, yeah, those. That. That’s the only family still there. And Ms. Patrick almost 90 years old, her and her husband still living. But besides, they house. They house still. Still look the same, but been remodeled a little, but everything’s still the same. And he right on the thing talking, too. But anyway, that’s the best part of Miles.
Ava Carubia [00:42:42] When. What year do you think it really started changing? You said the stores were closing in the 80s.
Carol Ford [00:42:49] In the 80s. They started closing before the 80s. You a little loud? [Recording pauses]
Ava Carubia [00:43:09] Okay, now it’s going again.
Carol Ford [00:43:11] All right. And it changed because I want to say, Lord have mercy. I hate to say this young generation, as the younger generation start growing older, they got wild. And I want to say Black and white. They got so wild that I think people got scared. I don’t know. It just started tearing down stuff and everything. Houses got abandoned and abandoned. Abandoned houses was starting to be on the rise. I hate them drawings on the buildings and stuff. I mean, it might look good to some, but it made me think of, we already in the ghetto. You understand what I’m saying? It made me think of something like, you see in New York or somewhere, Chicago, they had the drawings all on the walls. I hate that. It’s an image thing to me, and I hate to say it like this. It’s a Black image thing, like poor Black folks. And all we do is draw on walls and stuff like that. I mean, that might look good to some young folks, but it’s a tragedy to me to see that even on Miles. I mean, it might seem like it’s a beauty thing, but to us, that’s older, it’s terrible. You like to see beautiful houses put up there. People want to come back to the neighborhood. You know what I’m saying? Nobody wants to come back to a neighborhood. They got a bunch of drawings on the wall. I know because my son moved an hour and a half out of Cleveland, and he said he’ll never live in Cleveland. He said, mommy, it looks terrible in the neighborhoods now. He said, all you do is see drawings and people getting killed. And my son, 39 years old, be 40. That’s not cute. And whoever thought of that idea, the drawing buildings and thought that was pretty, like they drew on 93rd. Why did you waste that money? And it’s gone now on the streets? That was a way that’s taxpayer money went to waste. Cause it’s gone. It might have been a cute idea to somebody, but it’s a terrible idea. Miles should have came back up and should have never left, really, because it was a beautiful area. The more people like us, Imma say came, the worse it got. Because young people today, and I’ll say it’s like that for the white area too. The more the young white folks came, the more they tore down. I moved down on Slavic Village, where my son was about 14 or 15. And seeing I sat on the porch, I’m thinking I’m doing the right thing. I said, well, maybe I’ll move in the white area and see what’s going on. It was nice when it started. Then you look around, you see them coming down the street with siding house. I say, oh, my God, even in this neighborhood, they doing it. So that’s what I’m saying. That’s why I say the young Black and white tore down their neighborhoods. Yes, they did, because Slavic Village was beautiful. And just like I said, they could say when the Black folks moved over there, when I seen them white folks coming with them sidings, I said, oh, my God, it’s both, you know, races doing this mess, tearing down their neighborhood. Because Miles Avenue shouldn’t have never been tore down. It should have been rebuilt. It should have had something for these young folks to do, just like we had when we was growing up. But. And a lot is the parents fault because some of us as parents, and I know for a simple fact, because one of my cousin sons, and like I said, they really not my kin folks, but they grandmother, like, adopted me. So I’m gonna say one of my cousin’s sons, he’s a lawyer now with a doctorate. And he told me, and he’s 44 now, he said our generation messed the kids up because our generation got on crack. And it did. Crack, was on the rise from our generation, my generation, rather. And he said because we didn’t raise our children right, he right about that. We let our kids. Not me. I’m just saying we in general, not mine. Mine was bad too, though. But I tried to beat it out of him, but it pays out in the long run because like I said, he moved an hour and a half away from where I live and my condition. I used to come and see the houses he lived in before because he stayed way out in Willoughby and all that. Now this condition, I can’t get in no SUV and all of them drive SUV’s to go see where he live at now. So he’s. Like I said, it started with us. My generation then raise our children right. We didn’t put the foot down like our parents did to make us be able to have that appreciation of your neighborhood. That’s what it was.
Ava Carubia [00:50:04] I have two more questions. One is, how do you think that being from this part of Cleveland impacted you as a person?
Carol Ford [00:50:14] Well, because I know being from this part of Cleveland impacted me. I know how I wanted my child to be raised. I know what I wanted my son to be like. I wanted him to enjoy life like I did. It didn’t happen. Things was gone and tore down, so it didn’t happen. It impacted me because I had got into. I’m a Democrat. I got into a lot of political stuff. Like I was a member vice president for a union for many years. So I traveled and I tried to teach stuff politically, tried to get the working class people to understand about their work environment, they living environment, you know, stuff like that. I was in the union for many years, so. And teaching them the right to vote and all that and how important it was to. And living in this area impacted me that way. Because if also, if we would have took the time to teach our children to vote like they should, like our parents did, they might, it might be a better place. You know, people and council and Congress would have made the living environment like Councilman Barnes did. He was into his neighborhood, really into his neighborhood, and he made sure we had something to do.
Ava Carubia [00:52:16] Well, I have one more question and I ask everybody this, you kind of started talking about it. What is a message you’d like to leave for future generations?
Carol Ford [00:52:27] Remember. Well, future generations, stay tuned to your children. That’s what I can tell you. The way life is now. Teach your children the structure that your grandparents taught your mother now that we didn’t follow. And when I say we again, I’m not talking about myself in general. I’m just talking we as collateral. Because if my generation would have stayed in tune teaching their children, we were so like, we ain’t gonna do this too, because our parents did this to us. We should have did it for future generation. Try to if you live in because if you living because a lot of them died. Keep the guns out your kids’ hands. Put your guns up. Teach your children how to stay on that curfew. That curfew is very important as well. Teach your children about voting. Teach your children how they are really privileged wherever they live because you could become somebody no matter where you live. I say that because I raised my child even though he was bad at one point, I mean, I mean I was trying to whoop that tail till he was 21, but. But he also was bad like the typical kids now. But me beating him, baby. I looked on, they told me look on the website, on social media. My son had his first job and I think he was about, I want to say 26, something like that. And he said, mommy, it paid off. Now he has a job on the school bus wherever he live at now. I can’t, can’t think of the name of it, but it’s an hour and a half away. I know that he already lived an hour away going to Lost Nation. That’s the area he lived in there. But now he lived further out than from there. But anyway, he been driving that for years now. So if that goes to show for future generation, if you stay on your kids, don’t give up. You can’t never give up. You stay on your kids and do just what I said. That’ll help them make it in the future. I’m telling you. We got lawyers, nurses, doctors, everything in these generations. We have my son, like I said, a bus driver. And that’s because he making sure his fiance finished school before he could do something. And she about to be RN with a BSN. So I’m very proud of her. And she doing that so when she get her degree, he could turn around and do the same. So that comes from stomping. You got to put your boots on the ground. If that’s the song, say honey, not where them fans at where that education at. So yeah, that’s the future. You got the teacher teach them all that. I just said, you let go. This is what happened. Death. All they know is to run the street game, sell drugs. Because there are jobs everywhere, jobs hiding everywhere. I haven’t never. I have never seen so many jobs on the rise. So they can’t say there’s no jobs. There’s jobs everywhere. You turn your head. But see, their parents didn’t teach them. They gave up on them. Let them do what they wanted. Some enjoy because they pay. They come home and bring their parents something. So you might buy your mama a car. Uh uh. You make so much and all that. That ain’t the thing. Because my son couldn’t come home with that. No matter how bad he was. He couldn’t come home with all the fancy clothes and stuff. And if he did do it, he had a job because he was working with me. I made sure of it. I made sure of it that my little baby sister. I got a baby sister, 39 too, and. And a niece, 39. All three at the same. But anyway, they all worked with me. I made sure they got a job right along with me so I could keep watch whether they knew it or not. They thought they was working with me just to get money. Yeah, you was. But I need to keep watch on y’all too. And they doing excellent. So I know what I’m saying is true. It works. You got to stay on them. This is for future references.You cannot let go. You let go, it’s a done deal. This is what you get. Tore down neighborhoods because think about it. If they would have stayed together, they could have kept the houses that their parents left them. I know, because I left my son on Spafford and he let it go. So I had to bring him with me because I said I can’t give up on him. Because I’m mad, because the way he trying to be, because I left the house and all. I took him back, got him a job where I’m at. Because I seen that wasn’t the way to go. You can’t let go, no matter how bad they are. So that’s the future reference.
Ava Carubia [00:59:27] Well, those are all my questions. Is there anything you’d like to add that I didn’t ask you about?
Carol Ford [00:59:33] No. I kept trying to think. I done told you everything. I done told you everything about Miles that I could think of.
Ava Carubia [00:59:42] Well, thank you so much. I’m going to end the recording now.
Carol Ford [00:59:45] Alrighty.
Ava Carubia [00:59:48] And we’re just at one hour.
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