Abstract
Cecilia Sobczyk, a long-time resident of Tremont, discusses her Polish heritage and the experiences of her family, who immigrated to the United States in the early 20th century. She reflects on the close-knit community of Tremont, characterized by strong cultural ties, local traditions, and the importance of family and church in daily life. Sobczyk shares her memories of growing up in the neighborhood, including local businesses, community events, and the challenges faced by residents during economic downturns. Additionally, she addresses the changes Tremont has undergone over the years, including demographic shifts and revitalization efforts, while expressing her hope for the neighborhood's future.
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Interviewee
Sobczyk, Cecilia (interviewee)
Project
Tremont History Project
Date
2003
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
40 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Cecilia Sobczyk interview, 2003" (2003). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 223068.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1377
Transcript
Interviewer [00:00:03] Alrighty. What is your name and can you spell it for me, please?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:00:09] My name is Cecilia Sobczyk. Last name is spelled S, O, B, C, Z, Y, K. Okay.
Interviewer [00:00:20] What is your address?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:00:22] 3136 West 14th Street.
Interviewer [00:00:26] Is that 44102?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:00:28] 44109.
Interviewer [00:00:30] Okay. What are some of your early childhood memories?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:00:37] Of the area? My early childhood memories. I went to high school in the area. I went to Lincoln High School. I graduated in 1944 from Lincoln. A lot of the things that I’ve heard of the area were from school chums since I didn’t live in the area. I know the area had many, many churches. Most of your Catholic churches had schools, elementary schools. And when I went to school, we walked to school, which was a walk from my- It was a hike from my house from 13th and Denison. And then, like in bad weather and that, we used to take a streetcar, get off on 25th and Clark, and then walk down to Scranton, where the school was situated. So there was a store across the street from the high school. Kids used to hang out in. There’s a church on the Corner on Scranton, Saint Michael’s which is still standing there. I do know that the Catholic church is here. During the war, they used to hold dances, like on Sundays, sometimes Saturday nights. And the kids used to go to those dances. So when they would come to school on Monday, then they’d talk about it. So I have those- I have fond memories.
Interviewer [00:02:29] Why did your parents move to this area?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:02:36] My mom’s- It wasn’t this area. It was off of 13th and Denison is where my parents lived. Alright. My parents- My mom’s mother and dad had a home there. My mother was born here. My dad was born here. And when he was two years old, he was taken to Poland. He didn’t come back till he was 26. So when my dad married my- When he came here, he stayed with his cousin for a while. And then when he married my mom, naturally they moved in with my grandma. And so we just stayed in that neighborhood. My dad lived in that same house that he married into. My grandparents died. They were left at home. And my dad died when he was 77. But he lived in that whole area his whole lifetime.
Interviewer [00:03:34] What kind of work did your parents do?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:03:37] My mom was a housewife. Women at that stage didn’t work out in the working field. They worked at home. My dad was a carpenter by trade, which he did. Used to put up roofs and used to paint people’s houses. And then he also was a janitor, or what you call now a custodian, at our church. So that’s- What- That’s- That was their lifetime.
Interviewer [00:04:10] Where did you work?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:04:12] Now when I graduated from high school, I worked at the. What they called at that time the Navy Finance Center. And that was where the Waves and the sailors were stationed. 13th and Euclid at the time, in the old Plain Dealer building. That’s where they were headquartered. That was during the war, so I worked there. And then when the war ended and they were changing their work from wartime to peacetime, you’d go into work and you’d have to kind of have to look busy. And it was hard to do when you’re young and a whippersnapper. So they froze all leaves. You couldn’t get a leave. So I quit, and I went to work in an insurance office. And I worked- It was Ohio Farmers, it was called at that time. And I worked there until I was married and then was expecting my first baby. At that time, they didn’t let women work when they were pregnant. So then that’s when I left the workforce. And then I didn’t go back to work until years later.
Interviewer [00:05:39] Alright. Where did the children play?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:05:45] In my area, where Riverside Cemetery is, the boundaries of Riverside Cemetery on the one side were close to East Denison School, which is no longer there. It’s a building with offices in it. I think steel mills used to have their offices, their union offices. But that used to be East Denison School at that time. And years and years ago, that was a dump. And over the years, it was filled in. And out of that dump they made a playground so the kids had someplace to play. So the kids used to play at the playground. They used to have ball games. And every- I mean, every evening after supper, that’s where the kids would go.
Interviewer [00:06:44] Did you ever play in this Lincoln Park over here?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:06:46] No, no, no. That’s- That was too far for us. We had our own playground.
Interviewer [00:06:51] Okay. What was dating like when you was a teenager?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:06:57] Dating? I grew up in the war years as a teenager. I didn’t date. I had strict parents. I didn’t date as a teenager. During the war, a lot of my classmates, or a few, I don’t- I can’t give you a count how many, but went right out of school into the service. They didn’t graduate. They got the diploma when they were in the service. So during the war, dating was different. And because we didn’t date like they date today, you hung around with the group and you would go with the group. Like I said, the churches used to have dances. So you’d go to the dances on the weekend. Whatever servicemen were home, those servicemen would be at the dances. So it was more or less neighborhood stuff. You know, you didn’t go way, way out someplace. Very few people had cars, Very few women drove. So you relied on public transportation to get you wherever you were going. Streetcars at that time, wasn’t even buses, it was streetcars. So you kind of hung around within your own section. We used to come here to dances, to Saint John Cantius, the Ukrainian Home used to have dances. We used to go to dances there. So, I mean, there was some place to go. But dating, you went with a group. Dating wasn’t like it’s today. When I went to my prom from high school, I went with a bunch of girls. One of the girls’ fathers picked us up and took us to the hotel where the prom was. Because the boys were in the service and the girls, the only girls that had dates at the prom were girls that were going with boys that were in the classroom. So it was nothing to go with a bunch of girls someplace. Today I don’t think the young people would do that. But in our day, that was fun. So.
Interviewer [00:09:26] Where did your parents grocery shop?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:09:31] We had a grocery store. At the one end of our street we had a, what you’d call a delicatessen today. Cold cuts and candy and stuff like that. At the other end of our. In the middle, we had a dairy, used to deliver milk home to home. And you ran out of milk, you could run to the dairy because we lived right two doors away from him. And then at the other end of the street was a meat store that had canned goods also. So that’s where my mom shopped.
Interviewer [00:10:10] So three different stores.
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:10:11] Yeah.
Interviewer [00:10:12] It wasn’t like today with malls.
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:10:13] It’s- All that was a thing of the past that didn’t come till later.
Interviewer [00:10:18] Right. Where did you go to church?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:10:21] Saint Barbara’s Church. I’m 15th and Denison, and I still belong there.
Interviewer [00:10:30] What are some of your memories during that Depression?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:10:33] See, I don’t remember. I remember as a kid they called it charity at that time. They didn’t call it welfare like they do now. It was called charity. But I remember as a child, I have two vivid memories. One is my dad taking me downtown for a coat. I must have been like about maybe eight or nine. He took me downtown for a coat. And I don’t remember where downtown. I just know there must have been an office that you go to, like you go for a, like they go now, and they have coats for kids. But anyhow, he took me there, and I got what they called at that time a chinchilla coat. And I remember wearing that and wearing that and wearing that. I outgrew it, and I was still wearing it. And then the other vivid memory I have is not a happy memory. Like I mentioned my dad used to do before he even became a janitor at our parish, what my dad used to do was carpentry. So if anybody had any kind of work in the neighborhood, they always used to take my dad because he was cheap labor. He felt sorry for everybody, especially if they had children, because he had five kids, so he knew what it was. But anyhow, my dad had fixed somebody’s spindles on their porch. Everybody had a front porch. And he got a couple dollars for that because that wasn’t- They didn’t pay you big money then. A couple dollars was a couple dollars. So he got a couple dollars for that. Well, a couple days before that, the charity had sent over two bushels of coal to our house. Somebody from the neighborhood squealed that my dad did some job for somebody and got paid for it. And they came and they took a bushel of coal back and left us with one bushel of coal. So I have a good memory of the Depression getting that chinchilla coat and wearing it to death. And then I have a sad memory.
Interviewer [00:13:05] Right, right. Okay. Did you marry someone from the neighborhood?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:13:13] I married somebody from Tremont area.
Interviewer [00:13:15] Oh, yeah?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:13:16] Met him at a dance here.
Interviewer [00:13:19] Oh, really?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:13:20] Mm hmm.
Interviewer [00:13:21] Okay, where was your reception and what was it like?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:13:28] My reception was at Saint Barbara’s, we had a hall, what they called a hall at that time because we had dances there during the weekends. And my reception. I was married at Saint Barbara’s Church, and then my reception was at Saint Barbara’s Hall. It was a very, very hot day in July, July 17. There was not the refrigeration you got today. It was ice blocks. The cooks were all worried about the food spoiling. We never heard of food poisoning or nothing in those days, but food spoiled. So the cooks were very worried about the food spoiling, because when we had receptions, I’m Polish by my mom and dad, both were Polish, so I 100% Polish, as far as I know. But anyhow, so it was an ethnic wedding with, you know, a lot of food. The drinks wouldn’t spoil. They maybe would be warm, but they had to keep running for ice blocks. And we had an ice station like about, maybe about, oh, maybe about 10 blocks away from the church. And so you could go there at any time and buy ice. So they had to run there for ice blocks to keep the food cold. But it was a celebration.
Interviewer [00:15:06] So there was no refrigerators?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:15:08] No, no, no. Refrigerators were just- People were just- First of all, there probably were refrigerators, but we couldn’t afford to buy them, let’s put it that way. And the boys, I got married in 1948. So the boys were from ’44 on, ‘45 on when the war ended, they started coming back from the service. In the meantime, the women had worked in factories. They didn’t give up their jobs, they stayed there. And then the men found work. So there was two incomes starting to come in. So they were afford- They were able to afford to buy things that their parents couldn’t buy. So that’s when refrigerators, people in the neighborhood started buying refrigerators then. But up until then, you put a card in your window for the iceman to stop and deliver ice to you. You had a card for the iceman to know which house to stop and who needed ice. If you ran out of ice, like I’d say, you could walk up to the ice station and get ice and you brought the ice on a wagon. So by the time you got home, some of that ice melted. [laughs] But that’s how we got our- That’s how refrigeration was at that time. And then the winter, you put it outside, you know, by your doorstep or your window sill there in. When I grew up, you didn’t lock your doors. Your doors were always open. Nobody, nobody would think of walking into somebody’s house. That was a thing unheard of. So it was a different time. Yes, definitely. I never had a key to a house. I never had a key to my house, to my parents’ home, because the door was always open.
Interviewer [00:16:58] Alright, tell me about the Innerbelt project.
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:17:05] Innerbelt project was somebody’s bright idea, some engineer sitting, pushing a pencil. And that was in the making for years before they actually started it. But what they did made a convenience for the suburbanites and broke up neighborhoods. My neighborhood, where I originally came from, Denison, 13th, 15th, 14th, Jennings, Redmond, that was wiped out. Streets were wiped out completely. One side of 15th was left, one side of 13th was left. Redmond’s gone altogether. That street was just taken as far as this neighborhood, Tremont. Same thing cut out. It broke up a neighborhood. Like broken up families, broke up neighborhoods. That’s when people had to move. And that’s how your two people working. That was one thing. Bought a car. With the car, you can go anyplace. So they started moving further and further out. I always say, if it wasn’t for the Ukrainians and the Polish people, and the Russians, there would be no Parma because that’s where they went.
Interviewer [00:18:30] Okay, what about the Abbey Road bridge?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:18:37] That. The Abbey Road bridge that was down for years and years and years. That was a connection between this neighborhood and going to the market and getting to West 25th and Lorain. Well, they closed that bridge. That bridge was closed for years and then they reopened it, which is nice for everybody now. You can walk the bridge to get to the market from here. Most people drive now, so that was nice. Clark Avenue bridge was also a bridge and that was torn down, but was never put up again.
Interviewer [00:19:14] Why?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:19:15] That, I- Maybe somebody else knows the reason for that, but I don’t know the reason why it was never put up.
Interviewer [00:19:24] Okay, how has the neighborhood changed?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:19:31] Well, see, now, from my viewpoint, the neighborhood has changed. It went downhill. Went downhill, but now it’s on the upturn, I guess. I don’t know if things go in cycles or what, but it’s on the uphill. New homes were being built, different kind of businesses came in. You know, your mom and pop stores are all gone now. That’s what was in this neighborhood and in my neighborhood also, that’s all gone. You got your supermarkets, what they used to call before your grocery stores. The delivery of milk is gone. You buy it in the grocery store now. So your mom and pop stores are gone. Your dry goods stores that every neighborhood had, that’s gone. Your malls came in. And just like taking away downtown trade, they took away mom and pop stores too. So that has all changed. But now the type of businesses that are coming in are your coffee shops. There’s some trendy shops coming in with clothes. So it’s coming in, but it’s different kind of shopping than what, than what I knew.
Interviewer [00:21:03] When you say it went downhill, what do you mean by downhill?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:21:06] It went down- It went downhill because there was nothing here. The shops were all gone. You know, the store. Because of the freeway, everything closed. So you had. You had to go further out to shop. Well, you had a lot of empty stores. So when you have empty stores, nothing looks good. It’s like you go on Euclid Avenue today.
Interviewer [00:21:26] So a freeway affected the economy around here?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:21:29] Oh, yeah, definitely. So for years, and like I say, then the past few years, it’s, it’s on an uptrend. You know, you’re getting shops in, you’re getting different types of shops in, you’re getting different type of people moving in, and so that all helps.
Interviewer [00:21:52] Mm hmm. Did you ever move out of this area?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:21:55] Yes, I did. Not very far. I lived in the neighborhood I was brought up, and then I moved to South Hills, and then from South Hills, and I came back here.
Interviewer [00:22:14] What was it like around here when Carl stokes was elected mayor? Around ’67. What was it like around here?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:22:22] ’67. Let me think now, that’s already- The freeway was here already. And I think somebody else could tell you more than I could. All I could tell you is I’m going to go back to what I said originally is that it went downhill, and it stayed downhill for a while, and then it just- It started building up. And, you know, after Carl stokes was out of office, and I don’t- That had to be, like, not even in the ’70s, it wasn’t building up. It’s in the ’80s, I would say, maybe in the middle or maybe late ’80s, that somebody start thinking, you know, here we got a neighborhood, let’s kind of revive it.
Interviewer [00:23:17] So what language was mass in?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:23:23] There were a lot of languages. This was a league of nations neighborhood. When I went to school, There were Ukrainians, there were Irish, there were Slovenian, there were Slovak, there were Polish, there were Russian. It was a- It was called the League of Nations. Yeah. We even had a club that was a League of Nations Club in school. So there was different types of nationalities.
Interviewer [00:23:51] Right. Okay. Based on the way you were raised in this area, how did the women’s lib movement affect you? Or it did not?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:24:03] Or the women’s lib didn’t affect me. First of all, I always worked. I do think one good thing that came from the women’s lib is women’s wages were always held down. You did the same work a man did. I worked in an office, so I’m not talking about factory work where they have to lift coils and things. I don’t know if women could lift that. Maybe some women can. I know I couldn’t, but, like, because I always worked in an office, I did the same work that a man did, but my pay wasn’t the same.
Interviewer [00:24:52] How much different was it?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:24:54] Big, big difference. And when I worked, women weren’t promoted. Men were. And women were always held back. So women’s lib did a lot of good where it came that, hey, if you’re capable like that man is, you have just as much chance for promotion as a man does, and your pay should be equal. It still isn’t equal, but women are making a heck of a lot more money today than they did in my day. In my generation, we were glad we had a job. See, you weren’t there for the money. Yes, the paycheck was good, but that wasn’t your main- Like today, you know, first thing is you talk to the young kids, you know, how much money am I going to make? Well, they told you what you were going to make when they hired you, but that wasn’t your main goal. Like, you were just glad that you got a job. And I always worked in an office, so I always had a job.
Interviewer [00:26:04] Okay. But as far as, like, being raised strict and everything-
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:26:13] That didn’t hold me back.
Interviewer [00:26:14] No?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:26:15] No. You can tell I’m an outgoing person. So that never held me back. Sometimes got me into trouble [laughs], but that didn’t hold me back. Maybe held some people back, but I never had a problem. I always got a job on my first try. And maybe I was lucky, I don’t know. But my first job that I got, I always- After school, I worked in what we called dime stores at that time. I don’t know if you know what a dime store was. You could go and buy notions, buttons, shoestrings, anything.
Interviewer [00:26:56] Like a dollar store, right.
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:26:57] I only had- They had more little things. Dollar store don’t carry so many little things, but you could go there and buy anything. So I used to work part time after school. And then when I was in 11th grade - like I said, it was still the war - and General Electric came around and asked if somebody wanted to work part time at G.E. So I applied and I worked. I worked in the Lamp Division. I used to test lamps for bombers. And I always thought that that’s where I would end up working because I had my foot in the door already when I graduated. But then I went - this is just a story, you could say maybe I was lucky - then I went- One of the girls from school that I graduated with, and we had already we were going to graduate, she called me up and asked me if I took the civil service test. And I told her no, I didn’t take it because he used to come to school to give it. And I told her I didn’t take it because I was working at G.E. and that’s where my intentions were to go there after I graduated. And she asked me if I would go with her on a Saturday because she didn’t take the test because she was sick. So I told my mom, and so she says, you know, you want to go, go ahead. So I took a book with me because I figured it’d be a long test. Took a book with me, and I went with her, we went to the old post office that said where they’d given the test. Well, when we got there, the fella said to me. I asked him, where can I go sit? And he said to me, aren’t you taking the test? And I says, no. I came with my girlfriend. And he said, well, it’s going to be a long test. I said, well, I have a book. I can read a book. And he said to me, why don’t you take the test? You’re here. And so I thought, well, what the heck? I might as well. So I took the test. Well, a week later, I got a letter to report at the Navy Department. And so I went and they right away, you know, told me that I’m hired, go for a physical. I was fingerprinted, my picture was taken. It all happened in that one day. In fact, I was even confused how fast it was happening. So when I came back home, we didn’t have telephone. You had to run next door. There may be one phone on the street, you know? Used to give them a nickel if you could use the phone. So anyhow, I called the girl up and asked her if she got a letter. Because I went to the Navy Department. And she said no, she didn’t get no letter. I said to me, oh, I’m sorry. Maybe you’ll get something tomorrow or something. But then I never heard from her. So I don’t know what happened there. But, see, maybe I was just lucky. I don’t know. Maybe I was at the right place at the right time.
Interviewer [00:30:00] Right. Tell me- Tell me as much as you can about Lincoln High, the school, the high school.
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:30:07] Okay, High school. Alright. When I graduated from the eighth grade, I was supposed to go to Jane Addams. That’s where I signed up to go. But when I went there the first day and I seen it was just cooking and sewing, that wasn’t for me. So I came home and told my mom, there’s no way I’m going to Jane Addams. First of all, I had to take two streetcars to get there. So no way. So my mother didn’t want me to go to Lincoln. She didn’t want me to come to Lincoln because I used to hear all kind of things about the neighborhood here. So she didn’t say no. Because I- They were so strict, and they heard, you know. I didn’t hear nothing. Like I said, maybe I was naive, but whatever they heard, they didn’t want me to come here. And they couldn’t afford to send me to Catholic high school. There was only one which was Marymount.
Interviewer [00:31:03] Was it an ethnic thing or-
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:31:05] No, I don’t think it was ethnic because this was, like, I say this was a League of Nations. I think it was just that we didn’t go out of our own backyard. And they just didn’t know people here. They knew people in their own neighborhood. And that’s where you stayed. So I could have gone to West Tech, but when I graduated from school, West Tech was so crowded that they froze anybody going into the ninth grade. If you wanted to go to West Tech, you could go ninth grade someplace else and then transfer to the 10th grade. So that was my intention. I told my mother I would just go one year to Lincoln and go to West Tech. But when I got to Lincoln, I liked it. I liked the teachers. I liked the school. It wasn’t far. I liked it. So I just stayed in Lincoln. Like I said. I took a commercial course in Lincoln. I met a lot of nice girls, a lot of nice people. And it was nice. We had a- We had a winning football team at that time. They won a state championship, Charity Game, what they used to call it years ago, played it at the stadium on Thanksgiving Day. And we had some good football players. A couple were in my class. So it was nice. I liked it. I had no regrets about staying.
Interviewer [00:32:39] Do you still have friends now from Lincoln?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:32:42] Yes, I did. Yes. And I still know people here, girls that never moved from this neighborhood that went to Lincoln. Mm hmm.
Interviewer [00:32:50] Okay. Do you all ever get together?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:32:52] When we see each other, yeah. And I used to go to the reunions. The last one I went to was the 50th reunion. Mm hmm. Yeah. I used to go these to have one. I don’t know how many every years, but the one that was every five years I used to go to.
Interviewer [00:33:09] Have you ever heard of the Sewing Club?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:33:11] Sewing Club? No, because I didn’t like sewing. I didn’t take sewing. You had to take a half a semester. I couldn’t wait till it was over.
Interviewer [00:33:20] So what other things that they want women to do besides-
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:33:24] Sewing and cooking. But I took a commercial course. They had typing at the time. They had shorthand. They had commercial law. That’s what I liked was commercial law. If I would have been able to go on to college, I probably would have stayed with that because I liked that. So, no, there were- In Lincoln, there was a variety that you could take anything and then get a job after you left, after you graduated.
Interviewer [00:33:58] Okay, so was it more college prep school or was it more job prep?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:34:05] It wasn’t so much-
Interviewer [00:34:07] Or was it both?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:34:08] It was a little bit of both because a lot of kids couldn’t afford to go to college. And the ones that went to college were- They were specific. They either wanted to be a nurse or they wanted to be a teacher. So they were specific in what they wanted to do, so they’d go on to college. But most of us graduated and went to work.
Interviewer [00:34:30] Okay, so did the people from Tremont go to West Tech?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:34:35] That I couldn’t tell you. I don’t know. I know the people from my neighborhood did.
Interviewer [00:34:40] Okay, so the people from Tremont went to Lincoln.
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:34:44] That’s right.
Interviewer [00:34:45] Was there any other school they went to? High school?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:34:49] Well, there was a West High. Now, I don’t know if some of them from here went to West High. That I don’t know.
Interviewer [00:34:56] Okay.
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:35:01] The- The girls that I graduated from the eighth grade, they went one year to Lincoln, then they transferred to West Tech. They did transfer to West Tech. I stayed because I liked it. It’s my therapist. [laughs]
Interviewer [00:35:15] Okay.
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:35:17] Yeah.
Interviewer [00:35:19] Oh, okay. Alright. Well, you want to make any comments about the Tremont area before I go?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:35:28] Yeah, I will make one comment. And the comment I’m going to make is, for some reason, and I don’t know why, the reason is, for some reason, once somebody moves into the suburbs, they look down at the people left in the city. Yet most of those people, their family came from these sections. And to this day, I can’t understand that. Why somebody, because somebody still lives in the city. And maybe from the part they came from, it’s like, well, why would you want to move there? Why would you want to live there? Why would you want to go there? I don’t get it. Today, with the car, they go 50 miles out of their way someplace, and yet when it comes to where they came from, their roots, it’s like, don’t remind me. I- I don’t understand. I was some- I was- Somebody would explain that in a way that makes sense.
Interviewer [00:36:45] Maybe it’s our material culture. Maybe they feel that materially, what they want isn’t here. Maybe they feel it’s out there. You know, new homes.
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:37:00] That’s fine. That’s okay. You can afford it. Hey, more power to you. But my comment, that part doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is, once you’re there, why can’t you- Why your attitude changes so much? You see what I’m saying? It isn’t the fact that they can afford a new house and live in the Heights someplace or have new furniture or new car every two years. That doesn’t bother me, that material stuff. What bothers me is the attitude. You’re there, that’s fine. Thank the good Lord you got there, because not everybody can get there. But then don’t look down at the guy that’s still left in the city.
Interviewer [00:37:41] Okay, so when you go to the church, Saint Barbara or whatever it is, so do you ever see at that church some of the suburban kids?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:37:49] Oh, yeah, not the kids, but the people. Sure. I even. I even see- Because maybe I’m living too long. I even see- I even see people. When I grew up and people coming from Europe, you know, came here, they all settled in. In neighborhoods like Tremont, where I came from, Brooklyn, that’s where they settled today. When they come in, it’s North Olmsted, it’s Medina.
Interviewer [00:38:21] What you mean when they come in? You mean when they.
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:38:23] When they come from Europe.
Interviewer [00:38:25] They go straight to North Olmsted?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:38:26] North Olmsted, Brunswick, Medina. Suburbs. They don’t come to these old, little old neighborhoods. Very few. Very, very few.
Interviewer [00:38:41] And what do you say they’re missing by doing that?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:38:45] They’re missing the root of who you are. You may go to the suburbs, but you don’t know your neighborhood there. I mean, you don’t know your neighbor. Here, you know your neighbors. Maybe they don’t want that. I don’t know. But it’s different.
Interviewer [00:39:06] You think they feel safer?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:39:09] I never felt threatened here. Some people do, maybe, but I don’t know. I can’t pinpoint it.
Interviewer [00:39:18] So you’ll still walk around this Tremont area with no problem?
Cecilia Sobczyk [00:39:22] Well, if I could, I would. I can’t now. But I did. When I was able to walk, I walked from my home to 25th Street to shop and back. There was only one time that I had a problem. Only one time. But I’d go downtown. I would meet somebody for dinner. When we had our banquet from work, I would go. I’d come home at night, get off the bus. Came by bus because I didn’t drive. Get off the bus and went home. I never felt threatened. Maybe some people do, but I never did.
Interviewer [00:40:00] Okay, alright.
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