Abstract
Mary Salata reflects on her life in the Tremont neighborhood, from her birth in 1916 through her experiences during the Great Depression and World War II. Salata discusses her Ukrainian heritage, family background, and the vibrant community life characterized by strong cultural ties and local churches. She shares insights into her education, work experiences, and social activities, highlighting the values of hard work and resilience instilled by her upbringing. The interview also addresses the changes in Tremont over the years, including the impact of urban development and the decline of the neighborhood. Salata's narrative provides a valuable perspective on the historical and cultural context of her community. Poor audio quality.
Loading...
Interviewee
Salata, Mary (interviewee)
Project
Tremont History Project
Date
11-6-2003
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
48 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Mary Salata interview, 06 November 2003" (2003). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 223066.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1379
Transcript
Interviewer [00:00:01] November 6, 2003, and I am here with Mary Salata. What is your name and can you please spell it?
Mary Salata [00:00:11] Yes, my name is Mary Salada and my last name is S for Sam, A, Alpha, Lewis, A, T for Time, A.
Interviewer [00:00:23] What years did you live in Tremont?
Mary Salata [00:00:26] I was born in Tremont in 1916 and I moved from there in 1934. I moved from there, I’m sorry, I have to correct that. In 1950.
Interviewer [00:00:46] And approximately how old were you when you lived in Tremont? Your age?
Mary Salata [00:00:50] [inaudible]
Interviewer [00:00:56] You were born in [inaudible]? Okay.
Mary Salata [00:00:58] [crosstalk] [inaudible]
Interviewer [00:01:07] Growing up in Tremont, what type of ethnic groups were there?
Mary Salata [00:01:12] There was Russian. There was Slovak. There were Polish. There were Ukrainians. And there were German people and Italian people.
Interviewer [00:01:32] Did everybody live separately? Did they live in different types of communities?
Mary Salata [00:01:37] In the beginning, I am of Ukrainian descent and we lived among Ukrainian people. My mother and father coming here didn’t speak any other language but Ukrainian. Then when I was about six years old, we moved to Allman Court. We lived next door to a Scottish family. My mother and father didn’t talk any English, and there were few Ukrainian families there. But my mother learned to talk English. They interested her in going to the Jefferson Library to learn their English language.
Interviewer [00:02:33] Why did your parents originally? Why did they come to America?
Mary Salata [00:02:38] My mother had an uncle that came here in the late 1800s and every time he would stay in America for a couple years, he would go back. He was married. His wife stayed in Ukraine. And every time he came there he was dressed in a suit. That impressed my mother. She was about 8 or 10 years old at that time. So he would come to America and work for two years and come back and visit his wife. And my mother always wanted to come to America. So when he came when she was 15 years old, her parents let her come to America. Of course, that being 16, she couldn’t come here alone. So she and her girlfriend came with their uncle here. And she did housework.
Interviewer [00:03:38] And what did your father do?
Mary Salata [00:03:42] My father worked at the steel house here, but he originally went to Pittsburgh because he was going to work in the mines at that time. I don’t know. They talked very little of coming here. But my mother did express because she already had a family here.
Interviewer [00:04:02] Did they join any different type of groups based on their ethnicity?
Mary Salata [00:04:07] Yes, we belonged to the churches, originally belonged to St. Peter and Paul then my friends joined the St. Vladimir’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church. That was a [inaudible]. Also we belonged to the Ukrainian National Home on West 14th Street where all the social functions were held.
Interviewer [00:04:33] And was mass spoken in what language?
Mary Salata [00:04:36] In Ukrainian. Everything was done in Ukrainian.
Interviewer [00:04:43] What Type of classes did you take in school? In school, what did you take?
Mary Salata [00:04:49] I took Latin. I wanted to be a nurse, but because of the Depression my mother and father couldn’t afford it. I already had an interview with the head nurse at Lutheran Hospital but because of finances [inaudible].
Interviewer [00:05:09] What type of other classes do they train you in at school?
Mary Salata [00:05:14] High school?
Interviewer [00:05:17] You have English?
Mary Salata [00:05:18] Oh yes. Oh yes, definitely English. And I took a business course, typing, shorthand.
Interviewer [00:05:28] Did they have any clubs at school that you could join during this time?
Mary Salata [00:05:31] Well, yes, there were several. But when I was in the 10th grade I went to work. My last two years of high school, worked in the [inaudible], so I wasn’t able to attend a lot of the functions in school.
Interviewer [00:05:48] So you didn’t graduate from high school?
Mary Salata [00:05:51] Oh yes, I graduated, yes, in 1935 from Lincoln High.
Interviewer [00:05:56] Okay.
Mary Salata [00:05:57] You were very little fun because I worked. I worked six days a week. I worked at the weekend selling goods.
Interviewer [00:06:14] So when you did have a spare moment what did you do?
Mary Salata [00:06:17] Oh, the Ukrainians had a dance club, and I attended their dance club and more of my social functions were either joined the choir, church choir. There also was a choir at Ukrainian National Home that I joined, and of course dances and [inaudible] took quite a long time.
Interviewer [00:06:42] I want to talk about the neighborhood a little bit. Would you consider the neighborhood to be- Was there a lot of crime there?
Mary Salata [00:06:50] No crime. We never heard of any crime. We never locked our doors. Never heard of crime.
Interviewer [00:06:58] No drugs or no-
Mary Salata [00:07:01] No nothing. You didn’t even know where drugs were.
Interviewer [00:07:06] Would you- How would you describe Tremont? Was it a wealthy, middle-class, working-class?
Mary Salata [00:07:13] Well, it was the Depression. And money was very hard to get, but recreation, living on Allman Court at that time, there was clubs at the Methodist church every Saturday that I attended that taught me how to sew by hand. And also at Pilgrim Church they had a club there that I attended. They also had a tennis court where they have a parking lot there. And Dr. Savage would, he would always play tennis and he taught us how to play tennis.
Interviewer [00:07:54] How did you guys get by during the Depression? [inaudible]
Mary Salata [00:07:58] It was very tough. Yes. I- At that time I worked six days a week, from three to six during the week. On Saturdays I worked from 10 to nine and made $3 a week. I gave my mother $2 and I kept a dollar.
Interviewer [00:08:16] So you had to help- [poor audio; inaudible] [00:08:35] What kind of values did you learn from the church?
Mary Salata [00:08:42] They were very instrumental in my life, bringing up my life. How can I say it? I was a homebody and I think all my friends were. And we would get together, we’d go to the movies, Jennings Theatre, which you would pay 15 cents to go see the movies. But otherwise, it’s not the kind of life that can show that today. We would go to the library. I would go to the [inaudible] library, and we would read books. But as far as entertainment, we didn’t have the time for that.
Interviewer [00:09:37] Do you think the Ukrainian culture had a lot of impact on your values, would you say?
Mary Salata [00:09:46] Yes, and also I attended the Methodist Church. Mrs. Carter was there. She was very much instrumental in my way of life.
Interviewer [00:09:59] What type of values exactly? Like hard work?
Mary Salata [00:10:03] Yes. And how can I say, being a good Christian?
Interviewer [00:10:10] What is that to you?
Mary Salata [00:10:12] It means a lot to me. That’s my life today. And being as old as I am, I have no other choice but to live a Christian life.
Interviewer [00:10:30] Talk a little bit about discipline. How was your relationship with your neighbors? Would they have- Did they play a big role in your life?
Mary Salata [00:10:44] Yes, very much. The people right next door was very instrumental. Excuse me, in my life. My mother learned how to talk English because they didn’t talk in any other language. And it was Grandma and Grandpa Ferguson. They had two daughters who were married. They didn’t have any children. One daughter had a stroke. She was in the wheelchair. Marge didn’t have children. And she was very instrumental in my life. She would take me downtown. My mother didn’t know what downtown was. And at that time it was Higbee’s. And she would take me there to the tea room, and she taught me how to set the table. She taught me how to eat with a fork in a knife, when you use it, and different things that- She would take me to the museum and her husband would take my younger brother to the baseball games. He was instrumental in their saving coins and stamps to the pastor. Pastor saved stamps and coins.
Interviewer [00:12:08] That tea room you were talking about before, what exactly was that?
Mary Salata [00:12:12] It was a tea room where people would go just in the afternoon, had a drink, maybe tea or sandwich or- [inaudible]
Interviewer [00:12:20] Like a coffee house today.
Mary Salata [00:12:24] Yeah, it used to be downtown. It was 15th and Euclid.
Interviewer [00:12:29] Was that in Higbee’s?
Mary Salata [00:12:31] Halle’s. Halle’s.
Interviewer [00:12:37] Do you think [inaudible], when you did something wrong, disciplined you properly when you were a kid?
Mary Salata [00:12:49] I could figure, but I refrained from having to be disciplined. I wouldn’t do anything wrong.
Interviewer [00:13:03] What about school? Were they harsh as well there?
Mary Salata [00:13:08] I was very shy when I was young. Very shy. And I don’t ever do anything wrong that I had to be disciplined to stay up to school or anything.
Interviewer [00:13:23] Did other kids- Were there a lot of problems with them?
Mary Salata [00:13:32] Oh yeah. Mm hmm. Boys. And [inaudible] girls.
Interviewer [00:13:36] What type of things would they do?
Mary Salata [00:13:39] I really don’t know. I know I had a brother that he was the one that was disciplined at home because he didn’t listen. He did things that weren’t supposed to be done.
Interviewer [00:13:54] What type of things?
Mary Salata [00:13:56] Maybe there was someplace where he wasn’t supposed to be. But nothing like smoking or drinking or anything like that.
Interviewer [00:14:05] There wasn’t a whole bunch of that when you were teenagers?
Mary Salata [00:14:10] You couldn’t afford it.
Interviewer [00:14:19] [laughs] What about, like, the police? Did- Was the rapport with the police good back then in the neighborhood?
Mary Salata [00:14:29] Oh, yes. We never had police come down our street. Of course, it was only a little street off Starkweather. We knew all the neighbors there.
Interviewer [00:14:41] Did you know the police or anything?
Mary Salata [00:14:43] No.
Interviewer [00:14:46] So it was kind of, the neighborhood, it was kind of, kept an eye on everything, kept an eye on everybody.
Mary Salata [00:14:52] Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Mm hmm.
Interviewer [00:14:55] If there was a problem, they would tell somebody?
Mary Salata [00:15:00] Yeah. But I never saw the police coming to anyone’s house down the street if there was a problem.
Interviewer [00:15:08] Communication was probably a, would you say, an important part of-
Mary Salata [00:15:13] Oh, yes. Definitely, definitely.
Interviewer [00:15:19] Talk a little bit about dating and friends when you were a teen. What did you do on dates?
Mary Salata [00:15:27] Well, it was a group. Yes. And. Well, they came to teach me how to ride a bicycle, which I never was able to learn. And I don’t ever have, remember having a date as a- My first date was to go to opera. That was my first date. To see Aida. I was 16 years old. That was my first date. After that, I don’t remember.
Interviewer [00:16:04] Did you just go to the opera- [inaudible]
Mary Salata [00:16:06] Oh, yes. There was no other place to go.
Interviewer [00:16:11] Dinner? Restaurants?
Mary Salata [00:16:14] No restaurants. Later on, when I was about 20, 21, we went to [inaudible] on 25th Street, and all we had was pie and coffee. There was no such thing as having to go out for dinner. [laughs] The boys didn’t have any money.
Interviewer [00:16:37] No deli or-
Mary Salata [00:16:38] No, no, no. And it was always in a group of girls.
Interviewer [00:16:46] What did you guys eat then for, like, dinner during the Depression?
Mary Salata [00:16:52] Oh, a lot of soup, borscht. Well, we ate good. And [inaudible], which is [inaudible], and maybe a rose chicken. We had chickens during the war. We had about five chickens. We were waiting for my brothers to come home from the service so we could kill them. Chickens.
Interviewer [00:17:23] Did you guys have a garden?
Mary Salata [00:17:24] Oh, yes, definitely. Oh, yes, [inaudible] beets, potatoes, carrots, onions, tomatoes.
Interviewer [00:17:47] Would you say that the kids back then were much more reserved than they are today? How do they dress back then?
Mary Salata [00:17:58] Were you covered up. You didn’t show any part of your naked body. [inaudible question] Oh, yes. Oh, yes. We didn’t wear pants. It was all skirts.
Interviewer [00:18:15] To your ankles or to your knees?
Mary Salata [00:18:17] No, it was below our knees.
Interviewer [00:18:21] What would happen to you if you did?
Mary Salata [00:18:23] I don’t know what would happen. I know my mother wouldn’t let me. [poor audio; inaudible] [00:18:31] I never started wearing pants till 1972. I couldn’t even wear ’em to work. They didn’t allow us to wear pants.
Interviewer [00:18:43] Did you have a dress code at school?
Mary Salata [00:18:46] No. But everybody was very conservative.
Interviewer [00:18:56] What did you guys do for transportation? How did you get around after you-
Mary Salata [00:19:02] Walked. I worked- I was downtown. This was when I was first married. I would walk to 25th Street, get a car, a streetcar, streetcar. And get a transfer and go to the market, West Side Market, do my shopping and then grab a West 14th streetcar. And streetcar was only 7 cents.
Interviewer [00:19:41] Seems kind of high, 7 cents. You know?
Mary Salata [00:19:48] Bread was 7 cents too.
Interviewer [00:19:50] Did they lower the price?
Mary Salata [00:19:52] Oh, yes. Hard times [inaudible] in the Depression. This was the Depression.
Interviewer [00:20:03] You guys did a lot of walking?
Mary Salata [00:20:05] Definitely.
Interviewer [00:20:08] When did cars come into play? When did [inaudible] start getting cars around the neighborhood?
Mary Salata [00:20:16] About 1935 my father got his first car. No. Close to ’40.
Interviewer [00:20:26] And who would drive it?
Mary Salata [00:20:28] Oh, he was the only one who drove. Yeah.
Interviewer [00:20:37] What about telephones? Did you guys get a telephone?
Mary Salata [00:20:40] The only- We got a telephone when I started working for the telephone company - that was in 1936 - I had the only telephone on the Allman Court. And everybody left my telephone number when they went out looking for a job.
Interviewer [00:20:59] And what year was that?
Mary Salata [00:21:00] 1936.
Interviewer [00:21:05] Were you one of the few people in the neighborhood to have a phone?
Mary Salata [00:21:08] Yes.
Interviewer [00:21:09] So you’d get a whole lot of calls.
Mary Salata [00:21:11] That’s right. They would be. They would leave my number when they were looking for a job. Well, everybody did. It’s- [inaudible]
Interviewer [00:21:23] How long do you feel that lasted for, going out to the neighbors?
Mary Salata [00:21:29] Oh, a couple of years. [inaudible]
Interviewer [00:21:35] Do you feel that the neighborhood has kind of declined in all past years or no?
Mary Salata [00:21:48] Oh, yeah.
Interviewer [00:21:49] Recently.
Mary Salata [00:21:50] Recently. I really don’t know because I didn’t keep in contact with anyone that lived over there. In fact, there are only two houses on Allman Court because the rest of the houses was taken for 77 [I-71].
Interviewer [00:22:08] Why did you move then? Why did you leave Tremont?
Mary Salata [00:22:14] My husband was raised in Brooklyn and he wanted to move out, so we bought a house in Brooklyn Heights.
Interviewer [00:22:21] Did you guys originally live in Brooklyn?
Mary Salata [00:22:23] I didn’t. No. He did. He did. He was born there.
Interviewer [00:22:35] Now, you said your dad was for the steel company? Do you know what he did exactly?
Mary Salata [00:22:44] He was a catcher. And that was he would take the rollers. They would take them from one, from one pipe. He had tweezers or something. Turn them over, put them into another pipe.
Interviewer [00:23:05] Was he union?
Mary Salata [00:23:07] Yes.
Interviewer [00:23:09] Did a lot of people in the neighborhood have jobs that were union?
Mary Salata [00:23:15] Oh, I think so, yeah. Yeah. At that time they were union, because my husband belonged to a union too and [inaudible] J&L Steel. He was a welder.
Interviewer [00:23:34] What did a lot of your neighbors do for work, especially during the Depression and into the ’40s?
Mary Salata [00:23:44] Well, the women were all worked as cleaning women for the downtown buildings and I remember the [inaudible] was a baker, Virginia Bakery. I really don’t know what the other people did. Because when you’re young you just don’t [inaudible]. I wasn’t.
Interviewer [00:24:16] After high school, what did you plan on doing with your life? Did you-
Mary Salata [00:24:21] I wanted to be a nurse. My mother didn’t have the money. I had an interview with the head nurse and my mother just wouldn’t see it. My father was working at that time and she was the only one that could say it was alright.
Interviewer [00:24:41] What did a lot of guys want to do, and compared with women, after school? What did-
Mary Salata [00:24:46] Both of our brothers wanted to go on to school, and of course my brother, my older brother, worked for the police department and my younger brother worked for West 14 Drug.
Interviewer [00:25:06] What’s that?
Mary Salata [00:25:07] That’s a drugstore, pharmacy. And they only sold pharmacy and they had an ice cream bar. That’s all they did. They didn’t have any of this that they have, what pharmacy has today. They just sold drugs and, well, magazines too.
Interviewer [00:25:28] It wasn’t like a Medic or a CVS today.
Mary Salata [00:25:32] No, no, nothing, nothing. And that was on 14th Street. And my younger brother was a pharmacist because he would be working with that and he was, the two men that owned that pharmacy were very instrumental when they were to bring to, at that time it was Western Reserve School of Pharmacy which was Case [inaudible] at the time.
Interviewer [00:26:02] Do you feel your parents wanted you to go on?
Mary Salata [00:26:05] Oh yes, definitely. Yes. My mother was very, very forward on education.
Interviewer [00:26:12] She thought that was where the future was going to be.
Mary Salata [00:26:14] That’s right. But I didn’t turn out that way. So I was lucky enough to get a job with a [inaudible] company and I worked there for 40 years.
Interviewer [00:26:29] What were some of the other options for women besides being a nurse?
Mary Salata [00:26:38] Well, I really can’t say. Some of them went into house, housework, because that was the only thing that was available. I know cousins of mine, they went into housework and there were just that many jobs for- Sales girls for the department stores.
Interviewer [00:27:03] What about education-wise besides nurse?
Mary Salata [00:27:10] None that we’re close to me. [inaudible question] No, not in my group of friends.
Interviewer [00:27:20] What type of kids did you hang out with when you were in high school?
Mary Salata [00:27:25] I didn’t even have a chance to hang out. [laughs]
Interviewer [00:27:32] How would you characterize your group of friends?
Mary Salata [00:27:36] Very nice girls. They weren’t interested in education like myself. It was only two girls that went to the telephone company, and most of them were salespeople. None in professional jobs. It was alright.
Interviewer [00:28:07] How did the war, and I’m talking about World War II, how did that have an effect on the community?
Mary Salata [00:28:16] Well, a lot. It had a lot to do because all we were- My brothers were young [inaudible] went into the service. And that short street that I live on, I think all of the young boys- It must have been about five. [inaudible]
Interviewer [00:28:47] So it was kind of expected that if you were a younger boy, 18, you would be going on into the service. [inaudible answer] How did things change after the war? Around ’45 or so in the community. Did you notice anything?
Mary Salata [00:29:10] No. And there were- It was getting better as far as getting jobs. My dad went back to work and I got married. But it was hard.
Interviewer [00:29:31] Communication-wise, how did you guys find out about things like the news? radio, newspapers?
Mary Salata [00:29:37] Radio. Radio. We had no television.
Interviewer [00:29:46] When did you guys get your first radio?
Mary Salata [00:29:50] 1949. No, that was a television. That was a television that we got in 1949. I think we got our, maybe in the ’30s.
Interviewer [00:30:06] Spent a lot of time sitting around the radio?
Mary Salata [00:30:09] Just about. [laughs] My mother enjoyed- She- Even the stories are today in the newspapers. The stories, she listened to the stories during the day, but I didn’t have time to listen. I was never home to listen to stories. So.
Interviewer [00:30:43] What type stuff did you listen to on the radio?
Mary Salata [00:30:46] Oh, music. Music. I’m not a follower of stories, even today. It doesn’t interest me.
Interviewer [00:30:56] What was the music for you guys back then?
Mary Salata [00:30:59] Oh, you had Frankovic. Frankie. Frankie. [inaudible] polka music. Something like that. Dance music. [inaudible]
Interviewer [00:31:25] What type of movies did you guys see?
Mary Salata [00:31:30] Clean ones. Very clean compared to what they have today. [inaudible]
Interviewer [00:31:47] Any actors or actresses?
Mary Salata [00:31:48] Oh yeah, all the- [inaudible] And we were never afraid to go out at night. Never.
Interviewer [00:32:26] You’d walk the streets?
Mary Salata [00:32:28] Oh yes. We’d go right to the park and we’d go to church. We’d go right through the park.
Interviewer [00:32:35] Talking about Lincoln Park?
Mary Salata [00:32:37] Yeah. Lincoln Park.
Interviewer [00:32:41] What would the kids and stuff do in the park, like in terms of type of activity?
Mary Salata [00:32:45] Oh, they’d play ball. A lot of them would play ball. Most of them. And then of course, later on they had programs there. When I used to go to the Merrick House and they had different programs and crafts there. And also as I said, Pilgrim Church had activities on Saturdays for young people. And the Methodist church across the street, which is now, I think a Syrian church. They had programs there.
Interviewer [00:33:31] What else did you guys do at the Merrick House?
Mary Salata [00:33:35] We sang, sang songs. We’d have- People gave lectures and different things. I took a sewing course there one time and as I said, when I got older- [inaudible]
Interviewer [00:34:01] What type of kids were in the Merrick House, would you say, ethnic-wise?
Mary Salata [00:34:08] All kinds. Polish. Slovak. A lot of Slovak. Very few Germans. Very few. There was some tenor Slovaks. Russians. There were a lot of Russians.
Interviewer [00:34:21] So English was the spoken language there.
Mary Salata [00:34:23] That’s right. Oh yes, definitely.
Interviewer [00:34:38] At school, what were the different types of cliques, if you will, type of hangouts with kids? [inaudible]
Mary Salata [00:34:49] No, I don’t even remember cliques. Even in high school, I don’t remember cliques.
Interviewer [00:34:57] Everybody got along?
Mary Salata [00:34:58] Yes. Oh yes, yes. I still have a picture that I had taken when I was in sixth grade at Scranton School.
Interviewer [00:35:08] What if there was a problem, say a fight or something between a couple kids in high school. What would happen?
Mary Salata [00:35:15] I don’t even remember. I don’t remember. They would go to the principal’s office. But as far I was fighting, I don’t think I ever saw kids fighting.
Interviewer [00:35:28] Would it go throughout the neighborhood? If there was a fight, everybody would know about it?
Mary Salada [00:35:31] No. No.
Interviewer [00:35:42] So you’d say it was- During the Depression years it was very hard to come across the job.
Mary Salata [00:35:50] Yes.
Interviewer [00:35:52] What did your dad do during that period?
Mary Salata [00:35:58] Oh gosh, during the summer he would garden. He’d always clean up the yard. And I remember my father washing the kitchen floor on his hands and knees at that time because my mother worked.
Interviewer [00:36:16] So he had home duties.
Mary Salata [00:36:17] Oh yeah. And he used to make soup.
Interviewer [00:36:27] Did he look for other jobs or-
Mary Salata [00:36:29] Oh yes, yes. He looked for jobs. But of course he was a little limited in speaking English until the later years until we grew up. He accomplished that quite a bit.
Interviewer [00:36:47] Why do you think he chose not to learn to speak English?
Mary Salata [00:36:53] He never did. No, he always wanted to. He always wanted to. When we’d talk, my mother would say, you talk to me in English. So I would learn how to talk. And my dad did too. But I said, well, if I talk to you in English, I’ll forget the Ukrainian language.
Interviewer [00:37:25] Do you feel that your parents, when they came from Ukraine, you brought any of the values that were there that were specifically Ukrainian? [inaudible answer] Well, yeah. Like cultural type of values that they bring?
Mary Salata [00:37:43] Well, yes. Encourage us to participate in singing and in dancing. All three of us were Ukrainian dancers, and my brothers were not singers but I belonged to the choir at Ukrainian National Home. I also belonged to the choir at church and the dancing was at Ukrainian National Home. That was where a lot of our functions were at the Ukrainian National.
Interviewer [00:38:17] Do you still speak to anybody from the old neighborhood? From the old days? Neighborhood?
Mary Salata [00:38:26] They passed away. My very good friend that I was, when they moved there, she was three and we were friends till two years ago, she passed away. Her children are very good friends of mine. They have been going to lunch Saturday. They’re coming to pick me up to go to [inaudible] Ohio. [inaudible] But the others are all gone. The ones I went to school with.
Interviewer [00:39:21] Were there a lot of factories in the area?
Mary Salata [00:38:24] No.
Interviewer [00:39:26] Were there any, would you say, like wealthier upper class in the neighborhood? Or was it just-
Mary Salata [00:39:31] Everybody there had to struggle. Well, excuse me, Grandma and Grandpa Ferguson, I think they lived there about five years when we moved there. Yeah, about five years. And then they built a house out in Brooklyn. So they moved away and also- [inaudible] -kept in touch with us.
Interviewer [00:40:13] Talk a little bit more about the streetcars as you mentioned earlier? Where did- Was there a certain pick-up area?
Mary Salata [00:40:20] Oh yes, yes, going south would be right on Starkweather in front of Pilgrim Church. And going north would be across the street, and I think every two blocks they would pick up.
Interviewer [00:40:46] What time would they operate from?
Mary Salata [00:40:49] Oh, they would much often than they do now. Of course, there was only- The only transportation we had was a streetcar. And of course we lived where we didn’t have to use a streetcar. But to go downtown we had to use a streetcar. My mother used to walk downtown. That was only 7 cents. To save 7 cents, she would walk.
Interviewer [00:41:17] How far was it, the walk?
Mary Salata [00:41:19] About three miles. She’d have to go over the bridge.
Interviewer [00:41:25] It would take her, what, about a half hour?
Mary Salata [00:41:29] [inaudible]
Interviewer [00:41:32] What about church? How far away did you live from your church?
Mary Salata [00:41:36] Not very far. It was, I would say, about 10 to 15 minutes.
Interviewer [00:41:43] How about the grocery store?
Mary Salata [00:41:47] The grocery store was on West 14th and Auburn. It was an A & P. At that time it wasn’t- You didn’t get your own products. There was a clerk behind the counter and you told her what you wanted and she would go get it. We would stand at the counter and then she would hand it over the- And she would get everything.
Interviewer [00:42:15] Did you guys have a certain day you would go shopping? Sunday you’d go to church. Did you do things on certain days?
Mary Salata [00:42:23] Yes. My mother would shop when she came home on Saturday morning. She would stop at the market before she came home, and she would make her- She would make her Sunday dinner. Whether we had breaded pork chops or she’d have stuffed cabbage. That’s what she made. Then on Sunday- [audio cuts out] [00:43:03] -she would make it on Saturday.
Interviewer [00:43:07] What would be the week schedule for say your dad or your mother or even you?
Mary Salata [00:43:15] Those three-day meals, like stews, soup. It wasn’t like we had, like we do today.
Interviewer [00:43:22] Like during the week, like, your father worked from- When did he work from what time and then what would he do after?
Mary Salata [00:43:34] He worked three shifts. He would work 7 to 3, 3 to 11. And most of the time we would leave at 4 o’clock as soon as my dad came home. And that was just before my mother left for work. But she would have something that- Most of the time it was actually that was ground meat roast.
Interviewer [00:43:57] What’d your dad do after a day at work? Or before or after. What did he do?
Mary Salata [00:44:04] Well, there was always something to do out in the yard. [inaudible]
Interviewer [00:44:11] What do you do for fun? Hobbies?
Mary Salata [00:44:15] Play cards. Play cards. Play cards with my brothers. And he would want me to play, but I hated cards, to this day.
Interviewer [00:44:28] Gamble?
Mary Salata [00:44:29] No. [inaudible] It wasn’t very much to do. There was no television.
Interviewer [00:44:42] How about your mother? What did she do in her spare time?
Mary Salata [00:44:44] My mother, I learned from my mother, you don’t waste a minute. You either do it with your hands or your head. So I would ignore- My mother would always ignore me. She was always crocheting. That was my mother. She never sat down doing nothing.
Interviewer [00:45:12] Did she hang out with lot with the other ladies in the neighborhood?
Mary Salata [00:45:18] She was sociable. She had too much- And at that time, we didn’t have automatic washing machines and we didn’t have automatic dryers. If you washed you hung outside during the summertime, and during the winter you hung it in the basement. Monday was always wash day. Tuesday was ironing day. And ironing, especially when we had men in the house. And my brothers were older and had white shirts, so that took time to iron. And then, of course, she worked. Had to go to work and make a meal.
Interviewer [00:46:02] What about your brothers? What did they do?
Mary Salata [00:46:08] They played ball. Most of the time they played ball out in the street.
Interviewer [00:46:12] Baseball?
Mary Salata [00:46:13] With the kids, yeah.
Interviewer [00:46:21] When did your brother become a cop?
Mary Salata [00:46:31] [inaudible] I can’t remember- [inaudible] Must have been ’36. ’36, ’37.
Interviewer [00:46:54] What police force did he work for?
Mary Salata [00:46:55] Cleveland. Cleveland. But then at the end of his career, he was a detective. [inaudible]
Interviewer [00:47:14] And I guess one last question. If they did not, your husband didn’t want to move, would you still be in Tremont?
Mary Salata [00:47:22] I believe so. I believe so, yeah. I only moved- Well, when I was younger, we moved when we bought the house. But I just remember Allman Court and [inaudible]. And we’ve been there for 51 years.
Interviewer [00:47:45] Do you like the neighborhood?
Mary Salata [00:47:47] Oh, yes. Very much so, yes. It’s very comfortable. [inaudible] services. I don’t want to cut my grass. They [inaudible] my snow. They have a bus that takes us everywhere. Shopping Thursdays and Fridays and [inaudible] for senior citizens.
Interviewer [00:48:15] Thank you for your time. I appreciate it.
Mary Salata [00:48:18] [inaudible]
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
