Abstract
Edward Maichrye shares his experiences growing up in the Tremont neighborhood. Born in 1929 to immigrant parents from Poland, Maichrye discusses his family's cultural heritage and the close-knit community that defined his upbringing. He reflects on his education, local social activities, and the significant role of the church in his life. The narrative also addresses the challenges faced by residents during the Great Depression and World War II, as well as the impact of urban development on the neighborhood. Maichrye's account provides a detailed perspective on the historical and cultural dynamics of Tremont during the 20th century.
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Interviewee
Maichrye, Edward (interviewee)
Project
Tremont History Project
Date
2003
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
45 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Edward Maichrye interview, 2003" (2003). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 223060.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1384
Transcript
Edward Maichrye [00:00:01] We’re going.
Interviewer [00:00:02] Okay. Mr. Maichrye, could you please tell me your full name?
Edward Maichrye [00:00:06] Edward David Maichrye.
Interviewer [00:00:07] Could you please spell Maichrye for me?
Edward Maichrye [00:00:09] M A, I, C, H, R, Y, E.
Interviewer [00:00:12] Thank you very much. Okay. Do you remember any of your childhood memories?
Edward Maichrye [00:00:19] Yes. Oh, yes.
Interviewer [00:00:21] Could you tell me some of them?
Edward Maichrye [00:00:23] How far back do you want me to go?
Interviewer [00:00:25] Anything you remember about the neighborhood growing up here and where you hung out or what you did.
Edward Maichrye [00:00:30] I live on a little street that’s gone now, Clarence Court. [tape stops and resumes] Okay. So in back of the properties, you went down over the hill and another 50, 60ft down, there was two creeks used to come through here. I don’t know if you’ve been there, but on 11th Street. You go down at a football field, come off 11th Street. Well, from that farm, there used to be a creek went all the way down. It went underneath the railroad track, there was a culvert and went into the Cuyahoga River. Yeah, up this way, I’d say about 200 yards from that creek was another creek. And it came from the edge of the hill here where 90 is. And it followed right across and it went right into the Cuyahoga River.
Interviewer [00:01:25] And it’s all-
Edward Maichrye [00:01:26] But they covered that about 75 feet of, what do you call it? Junk before, for flag and everything from the [inaudible]. And there used to be a ground that always burned down. It was peat moss. And they used to come and get peat from the city and everybody until finally they flooded it off. They put it out and they covered it all up. There used to be springs and we played in it. We played in the swamps. We played everywhere.
Interviewer [00:01:54] Yeah. Hung out.
Edward Maichrye [00:01:56] Okay. We were friends, you know. Every street had a bunch of kids who played together. We played ball against West 11th Street. Take on St. [inaudible], that whole. But when they made the free room in the 90 is, they wiped everything out. They wiped all of this up. Broke the whole neighborhood up.
Interviewer [00:02:13] Yeah.
Edward Maichrye [00:02:14] One time we were a stronghold here as far as ethnic people.
Interviewer [00:02:19] If I might ask you, you’re Polish, right?
Edward Maichrye [00:02:21] Right. Okay.
Interviewer [00:02:22] Because then Danny said that did the people who lived in the community, were they mostly Polish?
Edward Maichrye [00:02:28] No, we had we on Clarence Court, let’s see, we had- Ray was Russian. [audible] was German. Smokey was a Cheyenne Indian. Then we had Ukrainians, Polacks, Russians. It was just a conglomeration of people. They were poor people, now let’s face it. You know, 1939, 1936, you know, from the ’30s, beginning of the ’30s, there wasn’t- Guys were working for 14 cents an hour. Anything you could do, we used to pick up bottles. And we [scavenged], we recycled before recycling started. Because you got, for a bushel of glass, you got a nickel if it was clear glass. Hey, you know, that helped mama, [inaudible], but everybody pitched in. Most of the people that lived in this whole area, you’d have to go to 55th and Broadway, to Fleet Avenue and come right across Harvard to Lake, for instance, 25th Street, come back down 25th Street, till you hit Abbey and come across Abbey till you went down into the Flats here, you know, by Scranton Road. Everybody worked either Du Pont or Republic Steel, Otis Steel at that time, you know, then it become LTV and all that. But it was really Otis Steel originally. There was gigantic smokestacks that they knocked them all down after the war. Yeah, because they got rid of making manufacturing open hearth steel. Okay, so that’s why, you know, and we played like you said. Where did we play? Anywhere. Nothing unusual. See kids barefoot with torn bib overalls, running around the neighborhood. Made our own baseball fields down there and played baseball.
Interviewer [00:04:19] Okay, I got a question here about the park. Do you remember? Or Lincoln Park, do you remember when that was built?
Edward Maichrye [00:04:23] Well, it’s four, I believe, four and a half acres. And it was when they built, when I was a kid yet, in the center where you see the pavilion now, that used to be a pool-
Interviewer [00:04:35] Yeah, I remember
Edward Maichrye [00:04:36] And they used to have sprays. And that was, what do you call it, our swimming pool at Lincoln Park. We used to go wading in there and the mothers would walk with their kids. It was a thing. And where the swimming pool is now, there used to be a big pavilion up there where they had bands, you know, different bands used to come. Polack, Russian, Ukraine, all kind of different bands. And Italian, Greek, everybody. So this was just a conglomerate of people that came from the old country. And most of them were steel workers, iron workers, or you know, coal miners. So they just moved right in. And they were- But they were neighbors, they were friends. They knew they were in the same boat and they rode that boat together. Not like today. I’m sorry about the kids. I feel sorry for the kids. They’re so diversified and everybody got their eye on that computer to do everything for you. And that computer is not going to do everything for you if you can’t get it in your own God-given brain.
Interviewer [00:05:29] Yes, sir.
Edward Maichrye [00:05:29] Because whoever feeds that computer, feeds it wrong, you’re going to get the wrong answer. This is one thing I, you know, I always compare myself, my upbringing, like we all went to a school of hard knocks. Couldn’t afford it. But let’s face it, [inaudible] the only thing we learned. But we played down the field. Anywhere we played. We played Lincoln Park. They had swings there. They had swings for little kids that you locked them in and swing. They were the small swings called baby swings. Then they had a bigger one. Then they had the bigger one for the, you know, teenager, you know, go real. Then they had chinning bars and parallel bars and everything for all the muscular. Yeah, see, that we had- We made do with whatever was out there. Was out there. We did. And we made our own sled riding runs and we had a place called Humpty Dumpty. We walked to the edge of Armor, walk up to the edge of the hill. If you put a sled there, you can ride for five minutes. And if you could drive down to the ice pond, you can go all the way to Clark Avenue Bridge. Oh, we used to have sleds.
Interviewer [00:06:35] Oh, nice.
Edward Maichrye [00:06:35] Oh, yeah. You got kids used to make barrel stave skis and go down. [crosstalk] But see, we had to do it for ourselves. We didn’t have the money to. It was depression, let’s face it. Yeah.
Interviewer [00:06:46] Did you move to Tremont or did your parents come to the area?
Edward Maichrye [00:06:50] My father and mother came. I was born in the house on Clarence Court. Billy Cotam’s mother was a midwife. Her, Mrs. Kalinsky, Mrs. Uhale, Mrs. Lizzo and Mrs. Veloci. Now, they’re three different nationalities, but they helped my mother. They had [inaudible] and I came out with [inaudible], thank God, you know. It worked.
Interviewer [00:07:21] Did you always live here in Tremont? Were you-
Edward Maichrye [00:07:23] Yes. Well, I lived for a while, for about six months after my wife and got married. I lived on 52nd Street, right back of Mayor Perk. Well, right across the street, Mayor Perk there. And I knew him real good. I knew Ralph real good. And then we went on rent over here. She was with her mother and father. We came over here after about six months and moved in with the Santowskis on Auburn Avenue. We’ve been there ever since. And then from there we moved over here. We bought this house 31 years ago, and we’re still here.
Interviewer Did your family speak Polish in the house when you were a kid or a lot of it?
Edward Maichrye [00:08:05] We spoke Polish, we spoke English, we spoke Ukraine, sometimes Russian. Depends who was over visiting. Yeah, I mean, see, this is- That’s why it’s hard to say. But my mother always talked Polish and we talked English to her, too, because she had a go out in the world and meet, you know, people. So we give her both ways. How she learned. She could read English. She could read the paper, tell you about it, yeah, but she couldn’t speak English real fluently.
Interviewer [00:08:36] Did. Did your parents work in the neighborhood? Did they work around here?
Edward Maichrye [00:08:41] My father worked in the open hearth. Then he worked for the railroad at the roundhouse. [phone rings] Then he worked at the lead factory. That’s where he was. He never had a permanent job. If you worked in them days- I hired him for 16 cents an hour. And your brother walked in on your friend and said, I’ll do my job for 14 cents now. Yes. I’m sorry, you’re fired. We hired him. Yeah, that’s the way it was. People used to bid for jobs, you know, to get a job. Young kids, we used to do anything to earn a buck. We used to walk all the way out to the other side of. How would I tell you? Sprague Road. All along there where they had all the orchards. They had orchards there and they used to raise all kinds of stuff. We used to go there and they used to call it going out to Hoosiers. The guy would pick you up right up by the market on 25th with his pickup truck, you know, and he’d drive you out there and we used to pick apples for him, anything he had, what was in season. Just like the migrant workers coming across Mexico. We used to do that here. All the kids did. Everyone. When you come home sometimes at the end of the day, you were there at 7 o’clock in the morning and you come home and it’s dark again and you’re just a kid, 12, 13 years old, and you hand your mother a dollar that you made because you picked all- That dollar, to your mother, she was in second heaven. Yeah, you know, the primary view, work, they paid, you know, they paid you good for what you did. But you see, the family always worked. All the money came to the family. Not I put it in my pocket, I earned it. It isn’t that I earned it. Family first, family was second. You know, medicines and whatnot. And then your father, like my father used to always say, well, here’s 10%. He’d give you 10%. If you made a dime, you got a penny. If you made a dollar, you got a dime, and dime in that money meant, that’s two double dips of ice cream.
Interviewer [00:10:35] When you got older, did you continue to work in the Tremont area in the neighborhood, or did you find jobs other?
Edward Maichrye [00:10:40] Well, I worked on construction. I worked in [inaudible] construction, putting in gas mains. I worked at White Motors for 12 years. And got a little flare up there after I come out of the service and not had to quit there. So I went and got a job working for [inaudible], putting in gas mains all over, you know, cross country and everything for them. They were big outfit for culverts and tunneling and all that. So did that for nine and a half years. And then my father got me a job at the plumbing shop in a warehouse and I spent 49 years there. I didn’t complain. I had a good job.
Interviewer [00:11:25] Good. Did anybody from the neighborhood work in the same places or did when you got jobs and like people stick together where they worked?
Edward Maichrye [00:11:34] Well, we- Like if I got a job on construction, I got the job there first. You weren’t working. I told my boss, I got a few kids. I’m sure you’ll appreciate me as a worker. And every kid was a worker. Nobody ran away from work. Nobody- The one thing your father and mother taught you when I was a kid, learn to love work. Never be afraid of work. Because, buddy, you’re gonna have to work someday.
Interviewer [00:12:02] Yeah.
Edward Maichrye [00:12:03] You don’t know when or where, but it’s gonna work. You better learn how to change a tire, put in a spark plug or something. At that time, we couldn’t afford to pay these guys. They can pay them anything you want, you know, take it to a dealer, take it into that dealer. You didn’t have dealers in them days, you know, if you took it to a dealer, you could have bought another car for what they were charged. Same thing like today. So we had to learn by yourself. You learned everything you, you know.
Interviewer [00:12:30] Now, where did- When you were around teenager, where did kids go on dates and what did they do around here in the neighborhood?
Edward Maichrye [00:12:41] Dates? Well, dates would be like- That was none of that hanky panky stuff you see today, believe me. Nobody had cars and all of that, you know, mostly bicycles. So we’d get together, hey, let’s go to Brookside Park. Sure. Yeah. So not just one and one, you know, the whole gang went. Girls came with the guys. Lived on your street. They were your friends, you know, and you said, come on, let’s go. And then we would all go to Brookside Park swimming or Edgewater Beach swimming or, you know, something like that. Or we’d go down to the canal fishing off of Harvard-Denison down there where the Ohio Canal- We used to go fish there or fish Rocky River in bunches. The whole gang would go, but with the girls. Girls would come too. And there wasn’t a girl in this neighborhood who didn’t Know how to play football, baseball, basketball. Before these kids went to college to learn it, these kids were playing, because that’s the only way we could do it. To keep our own- We made our own enjoyment. We used to sit down a field there in evenings, especially towards autumn, and we’d build a fire. We used to roast hot dogs and marshmallows and put- We used to buy those big potatoes, main potatoes, and stick them in the ashes at a fire and cover them up and build the fire over, leave them in there for about an hour, half hour, take ’em out of there, break ’em open. One of the mothers would come down with butter and salt and we’d all sit there and eat the thing. But we had fun. We did it. We used to sit around fire singing and everything, you know. There was no television, so radio, we listened to [inaudible]. But basically, you know, it was- We had a camaraderie. If today- If today- I have a brother, Dan, 82 years old, he lives in Parma. If you go up to him and say, dan, who’d you hang around with? He would tell you hang around with Mushy, you hung around with [inaudible], Hooker. Hooker, who? What do you call it? Stinky. Stinky. All nicknames. But he would tell you who their real names were too.
Interviewer [00:14:55] Yeah. Yeah.
Edward Maichrye [00:14:56] To this day, like now. He said he had a kid, lived Tony [inaudible]. They lived in California. He used to call each other on that date every month, once a month since they come out of the Marines. Once a month. That’s been a long time. Since 46 when it got on. He called last year. He didn’t get an answer from Tony. Tony become a minister. So he didn’t get an answer from him. So he called the police in Los Angeles and he told ’em, you better get to that house because it’s 2 o’clock and I’m calling him and I have no answer. And they said something to me, said, if you don’t go there, I’m going to check. He said, if you don’t go there and tell me what’s the matter, then I’m coming. I’m going to fly to California and I’m gonna go see. God help you if there’s anything wrong with Tony. Yeah, well, they found him. He was laying- He had a stroke. He was laying for three days. Nobody saw him. He was in his house. And they called my brother back and told him Tony just passed away about two weeks ago. That was another- Now, you got one friend yet that’s in- One, lives on Albion Road and one lives in Arizona. [crosstalk] That’s the only two guys left of the bunch we hung out with.
Interviewer [00:16:19] Where did people do their shopping? Where’d they get their groceries and stuff from?
Edward Maichrye [00:16:23] Grocery stores were little, little outlets. We didn’t have no big supermarkets like Kroger. Kroger. We had a Kroger. We had a Kroger and we had a Fisher, Fisher over here on 14th Street. But we had family-owned things like Brazonek’s on, Professor ends on Starkweather. Now, there’s still a food and vegetable place there. People, butcher shop, and people still go there, but it’s not [inaudible]. It used to be a family ran. Now. Then you had these Kowal’s. They used to have a butcher shop. They were strictly butchers. And they were on 12th street, just north of Fairfield. And you could walk into it, and most of the people did walk in and say. I would go in and say, my mother wants so much of this, so much of that. Somebody [inaudible] sauerkraut, they would fresh sauerkraut out of the barrels. It wasn’t cans. He would squeeze it out, he’d weigh it, you know, okay. And he’d give you all of this stuff. You’d add it all up and say, give this to your mother. Put it on a nail. Because you didn’t have money, you had to wait for the payday so you could pay it like on-
Interviewer [00:17:31] Like a credit-based system?
Edward Maichrye [00:17:33] Yeah, but there was no interest and no, you know, bull. You came in there and you said, if there was a sickness in a family, you’d go in and say, well, hey, could I give you half this time? Because I had to take the kid to the doctor, you know, I had other buy- Don’t worry. [speaks with an accent] They were Russians. Don’t worry. You alright, Hef? You need more for your medicine? No, we don’t. We got enough medicine. Alright. Okay, Hef. Okay. He’d mark it off in his record. He’d mark it off on your slip, and that was it. Some people even had pads. He made pads for people. What do you call it? There was a bakery. There was another guy, Adam, on St. Tichon. I can’t tell you all the places. The woman lives across the street now, K-[?] They owned that store over here where they got that art gallery on Fruit Avenue. He was a butcher. Joe. His wife ran the grocery in and he ran the butchery. Joe was a hell of good- Same thing. Everything was books, a pad, you know, and they put it on the date you bought it. They put theirs on their thing, and you had your book and when you paid it, they tore the page out of your book. That page, they pinned it with their page. You know, they kept it with their records so nobody could ever say. They said, well, I didn’t have it in my book. You go back to- It was paid. You’re right, you know, okay, now we start a new one. That’s the way people trusted each other and worked. But everything was- There was a bakery on a corner right here by Tremont School, Mrs. Dydo owned. Across there was a tailor, the S-[?], right next to the library. On what do you call it, on Literary and Thurman Alley, there was a bakery over there. A woman with her two daughters ran it. There was a bakery on Auburn over here on the other side of 14th Street. There was milk dairy there. There was a milk dairy here on Literary. See, everything was, you know, in little shops, individual, you know, you never had to worry about going out of this neighborhood to eat. You had everything you wanted.
Interviewer [00:19:32] Did everybody, like, you know how he said they kept the book? Did everybody know each other from the different shops? Like, could you go to- Did you go to just one or could you- [crosstalk] go anywhere and everybody pretty much knew everybody?
Edward Maichrye [00:19:44] Everybody knew everybody, you know. See, and the thing was, it used to be a joke because 7:30 in the morning and the older boys, who- Even the older guys, 21 and that. You would see ’em all dressed up in suits and everything, walking together up the hill. And some of them would get to the top up there and I’ll see you guys after mass. Yeah, he would go to Saint Theodosius, the orthodox church. We’d be walking and we get down by St. Peter and Paul on College. And the Ukrainian kids would say, well, I’ll see you guys after Mass. Yeah, we went to St. John Cantius. They went to St. Peter and Paul. And the other kids went Saint George, not George’s, Saint what do you call it? Fairfield and 14th Street. That Greek Church. They went there. But then coming back, same thing. We all got out same time. They would meet Peter and they’d all come back down. Then they’d go down the hill and play ball out there where we played, the ballfields and everything. People used to come down there with picnic baskets and everything because that’s what we had to do with. We didn’t have money to, Hey, I’m going to a football game for 80 bucks a ticket. You told - even today, my kids tell me about 80 bucks a ticket to see a kid play a banjo and another kid, yaka, yakka yaka, at a stadium, you paid 80 bucks a ticket? There’s people dying of starvation, you know, and we used to have collections in all the churches once a month. And, boy, everybody made sure at least put a nickel in there for the poor people they were putting in the other. Nobody asked us. We did it.
Interviewer [00:21:22] You just did it.
Edward Maichrye [00:21:24] Everybody did it. Hey, the poor people. You gotta worry about the poor people.
Interviewer [00:21:27] Now, you said St. John Cantius was your church?
Edward Maichrye [00:21:29] Yes, I was baptized there, and I’m still there. Yeah.
Interviewer [00:21:35] Did a lot of your family or a lot of your neighbors go to Cantius, too?
Edward Maichrye [00:21:39] Or most of the Polacks, actually, because it was a Polish church. And the Ukrainians who lived next door to me, they went to the Ukrainians, they went to St. Peter Paul’s Church. That was a Catholic school. And then the Russians, they went to Saint- But there was a. Yeah, didn’t matter. We were Christians. Yeah, See that, we looked at it that way, too. We were Christians.
Interviewer [00:22:00] Was the mass set in Polish?
Edward Maichrye [00:22:03] Oh, it still is.
Interviewer [00:22:05] Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Was a church used for anything else? Did they have anything socially at the church?
Edward Maichrye [00:22:13] They had dances at St. John Cantius years ago. And I got pictures of it someplace. In fact, I noticed a couple of pictures in the church. You know, Oklahoma, the play? [Yeah.] They put it on in Polish. Oh, yeah. My brother Dan was in it. My father was in it. My aunts and uncles were all in it, you know, and then all kind of- But they actually had, and I still remember they sang it in Polish, “[sings, in Polish] Oklahoma!” You know, they’re from Oklahoma and they were singing it. We came this way because this is our way and, you know, the whole song. But all the things were in Polish, all the words, you know, correctly. They didn’t know where to put the people. And they did it outside, too. They had to. They didn’t have no stage. So they built the platform and that’s what it had.
Interviewer [00:23:04] What else was it church for?
Edward Maichrye [00:23:06] Well, yeah, they had dances and weddings and, you know, anything social, the church at one time, in this neighborhood, everybody’s individual church, like St. Peter and Paul, they had for their people, they kept it- What did you call it, ethnicity or whatever you want to call it, you know, of each parish, they kept the old traditions. And today, Saint Theodosius and Saint Peter and Paul still carry that. And now we got a new pastor, Father Lucian. He’s bringing it back. This is what it’s all about, you know, this is it. You could be the poorest man in the world as far as people are concerned. But like we always said here, God loves you. So do I. You’re the richest man that’ll ever walk. And they still can, they still keep that, see. And today you could stop and talk to anybody. Today, the Golden Agers, church-sponsored. Most of your churches sponsored the Golden Agers. And they go now and this thing is spread not only to, like you say, Roman Catholics, but into the Byzantines and into the Orthodox - Up here they have all their carnivals and everything. And everybody goes to everybody’s carnival. Believe it or not. The only Polacks don’t, not only Polices come to our carnival. Everybody comes and people come from Fleet Avenue and from Lakewood and all over. Because people know these are people.
Interviewer [00:24:35] Yeah, real people.
Edward Maichrye [00:24:36] And we cook strictly homemade meals. Nothing from cans. Everything is homemade.
Interviewer [00:24:40] From scratch, huh?
Edward Maichrye [00:24:43] Yeah. From pierogi to golumpki to anything.[crosstalk] Everybody laughs about it, but that’s the way we are. And we have a certain pride. They want to keep that pride because America to us, America was our gift that we wanted, that they searched for. Not necessarily me, but I got my own reason, but my mother and father. It was the freedom they were looking for, the religious freedom, the ability to say what you want to say when you want. Now they’re trying to switch everything around and come up with all this bull. Where the money is, that’s what they want. Well, I hope you all live to be millionaires and die because I’m sure when you die your family’s gonna worry so much about you. Or is it the money they’re worried about? I often wonder which do they miss most, the fact he was bringing in millions or the fact that he’s dead? I don’t know what.
Interviewer [00:25:34] Yeah, I get what you’re saying.
Edward Maichrye [00:25:35] You know, you get what I’m driving.
Interviewer [00:25:37] Do you have any memories of what it was like during the World War? During World War II?
Edward Maichrye [00:25:41] I spent three years over there. Yeah. I turned 18 on March 7th. I graduated in February. 17 years old. 18 years old. March the 7th and March 14th when we called up this draft. So you see? So that’s where a lot of the older people like my age, now, the older guys, go to the [inaudible] old veterans’ post where the old vets are, and you’ll see the difference in that type of person. And my big thing - it’s crazy, I know - I spent three years, like I say, and I won a scholarship to college - not here, in Massachusetts - before I went to the army. I was supposed to be there in August. In August I was. And so when I come back I applied, but they said they were sorry but they had to give the scholarship that year, which- [crosstalk]
Interviewer [00:26:43] What did you win it for? Grades?
Edward Maichrye [00:26:45] Yeah, I wouldn’t be- I couldn’t do that now. I couldn’t play football. 135-pound [inaudible], you know. But anyway, but I ran track. I love track. Yeah, I used to love to run and- But anyway, like I say, they told me they’re sorry. Then when I applied for the government through the VA, they told me that they checked all my records and I turned down scholarship, so they don’t have to be liable.
Interviewer [00:27:14] Jeez.
Edward Maichrye [00:27:15] Now, had I had a lawyer and come from a good family from dough and knew the angle, I would have never have gone into service. I could’ve been going to college.
Interviewer [00:27:25] Where’d you serve at? What part of the-
Edward Maichrye [00:27:28] We went through- We come in Marseilles. I went through France, Belgium. I was in Holland, Germany, Austria. Ended up in Italy. [crosstalk] 28, 2800 miles. I mean Europe. I walked 2800 miles according to logistics that they have on the maps and books.
Interviewer [00:27:51] Yeah. Were you in the army? U.S. Army?
Edward Maichrye [00:27:53] Yeah. So called the Ranger. So called infantry, glorified infantry. You’re just stupid. To me. I always say that because if I would have known after I did it, you know, because I volunteered. See, I wanted to be a paratrooper.
Interviewer [00:28:07] Yeah.
Edward Maichrye [00:28:07] I was training for a paratrooper. They shipped us all into emergency to go over because that boat [inaudible] starting. They chased, they took us over. I went over on the Queen Mary to Scotland and around the Horn through Marseilles, then boom, we were there. We were leaders while getting hell knocked out of us. And we ran right into, right into the tiger cage. First freaking night.
Interviewer [00:28:28] Yeah. Please tell about it.
Edward Maichrye [00:28:32] What a day to- Well, you still dream about it some.
Interviewer [00:28:36] Yeah.
Edward Maichrye [00:28:38] They say, you know, it’s easy to shoot a guy. It’s real easy. [inaudible]
Interviewer [00:28:43] Yeah.
Edward Maichrye [00:28:44] Even dream. You dream sometimes. You know, with me around Christmas, I get jittery. I get fidgety, because I know if I go to sleep, I’m gonna dream.
Interviewer [00:28:52] Yeah.
Edward Maichrye [00:28:52] You know, because I- I fought mostly in pine forests in the mountains and everything, you know, and I can remember things, you know, they come to you when you least expect it. You wake up in the middle of the night, you’ve got sweat all over you and you know, but it’s, it’s, it’s. It’s not- [inaudible] It’s not that kind of thing and the- You learned what fear was and you learned how to handle it.
Interviewer [00:29:12] Yeah.
Edward Maichrye [00:29:13] You were scared of it, but you said, hell with it. Do the job first [inaudible]. And that’s the same thing when we lived here when the kids were growing up. How many times you know, man, you know, most of the kids joined the three Cs, the Civilian Conservation Corps, because you got 21 bucks a month, kiddo. You kept five and the rest went to your mother and your family, helped support your family. Could you ask for anything better? The government did that. Roosevelt did a lot of stuff. I loved that guy. Even when I was in the service, I loved that guy. He tried to hold the war back as long as he could. But hey, when the time came, there was no way. He didn’t just say like this guy, we think, we know, you know, and we went. You learn the hard knocks, you know, so. But like I say, we come back home and everybody started going back to their job and you find out a lot of your jobs were gone. They innovated, they went into different kinds of ways of doing things. Technology starting to open up. You know, you didn’t know none of that. All you knew was you shoot the guy. That’s all you know because he’s shooting at you, say you like to do. But then the kids come back and the guy, oh, we had good guys here, we had bad guys here. John Potowski, public enemy number one. My God, he was the biggest bank robber there was. Heck yes. The FBI was between Clarence Court and St. Tichon. It was an alley and he lived at second house down from the alley. He used to stand by Tremont School over here. And Bill, the cop, who was guarding the school kids, you know, a big-hearted and lovable guy. And I still remember he used to stand there with his mother, the other mother owned a- What do you call it, on the corner of Tremont and Jefferson. She owned a candy store, you know, you know, bread, butter and stuff like that. But it was mostly candy. And he used to stand there be talking to the cop, giving kids lollipops. Were you a good kid in school? You get a lollipop. Next thing you know- They used to call them the Phantom [inaudible]. Once he got down over that past 6th Street into the valley, forget it. No, nobody knew- He knew that place. He played all his life since he was a kid. He knew every tunnel under there. You know, there was tunnels made out of concrete like sewers going underneath the Cuyahoga River. You know, you could run down by the- One was by the, what do you call the station roundhouse where they used to fix trains, you know, engines. There was a door down there. If you go through that door - you could run- you come up where the Sohio used to have- Sohio used to have a Sohio purification place up there. You know what they used to have by the big Sohio for gasoline. They made gas there; they separated from- You’d come up on the bottom of that in the boiler work. He knew all [inaudible] when we were kids. [crosstalk] We used to play, go through the dark tunnels, you know, with a torch in your hand, boy. You know, little kids playing with, sneaking in. We used to have dreams too. And, you know, fantasies.
Interviewer [00:32:34] Yeah.
Edward Maichrye [00:32:34] But our fantasies always ended up on reality.
Interviewer [00:32:37] Yeah. Now you’re married?
Edward Maichrye [00:32:42] Are we married?
Interviewer [00:32:43] Yeah.
Edward Maichrye [00:32:43] Yeah. Well, 54 years. [crosstalk] I think we’re- I think we’re concreters.
Interviewer [00:32:48] Yeah. Pretty locked in.
Edward Maichrye [00:32:49] Yeah.
Interviewer [00:32:52] Were you married at St. John Cantius?
Edward Maichrye [00:32:54] No, we were married at Our Lady of Lourdes because that was where her parents came from. 52nd- Well, 55th there, you know, on Broadway? Our Lady of Lourdes Church.
Interviewer [00:33:04] Was she from Tremont?
Edward Maichrye [00:33:06] No, she was from Lourdes. She was from 52nd.
Interviewer [00:33:09] Oh, so that was her neighborhood.
Edward Maichrye [00:33:10] Yeah, that was her neighbor- Across the street from George Perk.
Interviewer [00:33:13] Do you know how- You remember how you met her?
Edward Maichrye [00:33:15] Yeah, in the roller rink. Oh, yeah. Rollercade. She always gets mad at me because I was standing talking to two of my buddies. I didn’t even know her. I still tell her she- I used to always pray to the good mother in heaven because she saved me in an accident. And I said to her, you pick the woman for me. That’s it. And I still live by the [inaudible]. And she skated by with her girlfriend. First time I ever saw her. And I told my buddies - they’ll tell you - I said, hey, who’s that girl? And they said, I don’t know. I gotta get to know her. I’m gonna marry her next day.
Interviewer [00:33:56] What? [crosstalk] Yeah.
Edward Maichrye [00:33:57] I said, I gotta marry her. So I went down there, walked up and asked her to skate, and I told her. She always said, oh, it’s like, embarrassing. I don’t. It was a fact. I told her, you know, and I got on a bus with her. I left the car there, got on the bus going out on Scranton. Bus took us, dropped us off on 14th Street. Took the 14th Street bus across the bridge. We walked to 55th and Broadway. That’s how the bus used to go. And we walked over there and I kept telling her on the bus, you know, 11 o’clock, slaughterhouse just left out. And I was saying, you better tell me your name, Dear. How am I going to marry you next May if you don’t tell me your name now and we don’t get to know each other? I knew. I knew right away. That was the one. Everybody was joking about it.
Interviewer [00:34:52] Oh, that’s awesome.
Edward Maichrye [00:34:53] The good Lord picked her. I think she got the worse end of the deal.
Interviewer [00:35:00] Was your reception over at Lourdes too?
Edward Maichrye [00:35:02] Yeah, it was across the street by the Slovak, yeah, hall.
Interviewer [00:35:06] Was it? Can you tell me what it was like, the reception?
Edward Maichrye [00:35:11] Typical Polack, Polack way.
Interviewer [00:35:14] Yeah?
Edward Maichrye [00:35:14] Oh, yeah. Kielbasi was being carried around and kapusta and the whole works, you know, everything was there. [inaudible] Everything. Yeah. Yeah. My mother- My mother made 87 pounds of kielbasi, homemade. We made it homemade. Wow. And I think it was- She said 50 pounds of canned sauerkraut, that went. Her mother had that sweet and sour cabbage that, you know, with onions. That went. Everything went. Everything went. In fact, we were coming back home, my brothers were coming across Clark Bridge, you know, to come back home, and Ch-[?], he’s dead now, and Eddie D-[?], real nice kid. He was on top of the car. He didn’t have no- [inaudible] One guy was holding his hand from the front, the two guys- And the two other guys had his leg that were in the back. He would- A guy laid on top of the thing. And my brother Dan, he carried a quarter keg of beer from that hall through the swamp - he was drunk - through the swamp and everything. And he brought it up and put it in the [inaudible]. Because tomorrow morning got to be [inaudible], you know, morning after, [inaudible]. And the other- My other brother bought six quarts of booze. [inaudible] We had a good time. It was a nice wedding. And we started- We went up to beyond Niagara Falls, Muskoka Lakes. And I come out of the plane and hooked my head. I got banged up in the service one time [inaudible]. I couldn’t do nothing. So we had to drive all the way back to Niagara Falls, find an osteopath, they call there. We call them chiropractic. The guy set my neck up. So I said, we’re not going to drive back 300 miles. She said, no. I said, come on, we’ll do Niagara Falls on the Canadian side. We stayed there for a week, drove home. But that building. We had a good time and we come home. She felt so bad because, heck, [inaudible] Yeah, well, what are you gonna do? Good mother. [inaudible]
Interviewer [00:37:28] Yeah.
Edward Maichrye [00:37:29] My whole life is based on hers. I try to teach my kids that. If you’re in trouble, there it is. It goes everywhere I go. I have four, and I say one in the morning in church, every day I walk, and I say the one divine mercy and I do the same thing at night when I sit outside. But I got nothing to do. I just sit outside and [inaudible]. So you know, and I have no regrets about it. I don’t say, Oh, I don’t have this and I don’t have that. I did- I worked two different jobs to put my kids through school as much as I could, you know. Never had a new car before. I ended up having this triple bypass, I bought a brand-new car for my wife. Paid cash for it. Yeah. I said, you don’t owe nobody. If I kick off on that table or nothing, that’s your car. No one can take it away from you. Thank God I pulled through. And, you know, I mean, everything shaped up, so I still got to watch it. My life’s in his hands, always has been. You know.
Interviewer [00:38:39] I’m going to switch it up a little. [inaudible] questions. Do you remember anything about when they bought out the houses in the area to make the highway?
Edward Maichrye [00:38:49] Yeah, they took my mother’s house, they took my brother Dan’s house, my brother John’s house, and my brother Adam’s house. He took all of Clarence Court. And my one brother worked on Laverne, you know, in Parma there. He went into Laverne off of 55th. And my other brother lives on [inaudible], south of Pleasant Valley. And my other brother Norris, them three, and my brother Stanley moved out on Brookdale. They brought everything out there. Well, we didn’t have a house, but I owned this. They didn’t have to take it.
Interviewer [00:39:33] In your opinion, how has the neighborhood changed?
Edward Maichrye [00:39:36] Changed?
Interviewer [00:39:37] Yeah. What’s, you know, what’s the differences?
Edward Maichrye [00:39:39] Well, buildings or building knock down a lot of homes. I mean, this is a transitional period, I guess, for young people, though I can’t see the cost of- And this house I paid $13,500 for and the guy gave me a thousand five off of [inaudible]. Okay. It’s going to cost me that much to get it fixed. Then the guy was selling the house. I bought it right from the owner. He gave me [inaudible]. So it cost me $12,000. Guy just offered me $135,000. You know, I sell it. Yeah. I’m living. This is where I live.
Interviewer [00:40:15] Yeah.
Edward Maichrye [00:40:15] If I die, I want to die. What the heck. Why I want to go move anywhere else?
Interviewer [00:40:21] Yeah.
Edward Maichrye [00:40:22] You know, I’d have to make friends and I- I love people. I love people. I love to be with people, share their problems. And sometimes you talk better to a stranger. And I realize this ayou know, people could unload on you. Maybe you have friends that you’ve met. I mean, guys in college that are in high school don’t know you from Adam. They’ll tell you things about themselves and how things- Because they had to get it off their chest, and they gave it to you. You don’t know, maybe you don’t give a tinker’s damn about what’s going on. But he got this off. He told somebody that somebody didn’t react like, you know, [inaudible] well, you had a tough one, and they sympathized. [And see, that’s where it starts to bond. That’s why the kids in school start to get to know each other. You see, the high school, they start getting thicker. You know, buddies. They work, they play together, they go off together and just. See, they get thicker, and then the older they get, the thicker. And this guy gets a job over here when he gets out and maybe goes to college, this one goes up there, and then they’re done, you know, and it’s closer and closer. And then you build up your friendships and your bonds between each other, see? That’s what it’s all about. That’s what life is about. [00:41:34] And if you can’t all live in one God, you’re in trouble. You’re in trouble if you try to leave him out. I’m not trying to be religious. I’m trying to tell you a fact. This is a known fact. You know, you’re in trouble sometimes. Sometimes they don’t know the answer, these doctors and everything. And you don’t know the answer. But there’s one doctor that knows all the answers. You know? You could sit down some night in the back out there and say, well, Father, what do you think? I don’t know what it’s all about, but you want me to be like this for a reason. Alright, I’ll be like this for a reason. You want to let me know the reason, tell me. I go, what am I going to do?
Interviewer [00:42:19] Last one I got is, is there anything else you just want to tell me? Anything about Tremont or your neighborhood or your experience here? Anything you want to share?
Edward Maichrye [00:42:28] Well, Tremont was epic at one time. Of all, there was a lot of foreign people from Europe were here, Italy, Germany, France, you name it. We even had a Chinese family on that street. And they talked Chinese. Of course, the young kid knew how to talk English and and he would interpret if the woman wanted something. And up here it was- Everybody helped each other. Now, some of the young kids, they got some ideas in here that now they’re building all them restaurants and all the- I laugh. I said they’re building a- What do you call it? A Bronx, New York, down Professor, where they’re buying houses and changing ’em into restaurants and drinking places. And they’re calling it, you know, Tremont, the Tremont, Tremont. They’re building those big homes down along 300-some thousand dollars. That’s all fine and good. This is an island in the sky. Never forget Ralph Perk showing me things, telling me about things. We were real good friends. And it’s gonna come to pass that this is all gonna go and there’s gonna be nothing but apartments here and buildings here. There ain’t gonna be no homes like you see here, even those big fancy homes, unless they call them bluestones or something. But somebody’s going to want that land, that they’re gonna just take it. Eminent domains are going to come in, you know, like they try to pull them. But see, this is what really hurt you. That’s where you see the greatest change is the, how would you say it? The closeness of the people? Some of the people here don’t even know their neighbor. And each one considered himself, got a good job, making good money, everything. You know, a lot of them buying those homes that you see they’re professional people. But is there a closeness with their neighbors that they was when we were growing up, when we were young? Today, you know, we, we hear you walk in and you say, oh man. Even if you’d come in now and say, man, you know, I know your brother, you know, oh, your uncle, you’re- Well, he’s- My mother’s pretty bad. She had an operation. [inaudible] I don’t want to hear, I don’t know, you know, but she’s sick, she needs a hand. And Lord, you give everybody their talents. At least whoever’s taking care of her had the talent to do it properly. That’s all I ask. I can’t ask no more because I can’t do nothing. I don’t know what to do. So I know how to pray though.
Interviewer [00:45:11] Yeah.
Edward Maichrye [00:45:12] I pray the good Lord, see? And sometimes prayer, I believe prayer helps a great deal in all of us. And that’s what I say- But see, they won’t today- They don’t have that. If you tell a guy like we- My mother, my mother used to go to a store like this, take her key, you know, some old-fashioned keys with that, put it in the door and clip, hang it up. She would hang the key up. And you said, mom, why do you do that? She said, well, maybe Mrs. Kalinsky or Mrs. [inaudible] need some sugar or flour. She don’t have to break the door down. She could open the door and go take it. But nobody stole from you. They didn’t have to. You were in the same boat with them. They didn’t have nothing you wanted to steal, so you didn’t steal, and if you wanted to use somebody’s tool, you asked him, he gave it to you, you used it, you brought it back to them, you know, always somebody had some tool that somebody could use, but you can’t do that to them because you know yourself. You see it. Actually, you see it more clearly than I do but I will accept. You won’t. That can’t be. Nah, I don’t get that. He wouldn’t do it. Oh yes. We’re all capable of doing it, no matter what it is. We’re all capable of doing it, so you can’t say he won’t do it, or he- [recording ends abruptly]
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