Marion Anita Gardner Interview, 01 July 2025

Abstract

In this 2025 interview, Marion Anita Gardner discusses her early life in Cleveland, memories at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, and her eventual move to the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood. Gardner describes her work as the founder and CEO the Concerned Citizens Community Council on Kinsman Road, her work as a machinist at TRW, and her early education. At the end of the interview, Gardner expresses her love for Cleveland and leaves a message for future generations.

Interviewee

Gardner, Marion Anita (interviewee)

Interviewer

Carubia, Ava (interviewer)

Project

Union-Miles

Date

7-1-2025

Document Type

Oral History

Duration

87 minutes

Recommended Citation

"Marion Anita Gardner Interview, 01 July 2025" (2025). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 483024.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1399

Related Resources

Union-Miles @ Cleveland Voices

Transcript

Ava Carubia [00:00:00] So I have a little spiel I read at the beginning of the interviews, which is today is July 1, 2025. My name is Ava Carubia, and I’m here on Kinsman interviewing Ms. Marion Anita Gardner for the Cleveland Regional Oral History Project. Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed today.

Marion Anita Gardner [00:00:15] Well, you’re quite welcome.

Ava Carubia [00:00:17] And can you please state your name and the year you were born for the record?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:00:24] The year this year?

Ava Carubia [00:00:27] The year you were born?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:00:28] Oh, 1952.

Ava Carubia [00:00:29] And then can you state your name?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:00:30] My name is Marion Anita Gardner.

Ava Carubia [00:00:34] And then where were you born?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:00:35] Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Ava Carubia [00:00:37] All right, so I want to start from there. How did you get up to Cleveland?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:00:41] It’s an actual funny story. My mother was eight months pregnant and my father got a new commission and he sent her this beautiful picture of all him and all his medals. And they’re at a bar in Biloxi, Mississippi. And there are him and a few of his friends. And down at the end, there’s this white woman smiling, but she’s hugging on one of the guys.

[00:01:14] And my mother jumped on the first thing smoking. Now, in 1952, you were not allowed on public transportation that far along because they didn’t allow pregnant women to stop transportation. She didn’t get caught until she got close to Mississippi. And that’s why I was born in Mississippi, because she didn’t like all that.

[00:01:48] She saw that one woman all the way down on the end hugging and smiling, this one guy, and she said, oh, hell no. And that’s why out of all six of my siblings, I’m the only one born in Mississippi. Every. Everybody else was born in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ava Carubia [00:02:08] So how old were you when you moved up here?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:02:10] I was about. I think they allowed her to come after I was six weeks old.

Ava Carubia [00:02:16] Okay.

Marion Anita Gardner [00:02:16] Yes.

Ava Carubia [00:02:17] And then when you came up to Cleveland, where were y’ all living?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:02:20] Quebec, as somebody Quebec, I don’t know how everybody pronounces it, but it’s off 105. It’s between Cedar and Quincy.

Ava Carubia [00:02:31] And how long were you living over there for?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:02:35] My family is still there. Yes.

Ava Carubia [00:02:38] So what do you remember from your early life in that area?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:02:41] I remember living around my, my entire family. My mother’s, my mother’s, my grandmother, my mother’s mother lived in the house 9606 Quebec. My father and mother lived in the house. My cousin Ruby and her parents lived in the house it was all of us. We were all in that house. My mother’s oldest sister, Aunt Juanita, and my her husband, Uncle Jit, and Franny Meatballs, my cousin.

[00:03:22] They lived in the house. Everybody lived in that house. I remember nothing but family. I remember we had three kitchens, one in the basement. We had one on the first floor and one on the second floor. And you could just go from kitchen to kitchen just eating. Somebody was always cooking, somebody was always up.

[00:03:46] It was just my, my grandmother’s sister lived across the street. My whole family lived on Quebec. It was just wonderful. I remember learning how to swim in Gassaway Swimming Pool with my uncle Maceo, my mother’s baby brother, my father. All the men had all the kids in the pool. It was just a huge family situation.

[00:04:14] It was wonderful. You could just go from anywhere in the neighborhood. Everybody knew everybody.

Ava Carubia [00:04:22] And what kind of stuff did you like to do as a kid?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:04:27] Oh, I was a horrible tomboy. We used to have relay races, races around the neighborhood. All the neighbors were sitting on the front porch and all the kids used to be in the middle of the street. And we would have relay races all the way around the neighborhood. I remember Mr. Frosty’s ice cream truck used to come around and everybody knew my aunt sister was good for a cone.

[00:04:51] Yeah, but you had to be the first one to run to her and say, aunt sister, do you want a banana split? I loved it. I loved you. My aunt’s sister had the after hour joint on the street. You know, it was absolutely the coolest neighborhood. It was just there was even white people.

[00:05:13] The Carases lived on the street. It was. Mr. Johnny was building a boat in the front of his house on the street. Mr. and Mrs. Green lived next door to us. Beverly and Debbie Minor lived next door. I remember we met Jim Brown because their father was his attorney and he was always sitting on the porch.

[00:05:47] We was making a lot of noise too. Oh my God. Ms. Beverly was so upset. That’s the first time we ever got called pickaninnies too. Yeah, my mother was tiny. You could hear her all over the neighborhood. My father, oh, she. Oh, she ran her house. My mom ran the house. She was everything.

[00:06:23] When she said stop, even my dad stopped. And my father was all of 6, 6’7 and my mother wasn’t even 5ft. It was just, it was just a neighborhood. The everybody knew you too, so there wasn’t too much you could do. And at the time the teachers from Bolton School lived in the neighborhood.

[00:06:52] So you know, Ms. Scott, all of them lived in the neighborhood so there wasn’t too much you could get away with. The swimming pool in the summertime was everything. You could just run across the street, go through the alley. Everything right there. If a neighbor said, you did it, you did it. You couldn’t explain.

[00:07:17] Was just. It was just a neighborhood, and it was just loaded. I mean, it was packed, kids everywhere. There was Mr. Johnny’s Atomic Market right there on Quebec. And right down the street was the supermarket. Well, it was a market. It was a store. Neighborhood store. Ms. Rosetta owned the dry cleaners right across the street from the store.

[00:07:51] Then it was just. And then next block, 100 Street. Mr. Johnny’s brother had Quebec Food Market. Then across the street from there was Punchies. And that’s where we used to go there and get comic books and sodas. It was just three stores right there. Boom, boom, boom. And then a place where you could get sodas.

Ava Carubia [00:08:22] And where did your parents work?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:08:24] My mom, she mostly stayed home with us because she had five kids. But every now and then she would do day work. My father was construction. He was always working. Some construction company it was. We lived in my grandmother and grandfather’s house, you know, and my grandmother. Grandmother lived downstairs.

Ava Carubia [00:08:53] And then what would y’all? What was the name you referred to when you talked about the neighborhood you were living in? Like, what would you call.

Marion Anita Gardner [00:09:00] All I know is we were all Robinsons. Because my grandfather was the head of the house. So they used to always say, was one of them Robinson kids. Even though we were Mills’s. You know, my father was a Mills, you know, we were just Robinsons because they all knew who we were. One of them Robinson kids.

[00:09:21] All you had to do was tell them what we did. And they could just about tell you which kid was capable of doing that. And nine times out of ten, it was always me. Yeah, I was always doing the flips in the middle of the street. I got in trouble one time because they said, ’Nita, I’d give you a nickel if you do cartwheels all the way to school.

[00:09:44] Bolton Elementary School on Carnegie.

Ava Carubia [00:09:48] Is that where you went to school?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:09:49] I went to school at Bolton Elementary on Carnegie. At the end of the day, I got that nickel. Did I get home and get a whooping? Yes, because all. Everybody saw my panties. I didn’t care. I got that nickel. I was just kind of strange. When I was growing up, I think I was the first one in my family to like what was known as white music.

[00:10:20] You know, Boss Staggs, Blue Dog Night. I was kind of a. Kind of crazy person because I could sing Nesun Dorma from Puccini. Did not know what I was saying, but I could sing that song because I thought it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. I used to get into it with all my sisters and brothers because my mother said, look, let her listen to WXY 1260 for hour.

[00:10:53] ’Nita. That’s all we can stand. That’s all we can stand in this house, right? And. Yeah, but every single summer, my mother. My mother, God bless her, she. She knew me. She would gather all of us around in the summertime because she has so many kids. She says, what are you going to do?

[00:11:16] And she did that because she knew what I wanted to do. I either went to Cooper Art School in the summertime or either the Illuminating Cooking School or something. Always had something to do. I was always volunteering. [Background noise]

Ava Carubia [00:11:41] That’s okay. Yes.

Marion Anita Gardner [00:11:44] I always had something I needed to do. I even couldn’t go to the same school as them. I had to go to Jane Addams. I wanted so much to be a lady. I was the. Oh, my God. Every time you see me, I had a black eye, you know, stomping pop bottles, stick fighting with guys, touch football.

[00:12:11] I didn’t even kind of know I was like a girl girl. You know what I’m saying? I. I hated my brother because he got all the cool gifts. They kept giving me these damn dolls. Oh, look at Nita. You got a doll. He got six shooters. He got caps. They sound like real guns, you know, I used to have to bribe him to get his toys.

[00:12:41] He always got a bow and arrow, you know, I used to show them how to make perfect targets, you know? Let me show you how to use it. You know, I was always not like them, but that was them, you know, And I always felt like them. You know, I wanted to go to Jane Addams, so I would be a lady.

[00:13:07] Went to Jane Addams a [unclear] every day. Oh, my God. But I love that school. By the time I was. I used. I sleep. Sleep a lot. They thought there was something. As a matter of fact, they thought my mother was drugging me because I sleep all the. If you didn’t have my attention, I was sleep or drawing.

[00:13:34] I would always get on the fire escape with stacks and stacks of paper and draw all day. Westside Story came out. I lost my mind. I would sit all day, all day. My mother said, [unclear] she’s not bothering you. She’s not doing anything. She’s not fighting. Leave her alone. One of the craziest things about, you know, my family came from whooping your butt.

[00:14:04] They whooping your butt and my mother was the queen of whooping your butt. And there was this young lady by the name of Vicky Blue. They were the blues they lived on 91st Street right to this day. I love that girl. But Olivet Institutional Baptist Church. OM Hoover. We were the echoes of joy. Quiet.

[00:14:38] And we weren’t. We didn’t even know we were poor because we had so many family members. We always were in the movies. We always. But you had to go to church. Had to go to church. You couldn’t go to the movies if you didn’t go to church. Christmas service is sunrise service. I had this beautiful.

[00:15:06] I’ll never forget that dress. It was a brocade, and it had, like, a Chinese collar to it, and it was white brocade, and it was a tiny red trim around it. It just. Oh, it was beautiful. Oh, I couldn’t believe my mom got me that dress. I looked so much like a girl.

[00:15:28] Oh, I just. I just twirled and twirled and twirled, and I thought it was beautiful. I think that’s why I like Westside Story so much, because Maria had a red dress I really connected with, but I was real young, then. And

Ava Carubia [00:15:47] How old were you?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:15:48] Oh, my God. I had to be about 11 years old.

[00:15:53] And I’m in church. We’re in Olivet Institutional Baptist Church under Hoover. Everybody was there. The whole neighborhood was in Olivet Institutional Baptist Church. And I’m there. I got my bangs, and my mom gave me bangs in my hair, even though it was a big roll of hair. Abraham had the two [unclear] to hold there, you know, I still had the braids in the back, but I still knew I was so gorgeous that day.

[00:16:27] When we’re in church at Olivet and everybody. And we’re in our robes and the whole family’s going down on Sunday morning, swinging till we get up in the altar. It was the perfect Sunday service. My parents are there. They’re all smiling, and all of a sudden, there’s this. And you hear all this giggling.

[00:16:54] And you can’t turn around like this because your parents are looking at you, you know, and you’re going like. So the parents are like. Somebody said, ’Nita, they say, your mama took that dress out of the garbage because that’s Vicki’s dress. This is. No, this is my dress. No, no, no, no, no.

[00:17:20] Vicki says your mother took it out of the garbage because that was her dress. So I’m like, now everybody knows. Don’t do that to me. Every. They did it on purpose. And so finally, somebody grabs the back of my collar and pulls it back. And you know what they did? They always wrote their kids’ name and there was Vicky Blue’s name in the dress.

[00:17:51] And everybody, everybody’s laughing and the parents, some of the parents are starting to stand up like this and everybody’s terrible. So now everybody’s laughing behind me and pinching. Yep. And it’s all going through the whole p-. I didn’t say anything. I just stood up and said, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. And I moved on down, moved on down.

[00:18:12] Then instead of coming down, I went up and I went over and I stood in front of Vicki Blue. And I knocked the hell out of Vicki Blue in church Sunday morning, Christmas day. And I’m wailing her all of a sudden I just, I thought the angels picked me up. It was the pastor.

[00:18:37] Oh, I got my ass –that day and the day after that. I got about five whoopings that day. I mean, all I could do was sit at the. They took my toys. Girl stuff anyway. And everybody was talking about how I embarrass the family. Did not care. I just got it in my mind, she gonna pay for that.

[00:19:24] I’m sitting there at the table, cuz I got another whooping. And my uncle May still came in and said, what the hell is she doing? And I. And then he said, let’s go. I got another weapon. I did, I got another whooping. I got my ass took. I mean, I mean, I mean, I bet you I got five whooping, five whoopings from five different family members, right?

[00:19:50] No problem. I had to stay in my room. Couldn’t watch tv, couldn’t play. My food was brought to me and all of them like some, some of my siblings, you know. Okay, yeah. And my sister Ann shouldn’t have said nothing. So Vicki’s mother came over and her father came over and Vicki came over and I had to go in the room with Vicki’s mother and I got a.

[00:20:18] Yeah, yeah, okay, not a problem. Then I had to say I was sorry and I. You couldn’t say sorry. I’m very sorry and it won’t happen again. And I had to tell Vicki that. And I’m looking at the look on her face and I’m thinking to myself, oh, you can look out. So then school starts back up.

Ava Carubia [00:20:42] And where, which school is this?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:20:44] Bolton Elementary. And Vicki comes out with her. Vicki’s parents were very well to do. I think her father worked for the post office or something. She came out with her little pom-poms. What is that? Little fluffy thing that you put your hands in that is just totally. You don’t. You’re a muff.

Ava Carubia [00:21:05] Yeah.

Marion Anita Gardner [00:21:06] You don’t need it. It’s not supposed to be seen in a Black neighborhood. It’s taboo. She came out with a muff on and a hat. The match and collar that matched the code. And when we got halfway down the street, Vicky’s coat was tore off of her. Her hair was all over her head.

[00:21:26] Her muff was everywhere. I beat the cowboy shit out of her. And her brother Mickey didn’t say anything. Wow. You want some? Okay. By the time I got to school, you know how the neighbors. Okay, I got a whooping in school. Then I came home for lunch and I got another whooping. Then I went back to school and Ms.

[00:21:53] Yeah. Ms. Ford, Ms. Foster, Ms. Crossing Guard hit me with the stop sign. Okay. Then I had to come back home. And then by the time I got home, I got another whooping. Yeah. So then Vicki’s mother and father came over. What’s wrong with this girl? So anyway, I got another whooping. I had to apologize again.

[00:22:21] Then my mother walked me to school and picked me up. I mean she walked me to school the next day and she picked me up. Then when she didn’t walk me to school, she stood on the end of the street and watched me as Vicki and her brother talked shit all the way to school.

[00:22:38] Yeah. Yeah. You won’t do that. Two weeks later, Vicki got her ass whoopped again. And this time I tried to stomp her face. This time, all hell, everybody, the neighbor, who knows what. And my grandmother said, nobody else puts their hand on her. Nobody. My grandmother, she said, I need to know what.

[00:23:00] Nita doesn’t do that. Nita doesn’t do that, sweetest. What’s the problem? So I find, because you’re not. You can’t tell an adult. See in those days you couldn’t tell an adult. You couldn’t say. But she. You’re not allowed to do that. And I told her about Christmas Day. I told her. I told her.

[00:23:21] So they said, okay, well, this needs to stop. She gotta get it one more time. No, me, she’s not gonna get it one more time. You need to stop. This needs to stop. So I promised my grandmother that it was gonna stop. But if Vicky says anything else to me or her brother says anything else to me, I will take that ass whooping.

[00:23:45] I will. And, I mean, they used to beat you with extension cords in them days. No, they beat you until you damn near were unconscious. They beat you until they used to put you in a bathtub with alcohol and water. I never forget. I used to go to school and you know the little blue gym suits they used to put on?

[00:24:04] Everybody had whoopings all over their legs, their arms. You got your ass. Look. That’s what you did in those days. You got your butt beat. They not playing. But then again, I have also seen on 105 and Euclid Avenue, the police, you know, in the 50s where a kid’s acting a fool and the mother holding on to the kid, and the cop just said, you can’t do nothing with that kid.

[00:24:34] And whoop that kid’s ass in front of everybody. And there was nothing that could be done. Nothing. You know, I. I couldn’t believe that. But that’s what it was when we was coming up. So. Yeah, so. But Vicky Blue now? I see her now. Her son was murdered. Her only child was murdered.

[00:24:57] And it just broke my heart. It broke my heart. And she heard the gunshots when he got shot at. But it was years ago. And every time I see her, we just. That’s something that really resonated. I never forget that. And anybody that was in Olivet Institutional Baptist Church at that time will never forget that.

Ava Carubia [00:25:26] Where do you go to junior high?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:25:28] Rawlings Junior High School at Addison. I was the first girl to ever take wood class at Addison Junior High School. The first girl. Because they thought I was a boy. Because Marion is an O with O. They thought I was a guy. Yes. And they said I was one of the best ones.

[00:25:46] Yes. I loved it. My God, I loved it. The first time I ever took a professional art class was in the third grade at Bolton Elementary School. Because we had a few field trip to the art museum and I. And because it was in our neighborhood, we. I. Oh, my God. I could tell you every room of the art museum.

[00:26:10] I loved it. That was one place I always wanted to go to. Always. But I couldn’t stay there at night because for some reason, because of Epworth Euclid, that big church there. I thought vampires lived there, so. Yeah. Seriously. Believed in vampires when I was a kid. Yeah, I’m s-. Yeah, I told you I was strange.

[00:26:33] Seriously? Seriously. Epworth Euclid, that big church there by the museum. I always thought vampires because it was a Catholic Church. And every time you see a vampire movie, what would they always say? Espiritus sanctus. Only thing that could kill it was holy water. So vampires.

[00:26:59] Yeah. That’s how I learned those words. Vampire movies. Yeah.

Ava Carubia [00:27:03] So you had a good experience in junior high?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:27:07] Yeah, because most of the kids didn’t bother me because they knew I would bite. And I was thinking about biting girls in the face. If you thought they didn’t want to get beat, It was just a tomboy. And then I couldn’t understand why you didn’t like me. The next day, it’s over. What are you mad about?

[00:27:27] I don’t know. I was kind of strange. But I painted everything. I painted the basement. Baby said, where’s Nita? She’s in the basement. What is she doing in the basement? My basement. Was there no place you wanted to do? Not in those old houses. We went down there. I had painted all. All the walls. I stole from the school, but I painted murals all over the walls.

[00:27:56] Unbelievable. I used to steal so much when I was a kid because it was just we didn’t have it. I just guess how I don’t take nothing anymore. You know why I stopped taking stuff? We would all go to somebody’s house and my mother said, oh, here’s the thief right here. It’s a thief.

[00:28:19] Now, if she wants to go to the bathroom, anything gets stolen out of your house, check her, you know, And I would, you know, we all and everybody be looking at me and excuse me, can I go to the bathroom? Oh, you better take her. She’ll be ransacking your house. My mother believed in.

[00:28:42] calling the cops on me right now. No, she said, because if you. You’ll steal, you’ll lie. If you lie, you’ll steal, you know. So that broke me up. Girl, if it’s yours, it’s yours you gotta worry about. I was just a strange kid. When I was coming up, I always felt alone because I used to always want to paint my sisters.

[00:29:07] My oldest sister, Ann, she was into dating young, having a good time. I still to this day, don’t drink, don’t smoke. Only time I’ve really been high is when I’ve been in the hospital. You know, I will drink cough syrup or something like that if I got a cold because it puts you to sleep.

[00:29:32] And like I said, I love to sleep. I have always. I love to, shoot. Everything goes away when you’re sleeping. Everything except the nightmares of the night.

Ava Carubia [00:29:44] So then what year did you go to Jane Addams?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:29:47] I graduated. Jane Addams, 1970.

Ava Carubia [00:29:50] Okay.

Marion Anita Gardner [00:29:54] I liked it because it was all girls, because I really wasn’t in the guys, you know, I’m not gay, but I’m just. I don’t know how to date. I’m not a feminine type of girl. You know what I’m saying? I always wanted to be sexy. But like I said before, I poked myself in the eye trying to put on eyeliner, lipstick.

[00:30:17] I didn’t know how to pick it out. I never thought I was pretty or cute. You know what I’m saying? I just, you know, guys really didn’t look at me, you know, because I would beat their ass. They didn’t want to fight. I don’t know. I just wasn’t in the. I was more interested in.***

[00:30:42] I used to do. I used to go to the graves and do the charcoal rubbings on there. I was interested in history. By the time I was 15 years old, I knew every pharaoh from the First Dynasty to the 21st Dynasty. I cried for a week when I found out that Harvard Carter discovered them in the 1930s.

[00:31:09] I thought when I learned about it, it was something new. And I didn’t know. And I was like, you knew and you didn’t tell me? This is important. I thought it was just. I love anything ancient Egypt. Love history, Love history. Horrible at math. If it wasn’t for fingers and toes, I don’t know how I was going to make it.

[00:31:38] I’m a people person. I’m gullible. I tend to believe what you say is true before I find out it’s not. I. I like listening. Welcome to Mt. Pleasant. I like working with my hands. I like any kind of craft. Any kind. I always wanted to learn how to weave. So I did take some classes at Rainey Institute, then learned how to crochet.

[00:32:23] I learned how to knit. I make up my own arts and crafts. I love painting. That’s one of my favorites. I’ve taken a few professional classes, but I find out I like to do it on my own. I don’t know why. My head never shuts up. I have books and books and books and books and books.

[00:33:00] Things that I thought of and wanted to do, you know? I like to jump up in the middle of the night and write it down because I’ll forget it. The older I get, the more I stand. I’d rather stay at home and just be quiet. I tend to get in trouble when I talk because I’m extremely opinionated and I shouldn’t be.

[00:33:31] I always think of myself as the bumblebee. I go from flower to flower to flower to flower. Wow. I like. I like giving gifts, but I’m not good at accepting. I don’t like. If I do something, I don’t necessarily want you to know I did it. I want to be in the dark, you know, I like helping people, people.

[00:34:06] But I don’t particularly like to do that. Does that make any sense? Does that, you know, love my boys. Love, love, love my boys. And it’s not just my sons. It’s my. I’ve always been the boy type of mother. All his friends, they are so stupid. I gotta tell you something. They did.

[00:34:39] You ain’t gonna believe this. I came home one day because my house was the house. All the guys were there because they called my oldest boy Buck. They used to call them Squirrel when he. When he went to John John Adams and he became Squirrel. But everybody. I know when they talk about him, I know when they met him, because they’ll either call him Squirrel or Buck.

[00:35:09] Okay? They was all just, all upset, just crying. They all got the AIDS. What? We all got the AIDS. They was. I mean, just upset they’re gonna die. Aids. They all went to the dirty bookstore and bought some edible underwear. All the guys bought edible underwear and put them on. And they was just walking around, flashing, showing the girls.

[00:35:37] Yeah, come on, baby. Come on. Well, it’s nothing but sugar. And it just ate through their clothes. And they all got the scratching and itching, and they all were scratching and digging and itching through their clothes. So now they bought AIDS underwear. So they got AIDS from the edible underwear store. So they’re all in my house crying.

[00:36:03] They don’t know how to tell their mothers, but they are going to tell me. I said, I got this. No problem. Everybody just. Everybody get a towel, Take your jeans off. Took them, put them in the washing machine, went upstairs, put some baking soda and some warm water in the tub. Every. Everybody got to get in the tub.

[00:36:24] Okay? So. So everybody was. I said, it’s just sugar. And they was digging, too. So it was unbelievable. It was. I couldn’t believe how stupid boys were. And they was like, that’s it. That’s it. Yeah. So every now and then I bring it up because they’re all in their 50s now. Hey, how’s that AIDS going?

[00:36:55] Mama, don’t bring that up. Mama, don’t. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They are the dumbest things you have ever, ever, ever met in your life. And I love them. I. So I’m more. I have two great grandsons. I tell them all the time. Bring them over. Let me ruin them. Get the air off. Yeah, yeah.

[00:37:21] I tell them all the time. Just tell me all the time, mama, they don’t eat sugar and they can’t have this. I said, well, you better take them home. Cuz first thing I do, I said, let’s bake something. They’d be like, I love the boys. I’m not too good with hoochies. I have a great granddaughter.

[00:37:41] Imani. Loved her to death. Lizzo told her that she’s beautiful with no foam [unclear] I can’t get to that, but okay.

Ava Carubia [00:37:55] I want to go back a little bit. After you graduated from Jane Addams, what happened?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:38:00] What did you do? I married the idiot that I was going with. I signed up, I wanted. Well, I signed up for the Navy, but I hurt my ankle, so I was running, actually, I was just running.

Ava Carubia [00:38:20] And then how did you get to Mt. Pleasant?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:38:23] I bought. Okay. I was getting a divorce. Yay. And yes. And I, I, I went job hunting. I. My sister Pat. My sister Pat and I, she said we can. I said, that’s right. So we both went, we both pooled our money and we started job hunting. Okay? Because I left my husband, who was a total idiot, who was sleeping with everybody.

[00:38:52] And I met him at Rollins Junior High School. And I should have known better because he was three years older than me and I met him in the seventh grade. But he said things like, want me to tote that sack for you? Or you going over yonder? Oh, my God. I thought that was French.

[00:39:13] Oh, my goodness. Did you hear what he said? He wants to tote my sack. Okay. He was Southern, Okay. Yeah. I told you I was not the brightest thing in the world when I was a young girl. You know, he was sleeping with all the girls in school, but. And they would all come back and tell me, yeah.

[00:39:37] After the football game, he’s, taking her home. I’m taking. Yeah. He told me all the time, don’t worry about it. I’m sleeping with them, but I’m going to marry you. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay. I guess I think I was the only virgin on a wedding night in the world.

[00:39:54] I don’t know. And it wasn’t much of a wedding night either, cuz I went home. No. Hell no. He’s taking your clothes off. I went home, okay? So that was. I started working at TRW Bell Division. And they didn’t want me because I had almost four years of college. And they kept saying, I’m sorry, we don’t have anything in office now.

[00:40:19] We only have stuff in the plant. And I was trying to get a divorce. I said, I don’t care, I will take it. Please give it to me, please. And they said, well, it’s. I said, I don’t Care. Okay, I took the job.

Ava Carubia [00:40:38] What year was that?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:40:40] It was in the 70s, early 70s. And oh, my God, I was so happy to get that job. I was thrilled to get that job. And then I started walking through that shop and saw all those. Oh, my God. Every time he came on the board I put him on. I just.

[00:41:01] I had to get on those machines. So I became a heavy duty machinist and welder. And to everybody else’s surprise, but not to mine, I was damn good. I was very good. And I used to listen to. Did you know they had guys there that had been on those machines since the 30s? And they was listening to them.

[00:41:31] They used to tell me all the time. No, no, listen to it. Listen to it. And they used to tell me all the time how they could hear a smooth grind or a bump or when it was time to change the wheel. These guys didn’t have an education. Some of them couldn’t read and write.

[00:41:46] And then it went on machines. Fascinating. It was fascinating to me. I loved it. I was made for it. I was, you know what I mean? Wasn’t a girly girl. You know what I’m saying? I wasn’t worried about scars or bruises or anything. You know what I’m saying? I didn’t have to have a conversation between.

[00:42:11] Because I’m really bad at conversations, you know, with girls, you know, I don’t want to hear it. You know, by that time, I was into audiobooks, so I was doing like maybe three books to four books a week, you know, because I couldn’t read anymore, you know, because I had to pay attention.

[00:42:35] But it was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Ava Carubia [00:42:41] How long did you work there for?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:42:43] Well, legally, over 25 years. But I went into a coma and I had emergency surgery. So TRW says I have 31 years and eight months because I was so 31 years and eight months. I have a TRW Bell. Ava Carubia [00:43:04] Yes, but you didn’t explain how you got to Mount Pleasant.

Marion Anita Gardner [00:43:08] I bought my first house. I bought my first house in the early 70s because I was. I was getting a divorce. I bought my first house in my. And I bought it on 113th off Union, and it was abandoned, and it was fixed up, and everything was my very first home. Oh, my God.

[00:43:35] And I only had Buck, and then I had my nephew Brian. I got custody of him, and then I had Justin after that. Justin was 10 years younger than Buck, and that was his house. That was my almighty, my world. Oh, my God. I painted. Have you ever seen the back of King Tut’s childhood throne.

[00:44:04] What? Look at. Look it up. It took me three and a half years to paint that wall because I was working seven days a week, 12 hours a day at TRW. And I painted my whole front room wall, the scene of King Tut’s childhood. I even have a picture of it. I’ll show you.

[00:44:28] My whole house, front room looked like Egyptian. I loved it. I thought, oh, that. Because I could paint my own walls, I could design stuff. And even. Even while I was working every day, I was still doing flowers, boutonnieres, crown flowers, wedding bouquets. I did the Christmas trees with the coat hangers and the Christmas lights.

[00:45:00] I was doing African masks, decoupaging. I just. I didn’t have time to go to the movies anymore. So I started collecting DVDs because I had nephews that were working in. What is that, Blockbusters and all that. And I had a whole wall full of. And I never got to look at them because I worked all the time.

[00:45:30] But that’s how I got to Mount Pleasant. And this is what got me into. Okay. I did what I was supposed to do. I was working. I wasn’t on welfare. I was taking care of my kids. I was making sure that they were in programs, doing everything. My oldest boy, I saw him trying to ease away.

[00:45:51] So I put him in the United States Naval Sea Cadets. Trying to make sure. I need my kids to see that this neighborhood wasn’t their boundaries. You know, there was things out. We have kids in this neighborhood that have never been outside. They have no idea what an art museum is. They have no idea what a real vacation was.

[00:46:16] So my kids did experience that. And my older boy will tell you, he said he had the best childhood he could think of. He went to Disney World, like it was around the corner, you know? And he didn’t just spend one or two days there. I was very involved with John Adams. If they had a candy sale, I sold all the candy.

[00:46:36] Because at TRW, all you had to do was put it out there. And everybody just walked by, put candy and put the money in the next day. You had all the money. The kids didn’t have to walk the street and sell anything. TRW was good to me. It wasn’t just a place to work, it was a refuge.

[00:46:53] I had another family. You met Art. Met Art? Works here. Tall guys. A tall older guy. Art worked with me at TRW. And, you know, and when TRW closed, I said, you better get up here. You ain’t doing nothing. Art just been here with me a Lot of guys from TRW come up here.

[00:47:14] A lot of women. You know, I. The house that I had in Mt. Pleasant, after I had the brain surgeries, I have, I have Arnold Chiari malformation. We don’t know. They said I was born with. They said I was born with. And they were very angry with me. And I want to say they, the doctor were very angry with me because they said I didn’t address it when I was younger.

[00:47:53] Well, if you’re born in the 50s, what are you addressing? Okay, are you going to mommy? But I never had headaches. I never suffered headaches. They said that the symptoms are. You can’t take bright lights. You can’t take lights. You can’t even take sunlight. You gotta, I mean daytime. You gotta wear dark glasses and you can’t pick up anything.

[00:48:21] You have. No, you can’t lift anything. What did I just tell you I did for 31 years and eight months? I was a heavy duty machinist and welder. Did I know I had Arnold Chiari malformation? No, it never. For some reason it never bothered me. All right. But it damn near killed me once we found out.

[00:48:47] And what happened was I have. I had to get the surgery. Wasn’t that carpal tunnel surgery? Because my hand just kept letting go of everything and it was always asleep. So I got the first surgery. If you have carpal tunnel. I don’t, I. I would never recommend anybody getting carpal tunnel. I just wouldn’t.

[00:49:13] I don’t care. Live with it. I don’t care how bad it hurts. Don’t do it. But then I had to get it in the other hand, right? Because the guys kept saying, Nita, fix that! I was pulling wrenches was flying across the room. I couldn’t hold on anything heavy, you know, And I’m always changing my own wheels, moving my, Fixing my own machines because you had to learn to do that.

[00:49:39] And like I said, I was good. I didn’t need guys to do my machines. I’m doing myself, you know, that’s why they didn’t mind working with me. Because I’m like, hey, I need you to change the wheel. No, I got it. So the situation happened is I had to get it done again in the other hand.

[00:49:58] So I’m in surgery. They put you asleep. And I kept waking up screaming. And they kept putting me back to sleep, and I woke up screaming. This time I took a chunk out of my tongue and broke a tooth. What did they do? They put me back to sleep. I was having a nightmare that I was running from this werewolf and I was running and I closed the door and my hand was sticking out of the door because I couldn’t get it in.

[00:50:38] And he was chewing up my hand and they put me back to sleep and this vivid of this werewolf chewing my hand off, they put me back to sleep. I woke up in the room and I wish they hadn’t taken the thing out of my throat yet. I turned. And I was tapping on them letting them know I was woke and they said I was that damn woke this fast.

[00:51:15] And I, you know, and they said you wake up really fast. We didn’t have a chance, you know. Anyway, I don’t care. I thought they tried to kill me. And you know what they did? They put you in the room and they watch you for an hour and if you’re all right they give you some orange juice and then they tell you to go home.

[00:51:36] I couldn’t even put my fucking shoes on. I had slippers on. Those slippers they put on your feet, you know. All I wanted to do was get the hell out of there. And I was trying, at University Hospital, and I was trying to get downstairs and my son, son came up and he said what the hell cuz he said I was wobbling and all I had on was shoes.

[00:52:06] My clothes were on backwards, I don’t care. So he went, got the car, set me down, got the car and took me home that night I went to the emergency ward. My head was driving me crazy. I, I was hurting so bad, my head. So I had to go to emergency ward and they kept.

[00:52:25] Oh, because I had the bandages on my arm and stuff and they still saw. Oh yeah, okay. So they had my record. So they gave me some shots and sent me home. Morphine shots and muscle relaxers or something. I go home. I am in agony, I’m taking aspirin,all, everything that they’re giving me.

[00:52:54] My head is driving me crazy. So I’m really going through. Two days back to emergency room in 14 days I was in emergency ward 11 times. So finally they said something’s not. And every time they start they unwrap my hand, that is my [unclear] So they said okay. 14 days, 11 times in emergency.

[00:53:23] So finally they said, okay, we’re going to put you in the hospital. Put me in the hospital. And the MRI wasn’t open until 4:00 clock in the morning. They put me in the machine and as soon as they got me in the machine and it started running, they snatched me out and they’re on sitting on my legs and my arm.

[00:53:50] And they’re trying to screw that halo. You know that. That halo they put on you. They were trying to screw it in, and they was trying to give me the. Find the spot. They said that my brain was oozing out of my. Oozing out of the door. The door had torn or something.

[00:54:08] And they said it, emergency, Emergency. So I’m like. I’m screaming and fighting, and so finally they knock me out and I wake up and they said, call your family. Call your family. We’re calling the numbers, right? And at the time, my only son, Buck, was in prison. My middle boy, Brian, who is in.

[00:54:32] My nephew, who I was raising, was on the other side of the world. He was in the Navy. My baby boy, Justin, is a minor. So they said, you’ve got to have emergency surgery now. We wanted to do it, but we can’t without letting the family know what’s wrong. You have an emergency, you got this, and you got.

[00:54:54] I don’t know. I’m like, what the fuck? So I’m thinking, oh, I’m gonna die. Oh, my God, I’m gonna die. This is how it’s gonna be for me. So I have the surgery, and I wake up, and I see my mom, and she’s been hollering, wake up. Wake up. And I can hear the.

[00:55:23] But she was, like, on the other side of the Rouge, you know, telling me to wake up and I have to go to work. 12 hours, seven days, TRW. And I’m thinking, if she don’t leave me alone, knowing I gotta go to work, I will wake up in a minute. Give me a minute, okay?

[00:55:41] And she just like, wake up, wake up. And I wake up and I go, ma, you know, I gotta go. She said, no, you didn’t sleep today. You need to wake your ass up. Get up. Get up. And they had put her out of the room a couple times, right? I had been in a coma.

[00:56:01] I didn’t know that. And I ended up back in the hospital at least nine to 10 times because that’s the same thing. And they had to take the patch out because it wasn’t working and my body was refusing it. Then they had to put another patch in. One they had opened up my thigh and put it in.

[00:56:28] So they was trying to cure it so that your body would recognize itself. And then they had to do it several times. And then finally they said, okay, we have patch. So then mad cow was going on. So they didn’t want to do it. They didn’t know. And so they finally put it in and I went apeshit.

[00:56:55] So they had to put spinal fluids everywhere. In my nose, out my back. And I was always in pain. The last time I was in the hospital, I told God, okay, that’s it. I can’t take no more. I can’t take no more. Just go ahead and just take me, I don’t give a shit. Take me.

[00:57:15] But you know what he told me? You’re going to take as much as I give you and you’re going to be just fine. No, I’m serious. You just want to go and you resign to go. You have those conversations and if you know anybody in a coma, talk to you, cuz they hear you sometimes they’re just occupied and they don’t want them here anywhere.

[00:57:45] It’s not important. At least I did.

Ava Carubia [00:57:52] What year did you go in the hospital?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:57:54] Oh God. I’m almost sure it was 2000–2000–2001–2000 all the way to 2002. I was in there so much. I had tubes in my spine and my back. They was trying to drain out spinal fluid. It was just a mess. It was such a mess.

Ava Carubia [00:58:24] And then was the center open at that time?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:58:27] Oh no.

Ava Carubia [00:58:27] When did you open the center?

Marion Anita Gardner [00:58:29] I didn’t open this until 24, 2013. But I was crippling and crapping all over myself and urinating all over myself at a center down there because I still couldn’t control my body functions and stuff. And I was always pat. I was upset because TRW wouldn’t take me back and I was a lost cause and I was, you know, and I was no good to anybody and I was going to do something I wanted to.

[00:59:03] So I had a sewing machine in the trunk of my car. I couldn’t walk real good. I looked like a mess. I look like a mess. Oh my God. I would get in the car and I would be trying to drive somewhere and I kept saying, just don’t kill nobody. And I thought I was doing at least 20 miles an hour.

[00:59:27] I was doing like two miles an hour. I got pulled over. You need to go home. What is the hell? Get these keys from this woman. I got stuck in my basement for two days because I had vertigo so bad I couldn’t get up the stairs. And still sometimes I can’t tell if it’s a line or the curve, you know, and my walking is still really screwed up, but you know, and the older I get, you know, the worse it gets.

[00:59:57] But you know, you can’t feel sorry for yourself because as long as the sun shines, what are you supposed to do? Life is only for the living. It’s not for the world. And there’s a lot of things. I’m going to tell you something, God. I’m not a religious person. You know that. I am not an organized religion.

[01:00:17] But I have my relationship with God, and it’s a lot. And he’s telling me, you gotta pay for that, baby. You knew why I did it. Yeah. You knew I was gonna do it. Why did you let me do it? This is a choice thing, sweetheart. I mean, I have those conversations constantly with God.

[01:00:38] Does that make sense? But it’s just how everybody’s relationship with God is different. And I don’t. I used to wouldn’t say it out loud because I would be afraid people would mock me. I don’t give a shit, you know what I’m saying? I deal with a lot of pastors when I’m doing this.

[01:01:00] I know there’s a lot of things I shouldn’t do. But if that person needs it, if that’s between them and God, it’s not me. I told you about the lady who comes here with the diamonds on her fingers and her nails done, hair done. You know, that’s between her and God. If her kids is hungry, I’m going to be too damn bad.

[01:01:22] I’m just gonna be. And I get. People tell me, girl, hell no. She come up in a rotating. So what do you want me to do? I’m still repenting a lot of stuff I did. I am the most flawed person ever. You understand what? God made me just like he made you. And I am so screwed.

[01:01:46] I. I am. I am. But you know what? There’s a lot of things. There’s us, the people see, and there’s us that are alone. And when you’re at home, you know, you know, you ain’t got to finish thinking about things like that or doing this or doing that, and we still. You know what I’m saying?

[01:02:09] So I know. I think, you know, we all gonna pay for what we do, you know? But there’s a lot of things you can actually fix. There’s a lot of things you can’t fix. And you spend your whole life trying to fix it. You spend your whole life trying to do a lot of things that ain’t gonna matter.

[01:02:38] And I do believe in immortality. I do believe that. You know that, right? We’re not going to live forever, but what people know about is going to live forever. Look at poor Jeffrey Dahmer. He’s Going to be immortal his whole life. I mean, think about it. That’s our immortality. That’s man’s immortality, you know what I’m saying?

[01:03:04] Saying you can see a picture of him and say, now I know that, oh, that’s Jeffrey Dahmer. You know what I mean? You even gonna know what he looks like, you know, at least in the old days, you know, you don’t know that that’s Cleopatra unless somebody tell, you know what I’m saying?

[01:03:26] But now we have actual photographs. You can go, oh, you know what I’m saying? Have you ever seen a real picture of Billy the Kid? Oh, God. But you know about his. You know about him, you know what I’m saying? Maybe you don’t know everything. You know about William, Bonnie, you know, but you.

[01:03:51] You’ve seen a. And once you hear about him and you see him on the movies and stuff, but when you see a picture, you white boy, you see what I’m saying? We’re here because now people can see what we look like. So when people say, hey, Nita, how you doing?

Ava Carubia [01:04:17] Well, I just have a couple more questions, of course. One is, how do you think being from Cleveland impacted your life?

Marion Anita Gardner [01:04:25] I love Cleveland. I love my hometown. I like the history of it. I like the fact that in Mt. Pleasant we have original people that own their homes. Did you know this is the only neighborhood that had Black ownership from the 1800s here, do you understand? The state of Ohio, if you were a slave, if you got here, they couldn’t take you back legally.

[01:04:56] Do you understand this? Lake Erie pushes. It’ll never be stagnant. It feeds the other lakes. We have more millionaires here. We have more presidents here. This was a serious blue collar state. You could make it here. You could actually live here. It used to, didn’t be as president. President. Prejudiced as it is now, it has a really, really rich history.

[01:05:36] It has. It had more farmland than most places. It had dairy farms, cattle farms. It’s a beautiful place to live. Did you know you’re in one of the largest residential neighborhoods in Cleveland here? The first Euclid Beach Park was right here off of Notre Dame. Right here where Morris Black Court was. One of the most dangerous projects in the city.

[01:06:14] The history is so rich here, it’s worth fighting for. This neighborhood started so many people out. Bobby Womack was from here. I’m trying to think of. I’m thinking about all the people that I have met from here. I sat at Bob Hope’s desk at Bolton Elementary School. He carved his name in the desk.

[01:06:51] At Bolton Elementary School. If you had a laddie council, when you went to write your name, you had to make sure you moved your paper because you would go right down in that damn hole. They never changed the desk. Everybody is from here. Dean Martin is from Ohio. Oh, my God, Think of all the people.

[01:07:20] What’s her name? The movie star, Black girl. I can’t even think of her name now. She’s from Shaker. I can’t even think of her name. But everybody’s from this damn state. Do you know what I’m saying? It’s a wonderful state. I love it. It is so diverse. You can go all out to the the lake.

[01:07:46] You can come in inner city. What don’t we have here? What can’t you be here? Look at the choices you have here. There’s companies here just that want to be here. So many artists are here. I love the art museum. The art museum is just. If you have an imagination and you wander through that art museum, you can be anything, see anything, do anything you want to do.

[01:08:23] I love it. There’s so many places here. Have you ever been Millionaires Row here? I have done all the tours for Millionaires Row here. The USS Mississippi blew up. It was a paddle steamship that blew up on the Mississippi of the Lake Erie, and it was called the USS Mississippi. And everybody is buried on 79th street because they got them in a mass grave.

[01:08:55] What bodies they could find. Our cemeteries talk about so much. All the millionaires from Millionaires Row are buried up there. You can see them. The largest piece of. The largest piece of Tiffany glass is in. The largest piece of Tiffany glass in the world is at the museum at the cemetery. Lakefront Cemetery. Lakeview Cemetery.

[01:09:25] It’s a bird sanctuary. Go go look around and see what you can do. We got glass blowers here. Oh, my God. What class can’t you take here? There’s no class you can’t take here. This. Oh, it’s the state of Ohio. Oh, my God. You can go skiing in the state of Ohio. You can go tobogganing.

[01:09:49] You can go rock climbing. Just look up something that you want to do, you can do it right here in Ohio. The railroad cars, you can Railroad trips. Cool. Look, we got one of the best zoos in the world right here. If you want to even do a summer at a zoo in here, did you know you can sign up for that?

[01:10:16] Did you know you can actually volunteer at the zoo? Did you know that? If there’s something you want to do, I’m serious. You can do it here in the State. Right here in this state. I love this state. Have you ever gone to the State House in Columbus? Oh my God, it’s beautiful. It is to me.

[01:10:45] It’s beautiful. It’s just. It’s just history. It’s just. I love my state. We’re the only state that doesn’t have a flag. We have a. What did it call? A pendant. You know that, right? We have a pendant. I hope we grow up one day and get a flag like every other. But then again, that’s what makes us unique.

[01:11:13] I do. I. I love history. I like knowing about things. My backyard, I have a blacktop. Strawberries still come up. It’s all farm over here. Most large churches were Jewish synagogues. Did you know that? And you can still see the stars of David. And what do they call them? What are those, those candles?

[01:11:44] What are they called? Gamoras or something? Something like that.

Ava Carubia [01:11:49] Oh, menorah.

Marion Anita Gardner [01:11:50] Menorahs. Yeah. See, you did know it. And yeah, we have large, large parks. We have a health of an Indian reservation off the west side. Did you know that? What? A Indian reservation. You didn’t know that? No. DJ said that they were all kicked out. DJ’s an Indian. I’m serious, serious. [unidentified speaker] I come from a state that has lots of natives, lots of.

[01:12:21] And this is where a lot of them are. They wanted to be free to you. You. We have large populations of Italians, large populations of Irish, large populations of. Oh, and Payne Avenue. Jesus. Go over there. They. I don’t even think they have the cops to go over there. They. Because they handle their own issues.

[01:12:46] You know, the Asia. The Asiatown. Yes. Huh. My God, have you ever been over there for their festivals? Those people know how to party. But you’re not going over there starting. No problem, you know.

Ava Carubia [01:13:02] Well, I have one more question.

Marion Anita Gardner [01:13:03] I will wrap up the interview.

Ava Carubia [01:13:05] That’s okay. This is what it’s for, just you talking. What’s a message you’d like to leave for future generations?

Marion Anita Gardner [01:13:11] For my generation.

Ava Carubia [01:13:12] For future generations. Generations after you.

Marion Anita Gardner [01:13:16] Every time you think you know something you don’t know something, find somebody who’s at least 40 years older than you and talk to them. Seriously. Living history is better than dead history because you can get it before somebody writes the book. And normally if they write the book, they tend to think that that’s law or the.

[01:13:43] That’s right. And at my age, I found out that most of my history books were total lies. Total lies. Especially in my group and my group being Black females. I mean, lied to be controlled, lies to be led. I find that out, and it’s disheartening. Find somebody who you in a group that you disagree with and listen to them.

[01:14:18] Then find out why you disagree with them. Find out from them where you disagree. And then a lot of times you’ll find out that maybe they have learned something that’s not true. And you are that person that can help them or you might find out that what you think you know is a lie.

[01:14:39] Everybody is not your enemy. And groups of people. Groups of people should. You should go and talk to them because you’re not dangerous. They’re not dangerous because guess what? If you were all skin, I swear to God, you could tell who nobody was. Because I went to that museum in New York City to see all those people’s skin.

[01:15:07] Did you see that? Did you ever go in there where you can look on the insides and they. I had to go see that. I’ve gone to the. I’ve gone to the Black Museum in Washington. I’ve gone to the Jewish museum in Washington. I want you to know. Oh, my God. And I’ve been to every Smithsonian, and I’ve also been to the Louvre.

[01:15:36] I spent almost a month in and out of the Louvre. I want you to know something. Beauty’s not just on paintings. There’s a lot of beauty in you. And you can. Even if you can’t draw a straight line, even if you tell me something, show me something, do something. Everybody’s got something that can just lift somebody else.

[01:16:13] I just believe that. I’m sorry. And that’s my relationship with God. I am not an organized church believer. I just. I just can’t do it. I’m sorry. That’s just the way God made me. And I keep saying that. And I used to have to tell my mother all the time, I can’t think like you.

[01:16:37] I can’t do what you do. And I tell everybody that all you can do, all you. All you can be, is what God made you. And you can only. I can only work with the heart God gave me. And that’s all you can do. You can only work with the heart God gave you.

[01:16:57] That’s it. So even if somebody’s beating on you or telling you, this is what you got to do. Just be true to yourself. Oh, shit. Just be true to yourself. You gonna find out you’re not the worst thing out here and what you say is not the worst thing out here. And I want to do what old people do.

[01:17:19] I Want to say, fuck it. I done got old enough to say what I want to say. That’s what I want to do. That’s, you know, even though sometimes you know it’s wrong. But talk to young people, seriously, all these kids out here, I cannot believe what they’re going through. No, you know, I couldn’t.

[01:17:41] I can’t fathom that. I got kids out here that are being harassed. I was never sexually harassed by anybody. My. We were so surrounded by family. It was crazy. You understand? All the women were on it. These kids now are by themselves. I see kids going to school and there’s no houses, but maybe three or four houses on the street.

[01:18:10] That kid is walking all the way from one corner to the next corner. Did you know what the rules are over here? The rules are if there’s not enough houses, they will shut the damn street lights off. That’s the law. Over. These kids are walking in darkness. These kids are being harassed online.

[01:18:32] They’re being told they’re ugly, they’re stupid, they don’t know anything. You know, we have kids who are missing from this neighborhood, just up and gone. Ain’t nobody. And the police don’t have the time. The police don’t have time. The time. And it’s not their fault. It’s not their fault either. Nobody want to be no cop.

[01:18:56] Don’t nobody want to be no target, especially down there. So there’s so much going. There’s so many cracks in this neighborhood that everybody loves coming here because you can do anything. Because everything comes here to fall through the cracks. Everything. You want to be a ho?e Sure. You could be a hoe in front of.

[01:19:18] In front of the schools. You could be a hoe in front of the churches. You understand? You can get the guys coming out of the church. Ain’t nobody gonna say nothing because this is where everything comes to fall out of the crack. If you decide you want a one bedroom apartment and you got three pitbulls in there and you want to breed them.

[01:19:37] Who’s coming? Who’s coming? Who’s gonna say something? We hold meetings with guys come in there just to find out who’s talking about it. We have. If you got gray hair, you don’t want to go in groups over here. I never forget the first time my hair started getting gray. My son said, oh, shit, you’re getting gray.

[01:20:02] I said, yeah, damn, that makes you a target. You see what I’m saying? I never even thought about that. But what I’m just saying is that there’s so many things that we’re faced with now that we would have never been faced with. Never been faced with. Have you ever been cussed out online or told off online?

[01:20:20] I’m like, really? Do you know that person? No, I don’t know that person. Well, who is it? I don’t know. How is this happening? How are you being reached from across the world or across the States? I’m sorry. It’s just that this is a time in our lives that we’ve never been faced with.

[01:20:49] You know what this time is? The racist term. Did you know that? This. That time now. And now what’s happening? Everybody’s scared of being pushed aside. What is this? That’s what I see in Washington D.C. they’re being afraid. There’s too many of this kind here, so we got to get rid of them.

[01:21:25] What the hell is going on? Everybody was somebody’s slave at one time in history. I’m not talking about recent history. I’m talking throughout history. Everybody was somebody’s slave. Everybody. Every race. Even before, even after it became two races, Three races. There’s only three races, right? Negroid, Mongoloid and Cocaso. That’s the way I was raised.

[01:21:54] That’s what I was taught. Were you taught that? You were never taught there was only three races? Negroid, Mongoloid, Caucasus.

Ava Carubia [01:22:07] I was never taught that.

Marion Anita Gardner [01:22:09] Really, I was. So you’re putting one of them. Okay. And I’m sitting here representing the Negroid. You’re the Caucasoids. Where’s the Mongoloids? Oriental people. People. That’s all I was told. You know what I’m saying? So the races are turning. You never thought of that. You don’t believe that. That’s why we’re having so many issues right now.

[01:22:43] Is that a possibility that you’ll think of? She said, I’m not being questioned. You are.

Ava Carubia [01:22:50] We can talk about this when I turn off the recording.

Marion Anita Gardner [01:22:53] Yeah.

Ava Carubia [01:22:54] Are you done with the interview, do you think?

Marion Anita Gardner [01:22:56] Oh, only if you are. I’m fine.

Ava Carubia [01:22:58] Is there anything else you want to add?

Marion Anita Gardner [01:23:05] Once again, I’m one of the most [unclear] people you will ever meet. And most of my existence now I’m making up as I go along because it didn’t work for me. It just didn’t work for me. I mean, I had to reinvent myself after. Look at me. I have no teaching because I can’t get.

[01:23:33] All my bones are broken. I can’t get anything. So I. Should I stop talking? Well, I could have, but then again, you know, in my heart, I couldn’t. Right. You met me, right? You know, I couldn’t do it. So that’s why we have the Concerned Citizens Community Council. And that’s because that’s. I want to help you.

[01:24:07] I don’t care what you need. Let me help you. You can’t get it up. Find somebody that can. It’s too much red tape for anything. How much longer are you going to stand in line for what you need? I’m not saying for what you want. For what you need. If your roof is leaking and eventually you’re going to have to move out, let me find somebody at least put a tarp up.

[01:24:30] At least give you some time to think. At least give you some time to save some money to get it properly fixed. Nobody’s gonna give me no money. Nobody. But I’m got some guys that’ll go up there because they owe me a favor. So I’m going to use that favor to help you.

[01:24:54] We have a lot of seniors. We support that community center over there. No. That senior building right there, that is Union Court. That’s a senior facility. A lot of them go through. They actually have refrigerators. They have their own kitchen. They live there. But when they get out of the hospital, they need care.

[01:25:19] And a lot of them don’t have Social Security or whatever it is. So we provide them with bedside commodes, pull ups, whatever, because they can’t get it because they don’t have the money to do it. Right. We provide them with mortgage because we can get them because somebody else owes us a favor.

[01:25:43] So we get back. All I’m saying is that we’re over here trying to fill in the cracks. And if I do what I’m supposed to do to run a community center, fillout who this person is, who that person is, I couldn’t do it. Because they won’t give you the money to do what you want to do.

[01:26:12] They’ll give you what they need you to do. And I’m not going to be beholden of anybody. No, it doesn’t work for me, but it works for you and it works for the community. Because we are in a cracked community. And so in order to fill in the cracks, that’s what we do.

Ava Carubia [01:26:34] Well, I think that’s a good point to end the interview. Okay, so I’m gonna end it.

Marion Anita Gardner [01:26:38] She said, please shut up.

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