Abstract
In this 2025 interview, Pat Cook discusses her upbringing in a close-knit East Cleveland neighborhood, and her deep ties to Shaw High School. She reflects on the thriving Black-owned businesses and community institutions she experienced during her youth, noting how strongly the city’s economic life shaped daily routines. Cook describes her educational path, early entrepreneurship, and her longstanding commitment to library and educational work beginning in the late 1980s. She explains her transition to the East Cleveland Public Library, where she now serves as a Reference Adult Associate and is deeply involved in programming and public service.
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Interviewee
Cook, Pat (interviewee)
Interviewer
Mays, Nick (interviewer)
Project
East Cleveland
Date
10-23-2025
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
61 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Pat Cook Interview, 23 October 2025" (2025). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 757012.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1414
Transcript
Nick Mays [00:00:00] My name is Dr. Nicholas Mays, and today is October 23, 2025. We are here at the East Cleveland Public Library for the East Cleveland Oral History Project. And I am excited and honored to be joined by Ms. Pat Cook, a longtime East Clevelander, Shaw High School alum, and longtime member of the East Cleveland Public Library staff.
[00:00:27] Staff. Today we will explore her journey from childhood to her decades of commitment to the library and to East Cleveland residents. Ms. Cook, thank you for being here.
Pat Cook [00:00:45] No problem. You’re welcome.
Nick Mays [00:00:46] I want to begin and decide with your. If you can please tell us your. Your name, state your name, your age and date of birth.
Pat Cook [00:00:56] Okay. My name is Patricia cook. I am 60 years old. I’m born […], 1964.
Nick Mays [00:01:07] Okay, great. Thank you. So first question, we have a couple of themes, and the theme topic one is family and early life. So question one is, can you begin by telling us about your family background, where your parents were from, and what brought them to Cleveland?
Pat Cook [00:01:33] Well, my mom is from Alexander City, Alabama, and my father is from Columbus, Georgia. And they came up here to Cleveland during the great Migration. We lived on 90th and St. Clair. I was very young. I can remember living in the apartment building. And then we moved to East Cleveland. And East Cleveland is where I started kindergarten all the way to the 12th grade.
Nick Mays [00:02:08] What’s your parent’s name?
Pat Cook [00:02:10] I’m sorry? My mother’s name is Brucy Cook. My father’s name is Lanier Cook. So they’re very unusual names. People would say bruce. No, it’s Brucy Cook and Lanier Cook.
Nick Mays [00:02:26] Where did they meet? Like what city? Like state? Did they meet? Did they meet?
Pat Cook [00:02:33] I’m not really sure where. I’m assuming they met in Alabama. They met in Alabama. My mother came up here first, and then my dad came. Now, my mother had two sets of kids. She had four kids that were born in Alabama, and then she had me, my sister and my brother. We were born here in Cleveland, so they were like at least 10 or 15 years older than us.
[00:03:08] So by the time we got here to Cleveland, we were born.
Nick Mays [00:03:14] And what do you remember about your parent’s work? What kind of work did they do?
Pat Cook [00:03:22] My mother did domestic work for a while. My mother loved kids. It was seven of us. And she also took care of other people’s children. My father worked in a warehouse, if I’m not mistaken. It was called Monarch Warehouse. It was like a food warehouse, kind of like Acme Foods. So it was more of a warehouse.
Nick Mays [00:03:50] You talked about your mom’s work being an extension of what she did in the South. Can you speak to that?
Pat Cook [00:03:57] Yeah, yeah. During the south, she did domestic work down there also. And then when she came to Cleveland, she, you know, worked for several families. And then she was a housewife. After a while, she was a housewife, and she raised us, and then she raised other people’s children also.
Nick Mays [00:04:22] What kind of values did both your mom and dad instill in you and your siblings brought up?
Pat Cook [00:04:34] We all had a great work ethics. If you’re going to do something, do it good. We would get up early in the morning on Saturdays. Most people. Most of the kids are watching cartoons. We had to get up and clean up. We had to get up and rake the leaves, you know, vacuum. My father always said if he had to get up, we had to get up so the street would be clean. When I say the street, I mean in front of the house, on the street, you know, where the street cleaner, cleaning.
Nick Mays [00:05:10] Yes, yes.
Pat Cook [00:05:11] There could be no trash, no leaves or anything there. The front. Not only in front of the house, but in the street. So every. And that’s just how it was at that time, too. Our neighbors were the same way. If there was dirt or trash in front of the street, you got it cleaned, period.
[00:05:31] So that’s one. One thing that they definitely instilled in us. If you do something, do it good. Don’t have to do anything. So that’s something that I can’t help if I’m gonna do. I don’t care what it is. If I’m sweeping the floor, I’m not gonna half sweep that floor. I’m gonna make sure that floor is clean.
Nick Mays [00:05:54] You, at what age did you move to East Cleveland, or were you born in East Cleveland? Like, did you live in East Cleveland where you were born?
Pat Cook [00:06:04] No, we moved to East Cleveland. I was born in a hospital. I think it’s called Forest City Hospital. It was a black hospital. It’s gone now, of course, but. And we lived on 90th in St. Clair, and I still remember the apartment that we lived. I had to be like, maybe three or four.
[00:06:30] Now. You how you have some memories of childhood, you know, even though you were very young. Then we moved here to East Cleveland, and that’s where I started kindergarten here in East Cleveland.
Nick Mays [00:06:43] What was community like growing up, or what was the city like growing up?
Pat Cook [00:06:50] It was a hustle and bustle. It was a lot going on. First of all, from a point of view of a kid, kids were everywhere. You. You heard laughter. You heard kids playing ball. You. I mean, it was A place where kids were on every street. You heard, you know, children playing. And there were so many businesses and candy stores. So penny candy, if you got a quarter, you went to the store. We had 25 pieces of candy. They were just all really good memories, just good memories of that time, you know, as a child. So we would go to the store, you know, can I have a quarter, a dime, whatever. You can get two pieces. Two or three pieces of candy for a penny. So, I mean, it was. It was fun times.
Nick Mays [00:07:51] What about safety? Did you feel safe?
Pat Cook [00:07:55] I felt 100% safe. I mean, it’s the strangest thing because we would walk to the store; we would say, they have better candy down here around the corner. We would walk to the [store]. You know, but we didn’t go too far because, you know, our parents told us, don’t get. If we told them we were going to the store, and they said it was okay. They knew that we were going to the store closest to the house. So, yeah, it was. We felt really safe.
Nick Mays [00:08:29] What about community members? What do you remember about, like, the neighbors and community?
Pat Cook [00:08:37] The community was always friendly. People were always friendly in a community, and they were. They knew everybody. What you doing way down here? Where your mom at? You in the wrong place, you know, you down here too far. Where’s your mom at? You shouldn’t be down here, but here. I’m gonna walk you back down the street. And don’t come back down here without your mom or your older brothers and sisters. So they all. Everybody looked out for everybody, and everybody was just nice. When you know everybody and everybody is nice to you. As a child, I don’t remember anybody being mean. I don’t remember anyone being mean. I remember walking.
[00:09:27] If you walked on someone’s grass and they say, get off my grass, because they kept the grass immaculate back then. But I don’t remember any adults ever being mean. Never.
Nick Mays [00:09:42] What was Ms. Pat Cook’s favorite thing doing as a little. As a you young kid?
Pat Cook [00:09:51] As a child, our house was the house that kids would come to. My mother loved kids. Anybody who didn’t get a chance to eat, if she was cooking, she fed whoever was there. My father, he played cards. He played poker on the weekend, and he would play poker for, like, maybe three days.
[00:10:21] Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, he went back to work. So he would. We played poker. He taught us how to play cards. He didn’t teach us how to gamble, but he taught us to play cards. So people would come to the house and we would play cards. We would play For a penny or a dime.
[00:10:37] Then we would go to the store and get some candy. But our house was the place, was the place that all the other kids would come to our home. Good times.
Nick Mays [00:10:50] Pivoting to the next theme or topic. Oh, can you talk about the schools you attended?
Pat Cook [00:11:00] Okay. When I went to kindergarten, I went to Mayfair Elementary School. After that I went to Kirk Junior High School, and then I graduated from Shaw High School. Going to school was. Was community because we were in this tight knit community. So you knew everybody you went to school with? East Cleveland had, I think it was six elementary schools. So you were pretty much whatever area you were in, you went to that particular school. But by the time you got to Kirk, all the schools, everybody from all the elementary schools met up at junior high school because it was just one junior high school. So you knew everybody in the community. You knew everybody.
[00:11:51] And then you went to Shaw High School and, you know, you just knew. It’s so hard to describe because it was so. Gosh, it was so community.
Nick Mays [00:12:05] Seems like a sense of intimacy, right?
Pat Cook [00:12:08] Yeah, yeah, it was.
Nick Mays [00:12:12] Connections.
Pat Cook [00:12:13] Yeah, it was a connection. It was that connection. He was connected to people.
Nick Mays [00:12:19] So is it safe to say from five and up, you went to all to schools that were. That existed in the city of East Cleveland?
Pat Cook [00:12:27] Yeah, yeah, they were all in East Cleveland.
Nick Mays [00:12:35] So pivoting to the next theme, I want to talk about the Shaw experience and education in general. You’ve described Shaw being like a campus.
Pat Cook [00:12:59] Yeah.
Nick Mays [00:13:00] Can you share what made it feel that way?
Pat Cook [00:13:04] Yeah. When I went to Shaw, it was more of a campus because there were different buildings that we went to. So you had an academic building, you had a vocational building. You had a building. It was [inaudible] lounge. You can go as a lounge. So you can go to the lounge. And it was like a machine.
[00:13:32] What are they called?
Nick Mays [00:13:35] Like candy machine.
Pat Cook [00:13:36] Candy machine. Gum pop.
Pat Cook [00:13:40] And you can go in there and get you something. You can go in there and line dance. You can go in there and sit down on. It was a lounge. It was couches and chairs.
Nick Mays [00:13:48] Vendor machine, Vending machine.
Pat Cook [00:13:50] I’m sorry, Vending machines are what I’m. Is what I’m trying to say. Yeah, vending machine. And you can go in there and just relax. People will go in there and dance, sit down, play chess or do whatever you wanted to do, you know, and then. And then you would go back to your next class.
[00:14:10] We also had a pool, a swimming pool. That’s another thing. East Cleveland had like three or four swimming pools within the community. And, and that’s something that you don’t see. We had an outside pool, a big pool. We would go over the summertime because it was open. You know, you had the pool at Shaw High School.
[00:14:33] We had the YMCA pool. They had a wading pool for the smaller children with a sprinkler. I mean, it was so much going on in the community. And it was, you know, it was just amazing. It was amazing.
Nick Mays [00:14:48] What are some of your strongest memories of that, of your experience at Shaw?
Pat Cook [00:14:53] At Shaw, I was in several school plays. I was, like, acting in school plays, singing. I was part of a vocational program. It was just. It’s just so hard to describe because it was so. Everybody was so connected.
Nick Mays [00:15:20] And see, I get a sense that you were active.
Pat Cook [00:15:23] Yeah.
Nick Mays [00:15:24] You’re an active student at Shaw. Not just going to school. Part of extracurricular. Curricular activities.
Pat Cook [00:15:32] Activities. Right. We would go to, you know, the football games, the basketball games. We had a lot of great athletes. Oh, gosh. That. They would have a big parade. They would have a huge parade that went down. Hayden. Hayden to the Shaw Stadium. It was just. And Shaw’s band was huge.
Nick Mays [00:16:03] Still is.
Pat Cook [00:16:05] Yeah, still is. Yeah, it still is. Shaw’s band is great. It’s always been great.
Nick Mays [00:16:13] Really appreciated by the community and the city.
Pat Cook [00:16:17] Right. And they still appreciate it. And Shaw band is coming. Okay. The people will come and clap. I mean, everybody loves Shaw band.
Nick Mays [00:16:24] Where was the stadium at?
Pat Cook [00:16:27] The stadium was on Shaw. Shaw, not Shaw High School. It wasn’t at the school, but it was on the street. Shaw. That goes down. Yeah. And behind the stadium was that open swimming pool I was telling you about. Behind the stadium was a stadium, big football stadium. And behind there, they had an actual swimming pool that was open for the summer.
Nick Mays [00:16:56] Can you. Can you briefly talk about joining plays and being a part of plays and acting and, like, what inspired you to do it? What made you. What made you do it?
Pat Cook [00:17:13] Wow. One day I just. I said, I want to be in some play. So I just auditioned for some school plays. A friend of mine, we used to sing. We used to go up in my attic and sing. We used to play 45 records. We would get the 45 records from the store, called VIPCO. Mr. VIPCO, he lived on my street. He had a black business owner, and he had the first drive through in East Cleveland. So he sold 45s and they had to list this paper with a list of all the top 20 songs. So we would go and get the 45 star singing. Me and my friend Andrea, we would start Singing and, you know, so we were singing at a young age. I knew I liked doing stuff like that, so I would audition for plays. Right across the street from the library is the East Cleveland Theater. I went to the East Cleveland Theater, did some plays there. Painting. Anything that had to do with the arts. I loved anything that had to do with the arts.
Nick Mays [00:18:26] Did you ever want to do it as a career?
Pat Cook [00:18:27] As a career? When I was younger, I did. And then I just began to change. I just did things in a different way. That’s when I, like, started a business. I started painting T shirts and selling.
Nick Mays [00:18:46] Is this in high school?
Pat Cook [00:18:47] This wasn’t in high school. This was after high school.
Nick Mays [00:18:51] So wait a minute. Did you do plays and act even after you graduated from high school?
Pat Cook [00:18:55] Over at the theater.
Nick Mays [00:18:56] So at the theater. Make that connection for me. How did you begin doing productions at the theater?
Pat Cook [00:19:04] I had some friends in school that we did plays in school, and they told me that they were going over to the East Cleveland Theater, that I should come over. And I went over there and auditioned for some plays and was in a couple plays there and did some art there because it was so.
[00:19:22] Like I said, it was so community. There was so much to do. You didn’t even have to leave East Cleveland. You lived in East Cleveland. You didn’t even have to leave the city because there were so many different activities to do. You know, you can be in a play, you can do artwork.
[00:19:42] Where else can you? We would go to Karamu [House Theater] sometimes, but, you know, right here in this city, it was so much to do.
Nick Mays [00:19:49] When you say arts, outside of the plays at the theater, what kind of.
Pat Cook [00:19:54] Like, they had, like, you can take an art class, learn how to paint, learn how to draw. You can learn how to act there. They had acting lessons. There was a man who used to come to our elementary school, and he would do different little puppet shows and show us how to act in elementary school. So that’s maybe that’s where I got inspired from. From him. He would. He would come in and he would show us how to actually act things out. So now that I’m talking to you, the more I’m talking, I’m realizing that that’s probably where it all kind of connected.
Nick Mays [00:20:32] A bug came from.
Pat Cook [00:20:33] Yeah.
Nick Mays [00:20:34] Now, did your family or parents get to come to Shaw and to the theater?
Pat Cook [00:20:38] Oh, yeah. They came to see me in some. In some plays. Yes, they did. My father worked a lot, so he didn’t. He was mainly working, but my mom did. She came and supported me.
Nick Mays [00:20:49] What did that Feel like to have your mom.
Pat Cook [00:20:51] Yeah, that was just wonderful. She was proud. And you know, like I said, my mother loved kids anyway, so she. Anything that we were in or a part of, she was there.
Nick Mays [00:21:04] Talk about the, the vocational program that you was a. Was a part of.
Pat Cook [00:21:10] Yeah, I was. My goodness, it’s been so long ago. There, there were before computers, there was these big gigantic typewriters. They were electric typewriters. You type and boom, boom. So it was like the vocationals, kind of like a secretarial program. And this was before computers. Yeah, everything was just these big electric typewriters.
[00:21:41] And my mother always told me, learn how to type if you know how to type, you can get a job at that time. Learn how to type if you know how to type. So I made sure that I learned how to type and I went. And that’s the program when the vocational. I can’t think of the name of the program, but it was more like a secretarial type of thing.
[00:22:07] But it was a certain name for it. Look, I should have looked at my yearbook, but it was a certain name for the program.
Nick Mays [00:22:16] What year did you, you graduated from Shaw?
Pat Cook [00:22:19] 83.
Nick Mays [00:22:19] 83. So it seems like you, throughout your, your young life, your mom was giving you advice and some, you know, values and Jewels. Oh, hey, you know, you learn how to type, you could always.
Pat Cook [00:22:34] Right? Yeah.
Nick Mays [00:22:36] Did you, did you appreciate it then as much as you appreciate it now?
Pat Cook [00:22:41] Probably not, but I do. You know, as you get older, you’re like, oh, I see what she mean. You know, you, like I said, my, my mom was, she was my rock. So anything she said, I appreciate it. But as you get older, you appreciate it even more. And especially when she’s not here, especially when, you know, she’s gone.
[00:23:03] And. Yeah.
Nick Mays [00:23:05] I didn’t ask you about your own family today.
Pat Cook [00:23:10] Okay. I don’t have any, any children.
Nick Mays [00:23:12] Okay, so you were an entrepreneur even in high school. Can you tell me about your entrepreneurship in high school?
Pat Cook [00:23:26] Even in high school, this city had, there was so much going on. This city had a lot of, I think it was like maybe three bakeries here. So we had a Davis Bakery, a Huff Bakery and. And then we had like a secondhand store where they sold day old donuts. And the donuts may have been like 25 cent.
[00:23:52] So I would get some donuts and go sell donuts at the school. So I was. That. I think that was the start of my entrepreneurial.
Nick Mays [00:24:04] So it was good donuts, it just wasn’t fresh. And so they would sell it at a cheaper price.
Pat Cook [00:24:08] Right, right. They were day old, but they were still fresh. They were still fresh. It was just day old donuts. And I sold them at, you know, started selling them at school and, you know.
Nick Mays [00:24:21] And then what inspired you to do that? Like, what happened that you go, you know what? I’m gonna make money. I’m gonna take these donuts, I’m gonna buy it, I’m gonna sell it at school. What?
Pat Cook [00:24:35] I don’t know, because I always wanted, you know, my parents gave me what I asked for, but I didn’t want to always have to ask them for something. I wanted to be able to make my own money. So I’ve been working since I’ve been 14 years old. My first job, I worked at a daycare.
[00:24:59] So I’ve been working since 14. So I always wanted to. I’ve always been creative, so I always wanted to create and, and do things. So from there I had a T shirt business. I started a T shirt business.
Nick Mays [00:25:18] And this is after. This is after high school.
Pat Cook [00:25:21] This is after high school.
Nick Mays [00:25:22] We’re gonna get there.
Pat Cook [00:25:23] Okay.
Nick Mays [00:25:24] I’m just, I’m just interesting. Like, what inspires, you know, a person in high school and it’s not that. And I remember in high school to high school with people just like that. And I didn’t think about it then, but now I think about it, like, what did somebody instill that in them? Did somebody instill, like, entrepreneurship, like, and you early on, or was it just yourself kind of. You know what? I could make money.
Pat Cook [00:25:50] Right.
Pat Cook [00:25:52] I could make money doing this, right? Yeah.
Nick Mays [00:25:54] So how much did you sell? Sell it for? Do you ever have.
Pat Cook [00:25:57] It wasn’t much.
Nick Mays [00:25:58] You bought it at 25 cents, right?
Pat Cook [00:26:00] It wasn’t much. And 25 cents, you had like eight donuts in there or something like that in a pack, you know, and they were fresh donuts. So I think I may have sold them for 25 cents or something like that.
Nick Mays [00:26:15] Oh, I see.
Pat Cook [00:26:17] You know, I may have made like a dollar and something off the donuts per pack, so. And then I have an aunt who is an entrepreneur. She was. Is a beautician. And, you know, watching her over the years do hair and I mean, it’s just. I just, you know, watch the people around me, I guess.
Nick Mays [00:26:46] What do you think your. Your early entrepreneurship experience and business experience teach you? If you have to think about it, like, what did it teach you? Like, that experience at Shaw. What did it teach you about business.
Pat Cook [00:27:04] That you can start your Own business. You can actually take something. You can take nothing and make something with it pretty much because I didn’t have to do anything but go purchase these donuts, you know, so it just, you know, and from there, hey, if you can do this, if I can do this, then I can do something else. I can do more. So it just makes you realize that this is in you and you can do more.
Nick Mays [00:27:39] Final question for this, this theme or this topic. Looking back, how did your time at Shaw prepare you for life or for the path that you would eventually take? Did you take out of your experience?
Pat Cook [00:27:55] It taught me again. Well, first of all, it gave me that sense of community and that you can do. You could do anything. If you put your mind to it, you can do anything. There’s so many different. Because there was, it was like a canvas already. There were so many different things you can do, so many different classes you can take.
[00:28:18] It kind of taught me that this is how it kind of got me ready for the real world in that I can be an entrepreneur, I can go to school, I can work and get a job. You know, there were so many things you can do at that time, because at that time there were.
[00:28:38] Jobs were plentiful. You know what I mean? People would get it. To get a job was, was easy. I don’t know how it is today. It’s been a while since I’ve, you know, been on an interview or anything, so. But it just gave me a sense of, of self worth that you can do whatever you put your mind to, you can do whatever you want.
Nick Mays [00:29:07] You remember any, did you have any teachers that was like, impactful?
Pat Cook [00:29:14] Oh, yes. As a matter of fact, I had this one teacher. Oh, my God. I don’t remember her name, but she spoke at. She spoke and it was like a motivational. That was my first time ever hearing a motivational speaker. And she spoke so well. No one has ever spoken to me like that before.
[00:29:41] That hit my heart. Even though she was speaking to a whole audience of people, she. It was very motivating and it motivated me because she says you can do dot, do dot. I don’t remember exactly what it is she said, but it really hit home for me.
Nick Mays [00:30:06] Isn’t it wonderful to have people like that?
Pat Cook [00:30:08] Yes. She had no idea. She had no idea. Because, you know, sometimes when you’re. You’re a teenager, you’re not paying any. You’re not paying attention to certain things. You know, if it, if it’s not something that you’re interested in, you know, teenagers they’re like, okay, yeah, I’m just here. But you. You might get one or two people, you might get five or six people and just pull them in and let them know, hey, you can do whatever. You can do whatever you want to do. And this is. These are the steps to do it. Yeah, very enlightening.
Nick Mays [00:30:51] So moving forward onto early careers and professional growth. After graduating from Shaw, you began working first at a retail store, is that correct?
Pat Cook [00:31:10] Right.
Nick Mays [00:31:10] But even before the retail store, at your end of your stint at Shaw, you got a job.
Pat Cook [00:31:18] Right. So like I said, my first job was in daycare, but as part of the vocational school, the vocational program we got, they gave us jobs through the vocation.
Nick Mays [00:31:33] So they placed you guys.
Pat Cook [00:31:34] They placed us at this job. And I worked at the Marine recruiting office. So we learned all about Marines, what the Marines do. It was. It was very enlightening because I learned a lot about the military, you know, and they were trying to recruit me when I worked there. Do you want to go in the military?
[00:32:02] I’ve seen people who went to Shaw, they went in the military, went to boot camp, and they came back as somebody else. They came back totally recharged, like a totally different person. So that was my first time ever seeing that somebody going to boot camp. You know, they might have been a slouch or whatever, and they came back, their shoulders were back, they were confident, they were boom, boom, boom, boom, you know. So that was very interesting. Very interesting.
Nick Mays [00:32:36] So that was your junior/senior year?
Pat Cook [00:32:37] That was my senior year.
Nick Mays [00:32:40] So now you graduate Shaw.
Pat Cook [00:32:41] So then I graduate from Shaw, and I’m working at. There was a store, it was called Lynn’s Clothing Store. It was in East Cleveland and the Euclid, Superior Plaza. So there were, you know, several clothing stores in East Cleveland at the time. So I worked there. I was an assistant manager there for about maybe five years.
[00:33:15] Then I was going to school, and I end up leaving there, and I started working at John Hay High School. So I started working at John Hayes High School, and I was working in the library as a library assistant. And I would put all the books away. I was like a page. Put the books away.
[00:33:41] And I loved it because I love books. So I was surrounded by books. So I was like, this is the place to be anything you want to know right here in these books. Now, when I was younger, one thing my mom did, she. We had World Book Encyclopedias, and we had these Ebony books.
[00:34:06] It was like a black history, Ebony books. So I really appreciated her for giving us those, for having Some World Book encyclopedias was like unreal at the time. We would have to go to the library to use those encyclopedia. So I really appreciate her. So some days I didn’t have to go to the library, but I was in the library all the time anyway.
[00:34:33] Not the one here on Euclid. I was at, the one on Hayden.
Nick Mays [00:34:37] What do you mean by. By you appreciate that? Were you learning already learning history as a little girl or.
Pat Cook [00:34:44] I appreciate. Well, I appreciate the fact that she felt that her kids would need these encyclopedias to help them in their learning. You know what I mean? To have something at home. To have something, some books at home, you know, something to hold on to a book. This is a book that’s mine that my mom bought this whole set, which was expensive at that time. I don’t know how much they were. It was very expensive. But I felt, I really appreciated that, you know, everybody had to go to the library. I still had to go to the library, you know, doing research or whatever. But to have those encyclopedias there meant a lot. And then to have that set, that black set of African American information that I never knew, it was just even more so. So when I had to do a report, I would do those reports from those, those encyclopedias. Now sometimes we would have to use more than one source or whatever, but I had them there, you know, so I really appreciate her for that. And I. Yeah.
Nick Mays [00:35:55] And so now you’re working at.
Pat Cook [00:35:58] Now I’m working on a library with all of this knowledge and all of this information right at my fingertip is unreal. So when kids will come into John Hay and they want books on this and books on that, to be able to give people what it is they’re looking for, the resources that they need is just awesome. It’s an awesome thing to do.
Nick Mays [00:36:27] Was getting a job at the library intentional at first or was it. I’m looking for a job and they’re hiring.
Pat Cook [00:36:34] It was. It was pretty much intentional. I think when I saw that, I said, oh, okay, I’m going to put in an application at John Hay High School in the library of all places. So I. That was definitely intentional.
Nick Mays [00:36:57] Your. So talk about your stint in working in library services before you got to East Cleveland Public Library. So what schools or what institutions did you work for?
Pat Cook [00:37:11] Yeah, I worked. Okay. I’m John Hay. Then I worked at East Tech and then I worked downtown at the Board of Education. We were over all the libraries in the school system. It was called Library Media Services. So what we would do is go out to different libraries all over the city, east side, west side.
[00:37:32] Anybody needed any help. We began to automate the schools. It was the big old fashioned card catalog. So we would go through. We had to go through all those cards and automate the school system to begin to get them on computers. So we did a lot of that. Then things began to change in the system.
[00:38:00] They closed elementary school libraries. Then they began to close the junior high libraries. I only had high school libraries, which I thought was terrible. I don’t know if it was due to funding. And they said, go to your community library instead of, you know, the school library, which you know, which I thought was terrible.
Nick Mays [00:38:26] So that speaks to your transition here. Can you do your best at telling me at least the periods of, like when you worked at John Hay or East Tech or the board?
Pat Cook [00:38:39] Okay, let me see. You want the exact year?
Nick Mays [00:38:42] Yeah. If you can or not. Just the period.
Pat Cook [00:38:45] I would say in 80. No. Starting in 1990, I started working at John Hay High School. And since I was in the system, I was in the system. I got. We got laid off from John Hay. And then, let me see, I was at John Hay from 92, maybe 97. And then they laid us off. And then I went back and this time I was at East Tech. And then from East Tech, I was at East Tech for like maybe two years. Then I applied for. The Board of Education. They had an opening. I knew the lady who was over the East Tech program, and she told me to come and apply for the Board of Education.
[00:39:54] So from the Board of Education, I worked there about, I’d say another eight years. And while I was working there, I put in an application here at the East Cleveland Public Library. So I was still working there. And I worked here in East Cleveland for the weekends. Weekends only. Weekends and evenings. So I was working, you know, the two jobs.
Nick Mays [00:40:28] What, what were those early years at the East Cleveland Public Library when you first joined in the 90s?
Pat Cook [00:40:36] How was it here?
Nick Mays [00:40:37] Yeah, yeah. What, what were those early years like when you first started working?
Pat Cook [00:40:48] It was pretty exciting. Like I said, was a library. It was different. I had never worked at a public library. I worked at the school library. So this was a little different. So things, you know, I still did the same type of job, but a little differently because it’s public. And I worked at the branches.
[00:41:12] I worked at the north branch library on Hayton. I worked at the Caledonia branch library up there by Caledonia. And it was exciting. I met a lot of people. Kids will come in with programs, you know, it was a lot going on and it was fun. It was fun. Most people think working in the libraries are boring, but it’s really fun.
Nick Mays [00:41:45] You serve the library in various roles or in libraries in various roles for decades and, and now your reference adult associate. What do you enjoy about your work today?
Pat Cook [00:42:05] Everything I love. I like doing programs. I usually check with the community and say, is there anything that you think that we should have here at the East Cleveland Public Library? They will let me know, and I’ll try to make sure that we have those programs available for them. Also like the fact that when they come in here, they come in here for a reason, whether it’s a problem or they want to know something. I love when they leave out this door and they have the resources; the whole reason for coming in here; they have it in their hand, and I love that. I hate for people to go out of here and not have what they come in here for. I hate to say, oh, I’m. I’m sorry, we don’t have that. So I try everything possible to make sure that they leave out of here satisfied.
Nick Mays [00:43:01] You’ve shared with me that you and spoke to a passion for helping people solve problems that you just kind of restated that.
Pat Cook [00:43:09] Right.
Nick Mays [00:43:11] Can you share an example of, like, what. What that looks like in your daily work?
Pat Cook [00:43:18] An example? Okay, let’s see. Oh, wow. It’s so many. You know, just somebody coming in. Just a person coming in, wanting to know if we have a book and the book is on the shelf. Someone who comes from way over on the west side. Usually we tell people to call to make sure that the person has it. We’ll have the book at the front desk for you. But sometimes they’ll just come and they come from a long way on the west side or whatever, and they say, I see in the system you have this book. The fact that we have this book and I’m able to get. Get this book to that person, that makes me feel really, really good. Really good. And then even with resources, somebody may need a place to stay. They’re homeless. Do you have anything, Any resources? So the fact that we’re able to give them certain resources and they say thank you, and they’re on their way to it, whether it’s a homeless shelter, the Salvation army or whatever, you know, We would partner with these people and call them to see if they have such and such available, and they do that. That makes me feel really good.
Nick Mays [00:44:38] What kind of programs have you helped or developed yourself or helped develop or supported at the library over the years.
Pat Cook [00:44:50] Okay. Was it last year we did something. 50 years of hip Hop. I developed a program. I said, I want to do something in the city to celebrate hip hop. So we had a big program of 50 years of hip hop, which was a huge success. I had a natural hair program, which was a huge success. Oh, my goodness. I can go on and on. We have a patron of the month program where any patron that comes in here regularly who either checks out material or comes to programming, we make them a patron of the month. We get them a T shirt, put that picture up on the wall. I mean, you know, what more can you do? People are. The fact that they are patronizing us. We want the community to know that we really appreciate them.
Nick Mays [00:45:50] What about the impact that you’ve seen this library and their programming have on residents?
Pat Cook [00:46:01] They constantly come back. The fact that they come back to the programs. The fact that they come back to our. Whether it’s our jazz concerts or the fact that they come. When is your next program? What we doing next, Ms. Cook? You know, the fact that they, you know, doing all that kind of stuff is just. It’s amazing to me. So that it’s good to know that they appreciate our programs here at the East Cleveland Public Library.
Nick Mays [00:46:30] But is the staff aware or conscious of their. Their meaning to the city of East Cleveland communities or what they mean to the community and the contributions that you guys are making?
Pat Cook [00:46:46] I believe so. I truly believe so. Because our community is constantly saying, thank you, thank you for what you do. Thank you so much. Oh, I didn’t notice. Thank you. Thank you is all we need. So thank you.
Nick Mays [00:47:06] Well, I want to pivot and thank you for those meaningful responses. What makes the East Cleveland Public Library different from other libraries you’ve worked or you saw or seen?
Pat Cook [00:47:25] Well, the fact that it’s in East Cleveland, where I was raised; and with all that’s going on in the city, the fact that we’re still standing tall; we are still maintaining, giving information, giving programs, we keep going. Just like the ever ready Battery, we keep going. All that’s going on in the city, and there’s been a lot going on in the city all these years to see things from back when I was a child to now, and this library is still here. It’s so much pride in the library. It reminds me of the pride that’s in the city of East Cleveland. It’s clean, it’s neat. The people are nice. It reminds me the way I grew up.
Nick Mays [00:48:25] Wow. Well said. So let’s pivot to entrepreneurship. So you ran a T shirt business for more than 10 years. Talk about that. That business and the kind of work that you did.
Pat Cook [00:48:37] Yeah, I specialized in family reunions. I love family. I love to see families and community. Even at the Shaw High School reunion, everybody had the same T shirts or this group of T shirts. I love. It’s something about that. I don’t know what it is, but I just love seeing people with these same shirts on, representing family and community.
[00:49:09] So I specialized in family reunion T shirts. And I only. I didn’t do, like one single T shirt. You had to have at least maybe 10 or 15 sheet T shirts or more, and it was a huge success. So I did that also paint. I was still doing my hand painting, painting T shirts.
[00:49:32] Now I have a gift basket business. I make gift baskets, and I make a lot of baskets for the library. So if people come in and they be part of our programs, they can win a basket. You put books in the basket. Whatever you want, I put in a gift basket for you.
Nick Mays [00:49:52] How did your T shirt business come about?
Pat Cook [00:49:57] From when I was hand painting T shirts, I would hand paint T shirts and people would say, oh, my God, where’d you get that from? And I start selling them. So that’s how it started just from making these T shirts. And I would put whatever. Somebody go to bingo. I would make bingo T shirts.
[00:50:17] If somebody played cards, I put cards on there. I even went to Vegas once, and I had made T shirts for me and my mom and my sisters, and we were walking around Vegas and it was like glittery and shiny and the lights were shining. It was like, where’d you get these from?
[00:50:34] Is it in a souvenir shop? No, I made these. You know, I wish I would have had some on hand to sell there, but I didn’t. But. Yeah.
Nick Mays [00:50:44] And so you’ve since transitioned to.
Pat Cook [00:50:48] Yeah, to gift baskets. But I think I may start back doing T shirts again. It’s kind of stopped that I might start hand painting them again.
Nick Mays [00:51:00] What did you enjoy, if any, about running that business?
Pat Cook [00:51:11] People will come to me and tell me: this is what I want. I want that [inaudible}. I want it to be red and blue. I want it to say, Smith’s family reunion. So the fact that they would get their T shirts and be happy. They would get that. They would be happy. No, I’m not a people pleaser, but I love making people happy. It’s just something about, you know, I love your work, and so I take pride in my work. And that goes all the way back to my parents. If you do something, don’t you have. Do it. Do it all the way.
Nick Mays [00:51:57] Okay, we’re pivoting again. First and foremost, what do you think people misunderstand about East Cleveland and its residents?
Pat Cook [00:52:10] Somebody, maybe that’s on the outside looking in would think, this East Cleveland, it’s terrible. You know, it’s like East Cleveland. “You work in East Cleveland at the library. Why?” People haven’t even come. They haven’t even come in East Cleveland or come to the library. They just ride by down Euclid and see that it looks terrible.
[00:52:38] You know, all those businesses are gone, but the people that still live here are still very pride. They got this pride about themselves. They believe in East Cleveland. They’ve been here their whole life, and they still believe that it’s gonna turn around.
Nick Mays [00:52:58] In our earlier conversation, you talked about some of the businesses and entities that exist. Can you share that in terms of when you were growing up? You know, I think you mentioned bowling alley. You talk about business. Can you talk about all those things?
Pat Cook [00:53:15] Right, yes. Growing up, we had, like, at least four grocery stores in the community. Grocery stores. Huge grocery stores. Not now. Now there’s a desert, a food desert here. I don’t even think there’s a grocery store here now. I don’t know. But it was like, four or five grocery stores all over East Cleveland. Like I said, we didn’t. You didn’t have to leave East Cleveland. You can go to the grocery store. You can go get clothes. You can go to the pet store. You can go to the bowling alley. There was a movie theater. There were two movie theaters here. There was one on Hay, and there was one on Euclid. I remember going to see a movie, a couple of movies right here on Euclid, to the movie theater. It was, like I said, was so much to do. There was just such a community that you didn’t even have to leave the city. To, you know, to say that is major because now there’s nothing here.
[00:54:22] You know what I mean? So when people come to date, like, well, I remember East Coast Cleveland when it was in its heyday. And not to mention the fact that this was a Millionaire’s Row before, even before it was. It was, like, integrated. At one time, it was Millionaires Row. The houses in East Cleveland were beautiful growing up. People, homes were beautiful. They were beautiful. So, yeah, it was such a community. And it was so. It was so much. It’s almost hard to describe because it was so. There was so much to do here. Everything like I said, from swimming pools to bowling alleys to grocery stores to Mom&Pop stores to. It was just a lot. They even had a place where you can get your pictures taken for Shaw High School right here. Right here in East Cleveland. No, I was just gonna say, can you just imagine you didn’t have to go out the city for that. Just go down the street and get your picture taken for the yearbook, you know, your senior pictures.
Nick Mays [00:55:44] Self sufficient.
Pat Cook [00:55:47] It was a self sufficient community and I think that’s what people were so, you know, prideful. And they come back every year to that reunion. They come back to that reunion like happy, like I’m going back, going back to East Cleveland, you know. Yeah.
Nick Mays [00:56:07] So at this point in time there is some revitalization efforts, development efforts and it’s, it’s coming your way up Euclid in East Cleveland. We know a lot of other areas of cities have nowhere else to go and so in the last couple years you’ve had projects like the Circle east and other revitalization and modernizing efforts.
[00:56:41] How do you, what do you, what do you, do you support generally more broadly, external revitalization institutions, companies coming in to modernize, revitalize.
Pat Cook [00:56:57] East Cleveland is at a point where something’s going to have to change. I mean, it’s something. It’s going to have to be a change, you know, I don’t know which, which way, but we’ll have to have somebody, some businesses coming here, somebody to employ people because there’s nothing here. We had the Huron Road hospital left.
[00:57:31] You know, there’s no tax base, so we don’t have to have. Something is going to have to happen. It’s going to have to be a major change. What I’m not sure, you know, but it’s going to have to have to change.
Nick Mays [00:57:50] Do you think that in order for East Cleveland to truly get back to a space it was or to evolve or to develop that external forces are going to be needed to come in and help?
Pat Cook [00:58:09] Yeah.
Nick Mays [00:58:10] It’s interesting because this question is very nuanced and goes a lot of different ways. And there’s even people who support like you know, what, whatever the Calgary land Bank is doing and other development, however they want to see East Clevelanders have a seat at the table.
Pat Cook [00:58:29] Right.
Nick Mays [00:58:30] And be a part of what revitalization looks like and wants to ensure that they’re not displaced by gentrification.
Pat Cook [00:58:37] I agree with that part. I definitely agree with that. The people that are here that have been here through it all, pull them in Let them be a part of this whole project. Don’t just leave them, you know, leave them. Kick them to the curb somewhere.
Nick Mays [00:58:56] You know, I just have a couple of legacy looking ahead questions. First, you’ve dedicated your life to education, community and service. What keeps you motivated after all these years?
Pat Cook [00:59:17] The community. Community. The fact that these people are still here and they’re still coming. The fact that people do come back and say, oh, I don’t live here anymore. I just wanted to come back to the library and it looks good in here and just community.
Nick Mays [00:59:38] What message would you like to leave for young people, especially those growing up here now, about perseverance or pride or possibility.
Pat Cook [00:59:53] To never give up on your dream. Never give up and always do your best. Go back to my [mom]. Always do your best. Always.
Nick Mays [01:00:08] And then finally, when people look back at your life or on your life and career, what do you hope, though? Remember about Ms. Pat Cook and her contribution to East Cleveland?
Pat Cook [01:00:22] Oh, wow. Job well done. She did a good job.
Nick Mays [01:00:32] Do you ever think about legacy stuff or do you just focused on doing the work?
Pat Cook [01:00:38] I just really focus on doing just. I just basically focus on doing the work, yo know.
Nick Mays [01:00:43] Doing the work of the people.
Pat Cook [01:00:48] Doing the work for the people, you know, sort of the next generation, you know, hopefully. Hopefully I’m inspiration to others. They’ve seen the work that I’ve done and how dedicated I’ve been. But I don’t expect anything from anyone. You know, I put my time in and when it’s time for me to go, I’m gone.
[01:01:14] But hopefully, you know, people. Well, people do come to me and say that I’m inspired by you; or, you know. I just want them to, you know, I’m a modest person, so I don’t, you know, get into all that; but I just, you know, want people to do their best.
Nick Mays [01:01:35] Well, Ms. Pat Cook, this conversation has been extraordinary. Thank you for your career. Thank you for your service and your work. And the oral history interview is. Has come to an end. Thank you.
Pat Cook [01:01:48] Thank you, Dr. Mays. Hopefully this will help someone or inspire somebody.
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