Abstract
Josephine (Delgado) Moss, born in Mexico, describes her family's immigration to the United States, where her father worked for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The family lived in a remodeled boxcar near the railroad tracks in Independence, Ohio, during the Depression era. Moss grew up with seven siblings and lived in various locations, including Cleveland and Independence. She became a nurse during World War II, working at several hospitals and later starting a home health agency in Arizona. Her parents were Mexican immigrants who spoke limited English and primarily stayed close to home. Moss married Robert Moss in 1952 and recalls growing up near the Cuyahoga River, with memories of playing near the tracks, swimming, and exploring the local area. The interview includes discussions about her family's life, her father's railroad work, and the changing landscape of Independence over the decades.
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Interviewee
Moss, Josephine (interviewee)
Interviewer
Rosser, Arrye (interviewer); Farinacci, Ashley (participant)
Project
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Date
9-8-2017
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
66 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Josephine Moss interview, 08 September 2017" (2017). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 343023.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1426
Transcript
Arrye Rosser [00:00:02] So I’m the interviewer today. I’m Arrye Rosser from the National Park Service and we’re doing an oral history on September 8, 2017. And I’m here with Mrs. Moss. Josephine, can you give me your full name and just tell me when and where you were born?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:00:19] Oh, my name is Josephine Moss. My maiden name was Delgado. I was born in Mexico in 1926.
Arrye Rosser [00:00:34] And tell me a little bit about how your family came to live in Independence.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:00:40] It’s a long story. My dad was one of the workers that came up from Mexico. He worked for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He lived here for quite a while, had my mother- He and my mother were- My- Excuse me.
Arrye Rosser [00:01:00] Go ahead. I’m going to shut this door. [inaudible] -pounding away. Tell me about your dad again.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:01:12] Okay. He worked for the- He came up in much earlier. I don’t recall when, but he worked for the Baltimore and Ohio as a, came up as a worker. And he worked in Colorado. He was up there with my mother. My brother was born there, my older brother.
Arrye Rosser [00:01:35] In Colorado?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:01:36] He was born in 1920. Then he got- They went back to Mexico. And that’s where I was born, and my sister was born there in Mexico. And he came back to the States, still working for the Baltimore & Ohio, the railroad. They moved him around a lot. We lived in Cleveland for quite a while, until I was nine years old. And then we moved to Independence into an area that was called Willow at that time. And since he worked for the railroad, we were living in a boxcar that was remodeled. It was just like a mobile home. That’s what it eventually was like. So we lived there for quite a few years. I went to Independence School, graduated from there. And after that I went on to school. I became a nurse. At that time, it was World War II and they needed nurses, so they were recruiting nurses. And I joined the Nurse Cadet Corps. So I worked with the Nurse Cadet Corps, and by the time I graduated from the nursing school, the war was over and there wasn’t that dire need of nurses. So I went on into private practice. I worked at Deaconess Hospital, at Fairview Hospital. Then I worked as a private duty nurse and I worked as an industrial nurse. I worked at Deaconess Hospital the longest. I worked there for about 15 years. In fact, I worked in the first at that time, modern cardiac unit that was started here in Cleveland. I worked there for the 15 years and after that I went to Arizona and I worked on an Indian reservation there. I left there- I moved around quite a bit. I moved down to southern Arizona and worked on the front on the border there for quite a while. Started a home health agency, worked there for about, oh, I was 10, 12 years. Then I retired from the home health agency and did work for the Supreme Court there, Santa Cruz County in Nogales. And I stayed there until I moved back to Ohio, where I originally came from, which was Independence, Ohio.
Arrye Rosser [00:04:46] Let me- I’m still stuck on you living in a boxcar. You gotta tell me more about that. [laughs]
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:04:54] [laughs] That was a- That was an experience.
Arrye Rosser [00:05:03] You were a boxcar child. [laughs]
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:05:04] I was a boxcar kid, I really was. But yes, at that time there was just my older brother, my sister, older sister, myself, my younger sister, my younger brother.
Arrye Rosser [00:05:20] How many kids were in your family?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:05:22] There were eight in their family and-
Arrye Rosser [00:05:24] But not everyone was born at that time?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:05:27] They were all born- I would say just my sister and I were born in Mexico. The rest were all born in Cleveland. They were all born in Cleveland.
Arrye Rosser [00:05:43] What were the names of your parents? I didn’t catch those.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:05:45] Oh, my father’s name was Eresheo.
Arrye Rosser [00:05:50] How do you spell that?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:05:52] E, R, E, S, H, E, O. I just stop and think, yeah, Eresheo, Eresheo. Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:06:00] And what about your mom?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:06:01] Her name was Epemenia.
Arrye Rosser [00:06:03] How do you spell that?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:06:05] E, P, E, M, E, N, I, A. I just thought I have to see it in my mind. [crosstalk] But actually, like I said, those are Latin names. I don’t know what they mean, but they’re Latin names. And only here in the United States they were known. Since nobody could pronounce the names, she was known as Anna and he was Edward.
Arrye Rosser [00:06:33] Oh, that’s funny. Oh, yeah. I was going to ask, did you have an extension extended family? Like, how did your dad end up- Your dad worked for the railroad and he- Did he go ahead of the family or everybody just kind of moved into the Cleveland area at that time?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:06:58] He brought my mother, my mother, my brother, my sister and myself back from Mexico because, see, that’s where we were, and we came back into the United States. I was two and a half years old when I came to the United States.
Arrye Rosser [00:07:16] So you don’t remember. Where are you from in Mexico?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:07:19] León, Guanajuato.
Arrye Rosser [00:07:21] Which, I’m ignorant. What part of Mexico?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:07:23] Oh, you wouldn’t know where that would be. It’s about, oh, I would say 200, 300 miles northeast, northwest of Mexico City, around that general area.
Arrye Rosser [00:07:42] How did he end up working for the railroad? Did he work for the railroad in Mexico first?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:07:48] No. I guess- I really don’t know how he really got to come here, but I think at that time they had these migrant workers that they would bring in and apparently he was one of the migrant workers that came into the United States. And while he was here, he brought my mother over, and that’s when my oldest brother was born in Colorado. And then I guess they went back to Mexico when that program. When that ended and the program ended, and then that’s where my sister and I were born.
Arrye Rosser [00:08:26] So this would have been the 1920s.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:08:28] This was in the ’20s, because I came over in, I would say, 1928.
Arrye Rosser [00:08:42] And that did he used to do for the railroad? Was it the same job-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:08:45] Oh, he worked on the tracks. He worked on the tracks.
Arrye Rosser [00:08:51] Did he have a certain set of tracks that he worked on when he was in the Cleveland area? Was he responsible for a certain [crosstalk] section of the line?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:08:58] Wherever he traveled. Yeah, I guess they had us- I don’t know how they worked it, but like I say, we were- He was transferred a couple of times, and that’s how we ended in Independence.
Arrye Rosser [00:09:11] Mm-hmm. How did you end up in the boxcar? Was that, like, owned by-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:09:14] That was part of the- That’s where they gave him as a living quarters.
Arrye Rosser [00:09:23] Gotcha. Were there other families that were in-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:09:25] There was one other man that worked for the railroad. He was a watchman at the crossing. A watchman at the crossing. But he was single, and he lived also in a boxcar. But his wasn’t a double wide like ours was. [laughs]
Arrye Rosser [00:09:44] It wasn’t the family size.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:09:45] Right.
Arrye Rosser [00:09:47] So describe where we were looking on a map, but describe roughly where geographically where you were living when you were in the boxcar. That was just north of what we think of as the cloverleaf where 77 and 480 come together?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:10:05] Just where the cloverleaf is. That’s where it was located. It was like at a section where part of the railroad went south and then another part made a turn and headed north. It was like a three area type of thing. [crosstalk] Two of them- Two of them went- Two of them went north, and the one went south.
Arrye Rosser [00:10:32] You said this is up near Granger area? Near Granger Road?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:10:37] It was at the bottom of Schaaf Road. It was the bottom of Schaaf Road. And it was- Like I said, it was just open fields. That’s all it was. It was right next to the- Again, very close to the Cuyahoga River. We were always close to that Cuyahoga River.
Arrye Rosser [00:10:58] What was the river like in the-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:11:01] You know, there were some sections that were rather clear. We used to go in there. I don’t recall where it was, but they had the sandy beach. We’d go wading in the river.
Arrye Rosser [00:11:13] What time, what years would this have been, like in the ’30s or the ’20s?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:11:18] This was in the ’30s. This was just about the end of the Depression era, because, like I say, we were living in the Depression area. That’s when we were living in Cleveland.
Arrye Rosser [00:11:31] And were there neighbors other than the other gentleman-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:11:36] By the boxcar? No, we had no neighbors then. The closest neighbors were, I would say, oh, about a quarter of a mile away. And they lived right at the bottom of Schaaf Road because we lived further, closer to 21, Route 21. And there were two families, one that lived on the hill at the bottom of Schaaf Road. And then there was another one that lived maybe a city block away, down lower. And they were the Pollini family, two Italian families.
Arrye Rosser [00:12:12] Was it unusual that your family was Mexican American at that time? Like, were there other Mexicans?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:12:19] No, we were the only ones there. And there was- There was no discrimination. None at all. I mean, we were accepted into the community and everything because we all went to the same school.
Arrye Rosser [00:12:35] I didn’t know if there was other Mexican Americans working for the railroad or it just-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:12:42] You know, I really don’t know because when they came, actually, what they really came was it was during the revolution down in Mexico. And part of it was trying to escape that revolution. Some of the family came approximately the same time, but it scattered from the- When they entered into the United States, it scattered. I have relatives in Texas and I have relatives in California. So some went to California, went to the crops. The other one went to Texas. And my dad, the way he worked on Baltimore & Ohio, came to Ohio.
Arrye Rosser [00:13:25] Do you know, was he working by himself in his section of track that he was responsible for, or did he have co-workers that you got to know?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:13:34] Oh, there were co-workers with him. Oh, yes, yes.
Arrye Rosser [00:13:37] What were those other people like? Was it all men at the time?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:13:40] They had to be. I mean, what he did is they laid tracks and the ties and then checked it to make sure that they stayed in working, working condition. That’s what he did. Winter, summer. I recall him coming home. He had a mustache, and I remember him coming home in the winter, icicles hanging from his mustache. [laughs]
Arrye Rosser [00:14:11] The maintenance men who work on our railroad tracks now will be very interested to hear about this story. Do you remember him telling stories about working on the railroad? Like, was there weird things that happened?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:14:23] No, there were times when he’d have to leave in the middle of the night because a railcar, a car had derailed and all its load was on the ground and they had to clean it up. But no, it- I’ve always lived- We always live near railroads and the river.
Arrye Rosser [00:14:50] Did his job change over the years or did he always do the same thing?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:14:53] No, he lived- He worked there until he died.
Arrye Rosser [00:14:56] And he did the same job?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:14:57] He did the same job.
Arrye Rosser [00:14:58] Did he like his work?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:15:00] Yes, he did. He really did. He had friends, you know, that he worked with, and he was very happy with it.
Arrye Rosser [00:15:06] What do you think he liked about it? Was he outside most of the time?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:15:09] He was outside always. That’s where he worked. And they were his buddies, I guess.
Arrye Rosser [00:15:14] So how did you find out that? Did you have a telephone in your house that you get-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:15:19] No, I never knew how to use a telephone.
Arrye Rosser [00:15:22] I was wondering how they told him some bad thing happened. They’d ring a bell or something? Or they’d just come?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:15:27] They’d send somebody. They’d send somebody to work. That’s why we always lived close to the railroad, because they’d always send someone to notify him when something happened.
Arrye Rosser [00:15:37] Yeah. I wondered if he commuted to work. Where did he have to go to work? Did somebody- Did the train come and get him and he jumped on the train or did he just drive everywhere?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:15:49] You know, I never noticed. [laughs] All I know him-
Arrye Rosser [00:15:53] I always kind of wondered if, like right now we have these cars that attach onto the train, and that’s how the maintenance guys get around. They- It’s like you can drive on the road.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:16:02] The handcar.
Arrye Rosser [00:16:03] Yeah. Well, now it’s just like- It’s called a high rail or whatever and just jumps on the trail.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:16:09] But now, before it was the handcar.
Arrye Rosser [00:16:12] Yeah. Did he have a handcar back then?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:16:14] Yeah. In fact, when we were kids, when we lived in the railroad car when we were kids, on weekdays, when they weren’t working, they’d store this handcar in a little shed. We’d go into the shed and get the handcar out and we’d go up and down the track that wasn’t being used.
Arrye Rosser [00:16:39] Sounds like a lot of fun.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:16:40] It was. You know, looking back, it was loads of fun.
Arrye Rosser [00:16:45] Well, you had a big family, so there’s always somebody to play with.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:16:48] Well, yes, exactly. Exactly. That’s what we had.
Arrye Rosser [00:16:52] Yeah. Tell me a bit more about the house that you grew up in, the one at Rockside. When were you- What years were you there?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:17:00] Let’s see, it was in- Oh, maybe about ’40- ’46. No, wait, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. No, it was in ’45.
Arrye Rosser [00:17:14] Okay, 1945. And then when did you leave?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:17:20] The house? Must have been in the ’60s. In the ’60s. Sometime in the ’60s. No, no. ’50s, I’m sorry, the ’50s. Because I got married and I was still living on Rockside Road.
Arrye Rosser [00:17:35] Uh-huh. And when did your parents live there?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:17:39] My parents- My mother died. We lived in Rockside Road. She died in, I think it was 1958, ’59, something like that. And then my dad lived there for a while and he lived there until he died and he was in his 60s.
Arrye Rosser [00:18:05] He died pretty young then?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:18:07] They did, fairly young. They did.
Arrye Rosser [00:18:10] What year did he die?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:18:12] My mom died of pancreatic cancer, and my dad, he died of esophageal hemorrhage.
Arrye Rosser [00:18:23] About what year was that?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:18:25] What year?
Arrye Rosser [00:18:26] Yeah.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:18:27] Let’s see. I would say that would be in the late ’60s.
Arrye Rosser [00:18:35] Yeah. Is that when your family left the house or did some of- Did any of your brothers and sisters stay?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:18:41] Yeah, yeah. Well, no, My. My brother lived there for a while with my dad. Well, no, he lived there for a while. My sister, my younger sister. And then they sold a house and when they- That’s when they started building all those commercial places down there. And actually they were asked to sell because they were going to build, change the Rockside Road and build a new Rockside Road.
Arrye Rosser [00:19:15] Oh, when the road was built, they were forced out of the house,
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:19:20] Right.
Arrye Rosser [00:19:21] And when was that time period?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:19:24] You know, I can’t recall when they built that new Rockside Road.
Arrye Rosser [00:19:27] That’s all right, I think I wrote it down some more. I can always look that up. So what do you remember about growing up in that house
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:19:38] In Rockside Road?
Arrye Rosser [00:19:39] Mm-hmm.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:19:40] Oh, it was interesting. I mean, we had, you know, we were still kids. We had- It seemed natural. We lived next to woods and so on and would play in the woods. I was going to Independence and we were involved in a lot of activities in the school. We lived in the house that I mentioned that was made out of these big rock-
Arrye Rosser [00:20:16] This was on Stone Road, right?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:20:18] Oh, I’m sorry. Yeah, no, I’m getting confused, yeah. No, Independence, that was- That’s when I went off to nursing school, so I didn’t spend much time at home. I was in the dormitories up there, so I didn’t spend too much. But coming home, it was, you know, just normal.
Arrye Rosser [00:20:40] What was- Describe what your house looked like when you were a little kid living in the house that your parents were living in.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:20:47] On Rockside Road? Years ago, it was known as Happy’s. It was a tavern.
Arrye Rosser [00:20:56] That was the house?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:20:57] Yeah. And it was a huge house. It was. They had living quarters upstairs. Well, [crosstalk] some living quarters.
Arrye Rosser [00:21:08] Was it serving the railroad, or who was going?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:21:12] It was right next to the railroad and, like I say, it was just practically by itself there, you know, and it was a well-known place, so I’m told. I don’t know. But when we bought it, as I say, we more or less turned it into a home because there was a kitchen downstairs, there was a living room, bedroom. Then upstairs, there were more living quarters upstairs. So it was almost like a home. But the only thing that made the difference is the kitchen had an area that looked that- it might have been a bar. And then one of the big rooms looked like it could have been a dance hall or something because it was large. So that’s the only-
Arrye Rosser [00:22:06] Was it an old house? It’s hard to know, probably.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:22:10] No, it was an older home, it was an older place.
Arrye Rosser [00:22:14] How did you guys end up living there?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:22:16] Living there? That’s when we moved from Stone Road. The lady that owned - because we were renting on Stone Road - the lady that owned the stone house, she was selling the property. And of course at that time we could not afford to buy it and so we moved and we could afford to buy this other home. So that’s what we did. We bought the home on Rockside Road and that’s where we lived.
Arrye Rosser [00:22:47] So what was the area like around you there at Rockside Road? You were describing that the house was on Old Rockside Road and the railroad tracks. What was it like in the area around it?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:22:58] Well, there were fields around in back of us and the river was over to one side. There was- In front of us was a farmer used to have a hay field there and he’d come and cut the hay when it was time to cut it. And then on the other side of the tracks across from this nipple factory, there was- It was like an orchard. There were- We’d go up there- That had gone wild because we’d go over there and pick apples. And then down in front of that orchard-like type field there was what we call the old riverbed because at one time the Cuyahoga River made a bend there. Well, they removed the bend, straightened out the river, but the water stayed in that riverbed. And we used to have a boat that we used to-
Arrye Rosser [00:24:02] Oh, was it like a little oxbow lake? Kind of like a- [crosstalk] The river didn’t go through it anymore, but it was just a little wet area?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:24:10] Yeah, it was like a little tributary or whatever you want to call it. And my brother and his friends - well, he was older already - they’d go down there and go frog hunting and take-
Arrye Rosser [00:24:27] [laughs] What would they do with the frogs?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:24:28] Oh, they’d make- They’d cook them. I mean, you know, then they’d put- Sometimes they’d have turtle traps and they get turtles. And in the backyard, they’d make turtle soup.
Arrye Rosser [00:24:40] I’ve heard of that, too.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:24:41] It’s good.
Arrye Rosser [00:24:41] People eating turtle soup. Were they catching snapping turtles or [inaudible] turtles?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:24:45] Snapping turtles. Well, even at home, they- There was one man that was known for his turtle soup. And on home days, he would fix turtle soup, and people would buy turtle soup.
Arrye Rosser [00:25:00] Wow. Do you remember eating it?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:25:03] Oh, yeah, yeah. It’s like vegetable soup. It’s like veg- Tastes like chicken. [laughs]
Arrye Rosser [00:25:10] [laughs] Oh, that’s funny. Tell me about the nipple works. That’s sort of a funny-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:25:15] Oh, that was a factory that was dead.
Arrye Rosser [00:25:17] Oh, it was long gone.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:25:18] It was dead. It was long ago, yeah, but it was still there. The building was still there.
Arrye Rosser [00:25:22] Was it big? Was it big?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:25:25] No, it wasn’t that big. It was just a small factory that was there. [crosstalk] It was all covered with lilac bushes all around.
Arrye Rosser [00:25:34] Oh, like all overgrown.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:25:36] Yeah, all overgrown. That’s what it was.
Arrye Rosser [00:25:38] And what were they producing there? Something-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:25:40] Nipples, you know, for like Stephen said, I mean, there were plumbing things. I don’t know. They’re plumbing things.
Arrye Rosser [00:25:49] Yeah. So they were manufacturing. And what about- Who were your nearest neighbors? I know you didn’t have close neighbors.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:25:57] Yes, there was this friend of my sister’s that lived across the tracks. And across the tracks was, of course, a hill to the top of 21. [crosstalk] Well, there was a farm there. There was a Christmas tree farm up- And beyond that she worked- She lived in the woods that were by the side of it. That’s- That’s where Vera - that was her name - Vera lived. I forget her last name. And then further down the track, up a hill again, is this fellow that we used to call the Greek. [laughs] That’s what he was known as.
Arrye Rosser [00:26:37] [laughs] What was special about him?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:26:39] Nothing, it’s just he was the Greek.
Arrye Rosser [00:26:45] [laughs] And what is the- So you were telling me, describe a bit about, like, the stations and everything, because that was surprising to me of where the stations were up in that area.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:26:59] The train stations? Okay. Well, there was no train station near us at that time. That came later. But no, all that we had were fields around us.
Arrye Rosser [00:27:10] But you’re remembering a station- [inaudible]
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:27:13] Well, at the bottom of Stone Road. But see, that’s when we lived on Stone Road.
Arrye Rosser [00:27:17] And that would have been in the ’30s?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:27:19] That would have been- Let’s see, my brother was very young, in the ’50s, ’40s. It was in the ’40s.
Arrye Rosser [00:27:29] In the ’40s?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:27:30] Late ’40s, yeah, middle ’40s, I would say.
Arrye Rosser [00:27:34] What else was around there?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:27:36] Around there we had neighbors.
Arrye Rosser [00:27:39] Down in the valley area by the tracks and the canal, what was down there?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:27:44] Down Stone Road? Well, by the side of our house was a huge field which later turned into the Nike site. But there was a huge field that sloped down and the railroad tracks were down there. You could see those. And Stone Road curved like and ended up- There was a bridge that was closed after for a while. I mean, if it’s closed for years, it’s closed now. But down there was where the station was, the railroad station.
Arrye Rosser [00:28:21] Is this kind of- I’m trying to think, I can’t get a picture where the tracks are through there.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:28:26] It’s right alongside the river.
Arrye Rosser [00:28:28] Yeah, yeah. Which is sort of separated from where the canal is at that point.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:28:32] Yeah, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, exactly.
Arrye Rosser [00:28:35] And you said there was like a bar or something down there or a grocery?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:28:39] A little- A little- What we have now- Little, like tiny little store.
Arrye Rosser [00:28:44] Like a little convenience store?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:28:48] Yeah, a convenience store. Yeah. But that was so many years ago that they had that- That are there.
Arrye Rosser [00:28:54] Where was that?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:28:55] It’s right next to the station. And that was right alongside of the tracks also.
Arrye Rosser [00:29:00] Just a little something for people to grab.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:29:02] I guess. I guess. Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:29:04] That’s funny. And what is- What was it like having the railroad so close to your house? Did you-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:29:11] The what? The river?
Arrye Rosser [00:29:12] No, the railroad so close to your house.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:29:14] Oh, you know, you got used to it. And at night the trains would go by and they had the steam engines then. So you’d hear the whistle before? Because of course they had to cross Rockside Road. And every time they passed the road, they had to blow their whistle to warn traffic. And at night you’d hear that whistle. And the funny part about it is you could hear that whistle sometimes from a distance. And it sounded so lonely, just that lonely whistle blowing. It was really neat. It really was. And they’d go down by the window and you’d see the flames inside the furnace that drove the steam engine. Oh, that was- That was neat.
Arrye Rosser [00:29:55] Did you have to worry about, like the kids playing out on the tracks? Was your mom always worried?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:30:00] Never. Never.
Arrye Rosser [00:30:03] You just were used to growing up around them.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:30:04] Yeah. Around them that you just stayed away. You know, it was just natural.
Arrye Rosser [00:30:09] Yeah. Did you used to get woken up at night by the railroad or did you just- It didn’t bother you?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:30:16] The what?
Arrye Rosser [00:30:16] By the train cars going by, did it used to wake you guys up in the night or.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:30:21] No.
Arrye Rosser [00:30:22] No, not at all, slept through it? I just gotta wonder. And what was- I didn’t ask you much about your mom. What was your mother like?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:30:29] She was a home person. She would not leave her home. She’d have some- Oh, she’d raise chickens in the back. And we’d have maybe a goat or- I know they always used to buy one piglet and raise it, and then in the winter they’d slaughter it and would have- And she’d cure the meat and that’s what we’d have. But she’d raise chickens and tend the garden, tend the house. My mom was always home.
Arrye Rosser [00:31:12] Well, she had eight kids, so that’s a lot.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:31:14] [laughs] Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:31:16] Yeah. Was she living- Was she a traditional Mexican woman? Was she living like more of a traditional life? Do you remember that? Or did she seem like all the other moms?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:31:30] I mean, she didn’t attend all these meetings or anything else like, you know, your modern mom does. She was a home person and her home, her kids were everything to her. That was it.
Arrye Rosser [00:31:43] Did she make traditional Mexican food, do you remember that?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:31:46] Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That’s where I learned to cook some Mexican food was from her, and that’s how I learned with my parents I learned to speak Spanish because that was my groundwork for my Spanish.
Arrye Rosser [00:31:59] Did your parents do things to help you keep, like, Mexican traditions or were they- Was that important, talking about- [crosstalk]
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:32:07] Oh, no, they would tell me. They would tell me. And I knew a lot of the Mexican traditions that they had. Of course, we didn’t keep the Mexican traditions, but, you know, but we knew about them, which were interesting.
Arrye Rosser [00:32:23] Did you have, like, Mexican family members that’d come visit you?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:32:27] Oh, yes.
Arrye Rosser [00:32:28] Or other things- Like, were there people that- Were you connected with Mexican communities?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:32:32] Yes, they had Mexican friends that they chit chatted and spent Spanish and so on. As I said, that’s what kept our Spanish going, our own ability to speak it.
Arrye Rosser [00:32:46] How old were they when they immigrated? Were they like in their 20s? They were pretty young people, probably.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:32:52] Yeah. Yeah, they would be because my mom was in her late 20s. She would- She was in her late 20s and, well, my dad wasn’t too much older than she was.
Arrye Rosser [00:33:08] Yeah. Did your mom do things to earn money for the family? Was she selling- [inaudible]
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:33:15] Oh, she’d sell her chickens. She’d sell her, you know.
Arrye Rosser [00:33:20] Did she sell eggs?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:33:21] Ducks.
Arrye Rosser [00:33:23] Did she sell eggs?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:33:24] What?
Arrye Rosser [00:33:25] Did she sell eggs?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:33:29] I don’t think she did. Not eggs.
Arrye Rosser [00:33:31] She was just selling, like, meat chickens.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:33:32] Yeah, she’d just sell chickens. They wanted them.
Arrye Rosser [00:33:36] And she sold ducks, too?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:33:38] Yeah, she had a few ducks. People would ask for, you know, want a duck? And she’d go ahead. I recall one time my dad used to slaughter the duck and she’d clean it and then sell it. You know, that’s the way she’d sell it. But this one time my dad wasn’t around and she had- Somebody had asked for a duck. And she had nobody around, and I don’t know for what reason or other, I was very, very annoyed over something. I was mad, and I said, I’ll get that duck. And I grabbed it and I chopped its head off.
Arrye Rosser [00:34:18] You did?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:34:18] I was so mad! [laughs] That poor duck suffered for it.
Arrye Rosser [00:34:26] Oh, no. How old were you?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:34:28] Oh, I was about 15.
Arrye Rosser [00:34:31] Wow. [laughs] Don’t mess with you.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:34:34] [laughs] Don’t mess with me. But I was mad.
Arrye Rosser [00:34:38] That’s funny. Did you guys, when you were growing up, what were some of the things that you did for fun as kids?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:34:45] Oh, we’d climb trees, we’d play, sometimes stickball, would walk.
Arrye Rosser [00:34:54] Did you mostly play with your brothers? [crosstalk]
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:34:57] Yeah, with my older- Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:34:59] Yeah. Were there other kids nearby that you could go hang out with?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:35:02] Not when we lived in the boxcar there weren’t. And we did have neighbors that had kids, and we’d just walk around with them. I mean, you know, talk and stuff like that.
Arrye Rosser [00:35:17] I am a pretty big property area that you could explore.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:35:22] Yeah. Mm-hmm. Exactly. It would go into the woods and just wander around in the woods and, you know, play in the woods and stuff like that.
Arrye Rosser [00:35:30] What do you remember about the river at that time? Like, I’ve heard some people’s parents in Peninsula were saying, don’t go down by the river or whatever. You guys were always living right on the river. So that was kind of different.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:35:42] I don’t know, we just didn’t do it. I mean, you know.
Arrye Rosser [00:35:45] More for- [crosstalk]
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:35:47] Because my mom.
Arrye Rosser [00:35:48] Or was it stinky and people didn’t want to be- Did it smell?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:35:52] We learned. I mean, whether it was instinct or what. Well, she, I mean, she’d warn us, you know, just be careful. But sometimes I remember we’d go down by the river and we knew that we didn’t get too close to the river because I’m sure you’re aware of it. Sometimes you get that quicksand down there or it’s quick mud, that’s what it is. And a couple of times we got stuck in there, couldn’t get out until one of our siblings pulled us out, you know. So you didn’t go again.
Arrye Rosser [00:36:27] Yeah.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:36:27] So you learned that way.
Arrye Rosser [00:36:29] Yeah. Was it smelly down by the river? Or did it smell? Was the water pretty clear?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:36:36] The only thing- The only time it began to smell is this one liquor company- See, we didn’t own the edge of the river. We just- A certain point of the river came and somewhere or other they had leased part of that and they would dump all the mash from the whiskey that they manufactured or whatever, and that’s what you would smell.
Arrye Rosser [00:37:05] Hmm. What did it smell like?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:37:08] Like whiskey! [laughs] Like whiskey.
Arrye Rosser [00:37:10] [laughs] That must have been something. About what time period was that? When was that? In the ’40s?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:37:19] Yeah, it was in the ’40s.
Arrye Rosser [00:37:22] How long did that go on for?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:37:24] It lasted a couple of years, but then after that it ceased. Yeah, it was over. Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:37:29] So they would just kind of pull up a truck to the edge of the river?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:37:33] Yeah, just dump it along the edge of the river.
Arrye Rosser [00:37:35] What did it look like?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:37:37] [train whistle in background] It was-
Arrye Rosser [00:37:38] Was it slimy?
Ashley Farinacci [00:37:40] Hold on one second. The train is going by and I can hear it.
Arrye Rosser [00:37:44] Oh, yeah, there it is.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:37:45] What’s that?
Arrye Rosser [00:37:46] We can hear the train. It just tooted.
Ashley Farinacci [00:37:51] Yeah. And you were saying something good in the story, so I didn’t want to ruin it.
Arrye Rosser [00:37:55] Oh, yeah.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:37:56] You know what’s a lonely sound is when there was a train that went through the valley, along the valley, underneath the bridge and so on, and it would toot and it would, you know, whistle. And that whistle in the distance was the loneliest whistle you could ever hear.
Arrye Rosser [00:38:18] Was this when it was a commercial railroad or when the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:38:21] It was whatever train was going through, whether it was a freight train or a passenger train, because passenger trains still- That was so funny. There would be passenger trains that would go by the side of the boxcar. You know, different kinds of trains. And that was- [crosstalk]
Arrye Rosser [00:38:37] Did you wave to the people?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:38:38] Yeah. Wave to the- And see, we never- We’re close to- When we heard the train, we were never close to- We learned not to be close to the tracks.
Arrye Rosser [00:38:49] Did you have a lot of friends? Did your friends, their dads work for the railroad, too, or were there other people around?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:38:55] Uh-uh.
Arrye Rosser [00:38:56] No? So it was kind of unusual.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:38:57] None of them. It was just us, you know, because when we went shopping, we had to shop up into Cuyahoga Heights was a store, and we had to cross a trestle bridge. And we were so good at it that we could just run across a trestle bridge that would be across the Cuyahoga River. We’d just run across it. And they had their little, like, little balconies on the side of the trestle bridge. And if we heard the whistle of the train coming, because we’d be running down the tracks, we’d just make sure we ran fast enough to get into one of those little trestles.
Arrye Rosser [00:39:40] [laughs] Did that scare you when the train went by? You were just used to it. You guys were tough.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:39:45] Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:39:48] Let me just see where it- So what is- I was asking about the river a little bit.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:39:57] Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:39:57] Tell me about- Just describe the whole- That whole scene with the whiskey company people. What was that?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:40:04] There was really nothing much. They would just come dump it, the mash by the river, and then go away.
Arrye Rosser [00:40:12] Oh, gotcha. How often did they do that?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:40:14] And like I say, it wasn’t too often. Maybe once a month, something like that.
Arrye Rosser [00:40:21] Wow. Did you guys go mess around in it?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:40:23] No, no.
Arrye Rosser [00:40:24] [laughs] I just had this picture of these drunk little kids like-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:40:30] No.
Arrye Rosser [00:40:31] I heard this story - I think Ranger Rebecca tells it - about that sometimes they feed that mash in Boston to the hens, like the chickens and stuff, the pigs, and then they get all drunk.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:40:42] [laughs] No, no, we didn’t mess with it.
Arrye Rosser [00:40:44] That’s like the Blue Hen Falls. I don’t know if that’s the story of Blue Hen.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:40:49] And we asked- What we did is we sometimes would go by the bridge because the bridge was close by, and when it would be carrying a lot of water just to watch it go by and, because I know, I remember one time I was kicking at a stone to toss it into the river. Well, my shoe went in with it, with the stone. Had to walk home barefoot. You know, it’s just stuff like that, kid stuff.
Arrye Rosser [00:41:17] Did you remember seeing wildlife down there?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:41:20] Who?
Arrye Rosser [00:41:21] Do you remember seeing wild animals down there?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:41:23] Oh, there were pheasants out there. You’d hear them in the cornfield because we had little farm, little garden out there. And we’d hear them. We’d hear- There’d be rabbit out there and there were some deer. So. Yeah. And then, of course, we had, you know, other kind of birds and stuff.
Arrye Rosser [00:41:50] Yeah, yeah. Do you remember anything unusual, like, any unusual wildlife that everybody got excited about?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:41:58] No.
Arrye Rosser [00:41:59] No? Just ordinary stuff.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:42:00] There were no people around to get excited.
Arrye Rosser [00:42:04] [laughs] Let me ask you about just a little bit- You mentioned that you were involved in community organizations. Did your family go to church and were you part of any groups in that area?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:42:16] I was never a joiner. And this is what- To this day, I’m not a joiner. I’ve more or less been happy with my own company, I guess.
Arrye Rosser [00:42:27] I know how that goes. Were your parents like that or were they-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:42:31] My mom was. My dad was the social one. He had a lot of friends. But-
Arrye Rosser [00:42:36] Was it mostly through work or did he have them through other-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:42:40] It was through work, and outside of work he had these friends, you know, but my mom was just never bothered. I mean, she just wasn’t interested. As I said, her family and her home. That was it. And her children. Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:42:55] Were there other moms in the area that would come visit and things, or not really?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:42:59] Not really.
Arrye Rosser [00:43:00] Yeah. And you were telling me about the bars. I want to hear more about them, the taverns or whatever they were right there by-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:43:09] Yes, there was the one that was really, really well known. It’s called the Boathouse. And hate to say it, but I visited a couple of times, you know. My dad used to go down there and he used to walk over there and walk back and most of a lot of a crowd would go down to that Boathouse.
Arrye Rosser [00:43:36] Was it mostly men who would hang out? Was it mostly men that would go?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:43:41] The majority, but no women went too. But of course the majority were men. And it was right, right on the edge of the canal. Well, that’s why they called it the Boathouse.
Arrye Rosser [00:43:53] Where was it along the canal?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:43:55] Well, I can’t judge this distance very well, but Stephen said that was more of a quarter of a mile from Rockside Road up Canal Road.
Arrye Rosser [00:44:05] Oh, to the south of Rockside.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:44:07] Yes.
Arrye Rosser [00:44:08] But north of Stone Road somehow.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:44:12] Yeah
Arrye Rosser [00:44:13] Somewhere in there. That’s interesting. Was there a tavern or a bar that was right near to your house?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:44:21] Years ago, there was one at the corner of- But it closed not too long ago. It was called - that’s what Bobby’s son said - Dutch Corners, but that was sold and an open-air market was opened up in that area. And after the open-air market became an enclosed market, then they start building behind it on Rockside across 21. They start building a lot of buildings.
Arrye Rosser [00:44:57] That’s when it got more industrial, huh?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:44:59] Yeah, yeah, that’s when it started becoming large enough to become a city. Because at one time when we moved there, it was just a community or village or whatever they call them.
Arrye Rosser [00:45:13] Mm-hmm. Let me think if there are any other things. Did you have- So when you guys were- So you- Were you mostly staying kind of close by where your house was most of the time or did you guys go out on, like, day trips or outdoors?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:45:27] Oh, we attended school functions. I mean, the kids did. My brothers played in sports. They were involved in sports. And when they presented plays and so on, we went to them. But my parents never did. No, they never were.
Arrye Rosser [00:45:46] Did they speak English when they were-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:45:51] My mom did not speak English. She understood it, but she never spoke it.
Arrye Rosser [00:45:56] So that was hard to socialize.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:45:58] My dad spoke broken English, but he did speak English.
Arrye Rosser [00:46:02] Mm-hmm. Yeah. Did they go to a Catholic church somewhere?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:46:08] Yes, they went to St. Michael’s in Independence. She did attend church, but she wasn’t involved with any doings of the church.
Arrye Rosser [00:46:18] So that wasn’t a big part of things. Do you guys- Did you take little family outings into the Cuyahoga Valley? Do you remember going into Peninsula or Virginia Kendall or Brecksville Reservation?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:46:30] The only time my mom went out, was my youngest brother had a condition. He had a cataract and glaucoma. And she took him to the University Hospitals in Cleveland. She’d go up then or in other places she would go maybe to the store with my dad to buy groceries and to the market downtown. Those are the only places she would go.
Arrye Rosser [00:46:55] Did you- Did your dad take you on little outings if she wasn’t much- Did you guys have a car?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:47:01] No, not really. We didn’t miss it. I mean, we-
Arrye Rosser [00:47:06] Yeah, that’s what I hear from a lot of folks is they pretty much hung around the house. Were you- I’ve heard another family tell me his dad worked for the railroad down in the Peninsula, down south of Peninsula. They used to take the train into Cleveland because he worked for the railroad and they would just hop the train.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:47:27] My mom never did.
Arrye Rosser [00:47:28] Yeah, I didn’t know if you kids did.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:47:30] Oh, no, I took the train I think maybe once or twice that to go into Cleveland, but that’s about all we didn’t because we could ride for free if we wanted to because my dad worked for the railroad. But we never did, really.
Arrye Rosser [00:47:45] Really? You never did?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:47:47] No.
Arrye Rosser [00:47:49] Not interested.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:47:49] Most of the time- Well, of course, this is after my dad- My- No. Most of the time I took the bus in.
Arrye Rosser [00:48:02] Yeah. Do you remember what other kids were doing at that time when you were growing up? Like, what was popular? I hear a lot of, like, for the folks that lived down in like, Everett or Peninsula, I heard them just going to dances. Like it was all about going to the dances.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:48:17] Well, there was a lot of dances and stuff that they’d have at the school and so on. But no. [crosstalk]
Arrye Rosser [00:48:23] They used to go to dance halls or have some street dances and things like that.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:48:27] No, we never did. I don’t know why we seemed to be close, you know, the kids. Maybe it’s because our parents weren’t involved. We were not involved.
Arrye Rosser [00:48:41] Yeah. Yeah. Who were you closest to amongst your brothers and sisters?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:48:47] My oldest brother.
Arrye Rosser [00:48:49] What was his name?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:48:50] Nick. Nicholas.
Arrye Rosser [00:48:53] Mm-hmm. What did you guys used to do together?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:48:57] We’d go to the movies. We’d go to the tavern. [laughs]
Arrye Rosser [00:49:05] Did you used to get in trouble?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:49:08] No, not really.
Arrye Rosser [00:49:09] The advantage of having an older brother is you get taken places- [crosstalk]
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:49:13] They always thought I was his girlfriend because they’d always see me, he and I together, and then we’d attend- He belonged to the VFW because he had been in the Army in the Second World War. And when he came back, of course, that’s when we did all this stuff. And we’d go to a lot of the doings that the VFW had, you know, we did that. And then he belonged to another called a German Club. The German Club, but that’s a man’s name, a person’s name, not German. And they had a club and they’d have doings, you know, parties and things like that. We’d do that. I’d go there with them because my husband belonged to that group, too.
Arrye Rosser [00:50:04] This is when you were married?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:50:06] Yeah, and even before, because that’s how I met my husband. I mean, that’s how I got together with my husband.
Arrye Rosser [00:50:11] Well, I was going to ask you about that. When did you leave home? Did you have to leave home to go to nursing training? Did you say you left home?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:50:19] Oh, I was single then, yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:50:22] But did you move out of the house to go do that?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:50:24] Yeah. Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:50:25] Where did you go for that?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:50:27] I attended Fairview Park Hospital for my nursing, you know, to attend nursing school, and I lived in the dormitory there.
Arrye Rosser [00:50:37] Were there a lot of other young women there?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:50:40] Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:50:43] And then when did you get married?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:50:46] I got married in ’52, 1952.
Arrye Rosser [00:50:50] And what’s your husband’s name?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:50:53] Robert Moss.
Arrye Rosser [00:50:56] And what’s his background? How did you meet him?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:51:00] Oh, as far as I know, he’s, like Steve said, he was- His mother was English and his dad was from Alsace-Lorraine. He was German, I guess. But they were just typical, you know, individuals. His- They- The type of individuals that belong to church groups. Because his grandfather belonged to the Masons.
Arrye Rosser [00:51:36] Was he from the local area?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:51:44] They came- His father, his grandfather came from Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh, I think, around the Pittsburgh area. And his mother was, I think, from Cleveland.
Arrye Rosser [00:51:55] Did he grow up nearby? Was he from Independence or from farther somewhere else? [crosstalk] Your husband.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:52:04] My husband? Oh, yeah, he was born- He was born in Cleveland, in fact, I think around the Ashtabula area. But he was born in Cleveland, in fact, in Ohio.
Arrye Rosser [00:52:19] What was his profession?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:52:22] He was more or less supervisor for an oil company, and his dad worked for the Illuminating Company. His mom didn’t work. She was also- At that time, a lot of women were, you know, didn’t work.
Arrye Rosser [00:52:43] And when did you move to Pleasant Valley Road? Is that the house that you’re in now?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:52:48] His dad built that house around 1940, ’42, I would say. ’40, 1946? It can’t be, because Aunt Lila was living there when Uncle Rob was in the service. When your father, rather, when your father was in the service.
Arrye Rosser [00:53:17] What do you remember? Do you remember, like, taking the kids out? Like, Steve sort of loved to wander around and fish and everything like that. Do you remember, like, outings in the Cuyahoga Valley much or not?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:53:30] The outings we- The outings we went to were Hinkley, Hinckley Lake and the zoo. We never went on long trips out of the state or anything. No, we just- Locally, we would do things.
Arrye Rosser [00:53:45] Did you do things in the Cuyahoga Valley? Like, did you go to Brecksville Reservation?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:53:49] Oh, yes. Oh, yes, we did.
Arrye Rosser [00:53:50] Yeah? What do you remember about those outings? What was it like?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:53:55] Well, just the walks. And my brother and I- My brother liked to hunt also, Mmy youngest brother, and I recall him shooting a duck, a wood duck, I believe it was. It fell in the Cuyahoga River. This was in, oh, about November. Cold. And it fell in the river. And he says, I’m going to get it. So he took branch and he tried pulling it in. Well, the current of the river carried it out further up. And he wasn’t gonna let that duck go. He jumped in. I says, get out of there! It was freezing cold. I thought he was gonna die of hypothermia and- But I’ll be darned. He got his duck, came back in.
Arrye Rosser [00:54:38] He needed a retriever. [laughs]
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:54:40] He was the retriever.
Arrye Rosser [00:54:44] [laughs] What time- When was that? What time frame was that? The ’50s?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:54:49] We were living on Rockside Road when he did that, because we were close to the river, the whole bit.
Arrye Rosser [00:54:56] And then do you remember- I think I asked you this maybe already, but do you remember other Mexican American families at all when you were, just any of the time that you were living in Independence, or was that just unusual?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:55:10] It was funny. We never really did. We associated with friends of my parents when they came. They had kids. But as far as socially, doing social things with the kids, no, we didn’t. We were too involved with our friends, school friends.
Arrye Rosser [00:55:28] Yeah, exactly. And there’s- Somebody was telling me about a Black family - we’re interested in people of just different backgrounds - that was living near Stone Road and Canal Road. Does that really, though?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:55:39] What.
Arrye Rosser [00:55:39] Do you remember an African American Black family living near Stone Road and Canal Road? Somebody was telling me about that in the ’50s their house burned down.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:55:51] I don’t know when that happened. It didn’t happen in my time.
Arrye Rosser [00:55:54] Yeah, somebody else was remembering-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:55:56] Because there were no Black families that lived in Independence until, oh, I guess in the ’60s when someone adopted an African American. Peter, I think his name was. That’s the first one that ever came into this community. And then now, of course, we have a lot of professional people.
Arrye Rosser [00:56:20] Yeah, sure. And somebody was telling me, asked me to ask you about a gypsy camp. Does that ring a bell?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:56:27] A gypsy camp?
Arrye Rosser [00:56:28] I’m telling you. [laughs] These stories, like-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:56:32] [laughs] I never heard of any gypsies around here.
Arrye Rosser [00:56:36] Yeah. I heard stuff that’s more like down south, but I don’t know.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:56:46] We were a bunch of-
Arrye Rosser [00:56:47] I thought I’d ask. [laughs]
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:56:48] No, we were a bunch of farmers around here.
Arrye Rosser [00:56:51] [laughs] Because you’re kids here running around and living in your boxcar.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:56:56] [laughs] Yeah, maybe it was around Halloween.
Arrye Rosser [00:57:00] Well, do you have any other stories you want to share with me?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:57:03] Not that I can think.
Arrye Rosser [00:57:04] Well, you’ve been a total pleasure, Josephine. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:57:09] I’m glad.
Arrye Rosser [00:57:10] Thank you so much.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:57:12] [laughs] I think they’re hearing stuff that they never even heard before.
Arrye Rosser [00:57:16] Yeah, there you go. Well, we should ask too, maybe, before we totally turn the tape off, about the photos that you brought with you. I don’t know if those are from your time or from later. Let’s look at the photos together. Do you still have the- [inaudible] So what did you- Tell us what you brought.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:57:33] Well, see, that was my mom and dad right there.
Arrye Rosser [00:57:35] Oh, wow. Huh. And what timeframe was this picture of them? Do you have a sense of when that was taken?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:57:48] When?
Arrye Rosser [00:57:49] I’m not good with the clothing. But is that the ’40s?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:57:52] Yeah, it was in the ’40s. Yeah, it was around the ’40s.
Arrye Rosser [00:57:56] And is this at your house or outside your house?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:58:00] Let’s see. That was on- I believe it looks like it might be Stone Road, when we lived on Stone Road. [crosstalk] And that’s the house on Rockside Road we lived in.
Arrye Rosser [00:58:10] Wow, this is fabulous. What a house! And we can borrow these to scan them? I’ll have Ashley-
Ashley Farinacci [10:58:18] I have them on a jump drive.
Arrye Rosser [00:58:20] Oh, even better. Are they high resolution?
Ashley Farinacci [10:58:23] I don’t know. I haven’t opened them yet.
Arrye Rosser [00:58:24] Yeah.
Ashley Farinacci [10:58:25] No, they’re not.
Arrye Rosser [00:58:26] Oh, well, do you mind if we borrow them to scan them? We can get them right back to you. We have one just in the office. This is fantastic. So where was your bedroom?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:58:36] It was in back. We had a huge bedroom. My bedroom was about the size of this room.
Arrye Rosser [00:58:43] Wow.
Ashley Farinacci [10:58:44] That’s as big as my whole apartment.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:58:47] [laughs] Yeah. Inside there was an arch right in the middle. And we had our bed over there, and then we had our dressing room over here.
Arrye Rosser [00:58:56] Were there multiple- What did you- You must have had to share.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:59:00] My sister and I.
Arrye Rosser [00:59:00] So two of you in this size? Honestly, this is like the size of the first floor of my house. Yeah. That’s incredible. So what- This is like an enclosed porch?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:59:08] That’s the enclosed porch, yes.
Arrye Rosser [00:59:09] Yeah. That’s cool. And where was the, like, dance floor?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:59:14] The other bedrooms were up here.
Arrye Rosser [00:59:16] So this was kind of the living quarters when there was a tavern.
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:59:19] Right. And there was one bedroom down here. And up here was where there was a living room. Behind that is the kitchen. And then that huge ballroom was over here.
Arrye Rosser [00:59:30] Oh, it was in the- [crosstalk]
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:59:31] First floor. Yes.
Arrye Rosser [00:59:34] Wow, that’s just incredible. And this was an expensive house at the time?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:59:39] Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
Arrye Rosser [00:59:41] Did they do a lot to repair? Was your dad- Looks like a house you need a lot of-
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:59:45] No, we sided the house. We put in the windows.
Arrye Rosser [00:59:49] Yeah. Was your dad working on the house a lot? Was he?
Josephine Delgado Moss [00:59:52] No, we had it done.
Arrye Rosser [00:59:53] Yeah. Wow. That’s incredible. Man, you must have felt like you lived in a castle.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:00:01] [laughs] Not quite. It was big.
Arrye Rosser [01:00:03] It was big, though. It’s a fun house. And is this one. This. Is this from you or is it from-
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:00:08] Yes, again, she brought this.
Arrye Rosser [01:00:10] Yeah. So where is this here? This looks like the Cuyahoga River, maybe.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:00:17] Yeah, that’s- That’s by the Cuyahoga River. That’s- Oh, wait a minute.
Arrye Rosser [01:00:23] Is this at Station Road area?
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:00:27] You know, I don’t know exactly where that is. It looks like the area down close to the Canal Road where all the office, all those factory buildings are down there close by the river. That looks like an area right in between there.
Arrye Rosser [01:00:56] This is kind of the area that you would have been planning.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:00:58] Yeah, that’s the area where my brother Richard might have shot the duck and jumped in.
Arrye Rosser [01:01:05] Wow.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:01:06] That’s what it looks like, but I’m not sure.
Arrye Rosser [01:01:07] It looks like a sandbar or something out in there.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:01:10] Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [01:01:10] And the walls, the valley walls are high. I never paid attention in there. That’s interesting. Let’s see what other gems we have. So who’s in this picture? This is the picture with the old car.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:01:23] Yeah. Now, this was my older brother. That’s the one that-
Arrye Rosser [01:01:26] Oh, it was a lot of fun.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:01:27] And those were his buddies. And you could see around the time that we were living in Independence, around the time we were down on-
Arrye Rosser [01:01:35] So this is the ’40s?
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:01:38] Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Arrye Rosser [01:01:41] Wow. They look pretty slickly dressed. Look at them with their white shoes and their- Yeah. Would you look at those shoes? That’s pretty- They look like they’re going out or something like that. Huh. That’s funny.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:01:57] Spiffy shoes.
Arrye Rosser [01:01:59] So where do you have a sense of when that photo was taken?
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:02:01] Where the photo is taken?
Arrye Rosser [01:02:04] Is it something you recognize?
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:02:06] It looks like it’s- It was taken in the driveway by the high school.
Arrye Rosser [01:02:12] Oh, okay. Gotcha.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:02:13] Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [01:02:13] And then what are these little pictures?
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:02:16] Now, these were taken by the Cuyahoga River.
Arrye Rosser [01:02:19] Wow.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:02:19] Sides of the Cuyahoga River.
Arrye Rosser [01:02:22] And who’s in the bathing suit.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:02:23] Oh, that’s my friend from high school.
Arrye Rosser [01:02:27] So was she swimming in the river?
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:02:29] Yeah, there was- She was- Well, we were wading around in the river and she was sunning. But there’s an area that was off Rockside Road. You went down the tracks and when there was an area that looked like a little sand, sandbar. Not sandbar, but a sandy beach by the Cuyahoga River. And that’s where she was sunning.
Arrye Rosser [01:02:56] Was this where they got the sand to make the sandbox?
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:02:59] No, no.
Arrye Rosser [01:03:00] Different place.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:03:01] This is a different place. We used to go riding horseback around that area.
Arrye Rosser [01:03:06] Huh. Where did the horses come from?
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:03:08] There was a stable right at the bottom of the cemetery on Rockside Road. At the Maple Shade Cemetery. Down to one side were the stables.
Arrye Rosser [01:03:20] Did you rent the horses?
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:03:21] Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [01:03:22] Gotcha. And is this- Where’s that with the bridge?
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:03:26] Yeah, flooded.
Arrye Rosser [01:03:27] Oh, flooded.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:03:28] That’s the Cuyahoga flooding.
Arrye Rosser [01:03:31] Where do you think this is?
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:03:32] That’s by, near our house.
Arrye Rosser [01:03:35] Wow. So this is-
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:03:36] Yeah. Wow.
Arrye Rosser [01:03:38] It’s a lot of river. And then here’s the- This is like rocks in the river?
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:03:44] Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [01:03:44] Is that what I’m seeing? Maybe in this- Can’t tell if it’s just sand. Where is this? This is a picture. There’s two pictures with the bridge and folks jumping around on some larger rocks.
Unknown speaker [01:03:56] I think that’s Tinker’s Creek.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:03:58] Where was this taken?
Unknown speaker [01:03:59] Think that’s Tinker’s Creek at Dunham Road.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:04:00] Is that- Oh, this is Tinker’s Creek? Okay.
Arrye Rosser [01:04:03] Yeah. That doesn’t look so much like the Cuyahoga. Oh, is this you guys as kids?
Unknown speaker [01:04:07] That’s when we were little.
Arrye Rosser [01:04:098] Oh! Oh, that’s really sweet. Huh. Wow, that’s amazing. That was a lot of fun. All right, well, I’m going to enjoy. We’ll get these back to you.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:04:19] Okay.
Arrye Rosser [01:04:20] Quickly. Thank you very much. Well, wonderful, you guys. Thank you so much for your time.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:04:26] The woman, the woman on the bridge, that’s her sister and I think that’s either the Stone bridge or the Rockside.
Unknown speaker [01:04:35] That picture is Aunt Sarah against the bridge.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:04:38] Is there one- [crosstalk] I didn’t have a hard- Oh, okay. I was going to say that’s the one I was looking for. That I didn’t see.
Unknown speaker [01:04:46] Is that the one? Was that taken old Rockside or was that taken at Stone Road?
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:04:51] That’s Rockside.
Arrye Rosser [01:04:52] That’s the Rockside bridge?
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:04:53] That’s the Rockside bridge.
Ashley Farinacci [01:04:56] This is a really good one.
Arrye Rosser [01:04:58] Oh, it’s beautiful. So who’s this in this photo?
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:05:02] That’s my sister Sarah. She’s my older sister.
Arrye Rosser [01:05:06] Wow. She looks like a million bucks. [inaudible]
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:05:11] Yeah. See that’s- That’s the bridge across on Rockside Road. Little handrail.
Arrye Rosser [01:05:18] So this is a bridge that has long gone.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:05:20] That’s gone, yes.
Arrye Rosser [01:05:21] Yeah, it does have a look of the Station Road bridge or the Hillside Road bridge, the one that used to be here. Wow. What time period is that? Is that the-
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:05:32] This is in the ’40s. Taken in the ’40s. You can tell by the skirt.
Arrye Rosser [01:05:37] That’s right. Those big chunky heels in the ’40s. And the car. Yeah.
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:05:42] Yes.
Arrye Rosser [01:05:44] Of course. Huh. Isn’t that cool? And what- Sorry, what’s her name again?
Josephine Delgado Moss [01:05:49] Sarah.
Arrye Rosser [01:05:50] Sarah. Wonderful. Yeah. All right. You guys are a treat. How much fun. Yeah, yeah. So we’ll have digital- We can also give you guys- Ashley, would you burn them a CD?
Ashley Farinacci [01:06:06] Yes.
Arrye Rosser [01:06:07] And everything too? She’ll get a summarized-
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