Abstract
Ann Erickson and Adam Fleder are daughter and son of Peninsula historic preservationist Lily Fleder. Lily Fleder moved to Peninsula Ohio in 1957 and was active in early Peninsula Historic Preservation efforts. In this oral history, Ann and Adam discuss their mother's career, personality and historic preservation success, including the Riverlight Gallery and Bronson Church.
Loading...
Interviewee
Fleder Erikson, Ann (interviewee); Fleder, Adam (interviewee)
Interviewer
Rosser, Arrye (interviewer); Schnack, Erich (participant)
Project
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Date
6-5-2021
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
81 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Ann Fleder Erikson and Adam Fleder interview, 05 June 2021" (2021). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 343011.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/1438
Transcript
Arrye Rosser [00:00:02] Hi, there. This is Arrye Rosser. I'm a park ranger at Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and it is June 5, 2021. Erich Schnack is here from the National Park Service doing tech support, and I'm interviewing Adam Fleder and Ann Erickson about their mother, Lily Fleder. So I thought we'd just get started and have. Ann, could you give me your full name and tell me the year you were born?
Anne Erickson [00:00:34] My name is Ann Erickson. My married name is Erickson. My maiden name is Fleder. I was born in 1957.
Arrye Rosser [00:00:46] Who are you with today?
Adam Fleder [00:00:51] My name is Adam Fleder, and I was born in 1961.
Arrye Rosser [00:00:57] Where did you guys grow up?
Anne Erickson [00:00:59] We grew up here in Peninsula on Center Street.
Arrye Rosser [00:01:05] Where do you live now?
Anne Erickson [00:01:07] I live in Yellow Springs, Ohio, which is where Antioch College is near Dayton.
Adam Fleder [00:01:13] And I live up in Concord Township. Near Mentor.
Arrye Rosser [00:01:20] Today we're going to be talking about your mom, and I wonder if we just get her full name.
Anne Erickson [00:01:28] She actually did technically did not have a middle name. And her maiden name was Baboryk. B, A, B, O, R, Y, K. 1926.
Arrye Rosser [00:01:44] Actually, I have her down. She was [...] 1926.
Anne Erickson [00:01:49] Yes.
Arrye Rosser [00:01:50] And then do you know where she was born?
Anne Erickson [00:01:52] In Cleveland, Ohio, on East 98th Street in the home she grew up in.
Arrye Rosser [00:02:00] And let's just start out. How would you describe your mother, just in general terms?
Anne Erickson [00:02:11] She was a force to be reckoned with. She was definitely a force.
Adam Fleder [00:02:16] Yeah. She was about 4 foot 8 in terms of actual stature, but absolutely indomitable as a as a person. There was nothing. Nothing intimidating. I mean, thoroughly. But she intimidated plenty of things.
Arrye Rosser [00:02:41] And where. Where did she grow up?
Anne Erickson [00:02:45] She grew up on East 98th Street off of Miles Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio, and lived there until she got married. Her mother was Rosalia Bielowski and her father. And then she got married. And my grandfather's name was Adam Baboryk.
Arrye Rosser [00:03:10] Am I remembering right? Were they immigrants?
Anne Erickson [00:03:14] Yes. Yeah, they were both immigrants.
Adam Fleder [00:03:16] They met here. [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:03:20] My grandmother was born in what we think at the time, what is now Belarus, and may have been Belarus at the time, and my grandfather Lithuania. But when they came here, my grandmother didn't even know when her birthday was. She just knew she was born in the wintertime. So she picked Groundhog Day for her birthday. She always called it Hog Day. And then, you know, I think when they came here, they didn't really know what their nationality was or anything. And they went into Polish neighborhoods and spoke a language that was similar enough and therefore just became Polish, you know.
Arrye Rosser [00:04:09] Did they immigrate as adults?
Anne Erickson [00:04:11] My grandfather did. My grandmother actually was 13. And you weren't allowed to come without your parents unless you were 15. And they had an uncle or somebody who was over here. And he got a passport and a job as a housemaid for my grandmother's older sister, who was like 17. And when he got over there, she had cholera and they would not let her on the boat. So he brought my grandmother instead because she looked enough like her older sister. So she was only 13 when she came.
Arrye Rosser [00:04:56] What do you know about your mom's childhood? What did your grandfather. Did they live in?
Adam Fleder [00:05:06] My grandfather, he actually moved houses. That was his. He would. People would. Built a lot of cabins and such like, in east suburbs of Cleveland along the lake. And they were not made very you know, they weren't winterized. They weren't very much, so. So then they would dig a basement and they would move the whole house onto the foundation to sort of make it a more of a permanent structure. That was- [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:05:38] During the Depression.
Adam Fleder [00:05:39] Yeah, during. Yeah, during the Depression.
Anne Erickson [00:05:42] [inaudible] childhood?
Anne Erickson [00:05:46] Constantly, especially later on, she- she had Alzheimer's. And, you know, as that progresses, your current memory goes away a lot quicker than your really old memories. But she was very, very, very proud of being Polish and the daughter of [inaudible]. She had two older brothers and an older sister. She was the youngest and
Arrye Rosser [00:06:16] What was her interest when she was real young, do you know?
Anne Erickson [00:06:24] Her brothers had like a- they did like a jug band kind of thing. And, you know, it was the Depression and her. [inaudible] Yeah, and her brother would always pick the raisins out of the raisin bread and give them to her. And her grandfather- my grandfather couldn't eat carrots because when he was a child they were starving and all they could. [00:06:53] All they had to eat was carrots. My grandfather died when I was about 4. My mom was... [inaudible] [crosstalk] I saw his death certificate. It was Parkinson's, but I think there was also an element of dementia.
Arrye Rosser [00:07:19] She went to college?
Anne Erickson [00:07:22] She was the first person in her extended family to go to college. She went to Cleveland College, which was like a- she called it a streetcar college. She lived at home and took the streetcar. [inaudible] And then, well, it became Case Western Reserve, Western Reserve. Case and Western Reserve were two separate colleges, and it became Western Reserve and she went there and she had her bachelor's in sociology. Sociology. [inaudible] [crosstalk] Oh, '50s. No, no.
Adam Fleder [00:08:11] They got married in 1941.
Anne Erickson [00:08:14] Yeah. So '40s, Depression era. Her brothers were both in World War II.
Arrye Rosser [00:08:25] She did an undergraduate in social work?
Anne Erickson [00:08:30] Sociology.
Arrye Rosser [00:08:31] Sociology, sorry. And then did she go back to school there?
Anne Erickson [00:08:36] Yeah, yeah, she went to Kent State with me. I was at Kent State in nursing and she was doing her master's in all those science.
Arrye Rosser [00:08:46] Did she have a break then? Right. So what time period was that again?
Anne Erickson [00:08:55] '76, '77, '78.
Adam Fleder [00:08:59] Yeah. So, I mean the progression was our father was an attorney and he got really sick in the '60s. He had a pretty life threatening. This is sort of a nasal tumor or something. And so that really. That was before the days of disability and things. And so that really interrupted his career. So she had to go back to. She had to go back to work to actually help support the family. And that's when she got the job out at Harry L. Eastwood School. And then. Yeah, and so as she was doing that, then she could, you know, earn more becoming the librarian, getting the master's. So she was actually already the librarian. But, you know, you could get paid more as a teacher if you had the master's degree.
Anne Erickson [00:10:06] And prior to that, when we were younger, she did substitute teaching all over locally and in Cleveland.
Arrye Rosser [00:10:20] Let me circle back to that, but let me ask you a bit more about your dad. So what was your dad's father?
Anne Erickson [00:10:23] Franklin Eugene Fleder?
Arrye Rosser [00:10:31] Where was he born, what year he was born?
Anne Erickson [00:10:34] He was born in 1920, September 26, and in East Cleveland.
Arrye Rosser [00:10:45] How would you describe him? What was his personality?
Anne Erickson [00:10:54] He was the gentlest pacifist person on the planet. He was such pacifist and a passivist, extremely gentle person.
Arrye Rosser [00:11:12] And your mom was kind of a firecracker?
Anne Erickson [00:11:15] Kind of, yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:11:19] Do you have anything to add on?
Adam Fleder [00:11:21] You know, there was- There was an essay that- I think it was a poem. I think it was an essay that a man wrote in about 72. I think he wrote it. And I can't even remember the author's name, but I can Google it, I'm sure. But it was like the tagline was, there are some men too gentle to live among wolves. [00:11:40] And that's how my mom described my dad. That was. Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:11:45] Do you know how they met?
Anne Erickson [00:11:50] They met through a mutual friend. It was right after the war. My dad was in World War II. He was in the Battle of the Bulge. And on a side note on that, you could probably talk more about it. He would never talk about the war. There were lots of guys who always got together, but it was a part of his life he never wanted to remember or relive. [00:12:16] And I'm sure it affected him.
Adam Fleder [00:12:18] There was only one detail, and that was he would not eat spam because in the Battle of the Bulge, that's all they had for weeks because they didn't have any supplies. They could never eat spam after that.
Anne Erickson [00:12:33] There were more reasons not to eat spam.
Adam Fleder [00:12:36] I think. [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:12:43] So. And he played the piano really well. He was a great jazz pianist and he was in some band I have. There are. I have pictures of him in the band. And they played in Cleveland.
Adam Fleder [00:12:57] Yeah, that's how he got to law school.
Anne Erickson [00:13:01] And put himself through law school. Plus the GI Bill. He got the GI Bill. So he was still in law school when they met.
Arrye Rosser [--:--:--] Where did he [inaudible].
Adam Fleder [--:--:--] Kent [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:13:11] Undergrad. Yeah.
Adam Fleder [00:13:14] And then he went to John Marshall.
Arrye Rosser [00:13:19] And when did they get married?
Anne Erickson [00:13:21] 1948.
Arrye Rosser [00:13:24] Do you know where they got married?
Anne Erickson [00:13:27] In the driveway of my mother's parents house.
Arrye Rosser [00:13:34] How did they end up coming here to Peninsula?
Anne Erickson [00:13:38] They were living in East Cleveland on Morton Avenue in an upstairs walk up that my father's parents owned and they wanted to buy a house and they didn't want to live in the city. And my dad found this house in Peninsula somehow and took my mom to see it and he said, I think I found the perfect place. And it was the red house that just caught on fire yesterday.
Arrye Rosser [00:14:10] And what year was that?
Anne Erickson [00:14:12] 1957. I was six months old.
Arrye Rosser [00:14:20] [inaudible] [crosstalk]
Anne Erickson [00:14:22] Not yet.
Arrye Rosser [00:14:24] So where did your dad work? Like geographically, was he moving?
Anne Erickson [00:14:27] At that early time he was working at the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's office. He was a prosecutor.
Arrye Rosser [00:14:43] [inaudible] downtown. Was your mom [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:14:48] Like she was doing. I don't know how much she worked when I was really little, but she would do a little bit of substitute teaching,
Arrye Rosser [00:14:57] [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:15:00] Mostly English and things like that. I don't know.
Arrye Rosser [00:15:06] Tell me a little bit more about her career. Like what years was she working that you sort of remember? Like, tell me, just kind of do the trajectory of what you know about kind of her employment. So she was substituting when you were little and then when did she switch over to the job that you were describing?
Anne Erickson [00:15:34] Late, late 60s, late 60s for that and you know, she was substituting for Cleveland public schools and Harry L. Eastman was actually part of Cleveland public schools. So it was kind of like a
Adam Fleder [00:15:57] Boys farm. And what they used to do is send the truant youth out there thinking it would reform them to work on a farm. It was a working farm and that was the original concept. It would send them out and you know, this, you know, the agrarian lifestyle will reform them.
Anne Erickson [00:16:12] Well, and taking them out of the city in there.
Adam Fleder [00:16:15] That's true.
Arrye Rosser [00:16:19] The late 1960s. And the kids were coming for Cleveland?
Anne Erickson [00:16:23] Yes, inner city Cleveland.
Arrye Rosser [00:16:25] Inner city Cleveland. Were they mostly African Americans?
Anne Erickson [00:16:29] No, it Was definitely a mix. And they weren't just truant. It was any kind of little brush ups with the law. They were, they were out there. And a lot of them, you know, didn't really have much family or anything either.
Arrye Rosser [00:16:43] So it's kind of like a reform school. What did your mom do at the school?
Anne Erickson [00:16:49] She was the librarian.
Arrye Rosser [00:16:52] And did she get to know the kids well?
Anne Erickson [00:16:54] Very well. Yeah, very well.
Arrye Rosser [00:16:56] What can you tell me about just that whole time what she said about working at the school?
Anne Erickson [00:17:01] And there were a couple times when she would bring some of the boys home, home for a weekend and you know, but I remember this as a kid, the biggest insult that would start a fight in a heartbeat and I think it's still true sometimes today is to insult somebody's mother, you know. And they had really good, really good insults. You know, mama's a. I don't even know you mama, but your mama's ugly. So you could not. But you know, a lot of times like their mothers would be bringing them drugs and stuff like that. And they were in high school. I mean so these were kids, even junior high. These were young kids and they. It was like the courts sent them there for a period of time. They lived in dorm houses with house parents.
Arrye Rosser [00:18:04] This is a Hudson that geographically, if I'm remembering, I looked it up a little bit. It's just. It's like off of Boston Mills Road?
Anne Erickson [00:18:14] It's on Boston Mills Road.
Arrye Rosser [00:18:15] Yeah, yeah. Just to the eastern [inaudible].
Anne Erickson [00:18:18] Right. It's not. It's probably Boston Township, technically.
Arrye Rosser [00:18:24] Yeah. And it's. There was a school, a children girl school that was in Brecksville?
Anne Erickson [00:18:28] I think I was thinking about it.
Arrye Rosser [00:18:30] It was sort of belting, you know, bordering. That was the east side of the valley. That was just on the west side of the valley.
Anne Erickson [00:18:37] And then they started having girls at Harry Ellie's, you know. So I don't know if they closed the other one and.
Arrye Rosser [00:18:40] I think they did.
Anne Erickson [00:18:43] And merged. They might have. Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:18:45] Did your mom go to the or school?
Anne Erickson [00:18:51] Yeah. But when the girls came she. That wasn't a good idea. She didn't think that was a great plan.
Arrye Rosser [00:19:05] [inaudible] all ages or?
Anne Erickson [00:19:09] It was probably. Some of them were really young, but probably 11 or 12 up to 18.
Arrye Rosser [00:19:16] [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:19:26] It varied. Yeah, but it varied a lot.
Adam Fleder [00:19:32] Identified as she. She cared about whether – I mean she cared about all those kids. She really did. But you know, there would be some that she would identify as probably if they had like a Polish heritage then she'd feel like she had to do more.
Anne Erickson [00:19:47] Or that they had more potential, you know.
Arrye Rosser [00:19:56] Did they [inaudible] back in their lives-
Adam Fleder [00:20:04] Never [inaudible]
Arrye Rosser [00:20:06] Did she like it then?
Anne Erickson [00:20:09] She loved it. She loved it very much.
Arrye Rosser [00:20:15] What was it like?
Anne Erickson [00:20:16] It was actually. I mean, I don't know what happened. I don't, you know, I don't know what it was actually like, but it was pretty and it was a nice building and the school was nice. It was a high school. The teachers. We knew a lot of the teachers. I mean, you and I knew a lot of the teachers.
Adam Fleder [00:20:42] It was a well integrated teaching staff, you know, because they tried to have people that identified the students. So.
Arrye Rosser [00:20:50] [inaudible] How big was it?
Anne Erickson [00:20:58] I don't think it was super big. But, you know, like anything else, I think it probably hugely impacted some kids and changed their life. And then other kids went back and continued on the same trajectory.
Arrye Rosser [00:21:12] [inaudible]
Adam Fleder [00:21:19] At one point they had like dairy cows and then. And then they got a little more, you know, kind of vocational ed. So they end up with a greenhouse, they ended up with an auto shop. And they kind of got away from the agricultural piece of it. But still, you know, try to teach skills.
Arrye Rosser [00:21:40] [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:21:43] Oh, yeah, yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:21:50] [inaudible] I don't hear people talk about it.
Anne Erickson [00:21:54] I'm not sure most people even knew about it then. You know, I think when she would say that's where she worked and they'd be like, I got a. Where is it?
Arrye Rosser [00:22:03] I don't know.
Anne Erickson [00:22:04] You know, it was.
Arrye Rosser [00:22:05] It was pretty.
Anne Erickson [00:22:06] It was not in the school. Did not integrate into the community because part of the objective was a little bit about isolation.
Arrye Rosser [00:22:20] [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:22:24] Which was probably good, you know.
Arrye Rosser [00:22:25] [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:22:38] So from the late 60s until I think she retired, I got to think about how old my kids are. She probably retired in the maybe mid to late '80s.
Adam Fleder [00:22:50] [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:22:53] I think she got credit for her. So she was there 20 or 20 some years. And then she got credit for the substitute teaching. And then there was some program where you could kind of put money into the system and get full.
Arrye Rosser [00:23:10] [inaudible] So also did some work as a [inaudible]. Can you tell me about that?
Anne Erickson [00:23:18] Yeah, she did some. She was what they called a stringer. So she wasn't actually employed by. And it was the Plain Dealer primarily. She had a lot of friends at the Akron Beacon Journal. And of course at the time there was Cleveland Press. And that was a big competitive thing.
Adam Fleder [00:23:44] [inaudible] When the Press went out. That was a tragedy. One newspaper town is terrible.
Anne Erickson [00:23:51] And a lot of what she did was she would write the article. An article on a special interest thing mostly.
Arrye Rosser [00:24:00] Was she covering [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:24:05] No, because she.
Arrye Rosser [00:24:06] [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:24:11] Yeah. Oh. And she always covered the elections, the local elections in Peninsula. So I remember her bringing me down here and you had to wait until everything was counted and then they would post of paper on the door. [00:24:25] And, you know, to me as a little kid, it was probably 9, 9:30 at night. But it was like I was almost dead. I'm kind of like that now, too.
Adam Fleder [00:24:38] [inaudible]
Arrye Rosser [00:24:43] [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:24:45] No, there's an article in there. Gosh, I just had her name. Yeah, It's like right there.
Arrye Rosser [00:24:50] [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:25:00] It’s like right there. Her name was.
Arrye Rosser [00:25:07] I’m going to look that up. [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:25:14] Probably 60s, mostly. Fran Murphy. [00:25:22] Fran Murphy. Fran Murphy. Isn't that who you were thinking? Yeah, mostly in the 60s.
Adam Fleder [00:25:30] She could have done it in the 50s.
Anne Erickson [00:25:32] She could have.
Adam Fleder [00:25:32] [inaudible] Don't remember it.
Anne Erickson [00:25:33] But, yeah, we weren't around,
Arrye Rosser [00:25:37] so it was overlapping with her, which we get started talking about now. So how did she become involved in preserving [inaudible]?
Anne Erickson [00:25:51] Well, I think she invented it. She didn't become involved.
Arrye Rosser [00:25:55] She got other people involved.
Anne Erickson [00:25:59] Well, and there was no preservation until she arrived. From my perspective.
Adam Fleder [00:26:03] Well, I think that episode with what was called the wood store was. I think that's it. That's the seminal moment, was, you know, we're going to tear this down. We're going to get rid of these buildings and. No, you're not.
Anne Erickson [00:26:20] Yeah. And that was.
Arrye Rosser [00:26:22] Describe the incident [crosstalk].
Anne Erickson [00:26:24] Oh, okay.
Anne Erickson [00:26:26] So, and it was when Robert Hunker had, I think, just come to town or wasn't even in all the way in town yet. But they were. What it was called Woods Store is now the River Light Gallery. And it's a beautiful building. But they were going to tear it down and I don't know, somebody was going to. Somebody bought it, was going to tear it down and put something else up. And you know, my mom, I know she went to village council a couple times trying to change the zoning so that they couldn't do that. And none of that worked. And they were down there with bulldozers and she just sat on the steps to the building with the two of us in front of her. And, you know, and the police came and it was pretty messy. And that Robert Humper came and really stood beside her and he bought the place and that.
Adam Fleder [00:27:34] [inaudible] Started buying a property.
Anne Erickson [00:27:37] And Bob Hunker was an architect and you know his preservation stuff. He was one of my mom's favorite people. I know there are people in town who don't like him. Probably didn't like my mom, but they were very good friends. Very good.
Arrye Rosser [00:28:06] [inaudible] So how did. Do you. So the wood store was sort of a impromptu protest that started movement, basically. And how do you remember, like that time period after the Wood Store or what happened at. What do you remember when kids got the Wood store?
Anne Erickson [00:28:26] I only remember that whatever she did, it worked. And then there was the Bronson Church, which was going to be moved to Hale Farm and kicked up us on that.
Arrye Rosser [00:28:40] What are they-
Adam Fleder [00:28:43] I think in that foundation there total 22 properties. So Robert Hunker collected a number of those properties and kept them as they were. The Gar hall was another one.
Arrye Rosser [00:29:08] [inaudible] What was her kind of role relative to Hunker? Because he gets talked about a lot. I mean, he named his foundations, but you don't hear her name as much in that. That's just kind of interesting to me. So what was- How was that like dynamic? Was he the face of it or was she very much just her?
Anne Erickson [00:29:33] No, it wasn't her. I mean, that was his thing and that's how she did it. She totally supported him personally, but she wasn't at all involved with his business or the foundation or anything. Totally supportive of it, but not involved.
Arrye Rosser [00:29:56] Earlier there was the Peninsula Valley Heritage Association. That was the. When they started getting together as activists and fighting to preserve. I think that's sort of around the Boston church, but I don't. I'd have to go back. Do you have any memory of that?
Anne Erickson [00:30:17] No.
Arrye Rosser [00:30:20] So who are some of the big concerns that were going on at that early period of time? Was it all about trying to buy properties or was there other things that you remember?
Anne Erickson [00:30:37] I think Hunker's objective was to buy property in order to protect them. And my, you know, my mom didn't have the financial means to be doing that, although she did. You know, we grew up in the red house. But then when we were, I don't know, I was probably about 9 or 10, maybe 11. [00:31:05] They bought the house next door, which is. You know which house I'm talking about? It's 5964 Center Street. It's a little gray house. But they bought that house. And I remember the reason.
Adam Fleder [00:31:24] [inaudible] moved into the house and it was the outhouse.
Anne Erickson [00:31:27] Oh yeah. And then there was that kind of workshop garage thing way in the back. No indoor. No. It had water, didn't have any septic. There was an outhouse. It was really, really old and run down. They restored it. Yeah. But the reason for buying that was that there was a guy named Nick Nero who was from not, maybe not Peninsula, but somewhere around here who was going to buy it and tear it down. And my mom was pretty sure he was going to put up a great big apartment building. Now, whether that's true or not, I don't know. One of my mother's most famous quotes was never let the truths interfere with a good story. So whatever I'm telling you, don't hold me to it.
Arrye Rosser [00:32:31] I know another thing that I've read about is that the 271 is going to get routed through downtown Peninsula. And there was that started in the very early '60s, so you would have been right around the Wood store period. It took quite a while for it to get adjusted. And then essentially I always think about Brandywine Falls, but it took hit for Peninsula because, you know, going right next to Brandywine Falls, you know, but Peninsula got saved. But that must have just put a chill with everybody. What was that sort of like? Did other people rally in the real with for encompass or was it sort of an oddball thing to do? Do you know what I mean? Like, Peninsula has such a strong flavor now. I'm trying to like, picture what it was like. The whole Peninsula is what we see today.
Adam Fleder [00:33:32] You know, my. My impression of it was that there is always. There's always been this amalgam. There has been this, you know, families who have been here for four generations and, and- and then the people that were always slowly gentrifying in town. And it's still. It hasn't really changed much. There's still people that, you know, have money and they have influence and they- And they go from one world and the people that are still here and they're from that world. And there's always tension between those two, you know, one wanting to do some progress or some things, another wanting to not allow anything to change. I don't think that that, I mean, that survived the, you know, the impact of the change that farmed around it, you know.
Arrye Rosser [00:34:28] Do you feel like the Peninsula that you grew up in is similar to what it is now? You know what I mean?
Adam Fleder [00:34:35] Like, I do.
Anne Erickson [00:34:37] I feel like it's changed but not much. I mean, there have been changes, but people wise, you know, I remember people who are now considered real foundational people in town when I was a kid were newcomers and were shunned. My parents were newcomers and were shunned and then became foundational. You know, it's just kind of the natural evolution.
Adam Fleder [00:35:09] Still fighting about should they put in sewer system.
Anne Erickson [00:35:16] That has been decades, forever.
Arrye Rosser [00:35:19] What do you remember about her? Like early victories, you know, she must have been so punk. Do you feel like she always had the confidence in the early days that she was just going to reign victorious, or was it- [inaudible] early days?
Anne Erickson [00:35:40] No, she always knew she would win. She always knew, if you stand in my way, I will go above your head. I found letters that she had written to the Supreme Court and all this stuff. I mean, she was a letter writer and so much of it, you know, I just couldn't read it. But she'll just go over your head because if you don't see it her way, you're obviously a moron.
Arrye Rosser [00:36:16] What do you think were, like, the skills and traits that just mean they're so effective? I wondered a bit about, you know, she had this background in sociology. She was a reporter. She was a librarian. She just was so effective. What do you think were those skills that she brought that made her that way?
Anne Erickson [00:36:39] Tenacity.
Adam Fleder [00:36:40] Yeah. You know, the sort of that ability to believe that you could stop the federal government from implementing a park. And there was no doubt that she would prevail in her mind. And sometimes, you know, and sometimes a person with that much determination does prevail, and it's like, oh, wow, you know, but there was no- There was no conceivable concern or hesitation that this was an unwinnable fight. That was not a concept that you could even entertain. I'm not sure if that was the way she used to motivate herself or what that came from.
Anne Erickson [00:37:34] And she was really good at the fight. She was really good at fighting. And articulate. Yes. And she liked it. She really liked it. Even to the bitter end. She liked the fight.
Arrye Rosser [00:37:56] She was also such a networker. That was another thing that kind of impressed me. You had set a question comment, I think when you were talking earlier, Adam, she knew how to get to it. She was just very smart about how people influence decisions and things. I don't know if you could speak to that. A lot of people were activists in their wheels, and there's a lot of churning. She was very effective in her strategy.
Adam Fleder [00:38:36] I think, was- I mean, obviously her research skills served her. So she figured out, okay, if this is going to happen, who do I have to reach to make this, whatever it was, happen. And she could figure that out, and she could. She could go into, you know, go into research mode, get the data, and then, you know, and then try to bring that pressure to bear on that person. So she was good to figure out who was really the influencer that she needed to get to.
Arrye Rosser [00:39:02] Why do you think she had such a passion for Peninsula? Since she didn't grow up here? I always wondered if, like, the other locals kind of were like, this is our history, not your history. You know, how that dynamic played out.
Anne Erickson [00:39:17] I think it probably was that way at the very beginning, at the very, very beginning. But she quickly was able to claim her victories and say, hey, you know, I saved the Wood store. I saved Bronze at church. I saved, you know, all these buildings. I saved 5964 Center street, and it's mine.
Arrye Rosser [00:39:42] How do you think. How do you think that the Peninsula was a passion? Do you know what I mean? Like, what was it about Peninsula that just made it the focus of so much for life? I don't know.
Anne Erickson [00:39:56] I mean, what's not to love? You know, it's a really nice place.
Adam Fleder [00:40:01] You know, I think partly that this is a bit of speculation, but let me try that. You know, she was always big about roots, you know, where- where she came from. And this was like. Like, maybe it was like just the place she chose to make her stand. You know, there's aspects of this that. That means something to me. There's a history here to preserve. You know, maybe it was like, you know, the lost cause was a- the thing to fight for or something. You know, she's, you know, she saw something that needed her.
Arrye Rosser [00:40:39] Describe a little bit more of her relationship with Robert Hunker and just how they work together. If there are any stories you remember of the two of them together.
Anne Erickson [00:40:50] Only socially. And I worked. When I was in high school, I worked at the GAR Hall, so I worked for Robert Hunker. And, you know, they socialize together, but. And I think they strategized together. I don't know that I would actually say that they worked together. You know, they were of the same mind and they supported each other's efforts. I don't know. That's just my impression going along.
Arrye Rosser [00:41:29] Who are some of the other folks who were part of that same activist circle? What do you remember about them?
Anne Erickson [00:41:36] Well, another was Rhonda Russell. She owned this building here, and she was a relative. I mean, she didn't really live in Peninsula, she just owned this building. But she was definitely a preservationist and a fighter, you know. Definitely. And in the later years, she and my mom were really, really best friends. Ann Alexander wasn't involved with my mom as much, but she owned this building next door here where the bike shop is. [00:42:18] And she, you know, did a lot of preservation stuff, too. She's still around. She lives in Athens. Ann Alexander. But my dad. Because my mom used to come down here to Rhonda's store, which was downstairs. It was like a little antique store, the Emporium. And my dad always called it the nerve center. You know, it's like where everything happens in Peninsula starts right here.
Arrye Rosser [00:42:52] Do you think that's why you guys bought the building?
Anne Erickson [00:42:55] Maybe. [crosstalk]
Adam Fleder [00:42:58] And, you know, Rhonda asked us. She approached us. She got too old to keep it up, and it was like, you know, it seemed like the right thing to do.
Arrye Rosser [00:43:10] So did your dad share in Lily's, your mom's activist. But did he share her, his passions with her?
Anne Erickson [00:43:22] No, no, no.
Adam Fleder [00:43:25] I mean, it might have helped with, you know, some of the legal aspects of things. And how do you approach Congress, how you get all your congressmen.
Arrye Rosser [00:43:36] I saw him in the documentation and he was preparing. If there's anything legal, man, she was on it.
Anne Erickson [00:43:45] Yeah, yeah. And he was actually on village council for a term, I think. Another, another thing, a quote or favorite thing of my mom. If you get- go against her with anything or she gets mad, you'll hear from my attorney. And you would too.
Arrye Rosser [00:44:13] I had that impression because she. There was always like, here's your legal. You know, you're getting sued or you're getting challenged and your dad's name was there. So I kind of wondered if he was the activist or he. She just said [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:44:30] He was a minion. [laughs]
Arrye Rosser [00:44:37] Now I also. One thing that got me curious when I was looking through her archives was she very quickly kind of got networked with the folks in Hudson who were preserving Hudson as they were getting in the National Register. [00:44:49] She's also connected a lot with the people in the National- the National Park Service is the National Register of Historic Places. So I see that correspondence. And then they were a delegation and they went to Washington together. Do you remember anything about those people or that trip?
Anne Erickson [00:45:08] I know you know, her name was Gogi Gulden. What was her real first name? It was like Georgina or something. But she went by Gogi. G, O, G, I. And they lived on Main Street 91 in Hudson. And she was heavily involved with the Hudson historical preservation stuff. And they were very good friends. [00:45:38] And my mom had a lot to do with the Hudson Library also, as well as the Peninsula Library. I remember when they built the Peninsula Library, and that was another big deal for her to even have that in there and the mosaic of the python on the front and all that.
Arrye Rosser [00:46:00] Was she involved in [inaudible]?
Anne Erickson [00:46:01] I think she was. On some level, she was definitely a major Peninsula Python in some enthusiast.
Arrye Rosser [00:46:09] Was she present with [inaudible]?
Anne Erickson [00:46:11] Oh, yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:46:13] What do you remember about him? He seemed like he would have been such a colorful character. Looking at photos.
Anne Erickson [00:46:25] I was pretty young. I don't really remember.
Arrye Rosser [00:46:27] I mean, he had the big handlebar mustache.
Anne Erickson [00:46:31] Yeah.
Adam Fleder [00:46:34] The Boston Township Hall.
Anne Erickson [00:46:37] Oh, yeah, that was.
Adam Fleder [00:46:39] They redid that slightly.
Anne Erickson [00:46:44] Yeah. She was majorly instrumental.
Arrye Rosser [00:46:51] Does [inaudible], looking at records, it's like Warner and he was the newspaper guy. So he was also writing about it. And Fred Kelly was some real leaders back in the, like the '40s, and then they were kind of reenergized in the early '60s, but then it was more like Doc Hunter and your mom and I kind of just wondered, you know, it must have been a passing of the guard a little bit.
Anne Erickson [00:47:15] Absolutely. I think that was in the early '60s with that.
Arrye Rosser [00:47:22] Yeah, was quite an elderly man. Do you remember Mr. Kelly?
Anne Erickson [00:47:28] No, but we've heard a lot about him for other reasons.
Arrye Rosser [00:47:34] I think there's some [inaudible].
Anne Erickson [00:47:39] But Bob Bordner. Yeah, he seemed like an older man when I was a kid. He had white hair and those big white mustache.
Arrye Rosser [00:47:47] What was your mom's interest in the Peninsula Pythons?
Anne Erickson [00:47:53] Good story. It's a good story. Oh, and they used to have. The circus would come to town on the train and then they would walk up the street to the Coliseum. Now, the Coliseum going in was another big controversial thing because they thought. Oh, my. Yeah, she thought that because, you know, the town ended up being World War McDonald's, but that didn't happen. And the Coliseum was fine.
Arrye Rosser [00:48:22] Yeah, I remember the Coliseum. And, yeah, I remember the day they did all the. Then I was out there pregnant one, one week away from delivering my son, 22. I was out there when they did the wrecking. Balls and things you never think you'd ever seen. So what about John Seiberling? Here's another one I wondered about. I saw some correspondence between them. I don't know how much she had a relationship, if she saw him as a partner in this back in the '60s and later an adversary or-?
Adam Fleder [00:49:04] Yeah, I think that politically, my mother was hard to completely pin down because there are aspects of what she did were very progressive and aspects of what she were very conservative. And so I think I remember some tension between her and [inaudible], not liking him because he didn't do what she wanted. That's probably the thing is she wants something done and he didn't do it, so he was useless or something. But, you know, he also supported the park, so that put him on the wrong side of that issue.
Anne Erickson [00:49:41] And he had a lot of money.
Arrye Rosser [00:49:43] Yeah. Son of a blue blood.
Anne Erickson [00:49:45] Yeah.
Adam Fleder [00:49:47] Yeah.
Anne Erickson [00:49:48] So that could be used.
Arrye Rosser [00:49:51] Yeah. Well, there definitely were back and forth. [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:49:59] They certainly knew each other, but I don't recall that they were ever really friendly.
Arrye Rosser [00:50:04] Do you remember meeting him?
Anne Erickson [00:50:06] Oh, my God. Yeah. But I was pretty young.
Adam Fleder [00:50:10] Yeah, I did. I was a teenager. But I met him. He came down to the, well with the Peninsula nightclub. Then there was some meeting and [inaudible].
Arrye Rosser [00:50:25] I saw some photo, I think, of her talking to the owner of what is now the Boston Store, trying to convince him to preserve that building. I don't remember do you remember anything, you know, about some of the iconic buildings that we think about now down in Boston or just any of them?
Anne Erickson [00:50:51] I guess.
Arrye Rosser [00:50:53] Is there any answers to things you remember?
Anne Erickson [00:50:57] I don't really. Sorry.
Arrye Rosser [00:50:58] Okay, how about. This is about when the park was established. So I. My reading is that there was talk of establishing a national park starting back in the mid '60s and there was kind of a period where you came through and everybody was in the paper and then it sort of died back. And then it all came up in 74 and the hearings were at Blossom. What do you remember? Just about that early period before the park was actually created. But people, do you remember people being pro-park?
Adam Fleder [00:51:44] I mean there were a lot we, we were press ganged into. Like the Peninsula packet was this like mailer that went out and send out, you know, on these issues and like at some. The Cull's house, I remember like folding all these kind of things, putting the mail. We were the, we were the slave labor on that. But so, I mean that was, you know, they argued. She worked a lot with the Leonard Steins of here. Yeah, he was, you know, he obviously could finance some of that activity.
Arrye Rosser [00:52:21] So was she, was she against the club in the early phases?
Anne Erickson [00:52:27] Absolutely no. 100% no. We. She had a, you know, like, you know how people have those signs that say stuff, park is a four letter word. Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:52:40] What was her feeling about like the preservation efforts that she was involved in versus what the national park might bring to it? Like what was her-
Anne Erickson [00:52:51] She did not see the National Park Service as preservation at all. It was only destruction.
Arrye Rosser [00:53:00] Do you think that was a perception that things would go back to nature and she was more [inaudible]? Or how do you think that was?
Anne Erickson [00:53:11] Yes. I mean going back to nature was not. I mean you don't tear down homes and buildings to go back to nature.
Adam Fleder [00:53:25] There's an aspect of her though that was simply contrarian. If, I mean literally if, if you said this was a good idea. I think she argued the opposite just to argue the opposite.
Anne Erickson [00:53:42] Cause she really liked to argue.
Adam Fleder [00:53:44] She. She. Right. If she- she would have been one heck of an attorney.
Anne Erickson [00:53:47] Yeah. It fed her. It was her life wells. Even in her very last days, still, she would fight against something real or imagined just because it just really jazzed her up.
Adam Fleder [00:54:09] Yeah, the whole thing. I mean she had to live in assisted living because she was just mentally too- too unable to care for herself and she really couldn't live by herself at all. She just really needed that support and getting people. This is the whole civil rights. How could I be prevented from, you know, or how can my civil rights be divided by being forced to live here?
Anne Erickson [00:54:45] I'm an American citizen. She rallied a whole bunch of the residents about they were serving white rice and not brown rice. And she went on a big campaign about that. And she would. We finally had to put a thing on her phone where she could only call certain numbers because she would call the police department in Yellow Springs, where I live and say that she was being held against her will. And they would have to go and check it out. I mean, it was over and over. And call an attorney. Couple of them. Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:55:31] What do you think was the thing she most wanted to save in Peninsula? And was she focused just on Peninsula? Do you think she perceived the whole valley? What was her [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [00:55:42] Peninsula, yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:55:47] What do you think was the. What was it in Peninsula like, the element of Peninsula that she wanted? It was architecture.
Anne Erickson [00:55:58] Yes.
Adam Fleder [00:55:59] And it was based on the canal history, the pieces of the architecture that represented that period, the written history of it. And then even, you know, she would find some piece of rusty something in the garden and she would have this whole story about, you know, it's the rib of a canal boat or something, you know, and it was like, mom, that's out of the. [00:56:28] You know, like the tractor supply catalog that someone- You know but then now you're. Now-
Anne Erickson [00:56:36] Now you. Yeah, now she was going to fight me because you think she kind of
Arrye Rosser [00:56:40] Do you think she wanted to freeze Peninsula in time?
Adam Fleder [00:56:45] She had a way.
Arrye Rosser [00:56:49] [inaudible] Was she a nostalgic or do you think.
Anne Erickson [00:56:55] Probably. Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [00:56:59] Kind of always. What do you think would have been like the ideal scenario of what would have happened? Let's say if the parts of the heaven. What do you think was sort of what she, what her dream was?
Anne Erickson [00:57:09] That not a single thing would change without her instigation.
Adam Fleder [00:57:19] Yeah. It would have been stasis. That was. And I'm not sure why. I think, you know, I think that there was. I think she. I think she was always holding on to something emotionally too. I mean, it is kind of that hoarder thing. It's- It's not the thing. It's the memory that the thing gives you. I think there was. There was. I think it was an idyllic time. When we were really, really young. We had some neighbors that had a whole bunch of kids. And there was like this almost utopian existence period of time. I think a lot of that was trying to preserve that. You know, it's almost- Not quite Mayberry, but almost. You know, it was. It really was pretty was pretty nice at that time.
Anne Erickson [00:58:15] And Center Street was the best place. I mean, there were so many kids. And, you know, you have. There's like a field between the red house and the gray house. Ball beams out there. There was a little shack. You was. I don't know who it was probably a playhouse or something at one point. And every year my friend Linda, who lived across the street, she had three older brothers, and she and I would go and put up little handkerchiefs for curtains and clean it and sweep it. And then the boys would come and throw green apples out or something and chase us out and take it over as their clubhouse. It was just like our yearly ritual we did.
Arrye Rosser [00:59:05] Strikes me that whatever like the secret soft Peninsula has managed to span generations. Because I hear, like, even reading about it and seeing it, I have that sense, like, I don't think she invented it. I think she was like the carrier over and I have a [inaudible] Peninsula. The way you're describing it is the way I would describe it now.
Anne Erickson [00:59:30] Yeah.
Adam Fleder [00:59:30] I mean, I think that you're right. And I, you know, I'm actually part of the Peninsula Foundation out [inaudible]. I haven't been for years, but. And it's like. It's like the same people are having the same fights.
Arrye Rosser [00:59:47] Or even the cast changes and it's the same things. Yeah, it's really fascinating. That Peninsula manages to leadership as a feminine in the face of most other communities. Hudson would be the other. Frankly, Cuyahoga Falls has taken another route. But they also have a very strong sensibility. It wasn't. But it was morphed at that sort of period of time. So there's something in the water in Peninsula for sure.
Anne Erickson [01:00:23] Yeah. My mom, although she was somewhat involved in Hudson, she was always looking down at her nose at Hudson because, you know, it got gentrified and they got an Acme and a plaza and a McDonalds. I mean, that was just.
Adam Fleder [01:00:41] Oh, yeah, that was nothing more fun.
Anne Erickson [01:00:43] That was the worst. Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [01:00:46] Interesting. So she kind of looked at Hudson as a step down.
Anne Erickson [01:00:49] A failure, a failure in preservation, a major failure. And-
Arrye Rosser [01:01:00] National Park Service, national historic preservation people, they... [inaudible] [crosstalk] So let's give the heads. The park was created. What do you remember about that time period? I know it was a hard time to talk about, but do you remember, like, friends that were losing their houses and all that time frame?
Adam Fleder [01:01:45] Yeah, there were. There were a number of friends that, you know, they got relocated. Some moved within the valley, Some couldn't stay anymore. There was a lot of displacement of people and that started to. That's, you know, even though mom was focused on the historic preservation, then the human pull that struck her sense of justice as being wrong. And that brought up the, you know, the Livingston for the Jury brothers to produce.
Arrye Rosser [01:02:32] [inaudible] And I'm forgetting it here. I should remember it, but we're close to the property, and he ran the store. He ran the auto repair store down there. Well, part of it, because I've seen the [inaudible] still.
Anne Erickson [01:02:54] Yeah. That was called Stumpy Basin, the beaver dam farther south.
Arrye Rosser [01:03:03] But let me jump to the homeowners. She started. Looks like it was, like, more than here. And she was involved with organization that was representing the homeowners as they negotiated with the Park Service. And I saw your mom was writing a lot of letters to other people in other national parks because she was just such a network.
Adam Fleder [01:03:27] Right, right.
Arrye Rosser [01:03:28] Kind of. So it was something happening more on a national level. Do you remember? You would have been starting [inaudible] not too long ago.
Anne Erickson [01:03:37] Right. I graduated from high school in 1975 and probably moved out a year later.
Adam Fleder [01:03:46] Yeah. I mean, I don't remember her involvement with all of those groups. I mean, there were other. There were meetings and there were discussions how to deal with this and how to get influence in Washington, what they could do. And a lot of people supported that. I mean, I don't know, because I didn't have, obviously, that perspective at the time. If the Park Service had a, you know, a cohesive strategy for what it wanted to do in what. What's vision for the, you know, where the valley was or not. It was. It was- was a- I still think that it's, you know, it's not the same kind of park as, like, Zion or something like that. You know, it's a different. It's a different thing, but it's clearly, you know, a really important piece of the history of this area and preserving it. I mean, you look at the visitation numbers and you look at the people that want to come here and experience it, they obviously, it was the right path. It's not always, it wasn't always the cleanest implementation.
Arrye Rosser [01:05:23] [inaudible] And in many ways, the Park Service got dragged in a bit, ticking and screaming that the Park Service didn't really want to be here. The community brought the park in. And then, of course, then once the park wasn't here, goes to government. It does. But it strikes me that there's a little bit of beware what you wish for. [01:05:44] The Peninsula, where the answer was, was poison, too. You know what I mean? Like, it must have been a very mixed emotion kind of a thing.
Anne Erickson [01:05:56] Yeah.
Adam Fleder [01:05:56] Not being able to control it. Like, they didn't get to do it the way they would have done it, even if it wasn't a good way, and it wasn't their way-
Anne Erickson [01:06:04] You know, we talked about this. It was not handled. There was. They're not sensitively and, you know, it could have been done a lot better. You know, there was a- there was a human toll. Not. Not death, but, you know, displacement and uprooting people. And when you're somebody like Lily Fleder, who. [01:06:29] Whose roots were all the way down to the center of the earth here, when somebody gets uprooted, that's really. [inaudible] [crosstalk] Yeah. There's a family that lived up where the fire station is now. Their last name was Shoredel, and he was an architect. And they had this. We used to go there all the time. [01:06:59] Their kids were our age, and they had this beautiful house right on the top of the hill that. All glass windows overlooking with the ravine. It was right out of Architectural Digest and they burned it down. You know, it's one thing to put forth, and this is here. This is what I still feel strongly was to go in and uproot, forced out of their homes and then burn it down is really mean. I mean, that's hard. I mean, it's a place that you love, and not only are you losing it, but they're just gonna trash it. And I don't think. I mean, I may be wrong about this, but from what I understand from my mom, I don't think there was a fair market value thing going on. I think it was more of a. Per square foot regardless. So much a square foot. And that's what you get. So that part of it was what- that's what she was fighting. It wasn't the part. It was a fighting of people being uprooted and hurt.
Arrye Rosser [01:08:19] I think the virtual group explained it to me like Peninsula saw itself as being part of what needed to be preserved to people. And when the Park Service came in, it happened in other places. The Park Service had a certain sense of what things were and didn't value that. A lot of times now things have changed a lot. [01:08:44] And we've sort of. Now we think of this park as a different park with a lot of attentions and stuff. But of course, that's not the way residents feel like people can remember all the things. [inaudible] [crosstalk]
Adam Fleder [01:08:58] But. But you're right, you know, and. And. And all. And unfortunately, some of the. Some of the farms and the things that I think are really cool, people also look at that and say, see, we told you. And you could. I just kept them. You didn't have to do this and then have to bring people back in to do what was already happening. It was a different kind of thing. It wasn't taking wine from the Native Americans and pulling Yellowstone. I mean, that was a lot easier.
Anne Erickson [01:09:34] Lily wasn't there.
Arrye Rosser [01:09:36] Yeah. So as the park started getting developed, maybe speak to a couple things. One was just. Do you think her attitudes changed once the period of the land acquisition lands? Like, I wondered if she felt like she was successful, you know, in the end, like, all the effort with what she had been trying to do. Like, did she later feel like as the canal was where she started to get preserved and things like that?
Anne Erickson [01:10:12] Yeah, I think she appreciated it in the end, but she probably thought that she could have done a much better job. Yeah, I. I think when. When that land acquisition thing was going through, that was. That was really rough for her. And. But I think she was also very proud in later years to be from this town in the middle of the national park. [01:10:39] Very proud.
Adam Fleder [01:10:40] And she- and she also did, at her core value the, you know, preservation of things anyway. So, you know, she would be for, you know, setting aside land for posterity. It's probably more than anything else. Methodology and processes are not intent.
Arrye Rosser [01:11:13] Was she honored in Peninsula in various ways. I kind of wondered how, as she got older and, you know, was she seen as sort of a leader and fly in the peninsula?
Anne Erickson [01:11:29] Absolutely. I, you know, I had somebody calling me saying, I think about your mom every day and still miss her. And yeah, she was. It's in there, she was Citizen of the year. Very, very proud of that. Extremely. And she was, you know, she had. They had like, volunteer recognition gatherings and stuff that she was always a part, you know, being honored there. So, yeah, that was. I think she was recognized not always in love, but certainly recognized as a mover and shaker in the town.
Adam Fleder [01:12:17] Yes. Sometimes when she wanted to get something done, she stepped on people's feelings and got resentment. But classic person who wants to make something happen, there's collateral damage. Too bad.
Anne Erickson [01:12:34] Kind of like the park, you know.
Arrye Rosser [01:12:36] Exactly. I know she was like the one person that she worked, you know. Do you feel like she thought she was a success, like, you know what I mean?
Anne Erickson [01:12:50] Oh, yeah, yeah. She was the queen of Peninsula. I mean, she reigned and she expected to be honored in that way. And she, you know, there were people who did, but, you know. Yeah. Oh, yeah. There was no doubt that she felt her life was completely successful.
Adam Fleder [01:13:11] We're actually putting a plaque on this building to [inaudible].
Arrye Rosser [01:13:19] I think she's a star. I mean, I feel very dedicated to trying to make sure she, the park service recognizes her. How many thinking about it. I mean it's amazing to me the narrative that's sort of been the blows the guy stories. You know, [inaudible] There's some very strong women who made a big difference. I think your mom was the most important.
Anne Erickson [01:13:53] Thank you.
Arrye Rosser [01:13:54] I really do. I think she's a fascinating person. I wonder if there was anything that disappointed her that she had, you know that were sort of the losses that she was sad about or bitter about anything. Was there things that were-
Anne Erickson [01:14:11] No, the losses were just not that was it. They were gone. You don't talk about was complete denial. Not, not that she got over, it just never happened.
Arrye Rosser [01:14:30] What was she involved in like in the later periods of her life? Was there clubs or other.
Anne Erickson [01:14:36] Oh, garden clubs. Garden club. Big time garden club. She used to always do the flowers for the church.
Adam Fleder [01:14:47] Investment club for a while.
Anne Erickson [01:14:48] Oh yeah, yeah.
Adam Fleder [01:14:50] Stuff at the library there a lot of and there was a time, one time she was always kind of protective of her properties and you know who was that? And there was somebody in the back of a property going through the woods and looking at stuff and she went out to see who this, who this person was and you know, give them a hard time doing it was Euell Gibbons. He was doing the plug at the library. So he was collecting some, you know, native plaques just to show look at what you can eat right here in your backyard.
Anne Erickson [01:15:23] Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [01:15:23] Oh man.
Anne Erickson [01:15:24] She was a big fan of that guy. Yeah, big fan.
Arrye Rosser [01:15:29] So when did she leave in the area? When did she pass away? [inaudible]
Anne Erickson [01:15:36] She came, she left. It was a rough six years after my dad passed away and she was at home by herself but for six years. So that would have been 2013 and she died March 11, 2019.
Arrye Rosser [01:15:57] How does her activism impact you as your children? Did you feel like carry on with me or like did you share her passions in all of this?
Anne Erickson [01:16:12] As a child I would hide in the back seat.
Adam Fleder [01:16:15] Yeah. Well, I mean I think it's why we did this building. It was. Yeah, that's what she'd want. I mean it was, it was actually, you know some, some of the money from her estate and so what do we do with this money? I like well let's preserve a building in Peninsula. That's what she would want to do.
Anne Erickson [01:16:37] Yeah.
Arrye Rosser [01:16:39] So you obviously even know you don't lived here anymore. Are still cause you're like the prince and princess. A little bit of chance.
Anne Erickson [01:16:46] The queen.
Arrye Rosser [01:16:46] Right.
Anne Erickson [01:16:47] Well you know, I, I, I still have friends here you know, I still. I'm still connected.
Arrye Rosser [01:16:56] Do you feel like, what do you think her legacy is? [inaudible] Peninsula.
Anne Erickson [01:17:05] I mean, there were often times, I mean, lots. Stretches upon stretches where I thought she loves Peninsula more than me, more than us. I mean, that was. And when she was, you know, not remembering things, it was. It was Peninsula, Peninsula, Peninsula. And my parents and the immigrants and coming here and making a life and- Oh my gosh, the Memorial Day parade. Always wanted to come back for that. And we did bring her back. [01:17:46] It was really disastrous. It didn't work out. Well, a lot of people came to see her and she didn't know who they were, and she got really confused and disoriented. So she died in March. And so we didn't say that, she was buried on Memorial Day.
Arrye Rosser [01:18:11] Yeah, I think what she loved the most about Peninsula. She hearkened back to later after she left and everything. Was it all about the people?
Anne Erickson [01:18:29] It was her home. Her home. Yeah. Cause I think, you know, she could remember her home and she. She knew she lived on Center Street. And I don't know if she remembered the gray house as much as maybe she remembered the red house more, and the barn. And she was always. Her home. Her garden.
Arrye Rosser [01:18:50] Well, I think all the questions that I had for you. Do you have any other things that you need to talk about?
Anne Erickson [01:19:06] Yeah, I was going to talk the Calls. Georgia Call was another good friend that worked on a lot of things with her. [inaudible] They live on Riverview Road, just like kind of across from Stein Road there. Big white house.
Arrye Rosser [01:19:25] I know there's a farm there that the park service called the Call farm.
Anne Erickson [01:19:31] That's probably- [crosstalk].
Adam Fleder [01:19:33] Actually, it isn't, because the Calls didn’t own the barn.
Anne Erickson [01:19:35] Yeah, it was just, it was right next to their house. Yeah, but it wasn't their barn. But, you know, and. Well, you know, I grew up with Carol Powerman, and you know, her. Her dad was a realtor, Robert Bishop. And you know, her, he. His family owned that farm for generations. That's another thing. You know, the park just came in and took most of his farm. You know, he got paid for it, but not very much. And then, you know, always work is to watch these trees ago and it's all overgrown. And you know, we were just driving [01:20:22] by today and I said, gosh, we used to have a little straw hut out here and we stay out there and collect money for the trees. And Mrs. Bishop would bring us hot chocolate. You know, they were. That's another family that has been here a long time. But I think Carol has separated herself from the community a lot.
Arrye Rosser [01:20:57] Oh, is that- What? [inaudible]
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
