Abstract
Marilyn Anthony, a lifetime citizen of the west side of Cleveland discusses Cleveland's past and future. Marilyn recalls her experiences in Cleveland and describes her present role as a member of the Retired Senior Volunteer Group. Finally, she addresses current projects in Cleveland and the priorities of the city.
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Interviewee
Anthony, Marilyn (interviewee)
Interviewer
Hons, Justin (interviewer); Yanoshik-Wing, Emma (interviewer)
Project
Ingenuity Fest
Date
7-14-2006
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
16 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Marilyn Anthony Interview, 14 July 2006" (2006). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 905007.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/293
Transcript
Marilyn Anthony [00:00:00] D, E, F, G.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:00:05] Okay, Marilyn, if I could get you to start off, if you could say your name and today’s date.
Marilyn Anthony [00:00:12] I’m Marilyn Anthony, and today’s date is July 14, 2006.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:00:19] Are you from Cleveland?
Marilyn Anthony [00:00:20] Yes. Born and raised in Cleveland.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:00:22] Which part?
Marilyn Anthony [00:00:24] Right here in the near west side. All just. I’ve never been a mile away from the near west side.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:00:29] Oh, really? Where in whereabouts?
Marilyn Anthony [00:00:35] I was the near west side all the way. That used to include John Avenue. John, Whitman, Fulton Road, all the way up to, now I’m on 32nd, which is across the bridge.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:00:55] Can you tell me what the neighborhood was like?
Marilyn Anthony [00:00:58] The old neighborhood?
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:00:59] The old neighborhood.
Marilyn Anthony [00:01:01] We had a lot of Gypsy population back then because when they’d have a funeral, they had the violins and they’d parade through the streets there. They process with the body to wherever the cemetery is. They process and they would come through the streets with their violins and that. We had community. A lot of community centers. The churches were big. People attended St. Patrick’s Church, happened to be in our neighborhood. And on St. Patrick’s Day, you stood in the street if you were late because there was that many people in the church, out in the vestibule, down the steps, on the sidewalk and to the street.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:01:38] What years was this?
Marilyn Anthony [00:01:40] Oh, gosh, this is, say, 1945, 50, something like that.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:01:48] What are some of the changes that you’ve seen since then? Do you still have Gypsy processions?
Marilyn Anthony [00:01:54] No, the whole Gypsy population gone. And where I used to live is now named Ohio City. And they came in with a different perspective as to what they wanted to do with that neighborhood there. So most of the people that were there aren’t anymore. And they bought up the houses and changed them considerably. And they’re just- They’re not within the reach of the people that live, financial reach of the people that used to be there. So. And they’ve torn down my old school, two of my old schools, two of my old homes. They’re just not there anymore.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:02:34] Which schools did you go to?
Marilyn Anthony [00:02:36] I went to St. Patrick’s School, which isn’t anymore. It’s an empty lot. And I went to Kentucky School, which is there, and I believe it still is a school. I went for a couple years to William Dean Howell School, which is not a school anymore. It’s some kind of a social service agency. I’m not quite sure what it is now anymore. It’s changed a little bit through the years. And then I went to St. Michael’s School, which isn’t St. Michael’s anymore. The Spanish, we have a big Spanish population in that area now. And they took the building over and I’m not sure what they’re doing with it. And then I went to community college, which is still community college, and it’s the way it used to be.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:03:24] Now, you don’t use the term. Am I correct? You don’t use the term Ohio City.
Marilyn Anthony [00:03:29] Well, I didn’t grow up with Ohio City. I didn’t live there with Ohio City. Ohio City came in as I was going out, well, about four years before I moved from the neighborhood there. My children were growing big enough and I had a big house. And I thought, well, just me and one child roaming around seven or eight rooms was kind of silly. So I opted for a small, smaller house, a bungalow-type house a little bit further up the line, not too far. But.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:03:59] Did you used to go to West Side Market?
Marilyn Anthony [00:04:01] Oh, yes, faithfully. Every Saturday with the three kids in tow, you either took a sled or you took a wagon or you took something to haul kids and groceries home. Because you used to be able to save some money down there. Now it’s not so much.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:04:18] What’s your first memory of, or maybe not your first, but a standout memory of West Side Market?
Marilyn Anthony [00:04:25] Well, when the kids were small, they used to be very generous down there. They used to give them samples of every stand we went to. I didn’t have to feed them on the evening we went because every stand we went to was sampled. Have a wiener, have a hot dog or have bologna. Our standard was hot dogs, bologna and hamburger. You didn’t buy that. The kids didn’t think you bought groceries here. They were always chewing on bologna and that. And then we went over to the stand where the cheese and the juice was and have a juice, have a this, have a that. Then we went over to the stand where the bakery was and have a biscuit, have a bien. Then of course, course the outside open-air market where all the fruit and vegetables were. Every other stand was, have a banana, have this, have that. And my budget told me, you go on Saturday night when they were closing up and you could get some bargains there, pecks of this and big bags of that. And they peddled it off because they didn’t want to take it home with them. And so I would come home and can and things like that to keep my family going here.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:05:30] Does it look much different now?
Marilyn Anthony [00:05:34] The West Side Market itself doesn’t- They have now built some glass enclosures on the outside of the outside market there. But the chicken house is gone. And across the street there used to be some drug stores. And down the street was a place called Gaylord’s. Not Giant Tiger, Gaylords, and that’s gone. Fries & Schuele’s there used to be on 25th Street. But the market house exactly itself is pretty much the way it was before.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:06:11] What are some of the other changes that you’ve seen on the near west side in terms of the neighborhood? Whether the people or the stores or just-
Marilyn Anthony [00:06:17] You need more money to live there because the population that came in were more well set than the people that lived there originally. And they bought them out. And these people could not live in the homes that they gave up and then rented because the rent was much too high. And it was just they had to leave.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:06:41] Did you? I guess, did you- And do you now, do you have much occasion to cross the river and come downtown?
Marilyn Anthony [00:06:48] Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I’m always- I’m- What would you- I suppose you would call an active senior. I’m 70 now and I’m still roaming around here and busy. My little RSVP thing here.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:07:01] What’s RSVP?
Marilyn Anthony [00:07:02] Retired Senior Volunteer Program. So we’re all over the place there. Such affairs such as this here. Yeah, I can say I’m busy.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:07:16] Before being involved in retirement programs, things like that, when you were younger, what brought you to downtown? Did you come down in the ’60s?
Marilyn Anthony [00:07:26] It was a little bit different back then. In the first place downtown was a bustling place. You had coffee houses. You had several department stores. You had - Christmas is a big thing down here - you had Santa Claus over there by the- Riding on his sleigh up above the May Company awning, their canopy. You had huge display all around Public Square on the buildings and that. And Higbee used to be a thriving department store. And they had Christmas Land. And each one of the department stores had a Christmas floor that they converted to Christmas Land for your children so they can go up there. And they had little Twigbee shops and little places for them to shop and that. It was much more fun to come down here. Now you got to get down to business and either buy something or get out. You couldn’t just roam around here. They used to have lunch counters and they had three different dime stores and had a lunch counter down in one of them. And they had down in. I forget what the name of the dumb place was. Started with an A. But they had a lunch counter down there and they had a frosty place where they sold frosties. To die for. To die for. I would kill for One of those frosties again, because they were so good. You ate them with a spoon. You didn’t drink it, you had to eat it with a spoon.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:08:54] When did you see the change and did you see the change progressing? Or was it kind of a-
Marilyn Anthony [00:09:03] Well, I had a few years where I was raising children and I didn’t do much coming downtown because I just didn’t have money to go traveling around like that. And my aunts and them were still. Downtown was a place you dressed up to come down. And my aunts and aunt, my relatives would, especially the females would, would take a day each week, dress up and come downtown and roam around. And they had Mayflower Coffee Shop, you know, and they all gathered over there and clutched and showed each other what they bought and all that. But I didn’t have shopping money that much. Things were a little bit lean when I was raising my children. I was barely making it there, so I didn’t get downtown. So it was a little bit more shocking for me because I didn’t see them coming. These changes had been coming along and happening gradually, but I wasn’t there to see them. So I just got the before and after kind of a thing here.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:10:11] What are some of the programs that bring you downtown now? Your service or just for fun?
Marilyn Anthony [00:10:18] Well, with the- Well, I volunteer a lot down. I’m an usher with Playhouse Square because I love the theater and I just like to be around it, that’s all. It’s a legitimate way for me to hang around without, and then, plus this retired senior group has people in everywhere. All the events down here that happened. I’ve been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame several times there and helping out with, like they have parties for the handicapped, retarded, handicapped down there at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and I help out with that. Or they have several events like this, this Ingenuity Festival. They have a hand in a lot of these events. I’ve been to Gray’s Anatomy down here several times. Anatomy. I keep saying that. Gray’s Armory.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:11:21] I like that show though.
Marilyn Anthony [00:11:24] Leave it to me. Gray’s Armory. I say that all the time, but I like being around there. The history factor there is- This is what it’s all about. This is why we’re free to be roaming around the streets and going woohoo over our technology accomplishments here because these guys got out and fought.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:11:47] What did you think of the festival today? Can you tell me what role you played?
Marilyn Anthony [00:11:54] Well, I stood guard over the door to make sure people had their bands on to go in and see the one show down there. Truthfully, I wish they would have skipped this year because Cleveland looks kind of a wreck this year because we’re in transition for another big change that’s coming. We’re building a thing called Euclid Corridor, and as a result, that’s been torn up. The whole Euclid Avenue has been torn up. And as a result, a lot of this has come over to Prospect Avenue too. And it looks pretty shabby around here. And I just would rather need- I think other people from other neighborhoods and other suburbs are coming in, and I’d rather them see Cleveland in a better light than this shabby looking, half-torn place we have now. I wish they would have done it next year. And I think the festival just seemed like a little bit disjointed. They didn’t have a whole lot of continuity to it. Why we got this and what is this a result of or why we did this? So we have that and we have that from went to there, and I think we should have had a little bit more of that. It seems like a bunch of people just got out here with their stands and here we go. We got popcorn or what have we got out there? I didn’t buy anything, but I would have liked to see a little bit more continuity to it.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:13:18] What do you think of the effects of projects like the Euclid, the RTA Euclid Corridor Project or things like that? What are some of the other projects that you see bringing about change?
Marilyn Anthony [00:13:30] Well, as far as the Euclid Corridor Project, I don’t think as many people are in favor of it as myself. At the same time, we’re closing up hospitals. I’d rather keep those hospitals open than have a fancy new corridor coming down. That’s. Course I’m old school. If I was younger, I’d probably answer, well, we have to build this new building and we have to have this new. Because that’s how the younger people feel. But I- We have had several schools go down, several hospitals go down, and I think that’s where it’s at. We need to keep that education going and have enough time to put into the kids and enough places for the care of people, rather than. I think that that would impress me more. Keeping our people more safe and keeping more educated and keeping them more cared for than all these nice. I just don’t get impressed with that kind of thing. Anyway, it doesn’t- I need to- I want to see stores where you can get what you need and what you want and I want to see places, comfort places, like the little shops and the little stands and the frosty stand and all that. These I’d like to see, but I don’t particularly need to see the crazy architecture and all this other. I just don’t particularly get off on that. That’s just my own personal opinion. Of course, I know I sound like an old person, too.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:15:01] What do you think makes Cleveland unique? What are some of the-
Marilyn Anthony [00:15:06] We’re fighters. We’re fighters. We’re survivors around here. We’ve taken some hard hits, and we’ve been laughed at a lot. We’ve had some little boy mayors that kind of made Cleveland the joke of the nation here, but- And we’ve come through that, and we will come through that, because we still have- We have some stinky people here, but we’ve got some great people, too. We’ve got some winners here, and that’s what Cleveland will be up. It’ll stay up.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:15:40] I think we’re- We went through our 15 minutes, but that was great. I want to thank you for-
Marilyn Anthony [00:15:48] [laughs] You’re probably sitting there thinking, oh, God, this old lady sitting here!
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