Abstract
In this 2012 interview with Jeanne Cutillo, she speaks about her childhood growing up in Shaker Heights, where her father, Albert Pucciani, built many homes there. She speaks about the innocent time of the 1930s through the 1950s, where kids played on their own without fear or danger. She also talks about the many famous residents that lived in Shaker, which once held one of the richest zip codes in the United States. Her family overcame the boundaries of the Van Sweringens, but soon moved away from Shaker after moving to Italy with her husband in the 1960s. Though it has been long since her residence in Shaker Heights, she remembers the beautiful homes her father built, most of which still stand today.
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Interviewee
Cutillo, Jeanne (Interviewee)
Interviewer
Halligan-Taylor, Gabriella (interviewer)
Project
Shaker Heights Centennial
Date
6-21-2012
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
33 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Jeanne Cutillo Interview, 21 June 2012" (2012). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 915014.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/514
Transcript
Jeanne Cutillo [00:00:00] We went to the Shaker schools. I graduated from the high school, and I graduated from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and graduated with a degree in French and English. And I returned to the Shaker school system as a teacher.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:00:19] Wow.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:00:19] I taught French.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:00:22] When you entered the Shaker school district, what was that like? I hear a lot about how great the schools were.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:00:29] It’s one of the top 10 school systems in the whole United States. The section of Shaker, which at the part that was, I think bordered by Warrensville Center Road, South Woodland and Fairmount Boulevard and Lyman Boulevard was called the Club Section. And the Van Sweringen brothers who started Shaker Heights had a lot of control over that. And in order to live in that area, they had to approve you.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:01:11] Yeah, especially I hear a lot about the Van Sweringens’ effect on integration movement. Do you know anything about that?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:01:19] The what movement?
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:01:19] On the integration movement in Shaker.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:01:22] I don’t know anything about that. Nothing. I don’t even know that it exists.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:01:27] What year did you go to the Shaker schools?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:01:30] I graduated in 1948. My brother also, he graduated in 1952. And it’s a wonderful school system.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:01:42] And what year was that when you came back to teach?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:01:46] 1961. And I taught for two years and I married and lived in Rome, Italy, and came back to the United States a couple of years later with my Italian husband, who I’ve been married to now 49 years.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:02:05] Do you speak Italian?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:02:06] Yes, I do. I learned it. I had to because nobody was learning English from me. And French helped, of course. Yeah, it was a great experience.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:02:17] With growing up in Shaker and going to Shaker schools. You mentioned this used to be Moreland School.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:02:25] I do believe so.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:02:27] Can you talk a little bit more?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:02:28] I don’t know anything about it. I live diametrically opposed to this area. And I do know the school did close though, and I guess Lomond School also closed and I don’t know anymore. And I think Malvern School closed also. Those are three of the elementary schools that closed. I living in Bath. I don’t really know too much that goes on here. I do have a cousin who still lives here in Shaker in South Woodland, and I do see her occasionally and come back. But my father then built a lot of the beautiful homes in that so called club area of Shaker. And I don’t remember if I said this or not, but 44122 was a zip code. And that was at that time years ago, the wealthiest area in the world. It was a very beautiful area in which to live. And do you wish to hear about some of those houses?
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:03:34] I would love to. I’m just going to close the door.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:03:36] Okay. He built many of the houses in that area, the club section. And some of them were sold to. Should I say that again? Oh, no, you’re fine. Steve O’Neill, who owned the Cleveland Indians. George Steinbrenner’s family, who owned the American Shipbuilding Company in Lorain, Ohio. And George Steinbrenner grew up in one of my father’s houses. The owners of Parkview Federal, a bank in Cleveland. Warner, Mr. Warner of Warner and Swasey Griselli of the Griselli Chemical Company and various houses. I don’t know the names of many of the people because I was very young. One also was a cousin of Joel McCrae, the actor. And he built houses. On offhand, I can think of two on Cranlin Road. I think two or three on Lyman’s Circle, which at that time was Lyman Boulevard. One on Laureldale, several on Rockland, one on Stanford, houses on Landon, four on McCauley, I believe, two on Wadsworth, one on Parnell. And offhand, I can’t think of any other streets. Belvoir. There were a couple on Belvoir. I don’t know if I said that, but I was just a little girl. But we used to. My father used to take my brother and me to play in the sand piles and all that on these houses. And they’re very beautiful houses. They’re old now, but I see on the Internet one still requires $25,000 a year in taxes, which is quite a bit. And they’re still very beautiful houses and have held together very beautifully. He was very conscientious and cared very much about the results.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:06:04] Did you ever go inside any of the finished houses?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:06:07] Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Many times. And, of course, I lived in one.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:06:11] What were they like, visually?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:06:14] In what respect?
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:06:16] You know, just kind of. What was it like? Just kind of going through the neighborhood and kind of seeing just all of these grand houses that your father built that.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:06:26] I haven’t done that recently, you mean, or in the past?
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:06:27] In the past.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:06:29] Well, it’s always nice. I’m always very proud of him. He left a very beautiful heritage. And as a child, that was just my life. You know, I just took that for granted today, naturally, I don’t. I realize what did take place, and it was wonderful. It really was. It was a very innocent time in history. We could walk anywhere, no problems at all. You know, you’d go out to play and nobody worried about you. They knew everything would be fine, and it was. So I think things changed a bit in 1965. I used to walk the campus at Case. I had a class which was over at 9:30 at night. I walked from Adelbert Road to the Severance Hall parking lot, which was outside at that time. I never turned around to see who was behind me. I wasn’t even thinking about things like that. So things did change, but it was a very good time to grow up. Yes.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:07:34] How old were you during the World War II?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:07:38] Let’s see, that started in ’41. I was 11.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:07:45] Do you remember that at all?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:07:46] Yes, I do. I remember when Roosevelt died, and I kind of remember when the war was declared, when he, Roosevelt, came on the radio and said the Japanese had attacked us. That’s a very vague memory, though. But I do remember when he died. I was in my backyard.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:08:09] Did that affect anything in the Shaker community?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:08:13] I don’t know. I was too young to realize that.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:08:17] What other things would you do when you were younger? Did you go in any specific park or restaurants?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:08:24] Well, we used to. Hector Boiardi was a friend of my father’s and he had a restaurant in Cleveland. I believe it was East 9th and Woodland, which was a fine area. And we used to, the four of us, my brother, my mom and dad and I, would go there for dinner. And I remember Mr. Boiardi used to come to our table and sit. And Joe Heinen, who owns Heinen’s, who owned Heinen’s, I guess the sons do now, was a friend of my father’s also and asked my father to build him a house. I don’t think it was in this area, but I don’t remember that too well. But he didn’t do that. My father got sick and he died in 1953. He was sick for about, seriously sick for about three years prior to that. And that was the end of the houses in Shaker.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:09:28] Do you think that kind of hindered Shaker a little bit that you probably couldn’t build more houses or-
Jeanne Cutillo [00:09:36] No, I don’t. I think that most of the land had been used, but there was still some land available. But I think many of the beautiful houses by all the builders had been built. It was just a very special time in history in Shaker and something Shaker can be extremely proud of. There were other builders too, and they built beautiful homes also. Roger Pinsky lived there. He and my brother were friends. They used to ride bikes together. And I don’t know anybody else who was famous that lived there. No, she lived in Cleveland. So it was just a very nice time to grow up.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:10:37] I’m glad that you mentioned Chef Boyardee, because my grandmother, when she was in nursing school, she used to go there after class.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:10:47] There was another restaurant he owned on East 9th Street back in sort of an alley. It was called the Capri. Yeah. Good food.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:10:58] All Italian, wasn’t it?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:11:00] Yeah, it was Italian. Good Italian food. Now everybody cooks Italian food. Some of it’s not so hot. Most of it’s not so hot. [crosstalk] Yeah, kind of. Lots of tomatoes and whatever. Tomato paste.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:11:19] Right, right. What I’m curious to kind of hear more about kind of this, you know, this innocent time of childhood. Can you talk more, just a little bit about that?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:11:33] What would you like me to-
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:11:35] Just kind of in Shaker, how you mentioned that you would walk at night and not-
Jeanne Cutillo [00:11:39] Well, we would play. We were sort of like in neighborhoods, and the kids would just congregate. We played in the street, kick the can, baseball. It was just innocent. There’s nothing you can say that was bad about it. Kids were good and they obeyed their parents. When it was time to go home for dinner, we all went home for dinner. And nobody had to call us. We just knew. And I don’t recall kids fighting. I just recall having happy times. There was a little pond a little ways from the house, which in the wintertime became a skating pond. They filled it with water specifically to ice skate on. And we’d take our skates down there and have a wonderful time. And, you know, you just say, we’re going to the pond or whatever, or go out. And we did. And, you know, we weren’t watched. We didn’t need to be watched, which was so nice. My brother was always part of that group, and we just had a nice time.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:12:54] How did things change when you kind of went back to teach? Did you notice any differences in the kids to compare to when you grew up?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:13:07] I never thought about that. I had a wonderful teaching experience. I had wonderful kids. I taught 4th, 5th, and 6th grade French at Ludlow School and Onaway School, and the kids responded very nicely. And I love teaching, and I think I’m a very, very good teacher. And the kids knew that I cared about them and responded to that, as I said, and it was just a great experience.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:13:42] What do you think sets Shaker schools apart from-
Jeanne Cutillo [00:13:47] I don’t really know that much about them now. I know they are not the same as they were back then. I think the last time I read, they were like, number 23rd in the area, and that’s certainly a big change. But at a class reunion four years ago, I took my daughter to go through the schools with me, and we went through the high school, a guided tour, and it’s very impressive. It’s a very beautiful high school, and it offers the kids so very much. It’s a privilege to attend a school like that.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:14:26] Did you have those privileges when you went to schools?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:14:30] Well, I think society has become more complex today. We didn’t have a ballet room with a ballet bar, and we had an auditorium. Now they have small auditoriums and big auditoriums, and I think it’s just a little bit more complex. A computer room. We didn’t have computers. So I think for our day, the school offered everything it could. It wouldn’t have been one of the top 10 school systems in the country had it not done that. And today it’s doing the same thing for today’s society, in my opinion. It’s a very lovely school, beautiful school, and I certainly did enjoy teaching there a lot.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:15:15] You mentioned in the email with Gail that you had some specific stories that you’d like to tell.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:15:24] I don’t recall those specific stories. No, I think I’ve told you my specific stories. Yeah, I think it was just the information about the houses was what I had to tell.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:15:38] Do you know anything about kind of. Obviously, you know, your father built these beautiful homes. Do you know anything about kind of how homes are built, you know, back then compared to how homes were built now? Like, was it more. Was there a certain aesthetic to it?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:15:59] I don’t know about the aesthetic. I think many of the homes today are very beautiful. I think a lot of them look like the older homes. The homes in older homes, I think, were built with more costly materials. I think most of those older homes have plastered walls. Today they don’t. They use the drywall and the floors. Many of them, probably most of them had hardwood floors, floors that were finished. And today I think the floors are of different materials and very beautiful. Probably these older homes took a lot longer to build than the newer homes do. And they didn’t build in the wintertime, which they do now. And I think probably a lot because of plastering walls, they had to dry and they couldn’t do that in winter. So that’s about all I really know about construction. Not too much. I know we used to enjoy the steam shovels when they came. My brother and I used to enjoy that.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:17:20] Would you actually go on, like, the construction days?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:17:24] We get to play outside in the. The sand piles. As I said. And you know, just that kind of thing. Build stuff out of sand.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:17:34] That’s the day with dad.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:17:36] Yeah.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:17:38] Have you ever been by the Van Sweringen mansion?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:17:41] Yes, My father owned. That’s out in Daisy Hill. My father owned the Hanna property out there, 39 acres. And also the Swetland Building property, five acres, which has been sold long ago. But, yes, Daisy Hill is very beautiful. Sherry Lou Stouffer was a friend of mine, and they lived out there.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:18:04] The same Stouffer’s restaurant?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:18:05] Yeah.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:18:08] Did you- Did you ever go there?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:18:12] Yeah, and it’s still very beautiful out there.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:18:16] Stouffer’s was at Shaker Square, wasn’t it?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:18:18] It was at Shaker Square. It was in Summit Mall in Akron. They had several restaurants, good food. One in downtown Cleveland. Yeah. There. Long gone.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:18:34] I just have a question. Did you ever go to any kind of theaters, either movie theaters or stage theaters?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:18:43] Well, there was the Shaker Theater in Shaker, of course. The Colony Theater at Shaker Square, and there were all the theaters in downtown Cleveland. The Palace. Gosh, I can’t even think of the names of those anymore. Loew’s, the State, the Allen, Hippodrome. Yeah, they were all there, and they were very nice. Beautiful. I guess they’ve been remodeled since my youth.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:19:14] The Allen was just remodeled.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:19:16] Is that right? I know my husband and I took a tour of the Palace, and they took us behind the scenes, and it’s very beautifully done. Yeah. But living in Akron, we don’t get up to Cleveland very often. It is. And really not that long, but just seems long.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:19:36] Right.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:19:36] Yeah. And Akron has much to offer, too. Enough.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:19:41] Were you in any plays or musicals on Shaker?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:19:46] Oh, Cain Park Theater. That’s still there. Yeah, I used to sing at Cain Park. Yeah. Years ago. It was a lot of fun.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:19:55] Did you do just kind of songs or did you do any shows?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:19:58] The plays. The shows, yes.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:20:00] What kind of shows did you do?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:20:01] Oh, my gosh. What did they have? They were like musicals. I have pictures. Gosh, they were a lot of fun. And that was another thing. You go there at night, and my parents never questioned. I mean, it was perfectly safe to do things like that. And that’s in Cleveland Heights, down Lee Road, actually, so it was fine.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:20:25] I’ve actually never actually been to Cain Park, but I know. I know a lot of people who do shows and-
Jeanne Cutillo [00:20:33] Yeah, it’s very nice.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:20:35] Is it an open-
Jeanne Cutillo [00:20:36] Mm, it is. It’s like an amphitheater. Yeah. You sit on the stone. Big stage. Very nice.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:20:45] It’s still like Beth Ray, isn’t it?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:20:47] Pardon me?
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:20:47] It’s still like Beth Ray, isn’t it?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:20:48] Yes, as far as I know. Yeah. So what else can I tell you?
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:20:57] You tell me. Is there-
Jeanne Cutillo [00:20:58] I don’t think so. I mean, it was a great time. Hope it comes back someday. I’m sure it won’t. Thomas Wolfe said “You can’t go home again,” and he is totally right. Yeah.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:21:26] Did you share that?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:21:27] About what?
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:21:28] [inaudible]
Jeanne Cutillo [00:21:38] No, no, no, no. I won’t go into that.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:21:40] I know that the Van Sweringens kind of limited who could come in.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:21:45] Oh, very much so. Very much so. Very much so.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:21:48] They didn’t like- They only like the-
Jeanne Cutillo [00:21:51] The WASPs. White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. That’s what my daughter is just saying. Yes, that’s true. You’re wondering how we got in. Well, first of all, we were white. My mother was an Anglo-Saxon Protestant, my father with no religion, and we just moved in and nobody said a word. My father was highly respected. He did not look Italian and people loved him. So evidently was okay because we stayed there for a long time, 33 years, I believe, at least.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:22:28] When you came back, you said you lived in Rome for a few years, you said. Did you come back to Shaker?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:22:34] Yes.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:22:36] Where did you live when you came back again?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:22:39] Well, my mother still lived on Cranlin Road. So we stayed there for a while until we got sick, settled and we rented an apartment up by Pepper Pike. And then we stayed there for a year and we bought a house in Brecksville. My husband was working in Akron and it was too difficult to commute from the east side of Cleveland to Akron. The far side of Akron was just too much, especially in the winter. So we found a home in Brecksville and stayed there for eight and a half years. And then in 1974 we moved to Bath and are still there.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:23:19] What did your husband do in Akron?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:23:21] He worked for General Tire. He was with Goodyear in Rome. And we left Rome not because we had to, but because we wanted to. And it was great living there. I had a beautiful home there and I was expecting my daughter and my mother was here. So we all felt that it would be better to come here to have my daughter. And I did. And in the meantime, my husband’s brother and sister in law, who are both doctor and psychiatrists, moved to Salt Lake City and they’ve been there ever since and enjoy it there. So my father in law came to live with us in 1976 and he was here until he passed on in 1994. So the family kind of all ended up Here after we came and it was fine. I’m so glad. Yes. I think it’s a great privilege to live in this country. Great privilege. And it was wonderful living in Italy. I’m not putting Italy down by any means. It’s very beautiful. But it’s a lot easier to live in the United States in my opinion. So.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:24:44] Did you continue to teach in Shaker?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:24:47] No, I did not work. I decided to teach French in my home to little children in Brecksville. I did that for about two years. It was wonderful. And then I stopped that and now I’m still teaching piano in my home. I love to teach and my daughter’s a teacher, a great teacher and she’s so good at it.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:25:20] I used to take piano. I was getting pretty good [inaudible].
Jeanne Cutillo [00:25:27] Never, never too late. Never too late.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:25:30] Well, my piano teacher, he was leaving to go ’cause he had through some family issues. I didn’t know, I was like 8 or 9 at the time. But I was going on to Beethoven. I was going to be good. [inaudible] Completely stopped. So now I like-
Jeanne Cutillo [00:25:42] Never stop. You can always pick it up again no matter how old you are.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:25:50] I can still read music.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:25:52] Why sure. You will always be able to read music. My mom had a cousin who passed on the tender age of 84 and the week before he died he went to New York City to take an organ lesson and he was an organ professor. So, you know, never too late.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:26:12] Is there anything else that you want me to cover?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:26:14] I don’t think so. I think that’s pretty much about all I have to say. If you have any more questions.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:26:25] It was nice to hear. Lately I’ve been hearing a lot about the 60s and Shaker. It was nice to hear, you know, a little before that.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:26:32] Yeah, yeah, it was a great time.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:26:38] How do you feel about the centennial?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:26:43] I have no feelings one way or the other. To be perfectly honest. I think it’s great. My heart isn’t in Shaker anymore. Part of me always will be, of course. But I’m not really here anymore. It’s, you know, over. I live a different life, but it’s always nice to come back.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:27:08] Yeah. I wish I could tell you guys where there’s [illegible].
Unknown Speaker [00:27:12] One thing I was thinking about was the homes have that distinctive slate or whatever- [inaudible]
Jeanne Cutillo [00:27:21] A slate roof?
Unknown Speaker [00:27:23] Shale roof. But it’s shale on the side. Like, a lot of them are very similar.
Jeanne Cuticle [00:27:28] The brown- The stone, stone and brick and wood and slate roofs.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:27:33] Is it- Are the slate roofs, are they made with Ohio shale, I think?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:27:37] I have no idea. That’s a long time ago.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:27:39] I’ll have to look that up.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:27:41] But a slate roof today costs a fortune and I don’t know, I don’t think people are using slate anymore. It’s so heavy. But.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:27:50] I think homes are really built the same anymore.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:27:52] Not at all. No.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:27:54] Not built to last anymore.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:27:57] No. You asked before about the difference in construction. Slate roof. There’s one right there. I didn’t even think of that one. And yes, the houses are made of stone, wood and brick. Mostly stone and brick, yeah.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:28:20] It seems like the houses built nowadays have to be remodeled in a decade or so.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:28:22] That’s right. Sure. Yeah.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:28:26] My house is almost 60 years old. I think the house my mom grew up in, Parma.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:28:33] Yeah.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:28:34] It’s old, but still cooking.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:28:36] Yeah. Which is important, of course. Yes, yes.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:28:40] Just a little bungalow.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:28:44] That’s fine. Yeah.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:28:48] Well, I think normally I would do over an hour, but if you don’t, can’t think of anything else
Jeanne Cutillo [00:28:57] I don’t know. I don’t know what else to tell you.
Unknown Speaker [00:29:03] Certainly takes up an hour when we’re talking.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:29:06] But that’s, you know, in the car and I see things and I can describe that way.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:29:16] But it would be great if I had a portable mic.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:29:18] If you had what?
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:29:18] Yeah, like a portable mic. Because I don’t know. Shaker at all. I’d love to go around.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:29:23] Oh, you should take a tour. There’s like two Shakers this side where we are and then that other side. It’s just like two cities in one. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker [00:29:35] Can you tell me about the Rapid or anything?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:29:37] Well, that’s still there. The Rapid. It used to be, as I recall, from Green Road to the Terminal in Cleveland. Then they opened up the Van Aken leg of it also. So it came kind of like a Y. And gosh, I think it used to be like a nickel. I don’t know what it is today. I haven’t ridden it in a long time.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:30:01] Did you take that a lot?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:30:03] To go to Cleveland. We did, yeah. Yeah. Chagrin Boulevard was a two-lane red-brick road, that I can tell you. We used to buy our eggs at Richmond and Chagrin where Mrs. Lang had her house and had her chickens. And today it’s kind of like Beachwood Place. Next door was a family that raised dogs and we got our first dog there. Our doggie’s name was Sandy and I don’t know, gas was - I remember my mother buying gas one time - five gallons for a dollar. I was four years old. Let me see, what else? There are lots of isolated things like that, but you know, offhand they don’t come to you either.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:31:00] Did you go to any sports games? Do you remember any sports games?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:31:03] We used to go to the football games at the high school. Yes.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:31:07] Used to watch football. Did you go to any Browns games?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:31:14] Once. I like The Indians? Yeah.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:31:18] Did you remember the World Series?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:31:21] You know, I wasn’t in town for that. The one thing I missed.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:31:28] Were you in? Where were you? Were you in Rome?
Jeanne Cutillo [00:31:31] No, I was out in another state.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:31:34] What about when we almost went to the World series in the ’90s? I remember that Sexton and Lofton was still there.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:31:44] Is that the one? Jose Mesa Blue? [crosstalk] Yeah.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:31:51] I just remember being the next day because I was obsessed with Sandy Alomar. Yeah, I know. He’s the first one. I’ll call him Sally. Sometimes they say Sandy.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:32:08] I’m thinking of a cheer that. Gosh, I don’t know if I remember it now. For the Shaker football team. It was with an S. With an S. H, A, with a K. With a K. E, R. Shaker. Shaker. Yay, Shaker. Or something like that.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:32:29] Well, I don’t want to keep you guys any longer-
Jeanne Cutillo [00:32:31] Okay. Okay. [crosstalk]
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:32:33] If there’s no other stories.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:32:35] I don’t think of anything. I think I’ve told you all I know. If you want to go on a, you know, a physical tour, I can tell you a lot more that way.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:32:46] Yeah, I’d love that.
Jeanne Cutillo [00:32:47] But some other day.
Gabriella Halligan-Taylor [00:32:48] Yeah. [inaudible]
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