Abstract
This group interview explores changes in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood, including details about Battery Park, Union Carbide, Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization, Edgewater Park, and Herman Avenue.
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Interviewee
Whitney, Gladys (interviewee);Atkins, Minnie (interviewee);Massey, Helen (interviewee);Massey, Elwood (interviewee)
Interviewer
Yanoshik-Wing, Emma (interviewer);Hunter, Tiffany (interviewer)
Project
Detroit Shoreway
Date
2006
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
73 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Massie Home group interview, 2006" (2006). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 955008_304011.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/881
Transcript
Transcription sponsored by Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization
Minnie Atkins [00:00:01] Okay.
Tiffany Hunter [00:00:03] You start talking to see where the levels are.
Minnie Atkins [00:00:06] Yes, please.
Tiffany Hunter [00:00:06] Yeah, continue.
Minnie Atkins [00:00:10] Now he's lost for words.
Tiffany Hunter [00:00:15] Oh, wow.
Minnie Atkins [00:00:16] This is what it was.
Helen Massey [00:00:21] That's neat.
Tiffany Hunter [00:00:23] What are the pictures?
Helen Massey [00:00:24] That's going to be the before and after he took pictures when they was tearing it down and that sort of thing.
Tiffany Hunter [00:00:32] How many acres is that over there? You guys know?
Elwood Massey [00:00:35] Like 13, 12.
Helen Massey [00:00:36] Oh, they've told us many times, but I don't.
Minnie Atkins [00:00:39] She knows.
Elwood Massey [00:00:40] Yeah, I think so.
Minnie Atkins [00:00:42] This thing was big. It's pretty good size because it goes all the way from 73rd to 76th. That's 73rd and 74th and 76th. So there's what, three blocks?
Helen Massey [00:00:53] Yeah. Yeah.
Elwood Massey [00:00:55] There used to be a street run between.
Minnie Atkins [00:00:58] Mm hmm.
Elwood Massey [00:00:58] Over there.
Minnie Atkins [00:00:59] Yeah, they did.
Elwood Massey [00:01:00] And then they shut it down to.
Minnie Atkins [00:01:02] Build more in our parking lot.
Helen Massey [00:01:06] You don't think Charlie's gonna make it then?
Elwood Massey [00:01:08] No, I heard they.
Helen Massey [00:01:21] He might mosey in after a while.
Minnie Atkins [00:01:25] Can you guys remember when there was no road down there on 73rd? When you'd have to go down in where Union Carbide is and turn around and come back?
Helen Massey [00:01:34] No. No.
Minnie Atkins [00:01:34] You don't remember when the truck route was built?
Helen Massey [00:01:37] No, I don't think I do, but I can't remember what happened yesterday either.
Minnie Atkins [00:01:42] They built a truck route just for Union Carbide trucks.
Helen Massey [00:01:45] Oh, they did.
Minnie Atkins [00:01:46] Because my street over there, 73rd, was very, very weak.
Helen Massey [00:01:50] Really?
Minnie Atkins [00:01:50] Yeah, now these big tractors and stuff going down here to work, I'm scared to death. It's gonna fall in. Take my house with it, you know?
Helen Massey [00:01:58] I know.
Minnie Atkins [00:01:58] Since I live on the corner.
Tiffany Hunter [00:02:00] Well, I'm gonna get ready to introduce the date, and I'm gonna introduce each and every one of you guys names and kind of, like, go into it.
Helen Massey [00:02:06] Okay. Okay. Okay.
Tiffany Hunter [00:02:08] Today's April 18, 2006. We're here with Helen and Elwood Massey, Gladys Whitney, Keith, and Minnie Atkins. Okay. So I'm just gonna kind of, like, start out. People can start answering questions as they go, but I just want to get like a. Just like a where you guys came from, where, you know, where you grew up, where you were born, type thing.
Minnie Atkins [00:02:30] That would be fine.
Tiffany Hunter [00:02:31] And I guess I'll start with Helen or Elwood, whoever wants to go first. And I just, you know, get some background. I want to know you guys too, you know.
Helen Massey [00:02:41] Well, I've been in Cleveland since 1955, and I came from Tennessee.
Minnie Atkins [00:02:52] A little southern.
Helen Massey [00:02:54] Yeah. And then I worked for General Electric for 30 years.
Tiffany Hunter [00:03:01] General Electric.
Helen Massey [00:03:03] General Electric, Cleveland in Cleveland or just in Cleveland?
Minnie Atkins [00:03:07] Where was it located?
Helen Massey [00:03:08] On 45th. 45th and Commerce Hough around in there.
Minnie Atkins [00:03:13] Oh, on the east side? Yeah, I lived over there at one time.
Helen Massey [00:03:16] Oh, did you?
Minnie Atkins [00:03:16] Yeah, when I first came to Cleveland.
Helen Massey [00:03:18] Oh, okay.
Minnie Atkins [00:03:19] 1956.
Helen Massey [00:03:20] You're from West Virginia, right?
Minnie Atkins [00:03:22] Yes. I was born in a coal mining camp. Oh, wow.
Elwood Massey [00:03:26] She worked at the coal mine 20 years before you came.
Minnie Atkins [00:03:28] Yeah, I did. I've been in the coal mines.
Helen Massey [00:03:31] Have you now? What else?
Tiffany Hunter [00:03:34] Oh, just keep going. How'd you end up in Cleveland, really? Like, you know, just. Is your family moved here?
Helen Massey [00:03:41] No, for a job? For a job. Because there was no jobs where I grew up. There was no work there whatsoever. They are now. Cause a lot of plants have moved from up here down there now. But when I was growing up, there was no jobs down there. And I came here to get a job, had all my three kids here.
Tiffany Hunter [00:04:03] It's amazing how you went from a place that didn't have jobs and Cleveland was the place.
Helen Massey [00:04:08] Mm hmm.
Tiffany Hunter [00:04:08] You know, like we were talking about, like, with industry and, you know, they were just prosperous.
Helen Massey [00:04:12] Cleveland used to be a booming city, but not any more, I don't think.
Tiffany Hunter [00:04:17] Wow. So you moved here for the jobs and kind of settled down here too?
Elwood Massey [00:04:22] Yeah, I was raised in West Virginia and went to school, graduated from high school back there. And the one thing that they made sure we knew and learned in high school was to route 21, to get on it, to go as far as I'd go, and that I end up in Cleveland.
Minnie Atkins [00:04:43] I remember. I remember taking them routes.
Tiffany Hunter [00:04:47] Old 21.
Elwood Massey [00:04:48] I got a job at General Electric, worked there for 35 years, retired.
Minnie Atkins [00:04:53] That's how you two met? Oh, yeah, that job.
Elwood Massey [00:04:56] I worked at 45th, and then I went to Nela Park, and that's where I ended up.
Tiffany Hunter [00:05:02] Wow, so you. So you moved here cause you knew the route to get to here, huh?
Elwood Massey [00:05:07] Right. No, I had a sister that lived up here, and her husband worked at the bakery. And so you go where your family or something's that, you know, you shoot up there and see if you can get a job because there was a lot of work Nela Park and all around, you know. So we got out, me and my brother, and walked down the streets. Every place you go into would want to hire you. And so GE sounded good, you know. And so both of us went to work there. He worked about a year and I worked 35, and that was it. Retired from there. Retired when I was 39. No, I had a chance to retire when I was 55 or 35 years, and I got out because I up until that time, I hadn't made my may, and so I figured another two or three years, it wasn't gonna get there, so I quit.
Tiffany Hunter [00:06:15] I'm gonna go to you, Gladys, because I'm gonna get to you, definitely. Because you actually worked.
Minnie Atkins [00:06:20] Well, I actually worked there.
Elwood Massey [00:06:22] Yeah.
Minnie Atkins [00:06:22] I really don't know a lot, you know. How about you, Gladys?
Tiffany Hunter [00:06:26] How'd you end up in Cleveland?
Gladys Whitney [00:06:28] Born and raised here.
Tiffany Hunter [00:06:29] Born and raised. Right in the Detroit area or did you live here in this area all your life?
Gladys Whitney [00:06:35] All my life.
Minnie Atkins [00:06:36] Wow. Oh, my goodness. You were born here? Oh, wow. I didn't know there's anybody that lost.
Tiffany Hunter [00:06:46] So you definitely have seen the changes morally.
Gladys Whitney [00:06:50] Yeah, yeah.
Tiffany Hunter [00:06:52] So what? I mean, how was it like growing up here as you were here?
Gladys Whitney [00:06:57] Like any big city, you know, we had a good and bad size, but I can remember at our corner there in Detroit, there where Lake Avenue runs into Detroit and that strip right along there was small stores, and you could go up the corner if you wanted to buy a hat. There was a little hat shop. There was a five and ten cent store, barbershop. There was a barber shop. Dry cleaner, coffee, the laundry on the other corner.
Minnie Atkins [00:07:29] And a beauty salon, too. Remember beauty salon my sister used to go to?
Gladys Whitney [00:07:33] That's right. And then there was a A & P for a while. The A & P store, Atlantic and Pacific. There's a big grocery store. In fact, I don't even know if there's any of them around.
Minnie Atkins [00:07:49] I think in maybe some of the southern states.
Gladys Whitney [00:07:52] Yeah. And you could go in there. You didn't have to go to a bakery. They had a home. Not homely, but they had baked goods in there. You could buy a cream puff for $0.05. Those days are gone forever.
Helen Massey [00:08:07] They sure are.
Gladys Whitney [00:08:11] And then, of course, there was cafes or beer joints, as they used to call. There was plenty of them around. That's my life around here. But I was going to say before, I worked also at the National Carbon.
Minnie Atkins [00:08:28] That's the same. That's the very start. So it was National Carbon Company.
Gladys Whitney [00:08:35] National carbon. And then later on it was National Carbon and Carbide. They took over, or they merged with this other company.
Minnie Atkins [00:08:46] And then they changed to Union Carbide.
Elwood Massey [00:08:47] Yeah.
Minnie Atkins [00:08:48] That's the reason why people thought there was a union there. There's no union. There never was.
Elwood Massey [00:08:53] Somebody said there was one at the beginning or so.
Minnie Atkins [00:08:56] It had to be when she worked there, when it was National Carbon way to be.
Gladys Whitney [00:09:00] Then when I worked there, I was going to school and I only worked there on weekends. And that was during the war, and that gave the people that were working there long hours, a couple of days off. So we kind of filled in. And I remember that there was this, like a. Oh, I can't get a clear picture of it, but there was, like a row of girls on this side and one on the other side, like this long table. And this fellow would bring over all of this, like, the equipment for batteries. And one girl would put one thing on, next girl would put something else on, and so on and so that. And they were on this big tray. So when they got to the end of the table there, I had to stand. There was a machine there, and I had to pick this tray up and put it in the machine and step on the lever, and that the thing would come down and push that all together for the battery.
Minnie Atkins [00:10:00] But was it. Was this type of battery feel full of that black pitch? Yes, that was more or less a 160 universal line. And they had two lines there together. One was a 30 universal and the other was a 60 universal. But the one you're talking about also worked on it. You know how you would pick up those. The papers, and put the batteries in your hand and put them down in the box? Yeah, I did that for a while, and then I went around to soldering the wires.
Elwood Massey [00:10:27] Wasn't that mostly during the years of the war?
Minnie Atkins [00:10:30] There was a lot. A lot to making a battery, yeah, yeah.
Elwood Massey [00:10:33] Wasn't that mostly during the years of the war?
Gladys Whitney [00:10:35] It was, yeah, because they got the Navy E award at that time.
Minnie Atkins [00:10:40] Well, what was the last year you worked there?
Gladys Whitney [00:10:42] Oh, it was just during. It was just that one year we worked there to fill in, and it was on Saturdays and Sundays.
Minnie Atkins [00:10:48] Oh, okay.
Gladys Whitney [00:10:49] That my girlfriend and I judge.
Minnie Atkins [00:10:50] But you don't remember what year it was?
Gladys Whitney [00:10:52] Oh, well, let's see. Probably in 40 something.
Minnie Atkins [00:11:02] Oh, that was way before my time, because I didn't go to work there till 1967, so that was way before my time.
Tiffany Hunter [00:11:08] So pretty much.
Gladys Whitney [00:11:09] So it was probably about 43 or something like that.
Tiffany Hunter [00:11:12] 43?
Gladys Whitney [00:11:13] Yeah, something like that.
Tiffany Hunter [00:11:14] So it was like a battery you guys made?
Minnie Atkins [00:11:16] It was batteries.
Tiffany Hunter [00:11:17] Is that what it was, the batteries. And that pretty much kept Cleveland lit up?
Gladys Whitney [00:11:21] Yeah, as a matter of fact, they used that carbide in making the streetlights. Making the streetlights.
Tiffany Hunter [00:11:34] So does it. Did it just consist of battery making, or was there other things in there?
Minnie Atkins [00:11:38] There's a lot to do. To consist of making a battery? Yeah, there's a lot.
Elwood Massey [00:11:43] It mostly probably started as batteries, but then gradually went off into different things, right? No, because I know they used to have flight slides. They used to have.
Minnie Atkins [00:11:56] We got all that stuff from other Union Carbides out of town. We used to get our plastics that we sold, plastic bags, plastic wrap baggies, and all that stuff from Charleston, West Virginia. There's a Union Carbide back in Charleston.
Helen Massey [00:12:09] Oh.
Minnie Atkins [00:12:10] So that's where they would. They would bring it in and then they could sell it to us. We did not make that.
Tiffany Hunter [00:12:15] Oh, I thought it was like a.
Minnie Atkins [00:12:18] What do you call it?
Tiffany Hunter [00:12:19] Distribution or.
Minnie Atkins [00:12:22] No, they just. We got stuff from other factories, you know. We didn't make it there, so.
Tiffany Hunter [00:12:30] So it kind of started somewhere else. They brought it to you guys and.
Minnie Atkins [00:12:35] We made all the batteries. We made all the batteries there.
Tiffany Hunter [00:12:39] Now with the batteries, like, how do you. How do you like carbon? Well, I was kind of reading up on, like, carbon.
Gladys Whitney [00:12:48] I just put it in the machine.
Minnie Atkins [00:12:49] I can think of the name of it.
Tiffany Hunter [00:12:51] Yeah.
Minnie Atkins [00:12:51] Compressed.
Gladys Whitney [00:12:52] Compressed them.
Tiffany Hunter [00:12:53] Yeah.
Minnie Atkins [00:12:54] I can't think of what you call it now. The insides of the battery, so. Oh, goodness. Where's my memory? We made them. The little pieces of the. They were wrapped in paper, but they were like metal strips, and we had a name for them. And we would put them in the machine and it would roll them up and then go on down and go down into the case to the battery. Then it would go on through the lines and have. KOH was one of the names that went in it. KOH.
Gladys Whitney [00:13:33] Lithium. Lithium.
Minnie Atkins [00:13:35] Lithium. And what else was it that went into them? There was a mixture of different things, but I remember them, too, that went into the batteries, and then they go on down to another machine that would put the caps on them. I also worked on the pop top machine. We called it making the tops for the batteries. You know, that little round thing that sticks up on the battery? I made them in there. Yeah.
Tiffany Hunter [00:13:58] So have you lived here all your life or did you?
Minnie Atkins [00:14:01] Oh, no, no. I was a coal miner's daughter back in MacDonald, West Virginia.
Tiffany Hunter [00:14:09] What's that song, guys?
Minnie Atkins [00:14:10] “Coal miner's daughter” by Loretta Lynn.
Helen Massey [00:14:12] Loretta Lynn.
Minnie Atkins [00:14:14] I said she thinks she had a rough. You knew that I was trying to.
Tiffany Hunter [00:14:18] Go, but I knew it cool.
Elwood Massey [00:14:19] Mine was better.
Minnie Atkins [00:14:20] Yeah.
Tiffany Hunter [00:14:20] So how was it like?
Minnie Atkins [00:14:22] How was it like. Well, where I was born at was on Cabin Creek. But then my parents moved us when we were young up into this coal mining camp, because that's where my dad got his job, you know, and there was no running water in the houses. There was a little string hanging down for electric. We did have electric, and there was. If you had a lot of money. You could have yourself made a bathroom. But we didn't have a lot of money, so we had an outhouse. Yes. So these girls don't know what that is.
Elwood Massey [00:14:53] She might. You wouldn't even have no clue to what it was.
Minnie Atkins [00:14:57] I left up at MacDon. I left there when I was twelve or 13. And we moved to St. Albans, West Virginia. Which is 12 miles below Charleston. Charleston. And I finished high school in St. Albans. I graduated from St. Albans High School. And then I got me a little job at the skating rink. And that's how I met my husband while we were skating. And I met him there. And we got married in St. Albans. And then he went into the Marine Corps and was gone for three years. And then he came back and there was no work there for us. So he came to Toledo first. And then he couldn't make it in Toledo. Then he came to Cleveland and he got a job. A couple of little odd jobs. Until he found Lease and Bill Company. And he worked there probably, I think, 34 years. He worked at Lease and Bill Company before he passed away. He passed away early. He was only, like, 53 in a couple months. You know, because his birthday was Christmas day. And he was 53. And then he died April 15. He was really young. In fact, this past 15th of this month, he was dead 19 years. So that left me to take care of everything by myself. And in the meantime, when they announced it that they were closing Union Carbide. That was the day my husband died. I had both whammies together. I was coming home from the hospital after my husband passed away. My neighbor come running out. She says, Minnie, she said, I have to tell you something. And I know that it's not the right time to tell you with all that's happened to Hank and all. But said they announced it on the news today at noon. That Union Carbide was shutting down. Said, watch the 06:00 news. So I watched the 06:00 news. And that's how I found out that my job was leaving me.
Tiffany Hunter [00:16:57] What year was that?
Minnie Atkins [00:16:58] That was in 87.
Tiffany Hunter [00:16:59] And that's when they just.
Minnie Atkins [00:17:01] Well, that's when they announced it. They announced it April 15, 1987. But they were there for a couple years after that. I got to work from April til October 31. Which was how I got to work that long. That year.
Gladys Whitney [00:17:20] Didn't Ralston Purina.
Minnie Atkins [00:17:23] Ralston Purina merged with them? They merged with them to start with.
Gladys Whitney [00:17:28] I thought, geez, what does dog food have to do with.
Minnie Atkins [00:17:33] That's why we all. We all go through the hallway, say, now we know we're going to the dogs when we're. But now Ralston Purina has gotten rid of it. They give it, well, you know, after Union Carbide, they named it Eveready. They named it Eveready. And then after Eveready batteries. Then Ralston Purina come in, but they, you know, there was no changing of the name. There's no Ralston Purina wrote, you know, on anything. And let me see now. How did this go after that? After the Ralston Purina, then they sold it back to Eveready again. They sold the company back to Eveready. And then Eveready has, now it's called Dow Chemical company. Now that's how you get a hold of anything from Union Carbide about it. If you worked at this plant, you have to call Dow Chemical company to be able to talk to anybody about your pension or anything.
Helen Massey [00:18:33] Oh, wow.
Minnie Atkins [00:18:35] See, I got a, I got a check from Ralston Purina for after I left. From there, I guess, 62, I had to quit. You know, they stopped giving it to me at 62. Yeah. But I have a life insurance policy from there, so other than that, there's nothing to do with it. Now if I, if, if I should not get my check each month, then I have to call Dow.
Gladys Whitney [00:18:58] Dow.
Tiffany Hunter [00:18:59] So it's been through a lot.
Minnie Atkins [00:19:00] Yes, it has been through, like, different.
Tiffany Hunter [00:19:02] Companies after company after company.
Minnie Atkins [00:19:04] National Carbon and then, like you said. Yeah, national Carbon and then Carbide Eveready.
Elwood Massey [00:19:11] Well, Union Carbine still.
Minnie Atkins [00:19:14] It still goes by Union Carbine.
Elwood Massey [00:19:16] Right. Cause anytime anything has to be found out or anything about it, Julie has to call [crosstalk] Eveready.
Minnie Atkins [00:19:27] Alright. Eveready.
Tiffany Hunter [00:19:31] That's amazing. So it's like, did they leave because, do you guys know specifically why?
Minnie Atkins [00:19:36] I know why. Or we had to pay off Bhopal, India, when they had that big explosion.
Helen Massey [00:19:42] Explosion?
Minnie Atkins [00:19:42] That big explosion in Bhopal, India, a Union Carbide down there, people lived in tents around the factory, and it exploded and killed mass of people. And what that didn't kill, it burned them. So that took all of our money. They said we have to have the most money making Union Carbide that we have to pay them off. And it was this one.
Helen Massey [00:20:05] It was us.
Gladys Whitney [00:20:06] So they owned that plant then.
Tiffany Hunter [00:20:08] So they had a plant overseas.
Minnie Atkins [00:20:10] It was American owned in India. Yeah. In Bhopal, India. Mm hmm. That's how come we lost our jobs. Now no one would ever tell us that, but it was in the paper.
Gladys Whitney [00:20:21] Yeah.
Minnie Atkins [00:20:21] Right, right.
Tiffany Hunter [00:20:23] Of course they were going to put it in the paper if they, you know, didn't know they were going to put something in there, because you would want to know why, you know, your job is. That's amazing. I didn't know that. Did they tell you anything? Even if it wasn't that, but did they give you some stories?
Minnie Atkins [00:20:39] No, they wouldn't give us no stories. Nobody that worked there, like in the offices, no one would tell us anything. If you ask them, then they didn't want to talk about it. You know, we have no news at this time for you. Maybe if it comes around to where there is something we can tell you, we'll tell you. But see, they were, they had hushed them up from saying anything. Cause of the lawsuits, you know, did.
Tiffany Hunter [00:21:09] You guys ever have a point in time where you went on strikes or had pickets or anything like that? No, nothing like that.
Minnie Atkins [00:21:14] No, not while. Not the 20 years I was there, but I was laid off once.
Elwood Massey [00:21:20] When did they have the union?
Minnie Atkins [00:21:23] I never know of a union ever being.
Elwood Massey [00:21:26] Charlie. Oh, yeah, Charlie said, he said his father organized, help organize.
Minnie Atkins [00:21:31] Well, I know they told us if we talked union, we were out.
Elwood Massey [00:21:34] Right?
Minnie Atkins [00:21:34] They told us that.
Elwood Massey [00:21:36] Yeah, I've heard anybody that tried, they were gone.
Minnie Atkins [00:21:41] Cause Bill come to the.
Elwood Massey [00:21:42] Charlie says his father helped organize and.
Minnie Atkins [00:21:45] He asked me did I know. I'm not gonna call no names. If he had been rumors going around about him gonna start a union. And I told him no, I didn't hear nothing about it. He says, well, just let it go. Just let it go that I even said anything. So I just let it go. But I do know from my manager over there and my boss, I know they told me that if anyone talks union, they will find a way to let go of you.
Helen Massey [00:22:12] Oh, wow.
Tiffany Hunter [00:22:14] What years was this? Was this the entire time you were there or.
Minnie Atkins [00:22:16] The entire time I was there? From. I went to work there in 67 and I worked till 87.
Tiffany Hunter [00:22:25] The entire thing. So I want to get back to more like what you did on the inside or, you know, how what went on is there, like, was it set up in assembly lines in different places? And like, one thing would be done here, you take it somewhere else to get done.
Minnie Atkins [00:22:40] And most mostly they would have the lines that, see, I worked on. The 60 universal line consists of 16 people going down the line, you know, one doing one thing, one another one doing something else, and it would keep on going down until the battery was finished. I had different jobs down there because I was trying to work my way up. In 67, I was only making $5.25 an hour. And when I left there in 87, I was making $13.76. So I raised myself up, you know, from a low rate. And then over the years, you know, I guess they had trouble with economy and all this and that, and so they would give you raises. And they give you raises toward how good you were working, too.
Helen Massey [00:23:26] Oh, yeah.
Elwood Massey [00:23:27] Just felt sorry for.
Minnie Atkins [00:23:28] Maybe they did.
Tiffany Hunter [00:23:31] Was it work ever dangerous in there? Is there a lot of, you know. Chemicals you have to deal with there?
Minnie Atkins [00:23:34] Yes, there was. Yes. Anytime that you worked, even though you had your safety glasses on. My sister lost a knife from the lithium, from the machine, the thing that comes down that puts it into the battery. It broke off, and when it broke off, it squirted under her face.
Helen Massey [00:23:55] Oh, geez.
Minnie Atkins [00:23:56] They had to grab right away and take her up here to the hospital. That's when St. John's was still there instead of a nursing home. But she lost her eye that way, and all she can see is, like, a little vision right here.
Helen Massey [00:24:09] Oh, my goodness.
Minnie Atkins [00:24:10] It's like it tripped from here and over here out of the one eye. But she's got a little light right here on the side.
Helen Massey [00:24:16] Oh, my goodness.
Minnie Atkins [00:24:17] She worked there 24 years.
Gladys Whitney [00:24:19] Wow.
Minnie Atkins [00:24:20] Boy, that's terrible. Yeah.
Tiffany Hunter [00:24:22] And now that. Now that everything's gone, because you live. You guys live right in front of it now. You know what I'm saying? Now that the factory's gone, it's not gonna be there anymore. How do you guys feel about this whole housing development that's going on over here?
Minnie Atkins [00:24:35] I don't like.
Gladys Whitney [00:24:38] The people living in this area.
Tiffany Hunter [00:24:41] Yeah.
Gladys Whitney [00:24:41] Because you never know when they're going to want to take your home.
Minnie Atkins [00:24:44] It's a lot of inconvenience for us. It is.
Gladys Whitney [00:24:47] They're going to have to have parking, and, I mean, they'll probably have restaurants or some shops and so forth around.
Elwood Massey [00:24:54] And they try to tell us there's. The traffic isn't going to be no worse. But you can tell me with thousands of people moving in. But they say they're all coming in from the back way, and I don't believe that one bit, because they're building, extending the street up here. 73rd. 74.
Minnie Atkins [00:25:09] 73rd.
Elwood Massey [00:25:09] Right on through.
Gladys Whitney [00:25:11] They've got to have another.
Minnie Atkins [00:25:12] Well, yeah, they'll be. You mean right here at this opening, right into your street?
Elwood Massey [00:25:17] Right. No, down. Yeah, down at the end of your street, going straight on.
Minnie Atkins [00:25:22] Okay. That's 73rd over there, right? Yeah.
Elwood Massey [00:25:24] And see there? There used to be a street down through there.
Minnie Atkins [00:25:28] There used to be. Now, Father Caruso drive ended right there. There was a dead end at Father Caruso Drive. And then they got the truck route. This was. This was. I don't even remember the year this.
Elwood Massey [00:25:39] Was way I'm talking about right here.
Helen Massey [00:25:41] You're talking about 74th.
Elwood Massey [00:25:43] They're gonna make 74. 74.
Minnie Atkins [00:25:47] They might.
Helen Massey [00:25:48] That's what they're saying.
Elwood Massey [00:25:49] They can't tell me. They're gonna be.
Helen Massey [00:25:51] They bought that little tool shop down there.
Minnie Atkins [00:25:54] Yeah. Well, yeah, that was owned by a different guy.
Helen Massey [00:25:56] They forced him. They forced him out.
Minnie Atkins [00:25:59] And you know that where that big house was? And they tore that house down.
Helen Massey [00:26:03] Yeah, right.
Minnie Atkins [00:26:04] Do you remember the people that used to live in that house?
Helen Massey [00:26:06] The last ones I remember wasn't Ralph Bonacci. [crosstalk]
Minnie Atkins [00:26:11] I'm talking about the one they tore down and made us an extra parking lot because we didn't have enough parking down here. When we sit on the side of it.
Helen Massey [00:26:23] Mm hmm.
Minnie Atkins [00:26:24] Will you make your turn to go up 74th?
Gladys Whitney [00:26:26] Yeah.
Elwood Massey [00:26:26] Yeah.
Minnie Atkins [00:26:27] That was a big house there. Ralph Bonacci owned it. Him and his sister both down there on the top.
Helen Massey [00:26:32] I don't remember, but I remember when they tore the house down.
Gladys Whitney [00:26:35] Do you remember the crows nest they had? Or widow's peak, whatever they call that thing. The iron railings on the very top of the house that went around.
Minnie Atkins [00:26:42] That was a scary house. Yeah, it was.
Gladys Whitney [00:26:44] Yeah. At that time, they could look out and see the boats here.
Minnie Atkins [00:26:49] Well, the reason why I live in this area is because I bought it. Because I went to work at Union Carbide. I was living at 7500 Madison Avenue, renting a house at the time. And I bought this house over here just because.
Elwood Massey [00:27:01] As you know. Now, this isn't a bad neighborhood right here. It's quiet and there's not that much traffic and there's not that many bad people. No, take us out [crosstalk].
Helen Massey [00:27:17] But. But now, when they started all this, we had no say in it whatsoever. Nobody asked us nothing. We had no say in it whatsoever.
Tiffany Hunter [00:27:29] Y'all know what was going on when they were tearing down? You guys just knew they were talking.
Minnie Atkins [00:27:34] We knew from Detroit Shoreway.
Elwood Massey [00:27:36] Yeah, I think it's mostly from a block club. Sort of let us in on what was going on.
Tiffany Hunter [00:27:44] And what club do you guys belong to? What is it?
Helen Massey [00:27:46] West 76.
Elwood Massey [00:27:47] Judy Canelo. You know her?
Helen Massey [00:27:49] You know Judy, Julie.
Gladys Whitney [00:27:50] All people in this area, neighborhood, each. Each section, each different streets have their own, you know, block clubs.
Tiffany Hunter [00:27:58] Oh, I didn't know.
Gla
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