Abstract
Paul Martin describes growing up in Lakewood and changes in both Lakewood and Cleveland since the 1940s, his experiences during World War II, working for the Illuminating Company, and his feelings about the mayoral administration of Dennis Kucinich.
Loading...
Interviewee
Martin, Paul (interviewee); Martin, Rose (participant)
Interviewer
Hons, Justin (interviewer); Yanoshik-Wing, Emma (interviewer)
Project
Cuyahoga County Fair
Date
8-9-2006
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
18 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Paul Martin interview, 09 August 2006" (2006). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 907007.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/894
Transcript
Justin Hons [00:00:00] So we can get the sound levels.
Paul Martin [00:00:01] Okay. 1, 2, 3, 4.
Justin Hons [00:00:07] Okay, excellent. If you could state your name and the date for the record, please.
Paul Martin [00:00:11] Okay. My name is Paul Martin, M-A-R-T-I-N. And the date is August 9, 2006. And I was born in 1925 and was raised in Lakewood. I was born in Lakewood in what they call Birdtown, which is on McGee. And then my family rented in two different locations. One on Dowd, which is also in Birdtown. The other one was more high class. It was on Winchester between Madison and Franklin. And then when I was about nine years old, my parents bought their own home and they thought that President Roosevelt was responsible for it. My dad said if I didn’t vote Democrat all my life, he would shoot me because he thought Roosevelt was the best thing that ever happened to the country because that’s when they bought their home. I tried to tell them later in life that it was coincidental the banks were actually opened anyway. But. But I also went to parochial school, Saint [inaudible], which was only like two blocks away from where we lived because it’s on Madison and Lakewood Avenue. And I lived on Winchester between Franklin and Detroit. So I walked to school. And then later when I went to the ninth grade, I went to Emerson, where I also walked to school. And the same thing with Lakewood High, because Lakewood doesn’t have busing and I don’t think they ever will. But when I got to be 18, the war was underway. So I took an exam for the Vذ12 program. So the Navy sent me to Baldwin Wallace for my first year. And then they gave us a test and said, you’re going to be an engineer. So they sent me to Chicago to finish my undergraduate. So I have a degree in electrical engineering. And when I got out of the service, I was through at college. I was 20 years old and all my friends were just returning from the service saying they’ve got to go to school. And I was already, at that point, finished. So I then went to work for the Illuminating Company because I had two other job offers, but they were both out of state. And I figured I’d been out of state for three years. So I went to work for the Illuminating Company. And then I made a 41-year career of it. So as far as downtown is concerned, I had a lot of experience with downtown, just like my wife. We used to almost have a pass to go to the Silver Grille once a week because we got good service, because the women that ran the place knew we only had so much time for lunch and if we overdid it, we wouldn’t be allowed to go back there on a frequent basis. So we used to go to Silver Grille. There were a lot of restaurants to choose from. There was another place we frequented which was called the Forum, which was on East 9th Street. But there was a lot of choices to shop. There was a lot of choices to eat downtown, which I was down there about six months ago, just looking around and the place is so completely deserted. It’s a shame. And one thing that Rose didn’t mention is one of the things you may have a picture of here is if you remember Satchel Paige, we went to his game that had the largest crowd for a night game and it’s still 70 some thousand people. And he won that game one to nothing. So that’s one of our better memories. One of my- Also one of my memories is when the Browns, which was not in the days of Super Bowls, when they won the [1964 NFL] championship over John Unitas [Colts quarterback] in Baltimore. That happened. I have been lucky enough to some friends from Westinghouse took me to that game. So these are some of the experiences. But, like Rose says, that we don’t go downtown too often, although we do go once a year to Severance Hall because St. Ignatius High School has their annual Christmas concert and we thoroughly enjoy that. So both of us make a point of going there. But I think last year we may have missed, but we go there almost every year and we still have our two children. Two boys went to St. Ignatius and the grandsons, three of our grandsons also went to St. Ignatius. So a lot of memories with that school. And we still belong to what they call the Company of Ignatius. So that’s as far downtown as we go to 30th and Lorain, or we do once in a while on occasion go to the West Side Market. We think that’s a very super interesting place, especially since it’s been renovated, which is one of the nicer things that has been done in Cleveland area. So that’s some comments.
Justin Hons [00:05:47] That area around West 25th and Lorain has changed quite a bit in the last 10, 20 years. What was the area like maybe 50 years ago?
Paul Martin [00:05:59] It was really run down, but it went through cycles because if you go back 50 years ago, it was fairly decent, but then it went downhill and then they did put a lot of good money into renovating. In fact, we drove by there the other day because we happened to go down to St. Wendelin’s parish, which is almost just like two blocks away. From the West Side Market, and they had a festival of sorts. But we were just looking at the, impressed with the building and my wife says we should get down to the Great Lakes Brewery down there. One of our friends is somehow related to the owner. But we were there once, that’s about it.
Justin Hons [00:06:48] Did you end up going?
Paul Martin [00:06:49] Yeah.
Justin Hons [00:06:53] You mentioned that whenever you went downtown it seemed deserted to you. What are some- Are there any other differences that you notice about downtown?
Paul Martin [00:07:04] Yeah, just a prominent vacancy of businesses there. I mean, the few that are left. You know, like my wife was commenting, you had so many places to choose from to shop. You had May Company, you had Bailey’s, you had Taylor’s. And one other thing that probably she didn’t mention is that I think it was on Tuesdays they used to have double stamp days or something like that. So they used to have books you put little stamps into. And I think on Tuesdays they had what they call double stamp days. So I remember my mother specifically going downtown when it was Tuesday and special Tuesdays. But I enjoyed working downtown because I shop around in different stores and stuff and sometimes I’d bring home things. And my wife said, what’d you bother doing that for. But at the time it seemed like a bargain.
Rose Martin [00:08:03] Well, you can tell about the plate. You can say what you can say about the Hummel plate.
Paul Martin [00:08:10] Oh, yeah, I have to tell you a story about when the Hummel plates first came out.
Rose Martin [00:08:16] Very first one.
Paul Martin [00:08:17] First one. I bought the thing and it was $25, I think. So I brought it home and gave it to Rose as one of her Christmas gifts. And she says, what am I going to do with this thing? I said, just put it away. So we happen to be going shopping somewhere else. And she says, well, look, there’s your stupid plate. I said, look at the price, $625. So, but like anything else, you know [crosstalk] But, you know, I guess I’m a born shopper in some sense. So some of the things I buy, I really shouldn’t. And people laugh because I used to, with my two sons, be involved in the baseball card business and that’s kind of going to pot because we thought we were all going to get rich. But unfortunately the, the people that produced the cards were smarter than we were. They just produced oodles of them and the market literally just fell apart. Like anything else, a matter of supply and demand and too much supply, not enough demand. But it’s been interesting. And as far as, like I say, my college career, I have to tell you a story. My mother was so upset because I was going to the service and I had a report to Baldwin Wallace on the 1st of July, and she thought she wasn’t gonna see me. So-
Rose Martin [00:09:52] Ever again.
Paul Martin [00:09:54] That same weekend I was home on Sunday because, you know, it was just like going to college. And she said, oh, my son’s leaving, he’s leaving. I left on a Friday and we had drill session till noon on Saturday and I was home for the weekend. And then they had double tracks going to Berea, and my mom would always tell me, now, be careful the train doesn’t hit you. So that was kind of a story that we had for years. But she was a concerned parent like everything else. But the only reason I joined the Navy, there’s an interesting story on that, is my older brother joined the Air Force. So when we had to choose one of the services, lucky break, I just put down Navy Vذ12 program. And as it turned out, friends of mine that I went to high school, they chose the equivalent program in the Army, which was the ASTP program. And unfortunately that thing folded up about halfway through the first year and these guys found themselves in the infantry and several of my classmates got killed at the Battle of the Bulge. So it’s luck of the break. So.
Justin Hons [00:11:17] Now, as an electrical engineer and working for the Illuminating Company, I’m curious if you have any input on the 1970s fight over the privatization and the whole Dennis Kucinich- [inaudible]
Paul Martin [00:11:35] Well, oh yeah. I think both sides had some things that they should have given up on the thing. The company, actually, in all fairness to the company, wanted to get rid of the Municipal thing [Municipal Light]. And of course, Dennis said the Illuminating Company and the, at that time, I think it was the bank which was Ameritrust, were all in cahoots with each other, but the company was offering them a good price. And of course, Dennis made a political issue of it, unfortunately. The other thing is when we started seriously thinking about building the nuclear plant that we have, the Davis Besse and the one out at Perry Township, the city of Cleveland was offered to be a partner. They wanted no part of it. So then they came back years later on an antitrust suit and said we didn’t allow them to be a partner. So there’s a lot of give and take on that thing. But I think the best thing that happened to the Illuminating Company was when Ohio Edison purchased them because the stock at the time of the purchase was like about $6 a share. Now it’s about $56 a share. So it was a good move. The move that we had when we bought out Toledo Edison was a disaster because they were worse off than we were. But we still see Dennis once in a while, and I reluctantly shake his hand. But he’s, you know, typical good politician. He comes to every ethnic affair, so, you know, you can’t avoid him. But he had some good commentaries about the school system. We asked him one time, because his brother, at one time, his brother was on the school board in Cleveland. And Dennis said, they can throw all the money they want into that school situation, it will never change. Now, that’s from Dennis. So that’s all I have to say.
Unnamed Participant [00:13:56] Where downtown was the Illuminating Company?
Paul Martin [00:13:58] Oh, is it right down on the Square next to, you know, where the Old Stone Church is?
Rose Martin [00:14:04] Right next door.
Paul Martin [00:14:04] Right next door. And then they went. Actually, it was across the street, there was a building called 55 Public Square. And then they had another one called 75 Public Square. And when I first started working for the company, we were located in what was called The Standard building, which was actually on Superior. But then during the construction period, we saw the thing being built, and that’s when we moved in. And they only called it Illuminated Company because we were the major tenant. We never actually owned that building. But then years later, of course, they moved out to Independence, and they’re now located not even there. They’re out in Akron way now. But that was a good company to work for. I had no regrets. I mean, I worked there 41 years. We went on vacation to Hawai’i, came back, and it says, you got two weeks to decide if you want to leave or not. And I looked at the package. It was so fantastic. I said, where do I sign? And I never regretted that. So they were, and they’re still good to us. I mean, they still pay our hospitalization and all that stuff. Very good company work.
Emma Yanoshik-Wing [00:15:24] How did you guys meet?
Paul Martin [00:15:26] Oh, this is interesting. We worked for the company, but that’s not how we met. We were in the same bridal party. A friend of mine was getting married who happened to be her cousin, and they were pairing the couples off. And my wife said she prayed that I would not be her partner because I was not a good dancer. So she ended up with a friend of mine who was the good dancer. But that’s. And then. So this was like, one August, and then. I don’t know. Did I? I took you on a date. Was it New Year’s Eve?
Rose Martin [00:16:03] Yep.
Paul Martin [00:16:05] I brought my accordion with me because I played the accordion. So that was the only time I saw her. And I didn’t date her then for almost a year. But then somehow, I guess the Lord says.
Rose Martin [00:16:21] He’s awfully quiet. He doesn’t talk. He doesn’t-
Paul Martin [00:16:23] So anyway, the funny thing is that one of the girls that I dated were still very good friends. There’s a little group of us I went to school with from kindergarten. From kindergarten that we still get together with. There’s like, four couples. Three of the guys I actually went to kindergarten, first grade, all the way through Lakewood High. But it’s just amazing. We’re still festive friends. We got married. Our kids got married. The grandkids are getting married, which is different, because people nowadays could live next door to each other and don’t even know the names of the people. But that was the difference. I think in those days, everybody was friendly. Everybody, I think, sometimes overdid it. And they knew everybody else’s business, which they really probably shouldn’t have. But I guess. Anything else, honey? Anything else.
Rose Martin [00:17:24] I could talk forever, but that’s okay.
Paul Martin [00:17:28] So, but it was- Well, thank you for the opportunity to-
Justin Hons [00:17:32] Thanks a lot, both of you.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
