Hello, Cleveland, Part 1

"I'm not going."
"What?!  Mom, you have to!  We planned this trip just for you!"
"No, I'm not feeling well today."
My sister and I give each other a "what the heck are we going to do now" look.  Our mom suffers from chronic diverticulitis and had several attacks in the weeks preceding our trip to Ohio.  She doesn't feel comfortable traveling because she doesn't know when she'll have another attack.
"Mom, we can take our time and make as many pit stops as you need."
"Well.......okay."


My sister Julie and I had been planning to take my parents back to their old neighborhoods in Cleveland for months.  My mom's memory is failing and we hoped to trigger some memories so we could start chronicling her and my dad's family histories.


Our parents are first generation Americans and were raised in the culturally-rich neighborhoods of Cleveland in its heyday.  Their parents came to the United States from Slovenia, which was part of Austria at the time, during World War I.  They fled their Communist country for various reasons:  my dad's father came here to escape being drafted to fight for the Austrian army during WWI and my mom's mother came to the U.S. to escape an abusive father.  They traveled to this country on a ship that left from Trieste, Italy and docked at Ellis Island.  They settled in Cleveland, where family awaited them.  They were required to show proof of support before they were allowed to come over.  My dad's family lived in the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood of Cleveland, near the Lake Erie shore.  My mother's family lived further south in Newburgh (it was a village just outside Cleveland proper at the time).


Neighborhood life centered around the Catholic church: my dad's grandfather helped build St. Vitus, which is still the largest Catholic church in Cleveland, although there are very few, if any, Slovenians left in the neighborhood.  My mom attended and my parents were married in St. Lawrence Catholic Church.  The Diocese recently closed St. Lawrence along with scores of other Catholic churches in the city, in an effort to consolidate parishes due to declining membership in many previously vibrant parishes.  In fact, St. Lawrence had just celebrated its last Mass 11 days before our visit.





Immigrants in Cleveland found comfort and camaraderie in the churches as well as in the National Homes, which provided cultural offerings such as singing groups and, of course, opportunities to partake of food and wine.  My grandfather led a singing group at the Slovenian National Home on St. Clair Avenue, which still hosts Slovenian dignitaries and cultural programs.


Cleveland a vibrant city, you say?  The same Cleveland that is currently the 33rd largest city yet ranks as the 7th most dangerous in the country?  The city whose river burned and was dubbed "Mistake on the Lake?"  The city whose sports team can't seem to win a championship and whose stars flee to winning teams?  Believe it or not, Cleveland was the 5th largest city in the United States in 1920 and boasted the largest Slovenian population in the country.  It was a busy shipping hub due to its location on Lake Erie as a midpoint between Chicago and New York.  The steel industry thrived and provided jobs to many immigrants like my grandfathers.


Unfortunately, "white flight" occurred after the Hough Riots, which took place when I was less than three weeks old and living in East Cleveland with my parents.  The ethnic neighborhood inhabitants fled to suburbs such as Euclid and Shaker Heights following the riots.  Cleveland made its last appearance in the top 10 largest U.S. cities in 1970.  Residents left behind homes, neighborhoods, and churches that their fathers and grandfathers built in an attempt to raise their children in the shelter of the suburbs.  Bars, grocers, and butcher shops were boarded up, never to re-open, such as Malencek's butcher shop, below, where my family bought our Easter Slovenian smoked sausages and zelodec.





Houses would be neglected and condemned and the east side of Cleveland would fall victim to violent crime. These were the neighborhoods my sister and I were about to enter with my parents....and their memories of a Cleveland long past.