In week two of my recap of “Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown” posts, I cover the period from mid-summer through Halloween which includes “keeping cool”, a couple of posts about the Canfield Fair, back to school, autumn leaves, football, and Halloween.
Canfield Fair Ferris Wheel
I also wrote some more topical posts on the arts in Youngstown, Youngstown neighborhoods, re-purposing, restaurants, and, of course pizza! I also throw in here a post on the Mahoning River which has not appeared widely before.
So here are the posts from mid-summer up to the present:
1. Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Pizza. This was the second most popular post in this series and the winner of the informal “best pizza” poll was Wedgewood, although over 30 different places were mentioned. Needless to say, lots of good pizza in Youngstown.
2. Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — The Arts. One of the surprising things, both past and present about Youngstown, is the thriving arts community and the value placed on beauty.
3. Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Keeping Cool. Many of us didn’t grow up with air conditioning and in this post I explore all the ways we kept cool on those hot summer days in Youngstown.
4. Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — The Mahoning River. This has not been posted before on the Youngstown Facebook groups. I explore the history of the river that runs through Youngstown, its gradual return to a place of beauty and the challenges of river cleanup.
5. Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Idora Park. Idora Park was the amusement park for many of us growing up in Youngstown. I review its history and sad end — I think most of us regret that we allowed the carousel to be sold away.
6. Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Church Festivals. Summers were also the time for many of the great church festivals that are still a big part of Youngstown life.
7. Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Canfield Fair Food. Written around the time of the fair, this post celebrates many of the great places and favorite foods at Ohio’s biggest county fair.
8. Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Fair Memories. Besides food, there were many other fun things to do at the fair, and I remember some of our perennial favorites!
9. Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Back to School. The funniest thing about this post was that as an afterthought, I mentioned how most of us used cigar boxes for pencil boxes and included an image of a cigar box. That’s what everyone commented on and some still had those cigar boxes!
10. Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Repurposing. The cigar box reminded me of all the things we saved and found new uses for in working class Youngstown.
11. Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown –Neighborhoods. Youngstown was a city of neighborhoods and strong neighborhood identity is key to its future.
12. Review: Steelworker Alley: How Class Works in Youngstown. This was a special post reviewing a book written by Struthers native Robert Bruno, a sociologist. Bruno puts in words the values of the working class that this whole series explores as he chronicles the life and decline of the Youngstown steel industry and the nature of the working class.
13. Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Restaurants. The arrival in my home of Classic Restaurants of Youngstown prompted this post celebrating the great places to eat, all local, that we grew up with in Youngstown.
14. Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Autumn Leaves. I explore memories of autumn leaves from the beauty of Mill Creek Park to the smell and haze of burning leaves across the Mahoning Valley.
15. Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Libraries. I set my own memories of libraries against the backdrop of the history of Youngstown’s library system and its importance to the aspirations of the working class.\
Scanned from 1970 Lariat
16. Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Football. Memories of Friday night lights, rivalries like Ursuline-Mooney, and Chaney High School coach Lou “Red” Angelo.
17. Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Halloween. I was reminded in this post that there was a time when people went trick-or-treating for several nights in Youngstown, and found out that everyone else used pillowcases, which were just awesome for holding lots of candy.
So, with last week’s post, that is the series so far. Some of my ideas for future posts include talking about things like Youngstown rock bands and music venues, our love of automobiles (American-made of course), and seasonal posts about Thanksgiving, Christmas and other holidays.
Readers comments on these posts have reminded me of so many things I’ve forgotten. In that spirit, some of you may be wondering, “why doesn’t he write a post on …?” Truth is, I may have forgotten–but I would love to be reminded and would be happy to acknowledge anyone whose ideas I use!
