Working class

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Christmas Caroling

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carolersDid you go Christmas caroling when you were growing up? That is one of my fun memories of growing up in Youngstown. Usually, it was with a church youth group and we would pile into cars and go to the homes of shut-ins and, if we had prepared ahead, to nursing homes, particularly if there were members there. I think this was the first time I saw some of the poor conditions some of our elderly were living in. But people were always glad to see us. Often you could see people mouthing the words or even singing along with us. At some homes, people would hand out Christmas candy or cookies but we didn’t expect this.

We were not choral professionals. We just had a lot of enthusiasm! Often we would sing from Christmas carol booklets from a local insurance agency or funeral home (can’t remember which). Usually, it was just the basics–Hark, the Herald Angels Sing, Silent Night, Joy to the World, O Come All Ye Faithful, O Little Town of Bethlehem. Maybe we would throw in some secular tunes like Jingle Bells and finish by singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” Afterwards, we often would go back to a home where there was hot chocolate to get ourselves warmed up and lots of good food to eat.

In doing some reading about Christmas caroling, I discovered that this goes back to the practice of wassailing, a word which means “be well, of good health”. The singers would go from house to house, with the hope that in exchange for their songs, they might get a gift in exchange. So getting cookies in exchange for our songs wasn’t so off! In fact, there is a verse in “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” that says, “now bring us some figgie pudding.” This reflects the eventual merger of wassailing with the singing of Christmas carols, which apparently happened in nineteenth century Victorian England.

Wherever this practice came from, it seemed that there was a joy in singing these songs to others that was different from just singing in church or around the Christmas tree. So many of the songs are joyous proclamations–“Joy to the world, the Lord has come,” “Hark, the herald angels say, ‘Glory to the newborn king’ ” and so forth. These are words to be sung to someone, to be shared with someone who needs joyous news.

The last time I remember caroling in Youngstown was in college when a group I was involved in at the university went caroling at Park Vista Retirement Community. Again, we weren’t professional singers, but we gathered in their chapel and had someone to play the piano, and sang the familiar songs and asked people to join us. And they did, and some, as they sang had tears in their eyes. And some of us did as well as we realized how familiar songs of good news and great joy could deeply touch hearts.

And now I understand what was going on more than I did then. There are times when a song can call back so many memories over the course of one’s life, so many Christmases, some good, and some hard. For some, who can’t hold memory of the present very well, these memories are their life. And sometimes, people who can’t remember much of anything else remember these songs and know a kind of joy that memory loss cannot take away. Perhaps, at this point in life, it can be one the best gifts we give.

What are your memories of Christmas caroling?

 

 

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Penguin Football

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Today, Youngstown State’s football Penguins go up against Jacksonville State in the second round of the FCS Playoffs. It is great to see Youngstown back in championship contention. It was something we never saw during my years growing up in Youngstown and as a student at Youngstown State. Back then the competitive sports at Youngstown State were basketball and baseball under Dom Roselli.

Those were the “Dike” Beede days. It seems that Beede’s main contribution to football had nothing to do with winning. It was his idea to invent the penalty flag which was first used in a game between Oklahoma City University and Youngstown in October of 1941, at Rayen Stadium, where Youngstown played many of their games, even during the years we were students.

It’s not that there weren’t some players that went on to excel. Ed O’Neill perhaps made it the biggest. After playing for Beede, he went on to the Steelers, got cut in 1969, and then returned to Youngstown to pursue training in acting. He managed the Pub in Kilcawley when we were students before going on to Broadway, TV and Modern Family. While we were there, Ron Jaworski was the quarterback, known then and later as “the Polish rifle.” He went on to play for the Eagles and is still a sports commentator. Cliff Stoudt also was at Youngstown in the 1970’s before going on to play back-up to Terry Bradshaw with the Steelers. Ironically, Stoudt’s son Cole is currently an offensive assistant coach at Jacksonville State.

The closest we got to championships in our time at Youngstown was in 1974 when Ray Dempsey led the team with Stoudt at quarterback to an 8-1 record before losing in the first round of the playoffs. Dempsey went on to an assistant coaching job with the Detroit Lions the next season. For that season, I actually paid attention although few of us went to the games. There were often not many more people in the stands than on the field. Far more people in Youngstown went to high school games back then. The irony was that northeast Ohio is football country–all those sons of steelworkers! Thinking back, it just didn’t make sense that for so many years Youngstown State was uncompetitive.

Things got better after we left. Bill Narduzzi led them to a couple conference championships and a few playoff victories. But things really turned around in the Tressel years when they won four national championships and were runners-up twice before Tressel went on to coach at Ohio State. We live in Columbus and there were a lot of questions about Tressel but we talked about what he did at Youngstown. Sure enough, in 2002, he won another championship and went on to be the third winning-est coach in Ohio State history.

It was during this time that Stambaugh Stadium, also know as the “Ice Castle” was built. An internet search turned up no definitive answer to where this nickname came from except that the west side of the stadium represents the highest point in Youngstown, and in the blustery weather of late fall can be downright cold. It’s also fun to think of it as a place where the Penguins put their opponents on ice. Bleachers on the east side of the field added another 3,000 seats for a seating capacity of 20,630.

In his second season, current coach Bo Pelini has the Penguins in the second round of the FCS playoff. Here’s hoping that this marks the beginnings of a new winning tradition. Go Fighting Penguins!

Update at 5:40 PM Saturday, December 3, 2016. Youngstown State has just defeated Jacksonville State 40-24!

 

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Small Businesses

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communities-largeToday is Small Business Saturday. This effort, started several years ago by with major sponsorship by American Express, promotes an alternative to “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday”, which focus on the big box national retail stores and online sellers respectively. It recognizes that one of the huge assets to our communities are the local small businesses, usually owned and operated by local people, that provide personalized service, distinctive products, and channel jobs and money back into the local economy.

I know. I remember the local small businesses that constituted the fabric of our West Side community growing up. Most were within walking distance of my home, and even as a kid, the people who worked at many of these places knew my name, and I knew theirs. This was true throughout Youngstown. In past posts I’ve written of family grocery stores, restaurants, and neighborhood bars. But these were just the tip of the small business economy in our community. On my corner was Truman’s Dry Cleaning (named after the president, from what I understand). Next to it was Parish Auto Body shop. You could press the wrinkles out of your clothes and your car in the same block! And next to the body shop, you could buy or learn how to make floral arrangements.

Across Mahoning Avenue from Truman’s was a religious store selling items for the devout. Nearby that was the locally owned garage where my dad took his cars for tune-ups and repairs. Just up the hill on Mahoning Avenue was a veterinarian, and in the next block a Dairy Queen and a Lawson’s dairy store. Across from the vet’s was a store selling burial markers (probably because Calvary Cemetery is just a block west. In the next block west, was the barbershop where I got my hair cut as a kid, and a florist and greenhouse.

Going down the hill were a couple family groceries, Dave’s Appliances, where I bought my first stereo, a beer and wine shop, another garage, several bars, our post office branch. Around the corner on Steel Street was a shoe repair shop. Then there was Gerrick’s Jewelers, where I bought a nice watch for my mom. Across the street was Mahoning Pharmacy, where we used to get all our prescriptions.

I could go on and on. Aside from Dairy Queen and Lawson’s and the post office, these were all locally owned small businesses. As a kid, you didn’t act up because many of the owners knew your parents. And the businesses didn’t rip you off–because they knew your parents!

But along the way someone figured out the idea of “economies of scale” and as our cars and road networks grew, big box department and specialty stores, grocery stores, car repair chains all began to compete for the business we gave these local places. We didn’t know the people selling us the goods and often couldn’t even find someone to help us until we got to the checkout. But it stretched the dollars…and it changed the places we called home from places where we lived…and worked…and shopped, to simply places where we slept.

I know from previous posts that there were once vibrant small business communities scattered throughout the city. I’d love to hear your memories of them. I also discovered from the Shop Small website that there are a number of small businesses still making a go of it around Youngstown. Likewise, I found this article on WFMJ’s site about Small Business Saturday activities in surrounding communities. Spending money at these places not only employs and creates jobs for Youngstowners. More of your money stays in Youngstown rather than going off to corporate America.

If you have shopping plans today, you might take some time to visit a small business, wherever you live. Enjoy the personal service. Get away from the big crowds and traffic jams. I won’t be joining you because I’m off my feet with foot surgery, but I placed an order with the small business bookseller whose logo is on this page. He runs one of the best independent religious bookstores in the country from Dallastown, PA, a small town in eastern Pennsylvania. He makes great book recommendations on his blog, and has service as good as that online company! If you have a good experience at a small business, give them a shout out on Facebook or Twitter. Their business depends on friends telling friends. And all of it builds the communities we love, whether it be Youngstown or wherever we call home.

 

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Wick Park

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Wick Park in the early days. Public Domain

A park with walkways, a pavilion, playground, picnic areas, shaded with abundant trees. Around the perimeter on three sides some of the grandest homes in the city. On the fourth, an auditorium in neoclassical style, and in later years a senior facility. That was, and still in significant measure is, Wick Park. In the boom years of the first part of the twentieth century, this area was home to many of Youngstown’s most affluent citizens, sheltered away from the mills and factories that made their fortune. This Metro Monthly article gives you a good idea of what some of the homes were like back then.

My first encounters with Wick Park were during a summer when I volunteered with a children’s ministry working in a more urban part of the North side. They offered a summer program and I helped volunteer, helping organize games and activities for the children at the park. I loved the combination of shelters, open spaces and an abundance of trees and shade that made this a delightful recreation spot for the children who were both a delight and challenge and left me beat at the end of every day.

Later, while I was in college, I took a physical conditioning course and one of our regular activities was to don our running clothes and do laps around Wick Park. Each lap, as I recall, was about a mile. When I started, I barely made it up Elm Street to the park and had to walk-run even one lap. Eventually I reached the point where I could do three or four laps easily, and the Park was a favorite place to run with a buddy or two whenever I needed a study break.

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A view of Wick Park across Fifth Avenue from Park Vista (c) Robert C Trube, 2011

In recent years we would drive past Wick Park when we would visit my mom and dad during their last years when they lived in Park Vista, across the street. One of the nicest features of where they lived is that the front windows of their dining room looked out over the park.

The larger Wick Park district extended all the way over to Wick Avenue running north of Youngstown State. Wick Avenue at one time was Youngstown’s version of “millionaire’s row.” Apart from the restored Pollock Mansion and the Arms Museum of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, most of these are gone, replaced by many vacant lots. Auto dealerships like State Chevrolet, where my wife bought her first car, are long gone. Going up Wick Avenue, one of the few businesses left is the Golden Dawn, where a number of us would go after volunteering at a free clinic next to campus in one of those mansions owned by First Christian Church at the time.

Many of the large homes were broken up into apartments, which eventually led to decline in their condition. Vacant homes that were eventually demolished are a reality here as elsewhere in Youngstown. But from what I’ve read and heard, there are some neighborhood organizations collaborating with others to renew the area. According to Metro Monthly efforts by the Wick Park Neighborhood Association and the Northside Citizens Coalition has led to everything from urban gardens, farmers markets, property divestment that has brought new residents in and rehabilitation of a number of the grand old houses. Efforts by Youngstown CityScape has led to improvements of the park including new signage, sidewalk repairs, accessible parking near the pavilion, a new playground, and security gates.

It seems that one thing every Rust Belt city is discovering is that you re-build neighborhood by neighborhood, business by business, institution by institution. It takes scrappiness, perseverance, and collaboration of city leaders, businesses, neighborhood leaders and residents–over a long period of time (think what it takes just to renovate one home!). The Wick Park Historic District is one of the jewels of Youngstown. I’m glad to hear there are people thinking, talking, and working hard to both recover past glories and build toward a new future in this area, and providing models for other neighborhoods in the city to follow.

I’d love to hear both about memories of the Wick Park area, and from those who are working to revitalize this area!

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital

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Source: hmpartners.org. Used by permission

I literally owe my life to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital. I was born there and from what I understand survived a bout with pneumonia as a child because of their care. St. Elizabeth or “St. E’s” has played a big and positive part in my family story throughout the years.

Growing up on the West Side, the back windows of our home overlooked the Mahoning Valley and we could see the growing complex of St. Elizabeth from those windows. The hospital was established over 100 years ago by the Sisters of the Humility of Mary on Belmont Avenue and has always been committed to excellent health care that values the sacredness of human life. It is now part of the Mercy Health system which is the largest health system in the state of Ohio and one of the largest Catholic health care systems in the country. St. Elizabeth Youngstown is the only Level One Trauma Center in the Mahoning Valley.

My main encounter with St. Elizabeth in my youth was when I broke my thumb in a baseball game and had to go to the emergency room to get it X-rayed and into a cast. In later years, the hospital would play an increasingly important role in my parent’s health care which allowed them to live with a good quality of life into their nineties.

One Thanksgiving weekend, we were home to visit family when my father complained of shortness of breath. We went to Emergency where he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure due to a heart valve problem. A skilled heart surgeon fixed that valve and the fix held up for another twenty years, to the end of his life.

Later on, both of my parents experienced life-threatening illnesses. What we appreciated was the level of communication between various specialists and nursing staff in developing treatment plans that saved their lives on several occasions. As family, we were kept informed and cared for as well. For each of our parents, we had them in our lives probably at least ten years longer than may otherwise have been the case because of the care they received at St. E’s.

While we did not grow up Catholic, we appreciated the spiritual emphasis and the valuing of the sacredness of life when it came to trusting loved ones to procedures that could make the difference between life and death. It was both our and our doctors’ hospital of choice. In recent years, St. Elizabeth has opened a facility in Boardman. However, St. Elizabeth Youngstown continues to represent a beacon of hope as it looks out over the Mahoning Valley.

 

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Volney Rogers

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When I was growing up, Volney Rogers was the other junior high school on the West Side. We were rivals in junior high football, soon to be classmates at Chaney High School, into which both schools fed.  I may have been dimly aware that there was a real Volney Rogers and that he had something to do with Mill Creek Park, but other than that, I was clueless. That’s too bad, because learning more about Volney Rogers would have taught me a good bit both about responsible citizenship and Mill Creek Park.

Do you know that very likely there would not have been a Mill Creek Park were it not for the efforts of Volney Rogers? The rock in places like Bears Den might have been dug out and used for construction. The trees that line Mill Creek gorge might have gone to sawmills and been used up in home construction. There would have been no Lakes Glacier, Cohasset, or Newport. Pioneer Pavilion would not have been preserved. There would likely be no Lanterman Falls and Old Mill. Mill Creek might have been either an industrial stream or possibly dammed for a reservoir. The trails, the picnic areas, the scenic views–none of it may have existed were it not for the vision and industry of Rogers.

Volney Rogers was a lawyer, along with his brother Disney, with offices in downtown Youngstown. In 1890, he explored Mill Creek Gorge on horseback and determined to preserve it, even as stone quarries and sawmills were beginning to strip the gorge of its rugged beauty. He secured rights to large tracts of land from over 90 owners, helped write and pass “The Township Park Improvement Law” that created the park district, and turned over the land he had acquired in 1891, creating Mill Creek Park. He worked with his brother Bruce, and noted landscape architect, Charles Eliot (who had worked with Frederick Law Olmsted, a notable architect of the urban parks in major cities throughout the U.S.). During a recession in 1893, the park offered a source of work for men who laid out trails, restored Pioneer Pavilion, and built the dam for Lake Cohasset. Lake Glacier’s dam was also completed during Rogers life, being built in 1906.

Rogers was a lawyer who understood the implications of land use, sewage disposal, and the environmental implications of poor infrastructure decisions. Vindicator articles on August 9 and August 10, 2015 chronicle his fight against big steel to avoid running sewer lines for storm sewer run-offs into Mill Creek. He took the fight all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court, losing in the end, and losing with it his health. He left Youngstown shortly after, broken-hearted, and died in 1919. In 2015, Mill Creek’s lakes were closed for all purposes because of high e. coli levels, a result of the very problems Rogers foresaw.

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Volney Rogers Monument, an early postcard.

In 1920, a bronze statue of Rogers was erected near the main entrance to the park on Memorial Hill Drive, just off of Glenwood Avenue, a monument which remains. So often, we build monuments to great people but forget what they really did and what we could learn from them. Rogers fight with big steel is one more example repeated so often in Youngstown history of sacrificing the long term good of the city to a powerful interest. More positively, Rogers is an outstanding example of the kind of civic leader every city needs in every generation if it is to be a great place. He devoted his time, energies, his own money, and ultimately his health to leave Youngstown a beautiful place. Who are the civic leaders in Youngstown today who will follow his lead and set aside self-interest and self-aggrandizement to leave Youngstown a better place in the twenty-first century?

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Spinning Bowl Salads

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2oth Century Restaurant, photo courtesy of Morris Levy, used with permission.

One of my favorite college memories was a small group of friends that would gather for dinner at the end of each quarter at Youngstown State. We would meet up at the 20th Century Restaurant, with its art deco architecture, and usually several of us would end up sharing one of their legendary Spinning Bowl Salads. The 20th Century was located on Belmont Ave, at the “Belmont Point” where Belmont and Wirt Street merged.

The Spinning Bowl Salad was a trademark of the 20th Century Restaurant from its beginnings in 1941. The restaurant was opened by Harry and Faye Malkoff, who ran several other restaurants in the area including one of our favorites, the Golden Drumstick, located on the South side. Faye Malkoff was apparently a culinary genius. In Classic Restaurants of Youngstown, her son says that she based the recipe on one used at Lawry’s Steakhouse in Los Angeles, adding her own unique touches (p. 112). I’m inclined to believe this version of the history, although there is an alternate claiming it was picked up from the Blackhawk Steak House in Chicago. A Baltimore Sun article from May 10, 2000 makes this connection and provides a recipe that sounds like the salad I remember.

The big deal with the Spinning Bowl Salad was that it was made at your table, the bowl literally being spun as the salad was tossed and the special blue cheese-based and crumbled egg dressing was added. It was a show as well as a feast–we’d often share one, along with other entrees.

The restaurant had a diverse menu and it was all good–everything from steaks and spare ribs to deli sandwiches and pasta. Living on a college student budget a plate of spaghetti, a share of a Spinning Bowl and one of their famous chocolate creme pies or New York Cheesecakes would leave you pretty satisfied.

By the time I started going there to eat in the early ’70s, ownership had passed to Joseph and Morris Levy, along with brothers Marvin and Jacob Newman (Classic Restaurants, p. 112). I regret that I never visited during the heyday of the Malkoff’s ownership, but it sounds like the Levy’s kept the wait staff who had worked for the Malkoff’s along with a chef trained by Faye. I spoke to Morris Levy who gave me permission to use the picture in this article. I joked with him that as sometimes boisterous college students he probably had to shush us. He said most likely he would have joined in with the fun. At any rate, we always found the 20th Century a great place for good food and celebration.

During this time, much of the business growth on the North side had moved north of Gypsy Lane into Liberty Township. The area of Belmont on which the restaurant was located began to decline and customers felt increasingly unsafe visiting the restaurant. Ultimately, it was closed in the late 1980’s and is no more.

Still, as restaurants go, a forty-five year plus run is pretty amazing when so many start ups last only a few years. It was a great place for first dates, anniversaries, celebrations, or a place for a good lunch if you worked downtown or on the North side. It combined a unique atmosphere with great, distinctive menu items. And for most of us, what we will remember most is those awesome Spinning Bowl Salads.

I hope you will add your memories of the 20th Century to this post.

[After sending a copy of this post to Morris Levy, he sent me this recipe for the Spinning Bowl Salad.]

           SPINNING BOWL SALAD

Dressing: 50% Miracle Whip,  50% KRAFT Zesty Italian. Whip until smooth.

Croutons: Use day old white sandwich bread cut into
squares.  Bake lightly on both sides,  sprinkle with powdered garlic/
liquid butter mix, then  bake somemore.

Hard boiled egg: grated. Crumbled blue cheese

Head lettuce chopped coarsely, optional a tad of escarole

Enjoy,  Morris ‘Blondie’ Levy

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Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Stuffed Peppers

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By Biskuit (originally posted to Flickr as Stuffed Pepper) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.o)], via Wikimedia Commons

About this time of the year or even sooner, gardeners in Youngstown would be overwhelmed with peppers of all varieties — banana, Hungarian, chili and bell peppers. The question, especially with the last was what to do with them. Sure you could cut them up in strips, dip them in a good dip mix, and munch on them. But the favorite solution at many Youngstown tables was to stuff them.

I have to say that as a kid, I liked the stuffing more than the peppers when they had been cooked. I think I actually liked peppers better in the raw. If I could get away with it, I’d eat out the stuffing and leave those limp cooked peppers on the side of the plate. But if mom was there, she’d insist I eat the peppers. The trick was to get enough stuffing to minimize the taste of the pepper in each bite but to stretch the stuffing to last the whole pepper.

The basic recipe was big blocky bell peppers with the tops removed and the seeds and inner membranes removed. Then you created a stuffing of cooked rice, browned ground beef, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and seasonings (every cook has their own preference). Then the stuffed peppers are baked in an oven for roughly an hour. A good example of a recipe that looks like the stuffed peppers I grew up with can be found at allrecipes.com.

But the great thing about stuffed peppers are that there are all kinds of ingredients you can substitute. My wife makes a meatless recipe with chili beans, corn and salsa as the principle ingredients. Both to add taste and eye appeal, some melted cheese on the top with a parsley garnish is a nice touch. Various meats or no meat at all can be used. I’ve seen recipes with yogurt, shrimp, eggs and cheese, chili stuffing, quinoa, orzo and more. Basically, if you can put it in a pita, an omelette, a burrito, or a fajita, you can put it in a pepper!

Then there are different kinds of peppers you can use. Beyond the tried and true bell peppers there are Hungarian peppers, chili peppers, poblano peppers, jalapeno peppers and more. It seems that people stuff peppers all over the world!

It makes sense that stuffed peppers would be a Youngstown staple. They consist of basic, inexpensive ingredients that when put together make a tasty, sustaining meal. And they use up all that garden produce!

How did your family make stuffed peppers? Did you like them as a kid? Do you like them now?

[Want to read other posts in the “Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown” series? Just click on “On Youngstown” here or on the menu!]

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Pioneer Pavilion

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1916 Postcard of Pioneer Pavilion

Did you ever attend a party or a wedding at Pioneer Pavilion when you were growing up? I have at least two memories of events at the Pavilion. The first was a square dance a college fellowship I was a part of had in the Pavilion. The wood floors, beams and stonework made it the perfect complement to our dance, which was just a good and fun way to meet people and work off some energy. I remember the dance being in the fall, and when we got a bit warm, we could step outside into the cool night air and cool off and look at the stars in the autumn sky.

The other memory was a wedding held outside in the middle of the summer. It was a beautiful setting except that some bees found the bride’s bouquet very attractive, a bit of a distraction from the joyous proceedings. But the setting was gorgeous, the bees eventually dealt with, and the couple well, and happily married.

I was amazed to learn that the Pavilion is nearly 200 years old and one of the oldest structures in Youngstown, being built in 1821, long before the founding of Mill Creek Park in 1891. According to the Mill Creek Metroparks website, it originally served as a mill for carding and fulling wool, then later as a storeroom for the nearby Mill Creek Furnace. Obviously, this sandstone structure was well-built and has served as a gathering place for parties, weddings and other events since it was remodeled for this purpose shortly after the park’s founding, in 1893. According to Wikipedia, the renovation of the Pavilion in 1893 helped provide employment for men who had lost jobs during the Panic of 1893.

Pioneer Pavilion is located on a portion of Old Furnace Road (connecting it with its Mill Creek Furnace history) that descends steeply into the Mill Creek gorge part of the park from the intersection with West Cohasset Drive on the west, and Robinson Hill Drive on the east. I used to love to coast down the hill on the one side, making the tight bend by the Pavilion and then the strenuous climb up the other side.

Pioneer Pavilion continues to serve the Youngstown area as a location for graduations, weddings, family reunions, and other events. The upstairs can accommodate up to 96 people, the downstairs up to 24. Gas log fireplaces add to the ambiance. Rental information is available on the Mill Creek Metroparks website.

Pioneer Pavilion, along with Lanterman’s Mill, is one of the historical and architectural treasures of Youngstown. I am amazed how similar recent pictures of the Pavilion look to the postcard above from 1916. None of us knows what the future will bring but I hope there will be those with the foresight of Volney Rogers who will continue to maintain this historic building, and monument to Youngstown’s early industrial heritage, for future generations.

I’d love to hear your memories of gatherings at Pioneer Pavilion!

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Shift Whistles

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Antique Steam Whistle, Public Domain (via Wikipedia)

When I was growing up in Youngstown, days were broken into three parts, basically first or day shift (7 am to 3 pm), second or afternoon shift (3 pm to 11 pm) and third or night shift (11 pm to 7 am). We lived close enough to the mills that we could hear the shift whistles announcing the start of one shift and the end of another. When I was in elementary school and the weather was warm and the windows open, 3 pm shift whistle told us we had just 15 minutes before the school bell would ring the end of the day. The 7 am whistle was a good wake up call. The 11 pm whistle was a reminder at a certain point in my teen years that if you were out, it was time to be home. (Remember the TV ads that solemnly pronounced: “It is 11 o’clock. Do you know where your children are?”). The whistle sounded something like this.

The cover article in the current issue of YSU Magazine, Youngstown State’s alumni magazine, brought back this childhood memory. A team of five Mechanical Engineering Technology students have reproduced the steam-powered stainless steel shift whistle, similar to those used in steel mills, to be used at YSU football games as a “spirit” whistle. It sounds in the note of C and in tests has been heard clear across town. It will be mounted at the south end of Stambaugh Stadium.

Shifts were not always eight hours. At one time, they could be twelve hours but with the efforts of unions, mills gradually went from two to three shifts. It was optimal to run around the clock, and economic times had to be hard to lay off a shift.

Most people didn’t like working the night shifts. You just couldn’t sleep as well during the day, yet, because of the dangers of steel-making, you need to be alert at night. Studies show that more accidents, work place errors, and a variety of health issues from higher alcohol use to heart disease and cancer may be related to night work. Similarly, while guys liked the extra money of over-time, when they could get it, this also is hard on health. It seems like most of the dads who worked in the mill in our neighborhood tended to work days. They’d often stop at one of the bars near the mills and you’d see them between 4 and 5 pm, in time for dinner.

One of my family members worked for a time in the mills at Republic Steel, and being low in seniority, he worked a number of nights. I remember going with dad sometimes on Friday nights when we were allowed to stay up late to drop our family member off at the mill and being in awe of how the mills lit the night sky and the size of the blast furnaces up close.

The passage of time across the Mahoning Valley is not marked by shift whistles these days. Shift work goes on in factories and places like hospitals. But on Saturday home games each fall, a sound many of us grew up hearing every day will remind us to root for our YSU Penguins and call back the memories of the past, and maybe memories of anticipating dad’s or an older sibling’s arrival home.