Robby,
I love the joyful recess photo,
You and your band of 1st Graders,
Football buddies smiling on a May day
At St. Mary of the Assumption.
Reminds me of an October day, 1957,
Behind St. William's in Euclid,
Our ragtag football team, me
The shortest boy of the 12
(But let me brag--the fastest!
The fiercest competitor).
I wonder where they are now,
How their lives went,
If they kept the spark, the joy
Of little boys in their hearts.
Keep that joy, Robby boy!
--Grampa Bob ("Brrr") / May 2021
¡Besos Besos Besos para las Abuelitas!
The migrant workers in Hartville, Ohio,
Two thousand miles from home,
Bring their whole families,
Madres, niños, y abuelitas.
The abuelitas are grandmas to everyone,
Without exception, pinching their cheeks,
Making them food, offering sweets, and
Unconditional love,
"¡Te amo, niñita, muchísimo!"
And the children say, "Kisses Kisses Kisses!"
"¡Besos Besos Besos
para las Abuelitas!"
Bob Coughlin / 21 May 2021
[This poem was inspired by a true story told to us by Bess, the director of the Hartville Migrant Center in Hartville Ohio. They have a wonderful grower there that brings entire families to the work site, including the Grandmothers--who grandmother everyone with their blessed love.]
Cleveland Words
Canadian soldier. A kind of mayfly, born on Lake Erie, living about a day. They sometimes cover screens, sidewalks, and buildings within a mile of the lake in late June.
Babushka. From the Russian word for grandmother. A cloth head covering worn by all Catholic women in Euclid in the 1950s and '60s.
Potica. (pronounced po-TEE-tsuh). A dessert nut or poppy-seed roll.
Pierogi. Pasta stuffed with meat, potatoes, or fruit. Often fried with onions.
Treelawn. The strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street.
Luckystone. Small, polished stones composed of milky quartz, found mostly in eastern Cuyahoga, Lake, and Ashtabula Counties on the Lakeshore. See the photo below.
Parish. Cleveland Catholics lived in parishes, not named neighborhoods. "I live in OLA." (Our Lady of Angels). This is almost surely fading out.
Davenport. A long stuffed chair that could seat 3-4 people. Similar to a couch or sofa.
Lake Effect. Huge snowfalls generated by Lake Erie falling often on higher elevations on Cleveland's East Side.
Youse. Plural of "you," common among Euclid Slovenians.
Pail (chosen over bucket)
You can call a rivulet a Brook or Creek. Many local waterways are called brooks, as in "Doan Brook."
Some word pronunciations:
Sorry. SORE-ee (not sah-ree).
Tomorrow. Tuh-MORE-oh.
Cuyahoga. Cuy-uh-HOG-uh. Keep the HOG in CuyaHOGa.
Coupon. KOO-pahn. Not KYOO-pahn.
Many of these words and pronunciations were common on the East Side of Cleveland in the 1950s and '60s.
The round white stones at the foot of St. Francis are Lake Erie luckystones.#
Comments from Kathleen P.:
I love this list. Some of the words I never heard of, but Babushka brought back memories. That was the hat of choice for most schoolgirls I knew. The wool ones with flower patterns were the best for Cleveland winters. We tied them under our chins, as opposed to our bandannas tied behind our neck that I used from late '60s through the '90s.
We also wore Chapel veils and Mantillas to church. (As well as kleenex, instead of tissues, bobbi-pinned to our heads in a pinch)
Sadly I don't remember the Cleveland stones. I've always been a "special rock" collector. When I was a kid, my brother would go "Down in the Valley" looking for fossils. Cincinnati soil is all fossils! My friend, Margaret, used to live on Blue Rock Road, and that led to years of collecting blue-grey rocks for her garden. In Oregon we look for sea glass and stones shaped like hearts. We also have agates which can look almost like quartz that you can see the light come through. Our State rock is called the Thunder Rock - round ugly looking rocks that crack open to reveal crystals. (Same as a Geode, maybe).
Lake Effect, Parish, and Tree Lawn are three that are unique to Cleveland/NE Ohio I think. Also we had lightening bugs instead of fireflies. We had "money catchers", which could be anything from those large Mayflies to bits of pollen falling through the air. Cleveland area also has Buzzards, instead of Vultures, and Locusts instead of Cicadas.
Our family had Pully-bones instead of Wishbones. I think that was from my mother's Southern culture.
A bit of an aside: My daughter recently asked me what I meant by Soda Jerk.
