Growing up in West Akron

“HERE, FRIENDSHIP’S FLAME WILL FIND A GLAD RENEWAL, WHERE MIRTH AND KINDLY CHAT SUPPLY THE FUEL.”

We moved here to Delaware Ave. when I was 7. It was my parent’s 3^rd and final house. Their 1^st house was on Stabler Rd. next door to the Garretts – our cousins through my mom’s sister MaryJean and Bob and their kids – Rob, Ann, Julie, MaryEllen, Charlie, Dave and Amy – that probably is in age order [been advised ;-)] and I’m not sure if they’d all been born on Stabler, and many neighbors who became their life-long friends. Their 2^nd house was on Metz Ave., a few doors away from my grandparents on Conger Ave. – Charlie and Marguerite [Madge] Lindberg. Madge’s sister Theresa [Aunt Teesy] from Pittsburgh also lived with them until she passed away.

Ann and Betty [Elizabeth] Dobbins and their life-long friend Madeline Fifer lived a couple blocks away on Conger Ave. They’d grown up as neighbors on Byers Ave., around the corner from Charlie and Marguerite [Brooks] on Portage Path. Ann was a public elementary school principal, Betty was a clerk for the Akron probate court, and Madeline was an English teacher and an accomplished organist. The three never married and shared a house with Aunt Mae – Madge’s sister – who had been stricken with MS and was bedridden. They all moved to Pembroke Rd. behind Fairlawn Plaza, where they remained, and where Aunt Mae passed away. Ann, Betty and Madeline always came over for family get-togethers.

At the time my sister Barbara and I were adopted, and through most of our childhood, Charlie was the patriarch of our family on my mom’s side. We had many family meals at our houses. Some times at the Dobbins, some times at grandma and grandpa’s, some times at our house. The Garretts moved to Avon Lake – on Coveland Dr. – I guess around the time we moved to Metz, about an hour away from Akron. They often came down to Akron for a family get-together, and sometimes we’d go up there for special occasions. I remember the common lubricant for the adults at these times was a whiskey sour with a maraschino cherry. Some times we’d get the cherry.

I remember our parents always had all of us kids looking well-groomed and nicely dressed, and the adults were all dressed nicely as well. The men usually wore a coat and tie, and the women wore dresses. For the boys, neat haircuts were never neglected. At the time we didn’t know how important hair length would become to our parents when we became teenagers, and that we’d expend huge amounts of drama and energy on the subject.

On my Dad’s side, Aunt Mary and Grandma Lucy Imperial, who for much of my childhood lived with Mary after Grandpa Felix Imperial passed away in Richmond, Indiana, would also join us. They lived on Dan St. in North Hill in Mary’s house. Her husband Mike passed away the year I was born so I never knew him. I understand he was a good mechanic. Back then some cars didn’t have heaters – at least his car didn’t. So he fabricated a heater in the cab by routing radiator water to warm the passengers. Mary was a seamstress for one of the department stores, I think O’Neil’s. She took the bus to work. She never remarried after Mike passed away.

We had extended families in Richmond and Chicago who would occasionally come to visit, and who we would also travel to visit. My Dad’s family came from Richmond. We’d see Uncle Tony Mitrione [Lucy’s brother] and Uncle Ray [my Dad’s brother] and his wife Evelyn, and also Aunt Edith [Dad’s oldest sister] and her husband Arnie, who came to visit us in Akron with some frequency. Arnie worked for International Harvester. He and Edith spent many years overseas before retiring to Boca Raton. My Mother’s family in Chicago [Charlie’s sister Aunt Ethel and Uncle Gene, their son Richard Roth, and some of my Mom’s cousins who I only have faint memory of] visited us a couple times. The family get-togethers always involved a meal for the whole clan, whoever could be there. Charlie, the butcher, would provide the meat, and we all ate a lot of good meat.

On my Dad’s side, we’d have occasional Sunday mid-day meals with spaghetti, bragioli, and meatballs. Mary and Lucy would start the sauce in the morning. It was a very light sauce that compelled consumption. I would eat 3 full plates, sprinkled with fine ground parmesan, without coming up for air. After these meals, the men would light their cigars, the women their cigs, and we might have polka varieties on the TV.

When I was very young, we visited Richmond and stayed with Grandpa Felix and Grandma Lucy. They had a long kitchen table where Felix would start each morning with hot coffee and Ritz crackers. He’d float the crackers in the coffee first. In the basement he had a grape press. He’d buy crates of grapes, crush them and make his own wine. In the backyard he had a workshop at the far end, and he raised strawberries, tomatoes and corn in the small yard. My Dad and Raymond would sell the tomatoes from a wagon. I remember one time Lucy hand grinding through a wheel of parmesan cheese on the kitchen table, building up a big pile of ground cheese for subsequent meals with the smell of fresh ground parmesan filling the house.

My Dad grew up entertaining people. He was a child prodigy on the accordion, performing commercially at the age of 10. He went on to lead swing big bands in high school, college, and again when he first arrived in Akron after college. I think Andy’s experiences in the limelight formed the culture that he and Marge and their friends would enjoy for the rest of their lives. My parents regularly entertained friends and family.

Entertaining in their broader social circles was usually a cocktail party format with 10 or 20 couples enjoying hors d’oeuvres, mixed drinks, big band music on the high fi, and tons of laughter. Barbie and I would briefly show up at the beginning of these soirees and then be excused to go upstairs to bed and leave the adults to their party.

The Delaware house had a large deep blue granite fireplace façade below the mantle in the living room. I’m not sure if it was added to the house, along with a large granite front door stoop, when the owner of the Daily Monument Company bought the house [who my parents subsequently bought it from], or if it was part of the original buildout. It had the above inscription engraved into the granite.

It was a perfect fit for my parents, our family, their friends, and the Akron life I was blessed to grow up in. Today, all those prior generations of accomplished people, in their high and gracious society, crowd each other only in my memory. There were no oppressors and oppressed, no politics. There were just people enjoying the full expressions of their various capacities. They’d created quite a marvelous world for themselves and for us kids. I’m sure none of us who grew up in that world can ever forget it.