“The guy who was over the department…said that I might have some problems because they had never had anybody black in the office.” Transcript for Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained When I graduated from high school, I got a job working for a realtor in Gary on 19th and Broadway. And while I was working there, […]
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The Strike at Froebel
“We were in school one day, the next day when we went back, the entire white population of students were gone.” Transcript for The Strike at Froebel I was totally shocked when I moved to Gary. For the simple reason, I had not encountered some of the prejudice in Detroit in school that I encountered […]
Remember Where You Came From
“You can never forget who you are.” Transcript for Remember Where You Came From I say to my grandkids all the time, you can never forget who you are, but you have to remember where you come from. You know what the WPA is? It was a work program that Roosevelt set up for people […]
Back Then, It Mattered
“So these are things that I kind of learned that I didn’t realize I was learning.” Transcript for Back Then, It Mattered I’m Croatian. And when I was a kid, it mattered. My dad was Croatian, my grandfather, George Davich, he was a city worker for the city of Gary. Street Department. And he was […]
Bigger Forces Swirling
“I realized that my little Wonder Bread existence in Miller was not quite what I thought it was.” Transcript for Bigger Forces Swirling I grew up in the Miller section of Gary in the late 1960s through the ‘70s, and it was a typical white, suburbia, middle-class upbringing, but it was changing. Everything was in […]
Hitting Home
“I was starting to grow up and see things the way my parents were seeing them.” Transcript for Hitting Home The school I went to in Detroit was what they say now was integrated. When I came here to Gary, there was an East Pulaski and a West Pulaski. East Pulaski was for my people, […]
It’s the American Dream
“We were good workers, and we did our job well, but we didn’t have a passion. You have to have a passion in life.” Transcript for It’s the American Dream You come here for work, and you work in the steel mills, and it’s simple as that. I mean, my grandpa worked in the steel […]
Lives That Are Totally Alien
“The use of the car, I think, has dramatically changed the way people live.” Transcript for Lives That Are Totally Alien It used to be that people could either walk to downtown Gary or take a bus and the car was not as prevalent as it became later on, but now it’s a car to […]
Learn from the Past to Build a Future
“There should be an allegiance to Gary to build it up and make it prosper once again.” Transcript for Learn from the Past to Build a Future As a history major, I know that we learn from the past to build a future. And to not acknowledge our history, whether it be family, just strictly […]