Lakewood Lore

Rich stores of memories are treasured by resident

To Stephen Slimak, 87, personal recollections of Lakewood’s past are his treasures -- gold pieces coined in the mint of memory. They kindle a spark in his eyes, shore up his voice and carve a smile on his face.

“As kids, we were great at improvising,” Steve remembers. “In the winter, we would pour buckets of water along the curbside of Cohassett. When the water froze, we’d coast down the street all the way from Madison to Franklin on a bobsled we made by laying a plank across two sleds.

“We ice-skated in Madison Park, which was then all swamp and pasture,” he continued. “We would crank up a Victrola in a second-floor room of a house on Halstead overlooking the park. Then we’d open a window and dance below to the music while skating.”

Steve frequently skated over frozen swampland from the park to Kamm’s Corners several miles away.

“Sometimes we would put on our skates at the mouth of Rocky River, hold kite-like hand sails we’d made, and get blown out in the lake to a one-mile water intake crib that was in use before today’s five-mile crib,” he said.

“Winter fishing in the river was a cinch. When we spotted fish swimming under the ice, we’d hit the spot with a club. That would stun them. Then we’d chip a hole and scoop out the fish.”

Steve believes, too, that he was one of the first guys to play softball on ice skates, and belonged to a league that used a pond at Clague Park in Westlake.

Environmental cleanup was not unknown in early Lakewood, according to Steve. “We kids used to roam the neighborhoods collecting used nails, and get two cents a basket for them from the paper-rags man who came regularly with his horse and wagon. He also bought bones, bottles, newspapers and all kinds of metal.”

Another source of pocket change for Steve and his friends was crop picking. Area farmers would stop at Madison Park each morning during the growing season to hire youngsters to help with the harvesting.

Steve remembers getting paid three cents a quart basket for picking strawberries. He weeded, too, and still recalls how sore his knees got.

Many of his memories, however, center in the southeastern part of the city, once known as the Old Carbon District and for many years referred to as Birdtown or the Birds’ Nest, because five of its streets are named after birds -- Thrush, Plover, Robin, Lark and Quail.

“I was born here in 1902 and am still here,” said Steve, who lives on Lark with Anna, his wife of 63 years.

He had to quit school and go to work after his father was laid off from the plant at Berea and Madison that made Winton automobiles. Steve’s first job was for Theodore Kundtz, wealthy Lakewood industrial tycoon who owned a company that made cabinets for sewing machines.

Starting pay was 7 ½ cents an hour. Later, he was put on piece-work, and under the new system earned the then-big sum of $35 his first week, all of which was paid to him in the gold coins of the era. Still later he worked as an upholsterer at various places.

Finally, he joined the Eveready Division of Union Carbide, where he made reflectors, springs and other parts for flashlights. After 25 years, he received his retirement watch in 1977 at age 65.

The Slimaks reared three children -- Robert, James and Ruth -- and now have 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Steve’s favorite hobby always has been picking mushrooms, once plentiful in Lakewood. According to Anna, their children clamor for her homemade mushroom soup, especially at each Christmas reunion.

As a young man, Steve was a pretty fair amateur baseball outfielder, and had a few yellowed clippings to prove it.

While playing for the Petro Stars, a team backed by a former Clark Avenue bowling alley, he got to know Johnny Risko, a Birdtown native who became a big name in the boxing ring in the ‘20s. Risko chalked up 137 professionals fights during his career, beating Jack Sharkey and Max Baer who later became world champions.

“As a fighter, Johnny was a tough heavyweight -- a mauler and a spoiler who could lick the best of ‘em,” Steve said. “He also played baseball with me on the Stars, where he was good hitter, a good first baseman and one helluva nice guy.”

This article by Dan Chabek appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post July 26, 1990. Reprinted with permission.

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