Lakewood Lore

Life on Mars in 1908 was full of love, nickel matinees

Miriam Albrignt's memories of Lakewood go back to 1908 when her family moved to Mars Avenue onto property once owned by early pioneer Mars Wagar.

"When we came to that street, there were only a few houses, but plenty of wild grapes from which Mom and I made jelly," said Miriam, who turned 92 this spring.

"You know, it was considered a disgrace in those days to buy cakes, pies, jellies and jams. All of us made our own."

Miriam used to go to the movies at Lakewood Theater which, opening in 1923, stood on the south side of Detroit Avenue between Victoria and Elmwood. She recalled the beautiful cherubs that decorated the high ceiling of its dome-shaped entrance.

"However, women's clubs in Lakewood did not appreciate this art," she said. "They wanted clothes painted on the angels, but it never happened.

"There, for a nickel, I saw Pearl White serials -- movie melodramas where she was tied to a railroad track or left hanging from a cliff -- and we had to wait for the next installment to discover how she would be saved."

Miriam remembers the vendor who, during her youth, came down Lakewood streets selling hokey-pokeys. These were balls of ice cream wrapped in paper. They cost only 5 cents apiece and were very popular.

Another 5-cent bargain of the day was the cream puffs brought by a horse-drawn Star Bakery wagon. "I've never had any since that tasted as good as those nickel ones," the nonagenarian mused.

Neither will she forget how she and her young friends used to hop on the back of the iceman's wagon to scoop up small slivers of ice to chew. "I was warned not to climb aboard, but I did anyway," she confessed.

Miriam danced in long-gone McKasky's Hall on Detroit at Belle, where she chummed with the children of Alexander Winton, Lakewood's early automaker.

"People got together more often then. Neighbors were very friendly and caring. Many had Christmas dinner together," she recollected.

In early times, people were interested in different endeavors, too, according to Miriam. For instance, her aunt, Aldoret Sherman, gave elocution lessons to many children in our community, including those of the prominent Kundtz family.

Aunt Aldoret also taught them the then-popular Delsartian system, which used dumbbell exercises for developing bodily grace and dramatic expression. (Francois Delsarte, 1811-71, was a French musician and teacher.)

Miriam's grandfather was a first cousin of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman. Her father, Albert Sherman, died in 1902. Two years later, her mother married Ward Smith, who brought the family from Cleveland's University Circle to Lakewood 82 years ago.

Miriam graduated from Lakewood's high school in 1916 when it was located on Warren Road at the site of our present post office. She married John Albright in 1918, earned a bachelor's degree in 1918, earned a bachelor's degree in education from Western Reserve's Women's College in 1927, and later taught school in Fairview Park.

Husband John died in 1957 when he was 59.

The Albright's reared two sons -- John S. And Richard C. -- both of whom are Lakewood High grads. Miriam now has seven grandchildren.

Miriam has been a member of Lakewood United Methodist Church for 80 years. Early on, in the church's Sunday School, she met the late Margaret Manor Butler who became Lakewood's famous historian. They remained fast friends until Butler's death in 1971.

For the past 20 years, our subject has lived on Lakewood's Gold Cost where her favorite words to live by are "Love people more than things, and remember to give of yourself."

She likes to work crossword puzzles and watch "Jeopardy" on TV. She gets enjoyment, too, from "just observing the day-to-day beauties of nature, such as the flowers, sky, clouds and stars."

"When I was 4, my father told me just before he passed away: 'Pick out the brightest star each night and look at it. That will be me, and I will wink at you'" Miriam said. "And you know, I still believe him."

This article by Dan Chabek appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post June 21, 1990. Reprinted with permission.

[Note: Miriam Albright died in December, 1997. An obituary appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on December 17, 1997]

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