Chapter 8. The Family Comes into Better Times

By the year 1934, more good things began to happen. Doctor Nick had been in a steadily growing practice since 1930. He and Leona had presented father and mother with their first grandchild, Joanne, who as the first girl in the family, was totally spoiled. Father and brother Nick were now finally completely reconciled and Nick was back in his position as the scion of the family! 1934 also saw brother Sol married to Marian Graves, a pretty young nurse he had met earlier while he was recuperating from an appendectomy at St. John Hospital. She was smart and efficient, with dark hair nicely bobbed and a warm smile. They had been married at St. Agnes Catholic Church, located at the corner of East 79th and Euclid Avenue with all the members of both families present. I had the honor of being “best man.” It was a beautiful wedding. The thing that impressed me about that wedding was its serenity and its music. To this day, I recall the beautiful strains of the Ave Maria as it was sung by a young and very handsome tenor, Joe Moribito. As he sang, a hush enveloped the church. I am not exaggerating when I say that I actually experienced goose bumps! I still feel those same goose bumps whenever I hear the Ave Maria!

I continued to work at the Harvey Rice Branch of the Cleveland Public Library. I had been promoted to Head Page, overseeing the work of three other pages, and was now earning twenty cents and hour! One day early in June of 1934, Miss Brooker received a telephone call from Mrs. Harry E. Beatley, who was in charge of the pages at the Main Library. She asked Miss Brooker to recommend one of her pages for promotion to work at the Main Library. Miss Brooker recommended me! On June 11, 1934, I was transferred to the Shelf Division at the Main Library to work for Mrs, Beatley with an increase of four cents an hour!

Upon my promotion to the Main Library, with father’s and my encouragement, brother Arthur, who had just graduated from John Adams High School, applied for and got my job at the Harvey Rice Branch Library and so also joined the family corps of workers. He too by now had decided to study medicine and had already applied and been accepted at John Carroll University. This too was all in line with father’s plan. He did not want Arthur to be held back as I was after graduating from high school. For economic reasons, I had been forced to lose almost three years before going on to college! Although we were still in the depths of the depression, the family exchequer had improved because of Doctor Nick’s increased contributions to the family coffers. Father figured that as the family financial controller, his frugal and wise use of the funds contributed to the family pool by the four of us should not only continue to support the paternal home, but also enable Arthur and I to pursue our educational goals!

Father’s plan worked! I graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree from John Carroll University on June 8, 1937, all the while working six hours each day after classes during the week and a full day on weekends! In those four years, I had risen from the position of General Page to Head Page at the Main Library, going from twenty-four cents and hour to fifty cents an hour as the Head Page! At this point, I had won a partial scholarship at the old Western Reserve University Graduate School of Library Science and was waiting to matriculate there in September of 1937.

Arthur graduated from John Carroll University in June of 1938 as a Pre-Medical Student with a Bachelor of Science degree and had been accepted as a medical student at the Loyola University School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. During his four years in college, Arthur also continued to work as a library page. In 1936, he also was promoted and transferred from the Harvey Rice Branch Library to the Main Library as a General Page in the Shelf Division and worked under me as Head Page. In later years, whil’e reminiscing about those days, we laughed about how he used to complain that, as his boss, I overworked him, always assigning him to the busiest divisions, places where he had to work harder than all the other pages. As his supervisor, I could not show favoritism in any way.

While at the Western Reserve University School of Library Science, I was promoted to Student Assistant in the Sociology Division of the Main Library where I began to feel the challenge, excitement, and thrill of doing reference and research work.

When granted my degree in Library Science, I received my first professional appointment in the Cleveland Public Library System. On July 1, 1938, I was appointed to the position of Junior Reference Assistant in the Sociology Division of the Main Library at the salary of $1,380 a year. I was walking on clouds!

For father, this was another milestone in his master plan. He now had a doctor, a successful lithographer and a professional librarian in the family. The next and final step in his master plan was to see that Arthur reached his goal. The plan was that Nick, Sol and I would not only continue to support the family home but also help Arthur with his medical school expenses. He of course was expected to work during summer vacations to carry his share of his medical school financial requirements. Arthur went off to the Loyola School of Medicine in late August 1938 with the assurance that he had a secure financial base at home for the four years that he was to spend gaining his medical degree.

These were ominous times. By March of 1939, Adolph Hitler had begun his march in Europe. Czechoslovakia had been dismembered. His conquest of Europe had been initiated with the blitzkrieg of Poland in September of that year. World War II had begun and young people like Arthur and myself knew that it would not be long before the United States would be brought into it and that our future lives and careers would be affected! Arthur successfully completed his medical studies at Loyola, graduating in 1942. During his last two years at Loyola he had served as a medical extern at The Cook County General Hospital in Chicago where he gained valuable experience as a prelude to his internships that were to follow. In July of 1942, Arthur began his internship at St. Vincent Charity Hospital located at East 22na and Cedar Avenue.