Competition Came In
“What happened with the steel industry is foreign steel.” Welcome Project at Valparaiso University · Competition Came In Edited by Rebecca Werner. Transcript for Title of Story Bethlehem Steel supposedly came to the Midwest and moved into U.S. Steel’s territory, supposedly after U.S. Steel had moved into one of Bethlehem’s territories, I think, in the…
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…
How I Tried to Leave
“My mother said, ‘Always leave a job to where maybe you could go back to it.’” Transcript for How I Tried to Leave My mother said, “Always leave a job to where maybe you could go back to it.” And that was how I tried to leave. Any job I left I tried to leave…
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,…
Terrible Things Happen
“I’m sitting in my car and I hear a crumple and next thing ya know, I’m out.” Welcome Project at Valparaiso University · Terrible Things Happen Produced by Welcome Project intern Noah Sobocinski. Transcript for Terrible Things Happen Part 1 I get in my car, and I’m driving. I get on to the highway–it’s all…
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…