Eric Gibson Interview, 18 June 2013

Born in 1950, Gibson grew up first in the Glenville neighborhood and then in Kinsman, with most of that time at Garden Valley, an urban renewal housing development near Kinsman and East 79th Street. He tells great stories about the early days in Garden Valley in the late 1950s before the gullies were filled with dirt excavated along the downtown lakefront. He talks about various nightspots and music clubs all over the city, including Cougar Lounge, Teal Lounge, and several spots in the Euclid-East 105 area. Gibson worked for Eastside Drive-in near the Northfield Race Track and later for Embassy Theater and Flaming Embers restaurant in downtown. Then he worked 39.5 years at three different Ford plants in Brook Park. He discusses his work at Ford and the downward slide of the auto industry. He concludes with stories about the importance of "turf" and how, as a youth, he belonged to a "gang" called the Alley Rats.