Interview with Dorothy Kissel, November 26, 2017

Interview Summary

Dorothy Kissel, who was ninety-four when interviewed, was born in Over-the-Rhine in 1923 to parents who were from Romania and Germany. She recounts her early experiences in nursery school while living on Logan Street and her father’s experience walking across the canal to work at Kahn’s meat processing on Central Avenue, as well as her mother’s work cleaning downtown offices. She describes the centrality of work to her parents and her family life as well as an incident in which her family was pressured by the local Catholic school to donate more in order for her sister to receive better grades. She also shares some life pleasures, such the dances she and her family would attend and enjoying the pool at Washington Park. Dorothy’s narrative includes her time living in the dense West End on Charlotte Street in the 1930s and 1940s and the satisfaction and accomplishment her parents felt at being able to buy their own house in Montfort Heights, where they moved in the early 1950s.

Interview Keyword

Romania Kahn's Meats Parkway Apartments Washington Park pool West End Catholic schools Immigration Cincinnati (Ohio) Over-the-Rhine Charlotte Street Catholicism

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Interview Usage

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