DIANE MURPHY

At the top of the flier was a graphic -- an old Youngstown postcard featuring a steel mill, enormous and awash in light, with a dozen smokestacks, partly hidden by the words, "Greetings from Youngstown, Ohio -- Steel City, U.S.A."
But, what really caught my eye, as I looked at the flier taped to the wall by the elevators in YSU's DeBartolo Hall, were the words below the reprint of the postcard.
"Steel Town ... Crimetown USA ... The City of Homes ... Home town ... Youngstown has been called many things. Poets, storytellers, artists, filmmakers and songwriters have all created versions of Youngstown's story. Come explore these versions of Youngstown and create your own by taking this course!"
Dr. Sherry Linkon, who, along with Dr. John Russo, created YSU's Center for Working Class Studies as well as the course nicknamed "Youngstown Stories," has her own Youngstown story.
Changed her
Recently named Ohio Professor of the Year, and having had her face on enough signs, ads and booklet covers to cause her to admit she is weary of it, Linkon says Youngstown has changed her.
"My Youngstown story is that coming here changed my career and life," Linkon said. With a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in American Studies, her focus had been 19th century middle-class women. Working with YSU students, however, got Linkon interested in working-class studies.
"Being here has let me connect being an academic to being a citizen of the community," she said. "It's a much more satisfying career, plus life. [Youngstown] is such an interesting place."
Linkon's enthusiasm and work here have led to the development of a new field of study: working-class studies. It is just one more of the "amazingly creative things" that have happened here, according to Linkon. And the evolution of her course, which is advertised on campus via fliers like the one mentioned above, has led to a link between the history of Youngstown, developing one's personal story of Youngstown and the city's place in literature.
As an example, Linkon points to one of the poems she uses in her course, "The Orange Bears" by Kenneth Patchen, the son of a mill employee. The orange bears were the steel workers Patchen knew as a 10-year-old, who had "their paws smashed in the rolls, their backs seared by hot slag ..."
When the National Guard came to break up a strike, Patchen sadly writes:
"I remember you could put daisies
On the windowsill at night and in
The morning they would be so covered with soot
You couldn't tell what they were anymore.
A hell of a fat chance my orange bears had!"
Place in history
In addition to poetry, films, artworks from the Butler collection and stories of the steel mills in prose, Linkon examines Youngstown's place in the nation's history. "Our little steel strike of 1937 had a major impact on the country," she said, as an example. "And when they talk about the shutting down of the steel industry, they talk about Youngstown. They talk about the legendary community effort to save the mills."
Linkon also guides students to discover their own stories. Each student goes on a journey through his own family's history. The results have been astounding. On the Center for Working Class Studies Web site, www.as.ysu.edu/~cwcs, at the "Working Class Culture in Youngstown" link, you will find student projects. For example, John Jones' "Uncle Bob's Glasses" provides a picture of the safety goggles Jones' uncle and great uncle wore in the mills and reveals his uncle's history.
Miriam Helle writes of "My Grandfather's 1969 Mustang." Her grandpa worked long hours at Youngstown Sheet and Tube, but always had time for his "toy." Stephanie Didek's site reveals "Life as an Entrepreneur" in discussing her grandparents' "Didek's Market."
"It blows my mind. They come in with their eyes wide open with what they've learned. Part of what we argue is that the stories matter," Linkon said.
Though Linkon's class, AMER3701 or ENGL4864, has only a few more slots open, the center is pursuing offering a similar course to the community at large. To voice your interest in learning Youngstown's story and writing your own, call Linkon at (330) 941-2977.
murphy@vindy.com