“Youngstown expats” still feel the Valley’s pull

By Sarah Lehr | August 29, 2016 at 12:05a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Once in a while, Rosalyn Torella will catch a whiff of flue dust when she drives past Spero’s Point, near her adopted home of Woodland, Md.

For Torella, it smells like home.

“Other people might say, ‘Oh that’s such a disgusting smell,” Torella said. “To me, that’s such a nostalgic smell.”

Torella grew up in Lowellville during the 1970s, when the steel mills belched their last gasps of flue dust. She obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Youngstown State University and then worked for the Social Security Administration in Warren for 15 years. In 2005, Torella decided to move to a Baltimore suburb to advance her career. She kept her home in Austintown, however, and plans to return to the Valley when she retires in 2022.

Torella’s story is a familiar one.

The Mahoning Valley’s dramatic depopulation, catalyzed by the closure of the steel mills at the end of the 1970s, has spawned headlines such as “The incredible Shrinking City” (CNN, 2008) and more recently “The City that Embraced its Decline” (The Atlantic, 2016.)

It’s also spawned a sizeable population of “Youngstown expats” who frequently take to Facebook groups such as “I used to live in Youngstown, Ohio” to reminisce about their hometown.

THE YOUNGSTOWN FACTOR

Mark Nye, who grew up in Youngstown and now lives in Philadelphia, says he feels an “instant connection” when he encounters other Valley natives.

That connection, Nye said, is difficult to describe in words.

“It’s kind of like a badge — that you’re from Youngstown,” Nye said. “There’s almost a mental toughness or an emotional resilience. There’s a certain mentality that goes along with having a granddad that worked in a mill.”

Invariably, Nye said, Youngstown expats will lament the lack of “good” Italian food.

“At an Italian restaurant in Youngstown, you always knew somebody’s grandma was in the kitchen making the sauce,” Nye said.

Arguments about the best Youngstown pizzeria are inevitable among Valley emigrants. Nye himself is an Elmton man, though he acknowledged that such a preference is “sacrilegious” to devotees of Belleria or Cocca’s pizza.

Several Youngstown expats said it’s possible to spot a Youngstown native in a faraway place by several verbal quirks.

Nye noted that Valley residents will often add a possessive “s” to the name of a business or restaurant.

“They say, I’m going to the Giant Eagle’s or I’m going to the Walmart’s,” Nye said. “That’s definitely a speech pattern that’s firmly rooted in Northeast Ohio.”

Others commented on the Valley habit of saying “yuns” to mean “you ones” or “you guys.”

A CHANGING CITY

Ken Brown, who grew up in Boardman and now lives in Dover, N.H., does not often return to the Valley.

The last he visited Youngstown, he was startled to find that Boardman was bustling while downtown Youngstown seemed like a ghost town by comparison. Many of his childhood landmarks, Dover said, had been boarded up or torn down.

“It was shocking to find not just specific buildings, but whole swatches of buildings and whole neighborhoods gone,” Brown said. “It’s jarring when these things don’t exist to jog your memory.”

Nye, who frequently visits family in the Valley, takes a more optimistic view of Youngstown’s shifting landscape. In particular, Nye cites a revitalized downtown and the expansion of YSU,

Nye, who grew up in Youngstown during the height of the steel crisis, has a brother 15 years his junior who is a now a student at YSU.

“My Youngstown is completely different from his Youngstown,” Nye said.