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WYSO, the Dayton Metro Library and local social service agency, Rebuilding Together Dayton, have come together for a very special project. We’ve gathered the memories and wise words of Dayton’s elders for Senior Voices, a new series that is airing throughout 2018. We present them to you in honor of the life experiences and wisdom of Dayton elders.

Senior Voices: Dan Nagle

Dan Nagle
Senior Voices

This week on Senior Voices, we meet Dan Nagle. Dan and his family have lived in Dayton for generations. He attended Chaminade High School and the University of Dayton before a stint in the Army and law school at Georgetown. Last September, he shared his story with Dayton Metro Library volunteer interviewer, Linda Pitzer.

Transcript:

LINDA PITZER: Do you have a favorite thing about living in Dayton? Would you recommend it to other people?

DAN NAGLE: Oh, yeah. Sure. I think at the present time living in Dayton has got to be nothing but plus plus plus. We have seen as other cities have deteriorated moderately other time Dayton had did the same thing. The bad thing... there’s...the good and the bad is all here. And the bad is even growing up Dayton had a ghetto. And the ghetto was surrounded by the River… the Mad River to where the Wright historical area is, in that particular area. At one time they had everything there. They had the shops...they had the… folks didn’t even have to go downtown. It’s like when my daughter says that they live in Atlanta, that’s fine, they don’t live in Atlanta they live in Marietta (GA), what’s outside of Atlanta, they probably never go into Atlanta, that’s the way it was there, that’s the way it was like when we lived in Dayton View, we had a lot of combinations there. But unfortunately, in 1966 the riots occurred and the places were taken down and they’re trying to come back, the scars are still there, but they’re trying to come back, I think they’re coming back beautifully.

I think that one of the things we’re are doing, in fact what’s generated in this conversations is, something that’s being put on record for the future, a black box that is available for someone a hundred years from now, and I think the biggest thing is… the people who are working in Dayton who are trying to improve our life, to improve our town, through any, I can just imagine if we were hit with Irma, how solidified the people of Dayton would come together and I think that is one of the biggest things also. It’s neat to go to the grocery store and just have somebody come up and say, “Can I help you put anything into the car?” This is what I’m finding a lot being done and I’d just like to see that carried over in all facts of income people, we just get off of, get off of, “me me me.”

This interview was edited by Community Voices producer William Brown. Senior Voices is a collaboration between the Dayton Metro Library, Rebuilding Together Dayton, and WYSO. This series is made possible through the generous support of the Del Mar Healthcare Fund of the Dayton Foundation. 

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