Prankster recalls days of mischief

Austintown man remembers days of stripping cars, being poor

By Erik Svenson
Youngstown State University

AUSTINTOWN - Mick Ervin accidentally stripped the car of someone living with his family in their tiny apartment. He took off the car’s large, gleaming fender skirts and bright yellow hubcaps, selling them to a local chop shop.

Later, the man who owned the car asked Mick about it, and he knew that he had just stripped that car. He had to go back to the chop shop and buy all the parts back to make amends with the man. He only stripped cars for a couple of years to make himself some spending money. “But that was kind of a job,” Mick says of his time stripping cars in Youngstown.

Milton Ervin was born at the Northside Hospital in Youngstown, on Sept. 16, 1942. His family was not very well off when he was a child and eight people would often live in their family’s two-bedroom apartment.

 Even then, they couldn’t always afford to pay rent, moving out the night before rent was due. “We were kind of like gypsies for a while,” Ervin said.

His dad hustled and scammed what he could, and his mother worked in bars, such as the famous Jungle Inn, a gambling den for gangsters in Youngstown in the 1940s. Mick’s father would also hide things for the mob. “He’d say, ‘boys don’t go in the garage,’” to his sons, and they listened, never really learning what their father was hiding. It was an unstable and very erratic childhood for Mick, and his childhood provided him with countless stories and lessons he’s brought to his own life.

As a kid, Mick himself did some odd jobs and small scams to make money. He would strip cars in parking lots in Youngstown with his friend Frank for a time, selling the parts to chop shops to make a few dollars. When he lived in Florida for a short time, Mick would put the money for a single newspaper in a paper machine and take the whole stack, selling them on a street corner. Once, when skinny dipping with his friend, Frank, he was unable to jump a fence in time to get away, and was picked up by a couple of cops. They made him sit on the floor of the car, because they didn’t want him to get the seats wet.

 Later that day, his mother saw him like that in the back of the car outside of their apartment just before yelling at the police officers for doing that to her son.

Sometimes, he would be busted for whatever he was up to. He’d fight people, toss school lunch trays out of the cafeteria window, strip cars and skip school. Whenever he’d get into trouble for any of these things, he’d have to report to a referee, but Mick was lucky, and never served any jail time for the stunts and small crimes. Despite never getting in too much trouble, the referee became very familiar with Mick’s face in his office after numerous visits.

He would run away from home often as a child, doing it about half a dozen times. When he did this, Mick would stand along the side of the road, hitchhiking his way to his grandparents’ farm in Pennsylvania. After a few days, he would decide it was time to go back, and make his way home along the highway. During the summers of his childhood, Mick would be sent off to work as free laborer on the farms his relatives owned in Pennsylvania. After completing work on each farm, he would be sent to work on the next.

Mick was skinny with thick and wavy dark hair. He attended eight different schools as a child, but was athletic enough as a teenager to join the Youngstown swim team.  He wanted no part of rougher sports like football. When he was 17, Mick joined the US Army, which he served in for three years. On the same day of his enlistment, his parents decided to get married to each other, for the third time.

In that same year, 1960, he went to Korea, but came back just one-and-a-half years later after being injured while sliding down a telephone pole. He served the rest of his time in an army base in Washington, DC, leaving before the Vietnam War erupted.

 He married Marilyn Miller in 1963, shortly before his service ended, much to the dismay of his new father-in-law. He disapproved of Mick so much that the young couple eloped. When Marilyn called her father afterwards, he said “I hope you know what you’ve done.” His attitude stayed the same for a while, though Mick eventually proved he was responsible by working hard at his job with the railroad. In 1965, Mick found out he had testicular cancer, and as a result, never got the chance to have children.

Mick also worked for several railroad companies over the course of 41 years until he retired in 2002. Over the years, he and his wife hosted foreign-exchange students from several countries such as Sweden, Argentina and Finland. He coached a baseball team for a few years before deciding it was more work than fun, and during that time, the Ervins would have kids at their house for all hours of the day.  Mick’s life has settled down and he and his wife now live in Austintown.

Mick Ervin accidentally stripped the car of someone living with his family in their tiny apartment. He took off the car’s large, gleaming fender skirts and bright yellow hubcaps, selling them to a local chop shop.

Later, the man who owned the car asked Mick about it, and he knew that he had just stripped that car. He had to go back to the chop shop and buy all the parts back to make amends with the man. He only stripped cars for a couple of years to make himself some spending money. “But that was kind of a job,” Mick says of his time stripping cars in Youngstown.

Milton Ervin was born at the Northside Hospital in Youngstown, on Sept. 16, 1942. His family was not very well off when he was a child and eight people would often live in their family’s two-bedroom apartment.

 Even then, they couldn’t always afford to pay rent, moving out the night before rent was due. “We were kind of like gypsies for a while,” Ervin said.

His dad hustled and scammed what he could, and his mother worked in bars, such as the famous Jungle Inn, a gambling den for gangsters in Youngstown in the 1940s. Mick’s father would also hide things for the mob. “He’d say, ‘boys don’t go in the garage,’” to his sons, and they listened, never really learning what their father was hiding. It was an unstable and very erratic childhood for Mick, and his childhood provided him with countless stories and lessons he’s brought to his own life.

As a kid, Mick himself did some odd jobs and small scams to make money. He would strip cars in parking lots in Youngstown with his friend Frank for a time, selling the parts to chop shops to make a few dollars. When he lived in Florida for a short time, Mick would put the money for a single newspaper in a paper machine and take the whole stack, selling them on a street corner. Once, when skinny dipping with his friend, Frank, he was unable to jump a fence in time to get away, and was picked up by a couple of cops. They made him sit on the floor of the car, because they didn’t want him to get the seats wet.

 Later that day, his mother saw him like that in the back of the car outside of their apartment just before yelling at the police officers for doing that to her son.

Sometimes, he would be busted for whatever he was up to. He’d fight people, toss school lunch trays out of the cafeteria window, strip cars and skip school. Whenever he’d get into trouble for any of these things, he’d have to report to a referee, but Mick was lucky, and never served any jail time for the stunts and small crimes. Despite never getting in too much trouble, the referee became very familiar with Mick’s face in his office after numerous visits.

He would run away from home often as a child, doing it about half a dozen times. When he did this, Mick would stand along the side of the road, hitchhiking his way to his grandparents’ farm in Pennsylvania. After a few days, he would decide it was time to go back, and make his way home along the highway. During the summers of his childhood, Mick would be sent off to work as free laborer on the farms his relatives owned in Pennsylvania. After completing work on each farm, he would be sent to work on the next.

Mick was skinny with thick and wavy dark hair. He attended eight different schools as a child, but was athletic enough as a teenager to join the Youngstown swim team.  He wanted no part of rougher sports like football. When he was 17, Mick joined the US Army, which he served in for three years. On the same day of his enlistment, his parents decided to get married to each other, for the third time.

In that same year, 1960, he went to Korea, but came back just one-and-a-half years later after being injured while sliding down a telephone pole. He served the rest of his time in an army base in Washington, DC, leaving before the Vietnam War erupted.

 He married Marilyn Miller in 1963, shortly before his service ended, much to the dismay of his new father-in-law. He disapproved of Mick so much that the young couple eloped. When Marilyn called her father afterwards, he said “I hope you know what you’ve done.” His attitude stayed the same for a while, though Mick eventually proved he was responsible by working hard at his job with the railroad. In 1965, Mick found out he had testicular cancer, and as a result, never got the chance to have children.

Mick also worked for several railroad companies over the course of 41 years until he retired in 2002. Over the years, he and his wife hosted foreign-exchange students from several countries such as Sweden, Argentina and Finland. He coached a baseball team for a few years before deciding it was more work than fun, and during that time, the Ervins would have kids at their house for all hours of the day. Their house was filled with people coming and going for a while, but eventually settled into a much more relaxing and quiet environment.

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