WEBVTT
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Speaker1: You got You learned Hebrew at the Hebrew Institute? Yeah, and
so.
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Speaker2: Did my son David, the older one. He learned Hebrew there.
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Speaker1: How many nights a week did you go in?
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Speaker2: It was like after school. Five days or four.
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Speaker1: Days a week. How? When did you start? Do you remember when they
started? How old they were when they started going? Uh.
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Speaker2: Most 9 or 10, something like that.
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Speaker1: The 3 or 4 years after school? Yeah, after school for five
days.
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Speaker2: One learned very much. Oh, believe me, I learned more in my day.
And I think I started when I was nine.
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Speaker1: Where did you go? To Hebrew school?
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Speaker2: Homestead.
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Speaker1: And did they have.
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Speaker2: Them in.
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Speaker1: Homestead? Oh. Did you go to the rabbi there?
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Speaker2: Yeah. Every night?
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Speaker1: Sure. It was the same kind of thing. Same.
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Speaker2: Same thing. But I think I learned more than they do.
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Speaker1: And you went to a rabbi?
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Speaker2: I can. I can. I can dolphin. I can pray, you know, But when I
was going to Hebrew, although I don't know what I'm saying, you know, like
the rest of the most of the average Jewish kid, he can he can he can pray
in Hebrew, but he doesn't know what he's saying.
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Speaker1: Uh huh. And you're one of those who doesn't know.
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Speaker2: That's right. Yeah. That's what I hold against it. That's what I
hold against it. But you can't draw. I can read. Yeah, they can. Well, my
David, he's forgot. He forgot he. That's right. He, he, he, uh. He was good
at it. He, you know, reading out of the sitter. But then he got away and
he. Joey, I don't. I don't really know. You tell her. Honestly, I can't
see. The problem is with Hebrew school is it wasn't where you learn it.
They it's more where you try to learn how to talk. Is it Israeli kind of
thing? You go through the little textbooks and you like work your way up
through the grades.
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Speaker1: Oh, so in other words, they're really teaching conversational.
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Speaker2: Right?
Speaker1: And that's Sephardic also, is it not? I think they're teaching
Sephardic there now.
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Speaker2: He's. Well, if he says a word, his word is different than mine.
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Speaker1: Well, do you say Shabbos or Shabbat.
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Speaker2: He says Shabbat. That's right. Shabbat say.
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Speaker1: Sephardic.
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Speaker2: Yeah. And also where, where, where. My last letter would be an
essay. He says a T that's a safari.
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Speaker1: Yeah, right. Because they're using Sephardic in Israel.
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Speaker2: Yeah. That's the way Hebrew institution.
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Speaker1: So you didn't learn then from reading from the Sitter. From the
prayer book. No.
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Speaker2: It was from like the first grade, second grade, third grade
textbooks. But he said what he had to say for his bar mitzvah, both of
them.
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Speaker1: And what do you do then? You didn't belong. You didn't join the
synagogue there, the Hebrew Institute.
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Speaker2: I just know we had we had the a man there wasn't a rabbi
teaching them their bar mitzvah. And we rented a room and we had a kiddush
in the morning and we had a supper for the family at night for both kids.
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Speaker1: You didn't have to be part of a regular congregation to do this.
No, no. Deaf Israel. Pay for your room, I guess doesn't do that anymore. Do
they do they have bar mitzvahs anymore because there's no.
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Speaker2: Young children there anymore? That's right. There's nobody
younger. There's nobody there. Young And I remember nobody teaches. Uh huh,
uh, bar mitzvah. I remember when I was young, they used to have, like, I
remember a bar mitzvah, a wedding. That's right. Once in a while. They used
to. Well, there was a rabbi there one time, too.
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Speaker1: But that's some time ago.
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Speaker2: Yeah, there's no rabbi there now. Although they bring one in.
Rabbi from Squirrel.
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Speaker1: Okay. What about your religious practice as the next generation?
Or I guess hard to say what you do now because you just do it in your
father's home.
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Speaker2: Right. But it'll always be the same way, because the way I was
brought up.
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Speaker1: Okay. You attended. You intend to follow the Orthodox?
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Speaker2: No, not strictly. But it's like little things that I'll always
keep from having two sets of dishes. That's something I think I'll always
have. Mhm. Yeah I it feels strange when you're drinking from when you're
eating meat and there's a um, a milk fork on the table. It feels strange to
do something like this. Just you have to get, you know, you have to go over
and get a different fork. It's just, it's something you've been brought up
with. But we're keeping kosher meat, but not for it.
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Speaker1: It's really rather than the ritual and the practices that you
like rather than the the religious significance of it. Do you consider
yourself a Jew? Do I? Do you identify yourself as Jewish? Very much. Very
much. Do you find that being Jewish in this neighborhood? Yes. Makes a
difference? Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk a little. Not so.
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Speaker2: Much now, because now there's not. There's not much around
anymore. It's not like Oakland was an ethnic neighborhood like it. It isn't
no longer as much because we've picked.
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Speaker3: This pit. You know, it's a student's nap.
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Speaker2: At one time. It used to be the neighborhood with the Italians.
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Speaker1: This was more of a a residential neighborhood before, right?
Yes. Okay. Yeah.
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Speaker2: And it was very like the street. And back here is now a walkway.
And my kids lived here as ju. They were I wouldn't say persecute, but they
were. I remember David was hit by Italian kids down the street because he
was a Jew. Really liked his Jewish brother. And I was surprised when he
when he came in crying.
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Speaker1: Did you find more trouble with the Italians and other groups?
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Speaker2: That's all. That's all. It's around.
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Speaker1: Well, that's what there is.
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Speaker2: I can't recall who's here. Italian. There's a lot of runs here
through the years. I remember, like, there's a Greek family, lives up a
couple doors, and there's a an Irish family next door to us. It still is.
Yeah. Yeah. You know, it was Greeks next door. They're gone. And, you know,
mostly Italian. It's all like one big family around. They're all related in
some way. Mostly Edward Street is Italian.
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Speaker3: It's not as much.
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Speaker2: You know, now it's the landlord where they buy the street up,
you know. Cifelli on Parkview. Cecily Cifelli. Cifelli Cifelli. A carrier.
A mail carrier?
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Speaker1: Oh.
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Speaker2: Yeah. He's a small, uh, rabbit or whatever. Volkswagen Rabbit. I
don't.
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Speaker1: Know. Is he the one who has a limp? Limp? No. There's a man who
lives. Male character for said I made it out of Oakland. Yeah.
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Speaker2: No, he works in Chicago.
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Speaker1: I don't know. Well, did you find trouble, Jerry being.
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Speaker2: No. Cause I always grew up behind my brother.
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Speaker1: Oh, he took care of you. He always.
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Speaker2: Took. He always took care of things.
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Speaker1: I see.
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Speaker2: So he did. Because he. You know, he grew up fast. He. Fact is,
he right now he's six one. He's about six one. Well, he's a big guy, like.
Like he's very big. His mother's father on her side. Real deal. He's not.
He's broad.
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Speaker1: Also strong.
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Speaker2: Real husky. But instead of he had to be strong, he could be
strong. He's a he's a big kid. Big. Yeah. Like her side. Her father was a
big man. But my mother's father used to be I was a huckster of the horses
and they used to sell the fruit. And that never took anything. He never
took guff from anybody. That's the type of guy he was a very big tree. He
was a big drinker.
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Speaker1: Oh, I thought that was.
Speaker2: Unusual, though. Yeah, it was unusual. Oh, I knew. He always had
the all his horses. He always used to call him Jimmy, all the different.
Put it this way. He could drink. Could drink. I wouldn't say he was a
drunk. You know, when I remember him now.
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Speaker1: This is your mother's father? My mother's father? Yeah. Good
man. They were here in this country.
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Speaker2: They lived. They lived on the other side of Boulevard on Ophelia
Street. They realize it. I realize. Yeah. That's where she was raised.
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Speaker1: Well, are there many Jewish families in this particular part of
the neighborhood at Wood Street? Or were there in the past at Wood Street.
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Speaker2: Was all filled with all our family.
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Speaker1: Just all the Jews were here. Were your family? Yeah.
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Speaker2: Yeah. Most our family at one time lived in Oakland. And then
everybody starts branching out, Branching out?
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Speaker1: Why did they leave here?
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Speaker3: Through our.
Speaker2: Family. For instance.
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Speaker1: I don't know. You said they left.
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Speaker2: No, It's like, you know, everybody at one time lived in Oakland.
Like, oh, you know, you know, like your your aunts. Well, for instance.
What aunts? I'm just saying like and oh and they brought up all their my
mother sister owned a home back here that she rented out. She lived there
but she also rented the second and third floor. They became old. She sold
the house and she lives in Riverview. And their children all used to live
here. But now I realize why they moved. They moved because most of the
people in the family are educated like doctors and dentists, eye doctors.
And what's the use of why should you live in Oakland? They live in
Monroeville or they live out in Lebanon, Mount Lebanon, or they live out of
the state.
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Speaker1: Would you say Oakland is not a place for a professional person
or an educated person to live there? You don't think so? Why?
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Speaker2: Oakland is the inner city and most people move out of the inner
city.
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Speaker1: Can you explain that a little more?
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Speaker2: Why she can live with cluttered places when you can move out and
have an acre of land around you? Like in my like I enjoy traveling and that
and over the last couple of years I've done a lot of traveling. Like this
summer I went, I went to California and that's just the San Francisco and
Arizona. I went to a cousin that I have there. I have a large family in.
You know, I did a family thing and that it's like it's beautiful out there.
It's clean air. It's the inner city is beautiful. Even when I was in San
Francisco, too.
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Speaker1: How do you define inner city, though? You're using the term,
What do you mean by it?
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Speaker2: Um, where everybody lives together. House after house Jammed up.
Jammed up? Yeah. Like they often ask me why me and my wife always lived
here. We didn't go to. Do you ask me that? Uh huh. You asked me that too.
Yeah. Why? We didn't go to Squirrel Hill. I just never did, that's all.
Because my wife often spoke the Why should we leave here when we have
everything here? I have the double garage in the back. In fact, that's why
my mother picked this house. Because of the car, the garage. I wouldn't
have nothing to do with anybody at that time. Force field was there? Yes.
And when you came home from work, you couldn't even get in the alley, See,
But if you had your own garage, you went in your garage and you had nothing
to do with anybody else.
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Speaker1: Yeah. Your wife liked it here, then?
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Speaker2: Yeah, she had everything here. She had the movies here. Don't
forget, at one time we had two theaters. Well, there's two there now. We
had one on Apple Street and the Strand. And anything you want, anything you
want. That's right. You're right. That's right. There was one on Atwood
Street. There was a strand. One on Schenley. You're right. I forgot about.
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Speaker1: The later.
Speaker2: Became where the.
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Speaker1: Restaurant.
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Speaker2: The Schenley was over at the the library. What do you call it?
The Hillman. That's right. That was the Schenley Theater. Everything here
is the giant eagle. My mother. My mother never thought of class, never even
thought of driving. She raised the kids walking down the street and
everybody knew her. Her and David. And he was a blondie, naturally. And not
naturally, but he was a blondie. And everybody looked at him. They all knew
him as the little blond boy, you know.
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Speaker1: Now, is this what you envision for yourself when you get out and
get yourself a home? Your grandmother isn't here to pick it for you. Yeah.
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Speaker2: Well, I have the money, which I'll hopefully have. If money
doesn't mean much, I'll live outside. I'll. Really? I have a feeling I
might move out of this state kind of thing because in my travels, like
Pittsburgh is not the place to be.
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Speaker1: It isn't the.
Speaker2: Place unless you're held here by a job or something. I would not
live here.
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Speaker1: You know. Do you think professionally, when you get to be a
professional, it will have something here? Doesn't this have that kind of
thing that you. Yeah, there's.
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Speaker2: Stuff here that if you, you know, there's jobs here and that.
But it's just if I have a choice of going somewhere else to get a job and
get a job here, if I can do just as good somewhere else, I think I'll go
somewhere else. Hm. What's keeping me here? You brought up what's keeping
me here. I only have one hope in my life. My wife is gone. Like I told you,
I. I have nothing in this world anymore. Believe me, I remarried. But she
knows it too. I have nothing in this. But he's my only hope. If he makes
it, then I'll have my life.
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Speaker1: Now you can go visit him wherever he goes.
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Speaker2: Well, not exactly. I think I'll always be on my own. My David.
My wife sent him to, uh, send him out to cross the River Community College
for one solid year. He didn't make it. He didn't have it in his head to
make it. He didn't.
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Speaker1: Want to.
Speaker2: He went up to a point where he had to put his paper in, give his
paper, and he never did it. So they flunked the next part. He same thing.
He went through so much and he had to turn his paper in and he didn't. So
he just he didn't want to do it. When he wants to do like he went to
Pittsburgh, he had no purpose for school. When he went to Pitt, he did
good. But then he after so many credits, you know, after being there for a
term, he decided that wasn't a place for, well, schooling wasn't decided.
He didn't want to go to school. So if he wants to let my wife live again, I
feel that he's the only one that will do it.
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Speaker1: What does your other son do?
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Speaker2: Was our only purpose in life, huh?
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Speaker1: What does your other son do?
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Speaker2: He works for the record company. Down Record Mart.
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Speaker1: The Record Mart.
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Speaker2: He works in one of their stores called Record Hunter Downtown.
That's a classic. He deals with classical actors.
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Speaker1: Is it because he's interested in classical music, or is he?
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Speaker2: He loves.
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Speaker1: It. Does he know music pretty well?
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Speaker2: Yeah. Yeah. And I could have got him a job as a laborer at
double the wage, double and a half the wage. And he wouldn't take it
because he why be a laborer?
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Speaker1: But he is knowledgeable. That reminds me he likes me.
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Speaker2: Yeah. Yeah. That reminds me. I was up in the projects. No good.
Yeah. He didn't want it was up in the projects. Very, very cold. David
Yeah. David called me and said he didn't want to. He didn't want to work.
The quarter isn't interested in that.
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Speaker1: But you're your older son is married, though.
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Speaker2: He's married.
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Speaker1: And he. What is he, a lowly life? Where does he live?
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Speaker2: What did you say?
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Speaker1: Huh? Where does he live?
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Speaker2: They, uh. He rented a him and his wife rented a an apartment
with two other guys that helped him pay for the rent. It's all family.
There's two bedrooms, three, four bedrooms, four bedrooms, Four bedrooms.
Yeah. And they pay. I wouldn't want to pay it. $270 a month. I wouldn't pay
it. That's what. That's what they pay.
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Speaker1: And you say he married a gentile?
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Speaker2: Yeah, he married a, uh.
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Speaker1: How did you feel about that?
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Speaker2: Me? Oh, I was very disturbed.
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Speaker1: How have they worked it out?
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Speaker2: My wife wanted to start with it.
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Speaker1: She wasn't? No.
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Speaker2: No. My mother was her son. Because it was her son. My mother was
more concerned that he found a girl who would like him and he would like
her and they would take care of each other. She was more concerned. My son
and my older son left home when he was 16. Oh, he was gone. He was in
California when he was 16. Phoenix, Arizona. He was in Arizona. What was he
doing there? He went across the country doing nothing. He just he lived
there. Worked, worked, worked in California for a little bit at a leather
place, factory suede where they made clothes out of suede. Yeah.
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Speaker1: Well, he probably will not then follow Jewish practice much. Not
a bit.
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Speaker2: Guaranteed.
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Speaker1: You didn't go for that anyway. No. Well, tell me something. Have
you ever belonged to any. Did you ever belong to a union? Is the post
office unionized? Yeah. I still belong.
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Speaker2: Even though I'm retired.
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Speaker1: Well, you still belong. Yeah.
00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:08.000
Speaker2: National Association of Letter Carriers.
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Speaker1: Was that when you first went in? Did they have a union then?
00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:13.000
Speaker2: Oh, sure. Always had a union.
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Speaker1: And you joined right away?
00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:18.000
Speaker2: Well, not right away. No. A year and a half after I got in.
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Speaker1: Well, how did you feel about the unions? Can you tell me a
little bit about your feelings about them?
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Speaker2: He's a working man. It wasn't for the union. I would have
nothing. You think so? That's right.
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Speaker1: Had you been in another line of work, would you have joined
another union? You think?
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Speaker2: If I was in a if I owned my own business. No, I wouldn't want a
union. I could see the I could see management's point. Mhm. Yeah.
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Speaker1: But as a working man, you belong.
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Speaker2: I'll even say something about the post office.
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Speaker1: Okay. Well, see, stuff about the post office in the.
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Speaker2: Last two and three years before I quit, I never made that much
money. Oh, really? In 19 when I started in 1950, I was making $4,000 a
year, and I tried to make 5000 in the worst way. You know, in those days
they paid you $0.85 an hour. Mm $0.85 an hour. And you could work as much
as you want. You could stay there and kill yourself if you want. Oh,
really? The labor was cheap.
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Speaker1: Oh, you mean at that time.
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Speaker2: At that time, yeah, sure. $0.85 an hour. Yeah.
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Speaker1: This is making 40 19in 1950.
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Speaker2: 50. Yeah. In 19. In 1950. 52 they were making $1.04 an hour
straight time. You couldn't get time and a half. Oh yeah. And I used to
work 16 hours a day. Yeah, 16 hours a day. Oh, boy. That's right. You know,
on Sunday, I worked eight.
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Speaker1: You worked seven days a week?
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Speaker2: Yes, I did. For one whole year? Yeah. And never made $5,000.
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Speaker1: Why were you so interested to make that much at that time?
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Speaker2: Well. It was a chance to make money and there was no question
You just went.
00:20:07.000 --> 00:20:08.000
Speaker1: Everybody was doing this.
00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:16.000
Speaker2: Yeah, Well, and in those days. In those days, you were ordered
to do it. Oh, and you had to do it. There was no question. No.
00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:18.000
Speaker1: Were you married at that time?
00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:19.000
Speaker2: Just got married?
00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:21.000
Speaker1: Yes. Just after the war?
00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:30.000
Speaker2: That's right. Yeah. 49. Yeah, I was married in 49. I was in the
post office already in 47.
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:35.000
Speaker1: Okay, so you did belong to a union? Had you belonged to other
organizations?
00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:37.000
Speaker2: I belonged to American Legion. Yeah, I.
00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:43.000
Speaker1: Was going to ask you about that. Yeah? Why? The American Legion
rather than to his orders?
00:20:43.000 --> 00:21:23.000
Speaker2: Well, there is a reason I just happened to go into it. Being in
Squirrel Hill as a mail carrier on Election Day. We used to eat in a bar,
although I didn't. I don't drink. There was a restaurant there. Squirrel
Hill Cafe on on on Fourth Street. And when that place was closed on
Election Day, we were invited over to the American Legion on that day to
have roast beef. They had a great big bone of roast beef. It was that big.
Oh, and they used to cut off this. And we had a meal that day. You ain't
got.
00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:24.000
Speaker1: Kosher out of the.
00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:31.000
Speaker2: House. Oh, yes. Always. Always. I wasn't kosher.
00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:33.000
Speaker1: So that's why you joined? Because it gave you a meal?
00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:48.000
Speaker2: Yeah, actually, yeah. And some one of them says, How about
joining the American Legion? Well, I never. I should have belonged to a a
veterans organization. Something. That's why I joined them.
00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:50.000
Speaker1: Why do you feel you say you should have.
00:21:50.000 --> 00:22:07.000
Speaker2: A veterans organization? Because I come out of the Army, and if
I ever needed for some reason, one of the organizations, I would have to
belong to an organization. I wouldn't do something for you without
belonging.
00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:11.000
Speaker1: Well, could you explain that a little more? What they what you
might what would they do for you?
00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:28.000
Speaker2: Well, they never have, and I've never needed them. But let's say
I'd have been disabled or something. I wouldn't know who to go to. Who do I
go to? You know, if. Let's say I'd have been disabled. And since the army
owes me something.
00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:30.000
Speaker1: You feel they owe you something? Well.
00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:36.000
Speaker2: They. Yeah, everybody. If a man is disabled, he can get a
pension from the government.
00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:39.000
Speaker1: And you feel they should do.
00:22:39.000 --> 00:23:01.000
Speaker2: I feel they should. But I don't know. I've always been on my own
feet, so I don't know. I don't know. I have a nephew that gets a pension.
He. He was on a bomber. He. He had something to do on a bomber. And when it
landed, he broke his front teeth. Well, he gets a pension to this day.
Well, first teeth. Yeah, first teeth.
00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:04.000
Speaker1: You think that's as it should be?
00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:11.000
Speaker2: Well, I don't think he needs it. But he's not the only one.
00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:12.000
Speaker1: There's some rip off.
00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:15.000
Speaker2: A lot of rip offs. Sure.
00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:16.000
Speaker1: Sure. If you do feel that I.
00:23:16.000 --> 00:23:49.000
Speaker2: Never asked him for a dime. In fact, it was when I left
Indiantown Gap. They said, Is there anything wrong with you that we could
fix up? You know, I says, Yeah. I said, Because my my actually in the army
in Africa, my teeth start rotting. So but I said let me out. I said I'll
fix it on my own. I never asked him for a thing and I actually had
rheumatism. I remember my ankle swelled up that went on my service record.
I think I could have got something there, maybe. I don't know.
00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:53.000
Speaker1: You just wanted out, though, huh? You just want it out. I just
want it.
00:23:53.000 --> 00:23:56.000
Speaker2: Out for what I did.
00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:58.000
Speaker1: Altogether. Four years. You said four and a half.
00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:03.000
Speaker2: Four and a half? Yeah, I was. I was there a year and a half,
year and three years overseas.
00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:08.000
Speaker1: Was it immediately after you came back from the Army? You got a
job in the post office?
00:24:08.000 --> 00:25:42.000
Speaker2: No, no, I went to Indianapolis first. In fact, as I loafed when
I got out of the army, I loafed on Dawson Street and my mother's house. I
had nothing to worry about in the world just to sit on my rear end because
I had my mother in Florida and I never needed money. I never went out. I
had no girlfriends, you know? And, uh, I'll bring out how I met my wife. I
went to Indianapolis and, uh, my aunt told me to come to Indianapolis. My
father's sister, she was there? Yeah. And I got a job there, too. Her
husband, Uncle Gil, put me in a bakery. I did. I did absolutely nothing.
And I got 40, $45 a week. And I stayed there for nine months. My mother
begged me to come home. Like I told you, my mother was a strong woman. She
begged me to come home, and I came home. And I after I looked for one solid
year and my mother again, she says she called me Battle. My name is. My
name is actually Dove Hebrew, she said. Battle She says there's a the
mailman just told me there's a test coming up in the post office. I said,
okay. And she told me what to do. He told her. I went downtown and got an
application. A couple of weeks it came up and there was 3000 GIs that took
the test three different Saturdays. And a couple of months later, I was in
the car.
00:25:42.000 --> 00:25:46.000
Speaker1: Do you ever consider using the GI Bill?
00:25:46.000 --> 00:26:01.000
Speaker2: The GI Bill? I tried to buy my house with the GI Bill. But the
man. Mr. McKee, that I bought it from wouldn't wait that long. There was a
lot of red tape, and the interest in was 4.5%. And he wouldn't wait.
00:26:01.000 --> 00:26:03.000
Speaker1: I was thinking also of going to school.
00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:29.000
Speaker2: I took out a Yeah, I took out a. Me and another fellow, I do
somebody else. They told me to take out a correspondence course of
electrical. Something about electric. I recall getting it, but I never did
it. I got it. They might even got paid for it. I don't know.
00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:33.000
Speaker1: You are actually going to be here in Oakland.
00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:45.000
Speaker2: Never did know because I went to I went to work and that was the
end of it. I never when I could have gone to school, my mother didn't have
any money. Oh, that's right.
00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:47.000
Speaker1: Well, a lot of guys came back, though, and left school.
00:26:47.000 --> 00:26:56.000
Speaker2: I still feel I could have been an accountant today. Yeah, I
know, but how old was I? About 26. 27 years older than you. Yeah.
00:26:56.000 --> 00:26:58.000
Speaker1: We went to school 30.
00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:02.000
Speaker2: Yeah. Today? Yeah.
00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:28.000
Speaker1: How did you. A couple of things I have here. Uh, how. Why did
your parents get here? To Oak Ridge? Because all of a sudden all your
families get cremated. I do want to talk to her if I have a chance to.
Because all of a sudden you everybody seems to go, you know, together
almost as a family.
00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:35.000
When you describe it. Yeah, we moved as a family.
00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.000
Speaker2: Maybe my mother followed my aunt because my aunt? No.
00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:41.000
Speaker1: Then the question is, why did your aunt come?
00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:54.000
Speaker2: Yeah, my see, my mother was. Was here when they bought the
house. No, see, my aunts bought houses after my mother. They came here?
Yeah. One came from Hazelwood.
00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:58.000
They both came from here. What happened after my mother?
00:27:58.000 --> 00:28:00.000
Speaker2: Why my mother came home.
00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:08.000
Speaker1: Okay. You said you belong to the union and you belong to the
American Legion. And you describe how you got in the American Legion
because they fed you once.
00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:26.000
Speaker2: Well, every year, election year. Unless for some reason someone
asked. You belong to a veterans organization. I should have actually, I
felt I should have joined the Jewish War veterans because they had asked me
many a time and I never, never did. I just didn't get.
00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:30.000
Speaker1: Around to it. Yeah. Or do you go to American Legion meetings,
that kind of thing?
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:35.000
Speaker2: No, no, I was never inactive. I just put on for the purpose that
I might need something.
00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:44.000
Speaker1: But I'm retired and I don't need any because there's some people
who feel strongly that the American Legion, they don't like the policies of
the American Legion. How do you feel about that?
00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:53.000
Speaker2: I have no I have nothing to say. Good or bad, I wouldn't know. I
just send my dues and that's all.
00:28:53.000 --> 00:28:56.000
Speaker1: That's all. Do you belong to any other organizations?
00:28:56.000 --> 00:29:09.000
Speaker2: No. My wife belongs to the. The neighborhood. The pioneer women.
She belonged. She belong to. She belonged to the Jewish War Veterans.
00:29:09.000 --> 00:29:11.000
Speaker1: Oh, she belonged to the women's part.
00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:14.000
Speaker2: Whatever it is, the Auxiliary. She belonged there through some
other women.
00:29:14.000 --> 00:29:27.000
Speaker1: Oh, yeah? Yeah. And she belonged to the Sisterhood of Beth
Israel. Yes. She belonged there. Sure. So she was pretty active. What
difference is that? Did that make a difference to you kids growing up? Was
she home? Do you remember that? No.
00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:31.000
Speaker2: No, she was home. She was always home. Yeah. Yeah.
00:29:31.000 --> 00:29:37.000
Speaker1: Well, how did she. How was she active in all these things? Still
at home? It was at night. Oh, yeah. Then you said you got.
00:29:37.000 --> 00:29:42.000
Speaker2: Up in a b'rith and they used to pick her up and bring her back.
00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:43.000
Speaker1: Wasn't she afraid to go out at night?
00:29:43.000 --> 00:30:04.000
Speaker2: That's what I always told her. That. And for a while there,
let's say a woman would get sick or someone wouldn't. After all, it is a
pain in the neck to be carting people all the time. And this woman didn't
pick her up anymore. She started going to the bus and I said, Lily, this
place is too dangerous at night. And finally she that was it. She quit.
00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:06.000
Speaker1: Do you feel this is a dangerous neighborhood now?
00:30:06.000 --> 00:30:07.000
Speaker2: Do I feel it? Yes, I.
00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:08.000
Speaker1: Do. Do you go out?
00:30:08.000 --> 00:31:08.000
Speaker2: My wife died March 16th, 1975. March at 20th. There was a
charade. See you on my windowsill. And this bed was in that corner over
there. And I was in that room. I was in that bed myself. Sleeping against
the wall. And for some reason, something woke me up.
