Document text
fQJecs.
Accession now
18158
Date received
Consignment no.
Shipped from
/.0C14•41
Label
Amount 676'
04-stbm S.-- I k t
WPA L. C P oncr_etilAiza_____. UNIT
Title
.4.cr21. Mee
Place of origin
Project worker
Project editor_
Remarks
Collection (or Type)
If
I had been sitting in the Cafeteria for quite some
There was nothing I had to attend to, and the steady
mgh.
discouraged any movement on my part. So
on another cup of coffee. titxtzmilaxmtx!, kgpatxxxckx
I had noticed my neighbor sit'erg opposite to me. A well
built man, about 50 years ol I should say. He sat there
reading the morning p,aptits end occasionally he looked up at
me, shaking hisppeed and clicking his tongue.
I don',tknow who started to speak first. Maybe he said,
"Pass the sugar, please," or "What a terrible day," or maybe he
..t.m.A4c4A.
,lust adOMMIOmd ofthe news. But before long ke were discussing
the plight of the Jewish people and the threat of war.
time.
"The way you look at merumftemeepW"I m an old man. Not so
old that I'm useless, you understand. In front of my machine
*?.(1 LA.,44:XZ'ke LINLA..t.e3 CO
1'm still young. But if they @Ave me a r-un and tela me,
"Go fight those Nazis, I would go in a minute. After all,
someone must stop him. l‘be you don't agree with me. Maybe
you think like my children. To them, this is a free country.
Why should I worry about what's hapnerCng over there? rhey
tell me I should better rake myself a good American. How do
you like that? Not that I have anything against my children.
I'm very content at with my family. Thank God I tiaised
them they should be healthy. And I gave them a good education.
They didn't have to go out and work before the bones were strong.
Not that I'm asking any credit, you should understand. But I
wanted they sho_ad have a better life from the life we knew.
And in the end of it, I'm not sorry. I raised a nice family.
I have four children. One of my girls, before she got married,
she worked for Montgomery for 0.2,000 a year. And now her husband,
vv 8153
knock on wood, even in bad times like this, is making ,300 a
week. .ind I have one son, a doctor. So I'm content.
I only did whet any good father wants to do. Trying to make a
living with ny ten fingers. .rind I never kicked and I never
was sick in my life up till now, a man of fifty four years old.
That's a good record, no?
Alen I talk to the children about how it used to be, they
don't want to hear. To re I think those stories would be inter-
esting. Not that I went they should praise me, you understand.
I only did what any rood father would do. But it does a men
good to say what's in his rind.
them
And I think maybe it would make
Tthat it means to have to run away from the old
country and try to keep alive, even in this wonderful =erica.
The way see ycu yoU„ 1QQ)c,
(girl. If you just say
\you ha0 something to
'tt:Ty7rIligent
dn't ffel angry. tvleybeN
ow? No 1A. you think you woul
\_i_ke to 'pit hs,xe'for a wkile, maybe until gh' stop raini4g,
ir can ve a nice ecnve setion. To you it i ht be I e stOry.
1 give\you a picture how it was. And V'11,2444sho
Aen the immigrants used to came tb this country, I don't
say they were smarter to work up to work for themselves. Natur-
ally, they knew how they were living. Sc those that came first,
they used to take a greens soonn he used
ing a trade.
iy father used to live on a farm. So what did I know of a
trede? Sc when I came to this country, I had a sister here.
Sc she said to me the best thing is for me to start learning
a cloakmaker.
t
come here, for learn
'Find out a ran with work,' she says, 'give him ken dollars
and work two weeks for nothing.'
I found out a lontsmon. I knew him yet frorr London in 1900.
That time there was a crisis for the greena. The people are
actually starving. They were laying in the street. Starving
from hunger. So, I met this lontsmon. he was stenciling in the
street. I w
I was -ell off already. So I took him home. And I give
him a suit of clothes. And a pair of shoes. And I fixed him
up something to eat. Then I went away and all the time I used
to write him letters.
Then I came to the United States he was a long time cloak
maker. Since he is over here. So he says to me when I'm asking
he should teach me to be a cloakmaker.
'Myself, I would learn you for nothing. But my partner
wouldn't let me.'
So I rave him ter dollars and for two weeks I worked for
nothing. The third week he gives me two and a half dollars.
After all, I was a big fellow. fwenty three years old.
So after I was working about three weeks I said to him.
'Simon, how's about learning me a little more?' So he
s,ys. 'Gold,' (my name is Gold) 'if you would be a stranger,
it woid be difficult. Lilt being you are a friend, it's differ-
ent. Now it's busy. 4ork whatever we give you to turn out.
,nd when it'll come the slow seescn, I'm learning you from A
tc
I took his word for it. And I worked the season. And then,
his :partner lets !..le off. he don't want me no more. For the next
season be isn't needing me.
dho is going to take a greens'? And pay nine or ten dollars?
,.fter all, I didn't know the trade. So I ate up all the money.
And I had no trade.
?hen I met another feller. 'I'll learn you', he says to me.
'Fay me ten collars and work twc weeks for nothing.'
paid twice. That feller really leerned me the trade.
That's how it was. Those bosses. They would look on your
face and see the character. 1.1e! I was always easy going, the
way you look at re now. So with me they could do that.
It didn't take long I found 8 shop on East Broadway. At
that time I wa,; livThg on Henry Street. Nr-urally, there was a
President of the Shul. And the boss from this shop, he was also
the President He practically didn't pay the eeonle anything
for their work. The cheapest labor he used to have.
After we are working a long time, we came over to him for
a raise. Jell. ltveryone HS to belong to a Shul. And it sc
hapeened that we are belonging to his Shul.
So we asked him. *Low is it about at raise?'
'Oh,' he says, 'times is had. How can I raise you? I'm
losing money. If you want the truth, I should lay you all off.
But after all, aren't you my lontsmon? If we don't looe out
for our own, who else? tell you .Let. —ext Staturday, come
to the Shul and I'll give you an "aleah.*
Yoe know what it means 9n aleeh? He'll give you the honor
you s#ould walk up on the stage in the temele when he is reading
the torah.
You think that's all he was? I should know? le was a
regular department store. Also he was an agent to sell tickets
on the boat to bring over the wives. Cr, let us say, someone
was bringing over s family. Sc be was selling tickets for the
boat to take over the greenes.
The wages, at that time, for a cloak:aker was fifteen
dollars. by him, you used to work for seven. Cr five dollars.
1.fter I was working for a few m nths, all the shops are starting
to unionize. So be was havinq trouble in the chop and the workers
5
don't want Any 4aleahs".
When he sees this don't help, he cells me over.
'Chiam, how long you're here? Jhy don't you bring over
your v,ife? By me, it's NO LIFE if a family is in two pieces.
You think it's right, C'iam?'
Low can I?' I asked him. 'Tou think maybe I can save
from the5c wages?'
'Alright', he says. 'So I'll tell you What I'll do. I'll
you a ticket. And I'll t ke out of the wages.'
So already he had me tied again to work another year. What
else dould I do. At least I would have my own place with my own
family, I shouldn't have to be a boarder.
But all the time the strikes were getting worse and that
boss was having his troubles. 'hen he saw it's bad, he comes
down to the shop. First, be Rot a teleram, made by himself to
him. JITTI STICliY. That maybe the Shul in the old country is
burning. Of some lontsmen's family is sick. Cr somethi,g like
that.
give
He called us all tc,uether and told us what is happening.
'1,nd I em fcr this pure:Jose ,a00, unless I'll have to
give 103 more wages.'
Well? Je were involved. After all, in the old country is
still our fathers, mothers, brothers, wives. So we all started
to work again.
Like that, always he had some craziness to keep us. But
when we were no longer greenes, we used tc tell him. 'We have
you in Eell, with the shul, with the tickets, with the beard,
with everything.