..inte: Howard Bendalin ..intr: Beryl Morton ..da: 1992 ..cp: 1993.008.007 Howard Bendalin picking oranges, December, 1992 ..ca: ..ftxt: An Interview with Howard Bendalin December 12, 1992 Transcriptionist: Carol Ruttan Interviewer: Beryl Morton Log for Howard Bendalin Page 1 Landed in the United States from Lithuania in 1938 2 Father and grandfather as farmers in Europe 3 Dairy farm in Europe. 4 Being a farmer allowed him to bypass the quota for entrance to America Friedman 4-5 Moved to El Paso and became a salesman for brothers and sister Bendalin 6 Opened new territory in Show Low, Holbrook, Globe, Miami and Phoenix Fink Arizona Mercantile Co. Dean Davidson 7 Bought his first farm in the Valley 8 Leased a second farm on Van Buren and Perryville Sprague 9 Sells his farm and buys a larger farm in Glendale Filo Carter 9 Buys another farm. Mr. Fraley 10 Bought out partners in mercantile business. Uncle Joe Goodman 11 Farm grows "insulance" 12 K-Mart; Fedmart 13 Kansas Settlement by Wilcox. Lamar Bellman 14-16 Lease 400 acres on 59th Avenue and Greenway Sam Smith 16 Bendalin Farms truck; son-in-law; granddaughter Howard Bendalin Interview MORTON: It is December 12, 1992. I, Beryl Morton, am about to talk to Howard Bendalin. I just took a couple of notes when we talked, and you told me that you came to this country in 1936. BENDALIN: No. It's my error, I think. I came in 1938. MORTON: Okay. 1938. Oh, that's right. You told me then. You corrected yourself. I've got 1938. You came from -- BENDALIN: Lithuania. MORTON: How old were you then? BENDALIN: Let's see. I was born in 1913. MORTON: So, that's 25 years. BENDALIN: Yes, 25. MORTON: Did you come with your family, or all alone, with your wife - what? BENDALIN: No. I came over myself and I landed from Cherbourg, France in the United States in New York. I came in on the Queen Mary on July 4, 1938. I stayed in New York for some eighty days, and I moved straight to El Paso, Texas where all my family was residing. MORTON: You're talking about your parents? BENDALIN: No, brothers and sisters. MORTON: They had all come here first? BENDALIN: Yes, right. MORTON: Were you the last of your brothers and sisters? BENDALIN: No. I had one sister, she was in a concentration camp. She was the last one. She came in at a later date. MORTON: After the war? BENDALIN: After the war. MORTON: How many brothers and sisters did you have originally? BENDALIN: Originally, we were seven. Four brothers and three sisters. MORTON: So, five of them came before you. BENDALIN: Five came before me, and one brother got killed in the war. MORTON: Did he fight on the American side, in the United States army? BENDALIN: No, he fought in Lithuania. MORTON: I see. So, he was like a partisan in Lithuania? BENDALIN: Yes. MORTON: I see. BENDALIN: My parents had a chance to come the United States, but they were elderly and they refused to come to the United States - on account of the language and they had their farm and they had their friends. They refused to come. MORTON: Okay. So, they were farmers in Lithuania. BENDALIN: Right. MORTON: Were their parents before them also farmers? BENDALIN: Mr. Bendalin, whom I'm named after, was a farmer. MORTON: Your grandfather on your father's side? BENDALIN: On my father's side, right. My mother's side, they were not farmers. MORTON: So, you're at least a third generation farmer. BENDALIN: Yes, at least a third generation. MORTON: And for all you know, your great-grandfather -- do you know anything about that? BENDALIN: No, I don't know. My father inherited the farm from my grandfather, so I don't know if ever farmed prior to the farm he had. MORTON: What did he grow? BENDALIN: They grew alfalfa, wheat, linseed oil and, at the end, most of the income was from milk. MORTON: A dairy farm? BENDALIN: A dairy farm. They joined a co-op called-- I forgot already -- and the milk was -- they had a centrifuge -- a machine which separated the cream from the milk, and we used to get paid based on the butter content. They used to ship most of our milk to Germany. MORTON: So it was really a sophisticated set-up. It was not a little mom and pop farm. BENDALIN: It wasn't too big. They milked, I think, about 20 cows. In comparing to the United States, that's very little. The least dairy farm here, you have to have, to break even, 400 cows. We didn't have any milking machines -- everything had to be done by hand. We didn't have any tractors -- everything was worked by horses. We owned three teams of horses, and they did all the work -- plowing and carrying. Our farm was a little bit farther out where we lived. MORTON: What was the closest city? BENDALIN: Jurbarkas. MORTON: How do you spell that? BENDALIN: I'll give you a map. It was just across the river. Jurbarkas, here it is. MORTON: Okay. That is spelled J-u-r-b-a-r-k-a-s. And your farm which way from here? BENDALIN: Across the river. This is Neman, and we lived across from Jurbarkas, right here. The river filled in Klaipeda in the Baltic Ocean. MORTON: So, how did you ship to Germany -- over land or on the water? BENDALIN: Well, the co-op did all that. MORTON: I see. But, how did they do it? Do you know? BENDALIN: We bordered Germany. MORTON: Oh, I see. So, you didn't have to go by water. BENDALIN: No. MORTON: What plans have you for this map? Are you going to keep it? Would you like to contribute it to the Society, because we could protect it a lot better. BENDALIN: Okay. Go ahead and take it. MORTON: I could see this falling apart. Now, is this something you brought with you? BENDALIN: Yes. MORTON: So, this is at least from 1938. BENDALIN: Oh, yes, at least -- maybe before. MORTON: This is wonderful to have. So, coming at 25, you had already done some farming yourself. BENDALIN: I came in on the quota -- there was a limited quota from Lithuania to the United States, but since I was a zimderbease -- MORTON: That's what you told me on the phone. Zimberbease -- that's the word. BENDALIN: One word, and this is a farmer. I came on that quota. It was not restricted -- it was open to come whenever I want to come. MORTON: Okay. According to what you told me on the phone, this zimberbease means an educated farmer. BENDALIN: Kind of. Yes, right. MORTON: If we're using the word education, are we talking about formal education? Did you take any courses in agriculture? BENDALIN: No. I didn't take any courses, but -- MORTON: But just the fact that you had been part of a working farm -- that qualified you? BENDALIN: Right. MORTON: So, you came and midway you got to El Paso where your brothers and sister were -- BENDALIN: Right. MORTON: They were doing what in El Paso? BENDALIN: In El paso, one brother had a farm but he didn't live off the farm. He had it just for a sideline. MORTON: Was he like an investor and had somebody else working it? BENDALIN: He farmed it, too. We all had a love for farming. When he was able to buy a farm, he just bought a farm and he enjoyed the farming. MORTON: He stayed in the El Paso area? BENDALIN: Yes. MORTON: Okay. So, what brought you to Phoenix, and why? BENDALIN: When did I come to Phoenix? MORTON: Yes. BENDALIN: When I came over in '38, I worked inside for my brothers and sisters. They had a wholesale business called Friedman and Bendalin Company. MORTON: What did they sell? BENDALIN: They sold dry goods, notions, hardware, house goods. MORTON: Mercantile. BENDALIN: Mercantile, right. I opened part of the territory in the northern part of the state. I had a hard time with my language. Language was so tough on me. I knew how to sell, but I didn't know the language. They still laugh at me about my language, saying that "I do sell butcher paper." Instead of saying it "I sell butcher paper" it's "I do sell butcher paper." I had problems with my W's a lot. Instead of saying ____________, I used to say ______________. MORTON: My grandmother did the same thing, so she may have been from the same area. I think there's something about the original language that leads you to do that. When I was a little girl, she was training to be a citizen and she would say, "woter", instead of "voter". I would say, "Grandma, say voos". She'd say "voos" and I'd say, "Now, say voter", because she had the same trouble. BENDALIN: When you came in the early days, you'd lose your accent. They'd teach it correctly to you, but when you come older -- MORTON: Oh, yes, -- 14. 14 is the line. If you come before 14, you'll lose your accent. If you come after 14 you won't. BENDALIN: Well, I still have my accent and I'm enjoying it. MORTON: But, you have a very good command of the language. BENDALIN: Well, thank you. MORTON: That's no problem. Lots of people have accents. So, what brought you to Phoenix? BENDALIN: When I started working for them, they expanded at that time. They wanted to open a new territory and they put me on the road. I went to Show Low, Holbrook, Globe, Miami and, since I was single, I used to spend my time in Phoenix. I liked Phoenix. Phoenix was 60 or 70,000 people and I kept on bothering my brothers and brother-in laws to open a branch in Phoenix. Due to the fact that it cost a lot in freight to ship from El Paso to Show Low, it was a lot more expensive than to ship from Phoenix to Show Low. So, I had a point and finally they gave in and we opened a branch in Phoenix. MORTON: What year was that ? BENDALIN: That was 1939. It was called Arizona Mercantile Company. MORTON: Where were you located? BENDALIN: At first I was located at Third Street and Jefferson. The first people I met in Phoenix were Dean Davidson and Fink. MORTON: Who Fink? BENDALIN: He used to have a little cigar wholesale business. MORTON: I'd say that was awhile ago. BENDALIN: You knew Dean Davidson? MORTON: Yes. BENDALIN: Anyhow, I started working there and, as usual, your heart is always on the farm. When you start a new territory like Phoenix and start going to Glendale and Buckeye and all those places to sell brooms or whatever I had to sell, we always talked about farming. So, one of my clients told me that there is a man who has a 35-acre piece of land I can buy for $6500. That was quite a bit of money in those days for me, so they told me -- I didn't know at that time being a _______ all my life -- I didn't know that you need water for irrigation. Since he told me to have a pump, I went out and scraped together enough money and bought a farm -- 35 acres. After I bought it, I found out I can't raise anything because of water, and we don't have any natural rain, enough to grow a crop. So, somebody told me about a fellow _________, and he was a well driller known all over the Valley. So, I took him down to the farm and showed him the hole. He looked at the hole, he looked at me and he said, "Mr. Bendalin, you better start anew, because there is a hole there with no casting and it will hold no water. So, then we didn't have electricity. I called up Arizona Public Service. They say, "Yes, Mr. Bendalin, we can get you electricity, but you have to bring it in." So, before you know it, I brought in electricity. They gave me credit, a few hundred dollars, from the electrical bill, but it was a bad buy. Well, I was stuck with $6500, and the pump cost $12,000 to bring it in. Well, the land, at that time, cost $500 an acre, which was unheard of -- very expensive. While I was negotiating the pump and bringing in the electrical, a man called me from Alaska and he had the adjacent five acres. He had two little houses on it and he wanted $500, so I bought it. That gave me 40 acres. Then, some lady found out that I'm starting farming and she had another 40 acres adjacent desert land. I looked at it and looked pretty level and she wanted $1,000 for the 40 acres. MORTON: Well, you're certainly starting to amortize your original investment. BENDALIN: So, now, I am already in the $200 an acre -- reduced my cost. There were a couple neighbors who were very friendly, and they loaned me two tractors with a chain. I drove the two tractors, tore out all the mesquite, had a big bonfire -- in those days there was no restriction when you can burn -- and I planted cotton. The first year without fertilization because just made ________plenty cotton and I raised an acre and a quarter. That acre and a quarter had enough money to pay for the whole farm the first year. MORTON: An acre and a quarter of cotton paid for the whole farm? BENDALIN: No. An acre and a quarter per acre. MORTON: Oh. Okay. BENDALIN: It happened the war just started and cotton went sky high. So, I was already a maven. Okay. Then comes another farmer close to me. His name was Sprague. He had 160 acres. He say, "Howard, I understand you're pretty active and you're doing pretty good. How about leasing my place from me?" I said, "Mr. Sprague, I don't know. Do you have enough water?" He took me out to the wells and it looked like he had enough water. "How much do you want, Mr. Sprague?" He says he wants $2,500 an acre. So, I leased that place, too. So, now, that gave me a farm of 240 acres. I was really a farmer now. I picked up a used tractor here, a couple of trailers there and I was doing it -- MORTON: And you're in business. BENDALIN: So, I'm in business. And still selling and making a living through sales, but farming_____________. MORTON: Did you have any other help? BENDALIN: Yes. I had one man. At that time I had one man helping me. On Saturdays I used to go there and do cultivating, do all the work, borrow a piece of equipment here -- my neighbors were good to me. I used to take my kids -- they used to hunt rabbits or whatever they could to keep themselves entertained. One day, while I'd been farming, I was sitting in the office at the mercantile company and I was ordering goods. A man came in and said, "Bendalin, I understand you have a farm there on Van Buren and Perryville (?). Would you consider selling it?" Since I was a salesman myself, I felt like I wanted a little respect and a little courtesy. I thought to myself, "Maybe I'll ask him a big price so he'll leave me and go home." So, I said, "Look, I own 80 acres and lease 160 acres. If I'm going to sell, you have to assume the lease." "Oh, yes", he says, "how much do you want for your farm?" I said, "$500 an acre." That man didn't say anything, turned around, walked out from my office and I thought I was through with him. He comes back with his checkbook. When he came back with his checkbook, my heart just dropped. I felt terrible. I couldn't say, "I'm sorry. I have to talk to my wife." But, since I'm a salesman and he's a salesman, it looked not right. So, he gave me the check and here I am -- out of business. MORTON: But, with a nice check. BENDALIN: With a nice check -- $40,000 check. So, now I'm selling coolers for the season, but sometime in April -- I don't know what year it was -- I hear a guy hollering, "Bendalin, Bendalin." A man is following me and he says, "I understand you sold your farm." I said, "Yes, I did." He said, " I have a nice place I want to show you." I said, "I don't have any time." He introduced himself . His name was Filo (?) Carter, in Glendale. I said, "I'm selling coolers to _________to take future orders." He said, "It'll take you only 15 minutes." 15 minutes-- I think I'll give him the time. So, he took me out to between Litchfield and Dysart on Waddell Road -- a mile on Waddell Road and a half mile on Litchfield and a half mile on Dysart. The farm looked very bad -- it had lots of hills, needed lots of cutting ground and filling. __________. By that time I already knew about it. They helped you develop and cut and fill. They used to pay 15 cents a yard, which was almost enough to make it irrigable. MORTON: This had water and irrigation? BENDALIN: That had one pump and another pump was out of order, but had the electric motor. It had the casing and everything there. There was a sump. When I got to the sump, about eight ducks took off. I loved to hunt -- ducks, deer, everything -- so, I started negotiating. How can I pay $160,000 for a farm with $40,000? So, I came back home and I took my family in conference and I told them how we have to pull in our belts , and they agreed. It had two mortgages -- the man who owned it was almost broke. Fraley was his name, but he was a very hard man to deal with. He was set in his pride and couldn't negotiate hardly anything. So, finally, I went to the bank and the bank wanted to loan me the money. I said, "No, I don't need it yet, but I'll try to see." So, finally -- sitting in the ditch -- I decided to buy. We gave him the $40,000 down, leaving $120,000 balance with ten-year payments. It needed lots of work, but since I had a wholesale business and that was going pretty good, I could syphon some money out of there. MORTON: Were you still in partnership with your brothers at this time? BENDALIN: No. I bought out of the partnership. MORTON: So, now, you're in business for yourself. BENDALIN: Right. When I started the mercantile business with my brothers and brother-in-laws, we had an uncle -- Uncle Joe Goodman -- he was kind of the godfather of the Bendalin and Goodman family. Anytime we needed some money -- MORTON: Your mother's maiden name was Goodman? BENDALIN: Yes. MORTON: Okay. BENDALIN: He was always ready to help, though we had to pay interest. But, I was a greenhorn. Where the hell can you borrow money to start a business? So, I bought out my brothers and brother-in-laws because it didn't work out. The freight was too high to ship from El Paso to Phoenix and so, he loaned me the money and I bought them out. Now, back to the farm. I bought the farm and, along with the farm, I got some equipment and I started farming. I had more Johnson grass than cotton. MORTON: At this point, were you still just doing the farm on weekends? BENDALIN: No, I had a full-time man. MORTON: You had a full-time man and you came out on weekends to supervise. BENDALIN: I would tell him what to do every day of the next week, and make out the checks. So, when I took the trailer to the ________, they said, "Howard, what the hell do you have here? Insulance?" MORTON: What was that last word? BENDALIN: Insulance. Insulance is a thing when farmers cut the grain and mix with different stuff to feed the cows, that's called insulance. MORTON: How do you spell that? BENDALIN: I-n-s-u-l-a-n-c-e. MORTON: I've never heard that word. BENDALIN: Let's see if it's in the dictionary. MORTON: No, I don't see it. BENDALIN: I'll call up my son-in-law whose farm is there. He'll know. (Calls). MORTON: Okay. This word is spelled e-n-s-i-l-a-t-e., and it's to make silabe. So, what was he saying -- was it a poor crop of cotton? BENDALIN: Yes. He made a crack. Anyhow, we made the crop and we had enough money to make the mortgage payments and to buy some more equipment and things. Little by little, with the agricultural stabilization office helping me, leveling the whole thing. Now, I have a farm completely, two pumps with a sump back system and I planted citrus. I planted some lemon trees, navel oranges, pink grapefruit, white grapefruit. The white grapefruit nobody would want to buy so we had to pull them all out -- 1,200 trees. MORTON: 1,200 white grapefruit trees? BENDALIN: Yes. Nobody wants to buy -- everybody wants pink. Although the white grapefruit is just as tasty. MORTON: It is. It's the looks of it, though. BENDALIN: That's right. Then, while I was farming and being in the wholesale business, business started to get rough, because the big chains started moving into town. MORTON: Now, what year are we talking about? BENDALIN: Prior to '58. MORTON: Prior to '58. Early 50's are we talking? BENDALIN: No. I would say '55. Big chains started moving into town and started hurting the little independent stores -- like, for instance, the electric iron. My cost was $6.67. MORTON: You're talking about a hot iron for ironing laundry? BENDALIN: Yes. Anyhow, the chain store sold the same price I did, so we couldn't stay in business. MORTON: Now, what chains are you talking about? BENDALIN: Oh, like K-Mart, although there was no K-Mart at that time. MORTON: I'm trying to think of what was here in '55. BENDALIN: Fedmart. MORTON: Fedmart. Okay. I remember Fedmart. BENDALIN: So, I saw the writing on the wall that I don't belong there no more, but I had 23 people working for me, including my brother-in-law, my sister-in-law. I didn't know how to tell them that I want to quit and not hurt their feelings. Finally, I decided to be in business or to be out of business and I decided, since I'd been farming and I'd be buying little things on the side and making a profit, it was much, much easier than to be in the wholesale business. In the wholesale business you have to beg them to buy it and beg them to pay your bills, and it got harder and harder. So, I decided to liquidate my business. In 1958 I sent out letters to all my clients thanking them for their allegiance and all that. They came in and bought and I sold out. After I sold out, I got myself a license in the real estate business. I got my licence the first day -- the next day I sold a farm in Kansas Settlement. MORTON: Where is that? BENDALIN: Kansas Settlement is by Wilcox. The party you're going to honor is Lamar Bellman? MORTON: Yes. BENDALIN: He was in Safford and he was a good friend of mine. I drove over to Safford, and I said, "Lamar, I need your help." He said, "What do you want?" I said, "I don't know where Kansas Settlement is. I want you to take me there. I have a client who wants to buy some land in Kansas Settlement." So, he said, "Howard I'm busy." Five minutes later he said, "Okay, let's go." So, we go over to Kansas Settlement. We kept driving down the road and here's a sign, "For sale -- 160 acres". His name was Archers. I walk in there and I said, "I see you have a sign for sale." He said, "Yes." "How much do you want an acre?" I forget how many -- he said $150 an acre or something like that. He said, "How much are you charging in commission?" I said, ten percent." He said, "You see the door. Leave. I don't pay nobody ten percent commission." I said, "Relax, okay, all right. How much will you pay?" He said, "Five percent." I said, "Okay, I'll take the five percent." So, I took out my listing book and he signed a listing for five percent. The next day I took the client out and looked at the farm and he said he'd take it. So, I made five percent and I was in heaven. I never made such easy money in my life. So, I started selling farms, because that's what I knew. I knew how the water falls, how deep is the well, and talk about cotton quarters and all that. MORTON: In the meantime you still have the farm out there. BENDALIN: Yes. So, now I could give more time to farm. I started selling it here and there. Then, as I went along, it took longer, harder to sell, because the prices were not __________. Well, I got a listing for 400 acres on 59th Avenue and Greenway, across from the _________, at $1,000 an acre. We're talking about $400,000. So, I advertised and couldn't get anybody to bite. So, I decided to get a partner. Who would you go to see in Phoenix? Sam Smith. He was the one that had the money. I used to buy casing and all that. He says, "Okay, Bendalin, I'll buy it --" MORTON: You say you used to buy casing? BENDALIN: Yes, exactly. It was for the ground. MORTON: Wells? BENDALIN: For a well. MORTON: From ______ steel? BENDALIN: Steel, yes. He says, "You are going to farm your place." I said, "Okay." $1,000 an acre -- he wants five percent of the money. So, in other words, I would have to pay $20,000 rent a year. So, he, myself -- I took on five percent, that's all I could afford my commission -- and the Smith investor uniforms -- MORTON: The other Smith brothers. BENDALIN: Yes. And then I had a doctor in Sunnyslope. We made a combination, we bought it finally. I negotiated with the ________ again. We didn't have to pay up, so we invested $20,000 to buy the farm. As I walked one day in Glendale, a man comes over to me and he says, " Bendalin, I understand you bought that place." I said. "Yes." He says, "What are you going to do with it?" I said, "I'm going to farm." He said, "What do you need the farm for? Why don't you lease it to me?" I said, "Okay. It'll cost you $20,000 lease money, plus you have to maintain all the wells. I don't want to know from nothing." He said, "I'll take it." So, we ordered the lease. We took it to Sam Smith. Sam hears the lease and it takes care of the pumps, too. Fine. Okay. That was in '59, I think. Yes. I had been unable to sell it. We put a price $1,750. Of course, ___________. We made a good buy. $1750 an acre. So, I had a nibble. With my five percent I can't sell it. MORTON: You're not a majority partner. BENDALIN: So, I come over to Sam Smith. I say, "Sam, I need a listing." He says, "Bendalin, since when does a partner have a listing." I knew what he was getting at, you see, he didn't want to pay the commission. I said, "What? Sam, we are partners." "Yes." "Okay. You have Smith Pipe and Steel. Do I get any revenue from here?" He says, "That's different. That's mine." So, he wouldn't give me the listing. I said, "I'm not selling it." So, there was Lerner here in town. He had a dry goods store on McDowell and 16th Street. He got the licence and he got a nibble at $1,750 and sold it. So, now, I got a big profit of my five percent. Then I started feeling my oats and how to do it and get some partners and things. That's the way I get ___________________. MORTON: Okay. So the same farm that you bought then. What year was that, that you bought? That's the present farm? BENDALIN: The one I own? MORTON: Yes. BENDALIN: I bought it in '53. MORTON: Okay. That's the farm that the ensilate was the first crack. BENDALIN: Okay. MORTON: And that's still your farm today? BENDALIN: Yes, right. MORTON: And you say your son-in-law is running it? BENDALIN: My son-in-law is farming part. MORTON: Okay. And who's farming the other part? BENDALIN: We leased it. He don't like cotton and we leased it to another farmer. MORTON: So, he's growing the citrus and the vegetables. BENDALIN: Vegetables. And he raises corn on the cob and watermelons and cantaloupes. MORTON: It's funny. I was down at Heritage Square just the other day and there was a Bendalin Farms truck. I said to my friend who I was with, "If I had my camera I would take a picture of this because it's the only picture I'm going to have." It never dawned on me to take a camera down there. BENDALIN: She goes there every week. MORTON: So, she sells retail there. BENDALIN: That's right. Anything she grows she sells there. She cannot be in business per se. She cannot buy lettuce and sell lettuce. MORTON: Right. But, you also have a stand out at the farm. BENDALIN: Right. MORTON: Kitty Finkelstein says she went out to buy grapefruit to send to her friends. She said, "You don't know how far out it is." She said it was an all day deal. So, you've been active in the farm until when? When did your son-in-law take over? When did you stop really doing the farming? BENDALIN: Fourteen years ago. MORTON: So, that's 1978? BENDALIN: My granddaughter is 14 years old -- or 15 years old. And it's 1992 -- take off 15 years. MORTON: So, 1977, okay. BENDALIN: Hold it. I hired him to help me. After that time I was _____________________. One year I hired him -- the next event on his own, so it would be '78. MORTON: So, you've just been basically real estate since then. BENDALIN: Right. [End of transcript]