..inte: Leah Davis ..intr: Sonia Boyd ..da: 1991 ..cp: 1988.028.008 Abe Korrick, Leah Davis and Charles Korrick, ca. 1910. ..ca: ..ftxt: An Interview with Leah Davis ??Easter Sunday?? Ca 1988 Transcriptionist: Carol Ruttan Interviewer: Sonia Boyd Arizona Jewish Historical Society Log for Leah Davis Interview Page(s) 1- 8 Growing up in Poland; very tough Uncle Charles Relatives in Poland Uncle Abe Uncle Sam 9-13 Journey to United States 13-15 Stayed with relatives In New York Glasser 16-17 Name changed to Vestance 17 Moved to Phoenix Ca. 1906, about 10 years old 18-19 School life 21-22 Lived in boarding houses Mrs. Lee Mrs. Walpey 23 Early Phoenix primitive 25-26 New York Store 27 Grammar school graduation Melzerhoover 28 High school in Los Angeles Levy 29 Lived In San Diego; Abe in army 30-31 Uncle Charlie met Auntie Blanche Mr. Oberfelder 33 Abe met Alma Straus 35-36 Abe in the army 36-37 Abe and Alma eloped 39-40 Moved to Los Angeles; worked for Betty Newman Fruit Grower's Exchange 41-42 Trip to Canada and New York 42-44 Met husband Ethel Topper Flora Davis Joe Davis Leah Davis Interview INTERVIEWER: I am going to have a conversation with my mother, Leah Davis, and talk to her about her life in Europe and her days when she first came here. I hope that it is beneficial to you to keep as a memento of times past. I hope that it answers a lot of your questions. Mother, when you lived in Poland, tell me about the little town where you lived. DAVIS: The town that I lived in was very small and very primitive. The only things that we could buy in a store were staples, like sugar, flour, cloth, things like that. Everything else we had to grow ourselves - vegetables, anything and everything. We had our own cow. Our life was very primitive. We had no bathroom. We had to use sand to scrub the floor. We lived in this little village and we were around a big square. In the center of the square was a well and we had to carry the water into our home from this well. I remember when I was a little girl I had to carry a yoke with a bucket on each side. I used to carry the water in. I was very young when my mother died - I was five years old and I was the oldest of five children. INTERVIEWER: Five children or three children? DAVIS: Five children. I was the older girl -- we were all girls. My mother died in childbirth. INTERVIEWER: I thought it was three girls. DAVIS: Five girls - don't be contradicting me, because I know what it is. One of my sisters - the one next to the youngest, next to the one that was born - died about two months after my mother died. I helped raise my family. At the age of five I was already a housekeeper. I kept house for my father and my sisters. By the time I came to America - I left Europe when I was about ten years old - I had lived the life of a woman of 40. It was a very tough life. INTERVIEWER: Mother, when you lived in the village, do you remember having Uncle Charles or Uncle Abe around in the village with you? Did they live there? Did they live in a house, or do you remember them at all? DAVIS: We had a house. We lived on the square. My grandparents lived across the way from us. My Uncle Abe was about 16 or 17 years old. He was going to school in Kiev. He was going to be a rabbi. He was a very brilliant young man. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember Uncle Charles at all? DAVIS: Not in Europe. I didn't know him in Europe. He was already in this country when I was born. But Abe was there. In Europe all men of a certain age had to go into the service. My Uncle Charlie, the older brother, was already here in this country. In fact, there was an older brother who came here first, Uncle Sam. He was the one who established himself and he sent for Uncle Charlie. After Uncle Charlie came to this country my Uncle Sam died. He was there when Uncle Charlie was still not of age. He already had a store here. He had to have a guardian appointed for over a year until he was of age to take care of the store. When my Uncle Abe was ready to go into the army, my Uncle Charlie decided to bring him to this country, to America. Why they chose me to go with him, I've never known, because for (?) grace of food I am alive. Of the whole family I am now the only one left in my family. My uncles are all gone, my brother who came to this country is gone. After my mother died my father married again. INTERVIEWER: What was his occupation? DAVIS: My father made shingles for roofs. My grandfather - I don't know what he did. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember your grandfather and grandmother? DAVIS: Yes, very well. I don't remember my mother. INTERVIEWER: What about your grandfather and grandmothers DAVIS: I remember my great-grandmother and great-grandfather. They lived in a house on top of a hill with a big orchard and they were both past 100 years old when they died - my great-grandparents. I remember my grandfather very well, and my grandmother. My Uncle Charlie had two sisters also. My grandma was a little, tiny woman. My grandfather was a big man - what he did for a living, I don't know. They had a big house and they had a cellar. In the wintertime - we lived near a river - and we used to cut ice from the river and store it in the cellar and this was our freezer. This was where we used to store all the vegetables. We grew all our own vegetables and we used to grow our own potatoes. Neighbors would get together and rent a field and grow the potatoes in unison - like a company. They'd grow these potatoes, then we'd all harvest them and take them out of the ground and they would divide them. I remember that I used to help pick potatoes. Then we had them all in sacks and everything was stored in this cellar with the ice that was taken out of the river. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember the names of anybody? Do you remember your grandparents' names or your great-grandparents' names? DAVIS-. I remember my aunts' names. I don't remember grandparents'. INTERVIEWER: The aunts that you're talking about - who were they? Charlie and Abe's sisters? DAVIS: Yes. I didn't know any of my father's people in Europe. I don't know why. INTERVIEWER: Do you know if they were Polish? DAVIS: We were all Polish - we were all Jewish. INTERVIEWER: I'm talking about his parents. DAVIS: Oh, yes. We were all from Poland. But I don't remember any of my relatives on my father's side. INTERVIEWER: Only on your mother's side. DAVIS-. But I remember all my mother's- my grandparents... INTERVIEWER: What were their names? DAVIS: One was Vanchie(?) and the other was Alta. Alta was the one who went -- the whole family ... INTERVIEWER: Mother, try to remember this: What were the names of your grandparents. DAVIS: Their first names? INTERVIEWER: Yes. DAVIS: I don't remember what the names were. My father's name was Joseph. INTERVIEWER: Your father was Joseph and your mother was -- DAVIS: Bessie. My two aunts -- INTERVIEWER: Your mothers sisters. DAVIS: My mother's name was Bessie and her two sisters names were Alta - the oldest - and Vanchie was the little girl -- she wasn't little, she was a young woman, but she was a very small person. INTERVIEWER: And they lived in the same village with you? DAVIS: Alta somehow, after I left the old country, she somehow managed to get to Israel and she stayed alive, of course not now. All the rest of the family was eliminated during the war. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember your sisters at all? DAVIS: Yes, I remember my sisters. They were, of course, all younger than I. INTERVIEWER: What were their names'? DAVIS: Their names -- oh, I knew the names, but I can't say them now isn't that funny. Sada, Sadie, Sada was one of them. I can't remember - isn't that awful? The baby's name was Fagel - Faye. But I don't remember the older - I know them but I can't say them right now. INTERVIEWER: If you think of them, just let me know and we'll add that to it. So, your father made shingles. Did he work all year round? DAVIS: Yes, he was busy. He must have had a shop somewhere, because I don't remember seeing any of the shingles anywhere near where we lived. I know that we had an attic to our house where we lived and we used to keep our Passover dishes separate from the everyday dishes. At Passover time I remember I used to go up a ladder - I can see myself going up a ladder - to help get down the dishes and I fell and hurt myself. I know I was unconscious - I remember that incident very easily. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember how many bedrooms you had in your house, how you slept, or anything like that? DAVIS: We had two rooms. INTERVIEWER: Just two rooms? DAVIS: I think two bedrooms. I think we all slept in one room and my mother slept in another. We had a living room and a kitchen, period. The house was a cuddle(?) - we had no plumbing. INTERVIEWER: It was a wooden house? DAVIS: I'm sure it was wooden. INTERVIEWER: It had wooden floors that you used sand on? DAVIS: I can remember seeing myself on the floor scrubbing with sand. INTERVIEWER: That means it was a wooden floor, probably. DAVIS: Oh, sure - all wooden floors. INTERVIEWER: Was there a school in your village'? DAVIS: No. We went to Hebrew school -- Cheder -- but there was no schooling otherwise. INTERVIEWER: Was the whole village made up of Jews? Was it a Jewish settlements DAVIS: I think so. We used to have terrible pogroms -- you don't even know what a pogrom is. Do you know what a pogrom is? The Russians come after you. I remember that we used to hide from them. When they came they were very terrible. They'd plunder the village, they'd rape the women, they were just awful. I remember in my lifetime seeing one , living through one. INTERVIEWER: Let's stay in Europe for awhile. When you were there, do you have any sense of how long it was before your father remarried? DAVIS: It was about two years after my mother died my father married again. INTERVIEWER: Was she a widow or had she ever been married? DAVIS: I don't remember. I don't remember what she looked like, I don't remember what my mother looked like. INTERVIEWER: You don't remember her name? DAVIS: I don't remember her name. INTERVIEWER: Did you like her? Do you remember her? DAVIS: I don't remember her at all. I know that there were more children and there was more work for me. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember how many children they had? DAVIS: They had two sons before I left the old country. he had more children. Saul told me there were about three sisters. I have pictures of the sisters when they were grown up. INTERVIEWER: This was after you left, though? DAVIS: After I left the old country. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember the names of the brothers at all? DAVIS: The only one I know is Saul. INTERVIEWER: No. The ones you said they had while you were still there. DAVIS: He was a tiny baby - I don't remember what his name was. Saul was the oldest. INTERVIEWER: You remember him there? DAVIS: As a child. Yes, I remember him as a child. INTERVIEWER: You do remember him? DAVIS: Just vaguely. INTERVIEWER: As a baby? You remember him being a baby? DAVIS: He was about two years old when I left the old country. INTERVIEWER: And you still don't have any idea why you went with Abe? DAVIS. Why I was chosen to go with Abe, I don't know. Someone suggested - when you leave Russia it is very difficult to get away from there. When you come to Germany you have to steal across the border. INTERVIEWER: So, you were illegal? You left there illegally, as far as you know? DAVIS: Absolutely. Everybody leaves illegally. INTERVIEWER: Abe wanted to get out of going into the army? DAVIS: He was ready for the army and they didn't want him to go in the army, because it is a very terrible life, especially for the Jews. INTERVIEWER: Do you have any idea of what time of the year it was that you left? DAVIS: What year? INTERVIEWER: What time of the year? DAVIS: Yes. We came here in May - it must have been around April. INTERVIEWER: When it was pleasant and you could travel. Did you have money? Did Charles send you money? DAVIS: This is what Uncle Charlie arranged for our trip. We had no money. We had nothing. INTERVIEWER: How did you travel? DAVIS: We traveled by car, by bus, by train, part of the way. We took the boat in Hamburg, after we got to Hamburg. INTERVIEWER: How many days' travel was it from your village to the border of Germany? DAVIS: I don't remember. That is all very hazy in my mind. INTERVIEWER: Did you travel during the day? DAVIS: To go across the border you have to do it at night and you have to (?) the guards to get across the border. Someone suggested that because Abe had a small child with him - I was just -- INTERVIEWER: Ten. DAVIS: And I was very small for my age - I never looked my age never. INTERVIEWER: You don't remember much about the journey, about traveling? Do you remember where you ate? Or overnight, where did you stay? Did you stay in a hotel? DAVIS: We must have stayed in a hotel. We didn't travel like immigrants. We traveled -- INTERVIEWER: Like passengers? DAVIS: Not first class, but -- evidently, Uncle Charlie provided plenty of money for us to get here. First of all, it's very difficult to get on the road to begin with. Glaucoma - the disease of the eyes - is very prevalent in Europe. We had to go to Bialystok, which was six -- I don't know how far -- anyway, we had to go to Bialystok first to have our eyes examined, Abe and I both. There we went by buggy, that I remember. INTERVIEWER: Buggy? A horse and buggy? DAVIS: Yes. That was our transportation. We had our own horse and our own buggy. INTERVIEWER: Did Abe drive the horse and buggy or did someone drive you? DAVIS: I think Abe drove us. INTERVIEWER: You're not sure. DAVIS: I'm not sure. Do you know how many years ago that was? INTERVIEWER: I know. A few years ago. But, I'm just asking if maybe some of it might be coming back if I -- DAVIS: Some things are very distinct in my mind, other things I don't remember. INTERVIEWER: So. you went to Bialystok to see an eye doctor. DAVIS-. Then we went to Bialystok to have our eyes examined to be sure that -- if you manage to get on the ship, they examine your eyes as you get on the ship and they examine them after you get to this country. If they find that you have glaucoma, they don't allow you to enter the United States - they send you back. I remember there was a man on our ship that was sent back to Europe. INTERVIEWER: So you went to Bialystok and you had your eyes examined and then you - DAVIS: Then we came back. INTERVIEWER: You came back to your village? DAVIS.- The only thing I remember bringing - I brought several pillows. I carried them all the way to New York and I don't know what happened to them. INTERVIEWER: You don't remember how you traveled to Hamburg? Do you remember a train? DAVIS: We must have gone by train. INTERVIEWER: But you're not absolutely sure? DAVIS: No, because we were a long ways away from there. All I remember - I remember crossing the border at night. That I remember, because a guard had to take us across and when we got to Hamburg I remember we stayed in a hotel. Then we got on the boat and we were 14 days on the boat. I remember the name of our ship - isn't that funny. The name of the ship was Rolf Maldezay(?). INTERVIEWER: What kind of quarters did you have on the boat? DAVIS: We had bunks. We had a regular stateroom. INTERVIEWER: Oh, you did? You had a stateroom? DAVIS: Not alone. I shared it with someone else. INTERVIEWER: You weren't crammed together like in immigrant steerage? DAVIS: We didn't go steerage. We came, not first class, we came like passengers. INTERVIEWER: Tourist class. DAVIS: Third class, whatever. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember anything about the trip? DAVIS: Well, I know that we were all right. Abe was fine at first and then he was seasick. I was all right and then I was seasick. It was a long trip, but it was very pleasant. It was in the spring of the year. INTERVIEWER: Do you have a sense of whether or not the ship was very crowded? Do you have any sense of that at all? DAVIS: No, I don't remember that at all. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember anything about the food you ate or could you eat? DAVIS: No, I don't remember. I know that we were passengers on a boat, That's all I can tell you. INTERVIEWER: Can you remember seeing the land at all as you passed by? DAVIS: When we saw America, when we saw the United States, when we saw the Statue of Liberty, that was the thrill. When we came to this country, we came to Ellis Island. Some relatives who lived in Brooklyn, New York came to meet us. INTERVIEWER: Who were these relatives? DAVIS: Relatives of Uncle Charlie's. He knew them. Their name was Glasser, I remember their name. INTERVIEWER What was their name? DAVIS: Glasser. INTERVIEWER: G - ? DAVIS: Glasser. INTERVIEWER: But you don't have any idea who they were? When you say relatives -- DAVIS: They must have been relatives of Uncle Charlie's. I don't remember any of my father's side of relatives at all. All I know is my father. I remember what he looked like, but I don't remember what my mother looked like. I have no idea what she looked like and I just could kill myself, but I cannot remember. INTERVIEWER: And you don't remember anything about these relatives, except they met you. DAVIS: There was a man and a woman and we stayed with them. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember any children? Did they have any children or was it just a man and a woman'? DAVIS: I don't remember that. INTERVIEWER: And you and Abe both stayed with them? DAVIS: We stayed with these relatives for three months until my Uncle Charlie came to New York. INTERVIEWER: You stayed with them for three months? DAVIS: We stayed with them until September. We came to New York in May. We landed here in May and we stayed with them until September until Uncle Charlie came to New York on his buying trip. Then we came back to Phoenix with him on the train. I remember I had a ham sandwich on the train for the first time. That was a terrible, terrible thing, because ham was not kosher - Jews do not eat ham. As I said before, Abe was a very brilliant young man. As soon as he got to New York, he started in night school. He went to night school all the time we were there. By the time he got to Phoenix he could speak English. But, when I was in New York all I learned to say was, "I don't know" and "Shut up". INTERVIEWER: Did the people you stayed with know how to speak English? DAVIS: Yes, I'm sure they did. Oh, yes. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember anything at all about the time you spent with them?DAVIS: No. INTERVIEWER: You remember their last name. Do you remember their first names? DAVIS: No, I have no idea. I remember the last name, but I don't remember their first names. They were young people. They must have had children, but I don't remember. I had a very tough time when I came to this country. When Uncle Charlie picked us up he brought us to Phoenix. INTERVIEWER: You said you went by train. You specifically remember that? DAVIS: Oh, yes. Very distinctly. INTERVIEWER: What sort of accommodations did you have on a train? Was it a sleeper or a berth? DAVIS: It was a berth. We had berths on the train. We were on the train for five or six days. In those days you traveled that long. INTERVIEWER: Did you have a compartment or a Pullman car? DAVIS: We had Pullmans. That I remember. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember your feelings of what it was like seeing America by train? DAVIS: When you come to America it's the promised land. You feel that all you have to do is reach out and you'll find gold in the streets. But, I had a very, very disappointing -- INTERVIEWER: What about when you came through customs? Do you remember any part of that? DAVIS: I came through Ellis Island. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember that at all? DAVIS: Yes. I remember coming through Ellis Island and that these people met us. Then they took us from Ellis Island to their home in Brooklyn and, as I say, we stayed there until September. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember feeling that going through customs was a pleasant or unpleasant experience? DAVIS: I don't remember that. I was a child. INTERVIEWER: Well, I'm just trying to jog your memory to see if you had any memory of that. DAVIS: I remember being there. There were a lot of people. It was a sea of people in the place - a huge place and all people milling around. INTERVIEWER: Your last name, did they change your last name in any way? DAVIS: Yes. My father's name was Wizanski. When I came to this country, my uncle changed it for me. Why, I don't know. But, my name was Vesiance, V-e-s-i-a-n-c-e. Why they didn't change it to Korrick, I don't know. After all, my mother's maiden name is Korrick. But, anyway, my name was Wizanski. My brother changed his name to Wizan. That was my idea. When Saul came from Mexico, his name was Wizanski. He wanted to change it to Weiss and I said, "Look, there are a million and one Weiss. Why don't you just leave the "ski" off. It'll be Wazin."(sic) That's what they did. This was my suggestion. INTERVIEWER: How did you spell it once you came here to America? DAVIS: My name was Wizanski. INTERVIEWER: And you said that they changed it to Vesiance. DAVIS: V-e-s-i-a-n-c-e, yes. INTERVIEWER: The people in Brooklyn, do you remember them as being nice and pleasant, or do you remember that as unhappy'? DAVIS: Oh, yes, they were very nice to us. I'm sure they got well paid for keeping us. Uncle Charlie was very nice to us. They were very generous. But, when I came to Phoenix -- shall we start now with Phoenix? Are we through with Europe? INTERVIEWER: Okay. We'll talk about the early days when you came to Phoenix. You mentioned that it was very unpleasant. Why was it unpleasant when you came to Phoenix? DAVIS: When we came to Phoenix, Uncle Charlie had been living with a woman who had a son. In fact, Uncle Sam before Uncle Charlie had lived with her. INTERVIEWER: Lived with her in what way? Did she run a boarding house, or -- DAVIS: She had no one else there. Uncle Charlie had a room there, and he brought Abe and I to her house. INTERVIEWER: Did he live with her romantically? DAVIS: Oh, no, no. He was a boarder. They were friends, but this woman was a terrible woman. She was an older woman INTERVIEWER: How old? DAVIS: She must have been in her 60s or 70s. I remember she had white hair and she was one of these exact people who was very clean always. I was made a slave in her house. I did all her housework. I used to come home from school and have to wash dishes and clean floors. I did all her ironing. She used to wear --------------- wide skirts long skirts, and I used to have to stand and iron those skirts. I hated living there. After I was there for awhile I begged to go back to the old country. When I complained about her, he said that she told him she was teaching me how to do things. I could have taught her at the time a whole lot more than she was teaching me. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember going to school at all? DAVIS: I was in Phoenix ten days after I arrived from New York and I had picked up enough English to start in the first grade. I went through grammar school in five years. In fact, I went through grammar school and high school - graduated from high school - eight years after I came to this country. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember What school was like at all? Was it many grades in one room? DAVIS: In Phoenix you went to first, second, third, fourth grade through the eighth grade in one school. Then you went to high school. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember that the room you were in was a single grade or did you have many grades? DAVIS: I don't remember that. INTERVIEWER: Do you have any remembrance of school? DAVIS: I know that I was always held up as a sample to the school because I learned so fast that I skipped grade after grade. I had mentioned that I had learned English so easily, you know. In six months I spoke English as well as I do today and I mentioned that it was so easy for me to learn English. Someone said that after you have spoken Russian and Polish, which I did before I came to this country, that any other language is very easy to learn. INTERVIEWER: You spoke both Russian and Polish? DAVIS: Russian and Polish, besides Jewish, when I came to this country. came over on a German ship and I could understand everything they said because German and Jewish are very similar. INTERVIEWER: When you were at home with Charlie and Abe, did you speak English? DAVIS: Always. I never spoke anything else but English, because they didn't know how to speak -- of course, the only one that knew how to speak anything else was Abe. But Uncle Charlie was already an American and this woman was an American. She had a son. When we lived in her house we always spoke English and didn't speak anything else. I became so Americanized in a hurry that I forgot my own language. I did know how to speak it anymore. INTERVIEWER: You don't have any other recollections of the school at all - the grammar school? DAVIS: No, I don't remember. Then, after I graduated from grammar school -- INTERVIEWER: And you stayed at this woman's house with Charles and -- DAVIS: I stayed at this woman's house until I just -- I complained I was so unhappy there, I hated it -- INTERVIEWER: You don't remember playing at all? DAVIS: I never had time to play. From the minute I came home from school I had duties to do. I had the laundry to do, I had the ironing to do, I used to help with the cooking. I never had time to play. When we lived in this house there was a couple who were here from New York who were here for the woman's health. They were very lovely. They had two children with them, a daughter and a son. The girl was going to the same school as I did - she was about my age. They always used to ask me to come and play with them, but I never had time. This woman -- INTERVIEWER: What part of Phoenix was this house in, do you remember at all DAVIS: It was downtown. It was on Third Avenue and Van Buren or one of those streets. It was very close to downtown. We were near somewhere, because when I was there the Adams Hotel was on fire, burnt down. Probably Osco(?) was near there, too. When the Adams Hotel was on fire our school was let out and we could see the fire from our house. Let me finish what I said about these people. This girl's mother that was visiting Phoenix - she was there for her health - they were a very handsome couple. I remember them very distinctly. The son and daughter were very lovely - the girl was about my age. The boy, I think, was a little older. The awful part of this woman was she used to go around the neighborhood and tell the most terrible stories about me - that I was lazy and I was this and I was that. The awful part, too, was I had gone through pogroms in Europe and I was so scared of being alone and they used to go away and leave me alone in the house all the time. She'd go with Uncle Charlie. After we were there a very little while, Abe wouldn't stay there anymore, so he left. He went to live somewhere else. INTERVIEWER: Where? DAVIS: He went to live with some other people. INTERVIEWER: In a boarding -- DAVIS: In another boarding house. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember what life in Phoenix was like then? DAVIS: Phoenix was a very, very small town. INTERVIEWER: Were things horse-drawn? DAVIS: Yes. Uncle Charlie had a horse and buggy. There were no cars then. Anyway, this woman was so upset -- her name was Mrs. Lee -- the woman we lived with -- that she'd tell these awful tales and I never had time to blame her for doing it. She took a cab and went out to the store and talked to Uncle Charlie and told him how badly I was being treated in that house. Because of her interference on my behalf, she took me away from there, finally. INTERVIEWER: You moved to another -- DAVIS: I went to live with somebody else. INTERVIEWER: Just you? What about Uncle Charlie? DAVIS: Uncle Charlie still stayed with her. As far as he was concerned, she was wonderful. INTERVIEWER: Where did you go to live? DAVIS: We lived with a Mrs. Walpey. INTERVIEWER: Who's we? DAVIS: I did. I lived with her. They had a son and a daughter. INTERVIEWER: Did Mrs. Walpey have another boarding house? DAVIS: They had a home and I shared a room, I think, with her daughter. I don't know why -- they must have been friends of Uncle Charlie. INTERVIEWER: Was it still near your school so that you went to the same school? DAVIS: No, I think I had to change schools. These Walpey's - he was in the real estate business. They were very nice people. I remember he was the first one in Phoenix to have a car. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember anything about what life in Phoenix was like? DAVIS: It was very, very primitive. Phoenix was primitive too. INTERVIEWER: Did you have gardens or could you go to the store and buy your food? DAVIS: Oh, yes, we could buy food there. INTERVIEWER: What was the house like? DAVIS: There were old-fashioned houses. INTERVIEWER: Were they wood or brick or adobe? DAVIS: Mostly wood houses; some were adobe. They used adobe a lot in those days. Adobe was wonderful because it kept you cooler in the summer. But, the houses were -- not shacks -- but very modest homes. INTERVIEWER: Did they have plumbing inside? DAVIS: Oh, yes. We had plumbing. INTERVIEWER: Did you have a bathtub? DAVIS: Oh, yes. We had a bathtub, but we had no air cooling and the summers were very, very hot. INTERVIEWER: When you weren't going to school, do you remember at all what you were doing during the summer months? DAVIS: After the boys were married, of course, we used to go to San Francisco for the summer. INTERVIEWER: Let's just stay back when you were in school. DAVIS: After I graduated from grammar school I was sent to boarding school in Los Angeles. INTERVIEWER: Back when you were still in grammar school, can you remember what the summers were like, what you did with your time? DAVIS: They were terrible. They were so-hot. Summers in Phoenix are very, very long. It starts to get hot in May and it stays hot, hot until October. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember going swimming anywhere? DAVIS: I think we would go swimming in the canals. We had lots of canals. The water had to be piped in. They had irrigation and everything was irrigated once a week. When your time came the water used to gush into your place. You had gardens, you had lawns, you had all this, but it was all through irrigation. And we had lots of canals around there. INTERVIEWER: When you went to live with the Walpeys, do you remember playing then? DAVIS: Yes, then I was all right. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember their first names or the names of the children that you played with? DAVIS: The girl's name was Helen. I don't remember the boy's name. INTERVIEWER: And the girl, was she your age? DAVIS: She was older than I, I think. INTERVIEWER: Did you walk to school with her? DAVIS: Yes, we used to go to school together. But, he was the first one I knew of in Phoenix who had a car. He had an old Rio(?), I remember that. We went to the Grand Canyon in the Rio one time. He had someone drive us, I remember that. INTERVIEWER: Was that the first time you'd ever been there? DAVIS: Yes. They were very nice people and they did a lot of things socially. They used to take trips and we always went along. It was an entirely different life after I went to live with them. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember the clothes that you wore? And where did you get your clothes? DAVIS: The Korricks had a store in Phoenix. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember the store at all - what it looked like and how Abe and Charles spent their time? DAVIS: Abe kept going to night school after he came to Phoenix. When I first came to Phoenix they had just a small store. When Uncle Sam first came to Phoenix he had a horse and buggy and he used to peddle with this horse and buggy. INTERVIEWER: What kind of things did he peddle? What did he sell? DAVIS: Clothing. Mostly clothing. Men's and women's clothing. INTERVIEWER: Do you know where he got it from to sell? DAVIS: I don't know where he bought it. But, anyhow, after awhile they had a little store. Their counters were wooden boxes. INTERVIEWER: Crates? DAVIS: Crates, yes, for the counters. The little store was on Washington Boulevard and it was called the New York Store. INTERVIEWER: And that was their store? DAVIS: That was the store. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember how many rooms it had? One room? Two rooms? DAVIS.- I think only one big room, if I can remember. INTERVIEWER: And you remember that it just had clothing in it and that's all? DAVIS: Yes, it was clothing. It was rather a dry goods store than a clothing store. After Abe came to this country he was the force of the store. He was the one who helped them build a beautiful big building on Washington Street. They built it themselves, they owned the ground - a three story, four-story building. It was a big department store. They carried everything. INTERVIEWER: Were you away at school when this was being built or can you remember still living in Phoenix? DAVIS: No. That I don't remember. I don't remember if that was built when I was still in Phoenix or while I was away at school. When I was away at school, I went to private school. First, I went to the Westlake School for Girls. INTERVIEWER: When did you start there? How old were you? You started in what grade? DAVIS: In high school. INTERVIEWER: Would that have been the ninth grade? DAVIS: The ninth grade, yes. You first go to elementary school in Phoenix, for three years I think, and then you go higher until you go through the eighth grade. Then you go to high school. You don't have a junior high. Even today I don't think they have a junior high. INTERVIEWER: So, do you remember your graduation at all from grammar school? DAVIS: By that time, there were quite a number of Jewish people in Phoenix. They already had a Jewish temple and most of them were very influential and wealthy people. They were all very nice to us and very nice to Abe and me, and Uncle Charlie had already been established there. When I graduated from grammar school I got some very elegant gifts. This one gift was from Mr. and Mrs. Melzerhoover(?), pioneers there, who were very wealthy. This gift was one of the most elegant things you could imagine - it was a complete toilet set of sterling silver. It had a mirror, a brush, at least a dozen different pieces -- shoe horns, button hook, a whisk broom, and all kinds of little odds and ends. It all came in a big box and was very elegant. I got some other very beautiful gifts. When I was through with grammar school and I was sent to -- INTERVIEWER: You had a summer, though, to spend in Phoenix before you came to -- DAVIS: That was when I was at grammar school. After I came to Phoenix through Los Angeles -- INTERVIEWER: Why did you come to Los Angeles to go to high school? DAVIS: That was my uncle's idea. INTERVIEWER: Which one? DAVIS: I don't know - Uncle Charlie, I guess. He thought it was best for me to go to a private school. It was difficult for me to get into Westlake because they didn't take many Jewish girls. But then I went to Horton School for Girls in Pasadena after that. But, after I came to Los Angeles I met people who became very good friends of mine. Then I didn't go back to Phoenix for the summers anymore - I stayed with some people here by the name of Levy. They had a son and a daughter in their family and through them I met a lot of young people. INTERVIEWER: How did you meet the Levy's - through school? DAVIS: The Levy's were somebody that either was recommended to Uncle Charlie -- I didn't know anyone when I came here -- but these people were either recommended to Uncle Charlie by someone else, or they were friends of his, or what, I don't know. Anyhow, I stayed with them in the summertime. They lived on Roosevelt Avenue, right near the Rosedale Cemetery, in that area. They had a big house - it was like a flat, I think - one downstairs and one upstairs. They rented the flat upstairs and I stayed with them downstairs. Through them I met a lot of young people. I was the youngest of the lot and I was sort of a pet among them. I was a very foolish girl in those days. When I was through with high school I could have gone to college. My uncles were very anxious for me to go to college, but I was having such a good time I didn't want to go. Then, when I was through with school and I had graduated from high school - I went through high school in three years - I went back to Phoenix to keep house for my uncle. INTERVIEWER: They weren't married yet? DAVIS: They weren't married yet, no. INTERVIEWER: When you say to keep house for them, they had bought a house or rented a house, or what? DAVIS: They rented a house. I kept house for awhile, but I was very unhappy. I didn't like it and I ran away. I went back to Los Angeles by myself. I managed to save some money and I took the train and came back to Los Angeles. Abe came after me and found out where I was. I went to the Levy's, of course. He knew right away where I was and he came back and talked to me and I came back to Phoenix. Then Abe was in the service. INTERVIEWER: World War I? DAVIS: World War I, sure. He enlisted. INTERVIEWER: He was in the Army? DAVIS: He was in the Army and he was stationed in San Diego for quite awhile. When he was there I spent the summer in San Diego with some people there that I met - the Goldbergs. I remember them very well. I used to have dinner with Abe on Sundays very often. I stayed there and used to see him as often as I could. When he went overseas I went back to Phoenix to live.Then we had an apartment - Uncle Charlie and I lived in an apartment. I kept house for him. INTERVIEWER: Did you work at all then? DAVIS: No. I just kept house. I wanted to work and I think I did go to the store and worked for awhile, but it didn't work out. I was in the children's department. INTERVIEWER: Selling? DAVIS: Selling, yes. The woman who was the head of the department was so jealous of me working there. She was so afraid I was being trained to take her job and she made so much fuss that they took me away. They put me back in the house. I kept house for them until Abe came back from the war. In the meantime, Uncle Charlie got married. INTERVIEWER: How did he meet Auntie Blanche? DAVIS: It was arranged through a very good friend of Uncle Charlie's who was a traveling man - Mr. Oberfelder(?). I remember him very well. He was an elderly man INTERVIEWER: What was his name? DAVIS: Oberfelder. I can remember him so well. He was a very good friend of Uncle Charlie's. He was a salesman. He used to come out of New York, I think. INTERVIEWER: And he was his guardian at first? DAVIS: He was such a good friend that he was appointed guardian for Uncle Charlie when he first came to this country. Through him, somehow, the meeting between Blanche and Uncle Charlie was arranged. She was a Seattle girl you know. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember having any letters or correspondence with your family in Europe. DAVIS: I, unfortunately, was a very foolish girl when I came to this country. Everything came at me so fast and so much and I was very -- it's a terrible thing to say, but I was really very spoiled. People made such a fuss over me. From the day that I entered school I was held up as an example at the school - I was so smart. It was unbelievable the things that they used to say. I think that most of that went to my head and that's why I didn't want to go to college. INTERVIEWER: But what about correspondence with your family? DAVIS: I didn't correspond with them. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember getting any letters from anybody? Did you miss them at all? Did you have any interest in them? DAVIS: I didn't. There wasn't anyone to miss. I don't think I was happy with my stepmother. There was more children to raise, so I was anxious to get away. I couldn't wait to get to America, to the promised land, where the gold was on the street - all you had to do was reach out and pluck it out of the trees. You have no idea. If you want to know what it's like to be a foreigner to come to the United States, you should read the book Mary Anton's Promised Land. It's an old book and it's exactly what you feel when you come to this country. INTERVIEWER: Once you were here, you left everyone behind? DAVIS: I left them behind, yes, unfortunately. INTERVIEWER: Do you know if, at any time, they ever suggested getting anyone else out of Europe? DAVIS: No. INTERVIEWER: You don't remember that conversation? DAVIS: This is the part that is hard for me to understand. Uncle Charlie had two young sisters in Europe. They were both unmarried women. Why did they take me to the United States instead of sending one of the sisters? INTERVIEWER: Or why didn't they send for them later? Did that ever come up in conversation? DAVIS: I don't know. INTERVIEWER: Let's talk about when Charles and Blanche eventually got married. Abe was still in the store then and he had not married, right? It was Charles that got married first? DAVIS: Yes. INTERVIEWER: And Abe met Alma through the store, is that right? DAVIS: Alma's father, Mr. Straus, came to Phoenix to take charge of a department in the store. They moved from San Francisco to Phoenix. INTERVIEWER: Just specifically to become a buyer? DAVIS: Not a buyer. To take charge of the men's department in the store, in Korrick's. INTERVIEWER: Did he have a store in San Francisco or did he work in a store? DAVIS: He worked for someone else. INTERVIEWER: Do you have any idea who it was? DAVIS: No. I don't remember. I don't know that I ever heard. But anyhow, they had four children when they came here: Alma, Joanne, Shirley and Jeff, their son. They all came to Phoenix to live and Abe met Alma. This was after he came out of the war. INTERVIEWER: When Charles and Blanche got married, where did you live then? DAVIS: I was there at the wedding - I was Blanche's only attendant. INTERVIEWER: When they moved back to Phoenix, where did you live? DAVIS: When they moved to Phoenix they lived in the Buntman(?) apartment. INTERVIEWER: The what apartment? DAVIS: The Buntman apartment. We had an apartment there before. Uncle Charlie and I lived there. INTERVIEWER: While Abe was in the Army? DAVIS: When Abe was in the Army. When they came back from their wedding trip -- INTERVIEWER: Was Abe out of the Army when Charles got married or was Abe still in the Army? DAVIS-. I don't think so, because Abe wasn't at the wedding. I don't remember Abe at the wedding. INTERVIEWER: So he may have been still in the service. DAVIS-. I think he was still in the service. When he came out of the service, one, two, three -- none of us even knew that he was interested in Alma. INTERVIEWER: When Charles and Blanche got married, where did you live after that? DAVIS: I don't remember. I must have had an apartment. Oh, I came to Los Angeles to live. INTERVIEWER: You left? DAVIS: No, no. I still was there, because I was there when Abe was married. I must have had an apartment. Then I left and lived in Los Angeles. After Abe and Alma were married then I came to Los Angeles to live. INTERVIEWER: Do you have any idea where Abe and Alma first lived? DAVIS: Yes. They also, I think, lived in the Buntman apartments. That was the popular place in Phoenix. INTERVIEWER: Where was it located? DAVIS: On Third Avenue somewhere near McDowell, I think somewhere in that area. INTERVIEWER: You mentioned that you remember Mr. Walpey having a Rio. Do you remember when Charles got his first car or when Abe got his first car? DAVIS: Uncle Charlie had a Marmon. INTERVIEWER: A what? DAVIS: A Marmon. That was a very good car in those days. INTERVIEWER: Was this before he got married? DAVIS: No, after he got married. INTERVIEWER: Was that his very first car? DAVIS: I think so -- he must have had one before. I don't remember, because it was quite awhile after the horse and buggy days. But, they had a Marmon. Abe had a car of his own, too. I don't know what kind it was. I don't remember. INTERVIEWER: Do you have any idea what Abe did when he was in the Army? DAVIS-. Yes. He was in the quartermaster's department. He had a very dangerous job. He used to have to carry supplies to the front. INTERVIEWER: Was he in Europe? DAVIS: Oh, yes. He was overseas. INTERVIEWER: He was overseas for a long time? DAVIS: For quite a while, yes. We were very worried. INTERVIEWER: Was he in France the whole time? DAVIS: I think in France. That I can't be sure, but I know that he was overseas. He was stationed in San Diego for awhile and then after his training he was sent overseas. He was in the quartermaster department, that I remember. We used to be worried because we thought he had to carry supplies to the front. INTERVIEWER: Was he ever a soldier who was in the trenches fighting? DAVIS: I don't think so. Because of his line of business because he was- INTERVIEWER: A merchant? DAVIS: Yes. Because he was a merchant, this was the department he was put in. I don't think that he was ever in the trenches. INTERVIEWER: Can you remember receiving letters from him? DAVIS: Oh, yes. He used to write to us all the time. When he was in San Diego, I stayed in San Diego for the summer. I used to be in Coronado City - that was a tent city on the beach. They had tents on the beach, actually, and this was where you stayed. It was your home - your summer home. INTERVIEWER: You just stayed there for the summer? DAVIS: For the summer, yes. After I went to school in Los Angeles I met a lot of people here and I spent a lot of time here. After Abe and Alma ran away and got married -- INTERVIEWER: Oh, they eloped? DAVIS: They eloped. We didn't even know that they were going together and all of a sudden -- I remember I was over at the Straus' house. I'll never forget that. Alma's mother and father's name was Straus. They had a house on McDowell Road, I think, somewhere. Anyhow, I was over there and all of a sudden -- Alma worked for someone. She had the most gorgeous hair, very curly and she wore it long. It was sort of a russet color - it was a beautiful color. I don't know why in the world she ever dyed her hair blonde. It was just gorgeous. I can remember her so distinctly. She was very vivacious. Then, all of a sudden we got a telegram. I was over at the house and I'll never forget that. We got a telegram from San Francisco that they were married. INTERVIEWER: How did the Straus' feel about it? DAVIS: I'm sure they were happy about it. I mean, after all it was a good match. By that time, they already had --------, INTERVIEWER: So, you knew all the Straus kids? DAVIS: Oh, yes. I was very friendly with them. Alma and I were very good friends. INTERVIEWER: How did you meet her? DAVIS: She was a part of the store. They came to -- INTERVIEWER: I understand how Mr. Straus -- but you did not know every single person in Phoenix. How did you happen to meet Alma? DAVIS: I don't know how we met, or where, but Alma and I were always very good friends. We were more of an age. Alma is younger than I am, not by much, but she's younger. INTERVIEWER: You were never really a good friend with Blanche? DAVIS: No. INTERVIEWER: Let's talk about after Abe and Alma got married and you remember being at the Straus' and hearing that they got married. Then what happened to you? What did you do then, after they came back? DAVIS: Well, I was living in Phoenix -- I don't remember where I was living. I must have had an apartment or something, after Uncle Charlie was married, because I didn't live with Blanche and Uncle Charlie. INTERVIEWER: And if you didn't work, how were you being supported? Did they just pay for everything? DAVIS: They always supported me. I always got an allowance. INTERVIEWER: Do you remember at all how you spent your time? DAVIS: For a little while I worked in the store, as I say, but that didn't work out. I kept house for the boys before they were married. INTERVIEWER: They're both married now. DAVIS: Well, I didn't stay there very long after they married. After they were both married I came to Los Angeles. I worked here - I got a job. INTERVIEWER: And when you came to Los Angeles, where did you live? DAVIS: I had an apartment. INTERVIEWER: Where? DAVIS: No. First, I lived in a boarding house in the Rosedale Center area. Do you know where that is? INTERVIEWER: No. DAVIS: It's near Washington Street and -- I can't remember. INTERVIEWER: That's all right. DAVIS: I stayed at this boarding house and I had a job. I worked in a department store. INTERVIEWER: What department store? DAVIS: I went downtown - I can't remember the name -- it was just a small store. INTERVIEWER: Did you sell? DAVIS: Yes, I sold. I was a very good saleslady. It was a small shop. I remember I used to sell blouses. Then I applied for a job at the California Citrus Association. INTERVIEWER: Fruit Grower's Exchange. DAVIS: It was downtown on Hill Street and Seventh or Eighth or Sixth Street. Hill and Sixth, I think. INTERVIEWER: What kind of a job did you apply for? DAVIS: I worked in an office at the Fruit Grower's Exchange. INTERVIEWER: What kind of a job? DAVIS: I worked in an office. I checked figures. I was only there for about three or four years. While I was there I met this girl from Canada. Her name was Betty Newman and we became very good friends. She also lived in this boarding house. I met her at the boarding house - she wasn't working at the California Fruit Grower's. What is the name of those famous oranges? INTERVIEWER: Sunkist. DAVIS: Yes, that's it. I worked there for about three years. I applied for a job and I got it. INTERVIEWER: But you don't remember what you did? DAVIS: I worked in an office. I wrote figures all the time in a book. They had the whole floor of the building and I worked in the office with three young fellows. This girl, Betty Newman, and I became very good friends. INTERVIEWER: Do you have any idea how old you were then? DAVIS: She was older than I. INTERVIEWER: How old were you? DAVIS: I must have been about 20 then. Somewhere around there. Maybe a lot older, 20, 25. Anyway, while I was working I still got allowance from my uncles. They supported, me almost all my life since I've been here, except after I was married. Anyway, I got an allowance from them and I used to work there. And Betty and I rented a little bungalow court and we lived together. And that's when I met your father. INTERVIEWER: What did she do? DAVIS: She worked in an office, too, but I don't remember where. She must have worked for the California Fruit Grower's Exchange, too. But she must have been in a different office, because we went to Canada together. She was from Toronto, Canada. INTERVIEWER: When you went to work, how did you get there? By bus or by -- DAVIS: Bus. INTERVIEWER: Was it an electric bus? DAVIS: In those days we had streetcars. INTERVIEWER: An electric streetcar or a horse-drawn streetcar? DAVIS: I never saw a horse-drawn streetcar. I graduated from school in 1914 and the war was already over -- INTERVIEWER: 1918 was when the war was over. DAVIS: -- and Alma and Abe were already married and I was living here, so it wasn't that primitive time anymore. We had streetcars, not buses, in those days. I lived near Washington Street. I think the street that I lived on was Roosevelt Street, if I'm not mistaken. Isn't it funny that I can't remember. Then she and I rented a little bungalow court and we lived there for quite awhile together. That's when I met your father. INTERVIEWER: You said you took a trip with her- DAVIS: She was going home in the summer - her mother lived there. She had a mother and a couple sisters. I don't know why she lived in Los Angeles, because her family all lived there. She had all kinds of relatives t here. So, I had this wonderful, beautiful trip with her. We went together on the train to Seattle and then we went to Vancouver and to Victoria. We saw these wonderful Busch Gardens in Victoria, then we went to Vancouver. We stayed at the famous hotel and that was such a beautiful state. Then we went to Lake Louise and Banff on these wonderful, wonderful trains. They had platforms and they were so beautiful and we had the most wonderful trip. Then I stayed in Hamilton. Hamilton is a small town outside of Toronto. Betty had a sister living in Hamilton and the sister was married and she had 13 children. She had a son about 24 or 25 years old, at the time I visited them, and a tiny baby. INTERVIEWER: How did you get back home? DAVIS: When my trip was over I came back to New York. I arranged my trip so that I would be in New York when Abe and Alma were there on a buying trip. I came part by train and part by boat to New York. I stayed at the Pennsylvania Hotel with Abe and Alma for, I think, a week or so. I saw some wonderful shows and we had a very nice time. I came back from New York by boat to New Orleans and from New Orleans I took the train home to Los Angeles. INTERVIEWER: By yourself? DAVIS: Yes, by myself. This girl stayed on. Then, when I came back I already knew your father. Your father was a very romantic person in those days. He knew my itinerary and wherever I stopped, I had flowers. INTERVIEWER: How did you meet him? DAVIS: Do you really want to know? I don't think they'd be interested. INTERVIEWER: Sure they would. DAVIS: I met your father in a very romantic way. INTERVIEWER: And you were still working at the California Fruit Grower's Exchange? DAVIS: I didn't get my job back when I came back. Somebody else was doing my job. INTERVIEWER: So you quit the job to take the trip? DAVIS: I didn't quit. I didn't get it back, but I got another job. I worked something else. I went to work in a store again - I've forgotten where now. INTERVIEWER: What store? DAVIS: A store downtown that's not in existence anymore - a small store. INTERVIEWER: Well, let's get back to how you met my father. DAVIS: Do you remember Ethel Topper? INTERVIEWER: Sure. DAVIS: Ethel Topper was a very good friend of Flora Davis. Flora Davis was Joe Davis' wife. Do you know her at all? INTERVIEWER: No. DAVIS: Well, Ethel had a picture of me smiling and we were over at Ethel's house. Flora was there and your father was sent by Flora's husband, Joe, to pick up Flora and take her home. He saw the picture and he said, "Who is that?", and they said it was me. This was around New Year's time and Ethel and David were going to go to Highland Spring for New Year's and I was going to go with them. They told Saulie that I was going to go with them and he said, "Well, I guess I'll go, too." He picked me up to take me to Highland Springs. INTERVIEWER: In his car? DAVIS: In his car. I was going with Ethel and David, but when he said he was going to go, he picked me up and took me to Highland Springs. INTERVIEWER: And he had a car then? DAVIS: Oh, sure. INTERVIEWER: What was he doing then? DAVIS: He was working in a furniture store then. They all had furniture stores. Joe Davis had a factory and used to manufacture upholstered furniture - very fine furniture almost all of the downtown picture houses - the lobbies were all furnished in his furniture. Saulie's father was a furniture designer in Russia. I showed you a book with the designs he made in Russia. Saulie, I think, worked for his brother at the time - for Joe. INTERVIEWER: Did you have a good time with Saulie? DAVIS: From that time he never left me alone. INTERVIEWER: I think we're going to end this right now because we've been talking a very long time. It's a very nice Easter Sunday and we had a lovely brunch. I've spent this time talking with my mother and I think that we're both talked out for a little while. We hope that we'll hear from you and if you have anymore questions or if you'd like us to continue, we can do this again. Please let us know how you feel that this is responding to whether or not it's what you would like to hear from us. Thank you, Larry, and everyone in Phoenix. It's really been a very interesting afternoon for me as well. Thank you. [end of transcript]