..inte: Sara F. Lehman ..intr: Bobbi Kurn ..da: 1991 ..cp: 2000.032.001 Sara Lehman, 1996 ..ca: ..ftxt: Interview with Sara F. Lehman October 24, 1991 Transcriptionist: Nancy Smith Interviewer: Bobbi Kurn Log For Sara F. Lehman Interview Pages 1 Introduction. Early life of Sara F. Lehman 2-3 Trip to and arrival in the United States 4 Arrival in El Paso, New Mexico 5 Arrival in Duncan, Arizona 6 Obtaining store in Duncan and general lifestyle. 7 Moving to Phoenix, Arizona 8 Back in Duncan, Arizona 9 People of Duncan, Arizona 10 Life in Duncan, Arizona 11 & 12 Description of Phoenix, Arizona in the 1950's 13 Religion, clubs and work in Duncan, Arizona 14 - 16 People of Duncan, Arizona 17 The boys' brits 18 Jewish holidays in Duncan, Arizona 19 World War II and P.O.W. camp in Duncan, Arizona 20 - 24 Customers of store in Duncan, Arizona and general life Sara Lehman Interview Bobbie: My name is Bobbie Kurn and I am from the Jewish Historical Society. I am at the home of Arlene Lehman Lurie interviewing Sara Lehman. It is October 24, 1991. We thank you for allowing us to visit with you and talk to you. Let's start at the beginning. You were born in Jaudinia, Lithuania. What year was that? Sara: November 22, 1914. Bobbie: Your parents are? Sara: Meier and Taube Feldman. I had three brothers, they were the oldest, and three sisters. I am the fifth one. One sister, the youngest one, is in Israel. The other four got left behind and were killed in the Holocaust. It is not a good thing (the Holocaust) but .... Bobbie: What did your father do? Sara: We had a grocery store, we had land, we dealt with grain, a little of everything. Bobbie: Sounds very good, Sara. O.K., your parents left Lithuania when? Sara: They did not leave Lithuania. They got demolished there, in this Holocaust. My mother and father and my three brothers and my sister. Bobbie: Tell me about you coming to America. Sara: In 1937 my uncle, my aunt and cousin (my uncle's name is Sam Kahn, my aunt's name is Ida Kahn and Miriam, their daughter) came to visit in Lithuania and they wanted to do something for their families to get them out from the German military and the Holocaust. They promised to send papers for me to get me out of there. Lithuania did not have a quota there. They didn't have the right to send out too many people to the United States. In Germany they had a bigger quota. My husband is from Germany and I got married to him and went on his quota. My Uncle Sam Kahn and Aunt Ida Kahn sent papers for us to come out to the United States. That was from 1937 to 1938. It took a year to come out. I came to New York on August 13, 1938. On August 15th I was in El Paso, it was a Monday night, in 1938. I was pregnant with my first child and I was there three weeks when my first child was born. Bobbie: I thought you were a young bride when you came to El Paso. You were an old bride? Sara: No, I wasn't an old bride, I was married a year. I got married on November 11, 1937. I came here August 13th in New York and August 15th in El Paso, 1938. So I was three weeks here when my child was born. I came on the U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt. I came with my husband and a baby in the belly. Bobbie: How long did it take to get here? Sara: About eight days, I think. A doctor always stayed by me, the whole time because I was so close to having the baby. They were very good to me. Bobbie: What was it like on the boat? Sara: Puking. Puking for eight days. We made it. We came to New York and then a train to El Paso. Bobbie: Did they put the Jewish people in a separate place on the boat? Sara: Not when you took an American boat. We didn't take a German boat because we were afraid. If my child was born on that boat, and it wasn't an American boat but a German boat, it wouldn't have been a citizen at all. Probably would have gotten killed. Bobbie: How long did you stay in New York? Sara: A couple of hours. We came in on Saturday. We took the train right away to go to El Paso. I was not secure to stay some place because the child could have been born anytime. I wanted to go to El Paso and stay with the Wallace family. Bobbie: Were they family? Sara: Yes. These are my aunts. I was here three weeks when my water broke. They took me to the Hotel Due, the hospital, and there was a gentleman doctor, Dr. Eric Spier. He was f rom Germany, and the nurses in the hospital thought he was a gentleman too. It was o.k. for me. I stayed there about ten days, I think. My aunts. my family was very nice to me. Bobbie: What did your husband do in El Paso? Sara: He started with Globe Mills. That is also on account that my family, my uncle Sam Kahn, was the present here in 1937 and 1938. Jobs were hard to get, so he got my husband a job. My uncle had a bakery and he bought products from the mill and that's why my husband got a job. Bobbie: Did you like El Paso? Sara: Loved it. Bobbie: How long did you live there? Sara: Three years. Then, my husband's brother who lived in Duncan, Arizona, was going to get married. He had a girl from Tucson. The girl from Tucson did not want to go to Duncan to live. She would have gone to Laurelsberg, and she did. They got married and they went to Laurelsberg. We came to Duncan, March 8, 1941. We worked for him for three years. It didn't take me long to get to liking the people up there. In 1944 we bought a store from them. Bobbie: What was Duncan like when you first walked into the town? Sara: The same as it is now. The people were very nice to me. Six months after we came there we had a flood. That was September 8th, I think. It was Yom Kippur. Bobbie: Tell me about the flood. Sara: We went through three floods since I lived there. People are very nice, they helped us clean up and just helped us out. We lost a lot, but I still like it and if there was another flood, I would stay and clean up too. Bobbie: Tell me what your first impression was when you got off that train in Duncan. Sara: I didn't get off of the train in Duncan. I got off the train in El Paso. I came to Duncan on a bus. I traveled a lot, that's why I love traveling so much. My impression was that people were very friendly, very nice, accepted me with my bad accent (I still have an accent now), they didn't run right out of the store, they didn't think I was from outer space, they accepted me like I am. Bobbie: You came to Duncan with one child? Sara: Yes, one child. She was 2-1/2 year old. The second child was Marshall R. Lehman. He was born in Louisville, New Mexico. The third child was Steven Lehman and he was born in Safford, Arizona. That was three states. In those times they had 48 states in the United States. I told them, one was born in Texas, one was born in New Mexico (coming this way) and one was born in Arizona. I told them I'm not going to have 45 more kids to have in 45 more states. Bobbie: Tell me where you went when you got off the bus in Duncan? Sara: It was a house. Not too much, not too good. It was o.k. Bobbie: What did it look like? Sara: It had a bath and a shower. It had a kitchen and a living room. It was better than what I had in Europe. It came furnished. My brother-in-law rented that house for us. My sister-in-law was there too. Bobbie: But no air-conditioning. Sara: Oh no. Who needed things if you came out from Europe where you haven't got inside facilities. No electricity. Anything here was better than what we had up there. Bobbie: So you were happy? Sara: Very happy. Still happy. I haven't got sense enough not to be happy. We bought the store and went to work right away in 1944. We came in 1941 and bought the store in 1944 from my brother-in-law when he moved out. The name of the store was Lehmans. Bobbie: Why did he sell you the store? Sara: Because his future wife did not want to live in Duncan. She agreed to marry him and go to Laurelsberg, New Mexico. That's when we bought the store. We liked it; still like it. It's been 50 years now and I still like it. Bobbie: What did the store look like then? Sara: Same as it looks like now. It has a roof and a ceiling. It has shelves and a lot of merchandise. We sell mostly restaurant type clothes. Like Justin boots, Tony Lama boots, Wrangler jeans, Levi jeans and shirts. We sell Acme boots and shoes, Resistol hats, Gembel belts (Gembel's is from Phoenix) and just everything we can sell. I am not selling too much in ladies underwear. I want to get out of that. We sell a lot of men's because my son is doing the buying. I work six days a week in the store and I love it. Bobbie: Were you the only clothing store in Duncan? Sara: At that time there was another one. They are not there now. Also, we re-built the store in 1957. Made it wider and taller. We took up all the land there was. It's still there now, after three floods and a tornado. Bobbie: How many people work for you at the store now? Sara: Just a clean-up kid. Our people are not like city people. It is very easy to wait on our people. If I am busy with somebody else, they find what they want themselves and bring it to the counter and I just take their money. It's not like working. Like slave work. It's really pleasant to work up there. The people are just terrific. I like the people. In 1953 we moved to Phoenix because Marshall and Stevie had to become Bar Mitzvahed. To send them away at those ages, we thought it would be terrible. My husband bought lots in south Phoenix in 1948 and he built a building in south Phoenix starting in 1952. We moved to Phoenix, in our own building, in south Phoenix, in 1953 so our kids could get Bar Mitzvahed. Marshall (the oldest one) stayed with the Burns family. He got Bar Mitzvahed, the rabbi was Rabbi Klein. My uncle and my aunt came from El Paso to be present at the Bar Mitzvah and they said they never heard a Bar Mitzvah like that. Very good and very Jewish. It was at Beth El. Marshall was very good at his Bar Mitzvah. Everyone said how good he was with him living in Duncan. Steve was a year later and he stayed with the Finklesteins. He did a good job on his Bar Mitzvah too. My family came for both from El Paso. Steve was also at Beth El. I still belong to Beth El and I still pay dues. I don't use the facilities because it's too far to come. Bobbie: I want to go back to Duncan in the 1940's. Tell me about the schools, what they were like. Sara: The schools were good for my kids. They were on the top of everything. For eighth grade graduation, Marshall was the speaker. When Steve graduated, he was the speaker. When Arlene graduated from high school, she was the Girls State representative. When Marshall and Steve graduated from high school, they were each the Boys State representatives. Marshall and Steve were both student body presidents. Arlene was secretary/treasurer. There were about 200 students in high school. There was only one high school. Bobbie: How about elementary school. Was it just one room? Sara: No. There was from kindergarten to eighth grade. Some of the lower grades had two teachers. About 40 kids in each grade. Bobbie: About how many people were in Duncan when you moved there? Sara: About 500 to 600, but the surrounding was 3,000. Bobbie: And today? Sara: About the same. It hasn't grown too much. Bobbie: Tell me about some of the people you knew in Duncan? Do you have any interesting stories about some of the people? Sara: There are a lot of interesting stories, but I don't know if I want to tell them. I like the people and they are very good to us. In the beginning they came and wanted to see that we would belong to their church (I don't want to say which church) and I told them they were not going to convert me and I'm not going to convert you. We became friends and they didn't bother us anymore. They came in just as friends and we would visit and we would talk and I don't think there was any anti-Semitism. They helped and they did everything they could to help me out. I don't drive. When they know that Steve is not here, I have calls in the morning to see if I need a ride. Bobbie: Anybody special? Sara: I don't want to mention any names. All of them, so I can't mention all of them. Bobbie: Who comes and helps you when you have all your floods? Sara: The whole town. And even the towns next door like Reardon, New Mexico and all that. They all help. They don't ask for anything in return. They help everybody. The whole town is a different story, because they have relatives there. I am the only one. I am respected because I am Jewish. Bobbie: What does being Jewish have to do with it? Sara: Because we were the only Jewish people they had. My kids were the first Jewish people to live there and to graduate from Duncan High School so I've got to be respected. Bobbie: So you feel you should be respected. Sara: They feel the same way. Bobbie: Did you observe the Jewish holidays in Duncan? Sara: In the beginning I did. Bobbie: What kind of holiday's and what would you do? Sara: Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and all that. In the beginning they used to call and wanted to go to the store and now they don't even bother. They know we are closed and it is our holiday. Every year for the past 25 years they have not bothered us. I never made a Sukkoth because of my diet. In the beginning I used to read a lot, but I haven't done that in a while. Bobbie: Did you have Hanukkah for the children? Sara: Oh yes. Every year. We would give them presents every evening like you do here. We would light the candles for Hanukkah and make the Brocha. I don't celebrate Sabbath anymore. We used to, but since my husband passed away (23 years ago), I don't feel like doing it. Bobbie: Was there any anti-Semitism towards the children? Sara: I don't think so. One boy teased Arlene when she was about 13. I don't know what he said, "little Jew girl" or something and she said to him "I would rather be a Jew than you", and she then took him and knocked him down the steps. He came to apologize. That was the end of that. Bobbie: Would you come to one of the big cities for any special Jewish food? Sara: Yes. When we came we would pick up a lot from the kosher delicatessen from Phoenix and El Paso. When my husband was alive, he would go to Phoenix quite often. We don't eat things like ham, bacon or lard, but we cannot be kosher because there is no Schochet, so I cannot have kosher food. We would get our kosher food from Phoenix. Bobbie: How far is it from Duncan to Phoenix? Sara: 210 miles. My husband drove to Phoenix. In 1952 when he was building the building he used to drive to Phoenix every week. He had a builder from Duncan and a builder from Phoenix, and he would come to Phoenix to oversee the building. Bobbie: What was Phoenix like in 1952? Sara: Not as big as it is now. It was a little town. Bobbie: Tell me what you did in Phoenix when you were here? Sara: We opened a store in south Phoenix. We were not happy here. Arlene is the only one who liked it here. Even our boys didn't like it here. She was 13 and she really liked Phoenix. Bobbie: Did you get active in the synagogue? Sara: Yes. We are still active in the same synagogue. I think we bought membership in 1948 or 1952. We still have them now in Beth El. Bobbie: What street was the store on? Sara: 4101 South Central. Bobbie: Did you live near the store? Sara: No. We lived on Luke Street. Bobbie: What other stories can you tell us about Duncan? Sara: You don't know what you are missing. You are missing one way streets, one street light. Very friendly people, very casual. Just nice people. They would do anything for anybody. Bobbie: Like what? Sara: Favors. They do favors. In 1952 we moved to Phoenix. When we came back, they were so thrilled to have us back, there was food, baked pies, bread, milk, meat, pudding. We were in Duncan for eight years before we moved to Phoenix. When we came back they just didn't know what to do with us. Bobbie: Did you move back into your old house? Sara: We never had a house before we moved. We rented a house. In 1956 we started to build a house. We came back in 1953, rented a house for three years, and in 1956 we built our own house. It got flooded in 1972. In 1978 another flood got it, and in 1983 we had the tornado. So, in 1984, we built a new house, higher up, out of the flood zone. We have a better house now. Bobbie: Did you move back into the old store? Sara: We sold to a Phoenix man for a year. He was not happy there. We made it a part of our deal that if he failed to make his first payment, we could take the store back. So he failed to make his first payment because he thought we would not be coming back. We were so miserable in Phoenix. My husband almost died. He lost a lot of weight and he didn't like it. We didn't wait for that man to pay us our payment. When we got the store back from him, he got a good profit out of us. We took the store back because we wanted to have my husband's life back. He would have died if we had stayed in Phoenix. He lost 40 to 50 pounds at that time. So, we got our store back and we still have it. Bobbie: Tell me the different groups of people that live in Duncan. Sara: We have the LDS church, the Catholic church, the Baptist church and the Methodist church. For organizations, we have the Rotary club, Women's club, schools and P.T.A., we have athletic things, like basketball, baseball and football. They do pretty well at it. They win basketball games for the state. Bobbie: What would you do if you were not working? Sara: I would get crazy. I don't want to do that. I want to work. They are going to take me out in a casket from the store. Bobbie: So at night time you go home and you just go to bed? Sara: We have T.V., like you have. We get all the news, like you have. Bobbie: And on Sunday? Sara: There is a lot of cleaning to do in a house too. I have help but they don't suit me so I do my own cleaning. There are people who come to visit. In the store I visit a lot with people. They have problems and I haven't got any problems. So I tell them how good life can be. Not to look for the bad things but to look for the good things. They all have something good to be proud of. Bobbie: So they all come to you for advice? Sara: Well, they call me for that but I don't charge anything. If I can help them out I do that. Bobbie: I wanted to learn more about being Jewish in Duncan. Sara: You want to know what it is to be Jewish in Duncan? I think if I'm Jewish, I think I'd rather be in Duncan. Bobbie: Why? Sara: Because the people are nice to me. They don't expect anything from me. I don't have to compete with all the rich people. They are just plain people and they accept me for what I am and they accept our store for what it is. Why should I think it is not a good place to live. It's terrific, it's good. Bobbie: Have you tried to bring in more Jewish people? Sara: Nobody would live there. They wouldn't like it as well as I do. Why do I have to bring problems on to myself? In fact there is a Jewish teacher there now. She was non-Jewish but she became Jewish by choice. They put in for a job (either he gets a job or she gets a job), they would take it. They have a child but one parent wanted to stay home with the kid. She got the job and he is raising the kid. His name is Gordon. They are pretty nice people. They just came in September. Bobbie: Why did they pick Duncan? Sara: Because that was the only place they could get a job where one of them could teach. Teaching jobs are not easy to be had nowadays. Bobbie: What do you call Mexicans? Sara: Blintzes. When the El Paso Jewish people came to El Paso, there was always a place outside selling tortillas. Tortillas look like blintzes. They didn't know how to say tortillas, so they called them blintzes. Anybody who lives in El Paso will know that a Mexican fellow, lady or man, is a blintzes. They knew blintzes from Europe. Blintze is a Jewish word. To this day the Mexican people are called blintzes. Bobbie: Tell me about how your husband would kill a chicken. Sara: In the beginning, I drained it and put salt on it. Afterwards I didn't do it anymore. I just washed it good in water. My husband killed his own chicken, geese too. Kipora means that instead of a person taking a person's life, that chicken should go instead. If someone was sick, we would give to the poor for us to get well. Bobbie: Tell me about the traveling salesmen? Sara: Well, I am not going to mention names, but we had quite a few those years. They used to come down every three or four weeks and stay overnight. We visited with them and it was nice. Nate Heilson was going up with my husband and they used to deal with horses. Peddle horses. Take them from one border to another. From Lithuania to Germany and sell them. They peddled that at night. Bobbie: What would they bring to you? Sara: Cakes, fish, salami, sometimes kosher things. Some wieners. If they were in El Paso, my cousins and uncle used to send bread along. Challas, Jewish rye bread, a lot of things. My cousin still does the same thing. They had the German P.O.W. camp during World War II across the street from our store. They couldn't communicate with them so my husband was a translator for the guards and the prisoners. They worked in Duncan and my husband was a translator because the guards that had to work with them or talk to them could not understand them. They spoke German and our guards spoke English. A gentleman was in the store buying something, and my husband and I were there, and he talked to me in Yiddish and I spoke in Spanish and then we spoke English. So a customer says, "How many languages do you know?" And we said three at the moment. The customer thought we were really educated, which we weren't. Bobbie: Tell me about the boys' brits. Sara: Well, he was born in Laurelsberg, New Mexico. The doctor who delivered him was Dr. Rausen, and Dr. Rausen did not circumcise any child for eight days. He circumcised them when they were three to four months. My relatives lived in Laurelsberg, and my sister told me there is a Jewish doctor in the army camp up there. We got a hold of the Jewish doctor and he came to the hospital in Laurelsberg and circumcised Marshall after eight days. That doctor had to get permission from the doctor who delivered him. He didn't want to hurt his feelings. Dr. Rausen was so thrilled not to have to do the circumcision, I think he even paid the doctor just for him to do that. So, Marshall got circumcised at eight days. Bobbie: Did you have any party or ceremony? Sara: Oh yes. We had wine, we had Brochas, we had a piece of cake. We said the prayers. We still have Judaism in our house. Maybe we don't do it as much as we should. Marshall: Tell her about the Jewish ceremonies they had in Safford. They had a few little Jewish families there. Sara: That was Mrs. Bellman, my husband's aunt. They had small grandchildren too. They used to come together for Purim and they used-to get us. There were about four or five Jewish families in Safford, Arizona, about 35 miles west of us. They had a few things for Hanukkah, Rosh Hashana and Purim almost every year. Mrs. Bellman used to take a motel there and have the families together and have Rosh Hashana. We had it that way a couple of times. Bobbie: What would they do for Purim? Sara: They had masks, they had all kinds of different clothes to put on and they disguised themselves. We would take our children. The various nephews would have Jewish parties as often as they could. Not often. Bobbie: Did they have a synagogue? Sara: No. They met, in the people's houses. Some in the Bellman's, some in the Tameron's, I don't remember too much of that. Bobbie: Did you go to services in their homes? Sara: Once or twice I think. A nice lady came into the store, a good friend, and she thought she was going to say nice things to me. She said, "Mrs. Lehman, we don't think of you as Jewish people, we think you are regular people like us." She didn't mean it in a bad way, she just thought Jewish people were not regular people. The poor little woman said, "We like you just like regular people" and I told her, "We are regular people, just Jewish." Bobbie: How did you feel about that? Sara: It didn't bother me. 0. K., from the radio. When we came to Duncan in 1941, we were not citizens at that time. We became citizens five years later. We had our radio on to hear the news and a nice deputy came in and said, "You can't listen to the radio on account of you not being citizens." They thought we might be spies. He apologized, but he said it's his job to do it and he's got to do it. So, we turned of the radio, and when nobody was around we put on the radio again. He hated to come in and tell us that. Bobbie: What kind of radio was it? Sara: Just a plain radio. They didn't know who was a spy and who was not in those years. Bobbie: Was it like a short wave radio? Sara: I don't think it was a short wave, maybe so. He just hated it, to come in and tell us that. We were just new up there. They didn't know, we could have been spies. There were a couple of spies in our little town. I have forgotten their names, but there was. Bobbie: This information stays in the Jewish Historical Society office. Sara: You would be surprised how news gets out. Mr. and Mrs. Day, the parents of Sandra Day O'Connor, used to come in to our store and buy things. Mr. Day never walked out of our store without telling me how much he appreciates me and how much he thinks of me for coming from a different country with different customs and being able to carry on our business. He never walked out until he told me that. They had a son, and when we had a flood, he came and delivered water to us. The water was shut off. His came with a machine from his ranch twenty miles away to help all the people. He would bring the water in a big tank and he helped all the people clean their houses and their businesses, including me. To this day he still comes in and buys presents for his help. This week he ordered boots for Christmas from our store for his help. Bobbie: You had some famous customers. Sara: Well, they don't feel famous. They feel just like neighbors and friends, and that how I feel too. Mr. and Mrs. Day passed away. Just her brother is alive. Bobbie: It's hard for people growing up in Phoenix to know what Duncan is like. Sara: Well, let them come and visit, and then they are going to be disappointed. They are going to think, "How can anybody live here?" People used to come from New York and go through Duncan. They would say, "How can you live here?" I would tell them very plainly, "I can live here better than I could live in New York", which is true. Bobbie: Jewish people would come to Duncan? Where would they come from? Sara: Yes. Hitchhiking. On their way to Phoenix and El Paso. Sometimes they came in their cars. One man came in and asked Mr. Lehman, who was very good hearted ... he trusted everybody, for a loan. Mr. Lehman gave him a loan. The man said he would pay him tomorrow. Tomorrow never came. You could tell he was lying and that he was not telling the truth, but Mr. Lehman didn't care. Somebody told him that we were a Jewish family and we would help him. A gentleman came in and wanted an undershirt. I asked him what size and he said, "You should know the right size", so I gave him his size. He then asked me the price and he said it was too high. I told him, "That is the price and that is the size and he says, "You are a Jew and you cheat and if I didn't need that shirt I wouldn't buy it from you today." I said if you need it I am not going to sell it to you and I opened the door and I told him to get out and never come back. He came back the next day and apologized. Bobbie: What year was that? Sara: Not long ago, about six or seven years ago. I wasn't red, I wasn't scared or excited, I just opened the door and told him to get out. Bobbie: Does he live in Duncan? Sara: He's dead now. Mr. Donovan. They used to refer to our store as the Jew store. Now they refer to it as Lehmans. They didn't know our name. Arlene: It was an identification. She was the Jew lady, I was the Jew girl and Marshall was the Jew boy. We weren't insulted by it. If you had written to me "The Jew Girl, Duncan, Arizona" It would have gotten to me. Sara: It wasn't insulting. It all depended on how they said it. They can say "the Jew" with very mean eyes and a mean face and they can say it with love. Bobbie: So, it was O.K. that they called the store "the Jew store"? Sara: Oh, yes. One lady was looking in the window from outside, and I walked out. She said, "I don't know where I am looking, but I am looking for the Jew store." I said, "I am the Jew lady". She was insulted. She said, "Oh, I'm sorry Mrs. Lehman." I said, "Well, you're not insulting me, we are the Jewish people and this is our Jew store. Come in and see what you can find." Bobbie: What year would that have been? Sara: That was about ten or twelve years ago. Bobbie: But, then they started calling it Lehman's store? Sara: Well, a lot of people called us Lehman's store and a lot of people did not, they called it the Jew store. Not anymore, not after 50 years. Bobbie: You have had that store for 50 years? Sara: It was 50 years on March 8th, 1951. Maybe 45 years because we bought it four or five years later. We came to Duncan in 1941. Bobbie: How many years did they call it the Jew store? Sara: About ten or twelve years. Marshall: The other thing is the Mexican-Americans always called her Mrs. Lehmans, because in Spanish, the possessive is not with an 's'. So her name is Mrs. Lehmans. Sara: To this day, when the phone rings and I answer the phone and I say Sara Lehman talking, they say is this Mrs. Lehman. They don't know who Sara Lehman is. There are a few more people now that are ready to find out my name. After 50 years. My husband was Mr. Lehman, he wasn't Joseph Lehman. Just a few people knew our first names. It's a little more than that now, after 50 years. It's a nice place, a nice town with nice people. Bobbie: Who's your closest friend there? Sara: The whole town. I like them all. They're so good to me, they are all nice to me. I had a girl working for me in the house for sixteen years. She was very devoted. I had another lady working for me for ten years straight. I had one girl working for me twice at five years each. This was at the house. So I guess we get along with people and we like people. I have a little kid to clean up the store now but we never had too much help in the store. Bobbie: There was a black family that lived there? Sara: Yes. Mr. Casey was the principal of the elementary school. Bobbie: The story goes that your daughter Arlene was getting ready to go to elementary school, and the principal of the school came and he had never had a Jewish student in his school. He wanted to know if she needed special bathrooms or anything special and you said "No, she's like everybody else." Sara: I don't remember any of that. Bobbie: You have a young son living in Duncan. Sara: A young son? He's 46 years old. Bobbie: What does Steve do in Duncan? Sara: Steve works at the store. He is doing more than I do, when it comes to ordering things, when it comes to making invoices every month, he pays sales tax every month, he sees that the things go to the accountant, and all that. He does all the buying and people like him. He's a friendly fellow. Marshall: Steve has also been the Justice of the Peace in the town for some twelve years or longer. He also raises and trains thoroughbred race horses. [end of transcript]