Edith Schnitzer Goodman

[Note: there is no audio for this interview.]

Schnitzer: Do you remember your Grandparents? 
GOODMAN: Never saw them. 

Schnitzer: Did you hear anything about them? 
GOODMAN: They never lived here. 

Schnitzer: They never talked about their background? 
GOODMAN: Not that I remember. I don’t remember their talking about their parents. 

Schnitzer: That’s what Dad said. That he didn’t either. Do you know where they lived, in Russia, Grandma? 
GOODMAN: I don’t know. 

Schnitzer: Do you know where Grandpa’s parents came from? 
GOODMAN: Odessa, I think it is. 

Schnitzer:  What was your father’s name? 
GOODMAN: Sam.

Schnitzer: And where was he born? In Odessa? 
GOODMAN: In Odessa, yes 

Schnitzer: Do you know what year? 
GOODMAN: I don’t know. 

Schnitzer: What did your father ever tell you about his childhood? What were you saying? 
GOODMAN: That he was always hungry and under nourished and whenever he got an egg, which was so rare, it was such a treat. And we wonder if his short size was partly due to the fact that he was under nourished. 

Schnitzer: Well, that’s interesting. Did he go to school when he was in Russia? 
GOODMAN: Oh yes, but I don’t remember how far he had gone. I think their education was learning to read Hebrew, but I don’t know. He learned to read English here on his own. No one taught him. If his eyesight had been better he would have read a lot, but he had trouble reading. 

Schnitzer: Was Grandma educated? 
GOODMAN: No, as I pointed out, she just never had a chance. She had to work real early. 

Schnitzer: Did Grandpa have a variety of jobs, do you recall? 
GOODMAN: In the United States or in Europe? He left very young. 

Schnitzer: Does your dad remember how old he was when he came here? 
GOODMAN: He was quite young. He left to avoid service in the Russian army and then he worked in New York and slept on the counter. And then it was through a man named Fox [Feder Fuchs], who came from the same town and all the Schnitzer men, all the Schnitzer family came here. Fox helped them, paid their way and they came here. I remember him. He was an old, old man. I was just a little child and we used to call him Father Fox, Fetter Fox. 

Schnitzer: How neat. 
GOODMAN: And his wife had a wig on. They were very Orthodox, apparently, and she had a great big wig on. I remember them. 

Schnitzer: Did they live near you? 
GOODMAN: Not too far. Everybody lived in South Portland, within walking distance. He was an old, old man. 

Schnitzer: Did Grandma ever work? 
GOODMAN: No. 

Schnitzer: Even after all the children were born? 
GOODMAN: No, she worked very hard, just in the house. 

Schnitzer: What did you like to do best with your mother when you were small? Do you recall spending much time with her? 
GOODMAN: No. She was so busy rearing children and cooking three meals a day that she never played. She never had fun really. I guess the only thing we did together was to go shopping for clothes. 

Schnitzer: Oh, really, when did you do that? How often were you able to? 
GOODMAN: Oh, before school, or we had a dressmaker, an Italian woman, who made most of our clothes, and it was sort of a center for people to go and visit, Mrs. Mazzocco and we went there all the time and that would be an outing. 

Schnitzer: Did you and your sister share clothes? 
GOODMAN: No, we might have identical clothes. She used to dress us alike so that at Reed College we were taken for twins by one professor. Even then when we were grown we had the same clothes so that there would be no sibling jealousy about it. 

Schnitzer: That’s interesting. Were you closer to one parent? 
GOODMAN: Undoubtedly, my father. 

Schnitzer: Why? 
GOODMAN: Well, he had more time to give to his kids. He was intensely interested in our education Our days were pretty busy as I look back. It wasn’t a fun time. We never played really, that I can think of. After grade school and after high school we would go to Hebrew school, and that was for a few hours. We would come home at eight o’clock at night and I practiced piano and so it was a full day, five days a week, four days. And then Sunday, we went to Hebrew school on Sunday and Grandpa would pick us up and often would drive us back and forth, always picked us up, because it was nighttime. He would go to Meier & Frank and buy us whipped cream puffs to fatten us up and he was always thinking of us, you know. 

Schnitzer: It’s interesting that he would have more time, you know, thinking that he would be working. 
GOODMAN: Well, you see, this was after his work. I was thinking of something to tell you right then, off the record. I forgot, something I was going to tell you. 

Schnitzer: Did your parents discuss politics or religion? 
GOODMAN: Oh sure. Grandpa was a Republican, but he voted for Roosevelt. He was keenly interested in politics. Religion? Well, it was a part of their life and he was so proud of being president of Shaarie Torah and devoted a lot of time to it. It was important to him that Molly and I were graduating Hebrew School. I had received a gold medal one night for my abilities and when he arrived home. We said you missed the graduation and he stood at the garage door, as if he were stunned. He was so upset that he had missed that graduation because it would have meant so much to him. He had a deep feeling. They both did. Friday nights, the service at home. I could always come in from school and smell the bread that had been baking and the gefilte fish and the house was scrubbed and cleaned. Every Friday was a holiday and I still remember it. 

Schnitzer: Do you remember celebrating any of the other holidays? 
GOODMAN: Oh sure. As a child, not so much as I do at our home on Vista. 

Schnitzer: When did you move to Vista? 
GOODMAN: I was in my second year at Reed College, so, I must have been about 23 years old, how long ago, but then it became really quite an affair. The other time we would have all the foods and festivity. I don’t remember our sitting around the table as kids on the holidays, strange to say. Lighting of candles, yes. 

Schnitzer: Did Grandma on Sabbath perform all the rites herself? Did you participate? 
GOODMAN: No, she was the only one. 

Schnitzer: Did their political influence, I mean, their feelings towards politics influence your feelings? 
GOODMAN: No, because, Grandpa was more conservative. I think he was more conservative. In fact, one of his business friends, Malarkey, of Malarkey Lumber, upon hearing that we were going to Reed College, said, how could you let your daughters go to a communist school. Well, Grandpa didn’t consider it a communist school, and neither did we and it wasn’t, but he was not as conservative as were so many people in those days. He was much more liberal. He was very modern about things. He was very progressive. 
He would try new things. He was interested in change. 

Schnitzer: Can you tell me how many brothers and sisters you have and when were they born, can you recall? Or how old are they now? 
GOODMAN: I have five brothers and one sister. Manuel is 70. My brother Morris is 67. I will be 65 shortly. Molly is a year and a half younger so she is 63 and a half. Gilbert is about 55. My younger brothers are Harold and Leonard. 

Schnitzer: OK. Now, where were they all born? 
GOODMAN: All born in Portland and Dr. Tilzer was the doctor who delivered us, at home, until Gilbert came along. Gilbert or Harold went to the hospital, I think maybe Harold was the first one who went to the hospital, Harold and Leonard were born in the hospital. 

Schnitzer: Did she have someone help her at home? Delivering. Was there a woman? 
GOODMAN: Yes, I’m trying to think of her name. Did your dad remember? 

Schnitzer: No, I just thought of it. 
GOODMAN: Well, I’ll remember it in a little while, because she was around all the time. I do know her name, but I can’t remember right at this moment. 

Schnitzer: What kind of things do you recall doing with your brothers and sister as children? 
GOODMAN: Oh we played on the streets because there was no other place to play. We played hide and seek, which was very popular. That I remember very well. There wasn’t much you could really do as little kids. As we grew up and moved to Vista we played tennis and golf and Grandpa pushed it very hard, he thought it was very important and very good for us, to have us get up at six in the morning to play tennis at the Washington Park. He encouraged it. 

Schnitzer: Who did you spend more time with between your brothers and sister? 
GOODMAN: Molly mainly. Even though we were little, we helped raise Gilbert, Harold and Leonard. Grandma used to love it. She enjoyed the assistance we gave her. 

Schnitzer: She gave you a lot of responsibility? 
GOODMAN: Yes. They went off to Baltimore and took Leonard and Harold with them and left the others, everybody home and even though we were in high school, we ran the house. We took care of all the boys, cooked. 

Schnitzer: Did Grandma spend a lot of time teaching you the household? 
GOODMAN: No. Surprisingly, she did all the cooking. We never cooked. We never helped her except to take care of our rooms. We had to take care of our own clothes. Molly says that I used to practice the piano and she would have to do the dishes after dinner. She remembers doing the dishes while I sneaked off to practice, but we did chores like that. We helped with the dishes and things. 

Schnitzer: Do you recall going away very often to the beach, just to get away from home.? Did you travel? 
GOODMAN: No. The first time we ever went to the beach, Schnitzer and Wolf, the Alaska Junk Company had bought a sawmill near Rockaway and we went there and we enjoyed it so much that the next year we went to Seaside. I don’t know what year that was, but we were fairly small, whether it was 1913, 14 or 15, somewhere in there. That was our first experience away from home on any sort of a vacation. I remember Grandpa putting us on a boat that pulled logs or something out there. One of these things that was not for passengers and it had just a railing around it, so he put us on it, thinking that we would have a real treat and we went over the bar and we all got sick and we all had to hold onto that railing or we would have gone into the ocean. When he met us at the end of the trip, it was terrible. He thought he was giving us a pleasure trip. I will never forget that. Every time we go by Rockaway I think of that trip on that thing. 

Schnitzer: Did you travel anywhere else with him? 
GOODMAN: We would take little rides around. When we were quite young, Wolf and Dad and Grandpa bought a Franklin car and we also used to have a Cadillac with jump seats in it and once in awhile we would go on an outing on a Sunday and we would pack both families in and there would be 14 in a car. Harry Wolf would stack us like cordwood in the car. Well if you can believe it there were 14 of us, but some of us were very little, so we would sit on each other’s laps and such. That was our early childhood, a drive. 

Schnitzer: Did you ever go out of Oregon? 
GOODMAN: Not until my senior year in college when I went to the University of Washington. I never crossed the border before that. 

Schnitzer: You went to school in Washington? 
GOODMAN: Yes, my senior year, at the University of Washington. 

Schnitzer: Why did you transfer? 
GOODMAN: Oh for two reasons. One, I thought it was time to separate from my sister; we were just too close. And secondly, The University of Washington had a school of social work, an entire school devoted to it and here there was only one course being given. It was very limited; I should have gone earlier.

Schnitzer: So you majored in social work? 
GOODMAN: Yes. 

Schnitzer: When you went to college, did you live at home? 
GOODMAN: Yes, at Reed College. Yes, we lived at home. We were called “day dodgers” and I would say 3/4 of the people who went to Reed at that time, 1931, lived at home and went to school that way. Very few people lived on the school. 

Schnitzer: How many women attended? 
GOODMAN: There were, I don’t remember the percentage, but there were quite a few. Not as many as now. I think probably 25% of the students were girls. 

Schnitzer: Do you recall from what kind of backgrounds they came from? 
GOODMAN: There were a lot of Jewish people. Some of them are doctors now, from my class. I don’t really know. I would say that we were all middle class people, most of us were. And we couldn’t afford to go away to school, out of town, out of state. And I think that’s why Reed College drew that group. But they were people who were interested in an education. They weren’t there to play and it was all work. It was an intimate school. There was a little lake and if we went out on a boat, everybody in the school would know that we were out and with who. And if we played tennis, the head of the gym would come out and play with us. There were many benefits in going to this very small school. It was much smaller then than now. 

Schnitzer: Can you estimate how many students there were? 
GOODMAN: Oh, I would roughly say between 600 and 800, something like that, it was very small. And even if you had to have an interview and a qualifying exam to get in, they waived it for me, I didn’t have to do any of it. 

Schnitzer: Why? 
GOODMAN: I don’t know. I guess my grades in high school were good. They liked my record, so I missed that, which was nice. 

Schnitzer: When you were in high school did you date much? 
GOODMAN: No, strangely enough I didn’t date at all. 

Schnitzer: Why? Did your parents have restrictions? 
GOODMAN: Well, there were restrictions early. Someone wanted to date Helen and came to the house and asked if he could take her out and Harry Wolf was over and everybody said, “No, she can’t go out.” She never went out with him, but there was a very rigid background. In my senior year I would have dated, but I just didn’t. 

Schnitzer: Do you recall hearing of any difficulties that Grandma and Grandpa encountered when they settled in Portland? 
GOODMAN: Well life was hard. They had a horse and buggy. They lived in a sort of a four-family dwelling when they first married and of course, Grandma couldn’t talk English when they came, when she got married, so there were difficulties with the language, but I think there was a closeness of neighbors and everybody would visit everybody else. I think it was much more informal than life is now. You just dropped in on each other. For years I can remember people saying that they lived upstairs, so there was a closeness, but I think that life was pretty hard. 

Schnitzer: Did people help one another with family and children and stuff? If they had an extended, family, so to speak, with a couple of families living in the same house. 
GOODMAN: I don’t think so. I don’t recall that this happened. I don’t remember having a lot of other people around in the house. The places were very small. 

Schnitzer: How many would share a room when you were growing up? 
GOODMAN: As a tiny child I don’t remember. As we grew up, Molly and I always shared a room. We never had one of our own. It was nice, for the first time in my life as a senior in college to have a room of my own. Even on Vista we shared a room. There was never a thing as having a room of our own. 

Schnitzer: How many different homes did they live in? 
GOODMAN: Three, so you see, we didn’t jump around too much. We only had three throughout our life-time, throughout our growing up. 

Schnitzer: Which were the ones – did you live in all three of them? 
GOODMAN: Yes. 

Schnitzer: What was the first? 
GOODMAN: It was on Arthur Street where we were born and then we moved to Fourth and Lincoln and we were there for a short while and the house was sold from under us, and so, let’s see, four houses and then we moved to Fifth Street where Grandpa bought the house and we stayed there until we moved to Vista Avenue. 

Schnitzer: Why did he move to Vista? 
GOODMAN: Well, he thought it was time for a change because the Fifth Street house had a bedroom right off the living room, their bedroom. There was no privacy really when we were all in the house. In fact, I remember a date making a comment about this way of life, and this beautiful home. Grandpa bought it. Grandma didn’t want to move up there. She was happy where she was in South Portland, and she wasn’t going to move, so there really was quite a conflict for Grandpa. And there again, Grandpa was so ahead of things, so he was the one who was going to have to do this alone, because there wasn’t any cooperation. Of course, she moved and loved it. 

Schnitzer: After you graduated from college did you move back home to Vista? 
GOODMAN: For a short while. I worked as a librarian for a short while, at a public library and while there I lived home and I also worked at the University medical school outpatient clinic and did some social work and during that time, so until actually I was married, I lived at home, off and on, going to New York for a couple of years, a year and a half or so. 

Schnitzer: What kind of people lived in your neighborhood when you were growing up? South Portland, what kind of people? 
GOODMAN: Oh, a woman two doors away, used to help Grandma twice a week with her housework. Next door to us was a German family named Gentner, right next door to us. And Mrs. Gentner had a very strong feeling about wanting the Germans to win, even though her son was in the American Army. One son is an entomologist and the other, Albert, owned the Mallory Hotel, and has died recently. We knew them quite well and they were very interested in us. Mrs. Gentner was very interested in us children and one day I called Harold or Leonard a bad boy and she said, “You mustn’t ever call him a bad boy or he will be a bad boy.” And she taught us things and she was right. She was great, really. We used to visit them and see them and used to pick their pears out of your dad’s window. He may have told you that the pears hung over on our side and the bedroom, your dad’s window was right there and we could just put our hand out and pick the pears or plums, I forgot which one it was. We had a great big house and with all of that, there were nine of us, with one bathroom, and of course now we think how could we have done it. So there again, there was a reason for them moving. 

Schnitzer: What other nationalities lived in your neighborhood? 
GOODMAN: Germans, Americans, and some Jewish families on the comer. I think that was about it on Fifth Street, where we really did our growing up. There wasn’t really a cross-section.

Schnitzer: What was the neighborhood like when you lived on Vista? 
GOODMAN: I remember when we first moved in that the Wurzweilers lived on the opposite corner, where Dr. Tu lives now and they invited Harold and Leonard to dinner, because they had a son about the same age. We were so surprised because no one had never been invited to anyone’s home for dinner before and here these kids were invited over there. You see, Grandma never had little parties for us or anything. We never had girlfriends over and even served them tea and cookies as little kids. I always remember that as one of the first things that happened, as welcoming these two boys and having them over. 
Schnitzer: Were there mostly Jewish people in that area? 
GOODMAN: On Vista? 

Schnitzer: On Vista. 
GOODMAN: No. Right next to us was the dentist and across the street was Ralph Williams who had a chauffeur, and it was very, very fancy. There weren’t very many Jewish people at all. The Wurzweilers and we are the only ones I can think of. 

Schnitzer: Did you experience any prejudice? 
GOODMAN: No, none whatever. I don’t remember anything like that. Although we were not friendly with the… I don’t think we ever… I went to school with Ralph Williams, Jr. at Lincoln High School and so forth, so I remember him well, but the older people never mixed. There was no welcome. 

Schnitzer: When you were growing up did you experience prejudice? From being Jewish? 
GOODMAN: No, none whatever. Not until I went to Columbia University where a gal asked me … I mentioned that my brother’s name was Manuel. She said, “Are you Jewish? You don’t look it, you don’t act it.” And that sort of thing and I always feel that there is prejudice there when people talk like that. 

Schnitzer: How did you respond? 
GOODMAN: I don’t remember, but I wasn’t very friendly with her after that. 

Schnitzer: Was the neighborhood where you were growing up all residential? Were there businesses? 
GOODMAN: It was all residential. Wherever we went. 

Schnitzer: What did you like best about your neighborhood? In growing up? 
GOODMAN: I think the closeness to Shattuck and Lincoln High School. Close enough so that we could come home at noon and have lunch, so that we had a very strong tie to home. Of course, it works the other way in that there is a certain dependency. We didn’t become independent because we were so tied… 

Schnitzer: Are there other things that you remember enjoying about the area? 
GOODMAN: Well, until we moved up to Vista, where there were trees around. Oh, Grandma loved flowers. She always did and there were a lot of flowers around our house on Vista, I mean on Fifth Street. I remember our way of cooling off was to take a hose in the back yard, hang a blanket on the clotheslines and we would run into the clothes lines to dry and keep warm and then we would get to cool off by going into the hose. Our play was very simple. It was skipping rope. It was dolls; we had dolls and things like that. We really didn’t do anything other than we were in school so much, you see, so we were constantly busy. We did a lot of embroidering as kids. That was Grandma’s favorite pastime so before I finished one piece, she had another one ready. And while I embroidered, Molly would run around and play with kids and Grandma would say, “She’s like her Auntie Rifka.” That’s Grandpa’s sister, because Auntie Rifka was outgoing and liked people and ran around. But I, trying to be the good child, you see, really didn’t do as much as I should have, physically or mentally. Playing the piano was enjoyable. I enjoyed that. That was pleasant. 

Schnitzer: What were some of the things that you didn’t like about your neighborhood while growing up? 
GOODMAN: Well, you see I have no negative feelings about dislike. Mel Blanc lived across the street, the Blancs. He was always entertaining, even as a kid. He would make all these funny sounds that later became his way of life and people were very friendly and there was across the street visiting. The Zell’s mother lived across the street. 

Schnitzer: What was her name do you know? 
GOODMAN: Let’s see, her name was Toba. Toba Zell and we used to talk Hebrew to her. She would talk Hebrew, so we used to visit back and forth across the street and the boys would play baseball. I remember the time that Mel Blanc and some of the boys were playing baseball and we had a buggy out front with either Leonard or Harold in it. Grandpa had told one of the boys that if they hit that buggy once more he was going to cut up their ball and sure enough the baseball hit the buggy again and he took out his little pocketknife and he cut their ball. I remember that. It is something that shocked them and I guess it was not a happy experience for these kids. But I remember that because they used to play ball right on the streets in front of the house. 

Schnitzer: Was Grandpa pretty strict? 
GOODMAN: Well he would get angry. He would get angry sometimes. Was he reasonable? I don’t know, maybe, or he could have moved the buggy. You see, so I don’t know, was he strict. He warned them. I think so. I think it was the attitude, “While you are living in my house, you do as I say.” That I remember very well. I resented it because sometimes it wasn’t reasonable, but considering that he didn’t have the background of psychology and so forth, I thought he did pretty well. 

Schnitzer: Did Grandma reprimand you too, or was it Grandpa? 
GOODMAN: No it was he. If we did something wrong or misbehaved she would always wait until he came home. He was the one who did the disciplining and sometimes he would take out his strap and threaten. He never hit me because he thought I was too sensitive and delicate, but Molly might get the brunt of things, because she was sturdier. I was a very skinny little girl and somehow he thought I was too delicate or whatever, but she would get more of it. But he was the disciplinarian. 

Schnitzer: That’s interesting. Can you remember any hard times that you went through in growing up? Did The Depression affect you? 
GOODMAN: I think it was because of The Depression, one of the reasons that we both went to Reed College instead of away, had we wanted to go to another school. I think for one, this was the most inexpensive way of getting an education. That is the only thing. I don’t think that The Depression affected us as far as our way of life, or eating or doing. 

Schnitzer: Why? How could it not affect? 
GOODMAN: Well actually we didn’t travel. We didn’t do anything so there was nothing withdrawn that we didn’t have before. I mean, it was just a simple way of life We ate the same way. As far as dressing, as I said we had most of our things made and so that wasn’t very costly, so our life was a very simple one. We weren’t given very much. We were given very few toys. I remember when a doll broke, rarely, Grandpa brought this from out of town and when it broke I remember it was catastrophic because I had no other doll, no other toys and you know what that meant. Once I had a little gold ring that was given to me and I lost it, and I almost became… I mean, it was something, because there was no replacement, so you see, we talk about those times and it was a time when we weren’t given very much that way. We were given a lot of care. You see, they cared about us and that’s important. 

Schnitzer: Were people around you suffering from the Depression? 
GOODMAN: I think everybody was about in the same level. I think it was a very modest way of living. Most people didn’t have a large car and I remember we did, so we were probably in a better state than they. 

Schnitzer: Did anyone have to work, any of your brothers because of the Depression, to earn more money? 
GOODMAN: The Depression was in the late twenties, early thirties and I think the boys went down to work, the older boys, they would go down to the store, but it was not because they had to earn money. I don’t think it affected us that way. 

Schnitzer: What year were you born? 
GOODMAN: 1912, September. 

Schnitzer: Do you recall things that you really enjoyed about going to school? 
GOODMAN: No, grade school was a very unhappy experience. Our teachers were old maids. They really weren’t interested in children. We never got individual attention. I remember one time a parent called our home and told us that our Molly had been pulled by the hair because she couldn’t write her numbers in a straight line and Grandpa went to school to check on it. I don’t know how that was resolved but I guess he always had a certain respect for teachers and thought maybe they were right. The teachers were actually cruel. They were old maids. They were never married and it was a job for them rather than something that they enjoyed doing; it’s too bad. 

Schnitzer: What grade school? 
GOODMAN: This was Shattuck School. There were a couple in high school that were warmer but even there, there was never a closeness. It was only when I went to Reed College that we were adult enough and really enjoyed school and had people around who were intelligent and were challenging humans, but the others, sadly to say, was not a happy experience. 

Schnitzer: Were you interested in anything in school, any particular area? 
GOODMAN: At what level? 

Schnitzer: In any of the levels. 
GOODMAN: No, not until college, when I became interested in sociology and in people and so that’s why I chose that. I didn’t enjoy the sciences as much or mathematics. 

Schnitzer: Did you read very much when you were growing up? 
GOODMAN: Very much. That was one of our pastimes, during grade school and high school, one of our great outlets was going to the library and loving to read and I would have read a lot more, but Grandma thought I was wasting my time. 

Schnitzer: Why? 
GOODMAN: Because you are supposed to do things. You see, you are supposed to use your hands and do things and I always remember that. I loved books. 

Schnitzer: Did you read to Grandma ever? 
GOODMAN: We used to read the newspaper to Grandpa and Grandma. Grandpa loved penmanship; he would enjoy watching us sitting around our table and practice. He loved beautiful penmanship and writing and we used to do that. I was pretty good at it but I never read books to her. At around the end of the day she was so tired. I remember Mrs. Borenstein had a grocery store at the corner and went to night school and would come by and say, “Come along.” She went a couple of times but I guess she was just too tired after all the housework she did and everything to care about it, which is too bad. 

Schnitzer: What did you speak in the home? 
GOODMAN: Yiddish, until later years. But we could speak Yiddish fluently in our early years. 

Schnitzer: Did Grandma learn to speak English? 
GOODMAN: Yes, she learned to speak, because we started speaking English and she learned it, yes. Grandpa was far more fluent. 

Schnitzer: [question unclear]
GOODMAN: Yes, and then I learned Hebrew and French, but we could speak Hebrew fluently at one time. 

Schnitzer: What was your first job? 
GOODMAN: It was at the medical school at the outpatient clinic. I can’t remember whether it was the library first, where I worked for about six months as a librarian and did everything that the professional librarians did. They wanted to send me to school to get my certificate as such, but I didn’t enjoy it. There too, you weren’t allowed to speak to a co-worker. If you did, the public might think you are talking about them. It was a very rigid, disciplinarian type of organization then, run by a woman who also must have been an old maid. So it was fun and then it wasn’t, so I quit. And there were different hours, sometimes the night hours. At that time I was paid $90 a month, and that was considered a great wage. I went up to the university and was welcomed immediately. We used to investigate the eligibility of patients for treatment in the outpatient clinic, which was free. There were a few who would try to get by and get free treatment and should have paid for their services. It was interesting work and we would visit the families. Grandpa gave me a car and then they wanted to train me to work in the Admitting Department of the whole medical school, a whole social service, but I had met somebody in New York and I worked there, for how long… for six month, eight months, but I had met somebody in New York. Thought I liked him, went back, visited, because I had gone to school there and then I went to work, then I returned. Your dad needed somebody out on Yeon Avenue and so instead of going back on the hill, I became his secretary. There were only two of us or three out there. It was just a little small place and I handled the money and weighed people in. That didn’t last long, because I got married. 

Schnitzer: Have you worked since you’ve been married? 
GOODMAN: No. 

Schnitzer: Do you miss not working? 
GOODMAN: Well, I sometimes wish I had, but you see, the war years were here and we had Mort’s niece and nephew when we were married and life was very complicated, so I couldn’t. 

Schnitzer: What do you recall about the war years? Was Mort in the service? 
GOODMAN: No. He applied twice but he was refused. They refused to accept him because they felt he was more valuable as a teacher at the Medical School and they needed him, so he taught full time at the medical school. 

Schnitzer: What was life like during that time? 
GOODMAN: Well, so many people came through and he somehow seemed to have been the Dean of Doctors. People in the service would look him up and so our house was always a busy one. There is not much more to say. There wasn’t the peace and quiet that we have now, or the normal home. It was quite different because there was a lot of activity. 

Schnitzer: Didn’t your brothers serve, were they inducted? 
GOODMAN: Oh sure. Manuel wasn’t because of an arm injury, but brother Morris was inducted and Harold and Leonard. Leonard went to Dental School and then he served in the Navy. 

Schnitzer: Uncle Gilbert, wasn’t he in the service? 
GOODMAN: Oh sure. Gilbert I think had the roughest time of all. He was actually in combat and he had the hardest time of all. I wished that I had saved a letter that your dad had written telling us how he had met Gilbert on the road between Germany and France and he had asked if Gilbert’s battalion was in the neighborhood and by word of mouth all the soldiers went down the line and sure enough Gilbert was there and when we read the letter, I cried, my neighbor cried. I mean, it was very touching, meeting there and your dad gave Gilbert all sorts of supplies. He was in the supply end of things. I wished I had that letter. Yes Gilbert was in the toughest spot of all, but they served. 

Schnitzer: Have you had a change of attitude about who we were fighting at that time and now? How you feel about the Germans? Do you hold any resentment? Do you feel differently about the Germans than you did during the wartime and now? 
GOODMAN: Well, I know that the Germans have made reparations but I still feel very strongly to the point where I don’t want to go to Germany. I will never travel in Germany. You don’t forget. 

Schnitzer: Have you ever been interested in politics? Have you been involved? 
GOODMAN: Yes, I was head of a precinct here in my area. 

Schnitzer: For what party? 
GOODMAN: Oh, the Democratic party for a number of years. Precinct Committee Woman. Actually I think that was my most active part in politics. 

Schnitzer: What interested you about politics? To become involved? 
GOODMAN: Well this is a very conservatives area. Oh yes, I have also been on the Election Board, counting votes for an election. I have been on that too. When my children were small they needed someone when they were very tiny and Mort baby sat while I counted votes. 

Schnitzer: Are you involved now in politics? 
GOODMAN: No, but I ought to get back on the Board on the Election Board as a poll watcher. 

Schnitzer: What are some of the people that you’ve been associated with through politics? 
GOODMAN: Well, you asked about politics. I have been active in League of Women Voters. In fact I was one of the leaders of the study group. Connie McCready, who was on it, was one of our members. There were a lot of interesting people. Mary Rinke. I was the leader of that study group for a year. Little things like that, if you count it. 

Schnitzer: In what direction do you see the country heading politically now? 
GOODMAN: I don’t know. I think it’s kind of hard to tell. For one, this is not part of it, but I just wonder if the American Civil Liberties Union attorney was right in allowing Nazis to march in Skokie. I think his stance is correct. I think he’s right about that, freedom for everybody. But I think there are limits to that too. So I would withdraw my membership from the American Civil Liberties Union because I just feel that they should have taken no stand and not defended the Nazis. 

Schnitzer: That’s interesting. 
GOODMAN: I don’t think they had to take a stand to defend them, to become their attorney. 

Schnitzer: How do you see life today as being different from say, 30 or 50 years ago? 
GOODMAN: Oh, I think there is more mobility. I think there is more money. There are more opportunities. I think as a child, it was such a treat to hear Yehudi Menuhin play and he came out on the stage. Grandpa took us all and he came out on stage in his little shorts, but now, it’s nothing to go to a concert. I mean, it’s a way of life. Then it was something very special, so I think there’s a much more broadening, much more interesting life now. More challenging now than it was then, but then our parents didn’t have the backgrounds that we have given our kids or that we have had, or the opportunities. 

Schnitzer: Now I would like to talk more about your personal life, your family. When did you get married and to whom? 
GOODMAN: I got married in 1939 to Morton Goodman. 

Schnitzer: How did you meet him? 
GOODMAN: Well, Dr. Wollin was our dentist and when I came back from school and knew no one here, he said there are a lot of Jewish young men around and he said I’m going to have a party and he did and he invited Morton Goodman and a lot of other people. I think that was our first meeting and then he would have Molly and me over to his home. He would have little parties and we would go and once in awhile he would drop in at the medical school office and say hello. Then I went East and when I came back. I don’t know. He had a friend who shared a house with him, Arthur Tarlow and they both looked so much alike and Arthur Tarlow would see me somewhere, at a dance or something and would tell Mort and the next day Mort would call me and ask for a date and then he would forget and then Arthur Tarlow would see me again and somehow, I guess we just started going with each other. It was a very short time. We were engaged one day and married the next. This was about eight months after Molly was married, that we married. We have three children, Charles who is 35, Helen 33 and Tom 28. 

Schnitzer: And grandchildren? 
GOODMAN: We have one grandchild, Daniel, who is three years old. 

Schnitzer: What values do you see important to instill in your children? When you were bringing them up, were there values that you tried to emphasize? 
GOODMAN: Oh, I think being direct and honest with them and having them sensitive to other people, and understand other people’s views and I think a certain respect for other people that’s so important. I think these kids have it. I think they do. I think they are interested in others and I think their way of living has shown that they are. Helen is interested in the blind and gives very much of herself, even after hours, to helping them and Tom and Charlie are both in medicine. 

Schnitzer: To what extent have you emphasized their Jewish heritage? 
GOODMAN: Well, they all went to Sunday School. Tom was the only one that was Bar Mitzvahed and went to Hebrew School. I think, regretfully, perhaps we didn’t have, just lighting the candles and a holiday spirit or even going to the synagogue wasn’t enough. Charlie doesn’t have any feelings to speak of. Helen will. I think having children will make a difference and Tom, it’s hard to say. But the Bar Mitzvah had a great impact on him and he wanted to go to services on Friday nights after that. But Mort was never religious and wasn’t interested; that’s where we failed. We should have gone. We should have carried through and we should have done it with the other kids. There wasn’t enough feeling. Children will sense it, but I remember very well after the Bar Mitzvah, Tom said we ought to be going to services. He wanted to. 

Schnitzer: What expectations do you have for your children? 
GOODMAN: Maybe it’s trite to say it. First of all you want their happiness and want them to be happy in what they are doing.