Hannah Mihlstin Bodner

Meyer: Mrs. Bodner, where did your parents come from in Europe?
BODNER: Well, my mother came from Hungary and my dad was from Austria.

Meyer: And they lived in New York?
BODNER: They didn’t come together. They met in New York.

Meyer: You were born in New York?
BODNER: Yes, I was born in New York.

Meyer: Did you live there very long?
BODNER: I was three months when they came out here. See, my dad was in business.

Meyer: What kind of business was he in?
BODNER: The same business I told you. They made roofs. They tar them over there, and whatever they wanted done with them, he did it. He made skylights with the glass and he made the gutters all around the building. That was his business.

Meyer: What made him decide to come out to Washington?
BODNER: He had a man working for him. He trusted him and he found out that he was stealing. On the side he was taking things. My dad said whenever you are in business and someone steals, your business isn’t there anymore, so he went and fired him. He sold the place and told my mother he was coming out west. He had heard so much of the west, and he came out here and he loved it.

Meyer: Where did he come first? 
BODNER: To Tacoma.

Meyer: Were you the oldest child in your family?
BODNER: No, my sister Yetta Pallay – you know the Pallays here? She was the oldest. Then I had a brother. My mother had ten children. Two died when they were really young and when we came out, there was my sister, my brother – two brothers. Four of us came out.

Meyer: And you lived in Tacoma. What kind of a house did you live in?
BODNER: Well, that was a log cabin. My dad always talked about that it was built so beautiful, you know. Years ago, they must have had plenty of room, because my mother liked and wanted a lot of room. She was what you would call a real balabusta and everything was just so. We stayed there… see, that’s what I don’t know. Did George put that down how long we were there?

Meyer: He didn’t say when you moved.
BODNER: Then later on, my dad never liked to work for anyone. He always wanted to be his own boss, so he came to Oregon City. He was offered a job with Pope & Company. They are still there and he worked for him a while, for that firm. I don’t know how long. I don’t remember. So in those days they gave you land where you wanted to settle and you built your own home.

Meyer: This probably was in the late 1800s?
BODNER: Yes, so my dad built a beautiful home there in Willamette Falls. It was beautiful there. Have you ever been out there?

Meyer: No, I don’t think I’ve ever been out there. 
BODNER: There weren’t very many people out there. We had a school and a grocery store. You know, when I was a child, my mother always talked German. She wanted her children to know how to talk German. So I used to go to the grocery store to do some shopping and I didn’t say it in English. I said it in German. So one little fellow said, “Go ahead, you Dutchman.” So I went back home and I wouldn’t talk German anymore. I said to my mother, “No more German.” I’ve talked English since then.

Meyer: Were you the only Jewish family in Willamette Falls?
BODNER: The only Jewish family, but we got along wonderful [with the non-Jews]. My mother used to invite them in for coffee and for an evening, and we went there for their holiday. For our holiday my mother used to go to Portland. She would get a woman to stay with us and she would go for Roth Hashanah and Yom Kippur. My mother was very religious. We couldn’t get any kosher meat unless we came to Portland and, of course, you couldn’t come to Portland all the time when you have children and a family. So there was a butcher, a Jewish butcher, he never told anybody he was Jewish, in Oregon City, I think his name was Platsky or something. He kept treif meat and my mother – how long can you live there and not have meat, you know? You know, they used to have a lot of chicken, and my dad used to kill the chicken – a shochet, you know. He would say a little prayer and we would have the chicken. My mother used to kosher the meat, anyway.

Meyer: You told me that your mother would come into Portland for the holidays. At home, besides Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, did you celebrate all the holidays?
BODNER: Yes. When she had small children and she couldn’t come, we used to have Yom Kippur. We never ate. When she was there we never ate. She used to come here and stay with a friend – Wittenberg. They used to take pictures and enlarge pictures on First Street. They were photographers and they lived on First Street in South Portland.

Meyer: Were they related to your mother?
BODNER: No. Just met them. And they used to come out to our place, because we had a beautiful place out in Willamette Falls. My sister was married then and she used to bring a whole crew out there. They crawfished, and they would make a fire somewhere and cook them, eat them. She used to bring the Pallays out there. You know Bess Parlay? Clarence’s grandparents. Ben Pallay came out, too.

Meyer: So you had a little bit of contact with the Jewish people? 
BODNER: Yes.

Meyer: What about some of the other institutions? The Jewish institutions in Portland. Did you have any contact with them at all? That you remember.
BODNER: No, because you see I went back to New York.

Meyer: Did your brothers have bar mitzvahs?
BODNER: They went to Heder, but they had to go to Portland. So my mother used to send them to Portland quite often to the classes, but I can’t remember if they had bar mitzvahs.
 
Meyer: But you do remember that they came in? 
BODNER: Yes, they used to.

Meyer: Did you go to public school in Willamette Falls?
BODNER: I graduated from public school. They had one big classroom for all of us. My brothers – see my sister was going then – and I. You’ll see the pictures that Shirley has. I graduated from there. I graduated with honors and they gave me a little Liberty Bell. I had it for years but I don’t know what happened to it. Then we moved to Oregon City. My dad built that home in Oregon City. My mother was in the hospital there, giving birth to the last boy, and he never told her he was building that home for her. He surprised her. Everybody was busy up there, on 13th in Oregon City, up the hill. We had a beautiful home there. He had everybody working and new furniture and everything. My mother came home right into a nice bedroom. My dad was always full of surprises. Then we had a high school – Oregon City High School. It was just a little ways from where we lived on 12th Street, up the hill. I don’t know what street it was. So I started high school and went a short time and Dad said, “You know enough now; you come and go to Behnke-Walker.” They still exist. I think they have a place in Portland, too. I went there to take up bookkeeping. Dad said I have to take care of the business.

Meyer: He had his own business – did it have a name that you remember?
BODNER: It was Mihlstin’s Plumbing Shop. He did big business there. Everybody liked him. We were the only plumbers there. Another one came in later. There was a young fellow. George has got that in there – I don’t know if we should mention – gentile.

Meyer: Certainly.
BODNER: He was a fine fellow. I was a kid, you know. He was a little older and he was going to the same school, taking up bookkeeping. I don’t know what he took up – a business course. So one day I come out, and he lived where I lived further up, and he said, “Hannah what’s the use of having two umbrellas when we walk to school? I’ll keep the umbrella over you.” We walked down to Main Street. That’s where my dad’s business was. Right next door was that school. So my dad happened to be in that doorway, seeing me coming along with him, and right away he decided to sell everything and go back east. There were no Jewish children.

Meyer: But when you were living there, were there any other Jewish families in Oregon City?
BODNER: In Oregon City? Yes.

Meyer: Which families were there?
BODNER: The Blocks, the Robisons. You know the Robisons that helped building that Robison Home. Well, we knew her, too. She was at my sister’s wedding. Then she lived over at the Park Plaza. When I moved to Portland in later years we used to go visit her. She told me she was at my sister’s wedding. Told me all about my mother and how much fun they used to have together. She had two sons in New York. I don’t know whether they are still living. They kept her up and they helped her with the Robison Home.

Meyer: And did the Sellings live in Oregon City?
BODNER: The Sellings lived in Oregon City. There were the Sellings, Robisons, and the Blochs. You knew Mrs. Bloch. I think she passed away not too long ago, a few years ago.

Meyer: And did you go and visit these people?
BODNER: They lived in my father’s… you see, when my father built some homes in Oregon City, he built twin homes. They are still there, and the Blochs and the Robisons lived in the twin homes. Then he built the home we lived in. Then he built another beautiful one right next door to us.

Meyer: Is that the home the Sellings lived in?
BODNER: No, the Sellings had their own home. They had a beautiful home.

Meyer: Did you go and visit the Sellings?
BODNER: Every Saturday, like clockwork.

Meyer: Did your mother dress you up? All of the children?
BODNER: No, just the three girls. The boys never went. We went there and spent the afternoon. Talking, had lunch. She was so sweet. Her son, you know, was the doctor in the Portland Clinic. I went to him when I came back to Portland from New York. I told him who I was and we had such a nice visit.

Meyer: And that was really a special treat that you had on Saturday?
BODNER: We loved that treat. Then we would walk around Oregon City and my mother would do a little shopping for us. Then we would go across the bridge and went home.

Meyer: And you went on the streetcar?
BODNER: Yes, they had a streetcar that went from Willamette Falls to Oregon City. They called it West Linn then, that car, and certain times of the day it would run. It didn’t run every hour or so.

Meyer: But that’s how you got into – 
BODNER: My dad had a horse and buggy in those days.

Meyer: Is that how your brothers got into Portland? By the horse and buggy?
BODNER: No, they took the train. They had a train then.

Meyer: That went from Willamette Falls?
BODNER: No, that’s when we were in Oregon City. They would take the train and go.

Meyer: Let’s talk a little about your father being upset seeing you with that young man. So he decided to take your family back east?
BODNER: That’s how he decided to sell everything. He told my mother he didn’t want intermarriages. So I said to Dad, “What, do you think I’m going to marry him?” I told him, “Don’t worry about that. I’m not going to marry him. It will be a long time.” But he had a brother and some family there, and my mother had some family living there, so he was anxious to get back. He no more than mentioned that he wanted to sell everything [and] everything went like hotcakes, so quick.

Meyer: Do you remember the trip back to New York? Did you go by train?
BODNER: Yes, we went by train. In those days I had a younger brother when my mother moved into the new home. He was just a baby. So they had those great big belly stoves. Everybody could warm their milk for the baby and if they had food or something. It isn’t like today you know.
 
Meyer: How many children went back east with you? Because you said one of your sisters was married. 
BODNER: Yes, she was married. And the rest of us. My sister Lee, Belle, and then my brother Harry was in San Francisco. He was the next to the oldest. My brother Sam didn’t want to go back with us. He was older than I was and I guess that’s all. Leo, the baby, went back.

Meyer: What kind of business did your father do – building and plumbing?
BODNER: He started right in again.

Meyer: Where did you live in New York City?
BODNER: We lived in Brooklyn, then. We lived in Brooklyn, but when you say Brooklyn, you think… It was the nice part of Brooklyn.

Meyer: That was in the early 1900s.
BODNER: I think George put the date in. About 1908, he said.

Meyer: He thought that you had gone back.
BODNER: You know, now when a child is born, you always keep a little diary there. It’s a good idea. I wished I did then.

Meyer: Did you work as a bookkeeper when you were in New York?
BODNER: I worked as a bookkeeper and I finally met my husband. In fact, I met quite a few. Because I came from Portland, and over there [in New York] they couldn’t pronounce the R’s. They thought I was great because I talked with the R’s and they talked, “doity shoit.” I used to laugh because it sounded so funny to me; so I met my husband. He came from Europe, too, and he was there a short time. But as soon as he came he went to school and he worked. His father made uniforms in Europe; he had a big factory. These boys had a good head. There were about five or six boys and two girls. Those boys went to cheder. They had to come from cheder and work in that shop and then it was time to school. They went to school and after school, they had to work again. They were all worked out already when they got married. He was a wonderful man.

Meyer: And you were married in 1910? Did you continue to live in New York then?
BODNER: I stayed there, but not too long. He didn’t like New York. Never liked it.

Meyer: Where did you decide to move?
BODNER: I decided to? He decided, I didn’t. We had a nice apartment there, furnished nicely, and my dad – he couldn’t stand it. I had to move in the same building with him. He put a phone in there and I would be right there in the business, so I stayed with them. My husband didn’t like New York. So I said, “You know what to do. You go out west and you see if you like it. If you like it we’ll sell out everything and I’ll come back there to Portland.” I had Herbert then. Do you know Herbert?

Meyer: Yes.
BODNER: I had Herbert. And when he 18 months old my husband wouldn’t come back. He liked it so well here he stayed out here.

Meyer: What did he do when he came to Portland?
BODNER: He started in a little – Meier & Frank wanted him to work for them in the clothing department. He didn’t want to work for anybody, so he opened up a cleaning store and tailoring. The store wasn’t large enough for him, so by the time I came out, he found another place on 23rd and Raleigh. They used to have a hotel there, brand new, and the stores were so big. The store was longer than my whole apartment here. In the back we had a big living-dining room. We had a nice kitchen and two bedrooms. I just had Herbert then and we had heat. They gave us heat and hot water and those people were so wonderful. I think he was Jewish – Hearst was the name – but she was gentile. Very nice people. We got along very nice. In fact, when the boys… I had George after that, Herbert got the small pox, and she used to help me with the baby so that the baby wouldn’t get it. He finally got it, too. They were very nice people.

Meyer: Did your husband’s shop have a name or was it just Bodner?
BODNER: Bodner Cleaners. He was so busy and he did such big business then that we were ready to retire.

Meyer: Mrs. Bodner, tell me about some of the other stores that were in the same area as your husband’s tailor shop.
BODNER: Well, there was a grocery store, but I can’t think of their name. They had young children. There was a little store across the street. They did hauling, like people moving, you know. It seemed like they could never come to anything – people do their own hauling. And a few people around there.

Meyer: Were there other Jewish people living in the northwest Portland area? 
BODNER: Yes, there were a lot of Jewish people living there.

Meyer: Were you friendly with them?
BODNER: Yes, I was friendly with them, but they belonged to the Temple. They used to say they were German Jews. I belonged to the Neveh Shalom with my husband. He liked that place.

Meyer: So you didn’t have a lot of contact with some of those people?
BODNER: I’ll tell you, I was awfully busy in those days. I had Herbert and George then, and wherever I would go, I would put them in the car. George had a basket and Herbert would sit there. I had a black Chow dog. They didn’t have the cars like they do today; you lock them all up. So I had a Chow dog. A prize Chow dog and he would sit there in the car. We didn’t have meters then. We could park it anywheres. I would park it and the dog would watch the children in the car. We enjoyed that life. My husband was a Shriner and he was working for his 33rd degree. He used to have the men come there and he used to coach them.

Meyer: You said you belonged to the Neveh Shalom. Did you and your husband have any other contact with the Jewish Community Center or any of the other Jewish organizations? 
BODNER: Yes, we did.

Meyer: Did the children go, too?
BODNER: Well, they were young then, but they went. They went swimming there at the Neighborhood House. One time they had a contest there, swimming, and Herbert was going. He was a little fellow then and he couldn’t swim, but he got into the water. My husband and I were sitting, watching the children. Along came Herbert. He wasn’t swimming but he was running under the water and he got a prize. I tell you, we couldn’t get over it. We laughed so much. Even sometimes now I bring it up to Herbert. I guess he can swim now. He was full of the devil too, that Herbert.

Meyer: When some of the Jewish people started immigrating to Portland from Europe, did you have any contacts with them?
BODNER: Yes. We went back again. My husband was sick.

Meyer: To New York?
BODNER: To New York. He worked too hard. He was working for Montgomery Ward. They wouldn’t let him go. They used to send suitcases full of clothing that had to be shortened – the sleeves had to be shortened. He told them you couldn’t get help in those days, and if he did get help, they never satisfied him.

Meyer: That was in 1918? Around then?
BODNER: Yes. So anyway, he worked so hard that one morning, like Saturday night we went to bed and we were laughing about different things, and in the morning I got up. That’s when I was with Bob. Did you know Bob, the son that I lost?

Meyer: Yes. I didn’t know him, but I heard about him.
BODNER: Anyway, I was expecting, I was about four or five months along and I got up in the morning and I see my husband sitting by the table with his face kind of covered. I said to him, “What’s wrong?” I thought maybe he got a telephone call from New York. “Did anybody call?” He said no. I said, “Well, what’s wrong?” He never wanted to tell me if he didn’t feel good or anything, but I went over and looked at him and saw his mouth was twisted. He had palsy and that’s from overwork. The nerves. Sunday you couldn’t get anybody, but we finally went up to the Good Samaritan Hospital. The next thing he had to do was go to a specialist just for that. He lived on 24th Street, Northwest. His name was [inaudible]. Anyway, he helped him. Then I called my folks and I told my father, and I told him what happened. He said, “Sell out everything and come to New York and Jack will take a trip to Europe.” He worked hard. He was only happy when he worked. Did you ever hear of people like that? He was only happy when he worked. He used to tell me that when the children will get older – we used to go to the beach for a couple of weeks, we never went any further.
 
Meyer: To Seaside?
BODNER: To Seaside, and we went to Long Beach. But he didn’t go to stay. He took us there and then he would come weekends. He would bring us a lot of food and he said, “When the children will grow up, the boys, and go to college, then you and I will be able to travel. We won’t have to worry about them.”

Meyer: You decided that you were going to sell the things here and go back to New York?
BODNER: Yes, because my dad called him [her husband] and told him that he he’d been working too hard and come back. Bob was just about a couple of months old, too, when we went back. So we thought it over and said all right. Everything he put up for sale, he sold. He sold the business and I had furniture. I don’t know how long I lived there. I bought it from Bottenmiller. Of course, you wouldn’t know him. He had a furniture store.

Meyer: Bottenmiller?
BODNER: Yes, he was a gentile and so I bought my furniture from him. He was on Thurman Street. I called him and I said, “You know we are going East. Jack took sick.” I said, “Would you buy my furniture back?” He looked at it and said “I’ll give you the same money that you paid for it!” He said, “Why, it’s new!” I was always careful with my stuff. He took the furniture off my hands and we were ready to go.

Meyer: And did you take the train back again?
BODNER: No, we flew back. When he took sick and we flew back.

Meyer: That must have been some trip in the plane?
BODNER: No, it wasn’t too bad. I forgot. It was better than a train. We went by plane. We even took our dog along. We had a Chow dog and we had to pay for that dog like a person. They fed him and we could take him out whenever. I don’t know… did we go by train? No, we went by plane. We stopped and then they let us take the dog down for a little run and then back in the plane. They had a place there. We got there and my dad told my husband, he said, “Now just forget work. Just take it easy. You have been working too hard. That’s what’s wrong with you.” 

So a couple of days later he goes out. He goes out for a walk and finally ends up in Jamaica, Long Island. You know, it wasn’t far. You took a train, the elevated. He goes up there. In the paper he saw a kiddy shop for sale – children’s shop. He goes over there and he buys it. He doesn’t ask any advice. Puts a deposit and comes back and we were all sitting there. He said, “Wish me good luck.” My father said, “What do you mean good luck? Of course you are going to have good luck.” He said, “I bought a business.” My dad said, “Where’s the business?” He told him in Jamaica, Long Island. It wasn’t far, though it sounds far. And my dad said, “Have you got the key?” He said, “No, I’ll go back tomorrow.” 

My father took ahold of him and he said, “Come on, we’ll go right back there; you’ve got to get the key. They can go there and empty the place for you.” He trusted everybody. So he went over there and got the key and came back and they had a nice apartment upstairs. I moved in there and we were there about five years. Then the man wouldn’t give us a lease and he wouldn’t sell it. We were going to buy the building, a one-story – upstairs living and downstairs the store. We couldn’t get out at the time he wanted us to get out so my husband called some men and sold everything out that way.

Meyer: Did you still stay in New York?
BODNER: We stayed there for a while yet. Then I had a cousin. She was married to a butcher and my husband tried the butcher business. This fellow was a regular thief, no good. They didn’t even have money to run it. That’s the way he [my husband] was. He felt sorry for everybody. He went into the butcher business, but it wasn’t good for him. He had high blood pressure.

Meyer: But you still stayed in New York?
BODNER: Then we left. You see, I wanted to leave years ago.

Meyer: You really liked living out west?
BODNER: I liked the west and he liked the west. Every time I would mention it my father would cry like a baby; he wanted his children around. “Oh, you’ll do all right, don’t worry about nothing.” So as soon as my father passed away, we left. I left my furniture there. I lived with my mother because my father passed away. I lived a little while with her and –

Meyer: When was this, when your father died?
BODNER: In 1953.

Meyer: In 1953? Mrs. Bodner, you said you stayed in New York until your father died in 1937 and then you lived with your mother for a short time?
BODNER: I lived with her for a short time, very short, and then we came west. We bought a new car and then he said, “We are going to have a nice trip.” So we took it easy and stayed in nice places. Then we decided we were going to California and then up to Portland. But when we started out and were out a couple of days he said, “Let’s go to Portland and get settled.” He couldn’t stand to rest. He said, “I’ll get settled; I’ll do something to keep me busy, and George will go on to college.” He won out. Then we came to Portland and I stayed with Leo for a while – Leo Blank, do you know him?

Meyer: No. Was he your nephew?
BODNER: Nephew. My sister’s son. They had the Jefferson Theater, so I stayed a little while with him until we found an apartment on Flanders Street near 21st. We had a nice apartment there and we went down and bought furniture. [I] had a Meier & Frank interior decorator come up and tell me what I needed. Bess Pallay was with me. We furnished a nice apartment. We had three big bedrooms and a den and a living room. This building is still there.

Meyer: Did your husband find another business to buy?
BODNER: I told him, “We are not going to have no more tailoring.” Then Meier & Frank heard that he was back. You know, he was a designer of men’s clothes in New York. They knew who he was and they wanted him. When we first came to Portland from New York, Meier & Frank wanted him to come and design clothes there. Then when we came back again, they still wanted him back. He wouldn’t go because he liked to do business for himself. So I said, “If you want to watch the workers and get somebody in and I’ll be down there.” He said, “No, over my dead body.” He never wanted me to help. I never knew even how to sew a button when he passed away. I didn’t even know how to sew a button. He was always there. 

Meyer: Did he decide to open another business?
BODNER: We opened a business and I said to him that we would open up a cleaning place. It was just the time when war broke out and the shipyards was down there not far from Thurman Street. Every morning, the women with fur coats used to go by. So anyway, he said that’s what he’s going to do. Fix up another store. He got another big store down there right on the corner. They made three stores out of that place.

Meyer: On Thurman Street?
BODNER: Thurman and 23rd Street. So he started again. He got himself a machine. He was going to get a man to do the pressing and he would watch the work, but he didn’t. Every man come in, he would fire them. They couldn’t do anything. He was just there one year when we came back. We came in September and he died in September. 

But the doctors told George and Herbert… When we left New York, I said to my husband, “Let’s go see your doctor there.” He always was on a diet. He only ate certain things. “We will go and see if we should still have that diet as we are going away.” I think it was George and I and my husband who went. He got undressed and he examined him and everything, so I said to the doctor, “How about his diet?” 

“He can eat everything. He’s just fine. He can eat anything he wants to eat.” My husband was smart. He knew that that wasn’t kosher. There was something to it, and the boys didn’t tell me either what the doctor told them. The doctor didn’t tell me, but they told the two boys, Herbert and George, that if their father would last one year it would be wonderful. But he lasted just the one year.

Meyer: The doctor was right, unfortunately. 
BODNER: He knew, but I never knew about it.

Meyer: After he was gone, did you stay in the apartment in Flanders?
BODNER: He never let me go down and help him. He always had somebody there with him, but he did the pressing. Nobody could beat his pressing. When he pressed a suit, you would think it was right out of a men’s shop. After he passed away I was thinking, “Here we’ve got a new store and everything in it.” There was a war on, and a lot of people came and talked to me and said, “Mrs. Bodner, why don’t you go down to the store and get a presser, and we’ll all patronize you?” Everybody liked my husband. They had known him from years back, we were there. 

Sure enough, I went down there and I got a fellow to come in and press – no, I didn’t get a fellow, but the wholesalers came to me. They knew my husband from years back. I can’t think of their name, either. He came and said, “Mrs. Bodner, I’ll tell you something. You keep the shop and you just take in the business. You know, take care of it. Write down what you got in and what you have there.” 

And we did. And he said, “The only thing you got to do is that every day I’ll come pick your cleaning up, and bring it back, and you will make and I will make.” He was so nice that way. So that’s what I did. I didn’t know how to do anything else. Like I said, I didn’t know how to sew a button! So anyway, there was a driver, a German fellow – his name was Schneider. He would call me up, and if I had a specialty, he’d call me up, “Mrs. Bodner, get your steamer going. I’ll be there in certain time and I’ll press them out for you. I’ll show you how to press.” So I took lessons. He would come at 12:00 and he’d press all my stuff and he’d show me. You know, I guess so I could press the suits just as nice as he did! But I didn’t do it very long. 

Meyer: Was George at college at this time?
BODNER: No, George was in the service and Herbert was in the service, but he was in one of those trial ships and he was home every night. Sometime he went at night. My son Bob, I sent him to Curtis Wright. I thought he had better learn something. He graduated high school and then he went to Curtis Wright. I had to pay for that, just like college, and every week or two he called me all the time. The people he was staying with, they were moving, giving up roomers. He was always looking, but said, “Don’t worry, I have another place in view.”

Meyers: Did you keep the store for many years, then? During the war, did you keep your store?
BODNER: I kept the store while they were away. I did a wonderful business there. Every morning, when I came down at 7:00 in the morning – I had to get there early), we had a screen door. That was just packed with clothes. Across the street was a drug store – Hagans. He had a lot of stuff in there for me. All the people in the morning came with their arms full of clothes. Of course, we gave them nice work. Then later I took in a presser. I took in, you know… he passed away. What’s his name, now? I’ll remember it.

Meyer: During the war years did you have much contact with the organizations in the Jewish community or were you just so busy?
BODNER: I was too busy, and at night I was too tired. I was in the store and the boys would come home early. Herbert and even George used to fix dinner. They would have everything ready. Bob, whoever got there first, would start it and cook dinner and they all helped me just like they were girls.

Meyer: Then after the war, they went to college?
BODNER: No. George was going to dental school here in Portland. Bob was in California. Then he came home and he was working for Peters – Mel Peters. That fellow was just like my son. He was so wonderful. When my husband passed away, he had his family here too, and a sister. They all lived out of town here, like Beaverton, a suburb.

Meyer: Mrs. Bodner, over the years you lived in New York, you lived in Portland, you lived in Willamette Falls, you lived in Oregon City. Do you think the Jewish life has changed in our area over the years?
BODNER: I don’t think so.

Meyer: Jewish life hasn’t changed too much? How do you feel about –
BODNER: I don’t know any of the real… you know, the old timers, like my mother. Saturdays she wouldn’t do nothing, not even turn the lights on or anything. You don’t see those mothers any more.

Meyer: How do you feel about being a Jew today in 1976, living in Oregon?
BODNER: I feel fine. I wouldn’t change it.

Meyer: How do you feel about Israel?
BODNER: I feel bad because my husband’s people were all killed there. They were marched to the chambers. Gas chambers. Before he passed away, he used to get – he used to have a little radio and he used to listen to it all the time. Mort Goodman – you know Dr. Goodman? He used to come and take that radio away all the time. All of his family – there were two boys and one girl that were fighting for Russia. Then they came back. They were supposed to be helping. They came back. The war was over there. They came home and they saw there was no home, no family, nobody. So they wrote to a nephew in New York, who was a doctor. He wrote to us here that we have to all get together and send money there for this young couple (they weren’t married) and get in and do something. The families were all gone and everything else. We all got together. Herbert even gave money. I gave money. I sent money right along to them and now they are all right. They have an apartment house there and doing good.

Meyer: Where do they live now?
BODNER: In Tel Aviv. They write once in a while to my niece in New York and they want me to come back there, the only aunt that they’ve got. Every time I think about going there, there is fighting.

Meyer: So you never travelled?
BODNER: No, this niece – her whole family was wiped out, except her sister was here, and she goes every now and then. She said you don’t even ever hear of anything. Were you there? Did you hear any fighting?

Meyer: No, no, not when I was there. It was five years ago. Over the years Mrs. Bodner, you were members of many of the Jewish organizations in Portland. Even now you go to the Senior Citizens sometimes, if you get a ride.
BODNER: If I had somebody to go with. But I pay my dues, and if they want a little donation, I put it in there.

Meyer: Where you are living now here at the Terwilliger Plaza, you look down on South Portland where a lot of the Jewish people lived over the years.
BODNER: Yes, but there aren’t many of them living here anymore.