Stan Blauer

Yoelin: I see that you have prepared a little history. Would you please read it for the tape?
BLAUER: This is a brief draft of Shedrain’s history. In 1947, Shedrain began making umbrellas with a staff of six workers, and a few used sewing machines, in Portland, Oregon. The first factory was in the Hamilton building at SW Third and Alder. Soon the company outgrew that location and moved to a building at SW Second and Main. For several years the company also operated a retail umbrella store at SW Fourth near Morrison. During those early years, Shedrain began building the foundation for a reputation that would become known as “the best in the business.” The next move, in 1962, was across the river to SE Union [MLK] and Main, to a large two-story building that provided considerably more space for growth. It would be 32 years before the company would move again, and in 1994 Shedrain moved to the present location on NE Killingsworth near the Portland Airport. Four family members founded Shedrain in 1947. Brothers-in-law Nathan Gold and Barney Liebreich and their nephews, brothers Meyer and Sol Blauer. In 1950, Nathan Gold sold his shares to the other partners. In 1956, Barney Liebreich died at the age of 55 and his loss was very difficult for the family. There was a very close relationship between the three partners, especially because Barney was a young uncle – only eight years older than Meyer and ten years older than Sol. 

About this time, Meyer’s son Stanley, and Barney’s son Marvin, became active full-time in the company. As youngsters they had worked at the factory after school and during summer vacations. Shedrain had steady growth through the 1960s and 1970s with Meyer, Sol, Marvin and Stan guiding the company. Sol’s son Richard was also with the company for a while in the 1980s. Although the company continued to grow, the 1980s were a difficult time. Meyer Blauer died in1985 and Sol Blauer died in 1987. Stan and Marv continued the management and during the 1990s, the third generation, Stan’s sons Jeff and Doug Blauer and Marv’s son Greg Liebreich became active. In 2000, Marvin Liebreich died at the age of 67. His passing was a great loss to the family and the company. Today, family members Stan, Jeff, Doug, and Greg, along with key staff members, continue management of Shedrain. The company designs, produces, and markets umbrellas and rainwear to retailers throughout the US and many other countries. Shedrain’s products are available at major department stores, specialty stores, catalog companies, mass merchandisers and drug store chains. The company also sells to the advertising specialty industry where Shedrain products are used to promote many of the most recognized brands in the world. 

Yoelin: I’d like to go a little bit back into the history, if I may. Where was your family from originally?
BLAUER: Well, my father’s family came from an area that was originally Austria-Hungary and then became Poland. My father came here when he was 13. He was the oldest of the family. He had three brothers and there had been a sister who died in Europe. My father’s brothers were Sol, Aaron and Sigmund. Sigmund died here at a young age from, I think, spinal meningitis. Meyer was the oldest. Sol was a few years younger than my father, and then there was Aaron who became a medical doctor and lived here in Portland. Aaron was my “kid” uncle. He was only about 14 years older than I am. He was the youngest. My great aunt Pauline Gold (her husband was one of the founders of the company) was already here. They sent for my father and his family and brought them here. Pauline was my grandmother’s sister. They came to Portland. When I was visiting Ellis Island, I found the ship that they came on and saw the ship’s manifest.

Yoelin: What was your father’s name?
BLAUER: Meyer Blauer. 

Yoelin: He arrived with his parents and siblings?
BLAUER: Yes. My father was 13 when he came. He went to school for a very short time, and went to work selling papers, and then worked at Mosler’s bakery. Then he went back East. We also had relatives in New York, in the Bronx, for whom he worked as a baker’s assistant. Then he returned to Portland and worked for Mosler’s. 

Yoelin: Did your dad work for the newspaper? With any particular paper?
BLAUER: Well, he was just selling the newspapers on the corner, like a lot of young men did in those days. Then he worked in the Yamhill Market. In those days were fruit stands and fish markets and groceries and delicatessens on Yamhill. He worked in a fruit stand for quite a while — a couple of different stands. One was owned by one of the Sephardic Jewish families. I don’t remember which one. He did whatever he could to make a living. He married my mother in 1933. My mother’s name was Rose Stein. At that time he was working for my uncle, Nathan Gold, who, before they started the umbrella business, was in the neckwear business. When he came over from the Old Country, Uncle Nathan was a tailor, a pants maker. He had experience in garment making. I think it was called Accordion Neckwear. My father went on the road representing him. That only lasted for a while, because Nate ended up having to sell the company. My dad ended up traveling and representing other lines. He traveled the 11 western states; there was no Alaska and Hawaii in those days. First he represented a company called Royal Robes. Men’s robes were a very big deal in those days. People were more formal.

Yoelin: Also it was colder in the house!
BLAUER: Exactly. After that, Shedrain became a reality. The way the business started is an interesting story. A gentleman named Carl Steinberg had a little umbrella shop on Fourth and Morrison. He was getting up in years and he wanted to get out of the business. My uncle Nathan was looking for something. He sold Nathan a half-interest in the umbrella shop. He would find broken discarded umbrellas and repair them to a condition new enough to be sold as a new product. They had a little place on the sixth floor of the Hamilton Building, where a couple of sewers were putting these things together. Then my other great-uncle, Barney Liebreich, put some money into the endeavor, and then my father and my uncle came in. That foursome began the new entity, Shedrain, in 1947. At that time they called it the Shedrain Umbrella Company. We didn’t change to a Corporation until the 1950s. They took over the same location and ran the store. I remember that store very well. My mother and my aunt worked there.

Yoelin: Let’s go over your father’s family again. His name and his brothers’.
BLAUER: My father’s brothers were Sol and Aaron. Aaron became a medical doctor, but he was also in the business. He was one of the founders. There were the four of them. Barney Liebreich was not a brother, he was an uncle. 

Yoelin: And your mother’s family?
BLAUER: Her name was Rose. Her parents, my grandparents, were born in Russia, one in Odessa, and my grandfather in a place called Nicolias [sp?] Their names were Sarah and Max. They went by Stein, but it was originally Gerzenstein. They also came through Ellis Island. I can confirm that spelling. My mother was born in Portland in1914. I think my grandparents arrived in 1906 or 1908. 

Yoelin: So we have Rose and Meyer; they came through Ellis Island?
BLAUER: No, Rose was born here. They came earlier. My mother was born in 1914. I think my grandparents came here in 1907 or so. 

Yoelin: And Rose had how many siblings?
BLAUER: She had five in her family. The oldest was Hyman, then Fanny, then my mother Rose, then Maurice, and then Norman. They are all gone now except Norman. He is about 86 now. He lives here in Portland. My mother died about a year ago. That was tough. She was just a few months shy of 90. She had a good life.

Yoelin: Rose and Meyer met here in Portland. Do you know how they met?
BLAUER: Yes. They met, as I recall, at Oaks Park. They were at some kind of family picnic. In those days, family picnics were a big deal for the Jewish families. As the story goes, they had gone to the roller rink at Oaks Park and they met there.

Yoelin: You were talking about the different generations supporting the business. 
BLAUER: The business was founded in 1947 and the four founders continued working. I was 12 years old then, but even I would come in and help, as would my cousin Marv. Both of us were very involved with the business as youngsters. We would come in after school. By the time we were in high school, a couple of years later, it had moved to Second and Main, downtown. And we were going to the old Lincoln High School, which is now Old Main at Portland State University. That is the original building where Portland State started. Marv was a year ahead of me in school. He was the last graduating class from the old school. I went there three years and then was in the first graduating class from the new Lincoln High School, the current school. Every day after school we would walk down to the business. 

Yoelin: How old were you then?
BLAUER: Well, we were 13, 14, 15 years old. That must have been 1949, ’50, or ’51 — in that area. I graduated from high school in 1953 and Marvin in 1952. We worked all the way up through graduation. After school, from Broadway and Clay [Lincoln High School] to Second and Main was about 12 blocks. We would walk down there and work and then go home with our fathers.We would sweep the floor or whatever was needed. I would take packages to the post office on Broadway and Main. I would get a hand truck with a big board on it, load it up with all the cartons to ship to customers. I would walk up to the post office. I would also make deliveries to Meier & Frank and stores downtown. 

I went to Failing Grade School, which now is in one of buildings of Portland Community College in Southwest Portland. You can see it when you come over the Ross Island Bridge. It is the red and white brick building. It still says “Failing” on top of the building. Marvin went to Shattuck Grade School [now also part of PSU]because he lived in a different area.

Yoelin: Did you have any Jewish experiences in grade school or high school? Can you tell me something about your family’s Jewish involvement in the community?
BLAUER: We were involved. We lived with my mother’s parents for a long time, until they were both gone. When the family moved, the grandparents came with us. My father always said that, because they were so good to my parents when they were struggling, that my grandparents would always have a home. He wrote that in a letter we have in the family archives. So we moved, and shortly thereafter my grandfather died. He died at 70, and my grandmother died when she was in her 80s. They were great people, and they helped raise me. It was because of them that I understand a lot of Yiddish and I speak it pretty well. Most of my friends didn’t speak much Yiddish. 

Yoelin: Did your mom Rose work in the business at all?
BLAUER: The only work that she did in the business was at the retail store where she helped out. Sol’s wife and Barney’s wife also did that. 

Yoelin: All right, maybe you can tell me about your siblings.
BLAUER: I have none. I am an only child. 

Yoelin: Okay. Now, when you were in school, was there any issue, either positive or negative, about your being Jewish?
BLAUER: I had very little recollection of having any problems about being Jewish. I grew up in South Portland. That neighborhood was very Jewish and very Italian, and very ethnic. I was very fortunate not to be exposed to much anti-semitism. I was aware of it, but it did not directly affect me. There were a couple of times when there were comments made by someone, but nothing that was really earth-shattering.

Yoelin: Was your social life mostly with Jewish kids. Did you go to the Neighborhood House and the Jewish Community Center?
BLAUER: I went to both. The MJCC was a big part of my life, because of where we lived. And before that I went to the Neighborhood House. It was three or four blocks away, and I would go there for cheder [Hebrew School]. The Neighborhood House was mostly Jewish at that time and, of course, the MJCC was too. Oh, it was just the Jewish Community Center then — just the JCC. We called it “The Center.” A lot of people call it the “J” now, but we called it “The Center.” I spent more time in my grade school years at the Neighborhood House. We would go swimming or play basketball and Hebrew School was all there and very convenient. 

And also, my grandfather, my mother’s father, had a second-hand store in South Portland, across the street from Mosler’s bakery. He called it the Independent Junk Company. He would buy and sell things, and he had all kinds of things there. His store was an amazing place. You would walk in there and find everything from soup to nuts. Everything you can imagine. And he knew where everything was. I would go after school to his store and I would ride home with him. In the morning he would drop me off at school. We lived probably 30 blocks from the school. I was at the other end of South Portland. When I got to high school, I spent more time at the JCC. I was involved there with the AZA, Aleph Zedek Aleph; it was the precursor to BBYO – the boys had AZA and the girls had BBG [B’nai B’rith Girls]. I was the treasurer and then I became president of my chapter. We took trips to various places – to Regional Conclaves and District Conclaves. I was very involved in that. Then at the JCC there was also a social club called Phi Delta Ro that I was also a member of. That was basically a group of Jewish boys who would get together. 

In high school I was involved in a social club as well. I had a lot of Jewish and non-Jewish friends. I went to college only for about two and half years. I was at Lewis and Clark for a year, and then I went to the University of Oregon for about a year. At that point I started to get antsy about getting into the business. I came back and went to Portland State for another half a year and then I said, “I’m done.” In retrospect, I suppose I should I have stayed and finished my education. But I was really ready to get into the business. And, after all, Bill Gates is also a drop-out and he didn’t do too badly. I came into the business full time when I was about 20. And here I am still [involved] today.

Yoelin: Okay. What congregation did you attend? Did you attend synagogue?
BLAUER: We were Orthodox and we went to Shaarie Torah. And also that little shul… a little synagogue right across the street from Korsuns. The whole thing was about the size of this office. What was the name of it? My grandparents used to call it the Kazatske Shul. There was a Hebrew name. Then, after I got married, we moved. My wife went to Temple [Beth Israel], and my family was Orthodox, so we ended up at Neveh Shalom. We split the difference [laughter]. I didn’t want to go to Temple, and she didn’t want to become Orthodox. And that worked out fine. Our kids grew up there. 

Yoelin: Your kids were involved at Neveh Shalom?
BLAUER: Yes, my son was Bar Mitzvah there and my daughter was married there.

Yoelin: How did you meet your wife? Tell me about her.
BLAUER: Her name is Judy Sax. She is about five and half years younger than I am. She was very close friends with my cousin, Analie Stein. Analie was the daughter of my uncle Hyman Stein, my mother’s oldest brother. She was having a birthday party at their house. We went over for the party and Judy was there; she was close with that family. So I met her there. Judy was 18 at the time, and I was about 24. We were married when she was 19 and I was a month shy of 25, in 1960. We are celebrating 45 years this August. We are very fortunate. 

Yoelin: You mentioned your children.
BLAUER: We have three children. They are all great. Tammy is the oldest. She is 43. Jeff will be 42 in October and Doug will be 37 next month. They have given us six grandchildren and we have one more coming next month. Doug’s wife Amy is due with a girl; they have a boy now. Then we will have four girls and three boys. 

Yoelin: Where do they live?
BLAUER: My daughter Tammy lives in Seattle. Her name is Federman. They have two girls, Maya and Sara. My son Jeff is here in Portland. His wife’s name is Felicia and they have three children. Sophie, Ben, and a new one, Max, that’s only 8 months old. Douglas’ wife’s name is Amy, and they have a son named Samuel who is three, and they’ll have the new g

Yoelin: What were the business challenges that your family has faced?
BLAUER: When you think back over the early years, the biggest challenge was to make a profit and stay in business. We had to go east to buy our goods, to New York and Pennsylvania and so forth. There were no other umbrella companies at the time. The closest was one in Toledo, Ohio, and one in Chicago, but there was no one west of the Mississippi. When my father went back to buy goods, they told him he was crazy. “You can’t start a business out there, there is no source of supply.” It was easy for them there, where they could buy everything they needed. But we persevered and developed relationships and some very good friendships with our suppliers over the years. They were all Jewish. The framings came from a family business, the Finkle Umbrella Company, and they were big. They ended up going into outdoor furniture. We bought our fabrics from several different companies. Harold Morristein became a very good friend. He supplied fabrics. There were two or three other fabric converters we used. They produced fabrics for the umbrella trade. Handle-makers, there were three or four of them – they were either doing extruded handles from plastic or they were doing some hand-made wood handles. All the other parts, the little tip at the end… all that was made here. Our parts were mostly made in the U.S. There were some imports – some of the better handles – but the cutting, sewing, and assembly was done here, so we could buy from the U.S. It stayed that way for a long time, until imports became a factor and changed domestic manufacturing, as it has done in many industries. 

Yoelin: We took a tour of the facility. You mentioned some statistics to me. I think it would be great to have on tape. You talked about how many people you had working there, and the manufacturing aspect.
BLAUER: At one point we had as many as 200 people in the plant doing the manufacturing of umbrellas. We were also doing some rainwear then, too. As time went on and the imports started growing and labor became increasingly expensive, we could only make the more expensive, high-priced goods here in this country. The labor we have today is maybe 65 people. Most of them do support of sales and/or shipping or warehousing. Some do screen printing for company identification. About 25% of our business is now in advertising specialties, which is corporate identity. That is the fun part of the business because famous logos are always going through the building: Coca Cola, General Electric, Boeing, all names that you see all the time. We do silk screen printing. When we were manufacturing the umbrellas here, we would screen print one panel of the umbrella and it would go to the sewing department and be sewn together with the rest of the cover. As manufacturing went overseas, the challenge was to print on the finished umbrella. In order to keep the price desirable, we couldn’t cut and sew it here because of the labor costs. So we had to print on the finished umbrella. Early on, we would print on the finished umbrella and use a heat gun to dry, or cure, it. That took a long time and we were always burning up covers. As the business grew, we realized that we had to develop something that would be more productive. We developed a good system from what really started out as a t-shirt dryer. The opening was only about five inches. We found a good engineer who worked on it. He cut it down the middle so that an umbrella handle could fit through it as the umbrella traveled down the conveyer belt. We’ve been using it now since 1993 or 1994. We are building a second one now.

Yoelin: I love the ingenuity of that. Also, can you talk about the laser?
BLAUER: When we are making a presentation to a potential client — it is part of the advertising specialty business — we send them an umbrella with his or her name on the handle. To show them what we can do and what we are about. That laser engraving was a process that we were outsourcing a number of years ago. The closest place that was doing the kind of quality work we wanted was in Kansas City. It had not been a problem to do the engraving on the handle before it went on the umbrella, but when we wanted to do it on the finished product we had to fly the umbrellas to Kansas City and back again. We bought our own engraving machine a number of years ago. I think at the time it was about $22,000 and it paid for itself in a year. Chances are we might have to add another machine too. It laser cuts images in wood or plastic or other materials.

Yoelin: What are the challenges of doing this “boutique” environment?
BLAUER: The service that you offer to your customers. I think you can never do enough; you want to stay ahead of the competition. The competition is always looking for a way to eat your lunch. 

Yoelin: What do you see as the future of the company?
BLAUER: It is good to dream. We dream a lot. I suppose at my point in life, if I didn’t have my two sons here, I would be thinking seriously about maybe selling or merging with somebody else. And thinking about the future, because even though I don’t want to quit working, I do want to slow down a little bit. As long as the boys are here and have a passion for the business, we are trying to take it to the next level. Expand and spread out. There is still a lot of business to do. There are still a lot of customers that we would like to do business with. 

Yoelin: I noticed you have some rainwear and now and some footwear.
BLAUER: The footwear is a whole new thing that we are working on right now. We want to tie in with the prints that will match the inside of the umbrellas and the garments. We are coordinating a lot of items. We think there is a definite opportunity to expand the garment area into some outerwear as well, not just travel-wear and rainwear and light-weight rainwear that we have been doing. The boots are just a natural addition to rainwear, for children as well as adults. 

Yoelin: That’s part of the future. I liked seeing the beautiful patterns there.
BLAUER: Our innovation has helped us. We don’t just make a black umbrella anymore. When we started in the business, there were six colors and only one frame. Today, innovation is the key – how fast you can bring a new idea to market. We are really the leading innovators in this area. Maintaining that reputation is always a challenge. 

Yoelin: You mentioned something about overseas activities for some parts of your production. Can you tell us something about that?
BLAUER: It’s interesting. It’s all about economics – the way it proceeds and grows. Originally, when we started importing from overseas, it was only because competition was forcing us to. 

BLAUER: We were talking about importing. We started in the late 1950s. My father took a trip to Japan. That’s where the umbrellas were coming from in those days and they were very poor quality. Many of the exports out of Japan in those days were not of great quality; not at all what it is today and has been for a very long time. As time went on and the Japanese became more prosperous, their quality got better and better. They sent their goods to Korea for production because the labor was cheaper there. They would send their raw materials there and open a factory using Korean labor. When Korean labor became too expensive, the Japanese went to Taiwan. Then Taiwan, for some reason, grasped the umbrella business in a way that no other country had. They expanded it dramatically. They became the center of umbrella making for the world. I made many trips to Taiwan after my father stopped going. The Taiwanese prospered. And as their labor costs grew, they looked for other markets.

They went to China, but not right away, because of the political situation between China and Taiwan. So first they went to the Philippines and opened factories there, and in Malaysia, and other countries where there was cheap labor. It was the same thing thathas happened here. Then the Communist Chinese, who turned one blind eye to Communism and the other eye to Capitalism. They liked money. They arranged for some of the  Taiwanese to open factories in mainland China. But they had to bring everything through Hong Kong, even though the Taiwan Strait makes it only 40 miles from Taiwan to Eastern China. They had to bring everything through Hong Kong, politically. So factories now have become more proficient. Most of them are still run by the Taiwanese, but they were running them in China. That’s where we are today. Most of our goods are made in China by Taiwanese owners. China will become a problem, too. It may be a long time, because they have so many people, but their labor [costs] will increase. They are getting prosperous. Judy and I went over there for two weeks in January and there were parts of China that I had not seen before, down in southern China – it’s a new frontier there.

Yoelin: Are you importing finished goods?
BLAUER: Finished goods and partially finished goods we will finish here. When they bring an umbrella in we call it complete without the handle. Any one of a number of handles could make it a different style. For the most part the small, compact umbrellas come to us completed – all to our specifications, to our quality levels and our designs. It takes a lot of work — a lot of detail work and a lot of communication. We email and fax them daily. 

Yoelin: Do you have several factories dedicated to your products or are they also piecemealing the work out?
BLAUER: Out of hundreds or thousands of factories over there, we only work with half a dozen. And we are very important to them. If we don’t use all of their production, we [use] most of it. 

Yoelin: And the handles? Where are they made?
BLAUER: Handles also come out of China and out of Italy. Better ones come out of Italy. We still do some Italian umbrellas. Italians have always had fabulous quality, as far as the handles and the finished umbrella. They may not have the best frame, in terms of defying the wind, but the fashion and quality of the piece is good. We are bringing in some new umbrellas from a maker in Italy that we are doing some work with. They will be $150 to $200 retail.

Yoelin: Are you always developing new products? 
BLAUER: Constantly. And you asked before what our biggest challenges have been — the deaths of the managers. Those were trying times. Getting over that was a challenge. But here we are, 60 years later and we are positioned very well. 

Yoelin: What is the businesses role in the community today?
BLAUER: In the Jewish community?

Yoelin: And the larger community as well.
BLAUER: Let’s talk first about the general community. We have always assumed a civic responsibility. In fact, I will get you a copy of our mission statement. One of the statements is: we must be responsible to our community where we work. We support as many charities and civic endeavors as possible – the art museum, the symphony. Many of the local charities, both secular and Jewish, because we believe it is important to give back. 

Yoelin: Talk now about the Jewish community. How has this business maintained its relationship with the Jewish community? Whether it is how your uncle and your father worked with Jewish vendors, or the type of support of financiers and the economics of the Jewish community.
BLAUER: As far as the local community – most of our customers in the early days were Jewish. Charles F. Berg, a small ladies specialty store on Broadway between Morrison and Alder, were our very first customer. Meier & Frank was our second customer. I have some pictures to show you. In the early days at Meier & Frank, they used to have an Umbrella Carnival. They decorated a whole big window on Sixth and Morrison filled with umbrellas. They had a huge umbrella department which department stores in this country don’t do anymore. They had a department as big as this room with a full-time attendant. They were Jewish. All of our customers then were Jewish. Nicholas Ungar was Jewish. I’m trying to think of the others. Almost all of the merchants then were Jewish, no matter what city you went to. We sold [to] a lot of little men’s stores and specialty stores. Anyone you talked to, you already had a kind of connection. Maybe you spoke a little Yiddish to them – you had a connection. That helped. The same thing for our suppliers. Both in New York and in Philadelphia, our two main areas for sources of supply in those days. Without exception, they were all Jewish.

Yoelin: And today?
BLAUER: Some [are Jewish]. It is not as prevalent as it was then. I think that the businesses are not necessarily Jewish anymore. Many of the old-time family merchants that started those little stores became part of bigger conglomerates and lost their identities. Meier & Frank became part of the May Company. We used to call it “Oregon’s own store.” It was a fabulous place.

Yoelin: Did you go to the Oregon Jewish Museum’s annual meeting this year?
BLAUER: Oh, where Gerry Frank spoke? At the MAC club? I so wanted to be there. I had a conflict.

Yoelin: He said that when he talked to people on the East Coast about the cities they knew of in the Northwest, they would say San Francisco, Meier & Frank, and Seattle [laughs].
BLAUER: We had a great relationship with Meier & Frank. It was very important to us in our early days.

Yoelin: Were you involved at all in the politics of the community? Did the company support people who were running for election?
BLAUER: No, not actively. I really did not get personally involved. If there was a candidate that I liked, I sent him a personal contribution, but I never worked on any campaign. Most of my involvement in the Jewish community has been with the different agencies, sitting on boards and committees. I sat on the Center Board twice – the MJCC board – once in the 1960s [and in the] early 1970s when the current building was built. Then again in the 1980s, I became president and I was also chair of the capital campaign in 1991. I sat on the board of the Robison Home and of [the Jewish] Federation. Currently I am president of the board of the Jewish Community Foundation. I have been on that board since its founding in 1989. I am involved in the community.

Yoelin: And your wife? Is she also involved?
BLAUER: Oh yes, Judy has also been involved over the years. There used to be an annual event that the Jewish Community Center held for raising funds —The Friends of the Center Dinner. They did it for several years at the Benson Hotel. Before that it was held at the Center itself. Judy ran that evening for many years. She ran the dinner for 18 or 20 years. She is currently on the Robison Home board again and she was the City of Hope president. We were involved as kids, separately, because we didn’t know each other yet, but we were both involved at the Center and in BBYO, AZA, and BBG. We were involved kids and we continued to [be].

Yoelin: Will you tell us about your military experience?
BLAUER: Yes. In 1956, I was 21 years old, [and] I was being drafted. A close friend of mine, an Italian who was pretty much my best friend; in fact, he was my best man when I got married — Ernie Pascuzzi. He and I decided to join the Army Reserve. We thought if we were going to get drafted, we might as well have a little experience behind us. So we both joined the Army Reserve. We ended up in a Quartermaster company. He ended up staying in [the Reserves] for 20 years. We went through a couple periods where we could have been activated at any time. This was after Korea and before Vietnam. The world was kind of peaceful at that time, and I was never activated. I stayed in for nine years. We both got involved in target shooting with large caliber rifles. We enjoyed that a lot and got pretty good at it. We shot for the 10th Army Corps as a team and we went around during the summers to various shooting events. It began taking up too much of my time, though, and I started to wear glasses, so I left after nine years and Ernie stayed for 20 years. That was the extent of my military experience. I was fortunate to be in between wars or actions.

Yoelin: Did you experience anything different because you were Jewish?
BLAUER: Nothing that comes to mind. There were a couple of remarks here and there, but nothing I couldn’t handle. 

Yoelin: How was that experience for you?
BLAUER: I think that my military experience, outside of being a Jew, was very helpful in building my character. I enjoyed it and I learned from it; a very positive experience. 

Yoelin: Do you find that the role of women has changed, even within your own business? I saw the photos of the women sewers.
BLAUER: Absolutely. Key members of our staff, besides the family, are women. When you get beyond myself and my sons, and Marv’s son Greg, then there are two or three key women that are [on] the next level of staff. They are upper management. Two of them have been with us a long time. One of them is the only person who has ever been an officer of this company outside of the family. She has been with us 35 years.

Yoelin: Is this different from the way your father and uncle ran the business?
BLAUER: Yes, men ran the business then. The sewers were all women. You saw the pictures. And the way they were dressed, wasn’t that amazing?

Yoelin: Yes, those styles have come back!
BLAUER: There is no new magic under the sun. Everything comes back. In fact, I tell our design team that “it will all come back.” I think things are very different today. The women are a big part of our business and a big part of our success. 

Yoelin: What about your Asian companies? Are there women involved there too?
BLAUER: I never became proficient in another language. I think I am remiss in that I didn’t. I think it is a problem with most of us in this country, because the rest of the world makes it easy for us. I’m sorry that I didn’t do it when I was younger, and if I had any advice to give people raising children today, it would be to teach them foreign languages, especially where the growth in the world is.

Yoelin: Do you have any specific memories or anecdotes that you wish to share that we haven’t covered? Or can you think of any other people that should be interviewed as a part of the Oregon Jewish Museum’s oral history project?
BLAUER: You might want to talk to Henry Blauer. Henry was very much involved at the early time of the business. He was the company accountant for a number of years. His was an interesting relationship. Henry is a distant cousin, but he is also the brother-in-law of my uncle Sol. Sol married a distant cousin, so Sol and Henry were related, and they were also brothers-in-law. So Henry knew a lot about the business in the early days. He was involved in our early growth as far as advising us on the economy side. He may have some anecdotes, but they don’t come to my mind right now.

Oh, I remember my great-uncle, Nathan Gold, was a very funny guy. He was tough. There was one statement that he made that we still laugh about. He was talking about equipment. “I need this equipment or that equipment.” Nathan said to them, with his Yiddish accent, “Equipment — we got the best. We don’t need equipment. We need money.” That was him.

Yoelin: Let’s go back over the family’s involvement with the Jewish community.
BLAUER: Well my father’s involvement with the B’nai B’rith camp was long and extensive. He was involved in the Men’s Camp for 40 plus years and he was very supportive of the camp. There are a lot of stories about him. Milt Carl could tell you a lot of stories about him at the camp. If I think up anymore, I will let you know. Memories sometimes don’t come so fast. I want to be going through our archives in the next few months to look for items for the exhibit [Jews@Work], and also to help jog my memory. When we moved from the other building to here 11 years ago, we left things on pallets that I still haven’t gotten to. I need to go through them. That might help me remember some other stories.

Yoelin: Thank you for doing this interview.
BLAUER: It was a real pleasure. It made me reminisce.