Gertrude Rosumny Bachman

Grad: Now before we get into the early days of your life in Portland. Would you tell me something about yourself? When and where you were born?
BACHMAN: Well, I was born in Lidvingka, and it’s in, according to my cousin, in the Ukraine, the southern part of Russia. It was a small town and my father had a bakery and I remember we had a tearoom and I was a little tot and I remember we had a man bring barrels of water. He did nothing but work for us and bring the barrels of water, and we had a maid in the house and my mother ran the tearoom and my father ran the bakery.

Grad: What year was that?
BACHMAN: This was in the 1900s, because I was four years old. Then we heard there were going to be pogroms and the people were friendly and let us know about it, and one brother was already in Portland. He had gone ahead, because my cousins were here – the Medofskys. So one of my brothers and my sister Sarah said that they are going to go, and my father said, “Well, we are not going to break up the family; if you want to go, we will all go.” And he sold the bakery and we all came. Of course it was an adventure coming over. We went to Finland and then to Liverpool, and at Liverpool we were supposed to catch the boat to America. Somehow or other, my brother Willy and I were separated from the family – when we came out from… they were examining our eyes, or something, and the ship was gone. 

Here we were left stranded right there in Liverpool without a penny. We stood there crying. We didn’t know what to do, and a man came over and he happened to be a Jewish man. He asked me why we were crying and my brother told him and he said, “All right, do you have anyone left in your town there in Russia?” My older brother was still there with his family, so the man gave us money to cable that we were left stranded and my brother cabled money for us to buy passage. Of course, we were there for two weeks. He took us to his family in Liverpool. We stayed there two weeks until we had passage. They bought me sleeping clothes and I brought them to America with me. I was the only little girl on the ship because it was a freighter, I guess, and the cook would say, “Give me a kiss and I’ll give you a cookie.” So I think I had lots of cookies on that trip. We got to New York and joined the family there,

Grad: Do you remember the exact year?
BACHMAN: It was 1905. My father met us and I remember the first thing they did. We had cousins who had a laundry. He took me there to give me a bath before he brought me up to the apartment where the rest of the family was. And during that time they used to go around vaccinating everyone that came in. There were different things going around, and then we came up to this apartment or flat and they asked, “Are there any children?” and they said no, and we were all hiding under the bed. But they found us and pulled us out and vaccinated everyone. In fact, I have big ones here and on both arms. Well finally we got on the train and came to Portland and we lived on Second Street in the regular Jewish neighborhood, between Arthur and Sherman because my cousins, my uncle, and aunt had a house there. And that is where the first bakery was started. My father started the Zion Bakery. I don’t know, there might have been one before, but it seemed with my cousin delivering and my brothers delivering, it turned out to be a good thing. Later on, my father went into another business and my brother took it over with my cousin. They called it the Star Bakery, which it is still going now.

Grad: Do you know why they changed the name?
BACHMAN: Well, changing ownership and all that. So it still had the star on it.

Grad: It signified the bakery by the star.
BACHMAN: Everyone knew my brother Willy and my cousin Ben Medofsky. I don’t know if you ever knew him. He passed away a few years ago, but he was well known here. Well, on Second and First all around there was the Jewish neighborhood. It was all South Portland and I went to school one year at Failing, and then we moved up to Fourth Street and I was in the neighborhood of Shattuck School. So that’s where I went to school until I graduated from the old Shattuck School before this new one was built. It was on Fifth and Hall. I went to Shattuck and then they built Lincoln High School. The old one was way up on 15th and Morrison and then they built the new one that is now the main building of the Portland State University. I was in the first class to go to Lincoln.

Grad: Do you remember what year that was?
BACHMAN: 1913, and I graduated in 1917, and then I went to business college and then worked in offices as a stenographer until I got married in 1923.

Grad: Do you remember anything specific about your neighbors or the people that you contacted when you first moved to South Portland – your family’s contacts?
BACHMAN: Well, every other person was Jewish there. The meat markets were on First Street and all the stores around, everybody knew each other. In fact the Nudelmans, the father of the Nudelmans, Eugene, they had a meat market down on First and Columbia. It is really interesting. It was the grandfather… yes, because it was his father’s father … had a meat market. That was it. Everybody knew each other and everybody lived around the neighborhood, and the big time – oh yes, at that time they had the Lewis & Clark Fair also. That brought people into Portland, and I remember the family went but they said I had to stay home because I was too little. The streetcar would go for [inaudible] and take you straight up there to the northwest. The big event of our day or week would be when we would go to Washington Park. That was a wonderful thing. We would take a lunch and spend a day up there. It was marvelous. And then the Oaks Park. In 1910 they had a Shrine Convention and our relatives came down from Seattle. I don’t know if you knew the Kanes – Mr. and Mrs. Kane and family, and the Brashens, because my brother-in-law was Brashen. They came down for the Shrine Convention. We girls, they brought their daughters, and we had a salmon bake out there at the Oaks Park. Oh, I remember it – the tables – it was the most wonderful thing. You know everything was put up and all the rides free. We had a marvelous time.

Grad: Those days have changed.
BACHMAN: Oh, yes. Simple pleasures were really enjoyed then. In 1920, after the First World War, we girls used to go on hikes with the boys. When the boys came back [from the war] they were used to walking, so the hikes started and we used to walk to Beaverton, the whole group of us. I have pictures. We would take a lunch and we would walk eight miles to Beaverton. We didn’t think anything of it. We would eat our lunch and then walk back again. And then to Lake Oswego, as it was called, it was free then around there. We would have our picnics there. We would go out there on Sundays in rowboats and they didn’t have it private like now. It was for everybody, so we used to go out there on picnics. And then we would go up the hills, that’s right, up where the medical school is now and all these homes. We would go up there and pick apples and pears. There were orchards up there – hazelnuts, filberts. And I remember once, in 1910, we came down and they said there was a comet up in the sky, and we saw Haley’s Comet then. It was marvelous. It was a big ball of fire with a tail – a long tail – and we sat there just open mouthed. We didn’t know what was going to happen. We thought that the world would burn up or something. We were so scared, too. So that was some event. Now they say there is going to be another comet coming. 

Grad: Do you remember anything specific about the Neighborhood House when you lived in South Portland?
BACHMAN: Oh, yes. I used to go there. First of all, on Mondays they would have sewing, and the women… they called them the German women of the northwest, the Hirsches. Miss Hirsch was my teacher in sewing and Mrs. Ben Selling taught me to make my first knot, and it was really something. I had books and books. We started with small running stitches and backstitches and we made little articles. I’ve got two books that I think I made with pieces, and finally when we finished up we made a beautiful silk bag, which I gave to my daughter-in-law, with pockets. And then they gave us a thimble, a darner, a scissors, like a graduation. On Tuesdays we had cooking and all this was free. 

Grad: Was this just for the young children in the neighborhood?
BACHMAN: Yes, after school. And then I used to take gymnasium there since I was about ten. In fact, I kept up with the gym all the time, all my years. We used to really enjoy the Neighborhood House. And I know my sister; she would be working in the bakery, selling, so she took up night school. They gave lessons to teach English and things like that and that was a very good thing. So the women, I guess you would call them the [National] Council of Jewish Women probably, they took a big part. They built that Neighborhood House and everything was around there, and then later on the Hebrew School was there for a long time. I know that my father was Orthodox, so he wanted us to know Hebrew too. We had a tutor for myself and my sister. They didn’t have the Hebrew School then yet, and old Mr. Rogoway would come and teach us to read. And then after that Mr. Holtzman came in to teach us. Holtzman was the father of Dina – not Nepom. They live in South Portland. I forgot what her last name was. He was in real estate.

Grad: I don’t think I know who that is, not being from Oregon myself.
BACHMAN: That’s right, you wouldn’t know these people. He taught us also, and later on they opened the Hebrew School on Second and Wood there. The building is still there. I think they use it as… that was the first Hebrew School and in order to support it, they took members who would pay 25 cents a month from the neighborhood and all over. My mother used to go around with some other women and collect 25 cents a month and the thing was, she couldn’t read. I would tell her the names and she would make a little mark on this bill and a little twist on that and she knew which one to collect from. Isn’t that remarkable? Yes, she used to help out. They started that first Hebrew School, the group of women. 

Grad: Did your mother work in the bakery also?
BACHMAN: No. And also they started the Free Loan [Society]. She was one of the founders of that, too, and I think my father was one of the first presidents of Shaarie Torah on First and Hall. And then later my brother Willy was the president of that congregation on First and Hall. They all took a prominent part in the city, and they used to have a club for the women also in shul – like a sisterhood. They would give these package parties, box parties. Anything to raise money for the shul. It was a lot of fun. We used to enjoy it. Everybody would bring something in a box and they would exchange and they would auction them off, just like the old times. At one time people really had fun, I think. 
Well, what else do you want to know? The library. The library used to be in the Neighborhood House. Miss Loewenberg – also from the northwest, they were German Jews, two sisters, used to run the library. I read every fairy tale in there when I was about nine or ten. I was a bookworm. Still am.

Grad: Who stocked that library? Do you know?
BACHMAN: Well, I think it was started through the Council, who started the Neighborhood House. And then later on it was moved out and became part of the regular library. But it was a wonderful thing there, so we never lacked books.

Grad: It was a total community, then.
BACHMAN: Yes, of course. The streets were just muddy and the sidewalks were wooden at that time. We don’t know what luxuries we have. Then, when we lived on Fourth Street – I forgot, maybe 1913 or 1914 – they paved the streets and it was the most marvelous thing. I put on my skates and we skated all night. We just skated and skated. I used to love to skate, and they used to have this big choo choo train running on Fourth Street to Beaverton and all those places. Right on Fourth Street in front of our house. Then later they changed it to an electric train and it ran for a long time, until they took it off and started buses and things like that. Fourth Street was a very important street and that’s where we lived. Whoever took a bus or anything like that – a streetcar – to work? We always walked from Fourth and Grant down to Fourth and Alder, Sixth and Alder, where we worked, and things like that. After graduation I went to business college at Behnke-Walker for six months and became a stenographer and worked until… I still type and do things like that, you know. In fact, my husband was in the typewriter and adding machine business, so I helped him out. We started together. We worked together.

Grad: Do you have any experiences that you recall in South Portland that really stayed with you, good or bad?
BACHMAN: Well, when we lived down there on Second Street, that was in the early years – the real early years. They had a big gulch there, you know, between Second and Arthur. And in between First and Second there was a big gulch, and there would be shrubbery, and we kids used to play hide and go seek, you know – a whole group. I had a whole bunch of boy cousins there, and girl cousins, and one time we were hiding and a man grabbed me. And I was five years old and I remember that distinctly. He started walking off with me and I screamed, and the kids came running and he dropped me. That was an experience you remember. Well, that was one thing. What else? This is my enlargement. My husband had it enlarged off of this picture and that’s when he had it enlarged [shows picture].

Grad: That’s a lovely picture.
BACHMAN: Once my brother was walking, and there was this was a man on Third Street that did that. He colored it and my brother came running into my husband’s office and he said, “I was walking on Third Street and saw a picture that looked just like Gertrude!” He said, “Just like her.” So my husband said, “That’s her.” He had it enlarged, he liked it so.

Grad: That’s a lovely picture. Did you spend most of your time with your family in South Portland?
BACHMAN: Yes.

Grad: More than with close relatives?
BACHMAN: Well, everyone lived within a few blocks of each other, it seemed like. I used to even work for my brother’s bakery early in the morning before high school and after high school. At one time it was on Gibbs Street. They had a store up there for the bakery goods, and we thought nothing of walking way up there and back again before school, and then running after school. But now I think we are going to come back to all this walking business, little by little. 

Grad: Gas rationing. Right?
BACHMAN: Yes, yes.

Grad: Well, how do you think things are different today in comparison to then?
BACHMAN: Well, I think too many mechanical things, you know. And… I don’t know, it seems to me when you look back, you had such good times and all that, and people were not afraid of each other. They were more neighborly. Now you can live here and you don’t know who is next door to you or across from you anymore. It’s different. It’s like a big city now. We girls would walk downtown at night and stroll around. There was no fear. But now it’s entirely different. It is not the same.

Grad: What prompted your move from South Portland? Where did you move next?
BACHMAN: Well, I got married. We moved up to Sixth and Lincoln, upstairs in a flat. The building is still there. We lived upstairs for a year until we bought our home here. Just imagine – 46 years.

Grad: In this home here?
BACHMAN: Yes. All my children… well, I had my first child there and then we decided we had to have a place, so we bought this house and all the rest of them were born here. And I’ll show you this picture here [shows picture]. There is my husband, my oldest son who is a doctor here, a specialist in arthritis, downtown. 

Grad: What’s his name?
BACHMAN: Dr. Daniel Bachman. And there is my second son, who is a professor of math in San Luis Obispo.

Grad: And what is his name?
BACHMAN: Alfred Bachman. He is a PhD. Estelle was a teacher also, but she is married and living in Long Island. And the twins here. David is working; he was a specialist in chemistry for Crown Zellerbach, but he is head of paper making there. And Ben is a teacher – his brother, they’re twins. You wouldn’t know that they are.

Grad: It’s a lovely picture.
BACHMAN: And here they are when they were small. They were about four months old here. Isn’t that something?

Grad: That’s a beautiful picture. Darling little boys.
BACHMAN: You know, they always got along, never fought or anything like that. They were fraternal. 

Grad: Identical. Nice family.
BACHMAN: And on the piano here is graduation from college. One went to one college and one went to another college. One graduated from Lewis & Clark and one graduated from Portland State. Now they all have their families here. Now, this is the children of Ben and here’s David’s. Those are his girls and his boy. This is my daughter – she has just one daughter, Sherry, who is a senior at the University of Miami. And here is Alfred from California. There is Stephen, Jonathan, and the little girl baby they got – finally got a little girl baby. And this is my oldest son with two boys and Elizabeth. 

Grad: That’s great.
BACHMAN: But they all have their own children now. Some people say they don’t have pictures anymore on there. I said, “I don’t care.” I enjoy them.

Grad: That’s right. They are there for you to look at and enjoy your family.
BACHMAN: All the grocery stores were on First Street. Everything was handy, in fact. Mr. Robison, his wife – they named the Home for her, the Robison Jewish Home – they had a dry goods store and notions and everything on First and Lincoln. 

Grad: What was their name?
BACHMAN: Robinson. They call it Robison, but then we called them Robinson. They had a dry goods store on First and Lincoln and you didn’t have to run downtown. You had everything there. 

Grad: All in one place.
BACHMAN: And a big event – they had a movie right next to it, run by Mr. Berg. For 5 cents we went in with a big bag of peanuts or cherries and would sit there and watch the movies. Everything was right there. I remember when the Eastern Outfitting Company was opened by Mr. Shemanski. The Eastern Outfitting. Of course, he is gone, and the family too, but when they opened up they gave free straw hats to the girls and to the ladies. My sister and I stood in line there and we each got a beautiful hat – one of those sailor straw hats. It was a big event. Imagine doing things like that.

Grad: Do you remember what year?
BACHMAN: Oh, it was at least 1910 or 1912. Something like that. It was a big event.

Grad: I imagine it was. Those things usually are. Even today really in some respects. What do you feel has changed in the Jewish Community? How do you feel about the change in the Jewish Community after leaving South Portland?
BACHMAN: Well, I liked when the [Jewish Community] Center was up on 13th and Market, because I used to take my children there. They belonged to the clubs and all that. That was a wonderful thing. But now when it’s out there… Of course we take the bus now, but it is further out. It is fine for the young folks in southwest. I don’t know where you live. Do you live southwest? 

Grad: We do now.
BACHMAN: You see, so everything… that’s why they made it there, because all the young folks are all moving to southwest. It seems like they are expanding that way. Irvington used to be the Jewish neighborhood on the east side. Quite a bit. It was a very closely-knit neighborhood, I think, but now everybody moved out on account of conditions and all that. And Council Crest – that was a nice park. They had all amusements there up on the hill. They had a dance hall. We would go up there and we had wonderful times up there, and the ride up there was beautiful. Well, they still have Council Crest, but nothing much up there anymore.

Grad: Did you go up there on the streetcar?
BACHMAN: Yes. It would take you right up there. And there also used to be a place called Crystal Lake Park, where they used to have picnics and dances and things like that, but I don’t know if they have it anymore. We had a basketball team at the Center on 13th, and a lot of the people you would be surprised at – that the Lichtgarn girls and I and my sister-in-law Emily and oh, quite a number of us belonged to it. We were quite a team.

Grad: A girl’s basketball team?
BACHMAN: Girl’s basketball, yes. And we had what you would call a Ben-Tillie Girl’s Club and we had about 80 girls belonging to that, and I was one of the Vice-Presidents and we called it Ben-Tillie after Mr. and Mrs. Ben Selling. We asked their permission first. Her name was Tillie and his name was Ben and we called it the Ben-Tillie Club, and they would come every once in awhile and visit us up there. We had wonderful programs, put on plays. We had a lot of fun.

Grad: It sounds that way.
BACHMAN: At one time, about 10 or 11 girls got engaged, so we had a big party and I wrote a regular thing about the future in twenty years. I still have the copy of what I predicted each one would have, you know. It was a lot of fun. When I look back…sometimes we get together, you know. We just laugh like anything.

Grad: Going over it? 
BACHMAN: Yes.

Grad: Do you recall in what way the Depression affected your way in South Portland?
Bachman: At that time we lived on Sixth and Lincoln, and my sister and her husband and her daughter – the two families lived together. It was a big corner house. Now there is a gas station there. It was a beautiful home, and across the street was the reservoir and the boys would come and play. It was a dry reservoir. They didn’t use it anymore, and the boys would come and play baseball, football, and everything across the street. It was 1912, was the depression, and they were just building the Terwilliger Boulevard. You could hear the dynamiting all the time they were making the road there. That was just the time it was built, and because we had a big house, about every day somebody would knock at the door and ask for something to eat, and my mother would always give them a sandwich or a cup of coffee or something like that. But we pulled through it, and then that was one depression, and then came 1929, of course. My husband was in the typewriter business and he did everything himself, and I worked with him and we lost money in the bank, of course. But we were economical and we did the best we could. And he worked, and he went around from office to office getting repair work and all that, and so we pulled by all right.

Grad: Managed to make it through.
BACHMAN: Yes, just by being thrifty and all that. Oh yes, there were people selling apples and everything else on the street, you know. In fact, my brother-in-law had an orchard in Hood River that he owned, and he brought in the apples and he boxed them and they still have that Yamhill Market on Yamhill. It was an open market and he would pay so much for a stall –

Grad: And they were selling apples in the Yamhill Market? 
BACHMAN: Yes.

Grad: To help make a few dollars during the Depression?
BACHMAN: That’s right. Everybody was in the same boat and it seemed like you would think of things to do and you couldn’t get pickers, and people didn’t even want to work in some places, so they just sat there selling apples to support the family and things like that. People grouped together to save rent. Two families would get in together and things like that. But we pulled through all right. 

Grad: Then what changes do you think that the Second World War made?
BACHMAN: The Second World War? Well, that didn’t affect us so much because we weren’t within the age. My husband was retired.

Grad: Were your children involved in the service?
BACHMAN: My oldest son, he had been admitted to medical school, and he was attending Reed College and they called him, so he had to go and leave it. He was in Camp Roberts and while he was there somebody told him, “You had better take an examination.” They want some chemical engineers. Taking the exam, maybe you would be taken there. So he took the exam and he was one of the group that was admitted to Texas A&M, and he went down there and they had had a bivouac or whatever it is. You run and you camp for so many days. 

He had pneumonia and he didn’t know it, but he wouldn’t say anything that he was sick; he didn’t want to miss this trip to Texas. After they got there, they put him in a hospital, and we didn’t know a thing about it. He wrote us afterwards. He went to Texas A& M and he was doing very good in the engineering and all that, building bridges. They had to draw all these designs. Just then the war ended. The whole group that he was with from Camp Roberts were sent overseas and he was the only one that went to the college, so he was just lucky that way. The war ended. While he was in the service he took shorthand by correspondence and he became secretary to a Colonel until he got out in Kentucky there. Somewhere they had to stay quite awhile. So he was secretary to the Colonel. Then he came back and went back to Reed for another year. Instead of four years he did three years and they let him go into medical school. He had to take the exam once more but he made it. 

Grad: So, he was the only one affected really by the war.
BACHMAN Yes, my oldest son. My second son wanted to go, but they said his eyes weren’t too good, so they didn’t take him. He wanted to join the Air Force. He was very young too.
 
Grad: Do you recall what effect the Urban Renewal project had on the South Portland neighborhood? The people that were still there?
BACHMAN: No. We were here all the time. The Urban Renewal is – well, my brother lived on Broadway and they took that up, you know, and they sold all the houses on Fourth Street. My sister still owned it, although they lived in California. But they still owned it but they let it go for a song because they told them it wasn’t worth anything. That’s about all that I know of. Lots of people had to sell their homes, move to different places, but it didn’t affect us at all because we were always here on the east side all these times. 

Grad: What can you talk about your religious experiences in South Portland when you were young?
BACHMAN: Well, we belonged to the Shaarie Torah on First and Hall, and everything was real good there. In fact, when I got married in 1923, they had fixed the basement up with a beautiful floor for dancing, and mine was the first wedding downstairs. The shul had 200 people and they had these beautiful floors. All the social events, all the things were around the shul, you know, and around the Center for the younger folks then. Of course, the Neighborhood House was still kept up and there was always a group there, but when we moved away we went to the Center instead. You know, we were getting older and we would go up there. It was still a closely knit South Portland– still closely knit. 

As we got older we had clubs for the women. I’ve joined different things there. The B’nai B’rith we used to go to for the men, and for the women, and what I missed was the beautiful New Years dance they used to have. Oh, it was always wonderful. You know the two lodges together. It was beautiful, but they discontinued that after the [inaudible]. Then I used to belong to the Jewish Educational [Association] – the women’s group. We used to support the Hebrew School, you see, and I was the president of that for quite a number of times. And we would raise money; we would make dinners. We had a big banquet every year at the Center at 13th and Market, and it was always successful. By the way, Dr. Brill was one of the first members of the Educational [Association] and his family came here real early. In fact, he was a nephew of Mrs. Robinson of the Robinson Home. He was related to them. If you want to get some information, he would be a good one to contact. He lives at the Portland Center, I understand. Dr. Brill.

Grad: Did your children all attend Hebrew school?
BACHMAN: Yes, they all did, and all graduated with gold medals and silver medals, books and things like that. They were all good scholars. They had their foundation, anyway.

Grad: Well, when you look back on all of this, how do you feel as a Jew living here in Oregon?
BACHMAN: Well, I love it all the time. I always have good memories. I think my memories looking back were always good.

Grad: Did you ever have a bad memory? In South Portland or anywhere else?
BACHMAN: No. I guess I am always an optimist.
 
Grad: That is great.
BACHMAN: Yes, and I always think of the good things and don’t remember the bad things, if there was any.

Grad: Sometimes that’s the best way.
BACHMAN: And I find people that are always thinking of what happened and this and that. They do themselves harm. Really, they do, they hurt themselves in thinking of bad things all the time. So I tried to bring my children up that way, too – to always look for the good in people. I always used to say ‘if you can’t say anything good, don’t say it at all,’ so I tried to follow that policy.

Grad: That’s a good way to be.
BACHMAN: And I think all of my children are well-liked for the same reason. 

Grad: Now, is there some relationship with the Bachmans in the drug business?
BACHMAN: Yes, he’s my brother-in-law. Edward Bachman was my brother-in-law. In fact, that’s how I met his brother, through him. I’ll tell you something else. This is my husband right here in the wedding picture, and myself, 1923. How did we get acquainted? Well, my brother Willy was President of Shaarie Torah on First Street and they needed a new cantor, so he was the one that would select him. And he watched the Jewish newspapers and he saw where some cantor advertised, and that happened to be the father of my husband. See, Reverend Bachman, and he was a cantor. And he was a tall, aristocratic looking man, a very nice looking man, the father, so he came out first and they hired him and then he brought out his wife and Louie, who was the youngest boy. They came. They lived in Toledo, Ohio. They came from there and they lived here in Portland. 

Then, later on, my husband came to visit his folks, and Eddie used to say, “Oh my brother doesn’t like girls, but I am sure he will like Gertie.” I says, “Oh, why pick on me?” When he came, we had a big dance at the Center and he just asked to dance with me one after another. And I said, “Oh no, all the mothers are looking around here, they’ll have us engaged,” I said. He stayed here a whole week and I went out with him. In fact, he proposed the first week. I said, “Oh no, I don’t know you well enough. If you want me, you’ll come back.” And he had to go back. He worked for the railroad – CB&Q Railroad. He took care of their typewriters, adding machines. Well, when he got back one of the fellows said to him, “What’s the matter Bachman? You’re daydreaming. Did you meet somebody out there? And he said, “Yes.” And he [the other fellow] said, “Well you had better go back.” So after three months he did come back and we got engaged, and later on got married. So that was it.

Grad: And you have lived here really all your life. Almost all your life.
BACHMAN: Yes, since I came four years old. Since the family came here see. [Shows a photograph] This is my husband, this is the son that’s a doctor, and there is his brother who was a doctor in Detroit, Michigan. There’s Eddie, from the Bachman Pharmacy, and they had the Stanley Laboratories, you know. This is Stanley. There’s Dan and there’s Alfred the second son, the three brothers together. He [one of her husband’s brothers] came on a visit. He lived in Detroit. They were all self-made men, all three boys. In fact, my husband, in Russia, he attended a trade school where he learned to repair typewriters.

Grad: Where was this?
BACHMAN: They came from Odessa. They came from a big city and there was a woman that supported a technical school, like Benson, where they teach trades. She gave the money for it. A real rich woman – a Jewish woman in Odessa. Can you imagine? She gave money to support this, to give boys a trade, and that’s where he was sent there and they saw that he was good on little screws and things like that. They would teach them on whatever they were adapted for, so he learned to repair typewriters. In fact, while the husband went to America, his father… to see what he could do here, my husband, who was about 15, he would buy a typewriter from the government and repair it and would put an ad in and sell it, and they would live on that for a month. He used to support his mother and the three boys on that.

Grad: And did he send for them later on?
BACHMAN: The father and the older boys left. No… Except… No, the mother and the younger boy stayed there, but the middle boy left for America. That was Morrie. The father sent for him. And then after the [First World] War started, in 1917, and they were going to take my husband. He had the passport of his brother somehow and his was a whole story. He got out through Japan, China. A Chinaman used to smuggle them out – a bunch of boys. He told them… they called him Moses. They called this Chinaman Moses. He said, “If you get a few more boys that can pay, since you haven’t the money, I’ll take you, and be sure to bring some long loaves of bread with you.” For three days he took them on a fishing boat and covered them up, and across the border into China, from Russia into China. He smuggled them out. That was his business, see. And so they went through China and when they came there, they were very hungry, and all they could get was eggs, eggs, eggs. There were a lot of chickens around there. So they ate eggs and then they crossed into Japan, and in Japan they got food there and they worked in a restaurant. They happened to find a Jewish man that was running a restaurant in China, imagine that? 

So they worked there and sent for their father and the other boy, and they stayed there until the father sent for the mother, and he sent money for the mother and Eddie, and they came to Cleveland. But my husband was still left there. He didn’t have the money yet and he didn’t want to wait, so some woman said, “If you help me take care of my children while we are on the ship, I’ll lend you the money until you can pay me back when we get to Seattle.” So they crossed from Japan to Seattle. They came in at Seattle. See, our family came in at New York. When he got into Seattle, the HIAS Society there gave him food, and they were just starving. They were just wonderful. The father telegraphed money to him, and he went to the market and saw sausages and fruit. He bought everything he could on the train going back to Toledo. And when he got to Toledo, he took a taxi and said he wanted to go to a certain street, and finally got there and who did he see playing out there but his brother? His brother grabbed him and took him in the house and they scrubbed him and everything. The family got reunited. And the father was a Cantor and he got a place in Chicago. Then he went to Chicago, and that’s where my husband was working then. The mother and Eddie came here first, a few years first, because the father sent for them. And my husband was working there in Chicago and then he came over later.

Grad: What do you suppose their reasons were for wanting to come to America?
BACHMAN: Oh, well, you knew that you would have to fear. Like, sitting at the table, as small as I was, I remember it was a Friday night and we were eating dinner. We were all sitting at the table and the Cossacks came in town, and they galloped around and threw a big rock through the window. I thought it had hit my father and I ran out of the room, and I was crying and crying and they said, ‘No, he’s all right.’ You see, you always had to live in fear. In little towns they would burn the businesses and things like that. The priest had a big control of the [non-Jewish] peasants, and the peasants were ignorant, and whatever they told them to do, they did. They told them we were all the cause of evil. That was ingrained in them. It still is. There is still jealousy and all that. And American was the place to come to, and everybody thought that at least they would have a chance, and whoever worked hard, they did. They got ahead, that was it. No matter what you did, you had a chance. Were you born in Seattle? 

Grad: Yes, I’m from Seattle. 
Bachman: We had a convention of our Senior Citizens in Seattle. It was beautiful. Last year. It was very nice.

Grad: They do have lovely functions.
BACHMAN: We saw that new home that the Council of Jewish Women have built there for the Senior Citizens. It was close to downtown, somewhere up the hill.

Grad: I didn’t know that that was finished.
BACHMAN: Oh, yes. And they took us through it on a tour and it was just beautiful homes. But the thing is, that it was so close to the colored and that wasn’t good. But it was open to Jews and it was nondenominational and very reasonable – beautiful rooms. But you have to watch out for the location, that’s the thing. I suppose when they bought the land and started building it was all right yet.

Grad: They are contemplating one here too.
BACHMAN: Yes, but it should be near a shopping district – near shops – so people can buy things, walking distance. 

Grad: Would you consider moving into it?
BACHMAN: Well, if I had to later on, I would. As long as I can take care of myself and do my flowers, the yard and things like that, I am perfectly [happy]. Everything is close to me here. I have Albertsons, two blocks on Hancock, and I have friends in the Hollywood Town House that are living there in that expensive apartment. And I don’t know anyone of the senior citizens that have retired right here on Broadway, 44th and Broadway. Did you see that big yellow building and it’s marvelous [inaudible]? They have just as nice rooms there as they do at the Holiday Park there, where they have to pay $15,000, and here you get it for one-fourth of your income. Marvelous. If I couldn’t get in there, I sure would move out wherever they would build a place. It would be nice.

Grad: I know they have talked about the need for it here in Portland. 
BACHMAN: Yes, I think it would be very nice, because a lot of the older people are giving up their homes, and it is still expensive to live somewheres else. You have to think of the future. Of course, my daughter-in-law says, “Oh, you’ll live with me!” And the other one says, “You’ll live with me!” Thank God I have good daughter-in-laws. They like me. Even my son-in-law when he is here. He says, “Sell your house and come live with me.” So I am really very fortunate. They all want me. But still, I would like to be for myself.

Grad: It’s a great feeling to be able to do for yourself.
BACHMAN: My mother always said, “If you want to have a good daughter-in-law, be good to her,” and that’s true. If you are good to them, they’re good to you. Some people don’t realize that, though. They are always demanding, demanding, but I never. I never bothered them. If they want me for dinner, they call me, and I have them every once in awhile, so we get along fine.

Grad: You have a good relationship.
BACHMAN: And I always used to babysit for the children. Whenever they couldn’t get anyone: “Bring them here, its okay with me.” I taught all my grandchildren to play checkers. I play all the games with them. In fact, one of my little granddaughters, Sonia and Tania, I heard her say to her mother when she got in the car, “Mama, maybe when you are not too busy, you play some games with us too.” I play Little Red Riding Hood and Three Little Piggies and everything.

Grad: They must love that.
BACHMAN: They say to stay young… what is it? There’s a saying: “To be young you have to be young at heart,” or something like that. With children I think it keeps you young. 

[Interview Question Missing]
BACHMAN: On the mezzanine at Meier & Frank, for 25 cents you got a tuna sandwich, pie, coffee, and even ice cream sometimes. It was marvelous. We would always get together and the Meshers were an early family. See the girls were my chums. They have both passed away.

Grad: Did you work a great deal of your married life?
BACHMAN: Well, I worked about the first year, until we opened our own business. And my husband worked for other typewriter companies here until he started our own. And he gave up his job and I gave up mine and I helped him. Then he would go out I would run the office; take rental sales and all that. We called it the Superior Typewriter Service. It was right in … now they call it the Pioneer Building, but it used to be called the Railway Exchange Building on Third and Stark. And in the lobby, where Hubers is, there is a little office and that’s where we started in. And the man that owned this building, Mr. Smith, he liked us so much that after a year there was a vacant store in the front, outside, and he gave it to us. He said, “I’ll give you the first month’s rent free and see if you can make it.” And we did. We were there 19 years.

Grad: In what year was it that you started?
BACHMAN: He started … I got married in 1923. About 1924 we started and we closed up 19 years later. My husband wasn’t well and the doctor told him he bad to take it easy. We could have made a fortune. The war was going on, but he had to give up, so there you were. But I used to help him all the time I was always in business. Now I’m secretary of the senior citizens – Secretary of the City of Hope. I belong to other places: Mizrahi, Robison Home. You know, there isn’t – there is never a dull moment for me. 

Grad: You keep involved.
BACHMAN: Yes. I just got a folder that a man gave a lecture for volunteer work and it gives all the places where they want senior citizens for volunteer work, so if I have any spare time, there’s plenty of places to give to. This is run by the Government on aging [Administration on Aging]. They need all the help they can get. So there’s no reason for people to sit home and twiddle their thumbs. There’s a lot of places to be busy 

Grad: I guess when you have done that all your life; it’s a natural thing. 
BACHMAN: They asked me, “Are you lonesome?” and I say, “No, I don’t have a chance.” And when I’m not crocheting or knitting, I’m reading. I’m always busy.

Grad: Do your family live here? Your children?
BACHMAN: My daughter lives in Long Island, and one son in California, one in Camas, Washington, and the other two are here. One in Gresham, but he works in Portland. And my oldest son, I guess you would call it Riverdale – Dunthorpe, along there – so it’s Portland anyway. He was with the medical school; he started the Department of Rheumatology and Arthritis at the medical school. He came from Massachusetts General where he had studied, and they never had a Department of Rheumatology at the medical school here. So he came here and they accepted him and he ran it for 12 years in research on arthritis, and the free clinic up there. And finally the government started cutting down. You know, to get your money you have… he was also Professor of Medicine. He was on the faculty there and he graduated as a Professor of Medicine also, and after 12 years they cut down. So he decided well, now it’s time to go in for himself. But before he went in, he took a year – his family went to France – they lived there for a whole year near Topaz (?), and it was wonderful. And the children, well, when they came back, he didn’t know whether he should go to another… they offered him positions back East. But he liked Portland, grew up here, so be decided that he would go in for himself, so he has been for the last few years. Thank God he’s doing very well.

Grad: What are your feelings about ever wanting to go back to Russia to visit?
BACHMAN: No, no, nothing at all. This is my home, America here. Especially Oregon. I don’t think there’s another state like it. You go to visit in California, it’s nice and all that, but as soon as you come in here, you’re glad to be back; too many people down there anyway. Over here there is still plenty of space to move around. Well, at least it’s home.

Grad: I have that same feeling. It’s comfortable.
BACHMAN: Seattle is nice, too.

Grad: But Oregon is nicer. I like Oregon.
BACHMAN: Have you been here quite a number of years? 

Grad: Since I’ve been married – 21 years.
BACHMAN: Do you have children now? Do you have married children? 

Grad: I have one married.
BACHMAN: And you just look like a young girl yourself! Isn’t that marvelous?

Grad: I try to keep busy also. 
BACHMAN: Any grandchild?

Grad: Not yet, she just got married about three months ago. 
BACHMAN: Oh, marvelous, then you have something to look forward to. 

Grad: Right. We’re happy.
BACHMAN: I always say: I thought I loved my children, but you really love your grandchildren. You really do. And the things they say is just the cutest things. Well, I think you have more time to appreciate them, that’s it. 

Grad: It’s another aspect of life.
BACHMAN: Yes.