Moses “Scotty” Cohen

Pierri: Where were you born? 
COHEN: I was born (I got tears in my eyes) I was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1902. I am 73 years old and in good shape yet. 

Pierri: When did you come to America? 
COHEN: I came to America in 1911, and it sure was rough in them days coming over on a boat. We were on a ship about three weeks, and about two weeks out of that we were lost at sea and the captain came around and told the passengers not to get excited, that we were lost, and we finally got out of it. We were down in steerage; that was the lowest price my father could afford in them days. 

Pierri: You came to where? 
COHEN: I came to Quebec. I landed in Quebec the first time and then there was a big snowstorm when we landed in Quebec. My father was in the United States five years before we came here, and my mother was taking care of nine children, six boys and three girls; and my oldest sister Mary, she went window shopping in Quebec and we lost her for about half an hour. They held the train up on account of her. My mother was crying and we were all crying because we thought we lost her. But they held the train up for us and finally after half an hour they found her. When we came back the snow was terrific so one of the head fellows there said, “You have to take a snow sled.” And this snow sled held about 50 people. So we got on the snow sled and we rode for about 50 miles before we hit the train on the other side. And finally we came to Portland about a week later. And we got here on February 8, 1911. We lived in a house on First and Market. We came to our auntie’s place there and lived up in the attic. Just imagine: we just had one bed. Naturally most of us slept on the floor the first night, but I am getting ahead of myself right now. When we came to Portland, my dad was at the North Bank Depot on Tenth and Glisan, and we was on the Sixth Street Depot. We were supposed to get in at a certain time and we waited two hours. My mother with the nine kids was up against the wall until my dad found out where we was at. Then we lived with my auntie on First Street. 

Pierri: How long did you live there? 
COHEN: We lived there about a week and then we went to Second and Wood Street. He got a place for us to stay there. It wasn’t much of a place, but it was the best he could find. The landlord’s name was Dedidov. We had a very hard time. Dad, he didn’t make much money; he was a watchmaker by trade. And I had a very rich auntie who used to come over the house pretty much every day to see us. She wanted to know if we had enough to eat but mother told us ahead of time, “Now if Auntie comes over please tell her that we have plenty to eat.” And mother she scraped up as much as she could. She made a stew or something like that. She was very poor and we was really very hungry. She got too much pride; it makes me cry. 

Pierri: Oh don’t feel bad. It was hard times for a lot of people and coming to a new country is not a simple thing. Did you have older sisters than yourself? 
COHEN: Yes. 

Pierri: The girl who went shopping was older. 
COHEN: I had a sister who was 15 years old. And my other sister she was about 11. 

Pierri: And you were nine. 
COHEN: I was nine years old. Our family ran about two years apart – the boys especially. 

Pierri: Then when you came here you went to school. 
COHEN: I went to school at Failing School in South Portland, 1911. I was there till the sixth grade. Then we moved to Fifth and Jackson, and I went to Shattuck School and graduated there, but I couldn’t afford to go to high school because we were too poor. We were too poor. In the meantime, in them years since 1911, I sold newspapers for 25 years, from 1911 to 1936. Then I got into the concession game. I am a vendor now. I sell programs at the horse races and at the dog track – two of the best places I ever worked for in my life. 

Pierri: Isn’t that nice. 
COHEN: Very nice people. As my health goes on now. I am in good shape. I am 73 years old. And I have been in this concession game since 1930– 45 years. I am one of the oldest vendors in the city of Portland. 

Pierri: When you first came to Portland with your family did you get in touch with this aunt? 
COHEN: Yes, my mother did. We stood there for the first week. 

Pierri: Yes, with this aunt. 
COHEN: They were very, very rich people. 

Pierri: And she helped you out. 
COHEN: No, she didn’t help us. The only time she helped us out was only just for the first week. She wanted to know if mother needed money, and mother said, “No, we got everything; we need nothing.” She was too proud my mother. 

Pierri: Who did you go to if you didn’t want to go to her? 
COHEN: Well, we had a cousin and she’d help us out once in while, yes. 

Pierri: Because everybody had in those days. Your father worked as a watchmaker? 
COHEN: But a very poor job he had. He used to go out in the country, and he’d sell watches and fix watches. But in them days the farmers did not have any money at all, and for fixing watches and selling rings and stuff like that they’d give him chickens and they’d give him eggs, potatoes and onions, enough to feed the family. That helped pretty much, but I always used to give him a few dollars to go on a trip because he never even had expenses to go on a trip. 

Pierri: You mean to go out to the country? He didn’t make it? 
COHEN: Yeah, he didn’t make it at all. But he was a good watchmaker. He used to fix watches downtown for different places here in Portland. He would charge $2.50 and $3, and they would probably get from $5 to $10 for each watch from the customers. People in them days they didn’t have many watchmakers. So he would fix watches for these different companies and he would charge $2.50 or $3. I used to say, “Dad, why don’t you charge a little more? They are probably getting twice as much as you are getting.” But he wouldn’t do it. He said, “No, that’s all I am worth.” He was a very conservative man that way. 

Pierri: You lived in South Portland. How far did this neighborhood extend? 
COHEN: That extended, I couldn’t tell you, at least a couple of miles. And I’ll never forget the day, one day there, there was a barber named Wolf, and there was a wooden bridge there, and the darn wooden bridge sunk. He had a customer in the chair and both of them went down, but neither one of them got hurt.

Pierri: Do you remember that? 
COHEN: That was quite an experience. I went down and saw it. That was quite a hole down there. It was kind of a wooden bridge. It wasn’t kept up very good. It was sure funny. But this barber, he’d take his time. He’d give these fellows haircuts and shaves and he’d work all hours of night. He’d go to work at 8:00 in the morning and wouldn’t be through until 11:00 or 12:00 at night. He always had appointments with people. They worked you know, and they couldn’t get no haircut so he’d wait for them until a certain time at night and they’d come there at 7, 8 or 9:00 at night. He’d give them a haircut and shave, whatever they wanted. He was a good barber. He always had a cigar in his mouth, even when he was shaving or giving the person a haircut, he always had a cigar in his mouth, but he never smoked it; he just chewed it. 

Pierri: What did you like best about your neighborhood? 
COHEN: There were all kinds of people there. There were Italians and Jews there. They were very nice. We all got along very good. We had no trouble at all. 

Pierri: Was anything missing in that neighborhood? 
COHEN: Not a thing. The only thing I can tell you about my mother, God bless her. She used to take me down and we would have a chicken, you know, to kill. And she’d give the rabbi five cents, to cut it and she would have to pick [the feathers off] the chicken. In them days it was a nickel to pick the chicken, and she couldn’t even afford the nickel in them days so she did it herself. 

Pierri: How close were you to the neighbors and shopping? 
COHEN: Practically right next door to each other. Just half a block or a block or a couple of blocks away. There were two grocery stores in South Portland. One was on Sherman Street… 

Pierri: Who was it? 
COHEN: I couldn’t tell you. 

Pierri: Were you close to the school too? 
COHEN: Oh yes, we only lived about ten blocks away from the school. When we lived on Second and Wood we only lived about two or three blocks from Failing School. 

Pierri: What about the synagogue? 
COHEN: For synagogue, we used to go to Neveh Zedek Synagogue on Sixth and Market Street. My father was a member there for over 50 years. I used to go most of the time on holidays. All the kids went there too. 

Pierri:  What about hard times in the neighborhood? 
COHEN: We had very hard times in them days, very, very hard times. I really had to help, and how. You know when I first came to Portland in 1911, the first thing I did was I sold newspapers on First and Alder Street. And in them days the newspapers were three for a nickel. You made a dime on three papers. So I sold three papers and made a dime. I’d go to First and Madison, there used to be a cook there and I used to get brown mashed potatoes for a nickel. They’d give you a big sack for five cents. The other nickel I used to take home to Mother. Practically all my life since I got married in 1942 I supported my folks. I was 42 years old just before I got married. My mother sure was disgusted because I was the breadwinner. 

Pierri: Yes. 
COHEN: Yes, she was unhappy for me to get married. I never did go out with many girls, but this girl I found in the shipyards, so I got married. 

Pierri: You worked in the shipyards? 
COHEN: I was in the Army for five months and 30 days in 1941. In September I went in, on the 18th of September, and I got through on February 8th. That was because I was 42 years old when they drafted me. When I got in on September 18th Roosevelt gave strict orders men over 38 should go out of the service. So I worked in the medical department. We had about 800 men there. The Lieutenant came over to me and he said, “Cohen, we are going to let you go the day before Christmas.” I had only been in a couple of months, you know, two or three months. So the day before I was supposed to get released, he says, “I am sorry we have to hold you back. We have no replacement for you fellows.” So there were only eight men to go out of the service who were over 38 in our company. We had to wait till February the 8th to release us. I was in for five months and three days. Then I came to Portland to work in the shipyards in South Portland. I worked there for about a year. Then after that I went to Willamette Iron and Steel in North Portland and worked for about a year and a half there. I worked for about a year in South Portland. They only gave me 90 cents an hour, and I got a chance to work on a better job in North Portland for Willamette Iron and Steel, and I was getting about a quarter an hour. So I worked there for about a year and a half. I was in the shipyards for about two and one half years altogether. Then I sold newspapers after that. I was till 1936. But all the time I was a vendor. I was a vendor from 1930 till 1975. I’ve been at it for 45 years. I am one of the oldest vendors in the city of Portland. 

Pierri: Even when you worked at the shipyards? 
COHEN: Yes. I used to work out at the ballpark. I worked out at the ballpark for about 20 years, selling hot dogs, peanuts, ice cream, beer, soft drinks and everything else. I made pretty good money out there. I say that for myself. The way conditions were in them days, why, I made good money at the ballpark. 

Pierri: What about your neighbors in South Portland? 
COHEN: They were wonderful neighbors. We all got along very good. 

Pierri: With whom did you spend most of your time in South Portland? 
COHEN: I didn’t spend much of my time because I was taking care of my folks all the time. All the money I made, two-thirds of the time, if I made $10 I gave them $9. I had to. It was a family of eleven – six girls and three boys – and boy in them days it sure cost a lot of money to feed a family like that. 

Pierri: I should say so. What about clubs? 
COHEN: I belonged to the one in South Portland there, Neighborhood House, for about four or five years. 

Pierri: What Club was that? 
COHEN: J.B.A.C. 

Pierri: That wasn’t a newsboys’ club? 
COHEN:  No. That was a Neighborhood House Club. J.B.A.C. 

Pierri: What did they do? 
COHEN: Well, they had a lot of activities there. They had a workshop downstairs, making all kinds of woodwork and stuff like that. They had a pool hall. I used to play pool quite a bit. The workshop was on the left, the pool hall had one little small table to the right, and upstairs was the gymnasium. I used to be quite active in track up there, running around. 

Pierri: Did you play any sports? 
COHEN: Most of the sports I played was a little soccer out on the street, when I used to go to Failing School. But I am very interested in all sports nowadays. I like them all. 

Pierri: What sorts of activities stand out in your memory as being important in your life, your social activities, religious, did you go to shul much? 
COHEN: No, all I did was go on holidays to shul with my father. That was a must. 

Pierri: We have been talking about the situation then, how are things different today? What changed in Portland? 
COHEN: Oh, it’s wonderful nowadays. You make more money nowadays and things are much better. Wages are very high compared to the old days and you got more electrical appliances since my days, since 1911. You never had no washing machines and dryers and television and stuff like that there. When we first moved in 1911 we had kerosene lamps in the house. 

Pierri: In Portland? 
COHEN: Yes, on Second and Wood Street, when we first came to Portland, we had kerosene lamps; there was no electricity. We had to have kerosene lamps. 

Pierri: What else do you remember that was typical? You left South Portland when you got married, that was in … 
COHEN: In 1942 

Pierri: So you didn’t see the big changes with urban development? 
COHEN: No, I didn’t. But after that when they tore everything out of South Portland, why these high rise buildings and apartments went up and there is quite a change right now compared to years ago. But I couldn’t understand why they tore that South Portland out in the first place. I thought when they tear it out they wouldn’t build all those things, but they are building big apartments and big buildings nowadays all over. I couldn’t understand why they tore down all them houses. 

Pierri: But didn’t that have something to do with freeways? 
COHEN: Yes, it had something to do with the freeways, yes. 

Pierri: How did the community organizations change? 
COHEN: Well, everybody moved to different places. They all moved to different sections of the city after South Portland was gone. I would have moved out of town, too, I guess. 

Pierri: How did you feel about the changes? 
COHEN: I thought it was a good idea myself. I really do. Because most of them houses up there were old and dilapidated to me. People got their money for them houses. I think it was a godsend myself. I suppose they started to live good after that because they moved into apartments or they bought some other home, you know, some place else, and there was really a very poor neighborhood around all them people.

Pierri: Did you regret some of the changes? 
COHEN: No, I don’t regret it at all. 

Pierri: You think they were for the better. That is your memory of the happiest time you had in Portland? 
COHEN: The happiest time I ever had in Portland was when I became an American citizen in about 1936, when Franklin D. Roosevelt gave that order for social security for old people that was a godsend for this country. 

Pierri: You told me you had happy memories of the day you got your citizenship? 
COHEN: Well, how I got my citizenship. Well, first you have to wait two years before you get your first papers. Then after two years you get your second papers, and you go up for an examination. Well, a cousin of mine, he gave me a small book there, and told me all about the United States and different rules and regulations. You had to learn this and you had to learn that before you became an American citizen. So, I took this little book home, studied it, and my mother said, “You’ll never pass; you don’t look at that book at all.” I said “Yes, I look at it once in a while. I am going up for my examination in about two weeks. I am pretty sure I’ll pass.” “Oh, no, I don’t think you will.” So, I went up in a couple of weeks, and this man who interviewed me had a typewriter in front of me. He wasn’t typing nothing at all. They do that, you know. They type to try to distract a person, you know. Then they have something come out of their mouth, and they ask you a question “How much does the president make?” I say $50,000 or $75,000 a year.” “What are the different branches of government?” and I answer them. And they asked me five different questions. He said, “You are too smart for me! Go up to the 10th floor and get your citizenship papers.” So I went up to the 10th floor. That was the happiest day of my life, when I became an American citizen. To this day, God bless America. 

Pierri: That’s wonderful. What is your unhappiest memory? 
COHEN: Well, my unhappiest memory is when my first wife died. We were married for 14 years, and she was a wonderful woman. She died of cancer in her throat. Now I am married to a nice Jewish girl, Pearl Bashin, and we have been married now, in August it will be 12 years, the 24th of August. And my second wife is a wonderful woman. 

Pierri: In what ways did the Depression affect your way of life in Portland? 
COHEN: Well, up to 1950, about the last 25 years, I have been having nice success on my job, compared to the old days. it was sure tough. 

Pierri: The Depression was bad for you? 
COHEN: It was very bad, very bad. The thing that I got a kick out of, I went out to the ballpark and sold peanuts and hotdogs and ice cream and stuff like that, pop. The first night I went out to the ballgame on 23rd and Vaughn, I sold three bottles of pop and I made a nickel, and I had to walk all the way from 23rd and Vaughn to Second and Wood Street where I lived. It took me about two hours to walk home. That was my first night at the ballpark, but from then on I did pretty good. The second night I made 15 cents, the third night I made about 30 cents, the fourth night I made about 75 cents, and on the fifth night I made about $1, but on a Sunday doubleheader I came out with about $2.50. That was big money in them days. I worked out at the ballpark for 25 years out there. 

Pierri: What kind of changes did World War II make? 
COHEN: Well, things got better. After World War II things got better. I started to make more money. 

Pierri: You worked in the shipyards, and then you had a better job there. Did you work for anybody else? 
COHEN:Yes, I worked for Lipman & Wolfe Co. from 1950 to 1962, between 11 and 12 years. So one night I had my brother waiting downstairs; I was going to take him to dinner. The boss called me up at 4:00, and I used to get through at 5:30 working at Lipman’s. I had charge of the freight sidewalk. It was a plenty hard, tough job. In them days I was making $175 a month, and the boss called me up around 4:30 and he said, “Scottie, I want to see you.” He called me Scottie because I was born in Glasgow, Scotland. “I want to see you; I got some important news to tell you.” So I went up to his office and he says, “The big boss, Mr. Roberts, says we got to fire you.” I says, “Fire me for what? Here I have been working close to twelve years for the company. Did I steal something? I’d like to find out what happened.” He said,” No, you never stole nothing. He said we got to let you go.” I couldn’t believe it. And everybody in the store liked me. I got along with everybody. So, after he fired me I went down to State Unemployment and put on for unemployment. After about the second week you are supposed to get a check. But I didn’t get a check for four or five weeks. So I says to the girl behind the counter, “What’s the matter? Everybody gets a check after two or three weeks. I haven’t got a check yet.” So she says, “They are contesting your wages.” So I said that I have been loyal there. I didn’t do nothing wrong. So she said, “Next week we are going to have an interview with somebody in unemployment there, something like a judge, and Mr. Roberts will come down and have his say about you.” I said “OK.” Instead of Mr. Roberts coming down, he sends his secretary down to interview us. The girl said they had trouble with me. I said, “What kind of trouble? I had no trouble with nobody.” So I started to cry a little bit there. It is so ridiculous to hold back my checks, I can’t understand it. So he heard my case about how faithful I was. “Yes, he has been faithful, but we just didn’t want him to work anymore. And they claimed I used profanity. I says, “To tell you the truth if anybody who worked for me used profanity, I would fire him right now.”

So this man judge he heard my story, and after about a month I got a letter from the state that I had won the case. So, I went down the following week to get my unemployment, and they said, “No, we haven’t got it yet, but next week you’ll get two checks.” So the next following week I got two checks. I said, “I have about six or eight checks coming.” She said “You’ll probably get a bundle at one time.” Sure enough, the second week after I went down after I got my two checks I had six different checks. And I think it was something like $30 a check. In them days, boy, $30 a check was a lot of money. 

Pierri: Did they give you a reason why they fired you? 
COHEN: I used profanity. That’s all it was. Well, in the first place Mr. Roberts, who bought Lipman & Wolfe, to me he was a Jew-hater. About six months before that there was a fellow by the name of Dave Wiser that worked in the sporting goods department for over 20 years and he fired him. And I know for a fact he gave him a lump sum of money to get rid of him. Mr. Roberts did that, and from then on he practically fired every Jewish person that worked in the store. 

Pierri: Nothing much you can do about that. 
COHEN: That was a rotten deal. I never had that happen to me in my life. 

Pierri: Where did you work after that? 
COHEN: After that I went to work at the horse races. After I lost my job there was a fellow there, he says, “Well, I have a job working in the daytime, Scottie, you can take my place at the horse races.” In them days I worked only two or three days a week, see, the horses. Nowadays I can work my full time. “You can take my job, Scottie.” He says. “I have got a good job”. Then I was working the dog races, too. So I took his job for two three days a week and I have been there for the last ten or twelve years, steady now, and at the dog races now. I worked about 25 years at the dog races now. I am still out there, going stronger than ever. 

Pierri: That’s wonderful. When you look back, how do you feel as a Jew living in Portland? 
COHEN: That was all right, as far as that goes. We never had no trouble. This has been a pretty good city for the Jews, I think myself. And since I have been here for 45 years, I have been here since 1911 for 64 years. Why I think they are giving the Jews a break here in Portland. All the people have been very good to us. It’s been a good life, because now I am on Social Security, and my wife is on Social security. She had a government job. She worked for 22 years and eight months and she gets a good pension. And I get a pretty fair pension. And we own our own home. And that’s why I say, “God Bless America.” It’s a land, that if you work hard and save a little bit, you are bound to get ahead in this world. I still say America is the best place in the world to live in. 

Pierri: Well, thank you very much. This has been a very interesting afternoon. Thank you.