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Show Joel Shapiro 5/26/82 tp 1 pg 23 I used to visit and play with, being in the 30's as a youngster, 10 , 11 , 12, was a large Mormon family-- typically large Mormon family . When I 'd go to his place at night, in the evening when the sun went down , I went into a kind of large house. He had about 7 kids , and these 7 kids were in all grades of school, high school down to kindergarden , I guess , at that time. And here they would all be in one room, the living room, with one over hanging light, and that was the only light that family could afford to turn on at night . And those who had to study, in high school or junior high school , would sit around this large dining table and the rest of us -- I wanted to shoot marbles on the floor -- we would huddle in the corners , away from those who were studying. One light in a large house for seven kids . Well , these were the depression years, and you learn to turn the light off. At first I didn't understand why. I rerr:ember asking my mother, "why do they do that?", and she had to explain to me they had to save every penny, so they huddled around one electric light. These people, in other days, huddled around one lamp. So , those were the 30 's, and I think that economic period had a big i mpact on who you were, who you thought you were, how you behaved. L By that time, did your father stop running around selling trunks? JS f"'iy father opened up, in this city, on the side of the Salt Palace on West Temple, in 1916, I think it was, a small trunk factory. He had sold trunks,and had been a drummer in the area, and he decided to sell trunks, and he opened up a little factory right over there where the entrance of the Salt Palace would be. L Can you see it? J S In my mind, yeah. Only I do not remember that place. L What was it called? JS Shapiro Trunk and Bag Company . Then, because of his Denver relationship, he had met my mother, and they were married in 1918. As I say, somewhat of an improbable liaison between a European yeshiva bochur type kid and a woman with fairly advanced education. It was certainly quite a venture for --those days. And conjoining of not like personalities, really, except, perhaps, I 'm sure my mother had found that my father had a love for scholarship and that kind of thing. My father was a gentleman -- |
