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Show Joel Shapiro 6/9/82 tp 1 pg 5 thing then if you had to pinch pieces of paper together . I have memories of him pouring over ledgers ; everything was hand done . Each sale was entered in the ledger book, you know. I remember back in the 20's, when I was a child (of) 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , we didn ' t have typewriters . There were ~ypewriters extended at that time , of course , but little people didn't have typewriters because nobody knew how t o type. So , typewriters , that was a latter day thing . l suppose typewriters really weren't used until the late 20's by the little business guy anyway. I remember when he first got a typewriter. And somebody--I think my mother was the typist. She used to come down and she'd type. There was no difference in that little shop than many other s coast to coast, I'm sure. L \mat was the kind of income you're talking about then? JS ~ ell, I remember that during the depression in 1932, 33, when he almost went belly up, but he somehow--well, he was saved by the fact that my mother had stashed away a few dollars. And she gradually parceled some of these checks--the checks that I recall were $600 a piece. And she made these checks available, 4 or 5 of them, one after another, and took notes from the business for them. And those $600 chec ks saved the business. Over a period--that was a great deal of frugality. And I remember, at the depths of the depression, I can't verify this, but the number is very clear to rr.y mind , has been for many, many years. I remember my mother and Lad talking, and in that year, his income was something like $2400. That 's wi t h a wife and child and a business. You ask what the income was. How about the low level of ~2 400. L You talked about the difference between your parents . Did this create clashes sometimes? JS Oh , yes. Other than normal--meaning anything notable other than normal marital differences? Well, the bunts between my mother and father were not of personal integrity; both of them were extremely high in that kind of thing. They were, in some sense, as I mentioned , different people. She was a highly educated person, energetic, in some ways more worldly, more desirous of having some things. And he was more reflective. Very gentle, very soft spoken. He never appeared to be an aggresive person, that kind of thing. Her command of literature and language, of course, exceeded |
