Helen Gundersheimer Glick
This interview for the Columbus Jewish Historical Society Oral History
Project with Helen Glick is taking place on June 29, 1986 at Heritage House. The
interviewer is Carol Skolnik.
Interviewer: We were talking already and you told me that you were born in
Columbus, Ohio in 1890, is that correct?
Glick: Yeah, I’m 95. I’m going to be 96 in October.
Interviewer: Okay, now where were your parents born?
Glick: In Columbus, Ohio.
Interviewer: Your parents were also born in Columbus, Ohio?
Glick: Yes, yes.
Interviewer: That’s very interesting. What did your father do for a living?
Glick: I went to Chicago when I was about 14.
Interviewer: Do you remember anything about when you were 14? Before you were
14?
Glick: I moved there when I was about 14 and went to school. I don’t know
how long I stayed there. I stayed there until I got married. I would have been
married about 78-79 years, but my husband passed away in ’62. I was six years
younger than he.
Interviewer: I see. Mrs. Glick, what was the reason that your family moved to
Chicago?
Glick: It was during the depression and my father lost his business and my
mothers sisters all lived in Chicago, and they wanted us to come there and see
if he could get a job there, see?
Interviewer: Okay.
Glick: That’s right.
Interviewer: Well Mrs. Glick, what kind of business did your father have that
he lost.
Glick: He had a grocery on one side and they called a saloon then, on the
other side.
Interviewer: I see.
Glick: Grocery and a saloon. It was during the depression that he lost his
business.
Interviewer: Okay. What was you maiden name Mrs. Glick.
Glick: Gundersheimer.
Interviewer: Gundersheimer, I see. And what was your mothers name before she
married your father?
Glick: My mother’s name before she married my father? Her name was Lehman.
L-E-H-M-A-N. Lehman.
Interviewer: I see. And how many brothers and sisters did you have?
Glick: I had a brother, but I didn’t know him. He died when he was nine,
and I was only four.
Interviewer: I see, what happened to him?
Glick: Appendicitis. In those days they didn’t operate in time and he
passed away but I don’t remember him, I was only four years old.
Interviewer: Were there any other children in the family? Did you have any
other brothers or sisters?
Glick: Just my brother and me. I came back to Columbus and I became engaged,
and I came here to visit and I met my husband here and I moved back here and we
got married a year later because his father died and in those days it was really
strict. We had to mourn a year.——
Interviewer: I see. Now I’d like to back up a little. Can you tell me some
of the things you remember from when you were a young child? About school –
anything particular that seemed really important to you?
Can you remember what it was like for you when you were a child in school?
What were some of the earliest things that you can remember?
Glick: I went to school in Chicago.
Interviewer: You said you moved to Chicago when you were 14.
Glick: I was about 14 I imagine. I don’t know exactly, when I moved to
Chicago I think I was in the seventh grade of school.
Interviewer: Where did you go to school in Columbus before you moved?
Glick: I was in Columbus. Douglas Avenue.
Interviewer: Did you know that school is still open?
Glick: It is?
Interviewer: Isnt’ that interesting?
Glick: I think it was on 18th Street.
Interviewer: I think so. After you finished at Douglas…
Glick: I remember the grade school was Forest Avenue School and then I went
one year to Phillips High School. I remember that.
Interviewer: That was in Chicago.
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: But when you were in Columbus after you finished at Douglas did
you go to a junior high school?
Glick: I was in sixth grade when we moved there, you know my memory isn’t
so good anymore.
Interviewer: That’s okay. Now, you told me that your father had a grocery
business. Did your mother help any?
Glick: No, huh uh.
Interviewer: Did she stay at home?
Glick: My father worked at night. He went down to the store at night.
Interviewer: What did he do during the daytime.
Glick: Well, he had to sleep because he had to go to work at 12:00 at night.
Interviewer: In the grocery store?
Glick: Yeah, grocery and saloon.
Interviewer: I see. What synagogue did you belong to when you first lived in
Columbus?
Glick: Oh, I wouldn’t remember that. Oh, Temple Israel, yeah. I’ve always
belonged to Temple Israel Sisterhood.
Interviewer: So your upbringing was the reform denomination is that correct?
Glick: Yeah, reform.
Interviewer: Can you tell me what your family life was like and your
relationship with your parents?
Glick: They were very good parents. Very good to me.
Interviewer: What kind of things did you do?
Glick: And then we moved to Chicago. There was four girls and we moved, and
then we came back and my father-my husband was in the clothing store on Mt.
Vernon Avenue, but he lost his hearing so he didn’t work.
Interviewer: Okay. I’d like to talk to you about your married life a little
bit later. But for right now, I’d like to talk a little bit more about what
you remember when you were a child. How did you and your family celebrate the
Jewish holidays?
Glick: They weren’t real strict. They went to Temple Rosh Hashana and Yom
Kippur but when they moved to Chicago the couldn’t afford to join a temple.
They were very expensive and my aunts all belonged but my parents couldn’t
afford to so we didn’t have any temple.
Interviewer: Did you get together with friends and family on the Jewish
Holidays in Columbus?
Glick: Yeah, yeah.
Interviewer: Were your parents strict with you?
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: Tell me what it was like when you wanted to get together with
your friends.
Glick: I had a lot of friends in Chicago.
Interviewer: Let’s say let’s stick with Columbus now.
Glick: I had a lot of friends in Columbus after I came here and got married.
Interviewer: So you don’t remember much about Columbus before –
Glick: I didn’t remember too much about Columbus when I came back and got
married.
Interviewer: I want to ask you this. Did you go to Sunday School when you
were a child?
Glick: I went to Sunday School, but I didn’t go to Hebrew School.
Interviewer: I see. Did your parents believe that it wasn’t necessary for a
girl to go to Hebrew School?
Glick: They went to temple, but we weren’t Orthodox, we were reform. We
belonged to a reform temple. Here they’re Orthodox.
Interviewer: Did your grandparents live in Columbus when you were growing up
here?
Glick: That I don’t remember. I never saw them. They died before I got
married I guess, I never saw them.
Interviewer: You never saw them?
Glick: No. My mother’s mother and father died when they were young. Very
young. They passed away and the four children went to work. Then they all got
together and helped one another.
Interviewer: Do you remember your mother staying home and cooking and
cleaning and taking care of the house?
Glick: My mother took care of the house, the cooking. We didn’t keep help.
Interviewer: Was she a good cook?
Glick: Wonderful cook.
Interviewer: Do you remember some of the special things that she used to
make?
Glick: Oh, she made everything. Made everything good, wonderful desserts, and
cake. She was a fancy cook. She’d take a tomato and make leaves out of them
and paint them with that coloring. A lot of fancy things and she’s very close
to a man that was the manager at the Neil House Hotel. She’s very close to he
and his wife. He married a gentile and he ran the Neil House. I don’t remember
him.
Interviewer: Now do you remember were they Kosher when you were a child?
Glick: No, they never were Kosher. Strictly reformed.
Interviewer: Did you get confirmed from Sunday School? Did you have a
confirmation from Sunday School?
Glick: Yes, I think I was in the confirmation class when we moved to Chicago.
Interviewer: I would think that would be right.
Glick: I remember that.
Interviewer: Now when you moved to Chicago, did you live in a Jewish
neighborhood?
Glick: There were some gentiles and Jewish people who lived in the apartment.
There were Jews and gentiles and my mother was very close to her neighbor who
was a gentile. I remember my father’s brother, I don’t remember him, he
married a gentile.
Interviewer: What was your father’s brother’s name?
Glick: I don’t remember.
Interviewer: Okay, now you were telling me the reason you moved to Chicago
was because your father lost his business.
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: And what year was that, do you remember?
Glick: No.
Interviewer: Well, if you were about 13, that would’ve been I think it
would have been 1903 perhaps? Before WWI even.
Glick: See, now my memory’s bad. I told you I was 95. I’ll be 96 in
October and my memory is bad.
Interviewer: Well, what we want to do is try to talk about the things you do
remember so if you’ve forgotten some things that’s okay. Now when you were
becoming a teenager and were starting to go out with your friends and with boys
can you tell me a little bit about what that was like in the early 1900’s?
Glick: When I came to Columbus to visit, my mother and I came cause my
aunt-my cousin Allen Gundersheimer lives here. That was my cousin. And I came to
visit them. That’s when I met my husband.
Interviewer: In Columbus?
Glick: In Columbus. I went back. He asked to marry me, but I didn’t get
married for a year because his father passed away. In those days they were
strict. You had to mourn a year. We got married in January. I remember January
the 7th.
Interviewer: What year did you get married in?
Glick: I don’t remember.
Interviewer: Do you know about how old you were when you got married.
Glick: Twenty three. I was engaged at 22 when his father passed away. So we
waited a year so I was 23. And I have two children, a boy and a girl. And they
both live in Columbus, both married and they have children. And now my son’s a
grandparent. They both have children. One of his boys is in the army in Norfolk
Virginia. They just moved him to Honolulu and the other boy works at the Glick
furniture company.
Interviewer: Okay, now I know your sons name is Albert. What are his sons
first names. The grandsons that you were talking about?
Glick: The oldest ones name is David and the youngest one is Bradley.
Interviewer: Now can you tell me what it was like when you were dating.
Before you met your future husband, did you have dates with very many boys.
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: Tell me what you did when you’d go out on dates.
Glick: I wouldn’t know now it’s been so many years ago but I if I do say
so I was popular and they said I was nice looking, had nice eyes and beautiful
hair and I had a lot of dates.
Interviewer: Did you go to Buckeye Lake for your dates?
Glick: That’s where we become engaged at Buckeye Lake on the Fourth of July
we spent the day, my husband and I, he wasn’t my husband then, that’s when
we become engaged at Buckeye Lake I can remember that.
Interviewer: What other kind of things did you like to do besides going to
Buckeye Lake, what other things did you like to do?
Glick: Where did I like to go?
Interviewer: On dates.
Glick: How can I remember that? I can’t remember.
Interviewer: That’s okay, that’s alright. How long did you and your
husband know each other before you became engaged?
Glick: I came to Columbus and we stayed two weeks.
Interviewer: And you became engaged in two weeks?
Glick: I had dated all the boys cause the girls here knew about me and they
had me all dated out. And I had the last date with my husband and it was on the
Fourth of July and I guess the next day I left for Chicago. He came back every
week. Every Saturday he came back to Chicago to see me till we got married. And
he’s been gone about 39 years. He had a heartattack. Wonderful, wonderful man
and I’ve got two wonderful children.
Interviewer: That’s very nice.
Glick: That’s why I’m living. Otherwise, I wouldn’t want to live
anymore because I’m not well.
Interviewer: I understand. Do you remember when your brother died. I know
this is going back a little bit. Do you remember anything about that?
Glick: I wouldn’t remember anything about him, no. I was too young.
Interviewer: Now I would also like to ask you going back a little bit. After
you graduated high school and before you got married did you work?
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: Tell me what you did.
Glick: I was a private secretary.
Interviewer: What kind of a place did you work at?
Glick: It was an office. One office. It was a firm in Chicago and they had
one office in Chicago and that’s where I worked.
Interviewer: Now at that time, did most of your friends, after they finished
high school go to work?
Glick: No.
Interviewer: What did they do?
Glick: None of them went to work. They were all well-to-do families they didn’t
have to. But that made no difference for them. I could see them on the days I
was off. Saturday and Sunday. I had a lot of lovely friends. We went out a lot.
I had another man that wanted to marry me, he was crazy about me but he was so
much older than I, my mother wouldn’t allow it. My husband was 29 when he got
married, and I was 23.
Interviewer: Now did most of your girlfriends get married as soon as they
finished high school?
Glick: Only one that I knew got married before I did. But I guess they’re
all married now and maybe passed away. I didn’t keep corrrespondance. They did
visit me, one of the girls. She’s gone, so I don’t remember anything else.
Interviewer: Now, you told me that you moved to Chicago because your mother
had some sisters there. Would you say that your parents social life was pretty
much connected to the family?
Glick: Well they didn’t do too much in society, they couldn’t afford it.
They played a little poker, small not much after they moved back to Columbus. In
Chicago my father worked at the Fair, a department store and I was with my
mother a lot because he worked nights not every night, but he got a job at the
Fair. That was a department store. I don’t know if it’s there. I remember
Marshall Fields Carson Pairie Scott. I remember Mandel Brothers, —- . I can
remember that much which is pretty good at my age to remember that.
Interviewer: I think so. Now are you telling me that your parents moved back
to Columbus after you were married?
Glick: Yeah. My husband brought them back here. Because I wanted my parents
here and he was kind enough to bring them back here. My husband helped them
along.
Interviewer: Okay. Can you tell me about your wedding?
Glick: About my wedding? I just had a family wedding.
Interviewer: Where were you married?
Glick: That I don’t remember. Yes I do! At that time, the hotel isn’t
there now. The Metropol Hotel.
Interviewer: I see, but that was in Chicago. Now it was just a family
wedding?
Glick: Yeah, a family wedding and a couple of my cousins, Allen Gundersheimer
and his mother came from Columbus to the wedding. Outside of that it was my
aunt, my aunt gave the wedding, my one aunt and uncle were very wealthy.
Interviewer: What were their names?
Glick: One was name Felzer in the —- business and the other was named Aaron
and he had a wholesale poultry place.
Interviewer: And which sisters of your mother were they married to?
Glick: Her sisters were all married.
Interviewer: What were your aunts names who gave you the wedding?
Glick: I told you Felzer and Aaron.
Interviewer: What about their first name, do you remember that?
Glick: Yeah, Sandy, Aaron Felzer and Ida Felzer.
Interviewer: That’s very good. Thank you.
Glick: They’re gone, they’re all gone.
Interviewer: Now did you have a morning wedding? Or and afternoon wedding? Or
an evening wedding?
Glick: We had a dinner.
Interviewer: An evening wedding.
Glick: Evening wedding, a dinner. And we went to Frenchlick on our honeymoon,
I remember that.
Interviewer: You do. How long did you go for your honeymoon?
Glick: How long? Oh, we were gone a couple of weeks.
Interviewer: That’s a very nice honeymoon. Very nice. What did you do
there?
Glick: Where?
Interviewer: At Frenchlick. What time of year were you married? Could you be
outside a lot?
Glick: Where did I say Frenchlick. That’s in Columbus isn’t it?
Interviewer: I’m not sure. Indiana. It’s in Indiana.
Glick: Well, I don’t remember the name of the hotel where we got married,
we got married at Metropol but I don’t remember anything else.
Interviewer: Okay. What month were you married in?
Glick: January.
Interviewer: I see. So it was pretty cold.
Glick: Yeah. January the 7th.
Interviewer: Now, when you were married, did you go back to Chicago to live
or did you come to Columbus right away.
Glick: Right away. His folks lived in Columbus, he lived in Columbus. We came
right back here.
Interviewer: And what business did your husband have again?
Glick: My husband had a clothing store.
Interviewer: What was the name of it?
Glick: I don’t remember. Climax.
Interviewer: How do you spell that?
Glick: C-L-I-M-A-X. Climax. I remember that.
Interviewer: Was it men’s clothing only?
Glick: Yeah. A men’s shop. Boys, children and mens shop.
Interviewer: After you were first married, did you have a job or did you stay
home?
Glick: I didn’t have a job right away. Then when I got married of course I
moved to Columbus. I didn’t work here.
Interviewer: So you didn’t help your husband in the clothing business, you
stayed home.
Glick: Yeah, after I was married I didn’t work.
Interviewer: Okay, and what did you and your husband like to do for fun when
you were married?
Glick: What’d we like to do for what?
Interviewer: For fun.
Glick: My husband like to play poker.
Interviewer: Did you enjoy poker also?
Glick: No. I played bridge. Wisk. In those days they called it Wisk. Today it’s
bridge.
Interviewer: Would that be how you’d spend a Saturday evening? Playing
cards?
Glick: Yeah. Played on Saturday night.
Interviewer: And the women played wisk and the men played poker?
Glick: Yeah, both of them. We had a lot of friends in Columbus, they’re all
gone. So many, many friends. They’re all gone. I haven’t got a friend
living. Everyone’s gone but one friend that I didn’t see too often that I’m
close to her now, I don’t see her too often cause I live at the Heritage House
and she lives at the Park Towers and she’s got a bad leg. She can’t run
around.
Interviewer: What’s her name?
Glick: Guggenheim.
Interviewer: I see.
Glick: I had another friend. Oh, I had a lot of friends, I can’t remember
all their names. A lot of good friends. Lot of them. I had about, oh I couldn’t
tell you how many husbands and wives altogether. I had friends in New York and I
had friends in Chicago, friends in Columbus. I always had a good time as a young
girl and that’s when I got married. My life was beautiful. I had beautiful
children. They’re so good to me today.
I don’t think I’d be living. Cause I have nothing to live for. I can’t
hardly see. I can’t see your face, and I don’t hear hardly anything and I
can’t walk anymore. My life’s ending hasn’t been nice. But when I was
married we went to Europe three times. I went once with him and two times with
friends of mine. So I’ve been in Europe three times. I had a wonderful life,
but now it’s all over. I’m old. And I cant’-they don’t have much
patience for me here.
Interviewer: We’re not here to talk about that. There is something I just
thought of I’d like to ask you. Do you remember what it was like in the late
1800’s and the early 1900’s?
Tape blanked out
Interviewer: Since you are probably one the small percentage of Jewish people
who was born in this country. And I would like to know what you might remember
about the time when a lot of Jews started moving to this country from Russia and
eastern Europe.
Glick: My grandparent’s were born in Germany, and my parents were born in
Columbus.
Interviewer: Do you remember what it was like when you were already here,
that many other Jewish people were moving to the United States from Russia and
from eastern Europe?
Glick: No, I don’t know anything about Russia. None of my friends-they all
were born in different places–
Interviewer: They were all German Jews?
Glick: Well, not all I guess some of them maybe. Their parents maybe were
German. But the girls I went with were reform Jews. That’s all I can tell ya.
Interviewer: So you didn’t have very much contact with the Russian and
European Jews?
Glick: No.
Interviewer: What did you think about them?
Glick: The girls I went with, they weren’t born in Russia so they didn’t
know anything about it.
Interviewer: So you didn’t have very much contact with them.
Glick: No, none of them knew much about it. Their parents were born in Russia
but they didn’t remember either. We were all reform.
Interviewer: Did you think they were different from the people of German
background?
Glick: Yeah, but the Orthodox eating is entirely different. And their
religion is different. Their holidays are-they have Rush Hashanah and Yom Kippur
but outside of that none of us were terribly religious. We went to temple, but
we weren’t real religious like some. And we ate everything, and of course now
I’m in a place that’s Orthodox where they have nothing but Kosher food.
Interviewer: I wanted to just back up a little bit. I wanted to ask you after
you graduated from high school, you told me you went to work in an office.
Glick: When I graduated from high school?
Interviewer: When you first graduated from high school and you told me you
worked in an office, did you continue to live at home with your parents?
Glick: I lived at home with my parents. I always lived with my parents. They
were very good to me. I had a good mother and father.
Interviewer: Now, did you help your parents financially since you were
working?
Glick: Yes. I only kept a couple dollars for me, I gave the rest that I
earned to my parents. They were good to me and I was good to them. And my
husband was very good to them after they moved here.
Interviewer: Now, another thing we didn’t talk about is, what did your
father do in Chicago? What kind of work did he..
Glick: He worked, I told you, at the Fair, a department store like the Boston
Store here.
Interviewer: In Chicago, I see. Alright, you were back in Columbus and you
were married and your husband helped move your parents.
Glick: Yeah, very good to my parents.
Interviewer: Did you and your husband live with your parents?
Glick: No.
Interviewer: Or did they live with you?
Glick: No, he got them an apartment here on Oak Street, 18th and
Oak. And they had a nice little apartment.
Interviewer: That’s nice. And where did you and your husband live when you
first came back here?
Glick: When I first got here we went to the Southern Hotel for about a month
until we had an apartment that was just built in Chicago. We lived in nothing
but apartments. Then we lived in the house. So when I came here I lived on the
east side.
Interviewer: Do you remember what street? Or the address where you lived when
you first moved back here with your husband.
Glick: I don’t know, I think around 17th or 18th, I
don’t remember. In an apartment. We lived in an upper apartment. A family
upstairs, a family downstairs. They had a nice-they were very comfortable. My
mother was a wonderful cook, a baker. Taught me how to do everything. They said
I was a good cook and baker.
Interviewer: What was your favorite kinds of things to cook and to bake?
Glick: Oh, in those days I don’t remember. When I got married I liked rib
roasts, steaks and things like that. Folks couldn’t afford that kind of meat.
We had pot roast. We had good meals and healthy meals. I had a good life.
Interviewer: I know that you have. Now when your parents moved to Columbus,
were you pretty close with them?
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: So you saw a lot of them?
Glick: I was very close to my parents. Always.
Interviewer: Did you go over to their home for Shabbat dinner or Sunday
nights?
Glick: We use to go shopping together. I had a car. I took her to the market,
you know the old market here? I did everything I could for them, I have no
regrets.
Interviewer: Now, did you go to their home for dinner sometimes?
Glick: Oh yeah.
Interviewer: Was that usually on Shabbat or Sunday or when?
Glick: Yeah, I use to go sometimes on Friday. Any night and Friday night.
Interviewer: You mentioned that you and your husband only knew each other for
about two weeks.
Glick: Huh?
Interviewer: You mentioned you and your husband knew each other only for
about two weeks when you became engaged.
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: Was that pretty common among other people you knew?
Glick: Well, I don’t know. They were all single when I got married.
Interviewer: When you were dating, how did you meet the boys you went out
with?
Glick: I told you we went to Buckeye Lake. Spent the day there, we went for
lunch and dinner. On the way home, he had a car and it had an initial on the way
home he said to me, you won’t have to change your last name. My name was
Gundersheimer and his was Glick. And that’s when he proposed/I’m proposing
to you. That’s how it happened.
Interviewer: Well, what I mean is…
Glick: Then I saw him every weekend he came to Chicago.
Interviewer: Is that how the boys and the girls met? By going to parties at
Buckeye Lake? How did boys meet girls and girls meet boys back when you were a
teenager.
Glick: No, I never heard of anybody meeting their husbands at Buckeye Lake.
Interviewer: How did they meet them? Besides you?
Glick: Older people were there. But I don’t think – my friends met their
husbands in Columbus.
Interviewer: Now you were telling me you have two children. Is Albert the
oldest or the younger one?
Glick: No, he’s the youngest. He’s going to be 67 in November my daughter’s
going to be 71 in August.
Interviewer: What is your daughter’s first name?
Glick: Rita.
Interviewer: Rita what?
Glick: Manekin.
Interviewer: And where does she live?
Glick: In the – now she lives in Palm Beach, Florida. When she got married
she lived in Baltimore, Maryland. And then her husband bought a condominium in
Palm Beach, Florida and they’ve lived there about seven or eight years.
Interviewer: Now how long were you married before your daughter was born?
Glick: I was married about three or four years before she was born.
Interviewer: Did you want to have a lot of children?
Glick: No, that’s all I wanted was two.
Interviewer: I see. So you were happy with the way it worked out?
Glick: Everything worked out fine.
Interviewer: Because back in those days, a lot of families were large.
Glick: My aunt and uncle lived here, had a lot of relatives. Had another aunt
that lived here. I had a lot of relatives I knew and through them, they had a
big party, Allen Gundersheimer’s, my cousin’s mother, had a big party in
their back yard. They were three Jewish families that lived together and they
had a lot of boys and girls. That’s when I met everybody.
Interviewer: What was the occasion for that party?
Glick: The occasion was for me because I came to visit.
Interviewer: Now are you talking about before you were married or after?
Glick: The party was before I was married. I came here to visit and they had
a big party and I met all the boys and girls.
Interviewer: And is that how you met your husband?
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: At the party?
Glick: Yeah, at the party.
Interviewer: I see. Did someone introduce you?
Glick: Yeah, my aunt. He belonged to the same crowd of boys my husband
belonged to. They had a crowd. That’s how.
Interviewer: Who belonged to the same crowd?
Glick: Allen Gendersheimer. My cousin.
Interviewer: Your cousin?
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: Now did they plan for you to meet or did they just happen to
introduce you?
Glick: No, they didn’t plan nothing. They just gave a party in my honor.
Interviewer: That was very nice.
Glick: I had a lot of dates. A lot of other boys, you know?
Interviewer: Yes, I do know. Now did you have a big party? A big -bris when
your son was born?
Glick: No.
Interviewer: Did they not have them in reform family?
Glick: No, I never had a bris. My mother didn’t believe in that.
Interviewer: Okay, and you didn’t either then right?
Glick: No.
Interviewer: I see. How was it different for you raising your daughter as
raising your son?
Glick: How was I raised, the same.
Interviewer: No, did you – how was it different in raising your daughter as
opposed to raising your son? Did you raise your son and your daughter
differently?
Glick: Yeah, oh sure.
Interviewer: You want to tell me a little about that?
Glick: They stayed with me till they got married. Both of them. Got married –
they met their wives in Columbus.
Interviewer: Where did your children go to school?
Glick: They went to Bexley High.
Interviewer: You were telling me that you and your husband first lived on 17th
or 18th. Where did you move after that?
Glick: We lived there, then we moved into an apartment on the same street, in
an apartment until we bought a house on Fair Avenue. It was being built. We
moved on Fair Avenue and then after that he passed away. Went to the Broadwyn
apartments and that’s where he past away, and after he died I moved to the
Park Towers? You know where that is?
Interviewer: Yes, I do.
Glick: I lived there nine years, then I came to the Heritage House. I wasn’t
able to keep house anymore.
Interviewer: I see. Where were you living when your daughter Rita was born?
Glick: I think both of them were born-I don’t remember if they were born at
the apartment-no-yeah I think they were born at the Broadwyn apartments.
Interviewer: Where were the Broadwyn apartments.
Glick: 18th and Oak.
Interviewer: I see. Where did your children go to elementary school?
Glick: I told you they went to Bexley High. Bexley. Both grade school and
high school. It’s still there.
Interviewer: Okay. Your children or you?
Glick: They both went to Bexley High and they had a first grade school up
into high school but they had another building for high school. And they both
graduated from Bexley High.
Interviewer: Okay. It sounds to me then, that your husband was very
successful in his business.
Glick: Huh?
Interviewer: It sounds as if your husband was pretty successful in his
business.
Glick: Was he what?
Interviewer: Did your husband become pretty successful in his business?
Glick: He was in business with his father when his father was living. When
his father died, the business was willed to him.
Interviewer: I see. Would you say that you and your husband had a pretty
comfortable life.
Glick: He was comfortable, yeah. He made a nice living.
Interviewer: So you mentioned you were able to go to Europe?
Glick: Yeah, later on.
Interviewer: Later on. And you were able to buy a nice house?
Glick: I only went to Europe with him once. After he passed away I went a
couple more times with some of my girlfriends.
Interviewer: Now, did your son have a barmitzvah?
Glick: Oh yeah-no. No.
Interviewer: Reform, you didn’t have barmitzvah?
Glick: No, they both went to Temple. Confirmed in Temple. No barmitzvah.
Interviewer: How would you describe your family life with you, your husband
and your two children?
Glick: Wonderful.
Interviewer: Wonderful. What were the kinds of things that you did as a
family?
Glick: Well, I told you after I got married we lived in an apartment.
Interviewer: Well, let me tell you what I was thinking. I know when my
children were young, we took them to the movie and we took them to the zoo, and
on picnics. What did you do?
Glick: We did the same thing.
Interviewer: Same kinds of things.
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: I see.
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: Now, did they go to Sunday School?
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: They did.
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: Okay. I’d like to ask you do you remember what it was like
during WWI and how it affected you?
Glick: No.
Interviewer: Okay, what about during the depression. Was it difficult for
your husband to run his business?
Glick: All my friends went to Temple and they all, I guess, I don’t know
whether confirmed but they all went to Temple. We all belonged to the — Bryden
Road Temple at that time. I don’t know where it was on. I think 18th
Street. Then they built a big temple out east. My folks were gone then. But I
still belonged to that Temple. Bryden Road.–Temple Israel.
Interviewer: Now how often did you go to Temple?
Glick: With my husband we went every Friday night. But I don’t go to Temple
now anymore. I’m not able to.
Interviewer: Do you remember what it was like for you and your husband’s
business during the depression?
Glick: Things were bad with him and he went into the Glick furniture company
store. He sold his business and worked at the Glick Furniture Store.
Interviewer: Why did he sell his business?
Glick: It was in the depression. Things were bad. He had —his trade was all
market trade and colored. Like that.
Interviewer: I see. I understand. Now did you tell me that his brother had
Glick’s Furniture?
Glick: No, no. My cousin owned the Fashion. He worked for him at the Fashion.
Interviewer: Your husband worked at the Fashion?
Glick: No, no. My husband didn’t work at the Fashion. I told you he went
into the Glick Furniture Company and worked there.
Interviewer: Who owned Glick’s Furniture when your husband went to work
there?
Glick: His father and mother.
Interviewer: I see. Did he have brothers in the business too?
Glick: He had three sisters and a brother.
Interviewer: I see. Was his brother in the business or his brother-in-laws?
Glick: No, they all got married and moved out of town.
Interviewer: I see. So your husband went and he learned the furniture
business?
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: How was it for you and your children when your husband had to
sell the clothing business?
Glick: Everything was okay.
Interviewer: It was okay.
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: Were you frightened about the new business?
Glick: No.
Interviewer: Okay, there was something else I wanted to ask you, oh, I know.
Do you remember about what it was like when your parents passed away?
Glick: When my parents passed away? Well, I felt bad about losing them. Life
has to go on.
Interviewer: Who died first your father or your mother?
Glick: My mother.
Interviewer: Your mother. How old was she do you remember?
Glick: I think she was about 79, my father was about 80.
Interviewer: I see. And did your father continue to live alone after your
mother died?
Glick: No, he came to live with us.
Interviewer: I see. And how long did he live with you?
Glick: Until he died, I don’t know how long.
Interviewer: Was your mother sick for a long time before she died?
Glick: No, she had cancer of the breast.
Interviewer: I see. And was your father able to care of her at home?
Glick: Yeah. My husband had a maid for them once a week to clean everything.
She didn’t have much to do, just the two of them and he helped. Yeah, he
couldn’t hear, and he didn’t work anymore.
Interviwer: What kind of things did you personally do for your parents as
they became older?
Glick: We kept them.
Interviewer: Did your mother and father ever live with you?
Glick: For a long time. My mother had a little money and she used it. I can’t
remember now a lot of things that happened.
Interviewer: I think you’re doing fine Mrs. Glick.
Glick: Yeah, are there many more questions I’m getting tired.
Interviewer: Would you like to take a break and maybe get something to drink?
Glick: No. Huh huh.
Interviewer: Do you want to just stop for now?
Glick: Yeah, is it all over with?
Interviewer: Well, I would like to talk more but if you’re tired, maybe I
could come another time.
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: I understand.
Glick: Yeah, I’m tired.
Interviewer: Okay, I’m going to turn it off.
Glick: Okay.
Interviewer: Okay, we’re going to continue. This is July 13, 1986.
Interviewer: Okay, Mrs. Glick. The reason I wanted to come back today was we
talked about a lot of things in your life and one thing it would be nice to do
today would be for you to tell me if you remember some interesting stories.
Things that you will always remember from when you were a child or your
courtship.
Glick: Well, my memory isn’t good anymore.
Interviewer: I know that, but are there some things that you do remember that
would be interesting?
Glick: I had a very wonderful mother and father, an ideal husband and
wonderful children.
Interviewer: Are there any special stories that you would like to tell me?
Glick: I’m not well today anymore. I’m going to be 96 in October.
Interviewer: I know, that’s wonderful.
Glick: I don’t think it is. It’s too long to live.
Interviewer: Too long to live.
Glick: Yeah.
Interviewer: Do you remember any special stories, I know you don’t remember
everything, but anything special about when you were raising your children, or
when you were a child, or going to school, or about your friends. Things like
that.
Glick: Well, I raised two children, a boy and a girl and I had no trouble
with them at all. Rita, my daughter, was a little harder to raise than Albert.
Interviewer: Tell me about that.
Glick: Well Albert was very easy to raise, but she was a little bit harder.
Interviewer: How was she harder?
Glick: Huh?
Interviewer: How was she harder?
Glick: Well, when she was little she cried a lot and Albert never did. But
she’s wonderful today. She lost her husband and she’s got another gentleman
friend that’s very good to her. They go out to dinner a lot and she’s very
happy. And Albert’s very happy he’s got a good wonderful wife and he’s
very happy. He’s got two children, he’s a grandpa now. Two boys. And the
boys each one had a baby, and each one had a girl.
Interviewer: That’s very nice.
Glick: Uh-huh. Yeah. And he’s very happy. His marriage is about 10 years,
and they have a nice home. Albert’s awfully good to me. And Rita calls me
every Sunday. I talked to her this morning. She’s going away the end of the
week. For three weeks she’ll be gone.
Interviewer: I’d like to ask you Mrs. Glick, how was raising your daughter
and your son, different from the way you were raised?
Glick: Well, I had a wonderful mother, but she was very strict with me and my
husband was strict with his children. I wasn’t. They could walk over me. But
he was very strict with them.
Interviewer: When you say your mother was strict with you, tell me in what
ways was she strict.
Glick: In what ways she was what?
Interviewer: Strict.
Glick: She never neglected me, she was good to me.
Interviewer: What did she do or say to you that was strict?
Glick: Oh, I had to go to work. My father lost his job in Columbus, and her
three sisters lived in Chicago and they were very wonderful to my mother and
father and me. I had a wonderful family. Aunts and uncles. I had two lovely
aunts that lived here. I came here and I was a young girl, I think I was 22 when
I came to visit. I lived in Chicago at the time and the last date I had, some of
the girls had me all dated up, I was here two weeks and the last date I had, who
was my husband then, he took me out to Buckeye Lake and we spent the whole day
there. For lunch and for dinner and on the way home he proposed to me. I only
knew him for a few hours.
Interviewer: You told me that and I think that’s wonderful. If you could
look back, what are the most special things that you remember that you haven’t
told me all ready. What are some of the most special things in your life that
you can remember.
Glick: Well, I had a lot of boyfriends, we use to go out every week. Every
week, every Sunday we use to go to the ball game in Chicago. Then we’d go out
for dinner. I had a wonderful life. And I had to go to work to help the folks
which I didn’t mind. I was a private secretary and my work wasn’t hard. I
went to work at nine and I quit at five. And I enjoyed doing anything for them I
could cause they were good to me. I had a very lovely life.
Interviewer: We’re continuing on July 13, 1986. Carol Skolnik interviewing
Helen Glick. Mrs. Glick, if there was something special you would want the
people at the Jewish Historical Society to know, that was important, especially
important what would that be?
Glick: Nothing special. I told you had a wonderful life with my mother and
father and I had a wonderful life with my husband and I had a lot and lot of
friends, they’re all gone and I only know three people and they don’t sit in
the lobby so I don’t know anybody here.
Interviewer: Okay. After your husband died what did you do and what changes
did you make in your life?
Glick: What did I do?
Interviewer: Yes, and what changes did you make?
Glick: I didn’t do anything. All my friends and their husbands had most all
passed away. And we were together all the time. There was seven women on our
floor here that I was very – I got very intimate with them. They’re all gone
so my life now is empty. It’s hard because I was used to a lot of people and
friends and going out a lot to parties. We went out every Saturday night with a
couple that I loved. They’re all gone.
Interviewer: That must be very lonely for you.
Glick: Oh, I’m very, very lonely here. I just told Albert I don’t eat
hardly anything. Sometimes I don’t eat anything at night I’m so lonely and
when I get upstairs downstairs I sit up there from 5:30 till 8:00 or 8:30 and
they all watch television and I can’t see so it makes it very hard.
Interviewer: After your husband died did you move to an apartment?
Or to a smaller apartment?
Glick: Oh. No. We had moved. We were at the Broadwyn Apartments, do you know
where they- after he died I moved to Park Towers and I had a lot of friends that
lived there are still living there. But I haven’t been over there since I’ve
been here and I’ll be here nine years in October. That’s a long time.
Interviewer: Was it just getting too hard for you to stay alone-
Glick: Yeah. I had aids that came at 10:00 in the morning and they left about
a quarter till six and they all had husbands they had to get dinner for and I
couldn’t be left alone and I had three aids that came. It was too much for me
to cook to order to clean the house and do the washing and ironing. I couldn’t
do it any longer. I couldn’t keep house. So Albert thought it was the best
thing for me to come here I wouldn’t have anything to do. But I’ve been very
unhappy here.
Interviewer: Well, I know there’s no place like home.
Glick: It’s a different life than I was use to living of course Albert and
his wife are very good to me but they’re young and I want them to go and have
a good time and not worry with me. And I love my children dearly, but I would
never live with them because I don’t think it’s fair. Old people, young
people. I know they hate to go and leave me, you know, and they go out a lot so
Albert wanted to know if I’d be satisfied to come here and I said yes.
Interviewer: Now you had told me that your father came to live with you after
your mother died, is that right?
Glick: Yeah, uh-huh.
Interviewer: Did he need you to take care of him a lot or was he able to take
care of himself?
Glick: No, he was sick. We had to take care of him. He was sick and finally
we had to send him to the hospital. That’s where he past away. Now they had an
apartment on Oak and Morrison. The nicest little apartment and then mother past
with me, she had a heart attack. And then daddy came to live with me and he wasn’t
well. He wasn’t young anymore and so all my relatives are past away. My aunts,
my uncles, my friends. Everybody. I’m the only one.
Interviewer: I can imagine that that must be very hard for you.
Glick: Well, one of my friends that I was close to, she’s still here, but
she don’t come over here cause she’s got a bad leg and can’t walk the
distance in the hall here. And I have another friend that I was close to her
mother. I never went for the daughter. But I see the daughter now, the mother
passed away. And I see the daughter quite often. But she’s been in and out of
the hospital. She hasn’t been well. And that’s all I, and of course I have
two grandsons, one lives in he just went into the army and moved him to
California. He is family and I got a grandson and wife here that are very, very
good to me and they have a little baby for the first time. They’re married
three years, and that was hard for them. He works and she works. They finally
got a babysitter when she went back to work. And she’s very, very nice to me.
Very good. And I got a grandson that’s just simply out of this world. He’s
so good. So I do have happy occasions once in a while. My son comes over every
day for an hour. I look forward to that. And I look forward to a telephone call
from my daughter every Sunday and outside of that there isn’t much..
Interviewer: Who’s got dogs in your family?
Glick: Huh?
Interviewer: Who has the dogs in your family?
Glick: The dogs?
Interviewer: Yes.
Glick: Nobody in my family. I had them. My husband loved dogs. And Albert has
two wonderful dogs that I adore. Ever seen them?
Interviewer: No, I didn’t. I’ve got a dog and a cat.
Glick: Oh, the most adorable dogs you ever saw. They’re small and they’re
pure white with big black eyes. And the minute I get in the car they lick my
face. That’s a kiss. Albert says, give daddy a kiss and they kiss me. So I
have a lot of pleasure out of Albert and his family. It’s just that I’m
unhappy here.
Interviewer: Well I know there’s no place like home. I’m glad that you do
have a family you can enjoy.
Glick: Yeah, I had a nice apartment at the Park Towers. Nice bedroom, living
room, kitchenette and my kitchen table was in the living room. I had three
lovely rooms and bath and I loved it there, but it was too hard on me. I wasn’t
able to do all that had to be done. You know what it is. Washing and ironing,
and cleaning. And ordering meals. It was too hard for me.
Interviewer: I understand. Is there anything else you would like to say
before we stop or that you think would be interesting for someone to know about
your life or what it was like living in Columbus 95 or less years ago.
Glick: No, there’s nothing I could tell you. There’s nothing to do but
just sit around here and sleep and eat. If I could do something with my hands,
which I can’t cause I can’t see and I can’t walk and my feet are in
perfect conditions, but my legs, I have terrible arthritis so I can’t walk.
And I don’t hear hardly any more. My eyes are giving out. I think it’ll be
just a question of time that I won’t have any eyesight. And I worry a lot. I’m
a worrisome type. I worry about everybody else but myself. I’ve always been a
worrisome type. When I had a husband that was so wonderful to me. He thought
nobody in the world was as nice as I and I have a — I’ve been a widow for
thirtysomething years and I’ve had a chance to get married, but I never would
get married again.
Interviewer: I see.
Glick: I’d never get another man like my husband.
Interviewer: I understand.
Glick: So I had a beautiful life, but my ending isn’t good.
Interviewer: Well, it’s no fun to be sick.
Glick: No. I’m not well anymore. Last night I was up all night I told you
with pains in the stomach. This morning I had terrible, pains in the stomach. I
feel better now.
Interviewer: Okay, well I think then if there’s nothing else you would like
to say I will stop this recorder.
Glick: No, I have nothing else to say.
Interviewer: Okay, thank you very much Mrs. Glick. I know this will be very
helpful.