Angelo Lampus

Angelo Lampus and Helen Lampus
Interviewed by Shophie Quisling
Recorded by Arlie Sommer
Also present: Katie Quisling, Sophie’s mother

Sophie: My name is Sophie and I'm 12 years old and today is May 4, 2011, please state your name, birth date and where you were born

LAMPUS: Angelo Lampus, 11.27.24

Sophie: And where were you born?

LAMPUS: Portland, Oregon

00:00:19.5

Sophie: When and why did your family come to Portland, Oregon?

LAMPUS: My father was was working on the railroad, which would have been the north Pacific railroad and ah, that's why they came, then he left the railroad, then moved to Portland

00:03:47.1

Sophie: What was your dad's job on the railroad?

LAMPUS: Just an ordinary worker, nothing special, manual labor actually

00:04.02.0

Sophie: What's your earliest memory?

LAMPUS: My earliest memories? Of Portland or what?

Sophie: Anywhere

LAMPUS: I don't know

00:04:23.5

Sophie: What was your dad like?

LAMPUS: My dad was very smart, very good, very hard working, proud to be an American and ah, that's about it

00:04:43.6

Sophie: Can you describe your mother?

LAMPUS: My mother was a typical housewife at the time, hard working, took care of her two children, me and my sister and that was it

00:05.02.3

Sophie: What did she cook for you guys?

LAMPUS: What did she cook, uh chicken and rice and beets and a lot of fresh vegetables, always a salad things. Because she wanted to keep my father healthy, so she boiled most of the meat that was put on the table

00:05:59.6

Sophie: What was your favorite meal that she cooked?

LAMPUS: Favorite meal? Stuffed cabbage rolls

00:06:12.3

Sophie: What was your least favorite thing that she made you eat? Didn't wanna eat?

LAMPUS: Broccoli

00:06:25.0

Sophie: What did your parents do for work?

LAMPUS: What'd my parents do? My dad had a restaurant on MLK Boulevard, a working man's restaurant and we were open from 6:00 in the morning till 12:00 at night, long hours and very homespun food

00:06:53.0

Sophie: What kind of food, describe the food that somebody might order at the restaurant

LAMPUS: Say that again?

00:06:59.0

Sophie: Describe the food that someone might order at the restaurant

LAMPUS: Ok uh, Rib steaks, chicken giblets and boiled beef tongue, beef stew, chicken fried steak, fried oysters. We were known for our seafood

00:07:50.6

Sophie: Who was the chef?

LAMPUS: My uncle, my father's brother's name was Gus

00:07:58.1

Sophie: Who was the strangest person that walked into the restaurant?

LAMPUS: Well a longshoreman, he was Russian, and I remember once he came in and he was drunk and uh he sat down on the counter and fell asleep on his food, he dropped his head right into the soup

00:08:34.2

Sophie: Who were some of the other employees?

LAMPUS: Well, the waitress' name was Opal, she worked for quite a few years, and um there was a cook who worked for us for a long time, that's about it

00:09:03.2

Sophie: Did you ever help in the restaurant?

LAMPUS: Yes, I was a dishwasher, I'll never forget it, my uh son was a teenager going to Grant high school and one of his classmates said to him "You know my parents eat in your dad's restaurant and your dad is a waiter" and my son indignantly said "My dad was not a waiter, he was a dishwasher!"

00:09:38.6

Sophie: What was Portland's Greek community like when you were little?

LAMPUS: Very cohesive, went to Greek school every Friday

A telephone rings and there is some distraction from this subject

00:10:20.8

Sophie: What did your parents do for fun?

LAMPUS's wife Helen: Can we go back to the Greek community?

LAMPUS: Very cohesive uh, and we could speak Greek before we could speak English. And uh, just as soon as I would walk into the door, I'd speak English at school, but then when I'd walk thru the door was all Greek. And um, all my friends were Greek, um, except when I went to school I had Ameri--non-Greek friends. We'd call them Americans, unconsciously. So uh, that's about it.

00:11:11.8

Sophie: What did your parents do for fun?

LAMPUS: That's a good question, Helen are you listening? What did my parents do for fun? Work, work, that's no exaggeration, we worked seven days a week. Maybe once a year we'd go for about, we'd close the restaurant and go to Rockaway beach, and spend a week at the beach, that was it

00:11:44.6

Sophie: Did you go swimming at the beach?

LAMPUS: Did I go what?

Sophie: Swimming

LAMPUS: Yes there was an natatorium there and I think it's still there, it was the last time I heard

00:11:57.3

Sophie: When did you learn to swim?

LAMPUS: Right there, must have been about ten or twelve years old

00:12:05.5

Sophie: Did you take swimming lessons? Or you just learned on your own?

LAMPUS: I took swimming lessons at the natatorium

00:12:15.7

Sophie: Did your parents speak English?

LAMPUS: Sure, yes, very definitely, with an accent but they spoke English

00:12:25.5

Sophie: Did they know it when they came here or did they have to learn it here?

LAMPUS: Well they had to learn it here. In fact my mother was instrumental in having a lot of Greek ladies get together, there was a library about a block away from our house and she was instrumental in having an instructor come in and teach the ladies, her girlfriends to speak English and to learn about the constitution and uh, so they could become citizens

00:13:06.4

Sophie: Can you describe the house that you grew up in?

LAMPUS: You bet. It was right, a block away from my dad's restaurant and uh it was an old--older house, and my dad bought it, I guess he paid cash for it and um, he um he had remodeled, not remodeled but tried to get it to be more modern. And uh, the one thing I do remember is the bathroom was immediately adjacent to the kitchen so um if you went to the bathroom, everybody heard you in the kitchen. My sister and I thought that everybody on the east side of Irvington were rich people and we are average here, lower end people lived on Union Ave

00:14:36.3

Sophie: Did you have your own bedroom?

LAMPUS: Yes I did, my sister had hers and my father's brother and wife lived-- we had three bedrooms upstairs, I had one, my sister had the other and my uncle and his wife had the third bedroom

00:14:56.2

Sophie: Did you have any cousins that lived with you?

LAMPUS: No I have no cousins in---I had no cousins the United States, they were all in Greece

00:15:04

Sophie: Did you ever visit Greece?

LAMPUS: Yes modern day, relatively modern day, in 1972, 1988. I met my uh, my cousins there in Greece. And I had, I found out that I had 31 cousins living in Greece

Helen: Fifty-one

LAMPUS: My great grandfather, no my grandfather was the village priest in Greece

00:15:57.7

Sophie: Who were your neighbors, can you describe them?

LAMPUS: Who were my neighbors? Right next door to us was Virginia Ashenbrenner and her father and mother on one side and on the other side where the Marthallers and uh, that's about it

00:16:27.9

Sophie: Did you hang out with your neighbors a lot?

LAMPUS: No, well there were no boys, there was Virginia, and uh I didn't hang out with her, and I hung out with my sister

00:16:50

Sophie: Where did you guys go to hang out around town?

LAMPUS: Say that again?

Sophie: Where did you guys go to hang out around town?

LAMPUS: We didn't go, we just worked, really that's no exaggeration

00:17:03.8

Sophie: When you were a kid, how did you get to school?

LAMPUS: Well Elliott school was two blocks away so I walked to school, when I was uh, up to the age of 14, and then I went to Jefferson High School and I would walk to Jefferson High School from Union Ave and it would take about 20 minutes to walk to Jefferson. And that was--and sometimes, very very seldom would I ever ride a bike there

00:17:49.5

Sophie: Did the great depression affect the Crystal Cafe?

LAMPUS: Did it affect? Well we would have people walking into my dad's restaurant and not being able to pay and uh my uncle, my father's brother, would never turn anybody down, he would always feed 'em

00:18:21.6

Sophie: What do you remember about the great depression, how did it affect the Elliott neighborhood?

LAMPUS: To be honest with you I didn't know there was a depression going on. All I know is that we would drive down at night, not always, but we'd a ride at night, and uh, drive down Union Ave. or MLK and we'd cross over, um the bridge which is still there, the bridge being over-- no not the Broadway, no no, the one going over the freeway, where Hoovertown was. No it was over the uh, you know by Sears Roebuck, what was the alley? People had huts and makeshift type places to live, you know, shacks made out of spare wood and they would live in what is now the Banfield Freeway. Ya, that was Hoovertown I think. But it's, it's uh, the Banfield is now, as you approach downtown that's where it was

00:20:13.4

Sophie: Can you tell us more about that, describe it to us?

LAMPUS: They uh, they uh, would leave there during the daytime and go out look for work and they'd head back to where they were living and ah, that's about all I could tell ya

00:20:39.4

Sophie: Did you know anybody that lived there?

LAMPUS: No I don't, I didn't, they were below my station (laughter)

**Phone call interrupts for a bit**

00:21:16.4

Sophie: Who was your favorite teacher?

LAMPUS: Ms. Wheelern, W-H-E-E-L-E-E-R-N and Ms. Reese and um I'll never forget it that she would uh, Ms. Reese, uh, between the 1st and 2nd bell, when the period was over, she'd drill us on multiplication, ah, multiplication tablets. And then I remember once, that uh, during what we called auditorium, we were ah, taken into auditorium to uh hear King Edward renounce his throne for Ms. Simpson, remember that?

00:22:14.6

Sophie: What do you remember about that?

LAMPUS: Well I remember that-- I just remembered it that uh, they filed us into the auditorium and the auditorium was just a large room with folding, wooden folding seats and we didn't know what we were going to listen to, but we knew it was the king abdicating for the woman he loved

00:22:48.7

Sophie: Where your parents involved at school?

LAMPUS: No

00:22:59.8

Sophie: Why not?

LAMPUS: I think probably that they couldn't speak English well enough and they would be embarrassed to say anything, so they didn't partake in it

00:23:17.6

Sophie: What shops did you visit in the neighborhood?

LAMPUS: Well there was a shoe store, and um a flower shop and on Williams Ave. which was two blocks away to the west of uh, of Union Ave., was a small hub of shops, and there was a JC Penny's store there which my family shopped in and there were grocery stores there, but these were our store fronts and the hub of the community was there on Williams Ave. between Russell and Knott

00:24:06.7

Sophie: Did you ever go to the movies as a kid?'

LAMPUS: Yes, the Egyptian Theater, which is still there, it's a church now, and uh, this was our, on weekends, on Saturday or Sunday, we would go, me and my uh present brother-in-law, we would go there to see, uh movies, and my aunt, my uncle's wife, loved movies and she would go at least once a week and take my sister and uh, with her to keep her company. And uh Mr. Graper owned the theater and he always looked like he was angry at everybody. And that's about it

00:25:05

Sophie: When you say Mr. Graper always looked like he was angry, was that, did he own the theater?

LAMPUS: Yeah, and his wife was the ticket taker and it was beautiful inside

00:25:23.5

Sophie: What did it look like?

LAMPUS: You know I, just the other day, I happened to bump into some program on TV where it showed Hollywood in its formative years and about there was an Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles in Hollywood and I'd swear that Mr. Graper must have copied that, that uh theater because it's very, err, Egyptian mummies inside and pictures of death and so forth

00:26:06.4

Sophie: How many people could fit in the theater?

LAMPUS: I guess a couple hundred, it was a pretty good sized theater and it had a balcony

00:26:19.1

Sophie: Did you have treats at the movies?

LAMPUS: Did they have treats? Yeah, you bought the treats, yes you did buy treats

00:26:29.1

Sophie: What kind of stuff where they?

LAMPUS: Gum, Gumdrops and there was a, uh a restaurant in the uh, right next to the theater and um kids would go there and get soft ice cream cones after the theater

00:26:58.5

Sophie: What was your favorite flavor?

LAMPUS: My favorite flavor? Chocolate

00:27:14.2

Sophie: How did you meet your wife?

LAMPUS: Um, we knew each other as kids. Being Greek, we met in church, we met in festivities and so I've known Helen all my life

00:27:34

Sophie: Did you fight in any wars?

LAMPUS: Yes I was in World War II

00:27:39

Sophie: What was your job in World War II?

LAMPUS: They call them forward observers, you go, as in field artillery, and you go to the front a lines and you see where, where you're going to shoot your cannons, where the shells are going to land, if there uh, and you’re in contact with the Howlitzers, or the guns, and uh, you tell 'em hey, you're a little too far over to the right, a little too far to the left and uh, that's what I did

00:28:18.1

Sophie: Tell us about the Five and Ten Cents Store. It was next to your dad's cafe?

LAMPUS: Yes. It came for, uh, JC Penny, which was on the left of our restaurant was moving up to Union Ave. and Killingsworth. It was, it was a coming neighborhood, up there, and so they decided to move up there so, the Five and Ten Cents Store, which was on the other side of my dad's restaurant, came for sale and uh I decided I wanted to go into retailing. So I borrowed the money from my father and uh bought the store

00:29:08.1

Sophie: What kind of things did you sell? (louder) What kind of things did you sell?

LAMPUS: Everything. Um, what did you sell that just--notions? Uh, Pyrex ware. Um, pictures. Cheap jewelry, yep

00:30:09.3

Sophie: How much did TVs cost when you started selling them?

LAMPUS: Yeah, 2 or $300

00:30:21.1

Sophie: How did things change with television?

LAMPUS: How have things changed with television?

Sophie: How did television change things?

LAMPUS: Well television uh is uh is uh a new medium and so um now you get your entertainment is uh from the from TV and we didn’t' have any entertainment at home at all and um TV is become a marketplace where you can buy from TV and let you can let your viewers know what you have to sell and so you and you sell that way

00:31:06.6

Sophie: How about what was it like before TV?

LAMPUS: You mean in---

Sophie: Can you tell us what, like, your store was one of the first stores in Portland to sell televisions? Is that right? So what was it like before that?

LAMPUS: Well it was the five and dime. It was what we called the five and dime at the time and with JC Penney moving by my five and dime business was really going downhill because people were not coming in the area. Penney's was the draw and so with Penney's gone, I was losing business. So uh therefore and then television had come to the west coast and so I...one of my customers at the five and dime, her husband used to wholesale television sets. And she said to me "Why don't you go into the TV business?" And my father-in-law, Helen's father, said the same thing go into the TV business. So in an effort...so I didn't want to lose my 5 and dime business so I notched out a corner of the 5 and dime store and made it into a television department because nobody'd heard of a television being sold in a 5 and dime

00:32:47.7

Sophie: What kind of music did you listen to as a child?

LAMPUS: Say it again?

Sophie: What kind of music did you listen to as a kid?

LAMPUS: Opera. Symphony. And I still listen to that

00:33:07.7

Sophie: Can you remember your best friend?

LAMPUS: Yeah Henry Mann. I'll never forget Henry. We were all 18 years old. We had to register for the draft so we could go we'd have to go to the army and fight World War II. So it so happened all of us happened to go down to be in examined to be physically checked out. So we so we could go into the army. And so all of us passed, I think there were 4 of us, that had that had gone to Jeff together, went down with Henry. So all of us pass except Henry. And then we felt so bad for Henry. We went to his house to console him for flunking the physical. That's so funny! You think it'd kill him, this guy sitting home. Console Henry

00:34:24.7

Sophie: What was your first job?

LAMPUS: My dad's restaurant. And so um I said to my dad "You know, some of my friends have bicycle route--they have uh, they have paper routes" and so I said "Maybe I'd like to sell papers" My dad said "What are you going to do that for? You can sit here and work in the restaurant. And uh you don't have to go out and peddle papers". He was very logical

00:35:03.7

Sophie: Do you remember the Civil Rights movement in Portland?

LAMPUS: Yes. I wasn't close to it. I was close enough to it. Because there were riots. They started in, I think, the Watts Riots, in Los Angeles, and it creeped up the west coast and the riots came to Portland. And um they were rioting on Union Ave. and I had to close the store for temporary while the riots were going on. And uh we were ultimately we were firebombed, our store was firebombed, because they would, blacks would consider me, naturally because I was white, uh anti-black. And so uh I would be rioted. And I didn't have enough black employees. I think I had three women that were black and that wasn't enough for somebody. The ones that came after us were uh, were uh agitators. In fact, um, one of the sons of one of the agitators was just sentenced, not 'just' but 4 or 5 years ago was sentenced to jail or penitentiary for firebombing, which he must have learned from his father. And then another time we were dynamited, we were dynamited. We had our back end of the rest--or the store face the parking lot and uh, and uh, during the night, they installed dynamite by the back doors. And it went off and it tore out the back end of the store and my sons, my three sons, afterwards rushed down and, with another friend, and cleaned up the debris and glass that had blown out and we were able to open up again on time the same day. And it made all the newspapers. Hurt business. Yeah, destroyed our business really

Helen: Was that the first time you felt that we had invaded their territory. Or as his father had the restaurant there since 1930 and now a previous one Williams Ave. ever since he went into business. They felt that we invaded and the customers coming in, it was a huge store by that time, he took the 5 and dime and then enlarged on it on both sides. And his dad had retired at the time so he took over the restaurant, too. It was just destruction. Just complete destruction. And there wasn't a night that went by that the phone didn't ring and the police were on the phone because someone had broken. And of all the people who had broken in and stolen, not one single person went to jail. So, it was all the people who had businesses on Union Ave., and this is a very touchy subject and maybe I shouldn't even bring it up, but it just destroyed us

00:39:20.1

Sophie: Can you talk about how it destroyed your business?

Helen: Well because the customers refused to come down when there was ads when there was articles in the paper every day about someone breaking in and someone parading down the street, they were parading down the street, and bombing. And we were shooting and destroying

LAMPUS: Talk about Dean Hunning in school. Jim, I should say Jim

Helen: Angelo got a telephone call from a friend from Jefferson who was in with the police department, and he said tell your wife to get your son out of the school because they are going to do bodily harm to him today. And send him, have her go to Grant between classes, not at the end of the class, between classes. And so I got in the car, I went to school, I went to the office, and I said "I have to have my son come out" I couldn't tell her why. And she said "Well it's in the middle of the class" and I said "Yes I know" and they uh, so she called and got him. And my son said you know...well I say "Well I'll explain in the car". They were gonna do bodily harm to Jim who was a sophomore at Grant at the time. And because they had people in the school that were, you know, younger looking, and were, you know, were working for the police. So we did go through a great deal. And we survived in spite, but it was, you know, having a business, and people you know liked you and wanted to come. But they were afraid to ome. And you can't blame them. I would be afraid to go into a place where if you... on television and in the paper that's all you hear. Is all these fights and all this. And they burned a lot of businesses in the area. Other furniture stores had completely burned. They said our store would have been completely burned. The dynamite was not set the right way. And that's why it only burned, it ruined the back end. Had it been turned around, it would've ruined completely, would have demolished the entire store. There were furniture stores up on Killingsworth--Alberta that were completely demolished

LAMPUS: And Grandma Cookies, you remember? Maybe you're too young to remember. But we had a grandma cookie company. And so they had been customers of my dad's in the restaurant and they firebombed him out of business

Sophie's mom: Do you know what firebombing is?

Sophie: Like a bomb?

Sophie's mom: Maybe we should ask him

00:42:21.8

Sophie: What is firebombing?

LAMPUS: Well, they usually will throw a bottle with kerosene in it through a window. Light it and throw it through a window and it'll light up wherever it lands. And that's how they create a fire inside the premises and that's it

Helen: Burns the whole building if it's not caught. But I think, I think the part that really hurt his parents a great deal is the fact that no one invaded anything. They were there period. You know? From Williams Ave. you went to Union Ave. and had a restaurant, and that was it. It was a family restaurant. The neighborhood would go there on special occasions. And that was, that was very difficult

Sophie's mom: Can you remember what your parents said about this?

LAMPUS: No, I don't remember. Oh, yeah----

Helen: Well, we're not repeating what they said

00:43:34.2

Sophie: What about where the Nike factory store is now?

LAMPUS: What?

Helen: The Nike store. That's our property

LAMPUS: That's where our store was where the Nike is now. And uh, um we had made it into a warehouse where we warehoused people's belongings. And the wiring was so old that it just burned up

Helen: It shorted

LAMPUS: Shorted. And um the building was on fire and completely destroyed it. Completely. And so uh Nike was looking for a larger. Nike was located 2 blocks north of our store and so they were looking for a larger area so a mutual friend told them about "Why don't you go where the Lampus store was?' Which they did do, that's how Nike became our tenant. And their, Nike's premise is they wanted to help the neighborhood to revitalize. That was their whole reasoning

00:44:57.5

Sophie: Is there anything we haven't talked about that you'd like to talk about?

LAMPUS: Well there's all there's still hope for the neighborhood. It's very slow coming back and one of my sons knows the people at Nike and they were saying they were hoping that uh the neighborhood would come back faster than it has. They're disappointed that it hasn't come any faster. Bu tuh other than that, in driving up and down MLK, I see a lot of...there's a number of new buildings that have gone up. And what I can't understand is, and they're all storefronts that are empty, and I don't know who's financing this, that type of operation where you've got business buildings going up and they're empty down below

Sophie's mom: We have some more time that we'd like to ask a few questions. Can you think of more questions to ask? Anything that you'd like to have expanded on that we talked about earlier?

Sophie: Uum

Sophie’s mom: I'd like to ask a few more things. Where was your house that you grew up in?

LAMPUS: What is the house?

00:46:35.7

Sophie's Mom: Where is it? What was the location?

LAMPUS: 2740 NE Union

Helen: It's still there

00:46:48.7

Sophie's mom: Can you tell any stories that you remember from the Elliot School?

LAMPUS: Well one thing that I do remember now and I was thinking about it earlier today was that there was a policeman who was very well liked and respected. Mike Lillis L-I-L-L-I-S. Everybody liked Mike and he was the patrolman in the area. If I'm not mistaken, maybe still there, they named the park there on the just off Williams Avenue Lillis Park after him. Very well liked, very highly respected. And everyone would come to Mike for advice. That's the part I remember very well. And then uh

00:47:51.2

Sophie's mom: Did you ever go to him for advice? Or did your parents ever go to him for advice?

LAMPUS: No. No, no, we're self-sustaining. Ya know, everything was very...when we were kids, there was no trouble in the neighborhood of any kind. We were all homogeneous and my sister's best friend was black and I had a couple of good friends that were black, all from Elliot. You didn't think of any racial problems at all and then it all started really with the Watts Riots in Los Angeles. Where some of the fellas said "Hey we can do the same thing here". And I was not aware of discrimination. I was right inside of it but I was not aware of discrimination of any kind. It must have been, but I--

Helen: You had black customers

LAMPUS: Oh yes

Helen: And black employees

LAMPUS: Good friends that were black

Helen: Nice people, you know, the family people, the families that did care. Where it was almost like they had imported these people to riot--

LAMPUS: Might have

Helen: And in addition--and of course they got all the ones that were on the outskirts of their community and, and uh---

**Phone rings**

Helen: I didn't know who to call to tell them not to call!

LAMPUS: Well it was a pretty good school. It was an old school

00:49:50

Sophie's mom: It was an old school when you went there?

LAMPUS: Yeah

Sophie's mom: Which Elliott School did you go to? We were talking about this and weren't there two? Didn't it move buildings?

LAMPUS: Oh no, this was before that. It was on Kir-- on Russell Street. What's the cross-street? Kirby? It's MLK and then Williams Ave. there was a street between MLK--- Rodney! No, no, not Rodney. But it was the old school. And they tore it down. They wanted to make it into a gymnasium or a gym back of a school. Eventually. I don't know

00:50:50.3

Sophie's mom: So what do you remember about the school? You remember that it's really old

LAMPUS: I remember where King Edward abdicated

Sophie's mom: Oh that's right. Do you know who King Edward is?

Sophie: A king?

Sophie's mom: King Edward was the king of England and he was made king but then he gave up his--abdicated--he gave up his throne to marry--well he divorced---to marry a common woman

Helen: They put that program on the radio in all the schools because we were at Irvington and we went to the auditorium to hear him abdicate. And Angelo said they did it at Elliott. Is that what you said?

LAMPUS: Yeah

Helen: Uh huh

Sophie's mom: Sophie went to Irvington

Helen: Oh yeah. My sister taught there from the very school that she had--that she had graduated from, yeah. In fact she taught with teachers that had taught her

Sophie's mom: There are a lot there, I think. So, let's see. Did we get through all the questions?

LAMPUS: On the, um, the corner of Union Avenue and Knott was Irv Lynn Florist. And uh Mr. Lynn had--was a very successful florist but he had the first women's-- all-women's softball team and they played throughout, oh I don’t' know, must have been the northwest. And so he was instrumental in bringing softball women's team to Portland

00:52:47.7

Sophie's mom: When was that?

Helen: 30s?

LAMPUS: The 30s

Sophie's mom: So you were a kid?

LAMPUS: Pardon?

Sophie's mom: You were a child?

LAMPUS: No, I was older. No, no

Helen: 40s, then?

LAMPUS: Yeah must have been, yeah

00:53:02.1

Sophie's mom: And why do you remember that?

LAMPUS: Well he's right on the corner because I had to walk in front of his...his uh store to get home. Working the restaurant, go home, and Irv Lynn was right on the corner, so. And then one of his star employees was Clarence Walker

Helen: Became a friend

LAMPUS: Became a friend, and uh---

Helen: He did the flowers at our wedding

LAMPUS: And I'd---he'd come out and say "Angelo, Angelo, he has to go to school", I don't remember that

Helen: Uh huh

LAMPUS: Do you remember that? Were you there when he'd do that? I'd pass by to go home to eat and "Angelo, Angelo you gotta go to school".

Helen: One thing that you, maybe you shouldn't put this in, his dad's restaurant was a block away and if you didn't like what his mother cooked when she was asking about the food, if he didn't like what his mother, he would just get up and go down to the restaurant and order whatever he wanted for dinner. Would you think that's kind of a spoiled brat?

Sophie's mom: Oh you mean at dinner at home if you didn't like what your mom cooked...

Helen: Cooked, uh huh. So when--when--when she asked what were his favorite foods well he was very limited on what he ate at home because then he'd go down and his uncle was the cook down there and he'd have steak or whatever he wanted

LAMPUS: Couldn't have Olympia Oysters

Helen: Yeah they were too expensive

LAMPUS: The oysters were very small oysters. Delicious

Helen: They were the ones that had red something or other and they don't even have them around

LAMPUS: Cause I went to the army, came back from the army and there were no oysters. They disappeared!

00:54:58.1

Sophie's Mom: What do you mean?

LAMPUS: They--they quit making...Helen I think answered that. Why did they quit making them?

Helen: Because...no, no they didn't quit. It was just a bacteria got into them and then they destroyed the whole industry. And they were--they were just world-known for these oysters and they were just all-- they just disappeared they don't have the little tiny ones anymore. And I mean they were really tiny and they would just serve them with cocktail sauce. And they were on the spendy side as...now it would be for nothing, but during that period. So that's why when people talk about what they ate as children, it excludes him

LAMPUS: Artichokes, I didn't like artichoke either

Helen: Yeah, well that--yeah there was more things that he didn't like than he did like, so that's why he--

LAMPUS: Sounds familiar, eh?

Helen: Yeah, so that's why he was limited along what he could tell our---and his mother started boiling things as they got older because she thought it was better for them rather than to fry or to roast or whatever. She did a lot of boiled beefs and vegetables. So, anyway, that---that suited him--

LAMPUS: Really the hub of the area was Williams Ave. between Russell and Knott is where the action was. Banks, a couple of-- at least one bank I remember, but that's where the people were, not on Union Ave. when I was a little kid. And uh---

Helen: Remember as a child, going with my parents to uh-- that there was a meat market-- and the chicken's hanging up, you know, they were hanging and I thought if I ever grew up and I would never touch a chicken. They just looked gross, that you’d have to clean them out, you know, some of them were-- you just had to do everything. I mean it isn't like going to the store and buying a chicken now. Oh no, never. But you know, things improved as the years went by

LAMPUS: And a friend of mine, when I was going into college, made friends with another man that had gone. Irv Leighton. And um, his brother, his oldest brother, had a five and dime on Williams Ave. and Russell. And uh, we were---

*TAPE STOPS*