| Fannie talks about herself
Fannie goes to work
[Q=Len]
Q. This is January 6th, 1978. When you were younger, you worked at the Central Market
A. No, at the Public Market.
Q. Public market. What was that?
A. Well, it was a grocery store and this and that. And it also had a meat market. My boss had the meat market. That's all I know.
Q. What did you do?
A. I was a cashier.
Q. Were there other big stores?
A. In Omaha, you mean? Yeah, it was a big store. It was a big market. It all belonged to them. The fruit and vegetable belonged to the Italian man, and the grocery belonged to Mr [inaudible]
Q. [Inaudible]
A. That's a different thing. Was at the YMCA. Used to go swimming or bathing out there, you know. So he slipped and fell and hurt his head and got killed. Nice looking fellow. Had a wife and kids. So I worked at the Public Market. See, this fellow I'm talking about had the grocery department. The Italian man had the vegetable and fruit department. And my boss had the meat market. I don't think there was any more.
Q. Did you work anywhere else?
A. Sure. When I started out, I got a job at the...no, I used to work after school for a woman on North 24th Street, and she used to make hats, so I thought I'd...when she was going to sell out, my father asked me maybe I wanted...I says no, because I'm responsible...no lady wouldn't want me to give her advice, you know. So I went away and worked at the Brandeis store, you know, for six dollars a week. That's all anybody else got, except, you know...if a saleslady sold a coat, a fur coat.
Q. What did you do there? Also cashier or...
A. No...the Brandeis No. I used to...the Brandeis store. What did I do there? Nothing. I worked in the millinery department. That's right. I was making hats cause I worked after school in doing that, and I went over there, and I said...I was a maker because the woman I worked with told me “You're a maker.” I was. I used to take one of those buckram you know, what they have buckram and cover it up with velvet, and I make a nice beautiful bow with the lining in it, orange. It looked so beautiful. I made it...afterwards I said, "Let me make another one." I sold it in five minutes. She says, "No, can't make another one." She's crazy.
Q. [inaudible]
A. No. Exclusive. This was...you know, we make hats and fix hats. Some woman would come in. She wants a whole garden on her. But she...It didn't work out that way. So when I made this...beautiful little... it was a beautiful bonnet. The minute I put it out in the window, a woman came in. She wanted it, and I said, "Five dollars." It was all right. It didn't cost her very much. But a hat like this at the Brandeis store would cost fifteen or twenty dollars cause it was all handmade.
Q. So you worked in the hat department.
A. You know, when I worked after school, I went away to the Brandeis store, and said I was a maker. Well, they didn't believe that I was a maker because a maker makes the hat from nothing. She makes the buckram. You know, and she shapes it. She does all kinds of things to it. And I didn't know what a maker was, but a maker makes a hat, which I did. But that isn't the way to make a hat. So I guess they kind of laughed at me. Max got me this job.
Q. At Brandeis?
A. No. What's the other...
Q. [inaudible]
A. No, no. Where they make hats. The department store.
Q. Oh, Brandeis
A. Brandeis. And there's another one there. There was another store. I forget now what they call it. Two names. Well...
Q. I...go ahead.
A. So that's all I know. I worked there too. Max was the sign painter there, so he...
Q. How old were you when you worked on these hats at this place on 24th St.?
A. Oh, Fourteen years. I didn't make it. I used to just put the linings in, you know, and whatever she wanted. But she told me to make certain hats, and they really were... Take, for instance, a wire. Put it together in such a way it stays perfectly round. It's a perfectly round...if you want it different, you kind of press it this way. In other words, you would take the material that you put on it, and you pull it this way, and it makes it oval, you know. So that's what I used to make. And then I made other hats too. But this was a hat that was really...it was a good hat that I made. Then I put a crown on it and then I would sew it together. And inside I put a lining. It was a beautiful hat. But you see on North 24th Street they didn't make such fancy hats. I was getting...finally, I was getting four dollars a week after school, which is a lot of money cause there was an another millinery store, and she wanted to see me, so she asked somebody to send me in. I came in there. She wanted to pay me a dollar and-a-half a week. I says, "No. I'm getting four dollars now, and I'm not satisfied." She says, "No, we don't want...” she thought I didn't know anything, and I didn't care to work for her, so I didn't want to say anything.
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