Papineau
 

People
       					 
GLAZER

Philip Teitelbaum's recollection of the Glazer family - summer 2007 (Also Strohl, Schwartz)
Interview with Harry Glazer - June 2008
 


Philip Teitelbaum's recollections of the Glazer family - Summer 2007

Philip:	Just one guy, I don’t even remember his name but his first name was Darby.
        D.a.r.b.y.  Jewish man next door going north.  First name, I don’t remember his last name. [Strohl]
        Then there was a family by the name of Glazer.  Mrs.  Glazer had more children, she had so
        many children, a tremendous amount of children.  There was David.  I remember him as very fair
        haired... Kind of reddish haired, curly hair.  He had a brother Abie who had a club foot.
        I know Abey did very will in uh… I’m not sure if it was office supplies or something.  He did very
        well. Sarah was a sister also.  And Bella, there was another sister Bella.  Anyway there were about 11
        or 12 children and I don’t remember the names of all of them.  I remember the father and the mother,
        I can see them.  Next to them was Schwartz.  Teddy Schwartz and Ruby Schwartz.  Teddy was a good
        friend.  Ruby was working and was an excellent softball player.
        And we used to go down to Amherst park, that’s where Amherst school is.  He used to play for the
        Cougars and they had a sweater with stripes going this way and on the back was marked Cougars, 
        and they used to play against a team called Sepoy’s.  Those sweaters were blue and yellow and
        marked Sepoy.  Sepoy I think is an Indian name.  Um… Schwartz.  Next to the Schwartz was the Wise family.

They lived on Cartier.



Interview with Harry Glazer - June 2008

On June 4, 2008 I visited Harry Glazer in Montreal. He lives in a beautiful apartment in Outremont. Age 83,
he still goes to work every day. Here are some notes I made during our talk.

His family lived at 6600 Cartier for 5 years, from about 1928-1933, while he was between ages 3 and 8.
He went to Amherst School and then Earl Gray. The Litvaks lived upstairs and I think he said they owned
the building. Abe Litvak was his good friend.

He mentioned the Fishman family who lived on Marquette near Beaubien and they were cousins. One of the
Fishman's, Hymie, is in his 90's now.
He also mentioned the Korzensteins and Irving Selick, Shefter, and the Wise brothers who had a clothing
store on St Hubert. He says they opened a lot of stores in eastern Canada and bought People's stores. He
mentioned Yetnikoff, who was a grocer.

He was one of 15 children. He was number 6. Sarah died about 5-6 years ago, Abie 10 years ago. Dave died
8 years ago. He was a cabinet maker and worked for Baron.
I think he said Benny and Rhoda had died. Bella, Irene, Eleanor, Leo, Phil, Henry and Nettie
are living. There was also Max.

During the winter, he learned cross-stich and made runners and tablecloths. He had a bike. He remembers
his childhood as a lot of fun.

I asked him how his mother managed 15 kids. He said every older kid was responsible for a younger one, 
particularly in the summertime. He was responsible for Leo. He'd take him places, like the bandstand
at Mount Royal where there was music. He was 12 at the time, and that was quite a long walk from where
they lived.

His father designed lady's coats and suits. He was from Poland. His mother and father met on the
boat on the way over.
His mother would pay a few pennies to Diamond Bakery so she could use their ovens to bake on Friday.

Harry had flat feet and so was rejected by the armed forces.
He got married in 1946 and has 2 daughters. His wife is no longer alive. His daughter Susan Stern lives
in Chelsea and is a speech pathologist, I think he said works or worked at the Children's Hospital of Eastern
Ontario. Her hobby is making silver jewellery. I think he told me his other daughter works in the dental
field, and lives out west.

He went into the import business with Abie, and at one point quite a few of his siblings were working there. After
a while the business couldn't support everyone, so some opened their own. Leo opened Cameo Import. Henry
was in electronics and watches.Thanks to his importing business, Harry made 60-70 trips abroad, especially to the Orient.


He told me there are about 100 descendants now from his parents. He has 45 nieces and nephews and most
have kids. He showed me a Glazer family reunion picture. People were wearing name tags!

He told me that the Epsteins kept pigeons, and his family also had pigeons. The Glazer pigeons would
sometimes leave and go stay with the Epstein pigeons.

He told me about a "tea man" who was well-dressed and came around selling tea with a horse and wagon.
A Jewish guy.

His mother would buy 4 quarts of milk, 100 lbs of sugar, and 10 bags of potatoes at a time.

I asked him how his father could afford so many kids. He told me he worked on weekends too, and that the
kids worked once they were old enough. Still,.his father had trouble with double vision and couldn't work
for a year.

I mentioned music, and he told me he'd always been a musician. During the war, his group would go around
to armed forces camps in Canada to play. They were called "Jack Heft and his Russian Entertainers". Since
Russia was an ally in the war, this was well-received. He plays mandolin, and has several Gibson instruments
including a mandola and mandocello. He studied classical guitar.



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