In 1941, my mother found a house in Bond Hill and really liked it. We moved there. It was also the same year that my grandmother Felson died.
When we first moved to Bond Hill, we had a coal furnace and a coal bin. Fortunately, it was a stoker. You could just load it up with coal and forget it. You didn’t have to go down in the middle of the night to add more fuel, because it would stoke itself. You just had to keep the bin filled and you were ok. Eventually my mother had the furnace converted to gas so that was no longer a problem.
Starting in the 6th grade, I went to Bond Hill School. It was a little bit of an experience being there. I was put in the lowest class because I was a transfer student. I think there were only two Jews in our class, coming from North Avondale where it was 95% Jewish. It was a little difficult. There was a fair amount of anti-Semitism in Bond Hill School. I don’t know that it was overt; it was in the language people used: “Those Damn Jews,” or whatever. You’d grow up and learn to take it.
Once there, I got involved with my next-door neighbor Joe Gibson, who was Catholic. I spent a lot of time with him, although he was two or three years older than I was. Through him I got involved in pumping gas and washing cars at the Shell gas station at the corner. Gas was about 12 or 13 cents a gallon, and with that you got your windows washed and your oil changed.
When I was 11, I also washed cars and caddied at Maketewah Country Club, which was within walking distance. I was probably the only Jew there.
I really didn’t let my religion be known there, but you’d hear a lot of things like “being Jewed” and you’d just swallow it and not say anything. There was a kid who looked a little Oriental there, and he was picked on and called “Chink” or “Chinese.” It was not really a great social atmosphere or one I wanted to be in for a long time. This was during the forties, during the war.
The Felson Family 