I Have a Story to Tell You

Mr. Shano

Mr. Shano  Mr. Shano was born in 1884, and was almost ninety years old when I interviewed him in a nursing home in Montreal in 1974. It was one of his “good days,” the nurse had said, when I came to speak to him. A nursing home is not generally a quiet place to talk. Sometimes a lot of banging went on and sometimes music erupted from a piano nearby. There were many periods of silence during this interview, when Mr. Shano forgot the question or even my existence. He could not remember his wife or her name or where she had worked. I did not press him. At the time I felt he had earned his quietude. I WAS A SMALL BOY in the Old Country; what could I do? My father was already in Canada for four years. So I came here with my mother. Sometimes, sometimes, I can dream up something about what I had … I think I was instrumental in saving a man from being sent back to Europe because he didn’t have a place where to stay here. I was a boy then, going around selling newspapers here in Montreal and in the two-months vacation that we get from school—I went to school here—I used to go down to the wharf and onto the boats and sell magazines to the sailors and so forth and so forth. Once, when I was on the boat, I met a Jew who was to be sent back to Europe. It didn’t take long. I came down from the boat and I spoke to a man who was here, he’s a Consul from Mexico, a Jew—I forgot his name now—and I told him about the Jewish man who was going to be sent back to Europe. He didn’t take a half an hour and the man was gone. [Mr. Shano laughs as though he were part of a conspiracy.] That time I remember; but that’s not the question. The question is that he got free. That means I was instrumental in saving his life, from sending 73 74 i have a story to tell you him back! I was a boy then, going around with papers, you know—that’s about every bit of seventy years ago. These things you really can’t forget. This man happened to see me on the main street in later years and he recognized me. He didn’t know what to do with me! [meaning for me!] I remember I was born in the year 1884 and I remember things like in 1896 when Wilfrid Laurier was elected the first time to the government.29 That’s what I remember. I think it was in the month of April. I was selling papers then. There are a lot of other things and when I’m rested then everything comes into my mind. I went to school here. I must have been twelve years old when I left school in 1896. I had to help my parents make a living, so I went into the needle trades because I didn’t have anything else to do. That is plain and simple. I was working in men’s clothing—working in men’s coats.I used to sew sleeves. Later I was the head operator. I think we worked forty-nine hours a week. I started to work at 8 a.m. and we worked until 6 p.m. I was once going into contracting. In contracting you get bundles of work from shops, parts of a garment, and you are working in your apartment or house. But contracting didn’t pay me. It was no good. I remember I worked in a place called Solomon Brothers for twenty years. At that time I it wasn’t a bad salary—I think it was about sixteen dollars a week. I was considered the fastest man in the city! [I asked Mr. Shano to tell me how he met his wife, what was her name, when he got married.] That is hard to say. That is hard to say. [After a long pause, he continued. I asked him if he would like me to come back after he had a rest.] What would be gained by it? My memory is not so good … I think I can remember that there was a strike in the needle trades and I helped to settle the strike. What was...