Bytes from the Bean by Joe Manning 3-14-9912:00AM / Sunday, March 14, 1999
On Monday, February 15th, my wife and I attended the 100th birthday party for Julia White. This was a very special day for me. Julia was the first person I interviewed for Steeples. That was October 3, 1996. She was introduced to me by Rose Thoresen, then an employee at St. Joseph's Court, an elderly housing community located in the former St. Joseph's School on Eagle Street. I immediately liked Julia. Though 97 years old at the time, she still walked downtown nearly every day, played bridge with her old friends, and cracked jokes at every turn. And she was a real flirt.
The day I interviewed her, I was very nervous as I drove up to North Adams, my tape recorder on the front seat next to me. I had never done anything like this before, and I wondered what would happen if she didn't have anything to say. Well, that was not a problem, In fact, I couldn't get her to stop talking. Frequently, she would lean toward me, grab my sleeve, and whisper a sharp comment and laugh. I had a great time and so did she. When I said goodbye, she asked me if I was married. I told her I was, and she replied, "Shucks, I want to elope to California with you."
Several weeks later, I heard she was in the hospital with a minor illness, so I dropped by to visit her. I wasn't sure she would remember me. When I got to her room, she was reading in bed. I stood at the door and tried to get her attention. She looked over, smiled, and said, "When are we going to elope to California?" Thus began a wonderful friendship that finally led to the big birthday party in February.
There were over sixty people at the party, including Mayor Barrett and Lt. Governor Jane Swift. Julia looked beautiful! I took lots of photos of her with her family and read part of her Steeples interview to the audience. There were some old pictures on a table, including one lovely shot of Julia with her two young sons.
Last week, I visited Julia and brought in copies of the photos I took. She hugged me and bragged, "I'm working on 110 now!"
Here is a portion of her interview in Steeples.
"My parents came to North Adams when I was ten months old. At that time, loads of people were leaving Russia because Latvia belonged to Russia, and I was more or less called a Russian. A lot of Jews were leaving because of the way they were treated. My father started a little shoe repair shop on Ashland Street. After that, he worked for Wall Streeter's shoe factory on Union Street. The building is still here, but it's entirely different now. It's some kind of an office building. My mother didn't work. I was the third of eight children. We lived on South Street and then on Washington Avenue. We rented a house with five rooms. My brothers and sisters had to sleep together.
I was a tomboy. I climbed trees and played baseball. Whenever the boys needed an extra person on the team, they used to come and ask me. I used to beat them at marbles. I ended up in business college. I got a job where they sold automobiles, and then I went to Adams Printworks and worked in the office. I was driving from 1925 until I was eighty-two years old. I was one of the very few women who knew how to drive back then.
I got married in 1921. My husband was Sam Levinson. He was very nice. He was in the tire business. We were both very community minded. We were a very patriotic family. I had two sons who were in World War II. After the war, my first son enlisted in Korea, and that's where he got killed. My second son came back with a purple heart. We were once voted Most Patriotic Family in North Adams.
When I was a girl, we used to go to dances that were put on by various organizations. We were mixed. There was no such thing as being Jewish or Catholic. We were all one family. We had two black people who lived on our street. They used to come in and speak Jewish to my mother. We went to the same school together and played together and rode bicycles together. We didn't care that they were black and we were white. We were colored, too. We were white. That's a color. They were very friendly people. You don't see it today. If there's anybody in the neighborhood that wasn't feeling well, my mother and other mothers would say, "Someone should take care of Mrs. So-And-So, she's got to go to the doctor. Go to her home and take care of her four children." And you know, we never expected to get paid. Maybe we'd get a cookie.
A few years ago, I lived right behind the library. I used to go over there day and night. It got so that I was going over in my pajamas. I still go there. I wanted to know all about our government. I wanted to find out how many buildings the government owned. So they looked it up, and they found out they have over four thousand buildings. I also wanted to know how many newspapers there are in the United States. I asked the Transcript, because they ought to know because they're in the business. They said, "At least a thousand." I didn't know the answer yet, but I said, "According to me, you are very wrong. I would say there are not less than five thousand." So I wrote to the government and learned that there are 6400. That was two years ago. And now, when people speak to me, and they're connected with a certain newspaper, I tell them how many there are, because I know.
I have a few friends, but if you get too friendly, all you do is listen to what their illnesses are, what kind of pills they take, and who their doctor is. People ask me, "How are you?" I say, "No complaints. Besides, who would want to listen to them?" I have arthritis in a very bad spot, my hands, and I can't write or peel potatoes. But I don't complain. Never.
Last year, I went to California. I used to go there twice a year because most of my family is there. I didn't know if my health was good enough for the trip. So I went to the doctor and asked him to examine me, and he asked me if there was anything wrong. I told him I felt fine, and he asked me what I wanted examined. I told him I didn't know, I just wanted to be sure that if I died out there, I wanted to die in good health. I've given my body to Harvard University, and they keep wondering what I'm waiting for.
Visit Joe's website at: www.sevensteeples.com.
Email Joe at: manningfamily@rcn.com.
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