{"id":3714,"date":"2016-03-21T11:30:54","date_gmt":"2016-03-21T16:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lizzieborden.org\/WomenatWork\/?page_id=3714"},"modified":"2016-07-26T09:43:21","modified_gmt":"2016-07-26T14:43:21","slug":"constance-joan-waskiewicz-abdallah-edited-transcript","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/WomenatWork\/constance-joan-waskiewicz-abdallah-edited-transcript\/","title":{"rendered":"Constance Joan (Waskiewicz) Abdallah Edited Transcript"},"content":{"rendered":"

FALL RIVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Women at Work: An Oral History of
\nWorking-Class Women
\nin Fall River, Massachusetts
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/span>1920-1970<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Interview with Mrs. Alphonse Kalil Abdallah, n\u00e9e Constance Joan Waskiewicz<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Interviewer: (CM<\/strong>) Constance C. Mendes<\/span><\/p>\n

Interviewee: (CA<\/strong>) Constance Joan (Waskiewicz) Abdallah
\n<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0(AA<\/strong>) Alphonse Kalil Abdallah<\/span><\/p>\n

Additional Commentary: (JR<\/strong>) Joyce B. Rodrigues, Fall River Historical Society<\/span><\/p>\n

Date of Interview: May 27, 2015<\/span><\/p>\n

Location: Abdallah residence, Swansea, Massachusetts<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Summary:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Constance “Connie” Joan (Waskiewicz) Abdallah was born in Fall River on February 11, 1932.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alphonse Kalil Abdallah was born in Fall River on September 9, 1920.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Waskiewicz family<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Connie\u2019s father, Wac\u0142aw Waszkiewicz, and mother, Stefania Bukowska, emigrated from Poland to the United States in 1905. They met in Fall River and married in 1916 at St. Stanislaus Parish, a Polish-American Roman Catholic Church. The family lived in the South End, the Globe Village section of the city and worked in the textile mills. Connie was the youngest of four children, and had a sister and two brothers. She graduated from BMC Durfee High School in 1949.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Abdallah family<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Lebanese-Syrian communities in Fall River are predominately Lebanese and members of the Maronite Eastern Rite Catholic Church. Lebanese immigrated to the United States in the late 19th century to escape political and religious persecution by the Turks.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first Lebanese immigrants to Fall River lived on lower Columbia Street and in the Globe Village section of the city and worked as shopkeepers. Later immigrants settled in the Flint Village particularly around the Quequechan Street area and found employment as mill operatives.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alphonse\u2019s father and mother were in this second group of immigrants. Alphonse was the seventh of eight children, two daughters and six sons. The Abdallahs struggled through the Great Depression years. Alphonse, his brothers, and sisters, worked and brought their pay home to support the family. He graduated from BMC Durfee High School in 1938.<\/span><\/p>\n

Working for Har-Lee Manufacturing<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Alphonse and Connie were interviewed as a couple because they both worked for the Har-Lee Manufacturing Company, the largest cotton dress manufacturer in the United States. Their narrative tells what it was like to work in the garment industry during the 1930s and 1940s and the obstacles they overcame to marry outside of their ethnic group.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alphonse was a supervisor in the trimming department. Connie worked in the same department and managed the shop\u2019s inventory. At its peak, Har-Lee employed over 2,000 employees and was a union shop.1<\/sup><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Har-Lee Manufacturing Company<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Har-Lee Manufacturing Company, a division of Wentworth Manufacturing, was founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1901 by Russian immigrants. In 1934, the company moved from Chicago to Fall River.<\/span><\/p>\n

The plant was located at 425 Pleasant Street in the former Durfee-Union mill complex. The Durfee-Union mills, founded in 1866, were one of the more successful of Fall River\u2019s textile corporations and had an impressive group of large mill structures in the city.<\/span><\/p>\n

Har-Lee Manufacturing moved to South Carolina in 1957. The business was restructured by Gerhard Lowenstein, a supervisor for Har-Lee, as Lowenstein Dress Corporation.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. See \u201cLearn More\u201d for information on working at Har-Lee Manufacturing: Excerpts from a Diary of an Operator at Har-Lee, Fall River, Mass.<\/em>, Hilda Tanner Papers, ca. 1930s, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Martin P. Catherwood Library, Cornell University. at: http:\/\/rmc.library.cornell.edu\/EAD\/htmldocs\/KCL05780pubs.html<\/a>. Also, reference the link at the end of the Abdallah introductory material for the work process as described by Alphonse Abdallah<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \n

    Note: This interview has been slightly edited for continuity and readability; in order to preserve the integrity of the conversation, the phraseology remains that of the interviewer and interviewee. Italicized information in square brackets has been added for the purposes of clarification and context.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

    This transcript begins with a conversation with Mrs. Abdallah\u2019s husband, Alphonse, who spent a number of years employed at Har-Lee Manufacturing Company in Fall River, Massachusetts; the firm was, at the time, the largest producer of inexpensive ladies dresses in the United States. His notes on the Har-Lee Manufacturing Process can be located here<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n

     <\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: When did you start working at Har-Lee [Manufacturing Company, 425 Pleasant Street, Fall River, Massachusetts<\/em>]?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: See, um \u2026 before I went into the service [during World War II<\/em>]. I went into the service in 1942 [United States Army, enlisted November 14<\/em>] but I was there about three years before that\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: \u201839?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Yeah, \u201839.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: How big was the factory at that time?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: That was what it was, they had over twenty-two hundred girls. That was the worst thing to happen to Fall River, [Har-Lee<\/em>] leaving [in 1957<\/em>]. They\u2019d never had left if the girls that learned had stayed. But you couldn\u2019t blame them, they wanted to go to a smaller shop that would grow around them. And they\u2019d tell them, \u2018Go to Har-Lee and learn,\u2019 [where<\/em>] they were learning and teaching them\u2026. They modified, and the plant, you couldn\u2019t beat it, conveyor belts and all. And nobody bothered you, it was very, very, very nice. Um, all the years I worked there, I [was<\/em>] never criticized, never. All I was told was make sure the floors are \u2026 suppl[ied<\/em>] \u2026 and never [get<\/em>] behind. All the, um, overtime you need, take it. You need more girls, get them from there, different places. Never, never being criticized.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: Let\u2019s go back to the beginning.\u2026 Was it Harrison Street that you came from?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: There was Harrison, Flint, Quequechan, [and<\/em>] Barnard [Streets<\/em>], all this was [where<\/em>] the \u2026 people that came from Lebanon congregated\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: Tell me about your parents. They came from Lebanon?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: They came from Lebanon\u2026. [His father, Kalil Abdallah, was born in Beit ed-Dine, Lebanon, and immigrated to the United States in 1905; his mother, n\u00e9e Nazara Joseph Solomon was also born in Beit ed-Dine, and immigrated to the United States circa 1907.<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: Did your parents work in the mills?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: My parents, in the cotton mills. I went only once, I carried a …<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: Dinners.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Dinners for my Dad. Oh, this is not for me. You shout, you have to shout to see what is what. My dad, because of his health, didn\u2019t work too long, and in those days, I think all the family [helped out<\/em>]. See, I made $10 a week, I gave them $8 to the family, $2 for me. And that is what they all did, they gave [to<\/em>] the family. You had to do it in order to survive.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: You turned your pay over.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Even though we [his parents<\/em>] owned a six-tenement house [at 322 Harrison Street, Fall River<\/em>], the people couldn\u2019t afford the rent, we were paying for them to live there. And I said, \u2018Gee, Dad, what are you going to do?\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: Do you remember the mill your father worked in?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Oh, it was \u2026 Wampanoag [Mills, 69 Alden Street, Fall River<\/em>]\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: Were they up near Harrison Street?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: They would have walked.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: And I used to, my mom used to wake me up when I was in the first grade [at James M. Aldrich Primary School, 295 Harrison Street, Fall River<\/em>], wake me up at five in the morning, [to<\/em>] go to the local mills, wait for the engineer [with<\/em>] the big wheelbarrow [to<\/em>] empty the furnaces; we knew where he was going to empty them. And not only I, but other people, would be there with a digger, a potato sack, [to<\/em>] fill it up, put it in the wagon, and come home. And in those cinders were coal \u2026 which \u2026 was still good to burn. And if we didn\u2019t have any wood \u2013 someone would be wrecking a house in the area \u2013 I would go there with a wagon. Whatever they didn\u2019t want, whatever the contractor [said<\/em>] was broken, he would let us take them, and start a fire. And if there wasn\u2019t enough wood, we would get bobbins from the mill.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: So your mother was at home? Was she working in the mill, too?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: No \u2026 I was the seventh child.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: Out of how many?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Eight children.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: Who owned Har-Lee \u2026 when you went to Har-Lee, who owned it?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Oh my God, how can I forget it? What a wonderful man, what a wonderful man. All the years I was there, I never, never was criticized, \u2018Just make sure the floors are supplied. Take all the overtime you want.\u2019 [The \u2018wonderul man\u2019 he is referring to is Alvin Abraham Sopkin, the general manager of Har-Lee; he was the son of the company\u2019s president, Benjamin Sopkin.<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: I think that \u2026 someone else said \u2026 the name Har-Lee came from the family.\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

    [Har-Lee Manufacturing Company, was a division of Wentworth Manufacturing Company; its manufacturing plant was at 425 Pleasant Street, Fall River, and its corporate office and showroom was at 1350 Broadway, New York, New York. The Wentworth firm was founded in 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, by Russian immigrant Benjamin Sopkin, who served as its president. The Har-Lee division of the company was founded in Chicago by Sopkin and a business partner, Harry Lee, also a Russian immigrant, who served as its treasurer; Har-Lee was derived from the name of the latter. In 1934, the company was moved from Chicago to Fall River by Sopkin\u2019s sons, Alvin Abraham Sopkin, and Henry Sopkin, in order to take advantage of the city\u2019s abundant supply of labor and manufacturing space.<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: I don\u2019t know. They came from Chicago. [The company\u2019s president, Benjamin Sopkin, and its treasurer, Harry Lee, were former Chicago residents.<\/em>] And [on<\/em>] each floor was a young floor manager, and when I got there, they all took a liking to me. They told the big boss, the manager [of<\/em>] the whole plant [Alvin A. Sopkin, general manager<\/em>], \u2018Put Alphonse in charge, put Alphonse in charge.\u2019 And \u2026 what a wonderful man, [he<\/em>] came up to me \u2013 I wanted to learn everything, wanted to know everything \u2013 let me know, \u2018I am putting you in charge [as supervisor of the trimming department<\/em>].\u2019 At that time, they had two people running the department; one of them passed away in the war [World War II<\/em>]. So, when I got there, there was one more [man<\/em>] there, he wasn\u2019t too well, he used to be \u2026 mostly watching the girls. I never, never had to do that. All I did, all I got was \u2026 a lot of requisitions into the office; I had thousands of dozens. So that meant for me to go overtime [and<\/em> to<\/em>] go in the office, I go in his room, get the records and [would<\/em>] be sitting down and taking care of all the work. And sometimes [the manager<\/em>] would walk in at night [and<\/em>] he would smile.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: Good memories.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: He would smile [and<\/em>] look at me.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: I am going to go back a little bit to your family. Your family of eight. How many girls and how many boys?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Two girls [Josephine Kalil Abdallah, later Mrs. Thomas Joseph Moroon, and Izabel \u2018Isabel\u2019 Abdallah<\/em>] and six boys [Joseph Kalil Abdallah, Michael Kalil Abdallah, Albert Kalil Abdallah, Abdallah Kalil Abdallah, Alphonse Kalil Abdallah, and George Kalil Abdallah<\/em>].<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: What was their careers like?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: They all went to the shops.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: They worked in the shops? Tell me about that, where did they work?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Shelburne [Shirt Company, Inc., 111 Alden Street, Fall River<\/em>].<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: Your sisters worked in Shelburne?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Yes, my sister [Josephine<\/em>] worked in Shelburne [circa 1942 to 1945. From 1932 to circa 1940, she was employed as a sewer in an unidentified factory, and circa 1941 at Auerbach Bathrobe Company, 473 Pleasant Street, Fall River<\/em>], and one of my sisters [Isabel<\/em>] went to Har-Lee, where I was working; she was there quite a few years [from circa 1945 to 1956. She was also employed at: Stella Anne Frocks, 420 Quequechan Street, Fall River, circa 1957; K & G Manufacturing Company, 273 Pleasant Street, Fall River, from circa 1958 to 1978; and Tiffany Sportswear, 372 Kilburn Street, Fall River, circa 1979<\/em>]. When I was in the sixth grade at Davis [Grammar<\/em>] School [33 Quequechan Street, Fall River<\/em>], I used to go \u2013 my Mom would make a dinner for [Josephine<\/em>] \u2013 I would go in the wagon, and go and do lunch hour, take it to her, and she would give me ten cents a week.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: To bring the lunch\u2026. How about your brothers? What happened to them?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: One of them [Michael<\/em>] worked for Nasiff Fruit [395 South Main Street, Fall River<\/em>]. They had a store, and he would work for them before going into the army [United States Army, enlisted April 13, 1942<\/em>]. Another one worked in Attleboro \u2026 at a jewelry place [Lloyd Garfield Balfour Company, Attleboro, Massachusetts<\/em>], I believe. [In fact, two of his brothers, Joseph and Abdallah, were once employed at L.G. Balfour Co.<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: Okay, that\u2019s well known.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: In fact, before going to the Har-Lee, [Joseph<\/em>] got me a good job. My brother says, \u2018Go see \u2026 so-and-so, who lives on Alden [Street<\/em>]. Tell him I sent you.\u2019 I went \u2026 and said, \u2018My brother Joe sent me to see you. I am looking for a job.\u2019 \u2018Go to the Flint Furniture [Company, Inc., upholstered furniture manufacturers, 410 Quequechan Street<\/em>]; tell him I sent you.\u2019 Just then, I went to Flint Furniture; right away I started working, and it was a, I mean, doing that was a very good job, you know \u2026 making furniture.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: Did you do that before Har-Lee?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Yes. No, wait, I went to Har-Lee for a very short time, and they were very slack, and the boss said \u2013 I don\u2019t know who he was \u2013 said \u2026 \u2018Alphonse, I\u2019m sorry I have to lay you off.\u2019 But that is when my brother got me that other job [at Flint Furniture Company, Inc.<\/em>]. But then, when I couldn\u2019t do [it<\/em>] too well, a lady friend of mine that lived on Harrison [Street<\/em>] knocked on my window before I went for breakfast, before I went to work. \u2018Har-Lee has been looking for you.\u2019 They came looking for me for a long while, because, in those days, we didn\u2019t have a telephone. Then she says, \u2018Alphonse, they have been looking for you for a long time. My sister didn\u2019t want to tell you, hoping to get it for one of our relations.\u2019 She told me the truth, she was a good friend. So, when I went to work, seeing I couldn\u2019t cut it, the Jew [David Kass, president of Flint Furniture Manufacturing Company<\/em>] says, \u2018You are doing well.\u2019 \u2018How can I be doing well? I am not even penetrating the goods.\u2019 When I went to the Jew that was running the plant, I says, \u2018Well, I am leaving.\u2019 He said, \u2018You are leaving? You\u2019re doing fine,\u2019 and, \u2018How come you are leaving here? You are doing fine.\u2019 I said, \u2018I am not doing as well as others.\u2019 \u2018I hate to see you go.\u2019 A good thing I went to Har-Lee, and in a very short time, the manager came upstairs and said, \u2018Alphonse\u2019 \u2013 I was doing mostly stock work \u2013 he said, \u2018You won\u2019t be doing this all the time.\u2019 Then, they took a liking to me, they saw something in me I didn\u2019t see.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: You are reliable.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: I never cared to learn, never. I did well in high school [B.M.C. Durfee High School, Fall River, Class of 1938<\/em>], but not as good as I should have.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: How about medical things? Did they have a first aid room there or a nurse?<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: In the Har-Lee?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Yes, yes. They had twenty-two hundred employees. A doctor would come once a week\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: So you had a doctor come to the factory?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Once a week, if anybody needed anything.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: What happened if there was an accident on the job, or if someone needed medical attention?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: I guess they would have to contact him.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: Did they have a nurse in there all the time or a first aid person?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: I don\u2019t know.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: The other question I had \u2026 was about the union. I don\u2019t know if Har-Lee was a union shop. Was it ever a union shop?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Oh, yes.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: When did it start?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: I don\u2019t know, but it was. [Following an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in 1941, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) successfully unionized Har-Lee Manufacturing Company; eighty percent of the ballots cast were in favor.<\/em>] I know, I hated to see it go. All the years I was there, never, never criticized.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: When did it close?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: 1957 [at which time the company moved to Lake City, South Carolina<\/em>] and the owner \u2013 how can I forget his name? What a wonderful man. Any time he came from New York, he had to pass my department; always says, \u2018Good morning, Al.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: Was he Jewish?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Oh, yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: Many of the factories\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: Almost all of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: They…<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: They worked hard, and their sons inherited. [Three generations of the Sopkin family were involved in Wentworth Manufacturing Company.<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: Yes, they did. A lot of the manufacturers came from New York. You said Chicago on this one. A lot of them come from New York.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: They [Har-Lee Manufacturing Company<\/em>] had an office in New York [Wentworth Manufacturing Company, 1350 Broadway, New York, New York<\/em>] and I visited that office once with my wife [n\u00e9e Constance Joan Waskiewicz<\/em>].<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: I am going to move up on to Connie … because Mrs. Abdallah was also an employee of the Har-Lee. I want to ask some questions about that, because I heard this was a Har-Lee romance.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: Yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: How did you get started there?<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: My sister-in-law [Mrs. Theodore Joseph Waskiewicz, n\u00e9e Mary Veronica Rys<\/em>] wanted me to have a better job, you know. I was working in Grant\u2019s [W.T. Grant Company, department store, 149 South Main Street, Fall River<\/em>].<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: In Grant\u2019s?<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: For a year out of high school [B.M.C. Durfee High School, Fall River, Class of 1949<\/em>].<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: I remember Grant\u2019s on Main Street.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: And then, um.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: That was a blessing for her and me. This is the truth now.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: I went to the Har-Lee because my sister-in-law offered me a permanent job. So, full time.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: This was before eight o\u2019clock [a.m.<\/em> that<\/em>] she and her sister-in-law would punch the clock, and my department was caged in.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: The romance began.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: I was outside the cage. So, as I am doing my work on requisitions, I look up and I saw her and her sister-in-law \u2013 her sister-in-law was an excellent worker \u2013 working; none of my workers were bad. I looked up and this girl is for me, okay?<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: Just like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: How long did it take for you to hook her?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Unfortunately, her mother took a liking to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: Unfortunately?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Fortunately. Unfortunately, her brother [Theodore<\/em>], for some unknown reason, he knew some Lebanese people.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: He worked in Flint Furniture [Company, Inc.<\/em>].<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Didn\u2019t want me, you know, to go out with her. So, he\u2019d bring his wife [Mary<\/em>] and \u2026 he\u2019d be going up Pleasant [Street<\/em>], and I\u2019d be going down Pleasant [Street, and<\/em>] he\u2019d look the other way; I always looked to smile, he would look the other way. We had to elope.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: This is even getting better! This is a great story!<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: We got married in [Waterville<\/em>,] Maine [on April 1, 1959<\/em>].<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: You had to run away?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: In Maine; my sister [Josephine<\/em>] had a nice cabin there. And the church [St. Joseph\u2019s Church<\/em>] was, the ceremony was much, much better than if it was done on Rockland Street at the Polish church [St. Stanislaus Church, 40 Rockland Street, Fall River<\/em>]. They had a choir, they sang the Ave Maria, she was dressed beautifully; you can see the picture. And she was kneeling at the altar while they sang. Very, very nice ceremony.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: The Polish priest [in Fall River, Rev. Hugo Emanuel Dylla<\/em>] wasn\u2019t too happy because, you know, he wanted me to get married there.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: That brings up the question of this competition between the Polish and the Lebanese. So, are you saying your brother didn\u2019t care for a boyfriend that was not Polish?<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: That\u2019s part of it. Because all of the members of my family married Polish, you know? He was an oddball.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: They all said, \u2018It\u2019s all Mary\u2019s fault.\u2019 And Mary was the one who, her sister-in-law, that worked for me.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: Now did your parents, Connie, come from Poland?<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: Yes, they [Wac\u0142aw Waszkiewicz and his wife, n\u00e9e Stefania \u2018Stella\u2019 Bukowska<\/em>] came from Poland [in 1905 and 1909, respectively<\/em>]. They worked [for<\/em>] the textile mills. My mother was [in<\/em>] a mill right across from me [Berkshire Fine Spinning Company, Plant E, 372 Kilburn Street, Fall River<\/em>], and my mother worked there for years and years, even when my two brothers [Theodore J. Waskiewicz and Mecislaus \u2018Mathew\u2019 Joseph Waskiewicz<\/em>] were in the service. [Theodore, United States Army Air Forces, enlisted April 20, 1942, and \u2018Mathew\u2019, United States Army, enlisted March 9, 1943.<\/em>] And then my father worked in the Kerr Mills [American Thread Company, Martine Street, foot of Kerr Street, Fall River<\/em>] for a long time.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: Now, what area was this?<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: South End. [198<\/em>] Kilburn Street.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: Kilburn Street?<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: When I was about six, seven years old, I wanted to go see Mom in the mill. So, I went with my neighbor, a little boy; we went to the mill. When they saw us coming in, they were screaming, \u2018Get out of here \u2026 there is stuff you can get hurt on. It\u2019s dangerous.\u2019 So, I saw my Mom and she says, \u2018Take off, go, go home.\u2019 But, that was it, I had to go see her that time.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: But she didn\u2019t want you to go to the mill.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: No way.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: She wanted you to go work somewhere else.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: I never, you know, that didn\u2019t come up. Because I wanted to, I had the regular course in [B.M.C.<\/em>] Durfee [High School<\/em>] and I didn\u2019t have a college course. But, I worked, after the Har-Lee I went to the Fall River Electric Light [Company, 85 North Main Street<\/em>] for a while [as a clerk, circa 1957 \u2013 1960<\/em>] \u2026 until I got pregnant; I couldn\u2019t work anymore there.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: You got a smart lady, here.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: Yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: I knew when I looked at her, I knew she looked smart. I knew she came from a good family, because Polish people are good religious people, just like the Lebanese. That is why I married her\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: So, how did you \u2026 get to Maine? That is the question. If you are going to elope\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: His sister lived in Maine. It wasn\u2019t easy to do, you know. It was very hard.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: What did his mother think? What did your mother think?<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: My mother was very upset but, as it turned out, my two brothers came to the wedding.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: I guess that Durfee class worked. You went into retail when you were at Grant\u2019s, so you weren\u2019t in the mill. Your mother must have been happy about that.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: I worked a long time, a few years part-time. And then they had nice prizes \u2026 if you did so much in sales, they gave me prizes. That was something to look forward to.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: When you went to Har-Lee, who taught you how to sew those dresses?<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: I didn\u2019t sew anything.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: Oh, you didn\u2019t sew anything?<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: No, I was in the trimming department, I was perpetual inventory. I took care of that, and the buttons and stuff, and then I took care of the parts department. Belts, snaps, you know, whatever.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: Well, I am going to move on\u2026. I am going to jump to more of the social side \u2026 of living in Fall River \u2026 going back to the Polish and the Lebanese holidays. What about holidays, how do you celebrate those? And Thanksgiving and Christmas?<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: I always used to\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: It\u2019s multi-family with us.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CA<\/strong>: I used to love polka dancing in my teenage years and twenties. I\u2019d go and they had a lot of Polish dances at the Polish [National<\/em>] Home [872 Globe Street, Fall River<\/em>].<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: And that is where the teenagers would go?<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: Would he go with you?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: No. We didn\u2019t know one another.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: What did the Lebanese do to meet girls? How did you meet girls when you were a teenager?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: A lot of us went to Lincoln Park [State Road, Westport, Massachusetts<\/em>]. I didn\u2019t socialize too much. My social life was, this is true, was going to the dogs and the horses. I loved to gamble. Loved it.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: You did that when you were single and married?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: I loved to gamble. When they were running [horses<\/em>] in Narragansett [Park, Pawtucket, Rhode Island<\/em>], I was there. If the dogs [greyhounds<\/em>] were running in Raynham [Park, Raynham, Massachusetts<\/em>], I was there six nights a week.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: Where was she?<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: She was taking care of the house and children, but I was holding my own; that is what counts.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: You mentioned the Depression. What was that \u2026 like in Fall River when you were growing up, during the Depression? You couldn\u2019t get jobs during that time.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: No, all I did was play\u2026. We had the schoolyard across the street [James M. Aldrich School, 295 Harrison Street, Fall River<\/em>], the big schoolyard. We played baseball, horseshoes, football, instead of going to Lafayette Park.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: So, how did your parents make out during that time? They had eight children, and times were tough.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Well, thanks to the fact that \u2026 two of my sisters worked steady, and then my older brothers \u2013 like I told you \u2013 they\u2019d give the money to the family.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: You all chipped in.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: And, uh, we ate good, I can say that. Depression, but we ate good. Anything we wanted, it was fresh. If we wanted steak, we\u2019d go to the Polish Market [Polish Co-operative Grocery Stores at 177<\/em>] Quequechan Street [Fall River<\/em>], that they used to have. \u2018What do you want?\u2019 Whatever cut you want, they cut it. We never had anything \u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: No frozen. Because nobody had those refrigerators.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: You didn\u2019t know it was a Depression.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: We had an ice box.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: So, so up \u2018til that point, everything had to be fresh from the store.<\/span><\/p>\n

    AA<\/strong>: Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n

    CM<\/strong>: But you didn\u2019t know you didn\u2019t have a lot of money to do this. You didn\u2019t think there was a Depression \u2026 I grew up during the Depression and I don\u2019t think I ever knew that there was a Depression. They do with what you have. You made do with what you had.<\/span><\/p>\n

    JR<\/strong>: Yeah, you just had to make ends meet. Oh, my goodness, [we are<\/em>] going to have to stop [at<\/em>] that.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    FALL RIVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY Women at Work: An Oral History of Working-Class Women in Fall River, Massachusetts 1920-1970 Interview with Mrs. Alphonse Kalil Abdallah, n\u00e9e Constance Joan Waskiewicz Interviewer: (CM) Constance C. Mendes Interviewee: (CA) Constance Joan (Waskiewicz) Abdallah \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0(AA) Alphonse Kalil Abdallah Additional Commentary: (JR) Joyce B. Rodrigues, Fall River Historical Society Date of Interview: May 27, 2015 Location: Abdallah residence, Swansea, Massachusetts Summary: Constance “Connie” Joan (Waskiewicz) Abdallah was born in Fall River on February 11, 1932. Alphonse Kalil Abdallah was born in Fall River on September 9, 1920. The Waskiewicz family Connie\u2019s father, Wac\u0142aw Waszkiewicz, and mother, Stefania Bukowska, emigrated from Poland to the United States in 1905. They met in Fall River and married in 1916 at St. Stanislaus Parish, a Polish-American Roman Catholic Church. The family lived in the South End, the Globe Village section of the city and worked in the textile mills. Connie was the youngest of four children, and had a sister and two brothers. She graduated from BMC Durfee High School in 1949. The Abdallah family The Lebanese-Syrian communities in Fall River are predominately Lebanese and members of the Maronite Eastern Rite Catholic Church. Lebanese immigrated to the United States in the late 19th century to escape political and religious persecution by the Turks. The first Lebanese immigrants to Fall River lived on lower Columbia Street and in the Globe Village section of the city and worked as shopkeepers. Later immigrants settled in the Flint Village particularly around the Quequechan Street area and found employment as mill operatives. Alphonse\u2019s father and mother were in this second group of immigrants. Alphonse was the seventh of eight children, two daughters and six sons. The Abdallahs struggled through the Great Depression years. Alphonse, his brothers, and sisters, worked and brought their pay home to support the family. He graduated from BMC Durfee High School in 1938. Working for Har-Lee Manufacturing Alphonse and Connie were interviewed as a couple because they both worked for the Har-Lee Manufacturing Company, the largest cotton dress manufacturer in the United States. Their narrative tells what it was like to work in the garment industry during the 1930s and 1940s and the obstacles they overcame to marry outside of their ethnic group. Alphonse was a supervisor in the trimming department. Connie worked in the same department and managed the shop\u2019s inventory. At its peak, Har-Lee employed over 2,000 employees and was a union shop.1 Har-Lee Manufacturing Company Har-Lee Manufacturing Company, a division of Wentworth Manufacturing, was founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1901 by Russian immigrants. In 1934, the company moved from Chicago to Fall River. The plant was located at 425 Pleasant Street in the former Durfee-Union mill complex. The Durfee-Union mills, founded in 1866, were one of the more successful of Fall River\u2019s textile corporations and had an impressive group of large mill structures in the city. Har-Lee Manufacturing moved to South Carolina in 1957. The business was restructured by Gerhard Lowenstein, a supervisor for Har-Lee, as Lowenstein Dress Corporation. See \u201cLearn More\u201d for information on working at Har-Lee Manufacturing: Excerpts from a Diary of an Operator at Har-Lee, Fall River, Mass., Hilda Tanner Papers, ca. 1930s, Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Martin P. Catherwood Library, Cornell University. at: http:\/\/rmc.library.cornell.edu\/EAD\/htmldocs\/KCL05780pubs.html. Also, reference the link at the end of the Abdallah introductory material for the work process as described by Alphonse Abdallah   Note: This interview has been slightly edited for continuity and readability; in order to preserve the integrity of the conversation, the phraseology remains that of the interviewer and interviewee. Italicized information in square brackets has been added for the purposes of clarification and context. This transcript begins with a conversation with Mrs. Abdallah\u2019s husband, Alphonse, who spent a number of years employed at Har-Lee Manufacturing Company in Fall River, Massachusetts; the firm was, at the time, the largest producer of inexpensive ladies dresses in the United States. His notes on the Har-Lee Manufacturing Process can be located here.   CM: When did you start working at Har-Lee [Manufacturing Company, 425 Pleasant Street, Fall River, Massachusetts]? AA: See, um \u2026 before I went into the service [during World War II]. I went into the service in 1942 [United States Army, enlisted November 14] but I was there about three years before that\u2026. CM: \u201839? AA: Yeah, \u201839. CM: How big was the factory at that time? AA: That was what it was, they had over twenty-two hundred girls. That was the worst thing to happen to Fall River, [Har-Lee] leaving [in 1957]. They\u2019d never had left if the girls that learned had stayed. But you couldn\u2019t blame them, they wanted to go to a smaller shop that would grow around them. And they\u2019d tell them, \u2018Go to Har-Lee and learn,\u2019 [where] they were learning and teaching them\u2026. They modified, and the plant, you couldn\u2019t beat it, conveyor belts and all. And nobody bothered you, it was very, very, very nice. Um, all the years I worked there, I [was] never criticized, never. All I was told was make sure the floors are \u2026 suppl[ied] \u2026 and never [get] behind. All the, um, overtime you need, take it. You need more girls, get them from there, different places. Never, never being criticized. JR: Let\u2019s go back to the beginning.\u2026 Was it Harrison Street that you came from? AA: There was Harrison, Flint, Quequechan, [and] Barnard [Streets], all this was [where] the \u2026 people that came from Lebanon congregated\u2026. JR: Tell me about your parents. They came from Lebanon? AA: They came from Lebanon\u2026. [His father, Kalil Abdallah, was born in Beit ed-Dine, Lebanon, and immigrated to the United States in 1905; his mother, n\u00e9e Nazara Joseph Solomon was also born in Beit ed-Dine, and immigrated to the United States circa 1907.] JR: Did your parents work in the mills? AA: My parents, in the cotton mills. I went only once, I carried a … CA: Dinners. AA: Dinners […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/WomenatWork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3714"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/WomenatWork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/WomenatWork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/WomenatWork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/WomenatWork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3714"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/WomenatWork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5908,"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/WomenatWork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3714\/revisions\/5908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallriverhistorical.org\/WomenatWork\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}