On Saturday, March 1st, as part of Nuit Blanche and in partnership with the Museum of Jewish Montreal, the Wandering Chew will be selling classic Ashkenazi foods such as knishes and pickles. This is part of the MJM curated exhibit, Parkley Clothes: 1937, where they will be recreating a garment factory from 1937 in its original location in Montreal’s Belgo building. My Bubbie was only 2 in 1937 but I asked her to tell me a little bit about what life was like in Montreal and about the foods she remembers eating.
Sydney, Mary(bubbie), and Mimi Warshaw
Bubbie Mary Warshaw remembers Montreal:
“In 1937 Gramma and Grampa [Sydney's great grandparents] and I were living on De Bullion Street which was part of the Jewish ghetto even before St. Urbain Street was. I don’t remember the address but the cross street was somewhere around Duluth. I was 2 and a very picky eater, even then. Gramma Elka [Sydney's great grandmother] was great about accepting my idiosyncrasies and tried to make what I enjoyed. i.e. middle European stuff—– potato knishes, blueberry verenikes, eggplant sautéed like fried mushrooms, fried potatoes. Good light cuisine! Once at our local grocery she tried to persuade me to have an ice cream cone and I refused, claiming it was “chazerei” coming from the word “chaser,” meaning Pig, but used for any junk or junk food. I spoke only Yiddish. The shopkeeper was very offended.
Montreal Bagels being boiled
On St.Laurent Street, near Napoleon Street there was a porte cochère that was no longer in use for horses. There was a bakery in the archway that sold bagels, one dozen, tied together on a string. I remember them being thinner and a little tougher than now, but delicious. Grocery stores sold food out of barrels, like shmaltz herring or salted herring from which you made pickled herring. Delicious. All kinds of beans, rice, nuts were sold out of sacks. Very few things were packaged. Like Mahane Yehuda [in Jerusalem]. One of the largest grocery stores was Warshaw’s owned by the Levine family on St. Laurent Street (better known as The Main). Black bread, boiled potatoes, raw onion and schmaltz herring. Fit for a king!! The heel of the black bread was always very crusty. You buttered the heel, lots of butter, and rubbed raw garlic on the crusty part. We never saw any vampires!!
Warshaw’s Grocery store in 1944
Pickled Herring
We lived on De Bullion Street until I was about 5 when we move to St. Urbain Street. Masha [Sydney's great aunt] was born on De Bullion. I remember my paternal grandma lived with us, Baba Golda, and slept on a couch beside the dining room table. There was only 1 bedroom for the 5 of us. On St. Urbain Street we only had I bedroom for the 6 of us, but we had a double parlor half of which was Masha’s and my bedroom.
De Bullion st. in 1927
St-Urbain st. in 1931
My memory from the age of 2 is very good but I don’t remember many hints about the war. My 2 grandmas, aunts, uncles and my cousins, Gertie and Max were all pulled out of Poland before ’39 so my parents must have been very concerned. My father’s 2 brothers preceded him to America so they must have pooled all their pennies for passports and ship berths. In the 40′s we were all concerned with the war and Hitler whose name was the worst curse. My mother was working with a man at Customs and Immigration, a Mr. Suprenant, who was being paid under the table to make false passports, papers, etc… I remember bringing him envelopes of money to make false documents. I brought the money to the Customs House on McGill St below Dorchester Street. Gramma Elka saved a lot of Grampa Joseph’s [Sydney's great grandfather] cousins and Chelmer ([Jews who came] from Chelm). During the war we had a lot of marching bands in the streets, to drum up (literally) support for the war, I guess. We used to hear them coming from blocks away and we would run in the direction of the sound and watch. It was very exciting.”
How to visit the Parkley Clothes: 1937 exhibit:
The times have changed! You may not be able to get schmaltz herring out of a barrel anymore, and the Jewish community has almost entirely moved to new neighborhoods, but for a taste of Montreal in 1937, visit The Wandering Chew, the Museum of Jewish Montreal, and Urban Shtetl at 372 Ste-Catherine Ouest, #442 between 7 P.M. and 2 A.M. on Saturday March 1st, for Nuit Blanche.
Learn more about Montreal’s Nuit Blanche 2014.
The post A Bubbie reminisces about her life in Montreal in 1937 appeared first on A Bit Off the Top.