Interview with Mr. Arthur S. Berger , 2011
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Library of Congress Interview with Mr. Arthur S. Berger , 2011 The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project ARTHUR S. BERGER Interviewed by: Charles Stuart Kennedy Initial interview date: August 28, 2003 Copyright 2010 ADST [Note: This interview was not edited by Mr. Berger.] Q: This is a Foreign Affairs Oral History Program interview with Arthur S. Berger. Today is the 28th of August 2003, and we are in Washington DC. This interview is being conducted under the auspices of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. I am Charles Stuart Kennedy. Arthur, let's begin at the beginning. Could you tell me when and where you were born and something about your family? First, do you go by Art, Arthur, or what? BERGER: There are some names I don't like to go by, but either Art or Arthur work. I was born on February 12, 1945 in Providence, Rhode Island. Q: Let's start on the father's side. Where do the Bergers come from? BERGER: My father came to the United States in 1900 with his family. In fact, it is only about two years ago that I was able to find the record in Ellis Island on the manifest of the ship where he and his family came through. So I was able to track that back. He was twelve years old. He was born in a small town called Husiatyn, which is now in the Interview with Mr. Arthur S. Berger , 2011 http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib001682 Library of Congress Ukraine. At that time it was on the border between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia. I think the year he was born it was Russian. Boundaries in those days tended to fluctuate back and forth. His family had some relatives who had moved to the United States in the preceding ten or fifteen years in the mass-migration of people from eastern and central Europe, and sent back letters to the old homestead saying “Life is a lot better here.” “First of all, you don't have to worry about the Czar's army picking up your young men and taking them away for twenty-five years of forcible service and never seeing them again. And you don' have to live as a peasant or a small vendoyou know, a push cart salesmabarely making ends meet.” And so they saved up enough money over a period of years. Got transit on a ship from Hamburg to New York. Spent a short time in New York City. They didn't like the tenement life, from what my father told me. And from what I've heard about it and read about it since then, it sounded pretty awful. And had some relatives living in Providence. And so they went to Providence, Rhode Island and established themselves there. Q: In Husiatyn, what were the Bergers doing? BERGER: From what I've been able to telbecause my father didn't like to talk about it. It was part of his memory I think that he tried to leave out and talk [instead] about his new life in America, which he cherisheI think that my grandfather was a peddler. And when he came to the United States, to Providence, he took up the business that he know best, which was selling goose feathers for stuffing mattresses and comforters. Had he stayed with it, this would have been great. But he went out of that, I guess, when synthetics came in in the 1940 and there weren't as many rural geese flowing into Providence. He went out of that business and became a petty shopkeeper. A very small shop where he sold feathers by the pound. And he bought a house right in front of it, on Douglas Avenue, in Providence, Rhode Island. Interview with Mr. Arthur S. Berger , 2011 http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib001682 Library of Congress Q: Was the name originally Berger? It sounds very German. BERGER: It sounds German and it was originally Neuberger or Neiberger, depending on the pronunciation. Some of the family changed it to Berger. Some changed it to Neiberg. I imagine that some kept it with the original name, although I've never been able to find any relatives with that name. Q: Well, how about your mother's side? BERGER: My mother was born in Boston in 1905. Her parents had emigrated from Lithuania around 1900. And went directly to Boston. Also because they had some relatives who were living there. But her father was originally from Lithuania and her mother was originally from Latvia. I'm not sure where they met. But at one point in the early 1890s, my grandfather set off to raise enough money to move the family out of the Baltics. Life was not great. He was a peddler, with a push cart. And went to England because he had a relative that lived in England. Went there. Didn't like it in England. Then he met somebody who told him “Come with me to Ireland. In Ireland things are really much nicer. The people are great.” So he went off to Ireland. Spent five years there. In the process, someone told him “Why don't you change your name?” So he became Robinson. Q: What was their name before? BERGER: Ridalia. Although I've never been able to find any relatives or any trace of people with that name, Ridalia. Q: Where would it have come from? Interview with Mr. Arthur S. Berger , 2011 http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib001682 Library of Congress BERGER: It sounded very southern European, either Spanish, Portuguese or Italian. And I've never been able to find any source. But maybe now with the internet I'll be able to do more research on it. Maybe when I finally really retire I'll search that out a little more. But he evidently changed his name to Robinson. Came back to Lithuania with enough money to move the whole family to Boston. Did that in 1900 or 1901. Family is not really sure exactly when. My mother was born in east Boston in 1905. Q: What was he doing? What was his thing? BERGER: He sold clothing. Basically the accessories. The shirts, ties, belts, socks, underwear, pants. And he would take his pushcart up to different parts of New England. He would go to Maine for two weeks. Sell to shopkeepers. To Hampshire, to Rhode Island, to western Massachusetts. And eventually several of his children went into the business and opened shops in Boston selling these accessories. Q: What type of upbringing did your mother have? BERGER: I guess the family was probably lower middle class and eventually became middle class. She went through high school in Boston. The family then moved to Malden. She spent at least a year at a business school learning how to become a secretary or book keeper and worked first for her father and then for her eldest brother, who set up a shop and became quite a successful seller of clothing accessories. Q: Back to your father. What was he doing? BERGER: He started out as a peddler. And with a younger brother of his who wanted to be a song writer, became a publisher of songs that never sold. Songs that, as far as I can tell, never went beyond their publishing. They started a company called Berger Brothers Publishers that became Berger Brothers. And my father then gave up that. My uncle became an orthodontist. Very successful. My father had this small shop in downtown Interview with Mr. Arthur S. Berger , 2011 http://www.loc.gov/item/mfdipbib001682 Library of Congress Providence where he sold toys and novelties and postcards. So he kept that part of the publishing side. I remember every summer he used to go down to the shop early in the morning, take out samplea lot of boxes of postcardand sell them whole-sell to the concessionaires at the various beaches along the coast of Rhode Island. Q: Your father then did not go to college? BERGER: No. He graduated from high school in Providence. And was basically a small businessman for almost all of his life. And eventually went out of business. He was undersold. This was a time in the '50s and early '60s when the large discount sellerbefore the Walmartone was Kmart and the one store in Rhode Island that is still in existence called Ann & Hope and they began to sell many of the things that he sold, but much cheaper than he could even buy them for. So eventually he went out of business and he just retired. Q: How did your mother and father meet? BERGER: My father was quite elderly and had two younger sisters who never married. He felt a responsibility towards them. He had a brother who moved to Canada. His other brother, who was an orthodontist. And these two younger sisters, one of whom worked for him at his shop. Because he would fill the car up with samples and, even during the winter, would go on the road to various towns around Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts to sell these toys and noveltienail clippers, jokes, party favors, the hats that we use for Christmas and New Years parties, things like that. He kept trying to find somebody that would be appropriate for him and eventually went to a matchmaker. Sort of gave up on his sisters, especially as his parents were getting more elderly and he was approaching fifty. He said “It's time for me otherwise I'm never going to get married and have children.” And he wanted that very badly.