Interview with John and Reba Diener

Subject: The Diener Family Interviewer: Joe Murray Date: 2001 Interview Location: Ottawa, ON Length of Time: 1:46:40 -Joe is interviewing both Reba and John together. -Reba begins by talking about growing up in Montreal. She grew up on the corner of Colonial Street and Mille Neuf. She remembers the community being a mix of Jewish and French Canadian. -Her grandfather came to Canada in 1900 from Ukraine. He fled the country to avoid the tsar’s draft and brought over Reba’s grandmother and their children a year after he arrived in Montreal. -Her father worked in a clothing factory and was very involved in the local shul and cemetery. Reba says she recalls walking through some neighbourhoods in Montreal and feeling the anti-semitism. -Reba attended Bancroft Public School. She says it was close to 100% jewish and she has only fond memories of the school. She then went to Baron Byng High School. She tells a story about spring choir and about how the boys side of the school used to misbehave. -Reba then talks about seeing her mother go grocery shopping everyday since they had no refrigerator. She also talks about being a teenager during the war and remembering rationing in the stores. -Reba tells a funny story about trying to sneak into movie theaters when she was young, since at the time you had to be over 16 to go to the movies. -Reba also remembers yeshiva when she was young and while she says she has fond memories she grew to resent it in high school as she felt it limited her ability to do school activities. -Joe asks her about restaurants she recalls and Reba remembers Lindy’s on Park ave. She has fond memories of not only the restaurant but the street as she remembers meeting there after church services. -Reba talks about her uncle, who she does not name, but owned a men's clothing store on St Lawrence Street. She recalls him being successful but also being a gambler, he had season tickets to the Montreal Royals and Reba recalls seeing Jackie Robinson play. -Some more of her fond memories in Montreal were shopping at Eatons and the Eaton's christmas parade. -Joe asks her about her neighbours and Reba tells a funny story about a neighbour who was having an affair, the stable in her neighbourhood, and the local barber and his antics. -Joe now interviews John about his father, Nathan. John’s father was born in a province previously in Poland but now located in the Ukraine. -Nathan was the only family member to survive the holocaust. Himself and his father escaped from a camp, unfortunately his father passed away from typhus on the journey from the camp. John’s father then joined the Polish Russian Air Force and post war he worked to help jewish families get to Israel. -At the time of the interview John is doing genealogy research to try to learn more about his family's history as they unfortunately do not know much about his father’s life in Europe. -After the war Nathan was heading to Russia when he ran into a women he knew from childhood at the train station who told him to go west instead of east. From there Nathan went to Italy for a few years before coming to Canada in September of 1948. -Nathan came to Canada on the ship the Sturgeous (?) and arrived in Halifax. He then went to Montreal followed by Ottawa. -John recalls his father being very worldly and speaking approximately 5 languages; he says this is how he gained such a loyal customer base in a bilingual city. -In Ottawa Nathan lived with his sponsor family Sam and Goldie Silver (?). -Nathan went to night school to learn book keeping and subsequently learnt english. Following school Nathan went into business with Mr. Gandall and opened a butchershop at 10 Byward Market. This business relationship did not last long and the two ended their partnership. -Nathan then joined Sam Saslov’s business as Sam was wanting to retire. The Saslov’s had a milk store and when Nathan joined they also became a butcher. -Reba and John were married in January of 1953. They moved into a small apartment on Rideau street for a year before purchasing their first house at 119 Russell Street. They had 4 children John in 1954, Seymour in 1956, Joel in 1959, and Sharon. -They lived at 199 Russell for 5 years before moving to their house on Woodcrest where they stayed until 1998. -John then speaks about his childhood. He attended Hillel academy for 8 years and has fond memories of his teachers; Warner Bower, Nathan Levine, Mr. Frankel, and Mrs. Gory (?). John tells a funny story of getting in trouble as a child at school and hiding at a Pollywog pond to avoid his parents, -John went to Ridgemont High School and says he struggled at first because he was only 12 when he started there. He quickly got people to stop bothering him however when he punched a classmate in the face after being teased. John graduated from Ridgemont in 1971. -John then went to Carleton university for a Bachelors of Commerce, after 3 years he lost interest in the program and transferred to Algonquin college to study data processing. -During his years at school he also worked at his fathers store and worked with the 39th scouts group. -He then began work at Fiends Flowers (?) in 1975. He worked with them to computerize their payment system for flower deliveries. -In 1977 John started working for Trebleclef. He worked there for 4 years and met his wife there. -in 1981 Nathan was looking to retire and John took over the store from his father. John talks about how they always had nice and fresh window displays and began selling pollock. John tells a funny story about selling the pollock outside of the store and chasing thieves down the street. -When John took over the store in the 80’s grocery shopping and family trends were rapidly changing. During this time John expanded the business into wholesale sales and expanded the seafood products they sold. -John got into the seafood market through a man in Toronto named Henry Ender who was a fish dealer with great connections and introduced John and his brother Joel to the Boston Seafood Convention. It was at the Boston Convention that John found Nathan’s Herring and began selling it in Ottawa. -During this time John also expanded the business when he met a man from Iqaluit who talked about the lack of good meat up north. John let the man order in bulk and shipped it up to him frozen, from there more people in Iqaluit wanted to order from him and he started shipping alot of meat and groceries to customers in the north. This became a major part of the business. -reba then speaks about her involvement in the community. She was an active member of Mechzikei Hadas and the PTA at Hillel Academy. -She then talks about her trips to Israel, Vegas, and New York City. -John then tells a story about how his father always picked his animals for slaughter himself and has fond memories of driving to Greely on thursdays to pick out cows. -John finishes by talking about how his father instilled the value of knowing your business in him, it is because of this that John is a very hands on owner and has the loyalty of his staff. END OF TAPE