- Ottawa Jewish Archives
- Ottawa Jewish Historical Society fonds
- Interview with Irving and Harriet Slone
Interview with Irving and Harriet Slone
Description only — contact the archive8
- Held by
- Ottawa Jewish Archives via Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (incl. Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives)
- Dates
- June 9, 2005 (indexed as 2005)
- Level
- item
- Scope & content
- Harriet was born in Ottawa in 1932 to Canadian-born parents; her father was born in Toronto, and her mother in Montreal. She is unsure as to when her grandparents came to Canada. Her grandparents were Lipvacs, and she does not know much about them as they passed before she was born. Harriet’s parents were married in Montreal, and her two older siblings were born there; she is also unsure as to when or why they came to Ottawa. Harriet attended York Street School, and recalls being scared to walk to school sometimes, as it was across from a Catholic School. She has fond memories of her teachers and classmates there, particularly of Miss Eardly, who took her and other Jewish classmates to see Snow White at the Capitol Theatre on a Saturday morning, and gave them bags of sugared candies. Her neighbour on Besserer Street, Ruthie Zagerman (now Shecter), was her best friend and has remained so for over 70 years. Harriet has fond memories of doing everything with Ruthie and having “such fun” together. She recalls going to Parliament to take photos on the weekend, going to the movies, and hanging out at delicatessens with her friends for fun. She did not go to a Jewish school, though Ruthie’s father offered to pay for her lessons with Mr. Gordon, her father did not want him to. When she and Ruthie were in their teens, they “taught” Sunday school together at Osgoode, but she describes it more as babysitting. She graduated from Lisgar Collegiate, and worked at the government for 2 years. Her main goal was to marry the right man and start a family. Irving was born in Ottawa in 1927 to Bessie Hoffman and Nathan Slone. His mother was born in Dachne (?) , Ukraine in 1902, and emigrated to Canada in 1913. His father was born in Telsiai (?), Lithuania in 1989, and came to Canada in 1905. Irving’s parents were married in 1922. Irving’s grandfather, Eli Slonevsky, was a teacher at a cheder who was known for being very strict and having old-school teaching methods. Irving grew up on York Street between Friel and Nelson, and recalls many other Jewish families in the neighbourhood, such as the Shapiros, the Nadonlys, the Baylans, the Leifs, the Skolskys, the Followmans, and the Pollacks. He attended York Street School, and remembers bringing a rat home for two days in kindergarten, and making a dustpan in shop class. He recounts how his childhood home was up for sale recently and he got to go inside - the house was empty except for his homemade dustpan hanging from a beam, which he took and still has in his basement. Irving had a “short stint” in Hebrew school, and his grandfather came over to help him study for his bar mitzvah. For high school, Irving went to Tech, where he had perfect attendance, and recalls it being 99% boys, primarily focused on shop classes, and not having the same “cultured reputation" that Lisgar did. Irving was in a Jewish squadron of Air Cadets, where his commanding officers were Joe Baron and Bert Loeb. When he was around 13 years old, his squadron was commissioned to set up a precision marching squad and perform at the Capitol Theatre in front of 1500 people for a famous actress that came. He remembers practicing the drill for months before the performance, and that since many of the scenes of the Captain of the Clouds movie were shot at Uplands, the stars came to Ottawa. Irving was always very interested in aviation, which he believes was because of all the talk about flying around the time he was born, due to Charles Lindbergh’s flight across the ocean. As a child, he would bike for miles to the airport to sit on the bench and watch the planes. In the 1940s, the airforce at Pendleman was looking for ‘gofers’, so Irving and some of his friends worked there for two summers. They swung propellers, pushed airplanes, and helped the mechanics for low military pay and got to sleep in the barracks. Irving built his own 1929 open cockpit plane that he still flies on the weekends, which Harriet says makes him look like Snoopy. Harriet went with him in the plane once before they were married where she saw a plane go up in flames, which turned her off of flying. Irving was a member of AZA, and was at a conference in Montreal when the war ended, and could see all the commotion in the streets from the hotel room. He was also a member of B’nai Brith in the 50s and 60s. He went to King St Shul, and remembers good days there, including his bar mitzvah and pelting the cantor with burrs when he sang. Harriet was involved in B’nai Brith Girls, and was asked to be a part of a show for Hadassah at the Gatineau Country Club, which is how she met Irving. The choreographer, Rose Fleischer, asked 6 guys and 6 girls to be dancers in the show, and when they had to pair up for the ballroom dance practice, Irving grabbed Harriet. They were married in 1952 when she was 20 and he was 25. Together, they reminisce about Ottawa businesses, the downtown, and their pastimes. They discuss how on King Edward, from Rideau to the bridges by city hall, there was a grass boulevard down the middle of the road, with a walkway and big elms on each side. The Capitol theatre was glamorous and grand, with a huge chandelier, red velvet, marble columns, and a giant staircase, and they are both sad they tore it down. The Talmud Torah had a dance hall on the second floor where they would have an orchestra playing live. Irving distinctly remembers hearing “In the Mood” when he was about 10 years old, and watching the people dancing. They also mention the Standish Hall in Hull, where they had bigger names like Louis Armstrong, Dick Haynes, and Tony Bennett. In the winter, Irving and his friends spent hours skating at Anglesea Square. Harriet remembers the wonderful department stores on Sparks Street, such as Murphy Gambles and Bryson Graham. They had the bread man, the milk man, and the ice man, some of which had horses and wagons. The butchers would come to collect on Sunday mornings - Mr. Phillipson was Harriet’s family butcher, while Irving’s family got their meat from his uncle’s store on Clarence street. They went to Weiss delicatessen on the North side of Rideau, La Paloma restaurant, and Mickenberg’s deli. Harriet was 9 years old when she learned about the holocaust, and would go to bed every night praying that Hitler would die. To support the war effort, she and Ruthie went door to door selling poppies. They remember people buying war stamps, knitting squares to be made into afghans, and women having teas in the vestiary rooms to raise money. At the time, they didn't have fresh fruit and vegetables unless it was the summertime, but Harriet’s father was diabetic and they had a doctor's note allowing them to get fruit in the winter. Irving worked on Saturdays at the family grocery store, Slone’s Market Grocery, during the time of rations. He remembers gluing ration stamps to paper so they could submit it to the wholesalers, weighing sugar in paper bags, and filling customer’s bottles with molasses and cold oil from the basement. Irving worked for a year and a half in plastics and got a job with Hull Iron and Steel in their plastic research lab. They mixed up different chemicals to make plastics and he poured them into moulds. His uncle, Mack Levin, was in the vending business (phonographs, pinball games, etc) and he asked Irving to go work for him cleaning and stocking the machines. He became the Route Manager, and worked there for a couple of years. His cousin, Al Cone, was partners with Charlie Benavoy in Hamilton, where Irving and Harriet moved after their marriage in 1952. The cousin had a 15 seat donut shop, which Harriet took care of while Irving worked with the guys. Irving heard about business deals from customers that worked at the real estate firm down the street and became interested in real estate through them. They moved back to Ottawa after 2.5 years in Hamilton because Harriet’s mother wasn’t well. Irving is still a realtor but mainly deals with property management rather than sales. Irving and Harriet have lived in their home for 50 years and raised their two children there. Harriet says that if they've done nothing else, they've raised two fantastic people. She closes the interview by saying “it has been a wonderful life, I have no complaints”.
- Location
- York St · street · confidence 50% · street · found as “York Street”
Where
More details
- Genre / form
- sound recording
- Format
- Audio
- Language
- English
- Harvested
- 2026-10-17T20:12:50Z · source datestamp n/a · cjhn