Transcript of interview with Gary Sternberg by Barbara Tabach, February - April, 2015

i AN INTERVIEW WITH GARY STERNBERG An Oral History Conducted by Barbara Tabach The Southern Nevada Jewish Community Digital Heritage Project Oral History Research Center at UNLV University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas ii ?Southern Nevada Jewish Community Digital Heritage Project University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2014 Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV ? University Libraries Director: Claytee D. White Project Manager: Barbara Tabach Transcriber: Kristin Hicks Interviewers: Barbara Tabach, Claytee D. White Editors and Project Assistants: Maggie Lopes, Stefani Evans iii The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Grant. The Oral History Research Center enables students and staff to work together with community members to generate this selection of first-person narratives. The participants in this project thank University of Nevada Las Vegas for the support given that allowed an idea the opportunity to flourish. The transcript received minimal editing that includes the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader?s understanding of the material. All measures have been taken to preserve the style and language of the narrator. In several cases photographic sources accompany the individual interviews with permission of the narrator. The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of the Southern Nevada Jewish Community Digital Heritage Project. Claytee D. White Director, Oral History Research Center University Libraries University of Nevada Las Vegas iv PREFACE On August 25, 1931, Augusta and Herman Sternberg welcomed their second child, Gerd (aka Gary), into the world of Cuxhaven, Germany. Augusta was a devout Christian of Polish ancestry who had fled Russian persecution. Herman was a German-born Jew salesman and inventor. The couple fell in love and had two children, Gary and Ruth who was a year and half older. By 1938, German politics were targeting Jews and Herman was ripped away from his Christian wife and children and sent to a concentration camp. Fate and friendship rescued Herman with the option to go to China. And so begins the history of the Sternberg family and how they all would eventually live together during World War II in the confines of a Jewish ghetto in Hongkew, China from May 1939 to July 1948. In this oral history, Gary explains how the family came to live in the United States?Cleveland and Los Angeles. In 1957, he married Noreen and they eventually came to live in Las Vegas where Gary worked for Sears selling washing machines, had a repair business and an importing business with Noreen. Gary was an entrepreneurial soul and inventive much like his father. He owns three patents. He had an extraordinary career as a dealer. He was not the stereotypical young dealer-to-be: he was in his 40s when he signed up for the Michael Gaughn Dealing School in the mid-1970s. Gary?s charming wit and ease of making friends soon gained him a position at El Cortez and then Caesars Palace. It was the same personality that would sustain his stellar thirty-one year career at Caesars. He was employed there from April 1974 until his retirement May 8, 2005. Though Jewish tradition would identify Gary as Christian, he self-identified as Jewish, officially converted and has been an active member of the Jewish community. Among his anecdotes?and he has many?is one about securing a $30,000 donation from Frank Sinatra and Jilly Rizzo for Congregation Ner Tamid. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Interview with Gary Sternberg February 12, February 15, April 7, & October 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada Conducted by Barbara Tabach Preface??????????????????????????????????..iv SESSION 1 Talks about being born in northern Germany near Elbe River in 1931; Augusta, his mother, was Polish born Christian and Herman, his father, was a German Jew. Augusta escaped Russian atrocities, worked as a housekeeper for an Orthodox Jewish family in Germany; met and married Herman in Cuxhaven; he was a traveling salesman of medical equipment; ingenuity to help people with foot ailments and to make prosthetics; a trade that he would practice in the Shanghai encampment.??????????????????????????????..1 ? 4 Explains how in 1938 Herman was sent to a concentration camp; then given the opportunity to leave Germany and went to China. Explains how his mother, a Christian, supported and protected him and his sister; how the three later joined him in Shanghai a year and a half later; details of their long trip by train, through Russia and to Manchuria, China, which is occupied by the Japanese. They were transferred to a Japanese ship, crossed the Yellow Sea and eventually arrived in Shanghai district called Hongkew?..?????????????????5 ? 11 Describes life in Hongkew and the Jewish ghetto, eagerness of others to learn news of Germany, trying to adjust to dramatic lifestyle changes. Father works for the small Jewish hospital; how the Japanese had high regard for the Jewish refugees. The 1941 Pearl Harbor attack and backstory of Japanese invading Chinese in 1937, leads to forced ghetto living for Jews in Hongkew; his memories of the deplorable family residences and playing soccer??????????12 ? 18 Recalls an anecdote of working as a dealer at Caesars during filming of the movie Casino?19 Resumes talking about life in Hongkew ghetto; Japanese military over lording them; being moved to the even more crowded Chaoufoong Camp; weather; sewage; vaccinations; father?s workshop and learning from him; attends school and plays Ping-Pong and soccer; learned English in school and Japanese??????????????????????..?20 ? 25 Talks about Shanghai Jewish Youth Organization in Shanghai and Kadoorie School for Sephardic Jews; importance Sephardic Jews played in their survival. Because he was technically Christian, he was allowed to attend a missionary school. Recalls learning about the end of the vi war; end of restrictions; American accidental bombings of the ghetto; countries people chose to relocate to; applying for a visa to move to United States in 1948; Jewish Joint Distribution Committee??????????????????????????????.25 ? 28 Family moves to Cleveland, settle in Little Shanghai; explains ?Shanghainese?. Drafted in 1951 Korean War; felt lucky compared to years in China; served for 21 months and was discharged early since he wasn?t a US citizen; returns to Cleveland. Marries Noreen in 1951; factory worker and operated a washing machine and dryer repair business. Move to Los Angeles; open Driftwood Decor and Other Delights business; was successful salesman at Sears, often selling celebrities??????????????????????????????.. 29 ? 34 Earthquake in California and numerous visits to Las Vegas eventually attracts him to move; recalls his stays at Sahara, Hacienda and nickel machines. Tells of his luck getting a transfer to the Sears at new Boulevard Mall on Maryland Parkway; Sears benefits changed and he decides to open his own business called Appliance Outlet, located on Main Street; difficulty hiring people. After additional bad luck of health issues, he explains how he became a dealer; attends Michael Gaughan?s Dealing School?????????????????????35 ? 39 Talks about dealing school at the age of 44, which is considered ?old?; feels successful dealing single deck, but difficult getting a job. Talks about Jackie and Michael Gaughan; being a shill at Golden Gate and getting a chance to deal his first game?????????????..40 ? 45 Recalls doing a favor to repair a hot water heater for Dick Nee who worked at Caesars Palace; leads to an introduction to Marv Valone who then gives him an introduction at El Cortez, which leads to his first dealing job, a blackjack dealer, making around $30-$35 a day????..46 ? 49 Tells how table tennis club and competition became part of his life, which introduces him to Neil Smyth, who is comptroller at Caesars; gets audition despite lack of long experience. Describes differences in dealing between El Cortez and Caesars at the time. Hired a few months later. Mentions Las Vegas Table Tennis Association and tournaments??????????.50 ? 53 SESSION 2 Talks about his wife Noreen?s entrepreneurial spirit; their importing business; explains the ASD (Associated Surplus Dealers) consumer goods show; talks about their first catalog of appliques they sold. The business thrived a few years until trends changed. Mentions their customers: Williams Costume shop; Bonanza Gift Shop; flea markets. Describes Peeps, his useful eyeglass protection invention for women and difficulties of marketing it; mentions inventions and ownership of three patents?????????????????????????53 ? 59 Reviews his El Cortez to Caesars dealing career; grocery store anecdote and how quickly people knew of a new hire; discusses Caesars uniform. Tells about retiring after 30 years and one vii month. Recalls starting one the day shift; how that changed over time; railroad crossings could delay travel time to and from work. Describes typical day, from signing in to picking up and reporting cash tokes; skimming; tipping waitresses from the chips rack; cigarette and snack stash in pits?????????????????????????????????60 ? 64 Tells about rules of comping patrons; bartering practice for casino employees; his personal favorite casino shows; family night at Caesars; doing favors to see entertainers at Riviera lounge. Speaks about Caesar restaurants of that era, Nashorium, Ah-So, Bacchanal Room and Nat Hart, vice president of food and beverage and his cooking classes????????????65 ? 68 Recalls seeing Jay Sarno; pool remodeling; backlit ?Sarno Blocks?; perpetual remodeling of Caesars; ?Sinatra Suite? for high rollers with fur blankets. Regulars at his table; story about dealing to actor Telly Savalas; Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley. Proper way to tip the dealer; toke boxes; tallying and dividing dealers? tips; IRS cut??????????????69 ? 75 Talks about card cheaters; art of dealing from a ?shoe?; ?eye in the sky? surveillance procedures; episode of roulette cheating scam when a dealer felt entitled to more money. Explains that he worked the ?front line? or main pit; anecdotes about Debra Winger, Larry Holmes???75 ? 80 Recalls Billy Weinberger; familial feeling between management and employees; describes Caesar sponsored Grand Prix car races of 1980s; mentions Steubenville, Ohio; Harry Wald who succeeded Weinberger; barber Joe Trujillo; Caesars as a movie set; so-called Jewish mafia comments???????????????????????????????..81 ? 87 Explains Big 6 and Wheel of Fortune. Details about his first day dealing at Caesars and the high roller; story about Marty Bucheri?s murder; work with Edythe Katz on Holocaust survivor stories?????????????????????????????????88 ? 93 SESSION 3 Provides more background into his interest and association with Ping-Pong / table tennis; begins in Shanghai, in Chaoufoong Road Camp; played with pieces of wood, on a picnic table with a heavy ball and bricks for a net; looked for clubs when immigrated to US; tells about those involved in organizing the Las Vegas club with Neil Smyth, UNLV students, Murray Hertz; tournaments. Reviews how knowing Neil led him to securing a dealer position. Tells how Neil used this for networking good employees; establishing the Las Vegas Table Tennis tournaments at Caesars as competitive with New York venues (1976)????????????...94 ? 101 Mentions some of Caesars? goodwill ambassadors that he might deal to during that era: Joe Louis, Al Rosen, Pancho Gaonzalez. Talks about a woman dealer; experiences with unions over his life; culinary strike and subbing as a porter and cleaning, picket line; his opinion of unions and current dealer complaints; describes Caesars? dealers room?????????..101 ? 107 viii Talks about tip income; corporate changes in Caesars/Harrahs. Recalls dealing to one of the September 11 terrorists; being confronted at his table about being Jewish?????108 ? 110 More about table tennis; stars of the era; tournaments held in Las Vegas for many years; returning to Vegas in July 2015. Mentions prizefights of the past; temporary venue at Caesars. Tennis enthusiasm of Perlman brothers (owners of Caesars); built air-conditioned tennis courts which also served table tennis competitions. Talks about Circus of the Stars exhibitions at Caesars???????????????????????????????.111 ? 113 Describes his relationship with Congregation Ner Tamid; members early on; son active in early youth group and bar mitzvahed in old temple. Became a board member during building of the Emerson location; Al Rostoff chair story; luau he and Noreen organized for congregation; used his inventor skills; still friends with temple group, Mendlesons, Ostroffs?????..114 ? 117 Talks about the rabbis from New Tamid history; Noreen was on board when Rabbi Sanford Akselrad was hired; expansion of Emerson location; donated stained glass windows?.118 ? 120 Topic of intermarriage is discussed; his father was Jewish and his mother was not; but mother had a Yiddish expression for everything; grew up with Jewish children in the Shanghai camp and then in Cleveland; married into an Orthodox Jewish family and formalized his religious affiliation. Shares story and letter confirming Frank Sinatra?s $30-thousand donation to Ner Tamid and how that came to be, wanted lobby named after him and not giving up on collecting the revenues; Sinatra?s generous but difficult personality; mysterious disappearance of Sinatra plaque. How stained glass windows were salvaged for move of temple??????..121 ? 128 Dealer anecdotes regarding Diana Ross; Harry Belafonte; Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell; Kerry Packer?????????????????????????????...129 - 131 SESSION 4 Talks about his greeting card hobby and how he started writing poetry and applied his creativeness and inventiveness; invented a device for card folding; talks about his father?s creative talents as an inventor when they lived and survived in Shanghai; details and experiences with his first patented item the Super Scoop; challenges of monetizing on inventions; multiple uses of the Super Scoop; patented in 1976??????????????????132 ? 136 Explains that he owns three patents; some items are not unique enough for patents; his invention for lower cost multiple flush toilets had competition. Story of his second patent, PEEPS, a covering for stems of eyeglasses inspired by people getting hair colored; how inventors are problem solvers; challenges that ensued with packaging and marketing of PEEPS in 1994; different names they considered for the product????????????????137 ? 142 Third patent was a ramp system to help with transporting motorized scooters, inspired by his handicapped wife?s needs; identifies problems he sought to solve with this invention; happy with ix product but not with challenges of marketing it. Talks his regrets of not pursuing a patent for his napkin holder invention; discouraging aspect of inventiveness; his opinion of judges on TV show ?Shark Tank?; numerous napkin holder inventions that exist. Describes his concept for keeping toothpaste tubes rolled between uses????????????????????.143 ? 150 Describes his identity as Jewish, being raised by a Jewish father and Christian mother; product of the environment when growing up in Shanghai camp; feeling ?very Jewish? without being ?religious.? Being on temple board of directors, contribution of stain glass windows. More about how his parents respected each other?s religious identity; observing Passover as a child; his observations about how Jews and culture survive obstacles over history. Talks about his official conversion to Judaism before marrying; story of wooing his future grandmother-in-law by repairing her television; his wife Noreen?s adult bat mitzvah, experience of mikveh?..151 ? 156 His overview of impact of Jewish business men on the development of the Strip; undertone of anti-Semitism; Italian mob; more about his friend Smyth and career in Las Vegas. Talks about how he acclimated to living and working in Las Vegas; Wheel of Fortune game and his thoughts of revising it; generational shifts in gambling; cheating devices for electronic games. Talks about cheaters when he was dealing; ?cooler? deck explained; what happened when someone was caught????????????????????????????????.157 ? 163 His observations of ?Caesars 24/7?, a reality TV show. How he is not a gambler himself. Mentions Joe Trujillo the barber at Caesars and now at Orleans; the routines of his life in retirement; stock market investing?????????????????????.164 ? 168 Index????????????????????????????????..169 ? 171 Appendix: The Kid from Cuxhaven: An autobiography of Gerd (Gary) Sternberg [draft] 1 SESSION 1 Today is February 12th, 2015. I?m sitting with Gary Sternberg in his Henderson home. Where shall we begin? We?ve started chatting here. There are so many things to talk to you about. Well, we might get so confused that nobody?s going to be able to make heads or tails out of this. Well, that?s where the editing and the table of contents and the indexing that we?ll do later will help people go through all of this. Let?s start with where you were born. You were looking at a map. Okay, we?re looking at a map of Germany. And this is Hamburg here. There?s a river that goes from Hamburg to the North Sea, which this is the North Sea here, and it?s called the Elbe River. It goes right down to the North Sea and Cuxhaven is right at the mouth of the Elbe River, what flows into the North Sea. It is a small resort town. It?s a resort town and a fishing community, beautiful, beautiful place. We lived right behind a dike and the ocean, just a short block up to the dike. So you were born in what year? 1931. So what was it like as a child in Germany in 1931? Well, we?re talking about cold and northern Germany gets extremely cold. It gets so cold that the saltwater freezes and you have big ice shoals floating around and icebreakers and stuff. It gets very, very cold. And the summer is just beautiful temperatures. It?s just very nice. Went to school. And then, of course, Hitler started with his persecution and the whole thing changed. Air raids and bombardments. But not to get ahead of myself. As a child, just fun, just a kid?s dream. 2 Did you have siblings? I have a sister. She lives in St. Joseph, Michigan. She?s a year and a half older than I am. She?s freezing her tush off right now. And every time I call her she says, ?I don?t want to know; I don?t want to know [about the weather in Las Vegas].? And here we are having record warmth, right? Yeah, and you go outside and you?ve got to take your jacket off it?s so nice. The temperature right now is seventy something degrees. We can?t complain, right. No. By the way, if we would have done this like a couple of months ago?my voice has been kind of harassing me. We wouldn?t have been able to do this. For a whole year I had a voice that was so bad. Just croaky and raspy. They couldn?t figure that out?anyway, I wouldn?t have been able to talk into the microphone. So if you get too tired, let me know because we can always come back and pick up from where we leave off. Sure. Of course. Well, take me through your family. Your parents were both German-born? No. My mother [Augusta Sternberg] was born in Poland. My mother was Christian and she raised us Christian, both my sister and me. We?re kind of a different situation than most Jewish families because we?re like half and a half. My father [Herman Sternberg] was Jewish; my mother was Christian. She raised my sister Ruth and myself in the Christian faith. She came from Poland, a place called Lengoven, a very poverty stricken area. Most of Poland was. They?re rural areas and very poverty stricken area?She used to tell us about the atrocities and the Russians and political strife and the Cossacks and rapes and murders and 3 killings. It goes on and on. She relocated to Germany. She worked as a housekeeper for an Orthodox Jewish family and she learned all the Jewish customs and all the Yiddish expressions. She had more Yiddish expressions than any Jew you know, ever, ever. And then she met my father in Cuxhaven and they got married. Do you know the story of how they met? No, I really don?t. My father at that time?he was like a traveling salesman. He used to sell medical equipment and supplies to hospitals and doctors? offices. He used to go around on a motorcycle, traveling all over in the area around northern Germany and that?s what he would do and this is how they met. A lot of times he?d take my mother along. She?d ride along on the motorcycle and they?d go all over the place. They had a lot of fun. My dad, he had a practice in Cuxhaven and he did a lot of foot work, like callouses and bunions and all kinds of different things. He used to have people coming in from all over Germany...Cuxhaven was a resort town. So a lot of times these people would be on vacation and just come to see him special. He made artificial limbs. He made arms. He made corsets, arch supports, hernia trusses, all kinds of stuff. I used to love to watch him. He did all these things, very, very talented. Then when we came to the United States, he couldn?t continue that because he needed a medical license to do that and he would have had to go for a doctorate. Of course, he was in his fifties and it wasn?t feasible [because of language barrier]. So he was self-trained? Yes. Self-trained, but he learned a lot of that in hospitals on the job, kind of OJT. OTJ, on the job. That?ll work for me. But he did continue when we?I?m getting ahead of myself. Well, actually 4 not because he continued a lot of this stuff in Shanghai, also. He worked for the Jewish Hospital in Shanghai. Wherever we went, even in a one-room flat, he?d have a workshop and he?d do things, not as extensively, needless to say, what he did in Germany, but he always did things, worked for the hospital, just made a few dollars when it wasn?t possible to make a living over there. So he had a trade that he could use? Oh, yeah. ?no matter where in the world you ended up. Right, yeah. [Pause in recording] So now that we have our coffee and our coffee cake that was made by...? Aunt Bess?. Aunt Bess. It?s great, delicious. I?m sure if you like it, Mary Lou can give you the recipe for it. Yes, I love it. So we were talking about your dad and your dad and mom...we?re still in Germany. We?re still in Germany in Cuxhaven. And so how did it come about that you left? My father was in a concentration camp. He got in a concentration camp in 1938. They picked him up, yanked him out of the house. We didn?t know where he was or anything about it. They put him in a concentration camp; it was 1938, and he was in there for about a year. Through friends of his?he had a lot of good friends politically connected friends?they got him out with a condition that if he didn?t leave right away, they would put him back in and forget it; they?d 5 murder him. So when he came back out, he said right away, ?We can?t stay here; we?re going to have to leave Germany.? Of course that was a real...I was about seven, eight years old at the time. ?We have to leave Germany and we can?t stay here because...? I mean he read the writing; the constitution tells you everything, right? But at the time me and my sister and my mother [Augusta Sternberg] were Christian; we weren?t Jewish, but my father was. So his was the immediate urgency that he had to get out. So now we?re trying to make arrangements to leave the country and it turned out that there was only one passage left and China was the only place to go because nobody would have Jews. They tried Cuba, South America, all different places. You couldn?t get a visa to any of these places. So the only place left was China and a lot of German Jews had already gone to China to escape Germany sensing the imminent danger of what?s happening. So the way I hear it is they went to the ship lines and the only way to get out was by ship. They went to the ship lines and there was only one passage left and it was on an Italian luxury liner, just the one passage. They could not accommodate the three of us. So my father wasn?t going to go, but my mother insisted. She said, ?They say they?re going to murder you; they?re going to kill you.? By that time we already knew what was happening in concentration camps and everything. Of course, my mother won the argument and my father left and he left on this luxury liner. I mean really gorgeous ship, right? High style and stuff. And went to China. Then we started making arrangements for us to get out. That passage, by the way, was the last passage on a ship and the last ship to go to Shanghai, and that was out of Genoa, Italy. So my mother, my sister and I, we left there, no income, our finances are dwindling down and stuff. Then finally my mother found a waitress job in an upscale restaurant by the ocean. So had you all gone to Italy, then, together? 6 Oh, I?m sorry, no. Let me go back. We couldn?t go; we had to stay behind. My mother, my sister and I stayed behind. My father left because they would have killed him right away. But we were in no imminent danger at the time because we were Christians. So you stayed in Germany. We stayed in Germany, right. Okay, yeah. I wanted to make sure because he left from Genoa. Right. So that was about a year and a half that was really, really tough. We had no income and had a hard time paying the rent. The house we were living in, we were in a whole section of the house, but it was rented. We had no income and people helped us out. Those people we thought that would be able to help us out, they had...well, my parents had some good friends and the man was a ship building engineer. They were very wealthy, had a big villa-like home. My mother thought they could help us. But they had their money confiscated and they were on a budget. The government had them on a budget, like an allowance kind of thing, and they couldn?t help. Then my father had a good patient and she was a widow, a single woman. I don?t know. But she was very, very wealthy and had a lot of?she was the one that got him out of the concentration camp. She helped out and she got my?I mean nobody would talk to my mother because knowing she was married to a Jew nobody would help her, right? And you were living in a Christian neighborhood? Yes. There?s very few Jews in Cuxhaven. So she finally got her a job and we assumed it was one of her restaurants that she got the job because she was just hired, no questions asked. She had no background and never worked on the outside except in housekeeping and stuff. So she found a waitress job and that kept us going for a while. Then we made arrangements. But in the meantime?so now, in 1940 the war starts. So 7 now the war is going on and Germany had invaded Poland and the war starts. So the war starts with England; Poland was invaded and stuff. So now they start the whole thing. Germans are all elated, oh, wow, we?re going to rule the world. They?re going to be the dictators of the world and everybody?s elated the fact that Germany overran Poland in such a short time that, wow, we?re the world might now. So now air raids start. So now we?re getting bombed by British bombers. Most of the nights we were in a little bomb shelter in a basement with bombs falling all around. For little kids...it?s scarier than hell. Oh, it has to be. I don?t know how my mother did it, but while she was working she made arrangements. Finally we got the passage arranged, but we couldn?t go by ship; we had to go by land. We had to go from Cuxhaven. And it was very difficult to make arrangements in Cuxhaven because agencies and travel and stuff like that was very difficult to arrange. My mother had a sister in Berlin. She never got along well with her. She wrote her a letter, the situation we?re in, blah, blah, blah, and she didn?t expect a lot of results from her. A few days later she gets a letter back saying that she?d love to have us, we can stay with her and she?d help us make arrangements. It was great. So after we packed up?oh, there?s a little incident I should mention. While all this is going on, the air raids and the war and the fear of war and stuff being rationed, you couldn?t hardly buy anything anymore like bread, butter, meat; it was very, very scarce. Like I wrote in my book, when I was a little kid just playing outside, I used to get hungry and the only reason I would come into the house is because I was hungry. Then I was hungry and there was nothing to eat. It was a different kind of hunger. 8 My mother made arrangements. The only way we could go is by?so the Jewish Joint and a lot of Jewish organizations helped, also the same organizations that helped my father with money because we had hardly any money. So she made arrangements and we went to Berlin with my aunt and she put us up in her apartment. She had a big apartment and she put us up. She did all the groundwork already, where the organizations were that she had to contact and everything. It was great. And we had a wonderful time there. My aunt?s husband, Uncle Kurt, later on he was drafted into the German Army and he was killed in combat. So the only way to get out of Germany to China was over land and we had to go from Cuxhaven to Berlin, from Berlin to Moscow, Russia, through all of Russia, Siberia, to a place called Harbin, which is on the other end of Russia, which is almost on the Pacific Coast, via the Trans-Siberian Railroad. The whole trip took, I think, about maybe eight or nine days on one train. But it wasn?t bad. It was a luxury train. It was great. We had good food and nice company. We had Russians soldiers on there, officers. They played with us. As kids it was really good. We went to Harbin. This is where things change. On the train when we went from Berlin to Moscow, we stayed at the Metropol Hotel, which at that time was Russia?s crown jewel hotel. It wasn?t just a flea bag. It was a gorgeous high-line hotel. We stayed there for three days. While in Moscow we went sightseeing, the Red Square, Saint Basil?s Cathedral, Lenin?s Tomb and we found out where Lenin was buried. That?s a joke...We had sightseeing. And in the hotel we ate in this incredible dining room with music. I?ve got pictures of all that stuff. Oh, you do? Yeah. I got online and I downloaded? Oh, not ones that you took. 9 No, I didn?t have a camera?even today it?s still a very high-class hotel. And from there?the railroad station was right in this same area, like three railroad stations near Red Square. Just about everything was within walking distance. From there we went on the train. And the uncertainties of food and how we would be treated, a young woman with two little kids, can you imagine? And so this train, it ends in Russia? It goes to Harbin, which is a city in Manchuria. We went through Manchuria, also. I?ve got to add Manchuria to this whole thing. Went through Manchuria. Manchuria was occupied by the Japanese. So when we left Russia and we went across the border into Manchuria, Manchuria was occupied by the Japanese. We get to the railroad station and the train, of course, stops. You?ve got all these Japanese soldiers with fixed bayonets yelling commands and stuff like this. Scared the shit out of us. This train stops and an officer shouts commands and all these soldiers, they scurry on to different cars in the train and they stand at attention in each car with fixed bayonets. They come around to all the windows. They rip the shades down, pull the shades down. An announcement was made...you better not look out the shades. And who was going to argue with these guys with the fixed bayonets, right? So obviously, the Japanese had a lot of military installations that they didn?t want anybody to see. So that was the secrecy and the guard; so nobody would look out. So now we couldn?t move around as readily as we did on the train. So things weren?t so much fun anymore. We wind up in Harbin. In Harbin we stayed in some kind of hotel for a day or so. I can?t remember exactly there. Then we went on a train, which was a typical Oriental train. It was packed with stinking Chinese, coolies, fleas, human waste. Coming from where we came from...my mother was a neat freak. Everything had to be just right. Well, this was total disaster 10 to her on this train we go into a port city on the Yellow Sea and I can?t remember the name of the city it was. But the train trip took about a day and a half, maybe two days. It was terrible. The tra