00:00:01.610 - 00:00:21.840

All right, this is the start of an interview with Melvina Reynolds. All right, you were talking about San Francisco when you first came here. Well, I was born here. I was born in South of Market Street, on Folsom Street, it used to be a residence area

00:00:21.840 - 00:00:44.069

kind of. Working class residence area. And uh I lived, I've lived in this part of the world around the Bay Area all my life and as soon as I started college in the where was the early twenties. Um, I was uh. Berkeley was my home and

00:00:44.069 - 00:01:03.220

I've been away, you know, for stretches one time as much as 7 years, I think, but I had to live in Southern California because my dad's. Business, my dad died and I helped. Keep the business going. He had a naval tailoring shop. Uh, My dad had

00:01:03.220 - 00:01:21.069

been a uh immigrant from Hungary. When he was about 14 years old, he came to New York and he'd been a tailor's apprentice, pretty poor. And hardworking kid and he got to New York and got into the sweatshop, so he was no better off and was

00:01:21.069 - 00:01:40.220

very homesick. So, uh, he used to hang around the waterfront on Saturday, which was their day off Jewish holiday, you know, Jewish Sabbath. And some guy got in conversation with him who spoke either Yiddish or Hungarian, and our language he understood and asked him what he

00:01:40.220 - 00:01:53.250

was doing in there, and he said, well, he's just looking at your tips. He wished you could get on one and go back to Budapest, and the man says, Oh, I can take care of that. So they took him up to another place and but uh

00:01:53.470 - 00:02:12.360

uh dad stood by while the guys talking. He signed something and he was in the United States Navy for 4 years. He's been. Oh good heavens, yeah, but he didn't mind it, it turned out, uh, he became ship's tailor. And uh it was no wartime thing

00:02:12.360 - 00:02:30.350

just to come over about the same time as well, in the 1880s or 90s, yeah, my father came about that same time. And uh it was all a New York Irish crew. The old Pensacola, I think was his first ship. The bell of it is down

00:02:30.350 - 00:02:45.360

here at Spaders, the old Pensacola ships back, so his bud was always, uh, pleased to see that old bell and even after he was sick, he was pointed out to people, you know, there was something important about us. He was very fond my father. He was

00:02:45.360 - 00:03:08.300

a very nice guy. My mother too. Uh And uh He learned his. His American life quit because he didn't get into the Jewish community at all he was immediately thrown in New York. On two young men. And he had to learn and he did his English

00:03:08.300 - 00:03:28.199

was excellent. Uh But he always spoke with a slight Irish accent. So we might have that. And he looked like a black Irishman, you know, with a black mustache. I have. All right, what was all this about? Oh yeah, anyway, in San Francisco. Yeah, so, uh,

00:03:28.220 - 00:03:43.559

we lived in San Francisco and uh then you know, he, when he got out of the navy when we got married and I was about 2 years old, he, he got out after about his 3rd or 4th hit and uh. Opened up a naval tailoring shop.

00:03:44.309 - 00:04:00.860

And he's had, he did have them in San Francisco in Vallejo on Mare Island, no, it was in Vallejo where the naval base is, and then down at Long Beach when they had a base naval base down. And so when he died. Is down there. Uh,

00:04:00.869 - 00:04:27.600

to help with the business but and I were married then. What year were you married? What year were you married? 34, I think. Nancy was born in 35. And uh I had known but. I met him, I think in 1917. At the uh. Um A London

00:04:27.600 - 00:04:52.950

Memorial Library, 1256 Mon Street, is that San Francisco. Which was a very good, uh, kind of radical center where they had a library and meetings and parties and dances and dinners and uh nice sociability. Uh, and these two guys came off the ship. And they were

00:04:53.230 - 00:05:09.000

came to this dance. My cousin and I were there, so we picked up the two. What was God doing on the ship? Well, that's an interesting story. I think it's reported in there, but I can tell you, I'll tell you about it. Uh, he, during World

00:05:09.000 - 00:05:26.380

War One. He was not about to be drafted and he and his gang, he went to Australia, I remember that's right. And uh the surveillance was not like it is now. They didn't have the computers and the fingerprints and all that, so guys could that were

00:05:26.380 - 00:05:44.690

smart could get away with it. They didn't hang out amongst the unemployed or the young people. They stayed in the well to do or respectable section of town. They dressed well and they never got bothered. They didn't, uh, you know, I think, I think he registered,

00:05:44.980 - 00:06:09.989

but he didn't appear when he was called. So they lived in Detroit. And he was very Detroit. The northern part of the United States and Canada is practically no. Boundary. I mean these boundaries are artificial anyway. Uh, Detroiters worked in Canada and vice versa. And so

00:06:09.989 - 00:06:30.320

he knew Canadian customs. And way of speech. So what he did was he went across the border and returned as a Canadian citizen, so he wouldn't be subject to death. That under another name. So he kind of batted around like that, but he. Wanted to get

00:06:30.320 - 00:06:45.549

out of the way of the draft because I think even the Canadians were involved in the war. So he signed on the merchant marine. But he couldn't because he didn't have any papers. He was, he had a name that didn't wasn't in any record in Canada

00:06:45.549 - 00:07:03.059

organized any place and he had no. He conned the guy at the uh. What was he looking for? He was looking for a pass. He need a passport. You need a working passport to get on the ships. He calmed the guy and he used to. There's

00:07:03.059 - 00:07:25.019

a picture of a young man, such an innocent blonde young American type, you know you know this whole thing reminds me of. I recently saw the movie Joe Hill and I, I couldn't help but struck by certain obvious differences too idealistic, but with a lot of

00:07:25.019 - 00:07:37.380

hell in him, you know, he, he had fun doing all these things, he and his pals. He looked as if he had all his life, not, though he was a very serious guy in many ways, and he could get terribly angry and injustice and that kind

00:07:37.380 - 00:07:53.779

of thing. Well, damn good sense of humor and a great. Practical sense of uh immediately responding to a situation of the right thing. I think that the combination of anger and humor is what characterizes your music, which is what I've always enjoyed so much about the

00:07:53.779 - 00:08:15.769

humor is what saves you from exploding, yeah, and saves it from being a grim. Well, he arrived from Australia in San Francisco, yeah, and I immediately took him in hand. He was very shy, big good looking guy, and uh. Um, I took him. Home, I said

00:08:15.769 - 00:08:28.309

you're taking me home time, and we saw each other several times. And then it was around the holidays and I saw him up at the school there and I said go over and have dinner with us, and he says, well, your mother doesn't expect me. I

00:08:28.309 - 00:08:42.760

said that's where our house is. Anybody comes and goes and eats whatever is there, you know, it's so typical of our background, so he liked that and uh so he came and we went together for quite a long time, but. I was only 17 and not

00:08:42.760 - 00:08:56.609

interested in getting married. He used to tease me that he never did ask me, but he did not, and I said, uh, I was. I was, uh, had a big career ahead of me. Were you already involved in music at that time? No, it wasn't music.

00:08:56.789 - 00:09:14.440

I was planning to be a teacher and a writer, but music was just, you know, I just played little fiddles. I haven't, I didn't start till I was only 4. So he went, he went back to see, I think. This was, yeah, he went back to

00:09:14.440 - 00:09:30.210

see or something anyway, he, he got out of sight and uh I went to college and he, when I started college, he said we ought to have a way. That was his attitude. There was a lot of teeth but I got out of the movement. I

00:09:30.210 - 00:09:46.010

was in a nice little comfortable backwash there. He was already quite political as a young man, as I recall, yes, see, he, he joined the party, the Socialist party, I think as soon as he could. They had no children, young people sex. I think he was

00:09:46.010 - 00:10:03.750

18 or something. I think I said 14, but I was mistaken, but he was. Active when he was 14, but he got into the party when he was 18. I read some of his notes. And corrected that incidentally it says Malcolm Cowley and that's wrong in

00:10:03.750 - 00:10:21.750

that newspaper article who quoted something about him. Do you have that article from the Chronicle? No, I never did see an article. All right, I have copies of it so you can have one, but I mean, I think I see Mexican Rivera and but as you

00:10:21.750 - 00:10:40.179

know, the Mexican communists and the American communists kind of. Bud has gone back to the library and found the article, but I couldn't tell you what year it's in. But anyway, this is the observation that uh Edmund Rosson made about B. Um, Budd was born in

00:10:40.179 - 00:10:57.969

Bay City, Michigan and had, uh. A family, uh, he was one of a family of 10. And I remember my mother-in-law, very wonderful person. When people asked her how many children she had, she said, I have 5 girls. And they say, oh, that's nice, and then

00:10:57.969 - 00:11:18.169

she would look slide and say and fight for. No, that was a kicker to have 5 girls was really too bad, but ah, you have 5 girls, that makes it crazy. Uh, but, uh, she was a great guy. She once when she met Margaret Sanger. She

00:11:18.169 - 00:11:34.880

said, I met you about 20 years too like. Just as well, huh, I in a way, except that Bud was the second one, so that was good enough for me. They had two I can please, uh, he's, he was what he was to some extent because.

00:11:35.869 - 00:11:58.419

He was involved in this large family. More than than his older brother, his older brother was the macho. He was the man son, he was the big handsome. Very, very capable young man who got into Fords and could do anything. He could construct plants, he could.

00:11:59.299 - 00:12:21.140

Uh, design buildings, moved buildings, and with just a great school education, a remarkable guy for whom but had the most tre the greatest admiration. But a man with no social understanding, no personal relationship kind of thing, his kid went all to pieces, you know, his daughter,

00:12:21.190 - 00:12:42.770

he couldn't handle a personal relationship with all of this. So, uh, I tried to shake blood out of his. Uh, feeling of being less than Harry. Because Bud was so much more than Harry though, so, but in his household, you see. Harry and his father, he

00:12:42.770 - 00:12:57.210

was, he was called Ira until later years. Ira and his father would go out to the woods. To do lumbing in Michigan. And Bud had to stay home like, you know, at the age of 1314, he was the, the guy in the house that the chores.

00:12:57.840 - 00:13:14.549

It wasn't only chores really. He, he had to keep the stones burning, and this means going out to the trees, chopping them down, hitching up the horse and dragging the tree, the trees in and sowing them and everything else that had to be done. At one

00:13:14.549 - 00:13:32.479

point they were moving from, it was pretty much frontier then, you know, and we were moving out into another farmhouse. I think they were living in the city, in Bay City at this time, they were moving out to a farm. And uh they were bringing different

00:13:32.479 - 00:13:48.280

loads of things out there by wagon. So he and his sister stayed in this big house out and practicing in the woods alone overnight, you know, with no furniture in it, while the others were back in town on a trip to pick stuff up when they

00:13:48.280 - 00:14:05.780

were just little kids, he remembered it. Reverend Cushman mentioned the, the weight of that responsibility of bringing in the woods had persisted until the last year even must have made a very profound impression on a young kid. And how he worried it's I mentioned that in

00:14:05.780 - 00:14:18.150

his during hisness he worried about the winter he would as we walk along a family he'd say how long is the winter? Does it get very cold. He'd forgotten he was in California and he was still thinking the Michigan winter is quite something and of course

00:14:18.150 - 00:14:32.109

it was a it was an awful trauma to them because they never had food enough to get through the winter. They lay up what they could, you know, but it never lasted until a crop came in and in the spring, in the spring. So, huh, they,

00:14:32.119 - 00:14:46.359

they went hungry, that's all like they, they, they pieced out what they had to make it last, so they, they were always, and he would sit at this table here after he was sick. And take a half an hour evening to clean every scrap off his

00:14:46.359 - 00:15:02.729

plate. You could see that little bowling there, and I'm so painstaking that every little about locking, and this was only after he was sick before that he was very casual or he would play the rest. So many of those childhood pains. Came back and doing this.

00:15:03.780 - 00:15:22.239

It's car. Well, he had an interesting background to do the kind of agricultural work he did later then because he experienced the dog himself. Well, his father was one of these, uh, he was a very typical. American Mongol, I mean, he had many, mostly English and

00:15:22.239 - 00:15:34.469

Scottish I think background. His mother was of a Holland background. But his father was always looking out for some other thing that he was doing, whatever it was, you know, if he was working in town, he wanted a farm, and when he got on the farm,

00:15:34.549 - 00:15:43.070

he had that wanted the back to work in town. So they were always moving back and forth, so he had both the town and country.