5 into the new modern, civilized America. And the adjustment was great, be- cause the adjustment was with the families. They all felt close together and closely knit, but overcoming the hardships in the New World, I think, that made them bear their burden a great deal easier, because each one was more of help to the other. The ones that they had brought over here, and the ones that they sent for....In fact, my father had sent for all of his family, which was five brothers. In the Safer family, on my mother's side, the five brothers and two sisters all landed in Jacksonville. And one would send for the other. The early rifewas not an organized life. It was sandlot ath- letics, playing in public parks, trying to organize teams to play against the Protestants of the city, because at that time there was a certain feeling against Jewish competition also, and Jewish fellows, and we managed to over- come a great deal of this with good, clean athletic programs, not organized, but done by itself. So finally, after high school, there came time for college and I went to the University of Florida. I was to room with Hyman Katz, who was an attorney in Jacksonville later on, after his graduation. Another roommate was Max "Goldie" Goldstein, also an attorney in later life. A tremendous football player of renown and in the apartment complex where we had a room was my present machuten, Max Glickstein, who was studying engineering. So it's quite a humorous coincidence that my daughter marries his son later on in life, but that's neither here nor there, with the history of Jacksonville. The thing is that times were very hard. It was after World War I, and for a while there was a big boom in Florida, and the boom was in Jacksonville and people were making money hand over fist, but only on paper. A few cashed in maybe, but everybody got clobbered one way or another. They lost a lot of money, and particularly when the Citizens Bank, which was the stronghold of the Jewish community, failed. I think that was a very unfortunate blow, but still, how can you say there was a Depression when we didn't know any better? We'd been poor all the time, and we didn't think of the big blow of '29, '30, and '31 as anything unusual, because we never had it good anyhow. And I think that helped many of the Jewish citizens of the city to really pick themselves up because they knew it always had been a.hard struggle. There hadn't been easy times. My graduation from dental school in Atlanta, which is now Emory University, was in 1929. I came to Jackson- ville. I'd been going with one girl for probably ten years, and we were married in 1931. S: What was her name? W: Her name was Jean Stein. And when I say Jean Stein, it brings me to the best part of the story that I know. It brings me up to River Garden EHebrew Home for the Aged]. I not only married Jean Stein, but I think that I also must have married her mother, Mrs. Rose Stein, because Mrs. Stein was a very dominant, intelligent, wise woman who had a definite purpose in life, and this she transmitted to her daughter, and some of it even leaked over onto me. Now, by this time, the new Conservative synagogue hdd opened, the Jack- sonville Jewish Center, and there was a ladies' organization. S: Were you married there, Sam? Where were you married?