Michael Opas - [n.d.]
Learning to be a Furrier
Mm-hm.
After school--about a few years later, I'm--I was--I married very young. I was only twenty-two when I married. And uh, my wi...my wife--act...my former wife, I mean, she passed away with my son--she was from the ???. Her parents were in ???. And I, I learned from her this was--I had, I had to learn to be a furrier, because my older sister married a furrier.
Mm-hm.
And my brother-in-law was very much interested in me. He wanted me to have a future. And he said, "No matter where you travel, where you go, if you have a, you have a trade--if you have a profession you can--you will always earn a wage." So probably he was right.
Okay.
So after school--while I was still in school--I mean, after school hours I usually used to go into their business and help them out with sales. I was very, very--I mean, I was really with the customers very handy. And I learned the trade. But when I married, uh, well, I didn't have too much money--enough money to, to, to be in the fur business, so we, we somehow managed to get a, a little, a little store--a shoe store and build it up from...
You built it from the bottom up?
From bottom up, yeah.
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn