Nadene Goldfoot
I grew up in Ladd's Addition; went to Abernethy Grade School from K to 8th grade, and then onto Washington High.
Nadene, graduated Washington High on Stark St. in 1951 at the age of 16 This led to being in the first class to graduate from Portland State in 1958. From there I taught at Buckman Grade School not too far away, and a few times even swam in their indoor pool. Being Jewish, and being 90 years of age now, I am in the bracket of being 2% of the Jewish population of the USA as well as being 2% of the population being 90 years old in the USA. I guess I'm a pretty rare bird ! Ladd's Addition was a new area when my parents moved in. It was made up of a mixture of people. My best friend, Patty Shumacher, lived behind our house and across the alley. Her house faced Abernethy. She grew up to be Miss Portland!
We had Chinese across the street and around the corner, another Jewish family, the Padrows, 3 houses away, Greeks, and lots of Italians as well as a Swedish family whose son certainly caught my eye, Johnny Elving, even at my age of 5. We were in the Rose Parade together; I in a bassinet and he pulling it on his bike. In my Kindergarten was another boy who caught my eye; David Jeremiah who made the best wooden boat in his shop corner of the room. I believe it was he who went on to become Admiral of our Navy and was in another Rose Parade, leading it.
A man came around with a pony every year and we kids had our picture taken on it. Here's my brother, David, who became the Rose Festival Junior Prime Minister one year. He was 8 years younger than me, born the year after Jerry in this article in 1942.
An Irish family lived next door to us in a very large house. The school's Pot Luck dinners were probably the best in the city with all the wonderful assortment of traditional food that was on the table.
Later, Jerry Cinnera was born and raised in the Ladd's Addition area of Hosford Grade School and also attended from K to 8th grade. What he remembers is that as a kid, maybe 7th or 8th grader, getting into trouble with the principal. Being Italian, he remembers that his grandparents lived in the same area and that his mother sang in one of the nearby Italian restaurants and had a great voice. Jerry inherited that, singing all the time to his tapes. We have a 6 year difference, so his music preference is quite different from mine, but I'll hear him sing one of these days.
He remembers the neighborhood so well! He made me a list of the landmarks: Little Italy, the market club just off 10th and Belmont, The Lido Italian Restaurant on 10th and Belmont, the Monte Carlo Italian Restaurant on 10th and Belmont. Then there was the Grand Central Bowling Alley on 8th and Belmont and the Wholesale Produce Market where an Italian man with an open wagon came around with fresh fruit and veggies to each home, parking near your curb while you chose your fresh and beautiful wares. There was Gatto Produce on 10th Street. Also Jerry remembered Grazian Produce on 10th Ave. and Caruco Produce on 10th Street. His father had the Cinnera Produce on 10th and Taylor. There was Amato's Supper Club on 12th as well ! We both remember the shoemaker on 12th Street. I remember 2 Italian mama-papa stores that I walked to every day, buying something my mother forgot and needed quickly. Down on Hawthorne and 12th was a supermarket style store, the first I had seen, where we tried to get to every week.
Now I can't mention much about Hosford being I wasn't there, but my 5 female cousins of the Oster family attended. We had the 1st, 2nd 4th and 5th daughters becoming Portland teachers with the 5th getting her doctor's degree teaching at Portland State and doing much more, while the 3rd worked at the VA.
At Brookdale on my 90th birthday with another cousin attending, Don Eichman.
Jerry and I grew up in Ladd's Addition without bumping into each other. We both remember the Plaza Theater where I saw many movies. I remember crossing the Ross Island Bridge all the time to get home from Portland State. Right on the corner of Powell was a bank I went to every day when working for my father across the River who was in the Wholesale Meats Co, then. I had become his bookkeeper making a little pocket money. I had deposits to make every day for him. My end of the bargain was $15 per week to keep the books. One thing I learned was to always keep busy; pick up the broom and sweep if out of accounting to do.
Now, we have met. We both have wound up at a Brookdale Oswego Springs of Portland, Oregon, in Assisted Living. We even live on the same 3rd floor, and to make it even eerier, we live next door to each other. Now, I think that's pretty amazing, don't you!
Another twist to our story is that I've just been told by our receptionist Debra that her family members had attended Hosford as well! My good gracious!
To add to this, I just found out that our program director, Colleen, came from Ladd's Addition also besides the Sellwood area. She also has such fond memories. What are the odds of the 4 of us all from this lovely SE Portland area meeting up in an Assisted Living-work and residents, in part of Lake Oswego? Well, it is also lovely.
Raise the coincidence level again; just found out my caretaker's father in law owned the Monte Carlo in Ladd's Addition that Jerry remembered. This is more than amazing; it's fate! (morning of 3/3/25).
Jerry might have been in class with 2 of my female cousins, Harriet born in 1941 and Darlene born in 1942. Those were WWII years. My brother David was born in 1942. All 3 are now deceased. Jerry was born in 1941. We meet in the dining room every morning. We're both very early risers and are usually one of the first down there. Our conversations started by mentioning a Darrell Felici (sp?) that we had both known; me at Washington High and Jerry, maybe from Hosford, not sure.
3/17/25 Jerry wrote that when he was 18 years old, he tipped over a rig hauling frozen lambs from Swift to New York, his first job, and was really rattled after that, and his Dad and Mom flew out to help him, and then flew him back home. "We had a truck in Chicago and they came back to Minneapolis and transferred the lambs to this truck". Johnny Grossman drove the truck back to St. Paul, Minnesota.
"I had to fly home with Mom and Dad because I had to start school and I wanted to stay there and wait to get the truck repaired. What a bummer! Mom and Dad didn't say anything on the way back to Portland. the lambs were frozen enough. It was really bad experience. I wasn't really experienced but I wanted to drive the lead, and that was that".
3/24/25: Jerry seems to be the last of the Little Italy population and he has been busy lately writing down his thoughts about Ladds Addition.
His father's name was Bazilio Cinnera. Another Italian family name was Shindilis. Bazilio went to Abernethy Grade School for one year. Then he went to Benson High. After that Grandma Neurely put him to work selling fruits and veggies door to door in Little Italy.
Consolidated FreightwaysHe worked his way up selling produce and then acquired a partner, Vennie Graziano, who eventually quit and went to work for Consolidated as the lead man in the nation.
Then Paul owned the produce house and named it Cinerra Produce. He then sold it to his right hand man, Norm Wilson, who smoked cigars. In fact, all the men in his family smoked cigars. He then bought two produce trucks. He drove to Yakima every day. He tipped the truck over on the old Columbia Highway. Then he bought 17 big rigs and hauled produce for Safeway Stores. He hauled from Oregon and Washington and to California, and from California back to Oregon. He even got to Billings, Montana. Jerry drove and loved those big rigs.
Edited on 6/3/25: 8:52am
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