Bazaar Memories - Collected From CHW-Toronto Members
Ora Chapter - "We remember 50 wonderful years participating in Bazaar. Some highlights are as follows: Making ice cream cones and waffles in our ice cream parlour with repeat customers always clamouring for more; serving salads with assembly-line precision; getting 17 skids of merchandise (including Halloween) from Shoppers Drug Mart and wondering if we would be able to sell everything and waiting for hours on set up day for a large delivery from Pharma-Plus that was finally found sitting in a large tractor-trailer outside. Most of all we recall the wonderful times we worked from morning ‘til night as a great team, with aches and pains from schlepping, but having fun always."
"About 15 years ago, we, Noar Chapter, received a large donation of long gowns from "The Pink Poodle." Unpacking these magnificent polyester gowns was the highlight of our day. We hung everything up and arranged them by size. Barbara Sugar was selling in our booth. A woman and her friend walked by and customer gets very excited at seeing a green and yellow dress that would be perfect for her daughter’s wedding. Barbara invites her in to try on this gorgeous dress for the mother of the bride. The customer says it’s only a size 8 and she needs a 14-16. Barbara then says not to worry. Her father was in the clothing business his whole life and has an idea of what this woman could do. Barbara tells her to take two of the size 8 dresses, remove the sleeves, open the side seams and sew the two dresses together. After much discussion, the mother of the bride decided it could be done and bingo – 2 dresses sold!! A very happy customer indeed!
"Camaraderie of sorting through donations at depot and haggling with customers." Rona Sherebrin
"Penny was pregnant with Barbi Benjamin and was exhausted after the set up of Bazaar and she asked if I would sleep downtown at a hotel thus starting a tradition of staying downtown. The following year many others followed suit." - Carolyn Nadler, Gila Chapter.
"My great aunt, Captain Lillian Smith, brought her 69th Girl Guide troop to work at the Royal York Hotel in the 1920’s. She started the first Jewish Girl Guide Troop in North America. She met Lady Baden Powell and presented her guides to her."
"Sheila Mink, at the age of 13, daughter of Morris and Rita Mink, won the grand draw of a convertible car. She made her mother keep the car until she could drive it at the age of 16 years."
"My mother, Bunny Phillips, was a member of Herzlia chapter and as a teenager and young adult I modelled in many Hadassah Fashion Shows. Thrifty’s donated new jeans for the Herzlia booth. Eleanor Lavender
"Future "memories" – Every last Wednesday of October, the restaurant chairs, Marla, Robyn and Marlene, have a dinner date. All are welcome!" Robyn Rosen Codas.
"My mother, Bessie Sherman, used to bake her "famous" chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and very modestly would come home very surprised that they were always the first cookies to disappear! Every year she would make a few more and they would always be gobbled up."
"Fifty years ago I was the bride at the Fashion Show. My late mother, Min Clavir, was the mother of the Bride. My father sat in the audience and yelled… ‘I only wish she should find a guy and get married’. Lots of good memories. I started coming to Bazaar at age 10". Sandy Cohen, Gila Chapter
"Gila Chapter used to stay overnight at a hotel on the Lakeshore. Penny Benjamin was Bazaar Chair that year – we had a delivery to our room. Michael Benjamin sent lobster from House of Chan." Sharon Kroft, Gila Chapter
"My mother, Eleanor Moses, was in Rishon Chapter. The ladies she worked with were together for years. In the 1950’s they sold Halloween costumes one year and another year they sold home made aprons. They were successful ventures. One year, a lady left her fur coat in the booth and it was sold for $200. Of course she was horrified and upset. No one left their coats in the booth after that."
"Irving and I were married on January 18, 1952. After the customary cutting of the cake, the cake disappeared. When I asked my late mother Bessie about the cake she was very vague. Fast forward to late October 1955. The cake re-appeared! Not in three tiers but cut up and wrapped into neat little squares and being sold for 25 cents a piece. It had been carefully placed in somebody’s freezer. My mother was an active member of Rehovot chapter and together with "her girls" were a dedicated and determined fund raising team for this organization so dear to their hearts. Wishing you much continued success." Sylvia H.
"For the Craft Sessions, my mother, Rose Sutin, made over a hundred pairs of mittens and dozens of aprons – even at 92 years of age. I created a Rose pin with a Hadassah small ornament to be presented to the best craftwork. Whatever happened to it?"
For the office, to assist Mrs. Johnson, my sister Helen Stork looked after the Bazaar office, staying after midnight to collect all the receipt books and balance the bank before the era of computers. Then, day after Bazaar, our whole family gathered at the dining room table and went through the receipt books, giving each Chapter their amounts. It was always balanced to the penny.
At the introduction of the Eilat contributions, Serry Dacks, then the director, asked me, Shirley Sibulash, to receipt and record all the contributions. Quite a job! Three members, one family, contributing to the operation of Bazaar.
Final year, my daughter, Suellen Boyd will once again work in the office as she has done for the past several years, carrying on the tradition. One more time."
"It is too bad the Bazaar will close it’s doors after 84 years. It was fun while growing up, seeing my mother get up early in the morning of the bazaar, work so hard with her Chapter and enjoy meeting so many people that day and know she was helping different people from all walks of life. The bazaar will surely be missed as a landmark for Toronto."
Bazaar Memories - Collected From Our Shoppers at the Last Bazaar
"Thanks!! Twenty nine years ago, my mother-in-law and I came here. I was three months pregnant with my first daughter and I was craving herrings in sour cream – which you had! I’ve come since with her sisters also. " Pat B.
"I have been coming to the Bazaar since I have been 14 years old! It is one of the times in the year that I have always looked forward to. It has been great FUN! Great bargains! Thanks for the memories. " Eva Eiduks
"To all the people that have made this event possible over all the years. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping me as a single mother able to clothe my child. I couldn’t afford to miss this event. Kind regards." J.Miller
"The Bazaar has become a tradition over the years with our family. It is something we look forward to every year. My grandparents, mother and sisters have been coming for as long as I can remember, and this last Bazaar will be the 30th time my grandparents and mother have gone. I have found a lot of great finds and will miss not spending this day with my family shopping till we drop." Tara Payne, Pickering, ON
Janice Bassett, Oshawa, Ontario brought a photograph of her and her husband on their wedding day and related this story: "I bought my wedding gown at the Hadassah Bazaar 9 years ago. .. My mother cut it down & made a christening gown for my baby."
"In the 1980’s, Forest Hill Collegiate pretty much closed down – no students attended school because they were at the Hadassah Bazaar! The day after Bazaar day, we all wore our stylish creations to school and chatted about our best buys. Many years have passed since then but I don’t think any of us who attended F.H.C.I. in those days will ever forget Bazaar day nor the day after."
"Wonderful chicken dinners upstairs in the Coliseum"
"1968 – My First Bazaar. I’m 20 at U of T living in the Annex. Me and my friends from school spent exhausting hours here just going crazy over the VINTAGE 40’s furs! Couture ball gowns! Gorgeous stuff! It was wonderful but most of all I loved the old ladies – the Yiddish. Oh how I miss them now."
"I used to "skip out" – grade 9 and on! Now, 35 years later – I continue to drive the 400 miles round trip to attend every year. I cried when I heard this was the last. I’ve still got my hanging minah bird, boots, and even shoes from 3 years ago to hold onto, as my memory of Hadassah-WIZO. Please do come back as something…anything. I even drove my daughter and her 6 friends all the years they were in high school. Up at 4:30 a.m. , leave and 6 and here by 9 for the opening! The girls had a ball and I always told their principal we were attending a wonderful cultural event! You’re loved and will be missed." Terry
"My sister Patricia and I bought our "Bazaar Betty Bags" from Roberta to remember the last 84th Hadassah Bazaar!" Mary Kitchin
"Twelve years ago I visited you wonderful ladies. A kind gentleman stopped me to purchase a box for $100. I said yes… He called me back and gave me five, $10.00 bills back…and asked me to open the box. I said at home I will. He called me back and asked why. I told him this money is for the children of our future. He called me back again and gave me 3x $5.00 back – this box cost me $35. Opened this box in front of him and cried with such shock. Inside was a beautiful dress - $1600.00. Next year I had very little money and this dress was at my son’s wedding. Thank you. " Barbara R.