The Tailor Shop The following transcript is from a July 23, 1997, interview in Coronado, California, with Zellie Capin, the eighth child and youngest son of Hyman and Dora Capin. Well, when my father moved to Nogales he was a military tailor at that time. And that was the only thing that he really knew what to do---was the tailoring business. So, he went right---maybe a hundred feet from the entrance to Camp Stephen D. Little. He had a little building there that he rented and he opened a little tailor shop---and he did--he made a good living. I don't know how long---maybe a couple years. Then, like I say, my father was very aggressive. So he went in to see the colonel---the commanding officer and camp deputy. He went to see him. In those days, the colonels were very rough. And of course the tailor was nothing to him. If you weren't in the army---an officer---in those days you were nothing. So he went to talk to him about opening a tailor shop on the, in the camp. This colonel told him, "Oh, I've had you---there was one time the Jews came up---you Jewish tailors." I don't know if he said it that nicely. "They were terrible. They stole from my soldiers." He raved on and on. So my father, a very polite type man and calm, he said, "I'm not that way," he says. "And I would like to do something. I would like to make you a uniform because you say none of them are any good. I would like to make you a uniform---a dress uniform. And if it fits you, and you like it, and you want it, I want to be paid for it."  And this happened to strike the colonel that "He's an honest man. He's not trying to bribe me." So he gave him permission. My father was a very fine cutter and tailor besides, and he made the whole uniform himself. And when it was all finished---in those days they wore boots---and he took the uniform to the colonel's house and the colonel tried it on. And it must have fit him magnificently because he looked at it and looked it over, and looked it over. My father remembers in telling me, because I think he talked to me as much as my older brothers because I was around him more---"It's magnificent, Mr. Capin." Then he tells him---he says, "I'm going to give you a building." the building was maybe 75 to 100 feet long---one of those pre-fab buildings that they had in those days. And my father set up the first tailor shop there. And that's how he got into the camp. If he would have told the colonel, "I want to make a uniform for you and if you like it you can have it," the colonel would probably have turned him down. But he said, "When I make it you're going to have to pay for it." And I think they agreed on the price at the time---of course in those days, still under $100.00 was a lot of money. But in those days the uniform was about $80 to $90, really a lot of money. it was a jacket and the pants and the whole outfit. Then he was in the encampment for many years, and this is where he got his real start. They say he had at different times 30 to 40 tailors working for him. He did all the cutting himself of the uniforms and the measuring. Full Transcript