BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Scope and Content Note: Name, date of birth, parents' occupations, location of earliest home.

DESCRIPTION OF MILWAUKEE HAYMARKET NEIGHBORHOOD AND FATHER'S SALOON,
Scope and Content Note: Number of saloons on Sixth Street from Cherry to Vliet, the saloon as social institution, Russian Gentile clientele of Father's saloon, functions of the saloonkeeper, anecdote about Judge Harvey Neelen's father and the Levin saloon, Levin, senior as translator.

PARENTS' BACKGROUND
Scope and Content Note: Region from which parents came, circumstances and dates of parents' emigration from Russia, where they came, working at Swift's and at a dressmaker's, marriage in Milwaukee, peddling fruit, going into the saloon business.

MOVING OUT TO THE FARM,
Scope and Content Note: Making the decision to move to the farm, reasons for doing so, father's youthful experiences on a farm in Russian Poland, location of Racine County farmstead, size of farm description of same, learning farming from neighbors and county agent, being Jewish and choosing livestock, description of livestock on the farm, JDL's mother and the chickens, anecdote on the disappearing rooster and JDL's subsequent distaste for eating chicken, the dogs.

BUYING THE FARMSTEAD, ETC.,
Scope and Content Note: Previous owners, mortgage on the farm, description of barn and house, profitability of the barn vs. that of the house, the two-hole privy, water supply, the Lawson engine, lighting.

SIBLINGS
Scope and Content Note: Names, sexes, ages of brothers and sisters, their present positions and prominence.

EARLY SCHOOLING,
Scope and Content Note: Schooling before moving off of the farm, lack of school facilities and the family's departure from the farm.

JEWISH EDUCATION ON THE FARM,
Scope and Content Note: Hebrew school (cheder) prior to leaving for the farm, description of Hebrew lessons from father and reasons for their discontinuance, his father as charter member of New York Yiddish newspaper, Der Tag from 1914, beginning of anecdote in Yiddish on reading the paper.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN YIDDISH SPOKEN IN “THE OLD COUNTRY” AND THAT SPOKEN IN AMERICA (AN ASIDE)
Scope and Content Note: Remainder of Yiddish anecdote, reasons for learning Yiddish.

READING YIDDISH ON THE FARM,
Scope and Content Note: Father's library of Yiddish volumes, Robinson Crusoe in Yiddish, father's game with son.

MILKING THE COWS WITH HELP FROM A FELINE FRIEND: AN ANECDOTE,

SPELLING BEE AT THE RURAL SCHOOL,
Scope and Content Note: Practicing with sister Min while milking, spelling bee at the Racine County Fair.

CROPS,
Scope and Content Note: Types of crops grown by farmers in the area, low profitability of these crops, what his father decided to plant, hand work and the cabbage planter, harvesting late cabbage, planting potatoes, hand harvesting of potatoes, working by moonlight at harvest time, haying, techniques and tools.

END OF SIDE ONE

WHERE JDL'S FATHER LEARNED FARMING
Scope and Content Note: Experience working at mill in the Old Country, importance of intelligence and will to do work in becoming a successful farmer, worms in the cabbage patch and bugs and farm crops, learning about insecticides from farm periodicals, slowness of communication between neighboring farmers re: technical progress, father's success in fighting pests and his role as adviser to neighbors.

DEGREE OF ECONOMIC SUCCESS,
Scope and Content Note: Chronology of Levin family's life on the farm, making a large profit by eliminating a middleman--cabbage example, hard work, economic success, auctioning the farm in 1920.

VISITORS ON THE FARM,
Scope and Content Note: Dr. Markson visits the farm, his “yankee” wife, the doctor tours the barn, refreshment as therapy and cure-all.

BEING JEWISH: RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE NEIGHBORS,
Scope and Content Note: Lack of any overt hostility toward the family, possible attitudes toward the Levins.

JEWISH LIFE ON THE FARM,
Scope and Content Note: Yiddishkeit, High Holy Days in Milwaukee and the Old People's Home, the Litvisher Shul, Yiddish and English books, Rabbi Schoenfeld and a less-than-literal interpretation of Scripture, difficulties of maintaining Jewish life on the farm, Sabbath difficulties, kosher dietary laws, trivialities of these difficulties.

SELF-SUFFICIENCY ON THE FARM
Scope and Content Note: On the necessity of becoming a Jack of All Trades, a farm wife's chores, mechanical repairs and the blacksmith, descriptions of farm chores.

GETTING SUPPLIES IN THE CITY,
Scope and Content Note: Frequency of trips to Milwaukee with horse and wagon, bringing back pumpernickel for the children, baking supplies and types of things baked, provisions grown on the farm, storing apples.

ANECDOTE ABOUT CIDER-MAKING ON THE FARM

SCHOOL DAYS,
Scope and Content Note: Kneeland School, on teaching in a one-room school, classes, the slow learner who finally graduates from eighth grade, JDL's teacher, her fine qualities, her teacher's training, on equivalency of rural and Milwaukee schools, JDL's father and the Milwaukee Superintendant of Schools, “conditional admission” to a Milwaukee high school, JDL's success in high school and reflections upon same.

WHY THE LEVINS LEFT THE FARM,
Scope and Content Note: Hard work and the First World War, the role of Jewish life in the decision to leave for the city, anecdote on JDL's knowledge of Yiddish and the Milwaukee New Method Hebrew School.

RETURN TO THE CITY
Scope and Content Note: JDL's father, the grocery business, Jews on the south side of Milwaukee.

REFLECTIONS UPON JEWISHNESS
Scope and Content Note: What it means to be Jewish and the role of ceremonial practice, anecdote about almost becoming a Mormon in the West.
Note: INCOMPLETE: The tape ends before the final anecdotes and closing of the interview. Some 45 seconds of the interview are missing.