They came to the US in June 1913, when Sol was 16 and Sam was 18. Mr. Abrams was a personal friend of their father ( Ukraine), and he made a visit in about 1912. Sam was getting to an age for the Army, between 18 and 21, There were not much employment, and the Jews dreamt of improving life by going to America. They discussed the childrens' future with Mr Abrams, he advised the whole family to immigrate to America.

First the elders sent the youngsters to probe the US. They entered in Galveston, Texas. The organization that financed it, ee-kar,  included the Rothchilds, which wanted immigration of Jews to go to the West instead of to the East. Sol said the cost was 80 rubles, and Sam said the organization financed it. Sol and Sam left with two Licht boys (Ben and Mayer). Sam said the Benny was his age and they were friends. They had worked together in Warsaw a couple of years. They were the four musketeers. They had instructions that the ee-kar officers in Galveston would  ask them where do you want to go in America? They replied San Francisco, and their sponsor was Mr Abrams.

The officers sent a telegram to Mr Abrams. They had a health examination, which found out Sam had glaucoma,, so he was kept separate from the other three. Finally Sam was freed. The telegram answer was received, favorable to Sol and Sam. The answer didn't include the Lichts, because they didn't expect them. The officers accompanied them to the train station, and gave them tickets. They went to Houston, the day was Tichable (Tisha B’Av) , a fast day in memory of the destruction of the second Temple (Jerusalem). They were to change trains to go to San Francisco, with a four hour wait. Sam suggested they write letters. Sol and Sam took the letters to the Post Office, then couldn't find the train station because there was more than one station. They said station, and a policeman took them to right station, but the Lichts were gone, and their bags,  food and tickets were gone. They had missed the train, and the Lichts had taken that train. A policeman found the lost belongings. They took a later train to San Francisco.

Sol and Sam had two rooms in a hotel on A Street in San Francisco. They arrived in the middle of the week, and Sunday wanted a job.  Sam  was picked by Mr Abrams, to work in a factory which made and varnished trunks, for six dollars a week. Sam knew a man, age 60 to 65, who did the same job, who was paid ten dollars a week. Sam asked for the same wages, and Sam was fired. Spiegelman at a furniture store bought Sol overalls, and took him to a factory,  where he polished furniture, which made his fingers bleed. Sol was paid five dollars a week, worked Sunday but not Saturday. Mr Morris was the foreman at the Spiegelman factory, Sol asked to get a dollar a day like the others, and he replied you're fired. 

1913 was a very bad year, lots of unemployed, people asking for coffee, were in lines for rations. Sol got a job, which was selling baskets of grapes, at the door, for ten cents, and slept at the boss's house and got food. Next he got a job as a milk-man. He got up at 3:00 o'clock in the morning, went to the station and bought milk, bottled it , put it into the ice box, and the next morning delivered fresh milk, from a wagon. He had that job for two or three months. While on the milk wagon he had an accident, was reading a letter from home, fell asleep, fell down, had a concussion, 24 hours to recover. He worked until Rosh Hashona, went to be with Sam, they said you don't get that day off. your job is taken. 

Sam was shocked the way he had lost his job. He decided to sell papers. He bought papers, wet to a corner on Market St. to sell, some young kids came and said he didn't belong there. Same at another corner. Finally he got in front of the San Francisco Hotel. People gave him a dime when they only owed a nickel, people gave him a quarter and didn't want change. Then someone said they didn't want him there, so he gave it up. Next he worked in factory making Mannequins, for a short time. Next Sam worked in a bag factory. He was paid two and a half dollars a day. The work was hard, and his hands got so dirty he couldn't wash it off. He hitchhiked, on the back of low trucks.

At this time Sam was depressed.  Sol went to work at the bag factory. Sol said they were paid five dollars each for 8 hours work. The factory was owned by the Schwartzes, the Lichts also worked there. First Sol was mending bags, later they were all grading bags. The four were going to night school, after working 10 hours a day. Sol said the boss taught him to be a handyman, i.e. how to use a needle to fix a belt. Then Sol and Sam left the bag factory, to peddle fruit. They got a wagon for a dollar and a half for a day, bought strawberries at the market, but they are perishable, if not sold ie rainy day all the profit was gone. They were selling at apartment houses. One time the wife of a fireman bought all the strawberries they had. 

Then Sol and Sam peddled bags. They had 2 years experience in the bag factory. Sam bought a couple of sewing machines, and leased a place on Octavia Street. Sam mended the bags, and Sol peddled them. Sol fell of his wagon, broke his leg, went to Mt. Sinai Hospital, had a cast on his leg, went to work mending bags, and Sam was grading bags. The were working with potato bags. bought bags for two and a half cents, which later by 1917 were selling for 15 cents a bag. Their former boss, Schwartz, bought bags that they didn't peddle. Sol was selling from a horse and buggy, he also took a buggy to Oakland by ferry. 

An uncle, Palatnik, gave them 300 rubles when they went to America, and when they got there they sent it back to him. Sam heard stories about people who get rich in Mexico. Sam went to Mexico, Sol stayed in San Francisco and continued the bag business. One day Licht came to him, asked how he was getting along, Sol said fine, and he was jealous, that Sol was younger than all his boys and independent (probably Louis Licht, father of Ben and Mayer and James). 

When Sam was in Mexico, Sol in San Francisco bought newspapers that had been overprinted. He pressed them into 100 pound bundles, shipped them to Sam. He shipped up to three tons a month, they stored them in 4 rooms. They used them to wrap dry-goods, fruit, vegetables and meat. Until,  the American government got Mexico to ban importing newspapers, because the War was on and Germany would learn things from the old newspapers

Sol had bought bags for two and half cents, prices went up and up, he sold them for ten cents. He had seven thousand dollars cash, went to American Express, bought seventy hundred dollar bills, paid thirty five dollars, went to a tailor who sewed a special pocket for the money. Sol went to Nogales, Arizona, where a detective thought he was a German spy, made him open his bag, and found his Teffilin. It was 1918, when he went to Hermosillo. Mexico.

There they opened a stationery and dry-good store.They went into manufacturing dry-goods. First Sol went to San Francisco, to Lieber Straus and saw how they were using long tables and layers of goods. Back in Mexico, they made clothing, until 1921, when they brought their family from Romania to Mexico, about 21 people. Sam said there was a revolution in Mexico, and they were getting merchandise by mail from Jaurez, which they sold to the biggest department store, at a good profit, until there was peace.

When the family came they rented a 15-20 room house. In 1921 they opened a factory to manufacture soap, until 1925, when the family decided to immigrate from Mexico to the United States. Sol and Sam sold their basket, dry goods, and soap businesses. Some of he family went to San Francisco.  Sol and Sam decided to move to Los Angeles,  because the weather was warmer than San Francisco, more like Mexico. They moved to Los Angeles in 1928, opened a small factory, nearby to the later site of the Friedman Bag Company. Sam said when he was in Los Angeles he went to school, a young girl in the school asked his nationality, he said Jewish, the girl said that's impossible, because we know Jews are bad and have horns.

Sol married an American citizen in 1928.

Later Sam married Anne Licht, a sister of Ben and Mayer.