Alex Jonas
Alex Jonas was born in Johannesburg in 1917 but the family moved to Cape Town when he was about a year old, on a doctor's advice because the high altitude affected his father's breathing. They settled in the Gardens area, where his sister was later born. His father, who had come from the East End of London, worked in the advertising department of the United Tobacco Company, doing window dressing for stores, while his mother, from Golders Green, ran a series of family shops, including a tobacconist and news agency. Both parents had emigrated separately from England and met and married in Cape Town. Alex attended fine schools in Cape Town and finished his matriculation before the family moved to Muizenberg around 1939.
When Britain declared war on Germany in 1939, South Africa, as part of the British Commonwealth, followed. Feeling a sense of duty because of his English roots, Alex volunteered and joined the South African Air Force in early 1940, training in wireless work, Morse code, and gunnery. He was crewed up at a training base in the Kenyan mountains, and by chance survived a fatal crash after illness kept him off a night flight that killed his entire crew. Sent to Egypt, he flew as an air gunner in the North African desert campaign, taking part in bombing operations around El Alamein under General Montgomery and completing about 62 missions. Later he served with a squadron in Gibraltar, flying long reconnaissance and convoy-escort patrols until the war ended, rising to the rank of lieutenant.
After being demobilized in early 1946, Alex struggled to settle but eventually found work and married Rose, who had been born in Lithuania and come to South Africa as a child. He joined businessman Jack Golden and helped build a chain of stores that grew into Pick and Pay, one of the largest supermarket companies in Africa, serving for around 25 years as a respected store manager. After heart surgery in the mid-1980s, and with both his sons having emigrated because of dissatisfaction with the apartheid government, Alex and Rose left South Africa and settled in Dallas in 1986 to be near family. Asked about the happiest time in his life, he answered simply, his happy family life.
Full Transcript
Alex 1917 Johannesburg South Africa but you didn't stay there long you went to Cape Town when you were very little yes the reason being that you know that Johannesburg is uh is very high it's about 3 and a half to 4,000 ft above sea level and uh it affected my father's breathing and we were advised by a doctor to move to the coast and uh that's when we moved from Johannesburg to Cape Town at that stage I was a baby still I suppose I was approximately a year old and that we settled in a place called The Gardens in Cape Town that was a small
a small village in the gardens cape toown and that's where we stayed and that's where my sister was born in the gardens Cape Town what did your dad do for a living my dad worked for a big United Tobacco Company one of the the biggest tobacco companies in South Africa at that time they used to make cigarettes and he was in the advertising Department he used to organize in those days they used to uh they used to what they call Window dress they used to uh visit different stores and they used to uh they used to dress the windows for these stores in the uh
in the products that they produced at the United tobacco country and he was there for a number of years until he retired yeah tell me about your mom was she a stay-at-home mom or my mother my mother was a very goahead woman lady uh when M she stayed it down for a while but then eventually my father he bought a small news agency business a tobacconist hairdressing Saloon and a newspaper agency also in the gardens and uh he carried on working for the United tobacco company and my mother ran the business and they were there for a number of years and uh we stayed upstairs
in the in in the they had the apartments are upstairs and we had an apartment upstairs as a matter of fact I still remember the name that it was called Cameron flats and eventually uh we moved from there also in the gardens to a place called 40 Street that was about half a mile away from where my father bought the shop as I said my father still carried on working for the United tobacco company and my mother ran the store eventually they bought another shop at downtown in Cape Town in St George Street the same type of shop but tobacconist and all that and uh
while my mother ran the shop in in the gardens we we got another lady to run the shop it in in downtown Cape Town in St George Street so they had the two shops and my father was still working for the Tobacco Company eventually uh eventually we sold the shop they sold the shop downtown and uh they decided to move away from where we stayed to a place called mberg that was one of the the holiday resorts approximately 16 miles from Cape Town so my father my father sold the other shop and we moved to mberg that was uh I think before the war before
the before the war Ed in 196 1939 when you you and your sister was it hard on you guys to change schools and make new friends when the family would be moving around well the thing was we didn't we we didn't change in schools because when I was in in the gardens I went to school but I was already uh I was already grown up I I'd finished school when we left the gardens to go to mberg okay my sister my my sister Al now she went to she was 5 years younger than me and she went to school also what what did you do
for fun when you were little what did I do for fun yeah well you know we didn't do very much for fun in those days you know we weren't very well off so um I didn't do very much for fun yeah yeah well did you ever do something that you knew you you just didn't want your parents to know you were doing it I went I went to a very good school in in in Cape it was called the sex was one of the Premier it was one of the Premier schools in Cape Town uh that was sex and then there was uh then there
was Dion college and Weinberg Preparatory School those were the prime schools in Cape Town well when we moved to uh to mberg I'd already finished school I I finished what they call well here you call them a grade 12 they we we went up to grade 10 and that we called a matrick matrick we call it matrick there and then I didn't go to college first I didn't I don't think I had the knowledge to go to college in those days I wasn't clever I just managed to get through you remember your grandparents at all no no knowledge of them not at all you know
what they did for a living or anything no I never met them I didn't know where they stayed all I know is that they stayed in England and uh seeing that my parents were both came from England I never had the I never had the the privilege of meeting any of my grandparents at all I didn't know who they were what they looked like or anything did your parents ever tell you why they left England no they didn't tell me well you know firstly I'll tell you my mother came from a place called gold as green and then my father came from the East End
of London now the East End of London in those days was where all the Cockney stays stay and uh they weren't very well on you know that's a very poor area the East End of London and I presume that that things were a bit hard there so they moved they decided to move to capwn but to South Africa but when they moved they weren't married they didn't know each other oh wow they met they met in Cape toown and they got married in Cape toown did they ever go back oh yes my mother went back a number of times and my father didn't go back
with you he he didn't go back but my mother went back a couple of times because she had the she had the siblings there and she order had a parents there and that's that's why she went back did she ever tell you about stories or anything about those trips no she never told me anything about my parents at all about my grandparents I knew very little about them at all how did World War I affect your family well firstly uh my mother my mother had a brother who was killed in World War I and that's all the recation I know recollection I had of what
they knew about World War I that's all but I know that my mother had a brother and he was killed in World War I because my mother came from a sibling of five so I know that she definitely had a brother that was killed in World World War I and that's well I was still young at the time I wasn't well I was just I was just not even a year old you know what I mean born in 1917 the war finished in 1918 so I must have been a year old but I knew nothing they knew nothing about the war except that uh my
mother's brother got killed that's true right now after after school you went on to work where did you go to work after you finished school I went to work for a an accounting firm in Cape Town uh I was an article you know in s Africa if you want to be an accountant you got to be articled as my as my as my son was so I just worked there for a while and I worked until the war until uh till the war started now when the war started and you're in South Africa what kind of news are you getting what are you guys knowing
about the war how are you hearing about it well the thing was that we heard very little about the war except that as you know that South Africa at that time was a part of the British Commonwealth as was Australia New Zealand Canada and India and uh when uh when Britain in 1939 declared war on Germany South Africa as I said being part of the British Commonwealth declared war as well and that was the first time that we heard about the war right and uh that's it and then uh uh you know I felt a bit guilty about not uh going to war but the
thing was that in South Africa not like America in America if there's a war on they have what they call a draft system that you they draft you into the army at that time in South Africa you had to volunteer so all the South African and uh uh people who who were in the war were all were all volunteers they all volunteers to go to fight and uh uh you know both my parents came from England and I thought well it would be my duty also to join up so I went and I uh I registered and I joined the army what did your parents
think about that well of course my mother was against it because you know being a mother you know she she thought of the consequences of going to war and getting killed and all that and she wasn't happy about it at all that I can tell you that now she my father didn't mind but uh but she wasn't happy about it at all so you join up where are you being sent right now as you know the war started in 1939 I joined up at the beginning of January 1940 and I went to a place called uh Robert Heights that is about uh just outside Petoria
which is the capital of South Africa and that was the Air Force Headquarters and I that and I was D I went there as a civilian and uh I registered and I said I want to uh I want to join the South African Air Force as an air Gunner so they accepted my application and then uh I was uh I was given a uniform and uh I was told to report to uh to back to Cape Town and I went back to Cape Town to the headquarters at at the at the castle there was a big castle in Cape and from there I was drafted
to a city called Bloom Fantine now Bloom Fantine was a big city in the in in in in what we call the audence Free State here you called them States and that was a province we call them provinces and that was the orange free state brotine while I was at Bloon I learned the M code I did Wireless work etc ET I learned all about wirelesses and more code than that when I finished that course that lasted a number of months I was drafted back to Cape Town where I did a gunner course you uh you learn all about the guns that they use the
rifles and guns they use in the war and I did quite a lot of practice flying uh what they called a drug like it was a a thing they pulled it along with the with a plane and you sat in another plane and you shot at that Dr you see like like you're shooting at an enemy aircraft that lasted a couple of months that that led a couple of months from there I was uh I was sent back to Petoria and I was sent to a place called Littleton now Littleton was a was the base for for registering all Air Crews who were joining the
South African Air Force that contained Pilots Navigators air Gunners and uh they interviewed you there and they they they asked you different questions about about about joining why you want to join the Air Force and they did some training there as well when I finished that I was transferred back to as I say to Robert's Heights that was the the headquarters of the Air Force outside Petoria and I was there and they said to me that uh uh okay you you're now qualified as an air Gunner uh you are now a sergeant so they gave me three stripes and I had an Air Force Wing
called IG which was a Gunner and uh my mother was very unhappy about that when she saw me with the was AG and uh so then uh they they said okay you're going back you going up to the war zone in the Middle East so from from the from there we went to Durban that was a that's a a town on on the east coast of South Africa from Durban we went to another place called H H Bessa now Mom Bessa is a city in um in uh in Kenya and that's where we took a we we we took a train ride from Kenya from
basa on the east coast of of of Africa to Nairobi did you have any information what was going on in the war at this time or you yes I did we had information that there was um there was a fierce fighting in the western desert and that the Germans were would were were pushing them you know were pushing the the Army back they were going backwards and forwards one once they were here then they pushed them back then they pushed them back again we knew all that then we we went to Nairobi at that time they were they needed the they needed Air Force personnel
and air Crews immediately so we went to a place called Nairobi in Kenya we stayed there for a day or so Kenya from Nairobi we went to a place called Nuki that was a small little town outside Nairobi and you get there by train it's in the mountain you get it's in the mountains you get there by train it takes five 6 Seven 8 years to get there because the train is climbing all the time this at Nuki was a station for uh for crewing up where where where air Gunners and pilots and navig Gators get together and uh they crew you up now you
go there for training for uh operational training so I got crewed up for the pilot and navigate and observer that's the one and another air Gunner and uh we did practice flying in a plane called a a blim that was a very old plane which they used at the beginning of the war England and then they they stopped using plenums and they used it for practice purposes now there was a big problem with me because I had a pilot and a crew and one night uh we were supposed to go on a u on a on a training flight at night we did a lot
of night flying at night and unfortunately I got the flu and uh I had a very high temperature and they wouldn't let me fly that night so they put somebody else in my place and I think uh God must have been with me that night because the plane crashed into the mountains as I said this Nuki was in the mountains and they crashed and they all got killed so I was left at this operational training unit by myself without without a crew what what what went through your mind when that happened well you know that uh you I thought well as I said some somebody
up there must like me so that's what happened I was that what went through my mind I was how lucky I was that I didn't go at the same time I was deal with the flu the high temperature and that was it that happened of course I was very upset about it but uh eventually I was on my own and had no crew nothing so what happened was was they decided that they've got a number of uh a number of Crews they had about 10 or 12 Crews ready for operational training and and me and then I was sent we were all sent by by
air to to to to Egypt to Cairo and uh we were based at a place called Al moza that was about 10 or 12 miles outside of K that was our base camp that's where all the the where the whole Squadron was as I must tell you there were there were three squadrons attached to what they call One South African Wing the whole Wing was only South Africans uh it was number number 12 Squadron number 24 Squadron and number and number 21 Squadron they were attached to what they called a three-wing and uh eventually that when I landed on this on this elasa base I
didn't have a crew so they were we were all posted to the the forward base you know you get the base camp then you get a forward base and from the forward base you do your operational flying unit the operational the operational base was outside Alexandria in in Egypt eventually that uh I was called in and said look look uh Sergeant uh there's a a captain coming to the Squadron and uh you'll get crewed up with him we have an observer Navigator and another air Gunner and that will be your crew eventually the my pilot arrived and uh we got crewed up and at that
time we did we did we started doing operational flying at at that time the RL was pushing the eighth Army right back from Benghazi to Brook Libya they were pushing them back and then the eighth Army would push them all back again so we did a lot of flying and we did a lot of night flying and we did a lot of bombing of harbers to Brook and DNA where the Germans were getting all their supplies for the for the desert campaign did you ever have a scary moment out there well I had a lot lot of scary moments but but a bit later on
a bit later on during my flying campaign at that time uh when RL where we did a lot of flying to try and relieve the pressure on RL pushing pushing forward at that time RL pushed the eighth Army to a place called L Alain I don't if you've heard L Alain L at that time was a was a was a British strong stronghold and eventually they had a general there uh and then eventually they sent General s General Bernard Montgomery General Bernard Montgomery was a general now General Montgomery in my humble opinion was the finest General whoever whoever whoever led the Allied Army against the
Germans he started the campaign against Germans and it happened what it happened at night when he started a barrage of of of cannons against the Germans and at that time at night we started doing a lot of night fly to follow up on his bombardment of the Germans in the desert and this carried on for a few days the day and night flying and eventually the German we started pushing the Germans further back as as they pushed them further back so we started bombing them uh at that time Montgomery started full force the tanks and everything the Air Force all involved in getting the Germans
back eventually as we as we pushed them back we was operating bombing and things like that eventually we managed to push them push them right back at Benghazi you've heard about Benghazi in Libya and DNA and the brook and eventually we pushed them right into Benghazi in Libya and U we continued all the bombings operations etc etc and at that time uh as you know the German the Americans were coming in from the North and the Aon was coming in from the south and roml was in the middle the roml in my humble opinion was also one one of the greatest generals although he was
a German roml was a shrewd very shrewd operator and uh and I think that if if if if they ever replace RL there that was that was one of the biggest mistakes they made to replace roml in the western desert because after he left that's when the Germans fell apart and then and then after that we finished pushing them out of Out of Africa and that was that was my first tour of operations and that was before the next tour was the next part of the tour I was still had the same crew the next part of the of the operations was um was uh
was was to uh invade Libya well I wasn't a part of that because I already finished my first tour of operations and uh I managed to get get some what you call fur or leave and I uh I managed to get a flight back to South Africa how how many missions had you pH around 62 62 yeah but there were short missions hour and a half two hours they weren't like like that you taking a the the micans flew over Germany 5 six hour trips like that you know what I mean these were short trips hour and a half 2 hours and some of them
a bit longer but anyway after I finished the 62 I managed to get came I came back to South Africa and I had a what you call Furlow or over or leave and uh after that I went back to ptor again and uh I was sent on a refresher course to a place called outon that was also in the cape and while I was at out out you know I was the only experienced egg Gunner there I did a little bit of instructing which they asked me to do and after that I got tired of being instructed and doing nothing I was sent back to
Petoria and uh when I got back to Petoria you know I thought well I see what's going to happen there perhaps they may uh send me to Cape Town as an instructor or something like that so they said no you're going back to the Middle East so I was sent back to to Kaiser to uh to Kyra and I went to the Alara base as I told you and they sent for me and they said uh I was there a flight Sergeant I got promoted you get a sergeant a flight s you know you get the EXO yeah so they said to me yeah we
got we we're sending you to to a to a place called Gibralter I said what they sending you to a ji we had a squadron on jalter 22 Squadron and we had a colonel there by the name of Colonel NES and uh we had a there's a there's a there's a crew there uh by Major Woods we used to call him planky Woods you're going to join his crew in Jala so I wasn't happy about that because I didn't I wasn't happy about the planes that they were flying they were flying in a plane called Ventura and they had a lot of problems and crashes
with these venturers I wasn't happy about it but you know you can't argue with them so I went back to jalta and at jalta I joined This Crew and we did a lot of reconnaissance work uh escorting ships and conv through the Straits of Jala and also looking for submarines and we did this for a number of a number a number number of months until until the war ended at that time the sou African Squadron was number 22 Squadron and we were attached to a royal Air Force Squadron the the Royal Air Force Squadron was based in Jala a permanent and we joined this when
we joined them and we did all their operational training there now you must understand that after all I was used to Flying one and a half hours 2 and 1 half hours flights doing bombing there you had to do six seven 8 flying because you know the escort you fly out into the sea then you escort the ships right through the straights of jalta escorting the Americans through looking for submarines and all that so you got you got a six to S8 flights so that's what that's what I did and um I joined those rft Squadron and it was funny but they said uh uh
at that time I forgot to tell you when I got back to South Africa after my first tour of operations I was promoted from a flood Sergeant to a second liutenant that what they call it Pips yeah they give me one p i was now a second leftenant and then um then I was I was sent back to and I went to jalter and at jalter got promoted again to a full Li tenant that was two Pips and at that time you know that when you're an officer attached to the Royal Air Force you get what you call a b a Batman is a guy
who looks after your clothes and your food makes your bed all that I I wasn't used to having a Batman it's like a servant and eventually that uh we did all this we did a lot of flying in jalter escorting escorting ships looking for submarines and taking supplies to uh North Africa Morocco all around there and we used we used to get our supplies from Casablanca and uh we used to send the plane over fill it up and bring it back and backwards and forwards and I all say Morocco and that where I stayed until 1945 when the war ended tell me a scary moment
my scary moment was when I was doing operational training using Union in in the desert doing operational training in my first tour it happened it happened uh we we did a night we did a night of operational sorty and uh what happened was that we were flying into land and the German one of the German bombers was he found that they found their air landing strip and they were coming in this way so we were they were bombing this way and we were flying right into the bombs so if it hadn't been for the for my pilot who was a very experienced pilot we managed
to pull up and get out of the problem that was the biggest scare I had and what happened to the German plane well it just I went on just went yeah but that was a very scary it was you know that was uh due to the Pilot's uh quickness me pulling back and like that that was it when the war ended were you relieved were you yes I was because to tell you the truth that I had a lot of flying in jalter and it was six was was six seven8 hours at the time and I felt that I had enough I had enough lying
and things like that and when the war ended we were all happy in J eventually uh what happened was we had to take all the planes from gibralta back to Egypt and we went to a place called uh janas that was outside Alexandria and that's where we stayed uh uh with all the planes there the ward stopped already and that's where we stayed until we were sent sent back to South Africa to be to be released from the Army and I and I remember that in February February 1946 1946 that was our in February 1946 that's when I was sent back to South Africa and
so now what do you do and then then I got the then I got demobilized and and where do you go on with your life did you get a job what did you yes I well I got a job at I got a job I wasn't settled my mind my mind wasn't settled look let me tell you something I was uh you know you know flying and the and the stress when you've got anti-aircraft coming up you know you got those anti because the Germans had what what they call an 88 gun and that was a very very accurate gun and they shot down a
number of planes and also you had the night Fighters and the day Fighters you know what I mean now I must tell you this that during the operations on the desert we had what we called each each each quadrant had 18 planes flying at the same time 18 they had boxes of six three3 six and and of course when you get 18 aircraft flying during the day you're sitting ducks with these 88 guns and of course that plays on your nerve look you can't I can't tell you that I wasn't nervous of course I was nervous you know about flying the taking off you seeing
planes crash one night we were taking off and the plane that took off before of us uh crashed into another plane and and if we would have taken off we would also crash into into into into that plane so uh I wasn't settled during the war and I had a number of jobs which uh which eventually uh I was making a living and then um and then uh that's when I got married in 1942 no 1947 where did you meet Rose well Rose my wife yeah my wife Rose was born in lithu and she came to South Africa with her siblings and her parents there
were seven of them and they settled in uh in Cape Town and eventually they uh they bought a business about 30 miles outside Cape Town at a place called Paul Paul one of the small the small little uh towns outside Paul you know you get these small towns in America and they had a business there and and Rose used to go Rose was young then and she went to school at L shell one of the big schools in in that in girl school in Paul eventually they sold the business and they moved to where where where we stayed in mberg that was 1946 that's after
the war after I was in mberg and they came they came to settle there in mberg and uh so uh I saw this this beautiful woman she was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen and she was something special she had a number of people a number of guys looking looking after her the one guy had a Furniture Factory the one boy had a clothing Factory this guy had that and they were all moneyed at that time and they were all interested in Rose and uh I was a poor working guy eventually uh we met each other at the sports club we had a sports
club in mberg in the hall where we played badminton and all that kind of stuff and that's where we met and uh we fell in love and uh we got married in June 1946 1947 that's the that's when we got married and uh Rose was a very goahead woman she wasn't prepared to sit at home and do nothing at that time um uh I was working and at that time we we bought a small a small grocery store in a place called Wineberg and uh we managed the store eventually we had to give up the store uh my landlord wanted the shop etc etc and
Rose took a job at the P at a very big firm called Edgar she was very she was into the knowledge of of woman's clothing and she knew all about woman's clothing and she was given a job in one of the stores Edgar stores at that time after we uh we sold the shop I had a phone call from a gentleman by the name of Jack golden Jack golden was May he rest in peace he's dead now he had a small grocery store in a place clemont and uh he was a very go-ahead guy and he was looking forward to opening up a chain of
supermarkets in South Africa and he needed a manager to run his store with which he had in beler road called Suburban provision stores and he called me he said I hear that you're closing your store I want you to come and see me so I went to see him and he said look I want I'd like to go to America to get some idea about opening up a chain of Supermarket stores here so he came to America and he got a lot of ideas about supermarke he went to Switzerland and he and there's a big chain Karu or Cano whatever I can't remember the name
and he got ideas and he came back to South Africa and uh we together opened up a chain of stores which today is called it's called Pick and Pay which is one of the biggest supermarkets in in Africa today and uh at that time we opened up uh four stores and I was the manager of one I was a manager of the beler store I was the first manager of Pick and Pay at that store and we opened up three other stores one in a place called the salari road and B and Berg Fleet and lone road so we had the four stores and we
each had managers and uh eventually U there was a big another supermarket chain called Checkers which was run by a very prominent businessman called Raymond aiman he started Checkers and he built it up into a big business and uh eventually this is very interesting the story cheers was taken over by a firm called Grans now Roman aiman's father was also a very big businessman he opened up an habash habashy business called aens and it grew into a very big chain and greatman took over aans and when Raymond aiman's father died di they fired Raymond aan H did open up all these Checker stores and that
was the worst thing they ever did because Raymond aan approached the his brother-in-law that he want he was looking for a small supermarket chain where he could buy and build up and eventually they found this uh this Pick and Pay business and he bought he bought Pick and Pay business that was I think about 1960 somewhere the 1960 6 62 and uh I remained on and I kept on I still was managing beler Road and then um after we had five stores he went on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and we were each each given a certain number of shares like you know you got the
Wall Street here with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and then I went from the I went to different stores and I went to a store in Berg Fleet and land down Road and C point which was a big uh seaside resort in Cape D SE point and uh I went there and uh from there I was transferred back to L down road which was the biggest store which which was our biggest store and things weren't running too well there and he wanted me to take over this so I took over landan Road and eventually uh after that I was sent up they called me back to
uh to headquarters this is Prett distinct in my mind he said look we want you to go to we to C Point got we got problems in C point and they need a and they need a very man with experience we we we want you to go there so I went there and I had to reorganize the whole store and uh eventually everything was fine now this is a typical story of my capabilities I must exaggerate it one day a lady came into the store and she filled up these carts with stuff and she found out that she left her purse at home so she
came to me and she said look I've I've got all this the stuff but I haven't got a purse I'm waiting for my husband to come I've called him he'll be here later on so I said that's no problem you you you you you you get all this packed up and take it home with you if you haven't got a ride I'll take you home with all your stuff and when your husband comes you can come back and pay me she says will you do that I said sure So we I did that eventually her husband came and course she paid the next day I
got a letter from rymond eiman this woman had had written to him to to tell him that the best thing he ever did was to put Alec Jones manager of C point because I thought a gentleman a man who no doubt had knowledge of what he was doing and that remained my mind for a long time and uh I was there for 25 I just about 25 26 years 1985 I uh I was getting uh chest paints and uh must I went to a I went to a Cardiologist called called Dr maban and he said you've got three blockages you have to have an operation
now if you remember correctly that we had a professor Chris Chris Barnard Chris Barnard was the first man in in the world to do a heart transplant and he did it at kutski hospital in capedan and amongst and the second surgeon was a guy by the name of Joe denoa and I went to see Joe denoa and he said yes he said I can do the operation and I had the operation done in 19 1985 beginning of 1985 96 I think it was and uh in 1986 after after I worked again u i felt now that uh uh that I was still working and then
uh in 1986 in 19 1984 while I was still working they came to America him and veronic his wife and the three children they were all born in America in South Africa they came and then that's in 1982 that's when they came and in they came to settle here and I came to visit them my wife myself came to visit him eventually my other son his brother who who stays in California he came in 1984 and he also settled here and he settled in in D in Washington DC where he worked in the hospital and then he then he specialized in uh in California 1986
my my late wife was you know decided that that well seeing that the two boys are in America and Hilton Hilton had three grandchildren we decided to come and settle in America in 1986 let me ask you why did your sons decide they wanted to come to America I don't think that both of them well I know he wasn't very I don't think he was happy with the situation in South Africa at that time under the parted government and I don't think they could see any future so they decided to come the the Great Depression that America was going through when you were real young
did that affect your family at all in South I didn't we to tell you the truth I didn't know about the depression I only heard about it when I came to America I didn't know anything about the depression I don't think it affected my family at all okay now when you came to America what was that like you know it's a funny question but uh when we came to South Africa we came to America in 1986 and we settled uh we settled in Dallas of course we did a visit a few things we went to uh went to New York we stayed at the at
the Hilton on 6th Avenue we went to Las Vegas and then we San Francisco then we came to settle in Dallas so we didn't know what what to expect but we knew that uh we knew that we were coming to a country which was number which we felt was was number one in the in the in the finance world number one in the military world and right on top and said that's what we thought we we coming to America and we were right I know that in N when they came I know that Dallas was on a boom and the Cowboys were God steam I
think Roger starbur was a starbur and that's why they came to settle in Dallas you see but I know that Hilton and his Partners there were four of them came to America before they settled here and uh Hilton worked for a gentleman by the name of Mr Rosenblum and they came to America with Mr Rosen Bloom's family and I think that when they came when they came to America they decided that Hilton and and Lawrence one of Mr Rosen bl's Sons decided to settle in Dallas and that's what they did Alex what was the happiest time in your life my happy my happy family life