Annie Simon
Annie Simon was born in Newcastle, England, and moved with her family to Liverpool as a young child, where she spent her growing-up years. Her parents had come as young single people from the Kovno region and were of Litvak background; her father was a highly skilled ladies and gents tailor. As the eldest of five children with four younger brothers, Annie was a first-class student who loved school. She attended a Jewish school in the evenings after grammar school, where she learned to read, write, and translate Hebrew prayers and the Bible. Her mother kept a strictly Orthodox and kosher home, and Annie fondly recalled the holidays and a Saturday night club organized for Jewish youth.
After recovering from scarlet fever cost her a chance at a scholarship, Annie went to work in an office while continuing night school, learning shorthand, typing, and bookkeeping over five years. She met her husband at a Zionist group, where she served as president of the junior Zionist group and spoke eloquently about her convictions. They married in England, and in the spring of 1925 they immigrated to America, encouraged by her father, who had gone ahead. The couple settled in Chicago near her aunt and cousins. Her eldest daughter was born in December 1925, and she went on to have three daughters, all born in Chicago.
In Chicago, Annie kept house until her eldest daughter was thirteen, then joined her husband in running his tailoring store, working the front counter and bagging clothes through long, hard hours for 25 years. She stayed active in sisterhood and Hadassah, which she called her first love. After her husband's retirement and stays in Florida and St. Louis, the couple came to Dallas, where two of her daughters lived. They lived in Dallas for eleven years until her husband passed away. Annie became involved in the senior community immediately, attending the center for sixteen years and weighing a move to the Byers Center. She spoke movingly of the importance of family, tradition, and roots over the pursuit of money.
she offered.
Full Transcript
I'm sitting here today on the coldest day ever recorded in Dallas, but feeling very good and warm because I'm sitting with my friend Annie Simon. Annie, good morning. How are you? I'm just great. A little cold, a little surprised that it's so cold. I'm not accustomed, not since I came to Dallas. Well, listen, it's nice and sunshiny out now. Yeah, the sun is bright. It's hard to believe that the temperature's so low. Annie, I've been recording the lives of all the seniors, and this morning it's you and me together. And in order to do this, I always say, let's start at the beginning. Where were you born?
I was born, actually born in Newcastle, England. That's on the northeast coast there, where they're finding oil now. But it wasn't so famous when I was born. I was just about born and was about two years old. And we came to live in Liverpool. We may have stopped at Manchester for a few years. But I grew up in Liverpool. My growing up years were in Liverpool. In Liverpool, England. Where did your parents come from? How did they get to Manchester? My mother and father both came as single people, young people, to leave Singleton. From where? My mother said Kovnika Bear and around Litvac. Litvac. They were Litvac people.
Okay, what did your father do? He was a ladies and gents tailor, very high grade. Taylor prided himself on being a super tailor. Okay, so why did you move then from... England to America? No, from one part to another in Liverpool, like from Ment to Liverpool. Yeah, well, when he was looking for a good location, I mean for good business, and there were times when business was not so good, but he managed to make a fairly good living in Liverpool. Did he have his own business or did he work for someone else? He worked for someone else. Sometimes it was his own mostly for someone else high grade tailors He made the best clothes considering consider Tell me what kind of a how many brothers and sisters did you have Well I had four brothers younger than I You were the oldest.
I was the oldest, but they were supposed, the whole family was supposed to come to America, but things happened that they just didn't, and I was married in England. All right, let's jump back a little bit. Yeah. What was your growing up years like in Liverpool? Was it a large Jewish community, or were you a middle-class family, average, you know? Yeah. Well, we were a working-class family, but I had a very good youth, I think, looking back now. I was a first-class student, popular with my teachers. and I was quite a healthy child, and I was very fond of school. That's good. What about Jewish kids?
Did you go to school with Jewish friends? Well, Jewish children, there was a Jewish school, probably like the Catholic schools here, but that was quite a distance and my folks didn't want me to travel that far it was sort of cross country you couldn't get there by bus or anywhere so I was I went evenings I went to evening school after coming home from grammar school from 7 to 9 I think there was 3 or 4 in our neighborhood and we all walked and went to and there they conducted regular classes the same at the synagogue no or at someone's home a regular public school they had a school they were very as i realize now they were very far advanced in education so they educated you in in in the uh the uh hebrew a little hebrew i could read and write and translate the prayers and the Bible.
And you learned that in regular public schools? It was a regular public school for Jewish children only with the regular grades and they in addition to the Jewish education had a regular curriculum of the same as the other public schools Were there any Jewish youth groups There was, there was, which I joined, there was then the Zionist group. And I joined this. They also had, there was one lady that organized in a home, a very large home, organized a Saturday night club where we children who I think we were between the ages of 12, 16 and 18 went on a Saturday night to this club and she got lovely concert singers who sang all those you know, all those all those lovely Gentiles and Jewish and they were the really rich Jews of the city who organized this Isn't that nice?
I bet you were really interested in it. Yeah. And quite different from the advancement here in the States. So you had this Saturday night club. That's lovely. And we kept us children active, and we learned. I had such a repertoire of all the semi-classical songs that I'd heard and remembered. And we had some quite devoted Jewish people who took us, I think on field trips, who spent a lot of time teaching us girls how to dance. Girls, it was very nice. What kind of a Jewish home did you come from? An Orthodox, a conservative? My mother was Orthodox. Do you remember anything special about the holidays?
Very much so, very much so but in England the idea of becoming assimilated was so strong she never discussed her background so much except that her father died her grandfather was the rabbi of Kavna Birna the chief rabbi of the province and beyond that I knew nothing of my folks heritage and I regret it so much. So they didn't really give you too much of a Jewish upbringing? They wanted to assimilate? Is that what you're saying? No, they were very orthodox. Although my father wasn too orthodox he was really assimilated But my mother was strictly kosher and very old came pace The house was torn apart and the spoon cleaning and everything and the cashing of the table.
Right. And if you should spill a little milk near a flagey spoon, I thought the river would come down. That's cute. So she was very orthodox, and she baked for the holidays and for Friday nights, and I mean, it was really orthodox. And at the same time, she was a very, I wish I had a picture. She was very modern, and we went downtown. Well, you don't have to be not modern to be orthodox. You know, that's sort of something that doesn't run true. All right, so you finished, did you go to high school? Did you finish high school? Well, then I went... Or whatever form it was called in London.
Yeah, well, I went to one of the better grammar schools. I don't know. They had a board school and a council, and I went to one of the better where we lived. We had a... Well, from there, I could have gone on. What happened? I had scar of fever. I was out of school for two months. It didn't really send me back, but I lost a chance of getting a scholarship. because when I came back I couldn't make it. So I went to work in an office and still continued night school. What did you do in the office? A secretary? No. To begin with I dressed envelopes and things like that to care of the mail.
I went to night school and learned my shorthand typing and bookkeeping over a period of five years. and by the time I met my husband I had a good job, a secretarial job How did you meet your husband? Oh, casually at a Zionist group I went to and he was there He wouldn't go out with anyone else after he met me and actually I didn't go out with anyone So you met him at a Zionist group? Yeah, at our Zionist I was president of this junior Zionist group. And I regret I might have done big things in Zionism I got very inspired and I used to get up and speak very eloquently about my Zionism and how important I felt that we grew up and eventually married and had children and the children had a place that they could call their own.
Have you ever been to Israel? Yes, I've been. That's good. I'm glad that a Zionist fulfilled her dreams. Yeah. What was your husband doing when you met him? Well, he told me a grand story. He had his own tailoring factory, and he had 25 people working for him. And I thought, well, I was equal to that sort of a life, you know. How old were you when you met? Just turned my 19th birthday. And I was a serious person and not given like some Jewish girls were. How they rated a man was I used to think was funny. They would say he was a good dancer and good looking and that's all that mattered to him at that time.
But you looked beyond that. I looked beyond that, what kind of a future I would have and he seemed to promise it. Later it turned out his father and his brothers and everybody, the whole family was involved in this business and he was out on his ear. Well, what was there to do? Was this after you married him this happened? But when you married him, he was in the business with them. Yeah. So then came the denouement, you might say. And I had to give up my nice secretary job, and I really liked it because we sold cars. I did everything in the garage. I mean, there was a garage in the back and all the invoices pertaining to a car and everything.
And it was really a nice type of work that I liked because, is this good? Yes, it is. You want to hear it now? Well, the tape is going, so what did you do? Tell me when to stop. No, I won't tell you when to stop. I'm enjoying this. So what did you do? When your husband was out on his ear, then what did you have to do? Well it sad and heartbreaking and all the rest followed after that What happened was my father got the inspiration let's go to America. He'd been a soldier in the First World War. He joined up. He felt so out of place.
He was a tall, very strong-looking, handsome man. And he felt very out of place when England was in World War I and all the men were taking. He was already in his 40s, I imagine. But he felt impelled to go to, and so proud as he had been British and English. So he went and he was gone, and he joined, he must have been gone a year or two, because the war lasted four years. And then he wanted to go to America when he came back? Yeah, he worked for a while, and he thought there was a better future in America. and he encouraged my husband to go to America.
So he went ahead and got a job and was sending money fairly regularly and it looked good. So we both applied at one time because he did have a little money. You had no children at that time? No. We did have a little money and we waited. We were supposed to come, our honeymoon was supposed to be on the ship and come to America. We hadn't figured out that way. But the last minute the Macaronac came out, that was in 24, and we had to wait a quarter and there was old people I used to see. You know, we lived in the port where the Cunard ships left and the people who left from Liverpool by thousands of times.
So I never thought there would be a day when I would join that group, but then it happened, and we... Finally, our turn came around nine months or so after I was married, and then my husband, well, we should start a family, and he didn't want to waste any time, and we went... What happened? To America. We went to America together in the spring of 25. My daughter was married. Born. Born in December of 25. My husband got a job as a tailor with the bus company my father helped him get and he was doing very well Twilighting as they call it now between his job and getting orders for men's suits.
We were saving money and finished a very nice apartment. Was this in New York? In Chicago. Oh, okay. And my family that we came to, my aunt and cousins, were not wealthy people, and they were thinking of the day when my aunt could have her sister, which was my mother, come visit with her. And it all fell through, tragically enough. My father never went back, and he never built a family. And then World War II came along, my brothers shifted around, and none of them are alive now, and I don't want to go into any more detail. You don't have to do that. They were bombed and killed and drowned.
What about, so you came with your, your mother never came then? I sent papers for my mother to come and they decided first her eyesight was bad, then she had a cataracts in room. So you came to family in Chicago, right? Yeah. Okay, so you had, how many children did you have? Three girls. All were born in Chicago? All were born in Chicago. Then I... Were you working at all or were you just in Chicago? I stayed home and kept house until my eldest girl was 13 years of age. My husband had a job. He had several stores. He had a job, then he went into business with himself, and he sold out, and then he had another that failed.
Then finally, then he went to work, and he couldn't. the pressure of working was not for him. And then for a few years he worked and then he kept saying, for all the things I know about tailoring, I can't possibly work for someone else. I have to be on my own. So when my eldest daughter was 13, he finally opened the store and I felt well our money what with the bank crashes and our money kind of dwindled low and I felt they like Custer last stand Yeah We've really got to make it go. So I took myself and the children all our furniture. We went into the back of the store and lived there for a year or two.
And then we took an apartment above the store and I worked with him until he retired. So what did you do? What I did was take care of the front. He had a front. Oh, so you were the sales lady? Yeah, I was the sales lady. And the bagging, in those days the clothes came in unbanked, if you know what. And I used to put them in brown paper bags. It was hard work, long hours. But you made a go of it. But we made a go and we stayed. were all the years, so you stayed in Chicago that whole time? Yeah, for 25 years I worked with him.
Okay. What kind of life did you have there? Did you continue in your Zionist ways and interests in Chicago when you were married? Yeah. When I was married, yeah, I joined sisterhoods. I was never active, but always a member of sisterhood and a member of Hadassah. I met women that just really talked me into being Hadassah now. Of course, Hadassah was my first love. Right. Do you belong to Hadassah now? Yeah. I do. What about friends? You must have made good friends in Chicago over those years. Yeah, neighbors, but I always had small children, and there was no such thing as babysitters in those days beyond taking the children for buggy rides meeting neighbors casually I was a loner mostly very much a loner what about did you take any vacations or trips ever or I guess it was the children went to camp the children made nice friends and they went to camp with other Jewish children and then what else happened.
My voice sounds so depressing. That's alright, that's the way you talk. Then the children grew up, okay? Okay, the children grew up while we were in the store. They continued their education. Okay, tell me about your three The eldest daughter, of course, she reached 18 and she went to Austin High and... Well, wait a minute. How did you get to Austin High? How did you get to Dallas? Well, Austin High and Chicago. Oh, okay. All right. I tried to mention it. I wanted to mention it. They all went to Austin High. That was in Austin, the neighborhood we lived in in Chicago. That's West Chicago.
So I like to think of that. All right. So then when she was 18 and the war was on, she met a very interesting Jewish girl from London. It was the, what do they call those? You know, the Battle of Britain, and she had relatives in Chicago. So they sent her over there. and I sent her over and she was oh a very stimulating lovely girl and she was working in an office and she was my eldest daughter's best friend and she and so my daughter and she both went to different offices but they were very good friends I had her over for suppers and I was attached to her too, I mean I liked her and I was happy my daughter had found such a nice girlfriend and they were very good friends until she was sent back, she never did want to go back but she was sent back and her folks were very prominent London Jews and she went back and she's a married some architect and she's a happy person and my daughter, she met, oh then My daughter kept on working when she was 21.
She met her husband, who was working for Goldbergs in Chicago at the time. Then he became a financial salesman. And she was married to him, and she lived in Dallas. Then the other daughter went as she graduated. She was more college-minded. Her friends were all college-minded, and they all went to University of Illinois. Then after two years she transferred to Northwestern University and she got her teachers and then she married a nice Jewish boy of a Hungarian background very much American And she was married and for a number of years he and she then she was teaching and he couldn't make a living. Everything he tried failed and she was very unhappy with him.
She had twins, a girl and a boy. They brought her home, which they couldn't keep it, didn't keep it, which that's where she had her twins, a boy and a girl. She had to quit teaching and she had these two children and then they had to give up this home. They came to live in Dallas thinking he could make a go of it here. She got interested in, Mrs. Sanger took an interest in her, and what is at Judges Group, Grandes, and she started Head Start in Dallas with Mrs. Sanger. What is Head Start? Head Start is getting... At that time, there was no kindergarten in Dallas, nowhere there.
And she started a kindergarten, and look what's happened all over the city. I think it was for Pelagor or for any kindergarten, but that's a very good place. Does she still live here in Dallas? No, he couldn't make it. They went back to Chicago. She continued her education in Chicago and she was a woman at all times not satisfied with being mediocre. She wanted the best. So she continued her education, got her master's and doctorate. In what? Psychology. And they got divorced. Where does she live now? She still in Chicago and the children went away to college One graduated college and he in Israel now on a dig I so happy about that But he's coming back, he took off, and I don't know whether he will continue.
My daughter would like him to continue with postgraduate work or something. Okay, so that's two of your children. So where is the daughter who lived in Dallas, Alice, the older one. Well, her husband died and she remarried. And she lives where? In the Chicago area in Evanston. She married a German refugee, prosperous man, and they have a very nice home. Her children are married scattered. Well, one is on his own and the other they're all on their own. She's just living with him. And you have one more child now. Now I have the youngest. And she's the rock so far. The rock? In what way is she the rock?
She's the most permanent one. She went to college. And in the meantime, I had relaxes and psychology treatment because of everything falling apart the way they did. And she kept up her education. She's a school teacher and she married and he's an artist. What kind of artist is he? Anyway, for a while he was freelancing and now I think he's in books for a publishing company. Illustrating. Illustrating. Where do they live? And they live in Evanston, have a very nice home, and two lovely children, where the eldest is going to graduate high school. This resume is enlightening me also. All right, so tell me, with everyone around, and all these grandchildren in college and children around, Wie Kemp, die Katze, die Brenwasser, how come you're sitting here in Dallas when your kids are in Chicago and in Evanston?
How did you come to Dallas? And why did you come? Well didn I tell you that they were both in Dallas My eldest daughter and the second daughter were both living in Dallas So when you having My husband and I we spent two years in Florida That was his dream To retire. All his working years, to retire and go live in Florida. Well, he couldn't take it for more than two years. Neither could I, just sitting around and going to the beach. Vegetating. Vegetating. and although my mother was living there, she managed to get herself into a group that played mahjong and all, and her husband managed to find some work in town, but we decided it was not for us, and we came back after a little stop in St.
Louis for two years. My middle daughter was living in St. Louis. Our husband thought he could make it there. And we stayed in St. Louis for two years with this daughter. Then he came to Dallas and left us in... No, so when he moved to Dallas from St. Louis, we went with him in the same furniture van and came to Dallas. And he was here for a year, and he decided to go back to Chicago. he was offered something in Chicago that I would pay him. So in the meantime, well... You remained here. We, my husband's, we've had a pretty apartment in the same complex I'm in now.
It's a very pretty apartment. He says, I'm not moving anymore. This is final. And God proved it was final. So we lived there for 11 years in that apartment. Have you been coming, you've been here for 11 years? Until he passed away. When he was alive, did you come to the center? Were you part of the senior group then? Immediately. Immediately we came to Dallas. I had a neighbor. My daughter belonged to the community center. My both daughters joined the community center. My both daughters joined Temple Emanuel and sent their children to Sunday school. and my eldest daughter's children were confirmed. So you found your niche right away at Gats?
Right away we came to the center. ...which, and I've been coming to the Center now for 16 years, and maybe it's time for change, I don't know. What do you mean? What do you mean? I don't have any official capacity here that I could actually throw my weight around. You want to throw your weight around, I'll arrange for you an official capacity. But you have, you once told me in our roots discussion when we were discussing family and children, that you're content that you didn't follow your children around, that you have friends here, and that you've stayed and you don't despair that decision, that you feel you made the right decision.
I've mulled over it. You don't know how much I've thought about it. And I regret that I have to live this way, very much. But as I tell you, there's no place for me in Chicago. Now my youngest daughter is teaching, a husband I mentioned. The two children, the oldest one is going to go to college. The youngest is in high school. Now she's very much engaged in an additional therapy of having a school for disadvantaged preschoolers. She trying to form with several other ladies of the same mind who are in teaching capacities art teachers Well you feel then that you really I have no place Well, aren't you active here?
Don't you come how many times a week? I do come three times a week. My biggest problem facing me right now is, should I move into this new housing project, give up the center, more or less, and go live over there? At the Byers Center. At the Byers Center. That's puzzling me and causing me sleepless nights. Have you discussed it with anyone other than yourself? With Bonnie. Uh-huh. I asked her what she thinks. She knows my daughters are on them, and she knows me. And I asked, she thinks I'd be happier there. Of course, it might be my final decision. and between that staying or going over there, they found me a place, they found me a very nice apartment for elder citizens, but the thought of tearing myself up without anybody, you know, sort of counseling me or helping me or anyone close, tearing myself up and going to live, I could have got a nice, one of these new modern apartments.
But my daughter was frank, she says, Well, but you know, Buyer Center will have many people such as you and many activities there. Yes, it is. We hoping to bring busloads of people here so that you will be coming to the center at least once a week Maybe I due for a change of pace by now and I should have some That's my biggest worry. You'll make new friends there because you'll have all kinds of different people in the building. But when does this decision have to be made? Well, I want to go for pace. my girls have asked me to come out they'll make us say and when I come back you want to make up your life I have to know they will have to know alright Anna we're running pretty close to the end of the tape you like many other seniors that I've interviewed your life has not been easy it's been struggles it's been difficulties but what amazes me that you're all made of such tough stuff and you all come through and you all come on top.
And if, you know, someday one of your grandchildren or great-grandchildren comes in and sees your name on the tape and says, ah, that's my grandmother talking. I want to sit down and listen to all about her life. They listen to the story and they've come to the end of the tape now. I always like to ask the people at the end, if you know your grandson or granddaughter or someone is listening, What would you tell them about how should they lead their life, or what have you learned about your life, or what kind of advice would you give them, or what would you like to say to them?
I think it required a lot of thought and consideration and I do not believe in doing my own thing kind of life There all kinds of mores and customs and for God sake don give up all these Your religion, your customs, all traditions. and don't say they're old fashioned but we have to stick together and this individualistic approach in life which I seem to have followed, we need family. We need family, friends, and roots. And the comfort of knowing people and being known by people of long-standing money can't bear. And racing after the dollar is not the answer. I have lived in Mount of School, but I've never been in Mount of School.
Okay. I think they've got some interesting things to think about. Anna, it's been lovely, and now you and I are going to go off to the museum soon. And thank you for spending this time with me. We're all very interesting, Cassie. You're the one who's interesting. Thank you very much.