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how has uh how has the community changed over the years well it was smaller you went to Temple and you walked down the middle aisle and you knew everybody on each side um it was a smaller community and one that I liked better cuz it wasn't a big Metropolis like it is now when was it you came to Dallas what year was it 50 I graduated in 54 came here in 53 okay you been here a while oh many years and got a job with Jewish Family Service and that was involved in the community for sure tell me about uh uh your involvement with the
uh Jewish Community now tell me tell me some of your services you did well I was hired by Jewish Family Service and I did not have a master's degree in social work so I got all the the work that nobody else wanted to do and uh I dealt with the trents who came through through town and swore they had never been here before and I would write down the name of this the address of the Salvation Army to say I can send you here for a night and they'd look at it and say oh have they moved um and then at one point Bernie Goldstein
who was the director of family service then for a long time he wanted one person to be involved with the older people and none of these casew workers wanted to do that and I like like working with older people so that's how I got into that part of what I did okay and tell me tell me about that well I worked with lots of people I I was the resettlement worker at Jewish Family Service I resettled the Polish people that came through and the Russians after the Communists left them let them out and I resettled them from Uganda and from other countries when the federal
government knew we had the mechanism for resettling and they would ask us to take some from other countries so you really had to work with them to adjust oh and through an interpret it which was not easy there are a lot of programs in Jewish Family Service that I started that are still going on they refer one to one they say that's Bunny's program and I've been retired 10 years now what were those programs tell us it was interesting how I started the Meals on Wheels I had a couple of people who needed kosher food and so I went to the kosher Butcher and I
said said do you have Frozen TV Dennis kosher oh yeah he said and I said if I call you in the morning and tell you how many to put in the microwave and then I have a volunteer pick them up and could deliver them and that's how I started the first Meals on Wheels program wow and uh Transportation a friend of mine called and said we have a station wagon that we could donate to the agency or we could take a tax break and I spoke to Bernie Goldstein and we decided to take it and I started started a transportation program to take people to
doctor's appointments and that worked out beautifully and these are things that we didn't have before that I just initiated the the lifeline program is my biggest accomplishment I had to work very hard to raise the money with the president of our board to buy the first Lifeline Pro uh units that we put in but those are emergency response things where people push a button and ask for help and uh I would come and visit the first lady I started in the program and I'd say Ruth where's your Lifeline you're not wearing it oh wait a minute she'd go in the bedroom and take it out
of the dresser draw and I say no no no you got to have it on you but it's grown very large and I'm very proud of that program very good and um so there are lots of programs that I started that are still going on and that makes me feel good I funny 1932 Brooklyn New York what do you remember well it was right after the Depression right and I was not affected by the depression I didn't even know we were in a depression I was young what was life like when you were a little girl it was very simple in those days you didn't
worry about crime in New York you went on the streets and um life was simple went to school the classes were either half Jewish or half Italian how the public school went and um that's how it was yeah life was easy in New York you remember what you did for fun went to the movies went out with friends went to the beach in the summer yeah um tell me about your grandparents I didn't know any of my grandparents and that I always felt was a loss for me but didn't they were all from Russia and I didn't know any of them did they come over
yes they came came over but they were gone before you they were gone before I knew them I'm sorry what about your parents talk to me about your folks my folks were simple people my mother went to high school my father was uneducated really he was a peddler mhm and um he would go out every day and sell things and and such and when I wanted to learn how to drive that was a battle I had to go with him early on a Sunday morning if I wanted to get that experience but um life was easy we had a good life we had a private
house a lot of people lived in apartments in New York MH but we lived in a private house went to a nice school um life was easy now your your sister was she older or younger than you younger okay um how many years apart were you guys three three years apart okay all right now where did you go to high school James Madison High School okay what was high school life like high school life was fun you know who was in my class was Ruth Bader Ginsburg we were friends in high school her name was Kiki Bader in those days her nickname was Kiki that's
worse than bunny so um it was good I was a very good student so I was in the Honor Society I was in um and and it was a good time now were you friends with Ruth at all yes in those days yes yeah yeah what was she like then she was a very bright girl involved in everything that the Honor Society she was a cheerleader you wouldn't know it looking at her now uh she was a real get him go and we were friends in high school yes around World War II time did that affect your family at all see World War II was
over I was young people was celebrating in the street I was at summer camp that summer and everyone was so excited but I really didn't understand a lot of what all the excitement was about now after high school did you want to college or to work I went on to college to the University of Vermont okay up in Burlington Vermont and what was that experience for you great I wanted a small school cuz I had gone to such a big high school in New York I had graduated with a thousand students and Vermont was a small University in a small City and for me it
was a great um experience now was that your first time leaving home you know I would go away to Camp every summer but yeah that was really my first time after college where did you wind up I got married before I graduated and wound up in St Louis Missouri was that because of uh your husband's career yes he went to school and I put him through dental school at that time and um now what were you doing in St Louis then well I I had transferred to Washington University okay and graduated from there and then I taught school for four years to earn the money
and how'd you guys wind up in down by mistake tell me about that mistake we were in Houston he was doing an internship and he had flown home to St Louis his father wanted him to see a man a dentist who was selling his practice in those days you had to renew your ticket to fly I don't know what the word I'm looking for is but renew is you know what I mean right and uh he forgot to do that so the first flight he could get on would be take him to Dallas and he remembered a dentist that he had met at a conference
there uh from Dallas and so he was stuck in Dallas he called him he went to see him Dennis said come in my practice I'm looking for someone and that's how we landed in Dallas what was the happiest time in your life oh my grandchildren they are the dividends you and your husband had three kids right and uh you have four grandkids you were raised in the 30s back in New York and they're being raised today um what differences do you see oh I think children are much more um spoiled today they given everything there wasn't that kind of thing to give to us we
live you know we didn't have we didn't have television in those days we didn't have um it was a much simpler time of life you mentioned television what do you think was like the greatest invention in your lifetime probably television I didn't see one till I came home from college yeah and my parents had gotten one in New York I remember a small screen with a magnifier put in the front and you couldn't sit off the straight path because it would be distorted you remember your first car I had an old beat up car my father-in-law had given us that he wasn't using anymore yes
I don't know the make but it was it was a shata in your lifetime there's been so many momentous occasions you know World War II um of course Kennedy assassination here in Dallas uh something good the moon landing in ' 69 for the first time tragedy of 911 was there something on the national scene that happened that really stood out in your mind that affected you well the Kennedy assassination I was driving down a street and wanted to avoid the motorcade and so I got to um Turtle Creek and a policeman stopped me and said I'm going to let you get out of the car
the mcade is coming down here and I said I was trying to avoid it so I had to get out of my car and there was just one or two other cars there and the moade came down that street and I could have put my hand out and shaken Jackie's hand I was that close wow and then I went on to the store where I was originally going and I was checking out and I saw people around a television set in the back so I said to the young man who was checking me out I guess he's given his speech down at Market Hall now
and um the young fell said didn't you know he was shot I said I just saw him two minutes ago on the street and I had never seen a president in person right and that was a a shock a terrible shock so you were that close to to seeing that and then just seconds later that's right how did that affect you for the rest of the uh day the weekend well it was interesting cuz we kept the television on you know day and night and my young son at the time he was he was quite young and he kept saying who shot this president who
shot this President and his interpretation was that's how we changed presidents we shot him very interesting and um so we had to explain to him everything that was going on yeah py what did advice would you want to leave to the Next Generation take care of your older folks of course I'm a gerontologist and that's my field of emphasis but um yeah that's what I would leave with them yeah well thank you very much for doing this today well thank you
