Cecile Rosenzweig
Cecile's mother was born in Chicago, and her family moved to Texas after her uncle settled in the area following World War I service. Her father's family came from the shifting Poland-Russia border region, arriving in America through the port of Galveston. Her father came in 1912 at age 17, joining his older brother who had arrived in 1911, both working as bakers at Ships' Bakery. The extended Goldman family, guided by an uncle who served as patriarch, gradually brought over siblings, spouses, and children, all settling in the Dallas area. One uncle, Julius, had been taken by the Russians to Siberia and escaped from a freight train before joining the family in America.
Cecile grew up on Claremont Street in South Dallas, attending Mount Auburn, William Lipscomb elementary, and later Woodrow Wilson. During the Depression years she climbed trees for mistletoe, picked pecans, played baseball, and roller skated. She fondly remembered receiving her first bicycle at age ten from beloved Christian neighbors she called Uncle Bob and Aunt Kay. Her father joined Shearith Israel synagogue in 1917 and was devoted to it, while her mother ran the sisterhood kitchen and organized donor luncheons. The Goldman family bakery, including the old Cliff Bakery on Jefferson, served the community for many years before national chains squeezed them out.
Cecile met her future husband David Rosenzweig through his sister when she was fifteen. David served in the 78th Division and came home in April 1946 with frozen feet that troubled him the rest of his life. They married about a year and a half later, and after David's family jewelry business closed, he became a successful homebuilder, constructing their first house on Shook Street. They raised two sons, Howard, born in 1949, and Sammy, born in 1952, eventually settling in a growing neighborhood near the new Arthur Kramer school. Above everything, Cecile cherished family, carrying on the tradition of cousin luncheons and keeping the large Goldman clan united across generations.
Full Transcript
okay here we go this is Cecile rosensweig and today is Tuesday June 16th 2015 and we're interviewing in her home okay so Co tell me a little bit about your family and your parents where were they born or and if you know anything about your grandparents also my mother was born in Chicago and when she was a young lady the family moved to Texas Poland / Russia the borders changed he came to America he was 17 years old to the port of galveston and he had an uncle Uncle Joe ships with his mother's brother and he gradually brought over his sister's family and all the
children and also his other sister he had two sisters here and brought them over with all their children and so he he was the patriarch that got him over to America and daddy came in 1912 uncle Jake his older brother came in 1911 they were both bakers and they came and worked at Jeff's bakery the rest of the family followed soon uncle Julius who was Joe and in its father had been taken by the Russians and he was in Siberia and that's why he didn't come at that time he was on a freight train with the Russians shipping them somewhere in the guards fell asleep
and he escaped and came to America with his his parents in the children and they all settled in the Dallas area yes because the ships's were here and that was my grandmother's maiden English ships and her brother brought them all over here and they came to the port of Galveston and left for Bremen which still goes on and supportive impartation I think and take you down was there were several bakers in the family uncle Jake and Daddy and uncle Hyman Goldman were the three bakers and they went to work in the ship's bakery what was your mom doing at this time my mom and dad
met we're all the young people used to go near Wichita Falls and Uncle egg was already married came and it's time and he introduced my dad and mom and and she lived in Wichita Falls and the reason her family moved from Chicago down here is because her brother uncle Sal was in World War one he was my grandmother's pet and since he settled here going to work for an uncle he had in Fort Worth my grandmother picked up and told my grandfather we're all moving to Texas because tommy is there so so but and they did and they lived here where did your folks live
when you came along where were they living what neighborhood in prayer mat and Hollywood Heights or Hollywood edition I forgot what was caught on Claremont Street between Santa Fe nice Graham we lived at 5:17 I went to Mount Auburn for half a term and then to Ian Lipscomb elementary school and was that at the time basically kind of a Jewish area no not a Jewish area was in South Dallas but my mom and dad found a lot out in this place he liked the country and he thought it was going to remain that way of course it didn't mm-hmm but and so they found the
house there but they like well actually they didn't find it they found a lot and they bought a lot and look their house is a two-bedroom house for the porch probably a thousand square feet at the time and so my brother and I grew up there and I ended up going after the first semester mother didn't like my offer for some reason and that was our school district but we were on the border of William Lipscomb school and in our infinite wisdom she meant to talk to someone didn't let let's go to live some school which we did and then we went from there to
wrong and we graduate Woodrow what were some of your activities when you were young when some of the things you were interested in I climbed trees to get mistletoe the New Year's Eve and picked pecans I played baseball and Claire Mott Street with all the other boys and girls that played baseball I wrote her skated I got my first bike when I was 10 years old and I guess it's the one gift I remember all my life because it was Depression years and it was difficult and we had neighbors next door who were Christian and Kane Uncle Bob and we became real close with them
so they would invite us over when they would have Christmas Eve and had gifts for all of us and tuned we have Hanukkah and Christmas mm-hm and and when I was ten years old that Christmas and it was icy and cold outside and I called him Uncle Bob but he he said sue let's go out to see if it's snowing yet we went out there was a big ribbon on her bicycle for me and I had my first bicycle oh that's fast so that's beautiful it's good my reason there were wonderful people and in fact my mom and aunt Kay call her aunt came the
my dad and I Pro Bob put a wire like a walkie-talkie from one kitchen to the other so they could talk to each other all the time so we grew up with good neighbors and the Swift's I don't know with your new Marion and Marvin Swift okay they lived on the other end of the street the twins they were my age so we I grew up with them lay my religious upbringing I don't wish how was your household as far as religion is concerned oh yeah my dad was aren't the dots well fit right in and back I remember when she had to get up
and when the sisterhood luncheons donor luncheon she didn't like talking in front of people and an innate Gladys were the better ones for that kind of leadership mama ran the kitchen they raised money from the donor luncheons from her menus and the food and her crew Sarah Goodman and mission it sir and all of them that work with her then Esther and and I remember when they made her get up from the mic one day at one of the donor luncheon because of what she had done and she says I can just say one thing I'm married Sam February 15 1925 36 think I was
working in the show already what synagogue could you belong to sure he's really sure and so that was the old share with Israel in South Dallas yeah and we've continued it on daddy became a member there in 1917 he came to this kind 19:12 so he was at 21 or 22 years old and at one time they had a big frame with all the membership from the years that became members but as it grew that all got lost but I can remember and I was so happy he was the first one to become an actual member of the synagogue from the Goldman family wonderful and
he joined it in 1917 did they belong to any other organizations that you can remember well my work was Hadassah and the sisterhood and I don't know so many she I've shared a couple of pins from Hadassah to but and dad was just mostly with the synagogue whatever had been on the synagogue is where he was and baking the Baker's worked on liked the baking with them at night tough job hey uncle Hyman going and uncle Jake were the actual Baker's Uncle Ed was a salesman and phenomenal salesman he couldn't meet him without immediately liking him and he brought the accounts in uncle Hyman Nathanson
that's a deal instead and birthday was his wife that's my dad's sister he he helped with the business end of it he was very good businessman very sweet and human and uncle Jake was in the old cliff bakery the first bakery was some horrendous Street in South Dallas and then they opened on 9th and Jefferson you know cliff mm-hmm and had the old cliff bakery how long did that go what was that that oh it went for many many years I can't remember when it finally ended Wonder Bread came in some of the big national chains and they were squeezed really but it's uh but
they contributed a lot to the city not just from their bakery but from their activities Uncle Jake was did a lot with the community being he was a no cliff too he was the owner of commerce and he did a lot of things that way when I was little daddy would take me fishing at Blackrock my brother and I and I think somewhere in my garage I still had the old mental bucket we would walk down there dad came down in 1940 actually in 1932 when my brother was born he had an acute attack of we got the kind of arthritis that was affecting him
all over his body and at birth enough time and drove him to have Springs to get treatments and mother was still in hospital was my brother had been born but those days I kept you two weeks when you had a baby or longer and they laid him out comfortably and took him behind Springs Arkansas for treatments and they work daddy worked for years after that until 1940 when he couldn't work anymore and Eva couldn't even drive he was 45 min reggaeton arthritis when I know actually had the other kind of arthritis in 46 he had an attack of rheumatoid arthritis and they thought at first
it might have been polio but it wasn't and but he always smiled never complained and and kept going they wouldn't let him drive anymore which was sad but the Gulman family or one unit the brothers and sisters we're always there for each other and I think even the younger generation we still are how was he managed to keep in touch with everybody what do you do well at least once a year now we were having once a month the cousin's luncheons and I then slide I dad was getting everyone together she was the baby and she would get us all together and recently Sonny hadn't
been well and so forth so we haven't had it recently but we still get together and just got together for lunch not so long ago and keep up with each other we really do I danced carried that on as the young one with Bates and for everybody your your lunch why not everybody has family nearby I think it's wonderful that's our week we've been very fortunate in that way because a lot of us didn't even know her grandmother going because she passed away the flu epidemic in their early 20s but we all knew they and he was so sweet and the story was that all
of them that remain babes in arms we're afraid of him because he had a beard and he was so excited when I came over because I'm the only one that liked it I liked to stroke his spirit was have a picture of him holding me my mother's father holding me my daddy holding me all about the same age as a little girl and I cherish those I had more no wall here didn't he ever come here he never came here he was here he was here oh yeah okay they he came over with the younger children with uncle Abe and uncle max the two girls
were already over here keeping house for the older brothers and so he and my bubby came over together with the younger children and uncle Julius who got away from the Russians right the Tsar of Russia or whatever it was and daddy loved to tell us stories of it he loved never said anything bad other than the head because our Russia he loved the farm they lived on he left fishing in the stream he would tell me stories of during the wintertime bubby needed food you know and the string they cut catch fish the stream would freeze over he said and the water was so clear
and beautiful he said that you could see the fish swimming down the stream he said so we would see it ahead of time and know which route they were taking it's a narrow stream and we don't we'd knock her hole in it and we go in and take the fish out and take it to bubbie to cook that I don't think he made the story up he was so excited about it he said that some of your family actually tried to retrace the steps and find the town where they were what have every government I don't know you need to talk to Larry okay he
did some research on it mm-hmm in fact I think Larry took a trip on one of the trips over to throwing in Russian when they tried to find they didn't have the old maps with garbling on it it's a tiny little farm town and that's all we know is I believe but our grandfather also worked is in it Champlin doing books for the little chummy there I know that daddy told me them because they are farm and that didn't make enough money and he would go into the world salad do bookkeeping farm now tell us tell us how you met your husband we haven't talked
about that part yet okay I was girlfriends with a bunch of girls here including his sister and she called one day one afternoon or one day and she said some of the girls are coming over and I want you and [ __ ] since he was a godly man she [ __ ] and I am in [ __ ] Cheever and she was a got leading we lived in East Dallas everybody else with had moved in other areas and so I went next dad and he said no he says because you and [ __ ] coming home it'll be trained dark I don't want you go through town and train spring in the
dark I was fifteen years old and so I called her back and told her that I would love to come it was like low head in front of your house but but my you know my dad's worried about us coming home and the turning dark before we come home she oh well don't worry about that my brother drives and he can give you a ride home he'll give you an to see a ride home so he was close friends with David giler do you know any of the killers I do okay with David and here were best friends and so he was with David and
they gave us rides home [ __ ] lived on I'm spillin I'm from guest and I lived on Gaston and they gave us rights home in a couple days later he called - me too movie and the Sammy's everyone that was the place saw the pig kids went after a movie to go eat something because we all had to be home by midnight you know and so I I went to ask my dad and he said well who is it I says well you know doors frozen to our residents like I said she's been over here for slumber parties and things and and her parents lived on
the older drive and this is her brother and I went on the whole deal he says well that's fine but don't you need to be in at midnight I know so the carriage turns into a pumpkin then you know so so we went out went to Picture Show in to Sammy's that was a place everybody went after pictures show and came home and he took me to the door mom and dad invited them in they always had my dad was a baker my mother became a great Baker they always had cake and coffee and sweets and and they bide them in and and then he
called later on we went on that the next weekend I forgot which that was his bowling night he went bowling either Friday or Saturday we went out the other night we dated for about five months so he turned 18 and with the service and it's all good memories so you know we sweat it out you fought in the Battle of the Bulge and so did George Goldman and George was in the 99th which got hit hard he was taken prisoner David my husband was in the 78th and then I had a cousin from Chicago for my mother's side that was in the 84th that all
three were there at the same time but my cousins from Chicago I forgot what division he was in where he had access to typewriter and mail and he could write and he could write me uncensored letters and that's how I knew then he says he's worried about George he wasn't related to him but he used to come visit all the time he's on mother's side George's on bed and they became friends and he says he said that his division was on one flank and my husband was on the other flank but George is in the 99th in the center and so and we all they
had said missing in action went and then an enclave got the telegram but he was taken prisoner but he was in an SS camp and he really went went through it he he weighed 90 pounds when they brought him home when his own division were relieved his that prison camp it was an SS and those SS guards didn't come didn't live to tell the tale and I know all the rest were too but George was such a gentle person but they started them actually he started them and he was in a hospital for a long long time after that and then they flew him back
to the hospital here which was in McKinney at the time the Veterans Hospital and he got there for a while how did your husband come back well yeah what shape was he in when he came back he had had frozen feet and they treated it there but when he was ready for discharge he didn't write it back because he knew they would keep him in the service longer you're going to get home but he had a fetcher miss frozen feet the rest of his life you know where he didn't have Bailey in the middle of the hot summer his feet were cold but fortunately he
okay you know otherwise did he ask you to marry him soon after that or did you wait he came home in April he went in service in March of 44 he came home in April of 46 and we started dating once a week and then we got engaged in July and we married a year and a half later we needed both to be working I quit school because in those days I quit right before he came home I wanted to be a schoolteacher and the rules in Texas for schoolteachers were that if you were married you the woman couldn't teach because they need the jobs
for the men so I figured well that's all I wanted to be so there's no use to me keep going and get a degree in teaching when I'm not going to be able to because the men are coming home from service so I quit and I went and learned shorthand and so forth and so forth and I became secretary to the credit manager at American Standard office here and I worked there and then you know David's dad had a small custom jewelry store downtown and now David worked there and hit that toment would be his story when he came home well as it happened he
did for a while but the rent went up so high they couldn't make money anymore and he said need to do something what are we gonna do and I said you know you love the outdoors you love fishing you know I'm going out I said I don't like on the building business he said that sounds good to me and he knew nothing about it but we we found me the gentleman HC Northcutt and we had gone to look at this house that he was at and he was the [Music] and he we didn't buy it but we left that any status on shook Street went
you in there shook Street and he decided he wanted to be a builder and it came to naturally and so the first house we built was actually on shook Street we bought a lot there than dad helped us and bought it for us because he was I've been one to build the lot was $5,000 we paid him back very quickly for it and we sold the house on completion for eighteen thousand five hundred and and then we went out to build but in the meantime when we came back to my honeymoon we were going into apartment and you had to have your name on the
list to get apartments afterward because there was scarce that Dallas was not an apartment living city anyway it was still the small town where everybody had a little over something and so we had our name on the list that was on University we were going to take an apartment but now David's mother and my mother died for each one living closer to them my mother lived on gas and she lived there that they were close friends they played Canasta together but yeah so we came home and and from the honeymoon and dad said come with me and he had already bought us a house on
my teacher there's a thousand feet it was very close to my in-laws we could almost ride our bikes over them and and now they they're not both the same time you know dad we're gonna pay you back every penny we don't want it again if we want to earn what we have we both thought the same way we did we we have it's a beautiful generation though there was very that was a nice gesture and so how did your family grow at that point your own immediate family well they were both born where we lived on my teak did you have it what what children
did you have Howard was born in 1949 Sammy in 1952 and we have a two-bedroom house so when Sammy was coming along we've got some carpenters and added on to the back end of the bedroom and we stayed there for a while and then as they got closer to them going to school we found out that Arthur Kramer school is a brand-new school is gonna open about the time that Howard was of school age before that they went to a little preschool or I can't remember her name now Howard knows it anyway but a lot of the kids went to that we took them too
so we sold our house moved in with my parents actually with my mother my dad passed away to 51 and moved in with my mom Gaston for a year to save up and then and then we found this house when Howard was almost school-age and we lived in here we've been here ever since so this is a great area it was in the country then the wrong lane dead ended three houses down and Kramer's school had just been built mm-hmm so so we got Howard into a brand new elementary school and that was great and it was full of young couples with children right and
it was great to be in his neighborhood and then it grew you know you never think that was growing the city grew but I'm sure Dallas has changed a lot since the early days it has well how would you say what are some of the things you see the major changes you see in Dallas here became a metropolitan city I like it when it was smaller it was like 200,000 population you know during World War two and which I thought was very large really and I liked it that way because we could ride our bicycle to the parks and we could do things that that
you would worry about now and letting your child go by themselves when they're not attend bicycle somewhere what you said the things have come to that but in fact Howard would take they caught it Carruth hills where Rowand attended the Cruz family owned all that land they owned all this at one time they owned land all the way out I think it's the forest lane and all the way into the city they the will Kurtis grandfather a great-grandfather who goes back to 1800 that was all ranch and farm land and they had travel and things and he gradually sold it all off this was Curry's
land at one time too and so Howard would take his little BB gun and go down with all the kids and they were taught at Cruz Hills you know they come shooting at the rocks and do things that they probably shouldn't have done and then they cut through bo Becker and sent Michaels for a little bit and one day I get a knock on my door and we were already building houses and one Ellen every holidays agents that we knew came to door and so come on in and we knew her well and she said I've got a young boy acting on a bicycle well
that wasn't the first time cuz but it's another story about Howard anyway in herre was white as a sheet he says his baby just hit my window how it good mom I was just shooting up the rocks and stones down at Curry's yeah I said you're not gonna do that anymore you could have hurt this lady I said and she's a friend of ours you know and he went in my house and they'll David sat down had a long talk with him how David would never lift from him then if he could help with I think one time he hit hard on his rear and
then my husband suffered from that on himself and he one time for Sammy because he drove up the driveway and Sammy was my younger one and apparently I just told Sammy what to do or what not to do I was on the front porch and Sammy screamed back at me as and dad was driving up the driveway and I'm David brought him in the house and he took his belt off and I said don't do that David and he didn't hit him either out of reprimanding him he hit him because he was upset with him for screaming at me and my husband remembered that for
us it was like he went back in there he apologized to he says your dad didn't do that out of discipline I did it out of temper oh I'm so sorry I did that to you and it's good Sammy was heavy in fact so take it but here because he was such a gentleman he just didn't want to scream and his mother I said don't worry about them and I said I scream at him too can you think of anybody throughout your life here that has been a role model to you oh I'm gonna everybody in my family I get a try to remember all
the good about all of them my dad was a sweetheart and then I even told me one time she heard uncle eggs she says I want you to know that your father is the sweetest one of all the boys and the Goldman family dinner I said now they're all sweet to me you know and he was just a very very sweet man and I was just fortunate I had good parents a wonderful brother he was my best friend but Andy's and uncles and cousins and we have the most United family and my opinion that anybody could have all the uncles and aunts and cousins are
always and what's left of us still there for each other and I just think that's so important we're race turd to all of us but to be family my mother and dad married it at Bert's and Oklahomans apartment good enough way back and they used to talk about that and that birthday hat goes in hand she made the little dress in my mother wore at her wedding and so you had a lot of good role models we had yeah we had good family and Rebecca and Uncle Ben they have a small trucking business with two trucks to haul things for people and worked hard but
originally lived in Ferris Texas and we loved it pick up from sunday-school go down to Ferris to visit with NAT Rebecca that's red Coleman's mother and dad in Ferris and I remember all the adults had a bottle of beer and we had cold drinks and they had corned beef sandwiches or all kinds of things and it would be after Sunday school so it was a fun afternoon and then they ended up moving back here and they did the cross street from forth I but if it's all good memories I I remember when I was sitting on I wore a Dwayne's hand-me-downs she had beautiful clothes
and that birthday gave everything to mama that admin that Ruth and and I think they're just two dresses at mama thought at the balcony at Neiman Marcus the protector dresses and wear one one Sunday to Sunday School and one the next time they get Sun be smooth and but we we just uh the Hogan family is a very giving family and we share it everything are we sure doll of no I think in closing can you think of anything looking back on everything that you are really really the most proud of can you give a good example I guess just one word would would be
family all the way from my family I was born into to my husband and my children I think the one word is family I mean it is good it's wonderful its it totals everything but I think that's so so important I hope my grandchildren feel that way is their children get older I don't know if they will but they're spread all over where in those days that I grew up the family we're all living in one city and became really close I know my grandson that's married and his sister that's married and Derick his brother that's not married that's Howard children they remain close to
each other Kourtney's in Houston Shawn's in San Antonio and they still watch out for each other they each have two children and the younger brothers been transferred to Australia Derick and he definitely his family yeah hasn't found anyone yet but we miss him and I hope he was sick he never left his side here we're blessed yeah and I'd say so mm-hmm and my brother's daughters are very close with me my brother's just are both gone too like I had too much madness in me and they don't want me to go yet having not ready for me not ready for it well thank you so
much this has been wonderful and I really enjoyed it I and when I start I really talk a lot that's okay my family history that's my husband that was my mother's favorite picture was she loved my husband in fact they father like they talked to us we were all together I wouldn't open my mouth they agreed on politics they agreed on almost everything and she was a smart mother and then but that was him when he was a teenager about the time I met him Hannah is my mother's favorite picture of him and it's my Suns that their Bar Mitzvah so we're blessed and Evan
lives here he's my baby grandson he is so sweet he's here all the time yeah cause grandma all the time he's not married but we were blessed from from past generations of future we were blessed well knowing that you cut that okay I got to start and I'll talk forever you