Dr. David Sikora
David Sikora's parents both came from Poland, his father from a village outside Warsaw and his mother from Warsaw itself. As a young man, his father emigrated hoping for a better life, and when turned away at his port of entry for lacking the required funds, he was given the choice to return home or continue to Texas, where workers were needed. He was met in Galveston by a representative of an aid society and took a job in San Antonio working long hours for a family that ran secondhand and pawn shops. He later brought over relatives, helped a sister reach Brazil, and eventually returned to Poland, where he married David's mother in 1923. The couple settled in San Antonio, where David was born in March 1924, followed by his sister Zelda and a younger brother who was born blind and brain damaged.
David grew up in San Antonio, active in a Jewish Boy Scout troop and later the AZA, and received a strong Jewish upbringing that included daily Hebrew study with Rabbi Mazursky and regular synagogue attendance. He attended the University of Texas, majoring in chemical engineering and joining a fraternity. After Pearl Harbor he enlisted, trained in the Army Specialized Training Program, and served with the infantry in Europe, enduring the bitter cold near the front, frozen feet that sent him back to England, and the Battle of the Bulge. He recounted confronting a German prisoner who mocked Jews, and remembered the relief when the war ended as his unit crossed the Atlantic bound for the Pacific.
Back home, David finished his degree and drifted through many jobs, from chemistry and sales to real estate and homebuilding, before deciding to try medicine. He was accepted to Southwestern Medical School at twenty-nine, struggled at first, then thrived, interning and eventually joining a practice with a longtime friend. He practiced general medicine in Dallas for about forty years, staying on even as insurance changes eroded the profession he loved. He married Ann, a sixth-generation Texan from Sweetwater, in 1965, encouraged her charitable work with organizations such as the National Council of Jewish Women, and came to treasure his family above all, guided by the example of his generous parents. In his later years he continued volunteering, including with a shared ministries food and medical assistance organization supported by Temple Emanu-El.
Full Transcript
Rosalyn Benjet, and we are here today to take the oral history of Dr. David Sikora, who sitting at my right. Our videographer is Ruth Andrus and we're going to begin. Dr. Socorro. David. David. Well, both of them, they meet David. Okay. Tell us about your family. Well, they were born in a very long time ago. My daddy and mother were both from Poland. And my father came over here. I may be a little bit amiss in the days. He had heard, he lived in Little Stead, about I think 40, 50 miles from Warsaw. Warsaw and he had heard came from a large family and his mother had chicken, sold eggs, so it's important and also had I think a collar or two and then the father would give it all the way for tzedakah and like that and then he had heard via the brick run so he understand that that there was gold on the streets in New York.
So somehow or other, he got over here. And when he came to supposedly, I'm guessing, Ellis Island, they wouldn't visit. I thought it was 1905. I think it was really 1910. They wouldn't let him in because he didn't have $25. He had to have $25 so he wouldn't be a burden on the community. And he was devastated, but they told him, you have an option. You can go on back to Poland, or there's a place called Texas where they desperately need workers. So you can stay on the boat and go to Texas. And this is obviously what he did And somebody met him in Gavisdom That was somebody from the HIAS or one of those organizations Rabbi, yeah.
The famous Rabbi. Rabbi on the bicycle. And he had a job working in San Antonio, part of this family of Jews who owned a bunch of shops and pawn shops. And as I understand, he lived in a stable, and he worked 12 hours a day, six days a week, and three meals a day. He got paid a dollar a week, and he told me that was the best job he ever had. Well, that was a different time of the world. Sure. And his family wrote him that they were really, in dark circumstances, there was already anti-Semitism and persecution in Poland. And he had saved up $50, and he sent it to them.
And then his sister wrote him that her boyfriend, fiance, had left and gone to Brazil. And if she could get $50, she could get on the boat, and they would get married. So he sent her $50. And sure enough, she went to Brazil, and they got married. They had two daughters. They both got married. And they had both been to Dallas to visit us and with Ann and I and the boys. And one of them was the head doctorate admiral in the Brazilian Navy. And then the others, I think they had a big smocky store on the main dragon in Rio de Janeiro. And they were part religious.
In fact, they had both families that sent their kids to Israel so they could learn Hebrew and learn about Yiddish Kites. And anyway then my daddy went back to Poland Well my mother family was from Warsaw and her father was in the grocery business but time went along and anti-Semitism took its toll and they were really having problems. And my father's oldest brother was a printer. And my mother's next to the youngest brother, or stepbrother, her own mother died when she was just four or five years old. and he had gone to work for my daddy's brother who was a printer. And so my father went there and they got married.
That was in 1923. And they came back and settled in San Antonio, continued to live in San Antonio. And let me see, I think my daddy, I'm not sure you know how old he was, my mother was 18, daddy was probably around 33, something like that. And then I was born in March of 1924. And then my sister Zelda was born a year and a half later to the date in September 1925. And then the following year, December 24th, a younger brother was born. And it was a tragedy. Time went along a little bit, and my folks took him to the doctor to find out what was wrong.
And the doctor said, your child has been born blind and will never be okay. There was maybe in today's society, who knows what it was, was it cataracts or baby who knows And then time went along some more and they realized more was wrong and they took them to the doctor And the doctor said, your child is brain damaged and will never be okay. And my mother said, that's the first time she had seen my father cry. They really wanted a huge family. And this is the, and this is, the depression came along. And so there was my sister and I, both of us, pretty healthy kids.
And in a way, we helped take care of them as we got over. And I remember we lived on the south part of town and most of the Jews, not all of them, but most of the Jews lived in the north part of San Antonio. And we couldn't wait to join the Boy Scouts. We had a Jewish Boy Scout troop at our city at our Boy Scout Troop number nine. And boy, we couldn't wait to join the Boy Scouts. That was our big entertainment, everything like that. And we had a marvelous Boy Scout troop. And we went to camp in New Brownsville's Camp Hamel. And it was really expensive.
I think it was $4 for a week or 10 days. And we had a good, good time. And time did go along. And I didn't get to start school until I was 7 and a half because you have to be 7 to start elementary school. and my birthday came out in March, so too bad. But my sisters, and I came home and taught my sister everything that I knew. And the first day she attended school, they realized she was way ahead of the class, so they promoted her to the next half, half grade. And as time went along, I couldn't tolerate the thinking We probably both celebrate, I mean, graduated at the same time.
So I went to sermon school two years in a row so I could graduate ahead of her. And she was an A1 student. She was very, very bright. You were living in San Antonio at the time? Yeah. And what was your father doing for a living at this point? He worked for this family who had, it was a secondhand store, pawn shop, sporting goods, you, you name it, and that's what it was because they're Sharlocks. And finally, and I don't know the details, my father bought it for me. And as I got older, I used to like to go there and help out. They wouldn't let me have a newspaper route because you know, I couldn't get hurt or something like that.
So I did help out and off and on for a long time. didn't particularly like it until I realized that a pawn shop was really like a bank. The bank has to take stuff, but the main thing is I really learned a lot of stuff. I learned about jewelry, and I learned about rifles, shotguns, pistols, all the ammunition, stuff like that. for a young kid I really knew that stuff. And... Can you tell us something about your interests and activities when you were in school? School? The Boy Scouts. Oh, then when we got to be 15, we could join the AZA, the Oneside College. And we had a marvelous time with it.
It was a wonderful organization. And some of the guys I was in school with are in the AZA. Well who do I know from San Antonio Arthur Harris moved here and he goes to Sheriff Israel too Bernice Shapiro and I were confirmed and Mildred Hirschman Sonny Hirschman sister we were all confirmed at the same time. Who else was it? Janice Mel, I don't, I think her married thing was there, but she died this year. About the only ones I know I was close to. What were your Jewish affiliations during your childhood, other than ACA? Did your parents go? Oh, going to Hager. When my daddy told him when I started school, he said, every day after school, you You'll go across the street to Rabbi Mazursky's house, which just happened to be right across the street from the elementary school, and you'll learn from the Torah, and you'll learn how to read and write Hebrew.
I said, oh no, Daddy, I want to play ball. He said, every day after school, you go across the street to Rabbi Mazursky's house. And we had a bunch. We had a good time. And we'd have a recess and we would play ball and everything. We had a good, good time. And in the elementary school, the rabbi's son, what was his name? Meyer. And he was a brilliant kid too. And they finally moved. and his oldest son, I think his name was Victor, I can't remember, became a doctor. He had two boys and two girls. And how this stuck in my mind, I don't know.
I remember Myra and I were in class, and it was getting close to being Christmas. And the teacher told us she felt very sorry for us because, you know, they got presents on Christmas. And both of us are going to blur it out at the same time. But we have a holiday called Hanukkah, which lasts for eight days, and we get a present every night. How could that stick in your mind How did your family celebrate Jewish holidays Very very well Mother lit the candles no candles Every Friday night, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we went to show. and I remember once at Tzim Kastora, Daddy took my sister and I to the synagogue, and we had some kind of a celebration, and I think they gave us candy, and we really had a good Jewish upbringing.
Did your parents belong to any Jewish organizations? Oh, yeah. One of the things I remember was , it's no longer in existence. It was a socialist Jewish organization. I said, Danny, but you're not a socialist or anything. You have your own business. and this is no, none of your, all your friends have their own business, they are not a bunch of socialists. She said never mind, but they were very very pro-Israel. Some of the things stick in mind, I remember once, oh all, my daddy and mother were both very very kind and generous. They really believed in Sadako. And all the nuns knew where they could come to for a handoff.
And in those days, I know this doesn't sound like much, my daddy would always give them a nickel. But in those days you could get a hamburger this big, y'all are too young to know you could get a hamburger this big for a nickel. And then I remember once, and maybe it was other times too, these bearded Jews came to my daddy store and they talked for a while and then Danny locked the front doors and he really had a lot of shotguns rifles pistols and they had big backs with them and he gave them a bunch of pistols and weapons. How they got them to Israel, I don't know.
and they did everything they could to take away every weapon they could from the Jews. Let's go back to you being in high school. What were your favorite subjects? What did you like studying? What was your school like? Well, it was a pretty good school. I liked it. I just wanted to pass. That's all I didn't even think about. You know, I guess really I like chemistry and math because it was so easy. I could make an A with hardly even studying. And English, history, that kind of stuff, I wasn't too good at. But I must have done this. This slipped into my mind, too.
We had a history teacher in high school, and she was lecturing to us one day, I don't know what she called it, the Middle East or whatever it was. And she said, there was no history at the time, of course, and she was saying, you must understand that the Arabs are farmers and Jews are businessmen. And every Christmas, I had her two years in a row, for Christmas, she would give a prize to the kid who could make the most words out of the letters in Merry Christmas. And guess who won it two years in a row? I did. And then after high school, what did you decide to do?
Oh, I went to the University of Texas. And I majored in chemical engineering. And I joined a fraternity finally called Ta Delta Phi. Some of the guys there in that paternity are still my friends and four of them in particular live here, except for Marvin Blutenstein who died earlier this year. Let me see, Cerny Lerman was from Galveston. Marvin Blutenstein was from Dallas. Oh, at the end of around, you know, towards December of our first year, no Pearl Harbor came along, and then no Hitzlers. and we were all none of us were 18 and we all tried to join the army but they wouldn't take us we were not old enough and our parents signed but as soon as we turned 18 they started something called the Army Specialized ASTP Army Specialized Training Program and then Joe Stuhl who lives here now and I were both known in engineering school.
And we went down. We wanted to join the Navy. I think they liked the uniforms or something like that. I don't know. And they wouldn't take us because we wore glasses or something. But we went down to the infantry place. And boy, they took us like that. They said, oh, no, in engineering school, we need engineers desperately. Y'all finish this semester. And then we'll send you to three months of basic infantry training. And then we'll send you to special infantry courses, I mean engineering courses. So we finished, and they sent us to Paris, Texas. And the Jewish folks there used to have the soldier boys over for Sunday brunch or we could get off and there were the seagulls there And there was Patsy she was about seven or eight I don remember And she had a younger sister four years older than she was.
She was a pain in the neck. And then after three months, they sent us to Stillwater, Oklahoma, to Oklahoma A&M. And Joe and I used to hitchhike. We never had to take a train or a bus. People, it was a different time where people picked us up and they stopped and fed us, took us wherever we wanted to go. I remember once they gave us a week off or something like that, and we hitchhiked to San Antonio, and people fed us on the way. And when we finally got to San Antonio, we may have had to go in two or three different cars. They didn't take us to San Antonio.
They took us to the front door of my parents' home. And then Job would spend the night, then he'd hitchhike on to Rio, Texas. And then we hit site back. But then after six months, they called us out one morning and said, we don't need these guys here anymore. We need you back in the infantry right now. So we went back to, we took our basic training in Paris, Texas at a place called Camp Maxine. And we took our basic, continued our infantry training there. But Joe and I were in different platoons. I'm not sure, but I think the guy who was the platoon, our platoon sergeant might have been Jewish.
His name was Isidor Rosen. No, he was Jewish. And Rosenier and I still talk with Southern a number of times a year. We've known each other since 1944. He was a lovely guy. And then we, after we had some more training, they sent us to Europe I have never been so sick in my life as being seasick But I finally got it I got over it And then we first stopped in England for a couple of weeks. And then the invasion had already started. and then we went to across the channel to I think it was La Hara and then we walked partway and then got on trucks and drove partway to Belgium and we were having a sleep on the ground there's no stuff like that And we asked a Belgian man there if it ever got cold or snowed this time with the Americans.
He said, no, it never does. Well, that night they had a major snowstorm. And then we ended up on, we believed, another outfit on the front lines in Germany. And then I must say, I know in San Antonio, if they got below 80, it was really, really cold. But it was really, really cold there. And I remember they sent our platoon corporal and two or three of us, I can't remember the details, out to scout the German lines. and it was cold and we took turns getting ahead of everybody and as Donnie can probably tell you and I really cannot read a roadmap very well.
I cannot do it. He said, how can you not read a When you copy, you make all As in advanced math, differential questions, all that. I said, those are two different things. And I think I got us way behind the German line. But they told us, if we saw the Germans, don't you? We don't want them to know that we're here. I sure they were told the same thing And we were gone off County for two or three days and we came back and our platoon medic was shooting the briefs with us and checking us And somebody, where they got the beer, I don't know, but we were drinking a little beer.
He said, now y'all got to take off your shoes. That we were told. And he was talking to us and everything like that. Let me see, well, there were four of us, I think. And he says, he pointed to me and another guy said, y'all are going back to England. He said, why? Are you drunk? What's wrong with you? He said, well, I was talking to y'all. I was sticking needles in your feet. And I said, yeah, it didn't even hurt. He said, that's the trouble. Y'all look at your feet. And they were black. He said, with luck, you're just going to lose your toes.
With bad luck, you will lose your feet. We said, we don't want to go back here. And he said, you'll do what you're told to do or else you'll be court-martialed. So we were in England for about, oh, and two days later, or I can't remember, The Battle of the Bulge started. And that's, the Germans pretty well blew their wide on that. And after, I can't, it was too long ago, three or four weeks, we went back and things were simmering down. So we were just finishing up and capturing Germans and that kind of stuff. How did you capture them? Very easy. get your gun and say, hand the horse.
And I think they were ready to throw the guns. And then we had a bunch of them locked up behind barbed wire, I guess. And now you see one with pistols. Give me that pistol there. And then one of them started talking to me in perfect English. I was on guard duty then. And I said, no, you speak English very, very well. How is that? He said, my father was a German attache in Carpus Christi. And I went to high school in Carpus Christi. I said, really? And he continued talking. He said, you know, y'all, they'll beat us here fair and square. But you know those Jews, they're way back there doing paperwork.
They can't fire a gun or anything like that. He went on and on and on and on. I said, so you see that big, burly guy there like this? Well, in the United States he slaughtered cattle, I believe he did it with his backfetched. That was Rosen. And you see that guy over there, his name is Nicky Lambasey, and he's Jewish. And you see the other guy over there, looks like an Aryan, his name is James Larkey, and he's Jewish. And you see that other guy over there, he's from a hip town in West Texas, and he's Jewish. And you see the other guy there real sharp, and he's our platoon runner, and he's Jewish.
By the way, this guy became first violinist for the New York Philharmonic when we got back. And I said, and you know what? I got my rifle and I said, and I'm Jewish. So say your prayers. This is it. I didn't mean it, I didn't mean it. And I cursed them and I said, you know what, if I were a German I would kill you. But we're not made that way. They couldn't get it out of their system. And anyway, and then the plan went along and Germany gave up, I can't remember when it was. and they were going to send us back to the United States for 30 days and then send us to Japan.
And in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean they got word over the sharp wave that Putin had dropped the bomb and the world was over And we said thank you Mr Bertrand Because God knows how many lives he saved by Of course, they're rewriting history now. Oh, he should have never brought that day wrong. Horrible, horrible. I said, oh, they're rewriting history. You better get that. And then I came back and I finished college. College, oh, my old buddies, nearly all of us survived except one guy, Warren Singer. And I changed from engineering to plant chemistry. I said, if you can't pass engineering drawing, then...
And then most of the guys, after they graduated, were married, I'd say, within six months or a year, most of them. I didn't want to get married. And I wanted to see what another school was like. So I was offered a place in St. Louis, Washington University. It was a top-notch school in L.R. at UCLA. And I went to Washington University. And it was just the end of August or something like that. And it was so cold. And I took the next train out of there and went to UCLA out, and it was nice and warm there. And then in the middle of my second semester, I said, no, I cannot stand this education business anymore.
And I turned in my retirement, and I quit. And I went and went home. And then my dad said, what have you been to 2 o'clock? What have you been doing? I said, Daddy, I've been in the infantry for three years. I can take care of myself. He was overprotective because my brother had died when he was 17 when I was overseas. So I told him I said Daddy I been offered a job in Dallas which was a lie and so I better get there I said no you can go home to visit but you can go home again I forgot who wrote that book Thomas Wolfe.
You can't go home. Can't go home again. Thomas Wolfe. You're right, Thomas Wolfe. Very good boy. English major. Oh! I read it. And then I got a job in Fort Worth. And when I found out that the janitor, oh, after I was there for about a month, the head chemist said, you know, you're real smart. I haven't had a vacation in a long time. Surely you can watch this for a month while I'm gone. This was a place that made sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, and fertilizer. And it was a multi-million dollar enterprise. And I was shooting the breeze with the janitor one time and found out that they were making a lot more money than I was.
So I went up to the hedge honcho and I said, you know, I know this individual has been with you all for a long time and I'm relatively new but I have tremendous responsibility here. Your production, the quality of it depends upon me. He said, I want to make at least what that janitor does. And the guy said, well, it's against corporations' regulations. And the board of directors were not allowed. I said, well, I may have a meeting with my board of directors, and they said, I get that raise or else you can quit. So I'm quitting. But I will not leave until Mr. So-and-so gets back from his vacation and when he says he's ready to swing into action, then I will leave." And they couldn't believe, but this is your future.
I said, I'm not going to wait around until you all decide that, and of course I left. Then I went to work for a chemical, oh, a chemist, that's his assistant, Jewish guy. Then after a few months, I got tired of that and then sold chemicals. And then oh I read in the paper that Kraft Foods Company was coming into town And I said I wonder if they could use Canvas So I was phoned up It was out in Garland, Texas. And I phoned up and they said, let me let you speak with our personnel manager. And he sounded like a good old country boy.
And I put on my Texas accent and asked them if they could use the Canvas. He said, yeah, when can you come on by? I said, well, how about this afternoon or tomorrow? He said, come on by. Haskell, though, I got it. We hit it off real, real good. And he said, I asked you to bring your credit such a raise that you made. And I really have pretty good grades. He said, yeah, you got a job, but you got to go to our company psychologist, because everybody who's, you're going to be head campus, and you'll probably have 40, 50 people to supervise. And so you got to get checked out by this psychologist who is an older guy.
And we chatted at the breeze, and then he gave me about 35 questions to answer. I think I answered 34 out of 35. He said, you know what? You didn't even double check your answers, and you were in such a hurry. You could have answered 35 out of 35 instead of 34 out of 35. Sure, you have the job, but you know how long you're going to last at it? Two years, maybe two and a half years, something like that. I said, you're wrong, but it was really a good, good salary. and I was really sort of their fair-haired boy and they had a wonderful, wonderful, when they said cleanliness, they made it and they treated all their employees superbly.
They were really, really terrific. But after about two and a half years, I can't remember how long, I said I can't stand this. I'm going to go, hey. So I went up to the head boss fair, the general head honcho, and said, Jack, I'm giving you three months' notice. He said, are you drunk? He'll be probably head of craftsmen these days. I said, Jack, I'm not going to wait for you to, on the way to your grave, you'll still be trying to give orders. I said three months back. He said, well, look, you can go to California, you can go to Paris, France, you can go anywhere you want to.
I said, no, it'll be fun for a while, but then I'll still be bored to death. So he said, I've already trained somebody to take my place. He said, you'll regret this to the day you die. He was so angry at me. And then, oh, I played golf for about six months every day. Until one of my girlfriends said, you are a bore, and if you don't go out and get a job, don't come back and see me. You were living in Dallas at the time? Yeah, okay. And so I signed off $5 and got a license to sell real estate. Went $5, no exam, nothing.
And went to work for Catherine Curtin. And really did good. It was a seller's market in those days. And then I was getting bored with that, so I built some houses with a guy by the name of Boastman. I think he had built Zell and Jack's first house. And I said, well, I didn't, no, he didn't build them. He was just a supervisor I saw. I said, and I learned enough about it, so I started building houses myself. And then, did pretty good. And then who did I run into one day? Buddy Wattell. You know, did you know Buddy? And I knew him from Texas.
And he said, what are you doing? He was selling or something. Oh, I'm building houses, buddy. He said, could I build one with you? I said, sure, sure. We ended up building houses together And then I got bored with that I said that madness And so I said well what do you want to do next You know what, I think I might want to see what medical school was like. So I went over to the medical school. was, it was in a bunch of old army barracks at Maple and Oak Lawn. That's a bunch of old, you know. And so I looked around for the registrar.
And I found it. I hadn't shaved in probably three weeks. I had on overalls. And I found the registrar. I said, ma'am, how do you apply for medical school? She said, you fill out an application like everyone else. I said, well, very well. She said, by the way, have you been to college? I said, yes, ma'am. I said, where'd you go? I said, University of Texas. I said, where'd you major? I said, chemistry. What kind of grades did you make? I said, all A's, few B's, plenty of course called engineering, growing. took it again and made a C-. I think the guy just gave it to him.
He said, do you have any biology? I said, no. He said, well, you better go take three courses at SMU. And she said, here's an application, fill it out, and then they'll call you in for an AR quiz and be interviewed by three doctors. I said, very well. I said, but I can remember after all this time. So I took the AR quiz, and then three doctors interviewed me. Just why do you want to be a doctor? I said, I don't know. What does anybody want to do? I said, save the world, the Messiah complex, money and status. I said, why did you become a doctor?
Did you pop a rabbit down your throat? What did you do, a guilty conscience? No, I really am bastard. I said, you can make yourself think anything that you wish. They look at me. Boy what hurts for a little thing And then he said why have you had so many different kinds of jobs I said I get bored They said, well, how do you know you're not going to get bored with medicines? I said, I don't know. And I left and cursed them as I left. And I remember I can't move from the job. and a month later, there's a letter from Southwestern Medical School.
I said, yeah, good luck, sorry we can't. Oh, when I left the registrar's place there, she said, by the way, we have a hundred openings here, and we already have a thousand applications from the smartest guys in college. So, anyway, I had a beer and I opened up the letter and it said, congratulations, you have been accepted. These crazy people don't even know what they're doing. Good grief. And I remember, and I went the first day, and here's all these young kids around me. How old were you at the time? Twenty-nine and a half. Who was the youngest? Dick Neiman was the youngest guy. He was the There were four of us Jews there and I don't think I passed a quiz for three months just couldn't get it.
And then all of a sudden it started coming through. I remember the dean coming in saying half of y'all, he didn't say y'all, half of you are in the upper half of the class And half of you are in the bottom half of the class. And you know what we're going to call the guy who graduates with the lowest average? We're going to call him doctor just like everybody else. Anyway, so I think at the end of the first year I was in the middle half of the class. I was thrilled as good could be. And I was studying eight hours a day. In the second year I was learning more in two hours than I could in seven or eight hours And in the third year they threw us to the wolves That was the cheapest labor that the county could get.
I remember the first baby I had ever. Oh my god. And then little by little after you do a few hundred, you know, you don't shark it, you're not a . But see, I was older than a bunch of the residents. And I remember I was delivering babies, And this woman came in, and she had twins. And we were not supposed to mess with twins. And I phoned up the resident and I called. And I said, Joe, there's this gal here, and she's got twins. And of course, one of them's a bridge. He said, oh, David, you're real bright, and you've seen me do it.
You won't. If you have any trouble, you can go ahead and do it. You can phone me if you have any trouble. So at night time I was a genius. And at daytime, you can't touch that. Remember, you're just a student. You're not supposed to miss with those. And I was setting fractures, everything. I remember once the head of the cardiac surgeon was going to operate on a little baby. And he said, David, would you please do a cut down on this little baby, you know, put a catheter in the veins. He said, I don't want to do it in my head there because it'll come out, and I'm ready to take a chance.
I said, sure. So I took the baby and did this, that, the other, and three of the new interns came and said, do you mind if we watch you? I said, sure, you can watch me. And I carefully found a little vein and tied it off, then put it in a catheter and then sewed it up. They said, golly, what year resident are you? I said, oh, I'm just a senior student. And they turned beet red. I said, looky boys, y'all are obviously from up north. I said, you better give your soul to God because you're, you know what, belongs to Dallas County. Anyway, I interned and then didn't know what I wanted to do and then, you know, who my good buddy was.
He already checked out to me a few times when I was interning. Then he asked me to please watch the office. while he took a vacation for a while. And then after 40 years, all my partners had quit and I was sort of in the golden age for medicine. And actually, I know it sounds absurd, I was better off charging five dollars for an office visit. and this time went along $50 per month. It caused the overhead. When these HMOs came out, I cautioned everybody, I said, be careful. You have another third party here which are just a bunch of administrators and you're going to have to, you know, it's going to cost you.
And boy, the first year of all the big bonuses we got from them and everything And then little by little, made less and less and less and less. And they were shipping patients, refusing them to have tests, and all that kind of stuff. Anyway, when did I quit? Oh, the end of 2002? No, no. Five. Five. Danny had come out to the office because the gal wanted to leave her quit or something like that. He said, Daddy, stop taking x-rays. I said, well, I've been doing it. He said, every time you take an x-ray, you lose money. The more x-rays you take, the more you lose, and you're going to have to close your lab.
You don't have to, but you are losing money right and left. as hard as you work. And he showed me the fingers and I couldn believe it It wasn only I it was a general thing And now there were two or three women in my medical school class Now I'm told that half the people that go to medical school are women. The men don't want anything to do with it because you just cannot make a go of it. But you've got to be a do-it doctor instead of a talking doctor. I remember one time I was making rounds, and this poor black guy had had some kind of massive operation.
And I said, have you seen any doctors yet? He said, yep, one of them talking doctors has been by, but none of the do-it doctors have been by. So you were a do it doctor? Well, no, I was in general practice so I did everything. And right now, for the most part, I do volunteer work. called Mark Thouder Shared Ministries is one, of which Temple Emanuel is the only Jewish organization who donates money and so forth to it. Excuse me. VR. I didn't even know it existed, but I went to Myron Ball one day, who's a lovely guy, and I really admire him. He said, David, please go volunteer for this outfit.
They can really use you. I said, oh, he said, go ahead, please do it. So I phoned up and the lady and I said, oh yes, Dr. Ball said you're so marvelous. I said, Dr. Ball doesn't know what he's talking about. But anyway, she said, calm on down. So, and she showed me around and they had a huge food bank and a clothing bank and pay for people's medications, all that. But this was not for long term care. It was for immediate care and so of course I stayed and I still doing it They are a marvelous organization And I had formed a Jewish Family Service one time to ask them if they ever sent folks to this outfit They said, oh yes.
oh by the way when we had the big immigration of Russians here Jewish service sent loads of Russians to my office delighted to do it and then when the Vietnamese came over here same thing And a lot of them, a lot of them were just pandillists. They were lucky to get out with their lives. A lot of them did very, very well. In fact, Danny, you and I went to Oak Cliff to eat at that guy's and his wife's restaurant. Anyway, never have gotten bored with medicine. I still go to classes. What classes? Well, you have to have 24 hours of medical education every year just to keep your license.
I think last year I only had 65, but the year before I had 110. Let's go back to you being single here in Dallas and being a doctor. I hear you had a wild life. Oh, no, no, that was my cousin. I have a cousin here in town. Thank you. So when something went wrong, People would do something. No, no, no, that's my cousin. And somebody could ship or something. Oh, no, no, no, no. That's my cousin. I did go out a little bit. And then somebody phoned off and said, there's this nice girl working here who's from West Texas, and I want you to take her out, please.
You were going back before that first, when you were single. What's that? You were going to talk about when you were single and y'all going out and running around and going gambling. Oh, yeah. Sonny Hurstman and I used to go to Fort Worth. They had a gambling house there. And we loved to go to the gambling house and shoot craps and everything like that But then you met this girl. No, I took out lots of girls. And, uh, and. Fell asleep on sofas while you were in med school? Huh? You fell asleep on sofas when you were supposed to be on dates? Oh, yeah. I'll tell you, it was really slave labor.
Sometimes you used to work 36 hours straight. And I saw more errors made at night time than any other time. The guys were brilliant guys, but they were zombies. And this guy went up and said, please take out this girl. I said, no, thank you. She's got a good personality. I said, oh, my god. And we went out and started to breathe. She was already on the board of United Way and so forth. And then we went out and said, let's all go out together. So we went out one more time. And we went out off and on for a while, little by little. And then we decided to get married one Thursday night because I was off duty.
And I said, let's just run off and get married. No, you just turned 28. Here I am, a little bit over 41. And no, we better have our, we better have your mother and daddy and my mother and daddy. My mother, daddy thought I'd never get married. And I must tell you this story. My daddy had something called gram-negative shock one time. The doctor had checked his prostate. Something went wrong. He got a bloodstream infection and was unconscious for days on end. And the doctor phoned up and said, baby, you better get down here. I don't think your dad's going to make it. So I phoned with my sister.
We went down there. He was a doctor, and he was a doctor, and he wasn't conscious that there were no blood pressure affected his adrenal gland. He was basically bringing his blood pressure up and some of it had infiltrated into his finger and cut off the blood supply. And I said, no, we may have to hack it. I said, why? If he's going to die, don't. Don't, don't, don't do it. Anyway, the fingers got better. And then they were giving him cortisone to help his blood pressure and everything. And he had, they had found diabetes, and with the cortisone it aggravated his diabetes, so he went through diabetic acidosis.
And then he vomited something up from his stomach and got to his lungs and he got pneumonia. And so I told my sister, I said, you know, the things of daddy making it is just remote. Do you have another thing? We need to switch this up. OK. I was a medical student, and you said you were teaching and you came up with a tornado? Oh, three of us finished about three months early because we went to service school. We still had to go to classes. And boy, they paid us $200 for teaching. And I had to sign all kinds of things, but I had never been a communist or an animal.
I said, I've been in infantry. Nevertheless, you've got to sign it. And so I was teaching this class, physiology. And the guys were looking up. And I said, well, I should better pay attention. Dr. Lacky's going to ask you this on the final. I said, looky, there's a tornado. They said, cut off the baloney. Well, you come here and look, and sure enough. My car. I'm going to make this. I'm going to make this. I'm going to make this. I'm starting. This is in 1957. One minute, so many seconds. I said, class this rest. Let's all go over to the emergency room. Because I thought that's what came up.
And I am very good I sorry I sorry I sorry I sorry I sorry I sorry I got I had very good before this You want me to find a touch with this It a small bag actually It should be okay It a milk It should be auto Does that do anything? I've never seen a farm that old. No? I can't remember to know. It's okay. Are we not running? We're running. We're running? Yeah. Anyway, now let's go back to your wife. What year was it when you and your wife got married? It was 1965. And we decided to have our parents there. Then she said, you know what, I've got to have Uncle Sam with her.
That's Peter Lowe's father. because he delivered me, and we have become friends. And I said, if he doesn't come, it will break his heart. I said, by all means, we'll have Sam and Daisy. But we have Sam and Daisy. We've got to have Phil and Ray, and we've got to have Pat. and your sister and brother-in-law live in Dallas. My sister and brother-in-law live in Dallas. And my cousin David, who you know, lives here. And I have my cousin David, but God, I have my cousin from Austin. I think we had about 100 people, relatives, I'm going to. On the spur of the moment. On the spur of the moment.
And Norman Shapiro married us. He died recently, I was told. He was a lovely guy. And guess what we did the next morning after we got married? We both went to work. And where did you live when you were first married? We lived in an apartment on Hidalgo Street. And Ann helped me move. I lived across the street, but it was a one-bedroom apartment. And she was helping me. She said, honey, there's a real fat guy's clothes in your closet. Who that I said they mine She said well they couldn be there I said honey I used to really weigh quite a bit But I got on the ball and I lost a bunch of weight And I said, now I put my belly up against anyone.
She said, it better. I'm not. I said, no. So I've been pretty, pretty smitten since then. And then did you belong with Siddharah at that time? We were married at Shadrith Israel. Let us tell the story of why. Oh, yeah. I went to, oh, I forgot the name of the show, and the rabbi there told him I wish he married us. I've been there a number of times. And he said, and where's your wife from? I said, well, she's from a little town in West Ham, it's called Sweetwater. And he said, are you Jewish? He said, oh, yes. I'm going to have you. Oh, he was really giving her the riot acts.
And we left. I said, I'll get in touch. She said, no, honey, I love you, but I don't want to get married by that guy. So, we got in touch with our watcher. And he was just lovely. He said, yes. I said, absolutely. In fact, my wife's great, great, great, great grandmother is buried in the old cemetery in Austin. Born 1773 and died at 113. And when Ann first showed it to me, oh, when Ann first showed it to me, I said, gosh honey, you're a sixth generation Texan. And that and a dollar is going to get you a cup of coffee tonight. Oh, that reminded me of something.
We were getting ready to sell for Europe. And I was on guard with these And it was Arab young keeper I said my God this could be my last young keeper on earth So I went to a good buddy of mine He used to tell me about pizza, which I'd never heard of in my life, and he didn't know about enchiladas and tacos and all that sort of stuff either. And I went up to him and said, Nicky, his name was Nicky Lambese. I said, Nikki, I would really like you to do me a favor. I have a very special holiday tonight. It's called our Day of Atonement.
I'm Jewish. And where you ask God to forgive your sins, but if you've offended somebody, you've got to go to them first. And if you'll stand guard duty for me tonight, I'll stand guard duty for you any other time. front lines and all. He said, David, I'd do it, but I'm going to services myself. I said, Nick, he left me, baby. He said, yeah. And he told me, he said, I thought you were a Polish Catholic. I thought you were an Italian Catholic. And we cracked up laughing, and we still talked to each other too. Four of us survived, and we had fallen back for two or three days of R&R, and somebody took a picture of us.
Who Jack, James Larkey, Nicky, me, and Bill Lake, who died. And we had a big reunion here about 15 years or so ago, more or less. And we entertained them. The guys who came in early, we entertained them at our house. And Danny got a camera, and all of us were there. And Danny snapped a picture of all of us in the same pose, the same line as we did there, except I'd lost a little hair. And a while, time goes by. Let's talk about Dallas for a while. What was Dallas like when you moved here? I lived in the high rise then, just like we do now.
It had a swimming pool and a gym and a nice restaurant, and it Only $18 a month. It was called the YMCA. I had a good time. And what was there to do in the city at that time? Well, I didn't stay there very long because I got a job offer from that place in Fort Worth. And I lived at the YMCA there. Then I came back and I moved into the YMCA again. Oh, there were movies. Oh, I finally bought a second-hand car. I think it cost a thousand dollars. Pretty nice car. And went up and had dates, stuff like that. Went to services.
Because in those days, Sheriff's Israel was in the south part of town. And for the holidays, they rented a place that used to be a theater, I believe. I can't, I can't, I can't remember. What was the Dallas Jewish community like in those days? Very, very nice. Oh, I'll tell you who became a roommate of. I don't know if you know Sam and Irene Kovett. Well, Sam and I roomed together. And, uh. Where was that? It was on Milton Avenue real close to SMU. That's not when you lived with Harry Goodman and the other guys? Oh no, that's right. Also? That was me, no I lived with Harry and the other guys.
No, that was me before. And one day Sam told me he had a date with a girl by the name of Irene and they went out for a while and three months they were married. And Irene Sadavs, who really is. And Sam's a wonderful guy. Yeah Your wife Ann was really really active in all kinds of charitable work She really was. And you pushed her to do it. You wanted her to quit working. Yeah, after about a month I said, let me quit your job, Wes. So, even though you were a buyer and everything like that, I said the only reason you do it was so you can get a 20% discount off your clothes.
and said do what you want to do, raise elephants in the backyard, raise their ass, but do something you really want to do. So I think she and Syl, one of the first, Syl. Benison. Yeah, Syl Benison. No, it was Janine. Janine Perlman. Janine Perlman. You know Erin and Janine Perlman? She and Janine, this is for, I forgot which equipment George Sharfman was, and they sold second hand clothes. And they started the encore sale. The encore sale. NCJW. And CJW. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, and then he was in a baby basket. And we'd lug them around. And they really raised a lot of money for that year.
And I think when Ann and Janine first going to be the head honchos. They didn't get along too well, but little by little became the best of friends. I thought it was a long time ago. Tell us about your family now. Tell us about your family now. This family. Your family. My family? That's my family. Mm-hmm. I think that means more in this world to relent anything else. You know, I was a workaholic. And one day I was at Chilpah maybe for St Kaddish or something like that and the Parsha was or discussion was when Moses had gotten these folks across the sea and who comes along but his father-in-law, Jethro.
And Jethro says, Moses, I heard what you did. Your God must have been on your side. I'm going to make a special offering to your God tonight. He said, by the way, Moses, how's your wife and your two sons? Moses said, I don't know. And Jesus said, what do you mean you don't know? They're your primary obligation. Moses said, I don't know. And Jephthah would just tune him out. Your main responsibility in life is your family. Then if you can save the world, then go ahead and do it. He said, I am disgusted with you. Are they slaves? Are they alive? Are they being tortured?
Are they dead? Did they die of starvation? I don't know. He said, I'm taking care of them. What would have happened to them if your father would have not taken care of your wife and your two sons? He said, your first obligation is your family, then the community. Then if you can save the world, fine. So anyway, I told myself, I'm glad I came that morning. Glad I started giving more time to the family. I always had the perfect suit. Oh, honey, I would say, I'm taking the boys to Carlsbad Cavern, and we know you're too busy to go, but we'll give you a phone call and let you know how we're doing, and we'll stop in Sweetwater on the way there.
But if you change your mind, that's okay too. So of course I changed my mind and we stopped in Sweetwater, then we rode to Carlsbad Cavern. Have y'all ever seen it? No. It really one of the wonders of the world And the kids got tired you know They had the elevators all the way down there but it a long slip all the way around us And I didn't want to take a shortcut or anything, but the boys were getting tired. And I said, you know, you resent, sort of, every place we want to go, you resent, you can't go, you're being taken away from work and then you go and who has the best time of everybody?
You do she told me still true like the time we went to Magnolia for the Red Science Fair that was a nice wherever we went, to Galveston to the Big Bend, to Israel wherever we went, you never wanted to go until you got there oh for then he had his marmits for here and sheriff then on top of Masada, then at the wall. You've got to bend more minutes. Three times? Yes. That might be a record. Now, who were your role models while you were thinking about all these different careers? Did you have any? I really did. As I got older and older, I'll tell you who became my rope mom.
My mother and my father. Who won? Here they were with a sick child. They never, somebody knocked on the door and said, I'm hungry. I'm hungry, oh, come in and get something to eat. They would never turn anyone down. I remember once this man came to the store, I happened to be there, and he said, Mr., I am hungry. And my daddy said, you know, you look hungry. And he gave me a dollar and he said, David, I don't know how it was, I could have ate mine ten, I don't know. He said, take this man down to Joe's Cafe down at the SP Depot.
and tell Joe to feed him as long as his daughter holds up. You can get a good meal for a dime. And my man said, that's sort of embarrassing for your little boy to take me down there. And my daddy said, yes, I know. But I know you're an alcoholic and there's two liquor stores along the way and you may be tempted, and you must get something to eat. So I took the man down there, and it was a Mexican man. And I said, Joe, Daddy said to feed this man as long as his daughter holds out. And he said, I certainly will, and tell Shalom hello for me.
And I went back to the daddy, the man is nothing but a drunk. And he said he's hungry. Have you ever been hungry? Yes, one time mama didn't feed us supper for two hours. Then he I just never saw him turn It was beyond them to turn anybody down for Sudoku both my mother and my daddy And when I went to the combat, they gave me a pay raise. She said, huh, huh, huh. And she got the trigger. He was in World War II. and my sweet little daughter had not even started elementary school yet, and I could tell she was really upset. And then after the wedding, and I had a little bit of a drink, and she said, we're going back to the motel.
Would you like to take Anne to the motel? I said, you bet. You're the first mother who's ever asked me to take a daughter to a motel. And she turned beet red. And he said, my mother thinks you're some kind of a sex maniac. She said, which you are. Anyway, we became very, very close to each other. I had wonderful in-laws. Have y'all ever been to the Rattlesnake Roundup in Sweetwater? No. Oh, man, no. Well, you know you can go in March. Thank you.