Florie Sussman
Florie Sussman was born in Leeds, in Yorkshire, England, the oldest of four girls in a poor family. Her parents had come from Russia, and her father worked as a tailor for others. The family kept a strictly kosher home, and Florie attended a school with many Jewish children, remembering with fondness a Gentile headmaster named Mr. Watson who arranged for poor Jewish children to be fitted with boots and shoes. She began school at age three in what she called the baby class and continued through the seventh grade. She also received private Hebrew lessons after school from a Hebrew teacher.
After finishing school, Florie went to work through jobs her mother arranged, first behind the counter of a stationery store and then in the tailoring factories. She learned to work a five-needle quilting machine, spending four weeks as an unpaid apprentice, and later mastered buttonhole machines, including a Reese buttonhole machine brought over from the United States. She became the first girl to work in one factory otherwise full of young men, who spoke Yiddish and treated her kindly. Raised under her mother's strict watch, she met her husband, also a tailor, at a theater around age seventeen or eighteen and married young in Leeds, where they had three children and lived in a modest home.
Florie's journey to America began when a cousin of her mother's took her younger sister to the United States, launching a chain of the family emigrating. Florie settled in Los Angeles with her husband and children, where her husband continued in the tailoring trade and she worked in a dress factory alongside her sister. Her mother lived with the family and helped care for the children. After her husband died, and with her children settled around the country, Florie moved to Dallas, where her daughter and both sons lived. Her son in Indianapolis bought her a condominium. At the Jewish Community Center she volunteered making bed jackets and baby kimonos, working the sewing machine and finding great satisfaction in staying active and helping others.
Full Transcript
I'm sitting here with my friend Flori Sussman and we're going to record an interview. Good morning, Flori. How are you? I'm fine. How are you? I'm very well. I'm a little stiff, but I'm okay. Laurie, as you know, once a week I've been taking all my friends into this nice little office of mine, and we've been sitting down and recording their lives, because someday your children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren will come into the Jewish Community Center of Dallas and go into the library, and we're going to have all the tapes there, and they can look up Laurie Sussman and say, Hey, that was my grandma.
Let me hear what her life was all about. So, let's begin at the beginning. Flori, where were you born? England. What part of England? London or...? No. Yorkshire, Leeds. In Leeds. I think so. Okay. In Yorkshire. That's 20 miles north of London. Okay. It was really where all... when they came from... from their homeland. Right. I imagine my mother came from... Poland, Russia? She came from Russia. I don't remember the name. That's right. And your father also from Russia? I guess so. Right. Okay. What did your parents do? What kind of business was your father in, in Leeds? The tailoring. He was a tailor. The tailor, and it was all in the tailoring.
Uh-huh. Did he have his own business or did he work for someone else? No, he worked for someone else. Okay, and you were born into a family of a tailor. Did your mother work or was she...? No. Okay, how many children were there in your family? We were four girls. And were you the oldest? Yes. You were the oldest. I was the oldest. Okay. What would you say? You were a poor family, a middle-income? No, we were a poor family. Poor family. I went to school in England at that time, I went to school at three years old. At three? At three years old And I remember the baby class It wasn the first grade it was the baby class And you remember that?
I remember that. And what did they, do you remember what you did? They taught us, there was a big blackboard, and they taught us the A, B, C and all that stuff. At age three, isn't it? At age three. It was a public school then, wasn't it? Yes. What kind of a Jewish home did you have? Were your family, you know, practicing Jews, kosher Jews? Kosher, strictly kosher. Uh-huh. Did you go to a Jewish school or have any Jewish training? The school that I went to, you know, Jewish children. Okay. It was a Jewish school then? Yes. Uh-huh. No Jewish teacher, or there was one Jewish teacher I think, but the headmaster was Gentile.
I remember his name was Mr. Watson. I see. And it was wonderful. He knew these children that came to school came from a poor class. And I remember he had somebody take care of all the Jewish children that needed shoes, boots they wore. I remember we wore boots to high boots. Uh-huh, right. And for those children whose parents couldn't afford to buy them boots or shoes, these people had shoe stores, and they fitted them out. Isn't that nice? Yes. How much schooling did you have? I went from baby class to the seventh grade. Now, the seventh grade there was like here when they get out of high school and they go to June?
Where did they go? From junior high to high school. Right. I know that the schooling in England is a very advanced schooling. Yes. Yes. All right. When you were going to the public school did you have any private Hebrew education as well or just what you got in public school There was private Hebrew Were you tutored Were you trained in Hebrew at all Did you learn I did go to I did go We used to go right after school. Uh-huh. And, uh... Do you remember a rabbi teaching you or... No, it wasn't a rabbi, it was a teacher. A Hebrew teacher. A Hebrew teacher. Okay.
What about when you were growing up in those years, do you remember any-did you belong to any organizations, any girls' groups, any group? No. No? No. You didn't? Not like it is here now. Well, I don't know whether you had your tea years and years ago. Uh-huh. But it wasn't at that time. So what would your typical day have been when you were growing up as a young girl? I'd say, typically, best day was Saturday. I said, well, I was about 15, 16, I had a girlfriend, two girlfriends, and we used to go out, we used to walk through miles to a park, rounded park, and they had a lake there, and there was boats.
And you could rent a boat and go around the lake, which we did. But we had to walk. God forbid, if anybody saw us on the bus, take a bus to go to the park. And they'd come home and tell my mother, who'd get a licking for that. Because it was Shabbos. Shabbos. Isn't that Shabbos? Yeah. So you walked the three miles. We walked and we walked home. We'd take a lunch with us. And there was a roadside, a lakeside cafe where we could go and have tea, a pot of tea. We'd eat our lunch up and we'd go and have a pot of tea with a cookie or a sweet potato.
Isn't that nice? And that was your regular Saturday outing? It was very nice. Okay, and when you went to school, what time did you have to get up to go? Did you take a bus to school? Did you walk? No we walked We had to school It was from 9 to 4 And we come home for lunch It wasn lunch it was dinner In England we ate our dinner at noon At noon So we had dinner that was for an hour Uh-huh. And then we'd go back to school till 4 o'clock. And then what did you do after 4? Your chores? Did you help your mother around the house with things?
Or did you help your dad? Yeah. Okay, typical things with teenagers? Well, when we were little I don't remember doing any housework. No. But when we were growing up, going to school, in the third, fourth grade like that, we had two or four girls. Alright, then when you finished your formal schooling, then what did you do? I got a job. I went to work. Alright, what was your first job? First job, first job my mother got me a place. I didn't go out looking for a job my mother through friends. And they had like a stationery store. And I was behind the counter. You were a sales lady.
Like, you know, well not like, like yesterday. Right, right. Sometimes I'd stay there a whole day and nobody ever came into that. I know. Postcards and all that stuff. Right, right. And then you had many different jobs after that? Yeah, well, I don't remember what I was getting. It doesn't matter what page. I got them two shillings away, something like that. But then, let me see, after that, but then my mother took me to a place where they made, they didn't, you know, the tailoring. The tailoring factory. This one's tailoring. It was the factories that was making men's jackets. Uh-huh. They would bring, they would bring, I don't know if you remember the lining of the The men's jackets were quilted.
Do you know what they did all? Yes, yes. Well, this was a place where they had the quilting down. I see. And my mother took me there, and I worked there for four weeks for nothing to learn. I see, as an apprentice, yes? Yes. And then after that I think they gave me about two shillings a week. You work a machine, it's got five needles. And you do it. It had... It had this kind of material, the soft material, and the lining goes on top of it and you work it out this way, this way. I see, and you learn to work with the needle.
Yes, with the fabledon machine. And that's how you got started in the dressmaking trade? That was your beginning? That wasn't dressmaking. That was just working machine. That was just the next world. Then I wasn't getting enough pay. to another one and they gave me six shillings. And I worked there for a while and then somebody told my mother about this man that has the factory that does all the buttonholes, all the quilting and drill. My mother took me up there and I think I got tension in zooming from there. And when I wasn't working on the quilting machine, waiting for the staff to come in, I watched them make buttholes.
So when nobody was looking, I'd go and work on the buttonhole machine. And so I did that. I worked on a buttonhole machine, and then from that, they had brought in the Reese buttonhole machine from the United States And uh I worked on that What did this machine do? They used to send the, uh... This machine used to... What was it called? The Reese Buttonhole Machine. Oh, the Reese Buttonhole Machine. Okay, so it was just a more up-to-date buttonhole machine. Yes. I see. So I worked on that. So you spent most of your life in the needle trade, right? What about, you were working hard, I can hear that you worked and went from factory to factory to try to make a living.
Did you have any social life at that time, or did you come home? No, no, I used to come home. Didn't have a social life there. I was too young for it, not socialized, except when I went with my girlfriend and we went out. That's when I was about 16. Right. When did you...? But then when I worked out with this man, we worked on a sewing machine, and I worked the five needle machine and then I worked on the buttonhole machine. I was getting about 10 shillings or more. Then a friend of ours told my mother that if she wanted she would let me go.
I went to this place, it was two brothers had this place, but they had a room, they had this room, they had a big home, and they had one room where they used to have all this work done, the quilting machine and the buttonhole machine. But they were moving out of there and they were going into a big factory, a Gentile factory. They never took too soon. But they were hired up and they wanted these two instead of them sending their jackets out to this place to be made they wanted these young men to come in and have a room and have it done in their room In their factory?
In the factory. So, they came to my mother's house and asked my mother if she would let me go and work with her. And I was the first girl to work in that factory. Oh my goodness. The first girl. They were all young men. And you were the first girl? The first girl to go in. I remember there were all men on the machines and they had your, uh, this sewing, this, uh, Well, they had all- They had a Reese buttonhole machine, they had a tacky machine, they had a machine that used to do the work on the men's coats. The lapels. The lapels. Used to work that.
I worked one, two, three-I think I worked four machines. Tell me, if you were the first woman to work in that factory, do you remember any comments did the men make or what was- Well, sure they made comments. What, what? Did they give you a bad time? They used to talk-no, they used to talk in Jewish. Yeah? So I used to understand most of it. But they were very nice, very nice. They didn't give me a bad time. Did you date any of the men in the factory? No. My mother wouldn't let me, wouldn't think of letting me go to date a boy. So your mother had a pretty strong hold on you.
Yes. How old were you when your mother allowed you to date a boy, and how did you go on your first date? Oh, oh, about sixteen. Sixteen. We would go to the park and meet these boys, half way, and they'd take us out and spend about ten summers and buy candy. And then we walk to Round A Park We walk around They had a bandstand there and there were all these seats there where you could sit down walk around there It was really very nice So that's how you had your dates. You would meet the boys halfway? And then they would take us home. Oh, that's very, very nice.
Walk us home. We'd never bring them in the house. Your mother wouldn't allow it. No. So when did you-how old were you when you met your husband then? And how- Oh, about eighteen, seventeen, eighteen years old. And where did you meet him? Oh, we'd gone to the theater to see a show, and he was sitting at the back of us. That's how we met. Who had you gone? With another girlfriend? Yeah. We couldn't stay out late. The latest we could stay out, we had to be home for 10 o'clock. So he was in the theater and he began to talk to you? Is that how you met him?
Yeah. We'd go to the park on a Saturday and we'd take the boat out and then. So how old were you when you married and when did you first bring- I was married when I was, uh, I was about 19, 18, 19 years old. Okay, and when did you bring him home for the first time to introduce him to your mother? Oh, when I first met him. Sure. Otherwise, yes, it was about that time. Okay. Yeah. And so you married very young. Yes. husband do? What did he do? He was a tailor also? And did you live in Leeds? I lived in Leeds, yeah. How many children did you have?
Three. Two boys and a girl. Okay. And when did, did you continue working when you had your children or you started working? No, no I didn't work. Did you have a little apartment or a little home? The bedroom was upstairs and there was a kitchen and then there was a cellar where we do all our washing and the coal was in the cellar. All right. And how many years did you You live in England. Like, when did you come to America? Do you remember? Oh, how I came to go to America. My sister, the one next to me, was going out to America with a cousin of my mother's, and she wanted one of the girls to go with her.
because she had a sister this cousin of my mother's had a sister that was living in the United States but she didn't want to go alone so she took my sister with me that was the start of the family going out there and your sister? when my sister got there and she already found somebody and got married. Then she sent for my other sister. I see. And when you came to America were your children born? Yes. My daughter was an infant. But the two boys, one was four and one was two, one was five I think. And the other one was three. All right. And your sister brought your family over?
Well, they had to because we couldn't go. Right. Okay. So when you came from England, where did you settle? When you came to America, where did you settle? In California. In California. In Los Angeles? Yes. Okay. Yes. And what did your husband do there? He continued in the tailored trade? Yes, also in the tailored trade. The children grew up in California then. Yes. Do you remember anything about their growing up years? Did you ever take vacations or trips or were you able to afford those things when they were growing up? Well, we were poor. I didn't know just poor people then. What did you have in California?
Your own home or an apartment? No, we lived in a little bungalow. And I did go to work You did go to work Because my mother was there See my mother was already there living with us So she looked after you She was living with us. And that's how I came to go into the dressing room. My sister was, my youngest sister was working in a dress place. And the man that owned this factory, his name was... It doesn't matter what his name was. You went in to work with your sister in the same factory? Yes, because I worked with her. She showed me what to do.
That's how I led the train. So what did you do in this dress factory? Made dresses, the whole dress company. On the machine? Yes, on the sewing machine. That's interesting. So you've had the experience of all kinds of machines and all kinds of- Yes. In England, I worked on a single sewing machine. Therefore you knew how to use it when you were here in the factory? No, I didn't work on a single sewing machine. I worked on a... But you did work on a machine. Yes. Yes. Okay, so you've spent most of your life in the needle trade, the factory trade. Yes. And your children grew up in Los Angeles.
Yes. Alright, are they all three married now? Yes. Where do they live? My daughter lives in, she lives here in Dallas. In Dallas. Uh-huh. One boy lives in Connecticut, and the other boy lives in... Los Angeles? No. No, he was just here for the weekend. He lives in Indianapolis. Indianapolis. Okay, what does the young man in Connecticut do? What does your son in Connecticut do? Is he in business? No No He was in business Uh In the Like did he go to university your sons No. Did your sons go to college? No. No, so they're both in the business line. The older one, this one didn't.
He was in the grocery line. In the grocery line? Yes. And the one in Indianapolis? Indianapolis. Yeah. Well, he was going to high school, and then from high school he was going into... College. College. He wanted to take... He wanted to become a doctor. That was his... When he was in the service. Uh-huh. When he was in the service. He wanted to be a doctor. Did he become a doctor? He started. Uh-huh. He started. He was... And, uh... How old was he when he was, uh... But he didn't complete his university education? No. This is, oh, this friend of mine, they had a, they had a girl come out to visit them.
And she had an uncle that was in the real estate business. and they were trying to raid a Shiddach with my son and her. But he wasn't interested because he was already in the... In college? It was in college. He was in medicine. Pre-med? It was a pre-med. So did the chenich take or not? Well, it did. Oh good. It did at the end. Because this girl not the girl that was growing up to him but it was a relational age She had an uncle that was in the real estate business and she was telling him about her husband and this girl, this girl, her husband.
It's all to mission, get it? But anyhow, he ended up marrying the girl? Yes. Whose uncle was in the real estate business? Yes. Oh, so he's in the real estate. Is he in the real estate, your son? Yes. But he says if this girl, if he goes to, it'll take him about, that time, it'll take him about in 10 years to hang up his shingles. Right. He says, if he's got an uncle, the girl had an uncle that was in the real estate, why doesn't he go into the real estate? So he did. He says, in 10 years, it would take him 10 years to become a doctor.
He says he can accumulate in five years what it would take him in ten years. So your son listened to him and that's what he did? So they talked him into it. They introduced him to the uncle and everything. And she was the upper love of his eye, the uncle's eye. She was the only girl in the family. and he was wild about it. So what he did, and the girl was willing to come to Los Angeles and live in Los Angeles and wait until he graduates so he wouldn't let her go. This was a real love affair with the uncle. So this is how it developed and the uncle taught I would talk to him to come to him in Indianapolis and he did and showed him everything, what to do and how it was.
And he's in real estate? He's in real estate, yes. That's very good. How many grandchildren do you have? How many grandchildren? I have the- How many does your daughter have? How many children? And your son in Connecticut? All. And the son in Indianapolis? None. None. Okay. So you've got seven. Yes, seven grades. Oh, that's nice. And so you've been... When did you come to Dallas? I came to Dallas... Your daughter was here. Is that why you came to Dallas? Had your daughter married and moved to Dallas? Is that how you came? I came from California. I came from California. Right. When you came to Dallas, was your daughter here already, your married daughter?
Yes, sure. Yeah. Sure. Okay. Yeah, because the boys were here. Both boys were here. We were all here in Dallas. Okay. And when did you get involved with the... when did your husband pass away? My husband passed away ten years ago. In Dallas? Yeah. Okay. No, not in Dallas. In California? Yeah. Alright. When did you get involved with the seniors? When you... is that right when you moved here or...? Were the senior citizens here? Yes, yes. Do you remember how you first came or what you first did when you got here? Who brought me here? Did you? I think my daughter. Your daughter brought you here and you got involved.
Yes. And now you're the chief cook and bottle washer in the kitchen. No I used to sew I used to make all the bed jackets all the baby kimonos and what her name Ann Simon her husband was the cutter And I came into the centre one day and I was walking around, I wanted to see what was what. And there was a room and a lady was sewing on the machine. I could sew on a sewing machine and I went in and she asked me, can you sew on a machine? I said yes. So I said what are you making? She says bed jackets. She says we had a man doing all the cutting but there was something happened, there was a misunderstanding and he'd been, he left the place for two weeks, that was Aunt Simon's husband.
She said would you like to try and do something? I said yes. So she said there's a machine there and she and she showed me what she was making and I started to sew. From then on I was making bed jackets. There was a lot of stuff cut. And I made bed jackets and baby kimonos. When did the sewing stop? When did you, I haven't, since I've been here I haven't seen a sewing group. Did it just all of a sudden stop? Did you all want to continue? Would you like to do sewing again? Sure, I would like to do sewing. So the sewing starts.
We ran out of material. Mr Simon used to know where to go and ask and they would send us a lot of material and he go to places where they would send him remnants Yes I understand You see And he made the packing and cut them out. I think we have enough tailors and people still around that we could probably get something like that going again. I wish you would. I will look into it. I certainly will. Flory, if your grandchildren come in someday and sit down and listen to the tape of, gee, I wonder how Grandma really learned to sew. They certainly will know how in a little bit of your life.
If you had to tell them something, if you wanted to leave sort of one last message for them about life, about the way you've led your life, or how they should lead theirs, what would you want to say to them? What would you say to them about life and about living and about relating to people? Who would they grant you? Yes. I don't think... Well I tell you, the one grandson, he's a professor and he's living now in Los Angeles. So you don't have to give him any advice? No, no, he knew what he wanted. And the other boy, Raymond... I don't know what he's in an office.
He's in an office. He's got a very good position there. That's good. So you feel that... I don't have to tell you. You don't have to tell them anything. They know how to lead their lives, and they know in rich direction they're heading. Yes, yes. Well, Flora, you do a lot of good around here. You're always helping, and you're always doing. Yes. And I think you get a great deal of satisfaction. I do. I can't sit home and do nothing. No. You know when I was sort of making the baby kimonos I used to take a lot of return and do it at home But Cynthia she my daughter What does she do You know, you can't be so...
I know. Sometimes when you want to remember things, you can't. Well, I'm sure that you don't live with her. Do you live with her or do you live on your own? I lived my son in Indianapolis. He came out here and he bought a condominium. And I am living in his condominium. Isn't that nice? That's very nice. He bought it for his mother to provide for. That's wonderful. I used to live in the towers, Preston Towers. Right. and he was paying the monthly range. But the towers is a nice place to lay, but it's full of roaches. Yes. Did you ever hear about it? Oh, well, Dallas is famous for its roaches, and you have to be careful.
So you are now in a condominium. And I was complaining. You know, I'd get into the kitchen in the morning. And they'd be all over the place. And I'm making my breakfast, and I put the lights on, and they're on the table. Well, then you've got a very good son who rescued you from that. Yes. Well, Flori, I'm going to try to see if we can get some sewing going again for you. Oh, it would be wonderful. I'm going to speak to Myrna Knight now, and I would like to thank you for spending this time with me and telling me a little bit about your life.
Thanks, Myrna. And let's go... I was just a poor girl. But you're a very wonderful girl. Yes. You're poor, plain, but you've got a heart of gold. Yes. And you do a lot of good, and you've come a long way. Yeah. All right. Just to work great. Oh, good. Okay. Flori, thank you for spending this time with me. Well, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it, too. Thank you.