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the first thing I remember is moving to Benton Illinois because I was born during the Depression the Great Depression and my parents could not afford to live in St Louis anymore and they opened up a lady's ready to wor shop all the merchants from all the little towns around would come to Benton on Sunday we had a a big house there called the community house and we had lay teachers teaching Sunday school and the and the women would get together and cook and visit and then the Big Thrill for us was for the high holidays we had a student Rabbi wow I was the only
child in my school then my sister was a little bit ahead of me and I was always asked to talk about the Jewish holidays and that's all I knew yeah when we moved to Benton I mean we were like everybody else it was actually a coal mining town and when the coal miners went on strike the town died but you know I was I couldn't have been happier yeah I was just happy go-lucky I either a rotor skater rode my bike or walked to school I mean we didn't have a I mean we had a car but it wasn't to take me to school I
was such a goodie goody Goodie and my sister was too the worst thing she did was date a non-jewish boy and my parents said oh we can't let this happen and so we moved back I was 13 when we moved back to St Louis my mother and sister and I moved to St Louis and my father stayed in Benton running the store and he commuted it was you know maybe a 100 miles or something now did your grandfather come also I don't know nobody knows about my maternal grandfather okay okay and my paternal grandparents she died I never knew her but my paternal grandfather was
kind of scary to me he had a beard and he wore a a keepa like this and he didn't speak any English so when we came we had to go up and hug him and you know and it was not a pleasant thing so I had no relationship with my paternal grandparents but I did with my maternal grandmother what did your grandmother do for a living she opened a little shop and she did whatever she could do and eventually everybody moved you know when it was much later she ran a business in she helped run a business in Mount Vernon ELO where some of the
other family had moved now your um grandfather what did he do for a living the paternal I never knew what any grandfather did first of all the My maternal grandfather was Ill right right they had he they said he had neuralgia whatever that is and maybe that's still a medical term now now but he was nobody ever saw him yeah yeah and it's it's always felt very strange now your grandfather you did know though what what would he do nothing he at that point he was doing nothing and my father was one of 11 children wow we moved into a almost all Jewish neighborhood and
it was maybe the most traumatic thing that ever happened to me in what way at 13 girls are not so open to accepting a a stranger and I sort of felt lost but you know I was in junior high and then I went on to high school and I did make friends well by high school I was more comfortable because I when we moved to St Louis I was in junior high and I could walk to school it was and finally I made some friends but it was after the life I had lived till I was 13 it was very different yeah yeah and we
really it was before air conditioning and we had a second floor we lived on the second floor of a duplex and I remember taking a shower at night and if you ran to bed and turned to fan on while you were still wet you could fall asleep but you know everybody lived like that and so I a friend and I would take the bus down to downtown St Louis and we would work in a ladi's r toare store you know make we took the bus and and I remember that my mother and sister and I would go to the movies on Sunday most of the
time my father wasn't there so we didn't have a car and we would go go to two double features that was our big Sunday I graduated high school my parents had their 25th anniversary my sister got married and the same Rabbi that married my parents married my sister and brother-in-law we had three cakes that was the big deal she had a very nice wedding and my parents still never had anything I mean we didn't know the state of their finances actually what was happening there was an Elks club in Benton and my father was gambling I mean he didn't have much money but whatever he
had he was losing as time went on we would have soldiers over for dinner I mean we were back living in St Louis then of course and my sister actually was engaged to a a man that was in the Army but that didn't work out so but I thought it was kind of exciting you know the rationing didn't bother me I mean I was just yeah totally stupid no you're just young when I graduated high school it was when all the veterans were coming back from World War II and we I wanted to go to Washington University because that's where I lived and so I
had the choice of either sharing a room with my nephew who was an infant or living with my grandmother who lived very close to wasu and I slept on a Murphy bed so I decided I am going to finish in 3 years did summer winter no air conditioning uh not much heat walking to school from I mean in the snow and everything so that was my goal and I was going to I don't know what I thought I'd do after I graduated so my mother moved back to Benton to be with my father because I was going to college and my sister was married my
parents finally decided Benton Illinois was not going anywhere so and my brother-in-law was not happy with his job so everybody decided to move to Dallas now we'd never heard of Dallas my father knew about it because there were a lot of dress manufacturers in Dallas they're all I think they're all gone now but there were many then and so well that was exciting go to a new place and so my parents left of course as soon as I graduated I got I didn't stay for commencement took my last exam got on a plane a plane they were flying then and U and that was your
first plane ride am man absolutely what was that like it was exciting and my father flew with me and we flew to Dallas so we had the store and everybody was going to work in the store within a year we went bankrupt because we never had charge accounts people would give us hot checks I'm a crook they would sign I mean it was unbelievable so first thing that happened my mother's two older brothers they said if you will come back to St Louis and take care of our mother we will support you so they left when my mother said let's go I said I'm not
going and and my friend Marlene is her name still my best friend asked me to come and live with her and her mother so I'll never forget this my mother said you can't do that she has dyed blonde hair where did that come from I don't know so I moved in with her and we had plans we were going to be career girls and oh we were so excited so her mother had no money her sister supported her mother and she was not a nice person so what did we care we were having a great time but you know what I do remember that President
Roosevelt was the only president that I had ever known and the day he died I will always remember that it was just he died uh I don't remember I mean I've just recently seen something I don't know what how old he was but he had always had Polio so it was just a shock to us because you sort of thought well this is the man that's going to be president forever as far as we know and it was just shocking I remember my maternal grandmother nobody ever knew my maternal grandfather he they said he had neuralgia whatever that is and maybe that's still a medical
term now but he was nobody ever saw him and it's it's always felt very strange there's no picture of him we nobody's ever seen a picture my grandmother my maternal grandmother brought my mother over from Russia when she was 2 years old and her older sister and an older brother and my maternal grandmother was the bread winner for the family and they had five children and so she became Americanized as fast as she could she learned English she learned how to speak and write and read English my paternal grandparents but I and my father was one of 11 children wow wow now did World War
I affect your family at all was your dad in the my father was where was he stationed did he I don't know he never told you any War Stories no never never talked about it and we never asked World War I was a pretty violent War I mean all we know is from movies and pictures and reading about it but I have a picture of him in his uniform I think my first uh social security check was one penny I saved that for a long time but I I don't say memorability my husband we'd have to have another house if he saved everything before my
parents moved back we moved to a apartment complex and we moved there and it was all new and clean and modern and I thought oh my gosh this is heaven Sam we I met Sam I we triped dated one time and then somehow he started bringing me messages from Dawn and everything and so we started dating and we fell in love and so we were both invited to uh whatever the big weekend is in Texas Sam was invited by a girl and I was invited by Don and we we had decided to we were engaged and so we called each of our farmer dates and
said we can't come we're engaged we're getting married so it took us all of three months to know each other what my friend Marlene said the first time I went out with Sam she said I'm going to write a note and put it in here and her note was said Irene's going to marry Sam I already thought he was wonderful Sam he still is we were in a little tiny duplex near Love Field I mean he had just graduated Texas and he was already working because he had gone to school on the GI Bill my sister and brother-in-law had since moved back opened a drapery
store downtown and we were having dinner there one night and we called my mother and said we're going to come for Thanksgiving so you can meet and of course there was no email I used to write he is so wonderful so everybody called him wonderful Sam and we said we're going to come for Thanksgiving and my mother bright woman that she was said well as long as you're coming why don't you just get married now she and my father had nothing my father had already had a nervous breakdown and was verging on another and poor Sam I think he turned the shade of green Christmas
was already a long way away but Thanksgiving was close so we decided we would do that because we we had to borrow money to fly to St Louis my parents had no money for a wedding so my aunt and uncle gave us a wedding in Mount Vernon Illinois I my truso consisted of a short blue dress and one night gown and Sam didn't have anything new uh maybe he had a suit it wasn't new but any anyway we walked in and they designated my aunt as my matron of honor and I think maybe there were 20 people there mostly family and we got married and
Sam's mother brother-in-law and brother came to the wedding none of my friends my sister nobody had enough money to to get there so we came back we took the train everyone knew had no money so they all gave us money for wedding gifts and Sam had it in his wallet in the morning he was shuffling through the sheets of blankets I said what's going on he said I've lost my M my wallet with all the money and so this black conductor came in and he said son what are you looking for and he said I've lost my wallet and he said is this it and
and Sam growing up in the South was a little prejudiced well that changed all that so that was the first good thing that really really happened we had three sons in four years we weren't really sure how all that happened but you know you learn the first one had kic for nine months and we were already expecting another one so that's what surprised us and this friend Marlene said she remembers all the friends coming over and taking turns carrying this baby around they don't call it kic anymore I don't know what they call it but he had it and anyway uh everything was going fine
and we had the three kids and Sam had this good job and I was able to stay home actually I stayed home for nine years that was the only time I didn't work we built a very very successful business I was able to finally after three years come to work with Sam and Sam was a and my boss the executive director said Sam you are so lucky Irene is such a great employee well he was Sam was afraid I was going to try to take over I mean there was plenty work for both of us he was production I was the office so we were
and scraped along and finally ultimately had a very successful business what was the name of the business Dart manufacturing okay now in your lifetime you've lived through so many remarkable events so many momentous occasions um some good not some not so good of course you lived through World War II the turbulent 60s with Vietnam the uh moonlanding in 69 something good good of course President Kennedy assassination that was our anniversary the day he was killed Marlene and I were going to go watch the parade but my youngest son was homesick so I saw it on television yeah it still almost makes me cry every time
I think about it yeah yeah yeah we were supposed to go to the Opera that night with my sister and brother-in-law and of course they cancelled it and it just was unbelievable to me it just didn't happen what advice does great grandma have for the Next Generation Um just do everything exactly the way we did that's great advice
