Margery Nudelman Karpel
Margery was born in March 1932 in Chicago and remembers a happy childhood surrounded by a large extended family. Her paternal grandparents, Abe and Freda Nudelman, came from Russia, near Minsk; her grandfather was a harness maker who made harnesses for the Arlington racetrack. Her mother was one of twelve children, so Margery grew up with many aunts, uncles, and cousins. Her father worked several jobs, as a policeman and an electrician, keeping the family solidly middle class even through the Depression and World War II. She recalls family gatherings, trips to Marshall Fields, riding the subway downtown, and summers at a relative's cottage on Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula.
After graduating from high school and attending a junior college for two years, Margery went to work for a Chevrolet agency in Chicago. She met Frank Karpel, who had come to Dallas from Germany in the 1950s, when he was back in Illinois for the holidays. He pursued her, and they married on June 11, 1954, after which she moved to Dallas knowing no one. She found the move traumatic and experienced culture shock, including her shock at the city's segregated buses and water fountains. Frank started a local trucking and delivery business, and Margery worked at a Dallas Chevrolet agency. They had four children: Janet, Robert, Karen, and Mark.
Margery treasures her children, four grandsons, and one granddaughter, and dreams of seeing her grandchildren married. Though she was shy about Jewish community involvement in her early Dallas years, after becoming a widow she found her place at the Jewish Community Center, where she sells birthday, get-well, and sympathy cards and has raised more money than anyone selling them at a dollar apiece. She marvels at technology and the moon landing, remembers the Kennedy assassination vividly, and once met broadcaster Brad Sham while hospitalized when he visited on behalf of Temple Emanuel. Her advice to the next generation is to be true to yourself, be honest, and be loving.
Full Transcript
March 1932 Chicago let's go back what do you remember when you were a little kid in Chicago well uh I remember going to the beach and uh my dad was a policeman and uh we had a lot of advantages uh he used to go out to all the Farms that that's before skoki and all the other suburbs were built and he'd come back with a basket after basket of vegetables and fruit and my mother and my aunt would go down to the basement in Chicago and the can which people do not can anymore remember your grandparents well I do remember my grandparents Abe noodleman and
Freda noodleman Freda Gail noodleman and that was a big extended family uh on that side also on my mother's side she was one of 12 children Freeds F re d and so I had a lot of aunts and uncles I had a lot of support family support and cousins and I am still in touch with two cousins one that lives in skoki and one that lives in uh enino California because of the internet and because of communications and texting which I just learned this summer I'm in touch with with them so that I still have that connection yeah excellent excellent what did your grandfather do
for a living he was a harness maker I saw some paperwork uh somebody did a uh a little search of the family of the noodleman and he was a harness maker and he used to make harnesses for Arlington racetrack you know I remember that he lived on Hamlin Avenue in Chicago yeah what about your grandparents on your mom's side now uh they died uh fairly early I never knew my grandfather and my grandma maybe I was seven when she died so but I had a lot of ants on my mother's side so if I missed a grandma I still had all those ants now you
uh your parents were born in Chicago well to the best of my knowledge you know where your grandparents came from uh Russia Minsk did they um ever tell you about the travels that they had to go through they never did they never did now you were born um right around the depression time yes your family uh ever talk to you about that what it was like for them my father worked several jobs uh my mother did not work um he worked he was a policeman uh he was an electrician he was an industrious man and at at that time well we I would say we
were middle class we were never poor always meals on a table when the war came I had an aunt who moved in with us and she slept on a rollway bed and um that was my mother's sister and my sister and I slept on another type of bed and and everything was taken out at night and everything was put back in the morning and uh nothing like the life that I had here in Dallas of a home now when you were a small child what was the the the greatest thrill for you in Chicago I guess just being with my parents uh I would say
I grew up sheltered and attached to my parents my dad and my mom and uh we had this family life of extended family the grandparents on one side and theun aunts and uncles and cousins on the other side like Thanksgiving was always a big project right the sisters all pitched in and I don't know that as a small child I never knew anything negative do you remember going to Marshall Fields and going to the soda counter there I do remember going to Marshall Fields I do remember going down on the subway I my birthday's in May and I had a a a fell that I
went to school with his birthday is May 25th and his father uh gave him instructions maybe we were 12 maybe we were 10 had to go down to the field museum by ourselves to the field museum he had all instructions unfortunately when we got a little older and we got into high school he did not have anything to do with me just when we were young and his name was Arthur gor and you know I never thought anything about about it we just went downtown went to the museum he had instructions how to get there and how to get back yeah there was no fear
back then for the kids to go at that age no fear yeah now where did you go to high school found stuen High School what was high school life like uh it I don't know I W I just didn't care for high school too much it was a lot of competition but I played volleyball I played uh Sports and I still hear from several people that I went to high school the internet now you mentioned Sports and Chicago has always been a very big Sports Town you know for Pro Sports and everything did you ever go to any of the uh Cup games or white
sock games bear games I we went to Bear games and whatever uh my dad uh being a policeman he had a lot of connections and he knew Andy FR who ran the uh Andy FR upur yeah so we got into a lot of things because I don't think we had a lot of money so we went to Cub games we went to the bear games and I still I'm still attached to them so still a be fan huh still a be fan and and when they do good I text my cousin who lives in skoki and he text me back so how did World War
toi affect your family you were just a small child with uh I remember my mother with coupons and uh tearing those out and trading them but we still always had meals and my father he if he needed the tires apparently he got them so I wouldn't say I was too effective uh he wanted to go in the CBS but he was like in his 40s and they didn't accept them now your dad is a police officer did he ever tell you any scary times he kept that that was Private never talked at all about anything but he did have a gun in the house we
were told Don't Go Near it and we and we did not it was a time when we were told to sit little girl should be seen and not heard and that's what we did yeah but we did I did have one advantage I had an uncle on my mother's side he was a physician and he had a summer home in Upper Peninsula Lake Superior that's the cousin that I still have in uh in Ceno California her mother and father own that Cottage and my mother drove one day from Chicago over 500 miles to their Cottage and my father loaded the car on top and we
had running boards with our luggage on the running boards and my cousin Ruthie my sister and I were in the back seat and my mother drove and my Aunt Sarah they were in the front seat we got to the cottage in one day wow and it was a very uh uh bare Cottage uh the heat was by a fireplace and the ouse was the ouse but it was Immaculate my Aunt Sarah did all the cooking and my mother was her assistant but we grew up at that time I was like a little girl if my sister and my cousin Ruthie ran off they left me
behind and they did it often but I didn't care I had the the lake Lake Superior I had the beach I just was a very happy child now after high school did you go to college went to R junior college for two years and then I worked uh was not encouraged to go any further in school right and and where did you go to work I went to work for Chevrolet agency my sister was working in an agency on Lawrence Avenue and I worked for Phil slaven at Keystone Chevrolet um and where did you meet your husband he was from Germany originally his family had
a uh Home in St Charles Illinois and the snow was up to the windows and he came to Dallas in the 19 50s he told his parents I'm not going to go back and but he did come back for holidays and that's when I met him somebody called me up uh uh said that there was a fella in from Dallas and uh he would like to have a date for the holiday so that's how I met him and he called me he stayed around he pursued me pursued me and I did marry him in N June 11th 1954 and then uh you moved to Dallas
to Dallas I did not know anyone and it was quite a what was that move like for you uh I would say traumatic now that I looked back at it it was but I was young and I was wanted adventure and something new and Dallas in the 1954 didn't have a Bagel Bakery didn't have this didn't have that and uh so it was a little bit of a culture shock for you very much so and uh it was still segregated that there was a colored Fountain and white fountains and I went downtown and he wore white gloves and I was very shocked that the bus
was still uh uh segregated in fact uh one time I got on the bus and uh the bus driver made someone go to the back and let me sit down and I was horrified because I grew up in Chicago where I mean you got on the train the Subway or the bus you sat where you sat so I was so young and didn't really I was not political I was just a Young Bride I was just trying to make my husband and myself happy and what business did Frank get into uh he started a trucking business a local delivery business that's what kept us going
and I always worked so uh for key for I worked for Doran Chevrolet here and uh they hired me immediately of course because I had once you work in an agency they're happy Jewish community did you get involved at all I didn't because I I was shy about it and I didn't really know I didn't really feel comfortable about it and because I grew up in Chicago which in the area that I grew up being Jewish was not an issue right but coming to Dallas it it did become an issue and I didn't I didn't realize it but I did come to the Jay and
uh but not I did not involve myself in anything your kids um were they all born in the Dallas area uh I didn't have children till after four years of marriage and um I had Janet carpel CER Robert carpel Karen carpel Alonzo and Mark carpel four children what was the happiest time in your life I think having the children were happy having them all around it still is when they're all around I've one granddaughter four grandsons and I I adore I adore them now you talk you know you had mentioned the technology today you're in touch with family out of state in your lifetime there's
been so many magnificent inventions and so much technology was there something that came along that you just said wow to well I think going to the Moon I would say that was a wow even for my children to see that all that all that space that was a wow and uh even now at my Agee to be able to communicate and text and send emails and do attachments and just that is amazing to me and I love it I I really really love it now in your lifetime you've lived through so many momentous occasions uh you know you live through World War II of course
President Kennedy assassination here in Dallas that was horrific you know the the moon landing that you mentioned something good in' 69 of course the treasure of 911 was there something in the National scene that stood out that you really said wow I know exactly where I was when it happened well now that I'm a widow and I have many days and nights that I'm alone I think about a lot of things you just look back and you think my goodness where did all this go but truly that I made it through this far and I'm still capable of getting up getting dressed and getting out
it's all wonderful every day right and I that's the attitude that I I'm glad that I'm still here and I have one grandson who I hope will be married within the next few years and that I will see him Under The Canopy that was that's like a dream for me I don't know why I want to see him Under The Canopy but I do yeah so I mean you know it's never enough with four grandsons well I'd like to see them all she have four grandsons and one one granddaughter and one granddaughter who will graduate high school in uh May and that is wonderful now
you mentioned the Kennedy assassination was horrific um how did that affect you you just can't believe that all those events happened in you know a great City like this and I did go to the sixth floor of Museum not too long ago and I am convinced that it was just one person who did that and all this other stuff is they don't know really but from the evidence what they have and from what I've seen I would say Oswald was just a a Maverick who who did it now you um mentioned you doing some work for the Jewish Community Center what do you do for
them now yes when I became a widow and I didn't really know what to do with myself a friend of mind said find a place where you fit in so I went to Temple meetings I went this meeting that meeting and I came to the J and I guess that's where I fit in and one day the manager asked me and that's Anna if I'd like to do the birthday cards and I said well what do I have to do she said just sell them on Thursday and so far I raised the most money at $1 a card than anyone ever has that's great and
now everybody comes to me for uh I do birthdays get well and when people pass away unfortunately now the Dallas Cowboys have a play-by-play an ouncer that is so well known and loved in this community he's been calling the cowboy games for about 30 years now uh Brad sham we're talking about and you mentioned uh that you're pretty close to Brad well I'm not I'm close but we met in an unusual way I was in IU I had been very very sick and Temple Emanuel sent him out to visit people he does that and one day I was just out of it and someone took
my hand and said Mrs carpel I'm Brad sham and I really thought I was in heaven and I reached up to him I said am I in heaven said no and now whenever I see him no matter where no matter where he will come to me or I will go to him I mean and he's he's a wonderful man and I and I met his mom and she is also a wonderful person so that then of course my children are just there's bread so it's nice that's NE that's NE nice thing in my life what advice would Grandma want to leave for the Next Generation
Um just be true to yourself be honest and be loving you did a great job today thank you very much thanks for doing this app we made a connection too absolutely you did great all right thank you