Full Transcript
Mimi 1929 Dallas Texas around the depression let's let's go back what do you remember when you were a little girl I don't remember anything until I was about seven eight years old I keep thinking and I think I don't remember my sister or my brother they were six and 10 years older than me but I remember my girl little girlfriends we all lived on the same street cross the street and two doors away and I mean that's what I remember what' you guys do for fun you and your friends we played Jacks we sat on the front porch and it was hot but it didn't
bother us we just we played dials we were big dial players and that's but we did what did what did your dad do my dad owned Goodman produce company and he uh came to this country when he was 13 and he had a horse and Bug he worked first for brown candy company when he was about 13 14 years old and then he had a horse and buggy and then he had a truck and then he had a a building where did did he come from Poland from Poland mhm did you ever talk about what it was like coming here you know and starting with
that horse and buggy and building up to a business my sister and I talked about it all the time because he never talked about coming from Po and they wanted to forget that I think and he was just a child his older brother brought there were five brothers and two sisters and he brought every body over one by one and the parents and he you know he worked hard and he walked out of the candy company one day and he saw a guy uh selling oranges on the street and he thought I can do that yeah and that's how it started your mom was she
from here or no my mother was born in New York uh she came here her her father died when she was 9 years old and her mother my grandmother had a daughter that lived in Dallas and my the aunt my aunt brought them to Dallas cuz she was just a little girl and she had a push cart in New York and they lived with my aunt and uncle at that time and so your parents met down here on a hay ride that's great did your dad ever ever tell you why Dallas when he came over well I think because of his brother came to Galis
that's how they came in through Galveston and I don't know why they settled in Dallas yeah yeah do you remember your grandparents at all well remember my father's uh mother and father they died when I was about maybe 10 years old mother my mother's mother lived with us till I was 15 and she died right in my mother's arms and where did you go to grammar school John Henry Brown School in Forest High School and what was high school life like fun all my friends from childhood were still friends and good friends no that's nice now you were a depression baby did the Depression affect
your family at all if it did I did not know about it yeah your folks didn't talk about it all well no but we always had everything we wanted mhm mhm now in high school what were some of the things that you guys would do for fun high school you're supposed to study the girls really dated very young and uh we used to go to the plantation and Lan see Frank Sinatra and all the big name bands and uh that was it go riding in the car mhm did you remember when you got your first car I didn't get a car but I always had
a car available it was always my mother's car you remember what kind of car you guys drove back then she drove a Lile I don't remember what my dad drove and then she had um Packer and all the way Cadillac whatever all of now after high school was it college or did you go to work I went to work I got married I didn't go to work well where did you meet your husband I was 15 MH and I was at a 16th birthday party at uh flag pole Hill and he was a little sailor with his boyfriend Bernard ly and they crashed well he
was 19 and he crashed they crashed this party that's what they called it and uh I danced with him and that was it and then the next day he called me and that was that was the start of it he graduated from SMU when he was 19 and uh he went to Princeton and to Annapolis when my husband was at Annapolis although I was his girlfriend then they had a Seder for all the Jewish men there which was about 80 boys and Albert Einstein came in and sat right across from my husband at a table just like that and I mean it was the experience
of his life it was really something and our Rabbi who was Rabbi bramz then um every time he'd see me well how's Melvin how's uh how's Dr Einstein are they still good friendscute now did he talk to uh Dr oh yeah he was very very nice he told me he was just lovely and uh 1946 he he got out of the service and we married now was he in World War II yeah he never went overseas and what year did you guys get married June 21st 1947 where where did you settle down Dallas in Dallas and and what did Melvin do he was an engineer
and a mechanical engineer and he worked for a a big engineering company and then he went into his own business business which was brand engineering company mhm and it's still in existence and you had your children at a young age yeah just 18 one month after I was 19 and 20 and then 5 years later I had another child what was it like in Dallas raising young kids when you were young yourself it well it was wonderful I you my parents live close his parents live close my sister and my brother we were a very close family very close family and we all had children
even though they were older than I they had their children later cuz my brother uh and sister-in-law waited till he got out of the army so it happened like that but all our children are within weeks and months of each other talk to me about your involvement with the Jewish community I belonged to three synagogues at one time I grew up at a a Sher at a good aakam and uh Melvin grew up at Temple and my mother was very modern she said to me when we got married we had two rabbis Rabbi lewitz and ra Rabbi AB brtz at our wedding and she said
MIM you do not have to keep kosher just because I do and and my husband said MIM you're going to keep kosher because if you don't your mother will not eat in our home and I did um for 40 or years I would belong to the sherith Israel to The Sisterhood to the temple to the um Sher Israel Temple I was president of Mis rocki women in Dallas um I Sunday school things all I did everything when my kids were young that you're supposed to do your dad's business grew into a very big business he was a really hard worker and a very fine man
were were you involved with the business at all no my brother your your brother my brother and my um brother-in-law Jack Goodman and Joe Gman and they were they were in the business yeah and then my dad had a heart attack when he was about 52 or three something like that and he actually Jack and Joe ran the business it was a produce company and then they had goodies from good in fact the state fair I I should have brought that picture it shows a big um uh display it's the first time the St Fair ever let anyone do a u display like that and
my dad was so talented he was very artistic and it was beautiful and it had the people that worked there selling the fruit was really beautiful and I don't know what date that was but I was probably about 14 or 15 what was the happiest time in your life I had a very wonderful life I really really did we had hard times I mean we had three little babies and three children in private schools at one time and I mean my husband never borrowed a scent we did it and um we had a very happy life we took nice trips took our children on nice
trips you it was wonderful when I had my children I always said I was never going to college I love children and to this day I love of children and babies and I always said I was going to get married and have babies and I did what makes you the most proud well my children are really wonderful I have unbelievable daughters and I have a wonderful son I'm very proud of my children and I have two unbelievable son-in-laws now in your lifetime you've lived through so many momentous occasions uh of course your your family made it through the depression World War II when you were
a young uh lady did World War II affect your family at all well my brother went off but he didn't go anywhere I mean he was in San Antonio the whole time Jack Miller who lived across the street from me that's the only thing that really affected me I was like 12 or years old and that was Henry Miller's brother and we lived right across the street and he was a hero but but he was killed in the war and I I would it was a horrible thing cuz he was gorgeous and he was sweet and I remember the night it was the late afternoon
that they got a telegram it was awful and that really affected me as time went on there was the Vietnam War there was the Kennedy assassination well that was the day of my son's Bar Mitzvah the day of my son's the day on Saturday on Friday I was going to the beauty shop and the radio was on my sister and brother-in-law Francis and Joe were going to the place downtown where they had the luncheon for Kennedy they were there waiting for them to come and I heard it on the radio and it was it was a terrible thing and that night we went to sh
and Jack Ruby they said he had your s side and he was there in the sh well we were at sh because my son wanted to go to shareth Israel and that's where he was bar mitford and Jack Ruby was there for his mother's you're so that all went together wow and it was a a terrible tragedy now did did your family Did You Know Jack Ruby my husband did some air conditioning for him Jack Ruby of course shot Oswald that's right it's going to be uh 50 years that my son was Bar Mitzvah and we didn't have those big bar mitzvahs we had a
I had a big home and we had a family dinner but it and it had a lot of people about 70 people but it put a big damper on the whole thing which it should of yeah and it was sad four kids 11 grandkids mhm two great grandkids they're so cute what advice does great grandma have for those great grandkids the Next Generation just to hug and kiss them and tell them how smart they are and uh because they are smart I mean they're real smart and so I was just on a um trip with my little one from Austin and I was playing Jen
Ry with her grandfather and I said Sophie which was my mother's name Sophie say a prayer I want to win this came and she goes she starts singing the prayer over the wine and over the bread so I would win but they're they're just so you you can't put anything over on the kids just love them and hug them and well thanks for doing this today you did a great job I had fun yeah e
