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Reva 1938 Pittsburgh Pennsylvania let's go back what do you what can you tell us when you were a little girl when I was a little girl all I remember is a lot of snowy days going to school but happy days I had a good life growing up my parents were both American born and they had a lot of friends and I had a lot of friends growing up so it it worked out well for me yeah what what did your parents do uh my mother was a stay-at-home mother she would have liked to have worked had it been another generation she I'm sure she would
have worked my father was an insurance salesman mhm you remember your grandparents at all barely they all died when I was like three or four so just pictures that's all and what did you guys do for fun when you were little kids you had a sister she younger or older than you seven years younger mhm so we weren't really that close until we grew up and got married right right right I understand so but what were some of the things that you would do as a kid well there were sororities in our high school so we did have sorority meetings and other one go to
the movies um go to the amusement park Kennywood park MH uh what else can I think you remember getting a car when you were a kid did you get one when you were oh no I didn't my mother wouldn't even let me drive and I didn't drive until we got married Neil taught me to drive W so that well they only had one car for a while so those were hard harder times After High School were you thinking about college or a job uh most of my friends went to college so I but my mother wanted me to go get a job first and work
for a year and then go but I did end up going to college I went to the University of Pittsburgh mhh and what was that like oh it was a big school big school but that that was good and of course it ended up being better because I met my husband he was in univers at Pittsburgh medical school uhhuh and tell me about that first meeting I was dating his roommate then I introduced his roommate to a friend of mine and they got married so it was an interesting situation so was that because you had met um your future husband yes so you you knew
you were done with the roommate then right so you fixed them up with a friend of yours right right and and did the four of you get along then for a while for a short time and then we sort of went our separate directions now when you got married uh were you still in school um now I had to go to work then Neil was We Got Married Neil was a junior in medical school his father said I'm not going to support you if you get married this last year and we just were bound and determined so I quit and worked that last year of
medical school well what did your folks think about you leaving school well they were glad I was getting married and to a doctor so it it all worked out though well okay and then um and where did you go to work I was a legal secretary okay now known as a paralal where did you guys settle down in Dallas where he train he took his training in Dallas and then we went into the air force for 2 years in Oklahoma in uh Enid outside of Oklahoma City okay so immediately upon getting married you came down to Dallas after graduation after graduation okay we came down
for his internship and lived in oakcliff at meth and he was at Methodist hospital now you're leaving Pittsburgh to come to Dallas it's a big adjustment for you right what do Mom and Dad think Mom when my husband told Mother and Dad that we were going to Texas my mother said Texas of course then people didn't travel that much she said I'll never see you again and they were really upset but of course we made a concerted effort to see them every year okay and then he was called into the service it was part of the plan U when you were a medical student it
was called The Barry plan you had to go in for two years okay and so and then did you go up uh did you go up to Enid with him yes oh yes okay and so is this like a little bit of a culture shock at all a lot of a culture shock I had my first child born just before we went there so it was living in IND Oklahoma we came to Dallas often because it was not that bad of a drive two years there was enough right and then you guys settled down in Dallas well then he took his residency in in Dallas
for two two years okay and then did you stay here yeah then he opened his office the oldest one was born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania because I had to go home because he was in training I couldn't go onto the base yet because he wasn't yet on the base ah so what was that like for you to be that far away from him oh I went come to Mom what do you mean oh you got babied yourself yes so that was okay at that time that was okay yeah so and then I came after the the oldest child was three weeks old or something like that
okay well tell me what was your life down here in Dallas for you with the uh with young kids oh well I was shocked how small it was at that time and it was very hard to find the Jewish Community I would call up to I called up to Temple Emanuel cuz that's where we eventually wanted to join to find out where hadassa or benth or something was and through those channels I met Jewish people so and did you get involved with the Jewish Community just through hadassa or a neighbor at that time tell me now about learning the drive you were married you said
yes I was learned on a stick shift do you remember that first car you drove yes a green Pontiac from 40 something 49 or something I don't know what it was do you remember what you guys paid for that car oh it was passed through a medical school from one doctor to another so I think it was $50 times have changed yes yes you know time times have changed what what do you think was like the needest invention you've seen in your lifetime well I guess the the medical the medical surprises that that have come along the way and of course the computer if I
have to think in the long run now you've had with you had three small children and your husband's a pediatrician was he always the one that would take care of the kids or did you have to get a doctor a different doctor he took care of them most of the time unless it was something serious unless it was something serious and then we would use a pediatrician how did the kids how were they raised compared to how you were raised how was it different my parents were conservative but we were very reformed but the three boys were all Bar Mitzvah and um well they had
more freedom I'm sure than I did my mother kept a close tabs on us so um I think they grew up you know more Loosely but now when you guys moved down here there was no other family here for you right and so did you make trips back home yes we did but the Dallas Community had so many people like us that holidays we were always able to find somebody to have a meal with have them over they'd have us over going back to high school what was the music that you guys liked Patty pige and and the ones that followed in in her footsteps
I guess MH and what do you think about the music your kids when they were in high school would listen to oh my son was a drummer all through high school so I had that music but it was it was very basic stuff you know it wasn't wild and crazy and he still likes drumming uh as a sideline he's a Prof he's in a profession now but he's still likes his drum you have three kids and you have six grandkids what was it like to become a grandma for the first time oh it's a wonderful feeling just wonderful as every grand mother grandmother will tell
you yeah how is it different than having kids it's just speci special because you waited for some reason you know that these children you can do anything you want with them because you're the grandparents and they take them away and the parents won't know so it's it's just been a lot of fun now thinking about how you were raised compared to how your grandkids are being raised in today's world what differences do you see oh many more many more of course each of my grandchildren was sort of raised differently one one's in San Antonio it's a different life sty in San Antonio than in Dallas
the basics are there but San Antonio is a smaller town or I think it's basically that I didn't have as much Freedom always we we listen to our parents no matter what my mother was this is the way it is I didn't argue now how do you feel the Jewish Community has grown in Dallas over the years oh it's wonderful to have watched grow when I first came here there weren't that many and I've just watched it grow I don't know what it is now I've tried to see the figures but I haven't seen recent ones mhm it's been wonderful though the influx of people
from all over the country and all over the world really the Jewish people coming from everywhere what was the happiest time in your life I guess getting married having children one one both of or and what were the scariest things for you in life well when my sister was very ill and I I watched her dying slowly I guess that would be sad not scariest but it was scary too cuz the first one I'd ever watched die a long death now you were born before the television was even invented right what was that like when it when you first saw television for the first time
did you know about it that it was coming uh I can't remember whether we knew about it but we did have one and it was limited to what we could watch but I remember watching television with with a little black and white TV you have uh six grandkids and one great-grandchild what advice would you want to leave to the your great-grandchild in that next generation or do something with your life that you really want to do don't don't go into life taking a job that you don't think you'll be happy with because if you're not happy with your job that affects your life you did
great thank you you did great thank you
