Victoria Kaufman
Victoria Kaufman was born in Austria, in a small town remembered as Sereth, around 1903, into a family long involved in the grain business. Her father, remembered as Methel (Mephel), was a devout man who never worked on the Sabbath and studied Talmud daily. Her uncle, Grandpa Charlie (originally named Shoal, renamed Charles at immigration), came to America first as a young man of sixteen, meeting his future wife Malka (Molly) on the boat. Vicki's mother's family, the Englers, ran an inn in Austria. The family traced its lineage to a grandfather remembered as Shmiel the writer, meaning redhead, from whom several descendants inherited red hair.
The family came to Dallas in 1907 when Vicki was about two, traveling through Galveston, where an eye check on her sister Fanny nearly separated the family. They first lived near Jackson Street close to Sherith Israel, then on Pye Hatton Street, and eventually bought a home on Pearl Street. Vicki attended Cumberland Hill School on Akard Street and later Bryan High. She worked as a cashier at A. Harris and Company, took a business course in shorthand and typing, and worked for the Progressive Farmer, an insurance firm remembered as Tresman and Cochran, and later for her brother-in-law Sam's insurance agency. She married Phil Kaufman on February 21st at nineteen.
The Kaufman family was active in Dallas Jewish life. Grandpa Charlie, after a falling out, resigned from Sherith Israel and organized his own small congregation, first called FRAC (First Romanian Austrian Congregation) and later renamed for the Sephardic prayer book it used. The little shul lasted about fifty years until Vicki's husband Phil could no longer gather a minyan, after which it merged with Sherith Israel along with a cash gift, the congregation's cemetery, and Torahs with sterling silver breastplates. Vicki fondly recalled her sister-in-law Rose, beloved daughter of Grandpa Charlie, whose husband John became a portrait painter after studying art in Europe. She also shared warm and lively stories of her sisters, suitors kept at bay by her strict father, and the family's Austrian origins.
Full Transcript
I'm at the home of my aunt Victoria Kaufman on her 85th birthday party and we're going to do an interview because she was one of the early settlers here in Dallas. She's a very interesting lady and very alert. Vicki, would you mind telling us when you first came to Dallas? We came to Dallas in 1907, and we lived in Austria in a little small town, I think it was called Sereth, S-E-R-E-T-H. and we settled here and we had some relatives in New York and they were the Gertner's famous Gertner's restaurant and they were also related to the Lindy's Lindy's who had the were famous for their cheesecake and what else you want me to say?
Did they help you to come here to the United States? Who was it that helped you to come here to the United States? My father's brother. And what was his name? Charles. Charles. Charles. His name was Shoal and when he landed here they asked for what his name was and he said Shoal and they just named him Charles. That was my granddad. And what year would that have been, a little bit before 1907? Yes, I imagine he probably came... In the late 1800s, was it? Late 1800s? Yes. Late 1800s, I don't know what date. I really don't know, but I know we came here in 1907.
I was two years old when I came here. And Grandpa... Daddy said he was 11 years old. Come closer. This is my cousin, Millie, who's talking now about the early part of when the family first came here. My father said he was 11 years old when the family moved from New York City to Dallas Texas My father was born in New York City in 1889 in February 1889 Do you know who it was who brought the family over here? I know that Grandpa Charlie came originally, but was there somebody that helped him come over here? He helped my father get over here. He came first.
I know he came first, but there wasn't anybody here in the United States. He came with my brother and my oldest sister. But she was talking about Grandpa Charlie. Did he help anybody come over here? Did anyone help him to come over here? Somebody who was settled here, or did he just come of his own volition? He first went to New York, and from there he came here. Came to Dallas? Yes. And that must have been prior then to... Your dad was the oldest in the family, or was he? No. There were some older ones in the family? So they were really here before 1899 then?
Yes. I see. Who else was there that was older than Uncle Phil? Frank. His oldest brother's name was Frank. How much older was he? Oh, I imagine two years. Two years older? Yeah. Frank was a nice fellow. And he was the eldest in the family? Yeah. Frank was the oldest one. And then came my husband Phil, then came Sam, then came Isidore, and then came Saul, and then came Max. What about Aunt Rose? Oh, I left, Aunt Rose was, she was in between there somewhere. Was she? He kept saying, Grandpa Charlie kept saying, if there's another boy, I'm going to throw him out the window.
He wanted a girl. He wanted a girl, and he got Rose, and she was, oh, she was his love. The joy of his life. The joy of his life, that's right. She was gorgeous. She was very beautiful, wasn't she? Yes, she was a beautiful woman. She was a little too stout, but she was gorgeous. She got too heavy, but then... She'd always been beautiful. But she had a beautiful thing. I know. She really did. What did Grandpa Charlie do for a living? He went into the soda water business when he landed in New York And my husband used to say that he take him out in the morning and they deliver that soda water you know horse and wagon buggy whatever it was And they'd sell that soda water on the way.
What made him decide to go to Dallas then? He heard that Dallas was a good place to settle, so he came here and went into the saloon business. Oh, he did? He opened the saloon? What street did he open the saloon on? Oh, I think it was somewhere up on Main Street, further up, like, towards Sanger. Towards Sanger? Sanger Brothers, you know. You remember when it was Sanger Brothers? Yeah, I know. Out that way. And my father, who never worked on the Sabbath, worked for him because that's the only place he could get a job that he wouldn't have to work on the Sabbath. So he used to Lake Twiln.
You've heard of that? Mm-hmm. And he took his, you know, Lake Twiln, and the man came in there to get a drink. You know, they came in there and had a drink and he went out and he says, that man sure is smart in there. He takes his own temperature. His own blood pressure. His own blood pressure. His own blood pressure. What was your dad's name? Methyl. Methyl? Yeah. Now, let's see, what else did we want? We were talking about your own father. Oh, yeah, about him. And then my father wanted to go back to Europe. He didn't think it was kosher enough here. My mother wouldn't go.
And so he remained here. But he did go back to Europe. He wanted to see his two sisters. He had two sisters there. One was named Hannah and the other one, Rose, was the other one's name. Who in the family went back, went to Israel and never came here? Was it your grandfather? Schmielder Reuters. Was it your grandfather? That was my grandfather. And he went to Israel, to Palestine? Yes. To settle. He had to remarry because they wouldn let him in there if he didn have a wife So he married and he buried in Israel Yes, that's very interesting. Yeah. The family, were they involved in the community here, the Kauffman family?
In Dallas? In Dallas, after they got established? Yes, yes. but they Grandpa Charlie got in some kind of trouble and so he resigned from Sheriff Israel which he was a member of and he organized his own little congregation tell me about the congregation the congregation was first called FRAC which meant First Romanian Austrian Congregation and And in later years it was changed to Anche Svard, because that's the kind of prayer book they use. The Svardish. The Svardish. Yeah. And we had that little shul for many years and we enjoyed it. How many years? Fifty. Fifty years. And then it got to where my husband couldn't get a minion, you know, for services.
So he asked the rabbi what he should do, as long as you can get a minion. He said, stay with your little shul. But then he couldn't get him anymore. Am I on? I think you're on. And so he finally merged with Sherith Israel, and we gave him $25,000 in cash in our cemetery, which we had out there. and the Taurus with the sterling silver breastplate and everything, which I still don't know what happened to them. I understand one of them was given to the, what's the name of that organization? Hillel. Hillel. Hillel, yeah, Hillel. And what else do you want to know? What streets did you all live on when you first came here?
When we first came here, we were living in a little house on ... which was close to where Sheriff Israel was then on Jackson Street. And then from there we moved to Pye Hatton Street, where Grandpa Charlie and his family... You used to live on Carroll Street, didn't you? Oh, well, that was the last place we lived. And, um, where else did we live? Then we lived on, uh... We finally bought a home on Pearl Street, where they have the expressway now. And that house, that little house is still there. It is. Yes, it's still there. Your dad bought that house. Yeah, my dad and mother.
And my dad continued to go to Sheriff Israel and studied the Talmud every day. and then when he couldn't walk anymore and just broke his heart. How old was he when he passed away? 79. He did live nice old age. Yeah. Did they have other brothers, Uncle Charlie? I mean, Grandpa Charlie and your dad? Yeah, they had Morta. That was a brother. Did he live here too? No, they never did come here. and then he had a half-brother, I guess you'd call him, Hesh, and that's all I know. He had two sisters, Rose and Hannah. Oh, he had two sisters, Rose and Hannah. I mentioned that.
You did mention that. He took Aunt Rose and little Ruthie with him. When he went to Europe? When he went to Europe. How many times did Grandpa Charlie go to Europe? Once is all I can remember. Only once? But where did he go? Just all over Europe? Yeah, he went to visit his relatives and then he went to see Mr. Goldstein's father live there. Jerry has it now, a large picture of him and Mr. Goldstein's father. Where did Mr. Goldstein's father live? In Austria? I don't know. Wherever they were. Wherever they lived in Europe. Yeah where Anyway he had a beautiful watch that I don know what he paid for it he bought it at Lenz Brothers And he got short of money so he wanted to make a loan and they wanted to offer him So he wouldn't accept that, and they finally got some money to him.
While he was in Europe? Yeah. He also went to Europe to find out about his health, you know. What was wrong with him? About his high blood pressure. Oh, he had high blood pressure. And they told him to eat honey and something else. I don't remember now. Honey and something else. And he said they could have done that for him here. But he really wanted to see his family there. Was he an interesting man? Who? Grant Machia? Oh, yeah, Grandpa Charlie. What did he look like? He was tall and broad-shouldered. Very tall. Didn't you ever see a picture of him? But it's been so long.
Oh. Was he real tall, over six feet? Oh, he probably was six or a little older. Yeah, he was tall, broad-shouldered. So was my father. Blue-eyed. Now, I don't know about his eyes, but my father had blue eyes. Your dad was red-haired, though. Yeah, he had red hair. He took after Smear the writer. That was his father. And what else can I tell you? Well, what about, in Austrian Jews, were they different than other Jewish people? They really weren't like Romanian Jews. They had come from Austria, whether manners or their ways. Well, it used to be called Austria-Hungary. Oh, I see. I don't know what, since Hitler took over.
I don't know. Is there still a hungry? Does anybody know? There's still a hungry, yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And we, I understand, came from a little town called Cerrit. I wonder if Cerrit's still in existence. Who knows? Nobody's been over there to find out. And I told Mervyn one time, I said, the only thing I can remember as a young child is I'd sit on the brick steps and I'd hear the fiakkers on the brick streets you know you know what a fiakker is It like they have on cobblestones And the Fiocca is like they have in New York in Central Park where they Like the handsome cab?
Oh yes, the cabs. And I could hear the horses hoofs making the noise on the brick pavement. You said they had a beautiful house. Yeah, we had a beautiful home. It had windows that you opened out, you know, that opened out. Casement windows. Casement windows. Are you talking about here in Dallas? I'm talking about our home. Your own home here in Dallas. That we lived in Austria. Oh, in Austria. You did have a beautiful home? Yeah. What kind of business was the family in in Austria? In the grain business. They were. Yeah. So they really weren't poor there either. No. And so he, but I think my mother and my older sister, or my sister Fanny, she was next to the oldest, they used to take care of the business more than my father did because he He was too busy going to Shul and Lake Trill and all that stuff.
What did Charlie do over there? That part of the family wasn't involved in the grave business? Charlie, I don't know what he did. He was so young when he came over here. Was he so young? Oh, sure. He was 16. He was 16? 16. 16? How did he get the money to come over? His father gave him money to pay bills. So he took the money and he got another gang together, you know, and he decided to come to America. And the father never did know what happened to him, you know. He didn't use that money for that. And then he met Grandma Malka on the boat and he wanted to marry her and she said that But she's getting off in some little place in England, I think.
In Southampton. And her aunt was supposed to meet her there and if she okayed it she marry it So that what happened They got married On the boat they got married Yeah They did Yeah And um I think she was a year or two older Yes, she was. He married an older woman, which is not so bad. She was 17. She was 17 and he was 16. He was 16, yeah. Which was too young for both of them. She was from Hungary. She was from Czechoslovakia. She was not from Hungary? We don't know where she was from. She was from Czechoslovakia. That's what Sister says.
I didn't say anything about Sister. I heard it when I was a young girl. She was not from Hungary then? No, she was not from Hungary. She was from Czechoslovakia. I thought that's what Sister's been telling you. Sister doesn't know anything. I'll have to give her the information just like I'm giving Janice now. But the family didn't go through a series of pogroms or anything like that. They just came because they wanted to leave Europe. They weren't under persecution of any kind. Oh, no. They just came because they wanted to come. And, of course, Schmiel, the right of my grandfather that I had never seen, he left Russia.
He was living in Russia, but he ran away from there. That's what my grandfather did when he was $6 million. He was a miracle. But that's your grandfather who went to Palestine to live. It was called Palestine in those days. He had to remarry because they wouldn't have left. He settled in Austria. He ran away from Russia and then he settled in Austria. But he settled in Austria? Yes. And your mother, your mother's parents owned an inn in Austria. Their name was Ingler. Yes. Sarah Esther Ingler. Yeah. Well, you're not telling, you're talking too far away so we can't, your mother owned, your mother's family owned an inn in Austria?
Yes, and that's how she met, that's how she met, she met the father-in-law first because they had a little inn and people who came in, the buyers, you know, that came in to buy, they stayed there, you know, and they also served the meal. But your dad owned, was it your father who owned the inn or your grandfather who owned the inn? My mother's father. Your mother's father? Yes. And what was the inn called? I don't know what it was called, but that's what it was. These people stopped there. They came in for buying, you know, on a buying trip, and they stayed overnight and they also served meals.
They didn't originally then come from Austria. They came originally, part of the family came from, at least your dad's part of the family came from Russia and came into Austria. But what about your mama's family? My mother's family, as far as I know, always lived in Austria. They always lived in Austria. Yeah. And her maiden name was Engler. Engler? Yes. That was the name of the inn, I think you said. No, no. Her maiden name was Engler. And her father-in-law, who became her father-in-law, he stopped there one night. That was Shmiel Hrotha. Yeah, that was Shmiel Hrotha. and uh... What is Schmiel? What is that?
Schmiel the writer. Schmiel is for... That's his name and the writer means the redhead. Red, redhead. Yes. And uh... That's where maybe Millie get her red hair from. I don't know. But uh... Sandy's... Got a little boy that's really redheaded and so Martha, his wife, told me that uh... Maybe that's where he got his red hair from because she didn't have any redheads in her family. Karen has red hair. Yeah, she has red hair too. So they get it down the line from somewhere. You're part of the family, but not from Grandpa Charlie. He didn't have red hair. No. And Grandma Molly didn't have red hair.
But Mother, what's the kind of thing? Anyway, after the family came here, did you work before you got married? I went to school. Oh, before I married. Where did you go to school? I went to, let's see, there was one school that was close to where I lived. Was it Cumberland Hills? That was when we lived on Puyhatton. I went to Tumberland Hill. It was on Akkert Street On Akkert Street still there Yeah it still there but they made something else out of it I forgot what they call it now The governor of the state is the one that owns it Yeah. That's his building.
That's where he works. And when I went to Cumberland School, there was a young boy that was named Richard Liebman. The Liebman Center, you know the Liebman Center? Yeah, he used to buy me licorice. He did? Yeah. You must have been always very pretty. I don't know about that. She was always pretty. I know that. And, and, um, I think this... How many sisters did you have, Vicki? I have... Oh, I wanted to tell you, Aunt Gerdy had red hair. That's what I was thinking about. Yeah, she had sort of red hair. How many sisters did you have? In your family? Seven. Seven sisters? Any brothers?
One brother. One brother? Yeah. I think there was one other child. I don't know if it was a boy or a girl, but it didn't live. Can we talk about Aunt Rose a little bit? Okay. Because I thought she was a very interesting lady. Yeah. Tell me some things about Aunt Rose. Well, I remember Aunt Rose used to work in that grocery store on Pahatton Street. Did she? Yeah. How'd she meet Uncle John? He lived on Pihattan Street, too, further down towards Akron Street. And there was another woman. She was called Bertha Fischel. She's Bertha Carpenock now. You know of her. Yeah, no, yeah. Anyway, she was crazy about Uncle John, but he couldn't see her for the dust.
and so he liked Aunt Rose very much and he was very sick one time and he was in the hospital and Aunt Rose made sure that he got food she would take food to him that they prepared at home and he was very thin, very thin and they used to live, his family came from Galveston Oh did they? Originally from Galveston? Um mother father and mother parents didn grandpa come to Galveston Did they come through Galveston When they came, we did, we came, you see, we followed, we came, he came first with my sister and brother. From Galveston or through New York? I think they came through New York.
That's what I thought all of them. We came through Galveston. Did you? Yeah. And so they told us in Galveston, you know, they inspect everyone. And they told my mother she could take all her children but one to leave behind. That was my sister Fanny. They had a check on her eyes. And so my mother said, I'm not going anywhere. She says, I'm staying right here with my children and wait until I see what happens to her. So she stayed there. Let's go back to Aunt Rose for a minute. Uncle John, how did he become such a famous portrait painter? Well, he used to work for some outfit.
I think he just did black and whites then, you know. And he wanted to do something about art. And he moved to Chicago from here. And he had a hard struggle in Chicago. There were some people that were interested in... That's right, that's what I'm going to tell him. I didn't know. And there were people who were very interested in Uncle John, and they financed a trip for him and his family to go study art. In Europe? In Europe. And they went. I think they were in England. Vicki, can you tell me about the name Kaufman? Was it changed when you came to the United States?
had it been changed by when Grandpa Charlie came, or was that his name he had in Austria? No, we always had that name, and it wasn't called Kaufman. It was called Kaufman. Kaufman. Kaufman. And how'd they spell it? The same way? I guess. What was the meaning? They didn't have a particular meaning for it? Kaufman means a buyer A buyer Yeah a man who buys But he really carried the name so that they never changed it when he got to this country Did I mention in there that he was in the grain business That your family was in the grain merchants. Yeah. But not Grandpa Charlie.
No, not Grandpa Charlie, but his father was. Oh, his dad had been in the grain business. Then my father was also in the grain business. Grandpa Charlie and Grandpa Mephel were brothers. She knows that. But they just really left there because of their own volition. They really weren't persecuted. They didn't have a pogrom. They just came here because they really wanted to come to America. My mother used to say every once in a while they'd get an alert that they had to leave because the soldiers were coming through. They were? Yes. and she had to leave. She went to her brother. She had a brother.
Where did the brother live? Oh, I don't know. Some little town close by. And she said when we got back, everything was gone. They took everything. So it was some sort of pogrom. It was a raid by what country? You mean people in Austria? Is that where it occurred? It wasn't in Austria. It must have been Germany. In Germany? Did they live in Germany? No, they didn't live in Germany, but it was close by, you know, Austria. In other words, these were German, you don't really know, you're just guessing that these were Germans who came and raided? Yes, I don't know why they came, you know, they had these things here.
But the Germans really did come and raid, and they weren't the Austrians who did then. No. So they had reason for leaving. Yeah, and when we got back, she said everything was gone. That was your mom who said that? Yeah, and she had a brother, just one brother. And let me see what else. When you went to Cumberland School, did you go to school after you went to Cumberland School? To another school? Did you go to a high school? Yeah, I went to Bryan High. Oh, you went to Bryan High. Did you graduate? No. You didn't get a chance? No. Did you go to work then?
So I went to work. What kind of work did you do? I was a sales lady. Were you? No, I was a cashier. In those days, I was at the A. Harrison Company. Oh, it was the A. Harrison Company? called A. Harris and Company and Leon Harris was the boss and he was crazy. He'd go around there bawling out people for no reason at all. Leon Harris, you ever hear of him? Well, I've heard of the son, but you're talking about the father. Arthur Harris was the son. No, Arthur was the, yeah, Arthur was the son and Leon the father. Leon was the one. And he'd go, he was really screwy.
Yeah, yeah, he'd go around and bawl out people for no reason. I was a cashier and he'd come around. One time he came around and he hollered at me and said, did I have change for whatever? And I started opening up the cash register to give him change. So Julia Rothman, she was a salesperson in that department, they called it Toilet Sundries then. And she said, don't pay any attention to him, she says he's crazy, because I didn't know what the hell that man was talking about. And that's where I worked. And of course, from there, I went to work. I wanted to do office work, really.
And so he called me down, the manager. What was his name? I forgot his name. He called me down and he said, they're working on it. They're working on it. He says, you're not doing good in sales, but I'll raise you a dollar a week. Can you imagine? and because I didn't like that kind of work, I wanted office work. And so I never did get the office work. Anyway, I went to my father, gave me a business course, and I took up shorthand and typing. I didn't do too well on shorthand, but I did type. And I worked for the progressive... You took out bookkeeping too, didn't you?
No, I really didn't take bookkeeping. You did so beautifully at bookkeeping. So I went to I worked for the progressive farmer I told him that I couldn do shorthand He said that okay He said just go ahead and write down in longhand whatever you can And so one time he dictated a letter to me, and I took it down. And, of course, I forgot what he had said, and I wrote up my own letter, and I wrote a terrible letter to one of his salesmen. And that salesman was really mad. And so the man told me, he said, that's all right, I was going to fire him anyway.
He said he was going to quit. And so that's what happened. Then when he'd go out of town, the girls wanted to know when they could leave. He says, when Ms. Kaufman leaves, then you can leave. Because, you know, I always stayed late. I wanted to finish my work. For thefts, it's Tresman and Cochran? No, I got that later. Then where'd you go to work? Tresman and Cochran. What was that, an insurance firm? Insurance firm. They were located on Yonge Street, and I used to copy, you know, with the data reports and all that kind of stuff. That's what I used to do there. Then you met Uncle Phil and you got married.
No, she moved for Uncle Phil. Sam. I worked for Uncle Sam. He begged me, you know, he bought out an insurance firm. It was called the Tillman Agency. Uncle Sam did? Yeah. And so he begged me to come work for him. Uncle Sam was one of Grandpa Charlie's children. Sons, yeah. Sons. Yeah. And he was your father's brother. I know. And so he begged me to quit Treasurer and Cochran and come work for him. And he even offered me more salary. I didn't want to quit because I liked it at Treasurer and Cochran. And so I did and started working for him. So he had a general agent that was called Mike Murphy.
and he they went on long trips they went on fishing trips and they were just spending money like crazy so one time he asked me how the business was doing and I told him I said the business is doing all right but you spending too much money He didn like that Uncle Sam didn't? He didn't like that, so I quit telling him anything. Well, he asked me and I told him the truth. Was he an attorney for a while? Did he ever become an attorney? He never was an attorney, but he knew a lot about law. Yeah, so did Uncle Phil. He served as an apprentice, didn't he?
He did what? Didn't he serve as an apprentice or something? I thought that Uncle Sam was a lawyer for a while. No. No? They were always in the insurance business? He was in the insurance business. He went into the restaurant business. My father helped him out. He gave him money, which he never returned and all that kind of stuff. Your father? My father. and he also helped adopt Rubenstein, you know, with something, I don't know what, but he never saw any money. So you worked a long time before you got married, didn't you? Yes, I did. How old were you when you got married? 21.
No, wait a minute, I was 19. I was, I married February the 21st, and my birthday was March the 25th. So she had been 19, but she was 18. I was pretty close to 19. But you were still, you were very young when you got married then. I was 19, yeah. Well, that's very interesting. Is there some other things you'd like to tell us about yourself? particularly about yourself? Well, maybe you better tell about me, Millie. I don't know what to tell about me. She's the most wonderful mother, God bless her, that ever lived. Oh, that's sweet. That sounds good. Beautiful mother. Vicki, what about your sisters?
Did they also work before they got married? Did all the ladies work in those days? Yeah, they worked. My sister Gertie worked. My sister Fannie worked. My sister Fannie was a milliner. You know, she used to make hats. And then Gertie was a buyer for her. And Gertie was a buyer for Tychgett. And very successful one, I think. Yeah. Uh-huh. That's how she met her husband. Yeah Well she um he used to manufacture coats ladies coats and she met him on a buying trip And so she kept going on these trips back and forth, and one time he was coming through here, it was Thanksgiving, and I asked him to come over for dinner and Uncle Phil met him at the train.
I don't think they had planes then. And he took them all around and showed them different places and he said he didn't want to see all those places. He wanted to go to the house to eat. He was hungry. So he finally brought them home and that's how we got to meet Aunt Gertie's husband. And we heard Rosenthal. So she'd make these trips, and so nothing ever happened. And I visited her one time. And then one time I said to Helen Preston, she was with Lang Floral, you know, you've heard of her, Lang Floral Company. I said fix her up a beautiful uh presage and then I got her a great big diamond ring at Cresce's you know I paid 25 cents I don't know what I paid for it and got her all fixed up and he met her at the train station and saw all that and then he said he better try to do something about that because she told him she was engaged to somebody so he told his nephew high weed and bomb he says I'd like to get married but I don't know how to go about it he says well I'll fix that and so he he did they got him married I think in in the City Hall or something but then to make it legal he they got a rabbi to marry them to and so when he brought he was a lot older than she so So when she brought him to Dallas and brought him to introduce him to my father, he says, that you had to marry Anolta, he thought he was too old for her.
And she said, well, he had a lot of money. He said he didn't care how much money he had. She said he didn't like her. because he was too old for her. My father didn't want any boys coming around there. There was a fellow by the name of Mursky, Lou Mursky, that was crazy about Angurdy. So he'd come to the front door and he says, You know what that means? Get away from me, I don't have any girls for you. So Lou Mursky would go around the back. You meet him around the back, he didn't want him back there either. and then there was one fellow, Eddie Schwartz, that lived across the street and his father was hunchbacked.
I guess you call it that. So he didn't want Eddie Schwartz going with my sister Gertie because he said he didn't want a harp for a machet, you know what that means? a hunchback for an in-law. Wait just a minute.