00:00:01.630 - 00:00:21.900

Alright today is April 23 and I'm here with Aubrey and Sylvia Farm. And their daughter Susan. My name is Joshua Furman and I'm gonna ask you some questions about your time in Houston and Galveston and all that you've seen so Aubrey. Why don't you start by

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telling us when and where you were born? Well, I was born in Galveston on September 26, 1922. Okay. And tell us about your parents. Well my father was Jacob Farb actually his real name was (unclear) but when he went to school and didn't speak English, his teacher

00:00:46.400 - 00:01:15.820

decided to call him Jake. That's how he became Jacob. My mother, my name was Sophia S. O. P. H. I. A. Not Sophie Sophia Meyer of Richmond Virginia. My father was in the army and the stationed in Camp Lee in Petersburg which is 20 more Richmond. And

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that's how he met my mother. My mother was a college graduate and she was worked for the Richmond public schools. She was a handwriting expert those days they paid a lot of attention to the way students write. And she had a beautiful hand writing. But we

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didn't stay in Galveston's very long. I think when I was about six months old. Uh we moved to San Antonio. Do you know why the family moved to San Antonio. I'm not really sure why father who was an attorney. He graduated from University of Texas Law

00:02:07.590 - 00:02:37.310

School. First of this class, 1917 and enlisted in the army. This whole class did in Camp Logan, which is part of Memorial Park down here. And he went to officers training school but he was denied his commission because he was born in an enemy country. It

00:02:37.310 - 00:02:59.890

was Austria actually, he was born in a part of Poland. But the little town he was born in is now in the Ukraine. So he didn't get his permission and that's how he was sent to Camp Lee. He was a great typist and he was a

00:02:59.890 - 00:03:25.860

supply sergeant, hmm. And he came back to Galveston and he went into the produce business with his older sister's husband. Apparently they didn't get along and so he decided didn't want to be in the produce business. I'm not sure what he did in San Antonio. I

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remember most about being in San Antonio was the fact that San Antonio had a big park called Breckenridge Park and on Sundays they had donkey rides and I love them to go and ride the donkeys. and how old were you when you came to Houston. Well from San

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Antonio, we went to Dallas, you went to Dallas. I don't know how my father got into it, but he ended up uh, having a small business that manufactured insecticides, it's called fly Tox When in Dallas for my 5th birthday, my mother took me

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to the circus. The circus was in Fair Park, which was where the Cotton Bowl is today. We came to Houston in July 1928 The Democratic convention was going on Jesse Jones who is responsible for great development in Houston and arranged for the convention to come

00:04:52.990 - 00:05:23.660

to Houston, Al Smith, the happy warrior. The governor of New York was nominated by the Democrats, but he got defeated by Herbert Hoover primarily because he was a Catholic And up to then, there had never been a Catholic president uh in the United States. In the

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fall when I turned six, my mother fibbed a bit and put me in school. I told them I was seven. It was a Fannin school, which is no longer there. The thing I remembered most about it is that one day they took everybody up to

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the lunch room to listen to the radio. I didn't know what was going on. Later on March the 4th 1933 when Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated. I realized that what, what's going on in that broadcast at the school was the inauguration of Herbert Hoover. It was

00:06:22.720 - 00:06:55.730

the first time an inauguration of a president had been broadcast. on the radio so everyone could hear wow. When we came to Houston, we lived in an apartment at, 202 Dennis a walk away was the faith home. I don't know what's happened to it. And

00:06:55.730 - 00:07:32.630

the fall of next year, 1929 we moved to a duplex that my father bought 2812 Arbor and uh I went to a new school, It was called the Sutton school. Yes, later it was Cheney, just doing different names and became an all Black school. My

00:07:32.740 - 00:08:03.400

oldest daughter Helene uh talk there for a couple of years. So I went to there it was in the second grade, finished a year. There weren't any kids for me to play with in in the summertime. So my mother put me in. Summerschool. Mhm.

00:08:04.050 - 00:08:37.390

Did the First half of the 3rd grade. Yes And then I went into finished the third grade and I went into the 4th grade and they had the low forth and high forth in the same room but I participated in both. So The next year they

00:08:37.400 - 00:09:21.270

put me in the 5th grade and then in september 1932 32 I went to Johnston Junior High School. In low sixth It turned out that based upon the elementary school tests. Uh everybody in low sixth have they have the highest IQs. Uh huh. And one

00:09:21.270 - 00:09:52.610

of the people in that class was (unclear). Oh sure so another one, (unclear) was a boy named Neil Heaps Neil and I finished junior high together. Senior high together and went to Rice together. How do you spell Heaps? H. E. A. P. S.

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His father taught physics. No kidding. but Neil studied chemical engineering. Mhm. And he's still living. He's See I was two years younger than everybody else. Mhm. Then in the spring of 1934, 33, I was chosen with a another student in my class to be the

00:10:37.130 - 00:11:02.790

team to compete in the interscholastic meet and we won first place that year. Congratulations. Did you, did your family attend synagogue? Yeah, we we belonged to to Beth Israel and I went to religious school. Was this the Beth Israel when it was on Austin and

00:11:02.800 - 00:11:41.540

Holman and the rabbi was Henry Barneston. Tell me about Rabbi Barnstone. Well, people, I think he was born in his in England. It was very nice gentleman. Uh I also started attending Hebrew school. Mhm One afternoon a week. Mhm. Hebrew teacher Ellwood named Silverberg. Everybody running

00:11:41.540 - 00:12:11.620

the class was, everybody should was reading out mileage and she, she could tell when he read wrong, but I never was bar mitzvah, hmm hmm, partly because this was during the depression, my parents didn't feel like they could afford all the things you do with it.

00:12:13.700 - 00:12:48.340

Last year at Justin, I represented the school in black and my partner and I were in the first place in oh, junior high, Well for most of your friends, jewish or gentiles or both, I didn't have a lot of friends because number one I started wearing

00:12:48.350 - 00:13:21.950

glasses when I was seven years old and in those days, people made fun of people who wore glasses and since the people are went to school with were older than ever. I was, I didn't have many friends. Were you active in any clubs or societies in,

00:13:21.960 - 00:14:00.340

in middle school or high school in high school friend of mine was in the ROTC and he convinced me to jonesy, Junior ROTC and mother and father encouraged me also was good because you got your uniform is free. My father was basically unemployed three years during

00:14:00.340 - 00:14:42.910

the depression. That must have been very hard. I was a good student, but not extraordinary, but I was fortunate enough when I graduated in The spring in 1938, Rose oh 15 to get into. Right. That was a wonderful achievement, particularly because it didn't have any tuition

00:14:45.010 - 00:15:09.370

and I was basically to young people to go away to college. My family couldn't have afforded it. So I started rice two weeks before my 16th birthday. You hadn't even turned 16, wow, Tell me about about Rice at that time. What was it like? What was

00:15:09.370 - 00:15:40.960

it like to be a jewish student there? Well, I don't think that we had an organization of jewish students. Uh, the Menorah Society, we didn't have a hill elsewhere. And the jewish students were friendly. The non jewish students had organizations that they didn't uh, accept use

00:15:40.960 - 00:16:09.830

into which were those for the girls. They had three literary societies. They were like sororities. And for the boys, they had uh, Riley club and they have the pre law society. And then over the other half of the engineering school there, they had the engineering club,

00:16:09.840 - 00:16:49.590

which was, oh, not segregated. Rice have a quota for jewish students. It was Never publicized, but they kept the number of Jewish students down to about 2%. So There were 1300 and 50 students. So you can see that between 25 and 30 Jewish students at one

00:16:49.590 - 00:17:11.070

time, were you ever made to feel uncomfortable or different because you were jewish other than knowing that there were certain clubs that you would not be welcome in. Did anyone ever make any comments to you? But we just, we just knew that no jewish students. Oh

00:17:12.960 - 00:17:43.970

went there. But I used to go as a stag to some of the dances that the literary society put on. What were those like? Nice. I think that a lot of jewish students didn't reach out to be part of the school we were active in and

00:17:43.980 - 00:18:11.580

make some friends. Rabbi Colin was the advisor to the society. This was while he was the assistant Rabbi at Beth Israel, Can you tell us about the Menorah society? What kind of activities did you uh do? Well the main thing I remember is that in my

00:18:11.590 - 00:18:40.590

junior year we had a series of programs, it was suggested by Rabbi Cahn called designs for living. And then my senior year in the spring the war was on and we had a series of speakers called blueprints for peace. And the thing I remember was the

00:18:40.600 - 00:19:18.430

first speaker said that our first action in europe without being europe but would be in North Africa. And turned out, so the Menorah society was primarily for social and intellectual pursuits. There was not, there was not a religious component. Uh We didn't have school dances. Mhm.

00:19:18.440 - 00:20:01.370

Because baptist didn't dance official. So because of that we didn't. My senior year, they formed a group called the Religious council. I was the jewish representative on the religious council. What what did the religious council do? I'm really not sure. Yeah. I was a sophomore. The

00:20:01.380 - 00:20:35.210

biology professor employed me to be a lab assistant for freshman biology and I worked as a lab assistant for three years. Which was really a big deal because uh The pay was great 65 cents an hour, four hours in the afternoon. That's $2.60. You can figure

00:20:35.210 - 00:21:03.870

that In 1939, 2 42 65 cents an hour. With a lot of money. That's pretty good. What what did you major in it? Rice? I really didn't have a major. I was just in liberal arts. I have three years of english. One year of half, one

00:21:03.870 - 00:21:26.600

Year of Psychology. Huh? Four years of history of government. I figure if the war had to come along and it ended up maybe being a a history professor. Yeah. It's a nice, it's a nice job if you can get it. And I had two years of

00:21:26.610 - 00:22:06.540

uh accounting my senior year are graded papers for. Mr. Simon's my canon professor and that became your your chosen profession. Yeah. Uh He encouraged me to go to Columbia Graduate school, one of them, the rice students About three years before me had just got me Master's

00:22:06.550 - 00:22:41.210

degree from one of the other. He encouraged me to go. So I applaud In the spring of 19 what 42? I applied for a baby commission in the supply court. Mhm. I didn't get it even though I was the top student in my class. I'm sure

00:22:41.210 - 00:23:19.780

that the reason was I was too young. How old? How old would you have been in 1942 spray 19 19 until september 19 turning 20. Uh huh. So you didn't get that commission. So I graduated, my father graduated from law school. Some very important people, one

00:23:19.780 - 00:23:51.690

of them, one of whom was a high up official. Um a loyal company. We didn't hire jews. Mhm. My father called his friend there and he gave me a job, worked in the county department, learn to operate uh IBM machines. In fact one of my jobs

00:23:51.700 - 00:24:18.430

was to print war bombs printing war bonds. A little oil didn't like to pay orange time. So your work week started on saturday. So if you worked on saturday you got the next friday off. So that was a good deal for you. Get a three day

00:24:18.430 - 00:24:51.390

weekend. So I used it on the three day weekends would hitchhike down to Galveston's and my father's sister. Older sister and Andy learner welcome me to come down. She had a side door which is always open and I'd come down to in the side door, go

00:24:51.390 - 00:25:26.290

to the room there I was. So any anyway got accepted at Columbia. I got a half tuition scholarship. It was a $300 scholarship Tuition to the graduate school of business at Columbia was $600. It's a little more than that today. Just as rice is a little

00:25:26.290 - 00:25:53.660

more than nothing more than free. Yeah. And one of the things I did to earn the scholarship was that I was an assistant in the accounting lab. Okay. I was very popular because I talked with a southern draw. These kids would come up and I said

00:25:53.670 - 00:26:24.220

what do you walk? I thought that was the funniest thing. Did you like new york? What did you like new york? Had you ever left texas before? Then when you went to Columbia, had you ever been out of texas before This 1415 my mother took my

00:26:24.220 - 00:26:54.540

brother and me, we took the train. No we took the bus to Richmond Virginia. Then we went to Washington, went to Baltimore because my mother's brother it was a bachelor, he was a prominent architect. Then we went to new york city. My mother's grandmother was still

00:26:54.540 - 00:27:25.670

alive. My great grandmother's visited her and one of my mother's and I was told it's a long way to go on the bus. Yeah my brother and I went to Yankee Stadium and the polo grounds because those were within walking distance of where my great grandmother

00:27:25.670 - 00:28:09.480

lived that would be the lower Bronx, what was her name? Dad, my grandmother, your great grandmother great I don't know it was just grandma. What was your grandmother's name? My mother's mother was named Martha, that's who you're roberta's name. Sister roberta is named after. So we

00:28:10.380 - 00:28:49.670

from new york we went to Buffalo and the Niagara Falls. This is quite the trip. And then we came home. My mother was very concerned there were uh polio epidemic but we got home safe. Wonderful trip wow. So in the fall of 1941 I was elected

00:28:49.680 - 00:29:27.170

to phi beta kappa Based upon three years completed at age 18. Now they don't elect people in the spring. I mean in the fall of the year because they include people in engineering who take enough electives to qualify for 90 hours of liberal arts. So they

00:29:27.180 - 00:30:02.880

don't, they nominated everybody at the end of the full year. We should talk about how you and Sylvia met. Well that's interesting. But go back before that when I was at Columbia um he had to write a thesis. Chairman of the accounting department has written the

00:30:02.890 - 00:30:33.160

textbooks that we used for elementary accounting and rice and he was gonna write a book on what they called it internal check which is now we call internal control. So he talked me into writing my thesis on internal controls of cash receipts. And then that mid

00:30:33.160 - 00:31:10.300

term he called me in and said they need somebody to teach elementary accounting at Brooklyn College at night. And he asked me if I would do it. So I would go over to Brooklyn College. Uh, one night a week you got there finished uh work at

00:31:10.310 - 00:31:44.640

Columbia. Mhm August of 1946. Well before that I started, I forgot In November 1942 I received a letter from 580 capital saying that if you could pass the physical, if you enlist in the Navy as a human second class and go to the Navy japanese language

00:31:44.640 - 00:32:26.830

school, which was housed at the University of Colorado in Boulder. So at christmas I went down to Washington. Finally found a place and I applied them in january 1943. The Navy contacted me and told me that I could be accepted if I could pass the physical.

00:32:29.550 - 00:32:53.940

Of course we have another problem there. But in order for me to go to Columbia, I had to get a deferment. So I had a special deferment because I was taking graduate school. So my father had to work hard to get my draft board to release

00:32:53.940 - 00:33:24.090

me from my affirmative. So I went down to take the physical and they want it because my blood pressure was too high. The doctor realized that I was just excited and he said, you come back on monday before you come back take these pills. So I

00:33:24.100 - 00:33:55.700

took the pills, I passed the physical and I was accepted. So I took, I was taking six classes at Columbia there because rice didn't have a business school. So some of the required courses I hadn't had When I took six finals in three days after I

00:33:55.700 - 00:34:32.370

was going off to war, I didn't figure it makes much difference. When I came back I started studying. When I finished up, I was selected to beta gamma sigma, which is the honorary uh huh fraternity or society for business majors. And later I got an award

00:34:32.380 - 00:34:56.390

from the new york society of C. P A. S With $100 chuck for the, the outstanding student in my class. Congratulations. Can you tell us more about about your time in the war after you? Was this was this then after you finished at Columbia. Then you

00:34:56.390 - 00:35:29.930

went to, did you go to boulder? No, I went to boulder at midterm 1943 And I was a boulder and till April 19 44. And you were learning Japanese, Japanese. What was that? Like what? We went to school six days a week in the mornings and

00:35:29.930 - 00:35:56.520

we had, we studied in the afternoon and the evening and once one hour a day we went out for what we call kendo, japanese for calisthenics. Do you remember any japanese a little bit, a little bit. I used to be able to read, write and speak

00:35:56.530 - 00:36:43.250

the language I knew about 3000 japanese characters, Kanji depending on how they were put together. They had different pronunciations. The japanese had a lot of puns because the same word have different babies. I mean for example Hashi was rice and Hashi with edge. When I left

00:36:43.260 - 00:37:28.120

Colombia I went to work for Price Waterhouse. Mhm. And Work work there was primarily on one audit, consolidated Edison what they had subsidiaries and I worked on one smaller subsidiary. Very fortunate I had to do the audit of what they call other receivables. I had a

00:37:28.120 - 00:37:56.570

question come up on the C. P. A. Exam about or two receivables. Anyway I took the C. P. X. In the offices of the american institute for C. P. A. S. Which was very fortunate because the people in new york took see that CP exams took

00:37:56.570 - 00:38:29.940

it into the theater and they had a uh aboard to work on their, so and I didn't expect to take the whole exam but texas board Certified me to take all four parts and I turned out that in july after I come back to Houston got

00:38:29.940 - 00:39:04.030

a telegram. So I have passed the C. P. A. Congratulations. Well not many people passed it those days. It was very difficult because they weren't properly educated people who had a good business degree. Hmm did well with this. So you've come back to Houston now you

00:39:04.130 - 00:39:26.960

come back to Houston and none of the major C. P. A firms would hire jews. When I was in new york I asked if they could give me a transfer to the Houston office. They said no it's up to the managing partner of each office to

00:39:26.970 - 00:39:58.050

do the hiring and he says he will not accept you. And I said why? Because he is a horrible anti semite. But it turned out none of that. Uh huh. Major firms are jews so then what did you do? Well I went to the University of

00:39:58.050 - 00:40:28.340

Houston talk to the head of the county department and they fell in love with me. The department had never passed the exam. He attacked numerous times. So last summer they had me teaching two night courses. No one night course in one day course neither which I'd

00:40:28.340 - 00:41:08.010

ever taken I got through. So this was the summer of 1947 in july I guess was certainly a friend of mine name Ray Kaufman. I was married to a friend of Sylvia's and a girl I knew but never dated will advise they had us together to

00:41:08.020 - 00:41:35.900

come to their apartment and we played bridge. That was our first date and I was very attracted to Sylvia. What did you like about Sylvia? What did you like about Sylvia? This is this is for the record, she was attractive. Uh huh. It was very pleasant.

00:41:38.250 - 00:42:18.980

He was a very good player. Somebody that I really felt right, I could date have a future with. That's wonderful. We had similar interests. Bridge. We like good music. We like sports. Remember I took her to the Houston buffaloes were form teams for the same purpose.

00:42:20.750 - 00:42:52.390

Uh huh. I forget what their nickname was. Anyway. But that your Houston one dependent for the texas league and they played the dixie series with the winner of the Southern league. We went to one of the Walgreens. That's great. And when were you married? We were

00:42:52.390 - 00:43:27.470

married on my mother's 53rd birthday, May the 26, 1948. Where was the wedding? Where was the wedding? The wedding was at her mother's sister? Yeah. Very pretty hold one salesman breaker and it was to be a garden wedding. That's so nice. Mhm. It was a small

00:43:27.470 - 00:44:04.830

way with a reception afterwards. The wedding started and she was coming down the aisle. All hell broke loose. What happened? It started raining, we went in the house and Rabbi Collins move things around. We had the wedding in uh his living room. Mm. How about that?

00:44:06.490 - 00:44:27.770

And where, where were you? Where was your first house as a married couple? Where did you live? We have an apartment. Um Roxton. Hmm. What? It was right after the war. There weren't too many apartments being built at that. Right. Would have been hard to find

00:44:27.770 - 00:44:57.480

a place to live. So we just took what we could find. Uh Yeah, But he was teaching at the University of Houston five courses. He did all the heavy work. I think he made $3600. 35, 500. Yeah three classes, daytime Wednesday and friday and two classes.

00:44:58.810 - 00:45:26.200

Right, wow. I have no grading help. They had nine classes with junior and the senior levels. I taught five of them. You can see why when I came along they were happy to see me like a gift from God. Almost there wasn't a single person in

00:45:26.200 - 00:45:45.710

the accounting department. That was a C. P. A wow. How about that Sylvia? Can I talk to you for a few minutes? We haven't talked about about you much at all yet. But tell us about no, don't say that. So so you're from Galveston's, is that

00:45:45.710 - 00:46:10.110

right? And when were you born? I was born April 25 1926. And and tell us about your parents? Well my father was from Russia, from Kiev and my mother was from Poland. I don't know what year my father came here. Of course that's when they brought

00:46:10.110 - 00:46:35.520

all the Jews into Galveston's. Right. That would have been before World War one. Yeah. Yeah I guess 19 15 or something like that. And my mother was the oldest in her family and they were caught in europe. When the first world war came out. My grandfather

00:46:35.520 - 00:46:49.840

reserved over here and he didn't have the money to bring them over. So my grandmother had four of our kids at that time. And my mother was the oldest. and so she had to start to take care of the kids because my grandmother, she had to

00:46:49.840 - 00:47:12.110

hustle to make out of him to bring some food into the family support. So I think they came over right at a 1920s or something like that all to Galveston's. No, they came to Houston, they can be used to. Yeah. Okay. And what were your parents

00:47:12.110 - 00:47:29.930

names? My father, when this got interesting because my father's name I think was Belinsky. But when they came here, they just left off the answer when it just became Lynskey, Lynskey L L E N S K Y L E N S K Y. My mother's name

00:47:29.930 - 00:47:54.460

was Craft check, Craft check. And my grandfather had a brother but he changed his name from Craft check to Croft. So if you run across any crofts, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna run across some crofts next week. Which one? Lewis Croft's daughter, Rochelle. And who's married

00:47:54.460 - 00:48:16.730

to luis croft would be my mother's cousin, Rose, crafts father and man mother, we're first cousins, they were first cousins. So I told you we found that Beth Jacob flag Lewis Croft is on the flag. He's one of the names. Yeah, he had a brother called

00:48:16.740 - 00:48:35.620

Abe was a football player. Yes, I've heard about a job. Yeah. And of course then there's Bruce stein, he's part of that croft family. Okay. His mother was a Croft, I don't know if you're Bruce because he's pretty active and sure, I know. I never met

00:48:35.620 - 00:48:57.210

Bruce. Yeah. So tell us about your child. What was it like? Well, I was born in Galveston's. We had a very simple life. Of course it was during depression too. Uh My father had her a men's store on Market Street and he became ill with pernicious

00:48:57.210 - 00:49:19.800

anemia and I don't know what what all the circumstances was. But anyway, he sold the store and and he had he did have some property here in Houston. Um and so we're in Galveston's, you know, went to, went to school. I rode my bicycle to junior

00:49:19.800 - 00:49:39.950

high school wrote, I think I took the bus to half a year to ball high. And when the war came, my mother said we should go back, go to Houston because all her family was here. And my father had some colored property here. They called it

00:49:39.960 - 00:50:16.610

back then. Yeah. Tell about what you told Sharon about how homeless people came. Um That's just true. We didn't have a whole lot, but where we had, we would share. Um they would, you know, men would come to the door and ask for food and my

00:50:16.610 - 00:50:42.300

mother always fiction. She's a very generous woman. Those are very hard times. I'm sure. Well tell him you described how they might not, they didn't know how to read. So they had kind of a picture language of how homeless people knew to get to your house.

00:50:42.310 - 00:51:14.150

Well, I don't really had some kind of side. I think they had a marking on, on a curb. Yeah, wow. Did you have any any siblings? I had an older brother and he went to medical school. He was pediatrician. Ut MB. Where did he go to

00:51:14.150 - 00:51:42.200

medical school? University of texas. Tell him his name, but his name as he was pulling the scheme, he didn't have a very good life. Unfortunately. He married a woman that was not particularly nice. Uh, they had a son and the sun was influenced by his mother.

00:51:42.210 - 00:52:13.080

She didn't have anything to do with us. My brother died 66 also furnishes and the view and diabetes and his son inherited that. And so he claimed that we were murderers. It's not a good situation. I'm sorry to hear that. Tell me more about, about what

00:52:13.080 - 00:52:34.890

Galveston's was like well and Allison. It was just, well, my parents were not very well. We're not religious. We used to come to Houston for the holidays because my grandparents were very religious. But we did go to the beach and a matter of fact Aubrey's grandparents,

00:52:36.870 - 00:52:51.550

I used to come on sunday nights, they would go to the murdochs beach and there would be these side benches and every all the jews would kind of get there. Really? Yeah, that's where they would go. Yeah. And they would all moose, you know, mm hmm.

00:52:51.560 - 00:53:07.900

But I used to do. Um, right. I don't go down to the beach and uh, in the summertime, that's what we all, that's where all the jews were. They don't go to the beach together. Which, which beach was that Murdoch? That's where the, where then they

00:53:07.900 - 00:53:28.320

had two broken ear hotel. I don't know. I think it's an old folks home there now. I don't know what it is. That's like 27th Street or something. And then in the evening they have concerts to murder Menard park and they had tennis courts areas to

00:53:28.320 - 00:53:48.770

play tennis. Matter of fact, Aubrey and I used to play tennis. She was a good tennis player. Tell him about your tennis. Didn't you play in college? Um, I think special. So you graduated high school in, in Garrison? No, no, no. We moved to Houston. I

00:53:48.770 - 00:54:14.160

said, well we spent a half a year at all high and in Galveston and Houston I went to Sanders. And um, and when was that? I guess it was 42 I guess. Okay. Yeah. Because I graduated in 43 Class of 1943. Okay. What was San Jacinto

00:54:14.160 - 00:54:37.420

High School Like? Well, it's very hard for me because I didn't know anybody and as I said, they had this jewish majority and they were pretty clean ish. It's hard being the new girl. Um, and even the jewish kids all belong to a temple or congregation

00:54:37.420 - 00:54:59.090

and we didn't, we didn't at that point and that's where I, little, little Avalon is a girl that put us together was in our class one of my classes and I became friendly with her. And where did your did your family live close to san Jacinto

00:54:59.090 - 00:55:36.980

high school? Uh huh. We lived on Cleveland and in a duplex we live downstairs and soon I don't know if I walked in high school. I mean because we only had one car and my father used that. Mhm. MS pretty quiet. Did you know you were

00:55:36.980 - 00:55:53.390

going to go to college? Wasn't that unusual back then? No, no because my parents always said don't get an education you know paul went to texas and so I went to texas of course it was during the war and use that to take the train to

00:55:53.390 - 00:56:19.080

go up to Austin. Yeah didn't have planes at that time, dormitory. And did you have any experiences with anti Semitism growing up either in Galveston's or once you know because you said 37 27 Avenue P. Yeah. And we knew all the neighbors used to you know

00:56:19.080 - 00:56:38.930

in the summertime we'd have a little grocery store also. We played we have an empty lot and we played ball. I played with the boys because it's mostly boys in the neighborhood. Used to play football and baseball and yeah that's great but the neighbors were all

00:56:38.930 - 00:56:59.820

friendly. I never had I never felt any anti Semitism there. We were the only jews on the block. I had a cousin that lived two blocks down. That was my father's sister Maisie Margaret should change the name? The market but we called her aunt Maisie And

00:56:59.820 - 00:57:26.130

she was divorced. She had two boys and uh used to ride my bicycle down to visit herschel and Wilbur, that was their games. Um They Dr. Randall that lived on the corner and Dr. Jenkins two doors down from them that we were all were all friendly

00:57:26.140 - 00:57:48.300

there. We didn't see any any Semitism there. Your family wasn't very religious so they didn't really do holidays except to come to Houston for to see your grandparents. They were zionists weren't they? Oh yeah our parents were political. Oh that's interesting. Can you talk about that?

00:57:49.280 - 00:58:17.430

Very very liberal and of course I said with my mother having been in the First World War, she understood hunger and so she always supported, she was beginning um both in Galveston and in and in Houston. No that worked there were active at all Miss moore.

00:58:17.440 - 00:58:33.430

It was later but after they moved to use of course I guess they had a little bit more at that time. I mean they didn't have too much in so she was active in, did you ever go with her to address a meeting or to other

00:58:34.200 - 00:58:57.430

Emma Lazarus chapter. Um I think I was treasured one year or something like that. Uh huh. What kinds of events or activities would they do? What kind of events or activities with the with the chapter do just speakers or tease or what kinds of things would

00:58:57.430 - 00:59:20.850

they do, raise money, raise money. Just had monthly meetings and they had some lectures and stuff like that was something that you were I was active in for a while. Then Aubrey got me involved in business. Um He backed somebody in the men's business and the

00:59:20.850 - 00:59:45.520

next thing I knew I was working in the men's business. Okay esquire boys and men. Yeah and then you like to travel and so we went to Japan, he worked with this guy and then when we came back this guy said he wanted to open up

00:59:45.520 - 01:00:07.390

his own business and the next thing I knew we were in the travel business so I became a travel agent so you're not not teaching nights at U. Of H. Anymore. I left the U. Of H. I was there for five years. They decided that everybody

01:00:07.390 - 01:00:35.840

ought to keep 15 hours a week of office hours. Whoa. In the meantime in addition to teaching I was building an accounting practice. What is it? So or couldn't there wasn't much point in keeping those office hours because most of my students worked in addition to

01:00:35.850 - 01:01:08.390

going to school. So I left, well there's no profession there paul brock steen understand paul brooks and you were saying. Yeah well that's when they decided to open up and started their own accounting firm. Okay who was who was paul? He was another teacher at the

01:01:08.540 - 01:01:39.650

university. So you decided together with paul that you would open a firm, isn't it? But then one day he came in and decided that we should split. So I said okay, but I'll have, I'll split on the basis that I have first crack at the employees.

01:01:40.250 - 01:02:16.590

So all the best employees went with me. Yeah. And uh one of the employees was, my name's David Miller graduated from rice and 1951. And so we went over. A man named Sina Schnitzler was started building office buildings and he had building was building all the

01:02:16.590 - 01:03:01.670

century building on. Oh Travis and Webster. Hmm. And so we rented some space from him. It was a good move because later we started doing business with jealous of his family for 1957. Another rice graduate named Al Biermann graduated in 56 and worked for. Oh Arthur

01:03:01.670 - 01:03:33.840

Young came by and he wanted to go to work. So we hired him, he turned out to be extremely capable. Later we made him a partner in the firm. Became Far Miller and Berman. Yeah. And we grew uh one of our clients was a man named

01:03:35.340 - 01:04:22.230

George. Heighten. Mhm George was really a good friend and he recommended me too. J. Koschman. Oh that started a small Retail store between five sporting place. Oh also At the foundation of manual, which I joined in 19 47 I was their first auditor and one of

01:04:22.230 - 01:04:53.490

their presidents like me mel swordsman and he recommended me to a man named Sarah Byrne who started a big subdivision in Houston cole Westbury. So I went out to see and he retained us and it was a huge client because he had a bunch of corporations.

01:04:56.550 - 01:05:23.830

No kidding. Yeah Westbury sure. Did I ever live here or did he live in new york? He moved to, it was a bit of a coupe. Well how about that? Tell me about your relationship with with Rabbi Cahn and the whole Beth Israel emanuel split. Well

01:05:23.830 - 01:06:09.430

that's interesting. I was very fond of my by car when I was at the language school grab icon left, Beth Israel to become a chaplain in the army. Rabbi Marston came to see my father because the leadership of Beth Israel wanted to join the american council

01:06:09.440 - 01:06:41.410

for Judaism which was basically anti zionists and they wanted, he was against it. So they wanted to force him out. They came and asked my father for help. So my father got involved with that, you mentioned Beth Jacob they had the flag. Well uh Israel, they

01:06:41.410 - 01:07:09.410

engraved the names of those members who served in the entrance that right, but my name was not there and my brother's name was not there. Why was that because of my father? Because he made enemies, he made enemies. He called the american council of Judaism, the

01:07:09.420 - 01:07:59.960

jew Klux Klan wow and group of people got together some from this Israel some from uh there was a mother, it was half reform and half conservative downtown. Uh yeah that became better sharing and they got together and formed a band you will and rabbi Colin

01:07:59.970 - 01:08:31.120

as oh it's Rabbi Rabbi Kahn was was overseas when when he got fired. You see shark Tal wasn't a very nice guy in the sense that he was involved in the american council of Judaism. So yes with the rabbi in Richmond Virginia where my mother grew

01:08:31.120 - 01:09:09.240

up the uh rabbi who was the rabbi for the jewish students at Columbia. Certainly his picture. Mhm And he his picture was with the big white high hat the orthodox rabbis. I mean his father, he was from buffalo. His father was a shocker right? And he

01:09:09.240 - 01:09:41.680

was censured by the uh sexual conference of american rabbis. For one, he refused to become a chaplain. He was a divorced person. And secondly he broke the rule that he couldn't take a position as a rabbi when the rabbi was in the service because when they

01:09:41.690 - 01:10:18.810

got rid of Barson khan was the rabbi. He was the next in line. He was in the service and tell was a very, very anti Israel 5 19 57 he recanted and a group of people left there at the farm. The uh Houston congregation for reform

01:10:18.810 - 01:10:49.440

Judaism. That's how I got started because they felt that was becoming too two's honest, that's interesting. A woman named Jeanette Damon. She was in that abandoned bomb when I was in a religious school. We will confirm. Together she was the ringleader to form the american. The

01:10:49.450 - 01:11:13.490

Houston interrogation. Oh that's that's interesting. That's interesting. So we're so then your parents would have been among the founding members of Emanuel. Yes. So when you when you came back to Houston, is that where you, Is that where you affiliated? Yeah. He wrote letters to Rabbi

01:11:13.490 - 01:11:32.590

Cahn when they were in the war. Oh, you corresponded? Yeah. We didn't know where each other. Uh huh. So how did you write letters to him then? If you didn't know where he was? How did it work? A. P. O. Yeah. And they were on both

01:11:32.590 - 01:12:02.940

in the pacific he was he was with the army with Mike Arthur and came up from the south finally to the Philippines. I left older and went to quantico Virginia to the head of marines for two months of very difficult training and that I would overseas.

01:12:02.950 - 01:12:26.420

And uh when did Guam where the Invasion was still going on? But it was about 75% finished. Okay. So so you were in Guam. We didn't even talk about it. Go ahead and tell me about becoming a little when you were at school there it became

01:12:26.420 - 01:12:54.010

a marine um an officer at at first you were just uh Oh well yeah. You know at first I was just enlisted that. But they couldn't get enough volunteers as an enlisted man. So maybe offered uh commissions to everybody who would come. And so they had

01:12:54.010 - 01:13:19.750

to commission all of us that were there already. And the marines came along and they were looking for volunteers. I fell in love with the idea of interrogating prisoners of war rather than sitting in Pearl Harbor transmitting documents. Wow. So that's what you did. You did

01:13:19.750 - 01:13:53.940

prisoner interrogation. I think president interrogation as I did translations. In fact on Iwo I found the document. It turned out it was the japanese uh analysis of how they were going to defend Okinawa. We were lucky and evil. We didn't have kamikazes. That's how we first

01:13:53.950 - 01:14:29.950

heard about kamikazes uh, strategy. Japanese was let us land with very little opposition and then with the kamikazes, they would starve us out. My brother's ship was at Okinawa and it got hit but it wasn't sunk. Wow, wow. Then we were when we went back from

01:14:29.960 - 01:15:06.540

evil to Guam and we were training for Operation Olympic. The invasion of Japan at Nagasaki. Mhm. Then in mid august I was in my tent. I was listening to it radio and I heard a broadcast in japanese that the japanese were surrendering. I want to be

01:15:06.540 - 01:15:37.910

sure I haven't misunderstood it. And I found it in english. So I ran down to the officer's club and made the announcement and nobody would believe me. They thought I was pulling a hoax, that was a the army officer of our football player from Jessica Joint

01:15:37.920 - 01:16:06.090

assault signal company came up and grabbed me by. This is Lieutenant. If this is your idea of a joke, the delegation from Jessica to see you tomorrow. Well, about 15 minutes later the sergeant from G three, which is operations saying what were found the curveball who

01:16:06.090 - 01:16:32.930

was in charge of operations and he came and made the announcement says what the desert just told you is true. The war was over. Wow, what did that feel like knowing that the war was over, you were gonna go home. It felt wonderful because later we

01:16:32.930 - 01:17:10.610

found out, you know, they had dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki but that the Japanese had fortified the beaches at Nagasaki with underwater concrete and steel barriers. Uh what would have happened to our little landing craft? I found out when Rabbi Cahn gave a sermon manual

01:17:10.750 - 01:17:49.880

at the time of the 50th Anniversary of the German Surrender that his decision was slated to be in the same invasion. My division, you both would have been there anyway. Where that was? It was a long diversion. We had been talking about Rabbi Cahn and Emmanuel

01:17:50.010 - 01:18:16.020

and then we backtrack to cover some really interesting stories from the war. Well, one of the interesting stories from the war is that as an officer at division headquarters, I had to stay in the watch. So one night I'm on the watch and I started getting

01:18:16.030 - 01:18:43.730

telephone calls that there were snipers out there. Our instructions were not to fire at anybody unless he was sure of it. They knew what they were doing. And the ambulance called coming in from the front. And then there was an army anti aircraft gunner called me

01:18:43.730 - 01:19:16.790

and said he wanted permission to use his anti aircraft gun life field artillery because he was getting sniper fire. And I'm refuse still having to do that. So I figured things are getting pretty hot. So I called the colonel what we call a light colonel like

01:19:16.790 - 01:19:44.580

colonel is is silver star silver their full curve Eliza. It was like an eagle. We felt the chicken kernels. Mhm. And he came in and I told him there and he says, well lieutenant, it's a clear night out there. There's a full wound. We'll go up

01:19:44.580 - 01:20:08.000

on top of that hill and we'll be civil at it. If anybody's out there we'll draw fire. He beat me to the top of the hill. A week later we found out that it was the 5th Division Tank Battalion that lost its bearings and was firing

01:20:08.010 - 01:20:41.100

into our lives. Yeah, lucky nobody got killed. Only nobody got killed except the garden dog for the enemy aircraft. Army guy, that dog was killed. Uh Dad, one of your jewish legacies would be how you and mom started the community service fund and Emmanuel well, let

01:20:41.100 - 01:21:07.550

me finish this about the Marine corps on the way to evil. A group of jewish enlisted men came to me and asked me they're holding a service. Mhm. Which I did. We got a bow of the ship. It was a crazy ship, was it? Was it?

01:21:07.550 - 01:21:34.360

What was the service for? Was it a special holiday or just a We were gonna go into a shooting war? Yeah, we were one day away from from evil. We were lucky. Uh there was three divisions. The third division was picked for reserved. So I didn't

01:21:34.360 - 01:22:10.200

land until I don't remember whether it was D plus three or D plus four where we landed was all secure. Yeah, one night the Japanese fired rockets where fell into division headquarters? Not one of them went off art. It's people the next morning dug them up

01:22:10.210 - 01:22:42.860

and you know why they didn't go off? They didn't have any fuses, wow, you gotta be, you gotta be lucky, wow. Why don't you go ahead And Susan had a question about dr I think she wants to talk about it says temperature. Phone needs to cool

01:22:42.860 - 01:23:09.590

down before you can use it. I hear you. Susan's having trouble with her phone. I guess she's overheated. But anyway, we wanted to ask about the fund at Emanuel that you started. Maybe Sylvia wants to talk about, set this thing up what you set up the

01:23:09.590 - 01:23:51.310

farm fund. Oh well I had set up a private foundation and you had to pay taxes on it and the tax returns. Very difficult. So I figured jewish people supported primarily jewish charities. Mhm. They didn't support jewish things. And then I saw that the Memorial Drive

01:23:51.310 - 01:24:17.370

Presbyterian Church got in the war because for every dollar they spent in the church, they spent a dollar outside the church. So I decided, wouldn't it be nice to have some sort of a fund? Yeah. Help non jewish things. That's how I came up with the

01:24:17.370 - 01:24:58.060

idea. And I approached the jewish federation and they weren't interested. Then I talked to Rabbi walter, Kahn had retired. I met walter married roberta and uh and he just fell in love with the idea. He has, he told me letter this is something he had always

01:24:58.070 - 01:25:37.540

hoped he could do. And so we called it finally, we came up with the name uh Aubrey and Sylvia Farm Community Service Fund and the provisions in it. But none of the money from, from the fund go to to the manual and we support smaller charities,

01:25:39.340 - 01:26:21.820

but don't get help from say the United Way. Mhm. Wait, saved one black congregation. Mhm. one of our board members was able to get them medical supplies. He would retired. Position, things that the hospitals couldn't use anymore because they were out of date. The fund is

01:26:21.820 - 01:26:55.760

going to, it's got now I Capital of about some 100,000 people dollars, wow. One of the things that we did raise money is the idea of having so dr cans, hmm. So people in congregation put money in their first today? People don't have much change anymore

01:26:56.960 - 01:27:27.300

because they use credit cards, right? Everything is is plastic cards or online. People buy things online or donate money online. Sure. I mean one of the recent things we did was couple of jewish women got the idea going to restaurants, getting the food that wasn't used.

01:27:28.610 - 01:28:02.270

Maybe you need a truck. So We gave him $300,000 3000 there and that's grown. And we have a rule that you we won't give you money Until three years have passed. So last month they came back and we gave them $5,000. We have raised our minimum

01:28:02.880 - 01:28:34.310

Amendment Gift. What? Maximum gift was $3,000. But we raised it to $5,000. It's wonderful. What we do is end up of the congregations fiscal year is April the 30th. and whatever our net worth is on April 30, We can take 4% of that and use it

01:28:35.110 - 01:29:13.090

to distribute during the following year. We don't distribute all of that. It's Cuban too. Right. And the funds were managed in the beginning. All right, Susan's husband, David And two other members of congregation. And then we turned over the money management went to the investment committee

01:29:13.100 - 01:29:35.450

of the congregation and they've done really well with. That's great. So, it's been about an hour and a half now. How's everybody feeling feeling tired. Do you want to talk a little more? Your phone is tired. I'm so sorry not just charging. It was overheating. It's

01:29:35.450 - 01:30:03.150

not used to videoing taking that much video. Yeah there you have it. Should we should we stop here and continue another time or would you like to keep going a little more? I think we covered most everything We could we could always visit again and talk

01:30:03.150 - 01:30:33.100

about my Ireland or having kids and growing up of our six grandchildren For 3 4 daughters jump jump right over jumped right over kids. Two grandkids. No go ahead go ahead. What were you about to say that you're most proud of weight. You're back in business.

01:30:34.960 - 01:31:21.490

Cool. Down enough Of our six grandchildren. One from each daughter. Two Children, three have been elected to Phi Beta Kappa and five of the six gradually um advanced degrees education. Very important son Jonathan. He was elected to phi beta kappa at texas. He also has a

01:31:21.500 - 01:32:08.510

PhD from Berkeley and neuroscience and genetics. Wonder Evan It's 5 80 capital from rice and Susan's daughter. Hannah that's five beta kappa from Northwestern. I went to Northwestern too. Did you go to the hill? I did. Did you think I was in the basement. Helene it's

01:32:08.510 - 01:32:35.700

called and Sylvia and I furnished basement recreational area. Did you? That's like where the piano is and some of the other side. Yeah it's been a while and I wasn't I wasn't looking for wasn't looking for the farm name in 2000 and Piano 3 2002 Oh,

01:32:35.710 - 01:33:03.610

nice. That's great. No, Northwestern's a wonderful school. Why don't we stop today here? I was gonna say that ham in addition, just a couple of years ago got a master's degree from Georgetown. Madeleine Albright was one of her teachers. She that she now is with J

01:33:03.610 - 01:33:27.180

Street. Okay, sure. I think it's you've got enough that we don't need to If I need to find out more about the 191970s or 1980s. I can always ask this. Thank you so much for your time. This is a lot of fun for me and I

01:33:27.180 - 01:33:31.300

hope you enjoyed it as well. Trip down memory Lane.