Nadene Goldfoot
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Myself at about 2 and Dad, Maurice Goldfoot, at 28 years
Dad was born July 1, 1908 in Portland, Oregon |
My father, Maurice Goldfoot, was the son of Nathan Abraham Goldfoot, born in Telsiai, Lithuania in 1872. Maurice, or Moses which was on his birth certificate, was born July 1, 1908 in Portland, Oregon, USA.
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Bobbie-Zlata Jermulowske at 18
possibly in Council, Idaho
b: 11 January 1886, Lazdijai, Suwalki, Lithuania
She and Nathan moved to Portland in 1906. |
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Nathan Abraham Goldfoot
b: 1 January 1871
Lazdijai, Lithuania |
Nathan was killed in a horse and wagon accident when my dad was 4 years old in 1912 in Portland. Nathan was not used to horses, but a Jewish charity group had given immigrants such a package to help them to help themselves in business. Nathan would go back and forth from the docks of Portland with packages and deliver them. I guess that made him an expessman. One day there was a loud noise which spooked his horse who bolted, throwing Nathan out of the wagon. He hit his head and was taken to the old St. Vincent's Hospital, never to wake up. He had no ID on him or the wagon. No one knew who he was. This happened on a Friday, and his wife, our grandmother Zlatta "Hattie" or "Bobbie" as we called her, didn't know where he was and was fit to be tied. She was pregnant with her 4th and last child, Ann, and didn't speak English. Neither did Nathan.
Finally someone came and told her what had happened. She was so upset, that she cursed the bearer of the news, a Jewish friend who had found out but hadn't told her due to it being the Sabbath. The friend died several years later, the cause said to be her curse.
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Charlie and Morris Goldfoot at ages of 4 and 2 in South Portland
At home, everyone spoke Yiddish. Their parents didn't speak any English. |
Bobbie searched for her husband's money that he said he had hidden in the horse's stable, but she never did find any. She had no way to provide for her first born, Charlie, Morris, Elsie and the new baby Ann. She had to go out and pluck chickens, pulling out their feathers for the butcher for a living that gave her the most meager return of her time and energy. The two boys, ages 6 and 4, were sent out to sell newspapers.
Dad played baseball at Commerce High School but had to quit school and go to work to help support the family so he never graduated. He also had run track.
As a young man, Morris (Meshke) went into professional boxing at the Neighborhood house in South Portland where they lived. It was the Jewish and Italian section of Portland in those days. Here's where the synagogues and groceries were. His mother had a fit and insisted he quit. He went by the moniker of "BILLY MESHKE." Lots of poor kids did this to earn money.
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Mom with Bobbie's half-sister,
Aunt Jenny Criss nee Jermulowske
in about 1940-46 |
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Mildred Goldfoot
b: 29 June 1913
married: 29 April 1932 |
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Ann Oster nee Goldfoot with her mother, Bobbie
and her first daughter, Harriett. 1943-44 |
Here is Morris with his mother and myself as a baby.
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Elsie Eichman nee Goldfoot
b: 10 March 1911 |
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| Charles b: 22 Sept 1906 |
Morris then married my mother, Mildred. She was going to beauty school while living and caring for the children of the Gurion family in South Portland. She'd walk past the Kosher butcher shop where he worked, and he whistled as she was very pretty with long "Betty Grable" legs. He'd been previously married for a short while which hadn't worked out, so she was warned about him, but liked what she saw anyway.
Being a butcher led to Maurice, as my mom had changed his name, to start up his own wholesale meat packing business with LINCOLN WHOLESALE MEATS. He even had his own slaughter-house on Beaverton-Hillsdale highway towards Beaverton, Oregon. He had my cousins Don and Nate working for him when they weren't in school. Later, when I was 15, I worked for my dad as his bookkeeper. He trained me on the job. I was a junior in high school then. When I was 16 I drove myself to work after school.
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| Birthday time in our backyard abt 1944-45, front row is David, my brother. I'm the tall girl in the back row. |
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| Here's his cattle truck. |
In business he felt he had to keep on growing, so then bought a new wholesale meat packing business and was then SILVER FALLS MEAT PACKING CO , located in Portland on the Columbia River next door to Swift and Armour Co. He had a feed lot located in Ontario, Oregon and was there most of the time, going to auctions and buying cattle. He'd cover farms in the area, too.
Dad became very ill while working in Ontario and had to be flown in a small airplane to Portland. Mom was with him. He died within 3 weeks at the age of 59 years and 22 days on 23 July 1967.
I found out that being a meat packer is one of the most stressful jobs of all.
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I'm standing by Bobbie's grave.
Dad and Mom are in the same cemetery. |
He leaves a son, Dr. David Alan Goldfoot, Psychologist, and myself and 5 grandchildren.
Dad played baseball at Commerce High School but had to quit school and go to work to help support the family so he never graduated. He also had run track.
As a young man, Morris (Meshke) went into professional boxing at the Neighborhood house in South Portland where they lived. It was the Jewish and Italian section of Portland in those days. Here's where the synagogues and groceries were. His mother had a fit and insisted he quit. He went by the moniker of "BILLY MESHKE." Lots of poor kids did this to earn money.
