VACATION Dora Shooster - Frank says, ‘The women are going to go to Atlantic City, Mrs. Zuss- man is gonna drive you. If she wants to get paid, pay her. Go away for a day.’ So, I says, ‘All right. Me and Mrs. Charles and Mrs. Zussman.’ Mrs. Zussman had two sisters. They came from Russia. So we go to Atlantic City and just as soon as we passed Camden the axle broke. We have to pay $5 a piece for a new one. They had to tow us in. She takes $5 from each of us. We all figure out she is going to make $25 from us. So we go out to the station, and we are told. It will cost you $18. $18! What are we gonna do? I’ll call Boruch. So, Boruch comes out to the station in Camden. She fixes the axle, and after Boruch comes, it was 4 p.m. We didn’t get to Atlantic City, but it was fun. Everybody had lunch, and Mrs. Charles was so nice, she treated.
PLAYING CARDS Dora Shooster - Mrs. Zussman took me over to meet Mrs. Goldberg and introduced me to Mrs. Noblock. They teach me how to play cards. We are gonna play poker. And Mrs. Zussman she teach- es me how to play on a Friday night. I played about eight games of cards, and I didn’t know if a full house is bigger than a straight. So, finally, I got a full house. She says a straight is bigger. So, she takes the money. Maybe it was half a dollar. I go out to the store, and I’ll never forget I said, ‘Mr. Goldberg, I have to ask you, what’s bigger in poker? A full house or straight?’ He says, ‘A full house.’ I says, ‘Mrs. Zussman just took a game away from me. I had a full house, but she had a straight.’ I said, ‘Mrs. Zussman, that game you took away, it didn’t belong to you because Goldberg just told me. You knew it, you knew it. You’re a gambler from olden time. I just learned a game.’ She says, ‘So what do you want me to do? You want me to give you back your money?’ I said, ‘I just want you to know that I find out. That you’re not straight!’ When we usta play on a Friday night, and Pop usta knew it and he didn’t want me to miss it, and I had the store. Frank said, ‘Dora, you have to go to the game. I don’t care how much customers are gonna come in Friday night. Don’t leave ‘til nine o’clock and I’ll see that the boys should come home.’ So, he usta send the boys home. Frank said to the boys, ‘Mother has to go away today, so you have to cover for her for a while.’ That game was in a different house every week. So, I says, ‘Mr. Zussman came for us. I says, Mr. Zussman, you leave me off at the station.’ So, I went to the station until we closed and Frank took me home. Oh, there is a lot of things to tell. This was life. Herman Shooster - That poker game went on for years and years.
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Dora Shooster(49), 1943
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