My Life
I was born November 20, 1918 in Seattle, Washington at Providence Hospital
Father:
Samuel Morhaime
Mother:
Sultana Cohen Morhaime
Siblings:
Rebecca Morhaime Moschatel (Born in Turkey)
Leo Morhaime (Born 1908 in Seattle
Maurice Morhaime Date of birth 1-21-1915
First house:
13th Fir, Seattle, WA
Synagogue:
13th & Washington
My dad was in the retail fish business. In 1924 my folks went to Aberdeen, WA to help our friends, Mr. Roderick and Mr. Bensusen enter the fish business. Becky and Leo went to Aberdeen with my parents. My brother Morrie and I stayed with Mr. Isaac Baroh for one year; his first wife was my mother’s sister, Lea Cohen Baroh. Mr. Baroh had three sons with his first wife: Louie, Morrie, and Leo. When Mr. Baroh’s first wife died he married a lady named Sara Mevorah. Mr. Baroh and his second wife Sara had three daughters: Sophie, Becky and Lillian. When we stayed with Mr. Baroh that is when I first met Sophie. Her brother Morrie (my first cousin) had a crystal set, which was the first version of a radio.
My brother Morrie and I joined my parents in Aberdeen, later in 1924 or 1925, along with my sister Becky and brother Leo. It rained so hard the streets were a mud hole; we had to wear boots all winter. We stayed for a year or so, during which time Albert Moschatel became engaged to Becky, she was 19 years old in 1925. We then moved back to Seattle, 167 27th Ave in 1926. I went to Rainier School until the 3rd grade, then we moved to 20th & Washington. My father bought the house and then I went to Washington Middle School. I made the soccer team and earned a letter from there onto Garfield High School, and graduated in 1937. I ran the low hurdles on the Garfield Track team.
Going back a few years…
As I was growing up my brother Morrie and I loved each other, but as brothers we always fought. We slept in the same bed, and sometimes he would pee in bed, and then try and fool our folks by saying it was I who did it. My Grandpa Isaac Morhaime slept in the same room but he was a very quiet guy. Grandpa Morrie Cohen lived with Uncle Joe Cohen, off Jackson Street, he would ride the streetcar to our house early mornings. He would light the furnace to warm our house, make coffee for himself, and walk to synagogue.
Morrie got sick with Tuberculosis, about 1928, and went to Firland Sanitarium when I was 10 years old. He was there for three years; every Wednesday my mother would take the streetcar and the interurban to visit him. On Sundays my mother and father and I would drive to see him. I could not go up so he would wave a hello to me. With Morrie sick and my mother also with some kind of illness, I more or less raised myself.
I had a few friends: Jack Halfon, Harry Varon, Nickie Pizzello, Ralph Cohen, Little Murphy Nahmias, Dave Fisse and Ralph Funis. We played together as kids. One day I was at Jack’s house, and this beautiful girl was having a 12th birthday party. I told Jack, I want to marry her when I grow up. Guess what? I did marry her and have never regretted it. She is my wife, Sophie Baroh.
On my Bar Mitzvah (my 13th Birthday) I had a party at home with 6 friends, cake and Coke Cola. Cokes sold for 5 cents or 6 for 25 cents then.
I had to shift for myself, doing various things to make money; I carried grips (suitcases) on the docks for 10 or 15 cents, sold newspapers. Then as a teenager I went into the flower business selling daffodils for 10 cents a dozen. I made 5 cents on each dozen and sold between 100 and 200 dozen a weekend. Then I sold corsages to sailors or anyone. I would go from tavern to tavern and in front of dance halls and get anything from 50 cents to a dollar and up. I only paid 10 to 15 cents each and would sell out early so I could play around, easy come easy go. Sometimes on Saturday nights I would make more money than my dad did all day long at the fish market. I also helped my dad at the market. Around that time Morrie got out of the sanitarium. We lost the lease at the Pike Place Market, People Fish Market. We opened a grocery and fish market in the U District in 1937, between 45th and 47th on University Way called the Ritz Market (I was 19 years old).
That is when my mom was taken very sick. Doctors weren't sure what she had, possibly sleeping sickness. Again, I had a very little supervision and I chased around a lot. Mom was sick and Dad was trying to make a living. Leo was already married to Helen and Becky had married and was raising her own family. Morrie was working at the market. I would also help out and work at the market. But, I also went dancing and chasing around at night. I drifted, I remember when dad bought Morrie a car. While Morrie worked, the car stayed at home. I would try to drive it by starting it going down the hill so nobody would know. Except for Sadie, who lived next door and would tell Morrie when he came home from work.
I was not so close to my older brother Leo, who was ten years older, nor Becky who was also much older.
Morrie was dating Sadie Lighter, who lived next door from our house. My father had bought the house about 1932. He only got about 15 dollars a month from the renters and sometimes he couldn't pay, since it was still depression time. My dad must have done pretty well in the fish market because he owned a Chevrolet car. He also owned two housed with renters upstairs and down.
My mother passed away in September 1940; she was 57 years old. My sister Becky was married to Albert, and my brother Leo was going with Helen, while Morrie was still dating Sadie. Becky and Albert lived a couple houses down the street. I would some times baby-sit Jack and even sometimes Nancy.
I was in the National Guard while in High School. Then served one year in the active reserves service, when my unit got called up in 1940 because President Roosevelt mobilized the National Guard for one year. After that one year of service I was discharged September 1941, along with many Jewish friends in the unit: Leon Hallela, Dave Fisse, Sam Altabet, Sam Hasson, Irv Adatto and Hank Mutual. We were paid at that time $1.00 per meeting and $21.00 a month when activated. I went back to work at the market, finally deciding I wanted to settle down and find a nice Jewish girl. During the time I was in the army my father married Aunt Beya (Beya Baroh Policar), and moved to her house. So, I was living at our house on 20th, with Morrie and Sadie, again shifting for myself. Morrie had gotten married to Sadie in Reno, California, in 1941; she had been living in San Francisco at that time.
War was declared in December 1941 and was called back to the service sometime in either March or April 1942. I had tried to get back into my old unit when war was declared, but they told me I had to wait to be called back in.
I started to settle down after my mom had passed away. When I tried to date Jewish girls, I had a bad reputation and I had a difficult time, but I went to a few parties, played spin the bottle, and they finally found out that I was okay. We would go horseback riding, skiing, and other events. In the winter of 1941 I went skiing with Sophie and a friend. It was then that Sophie and I started dating. I really and truly fell in love with her with her, and we got married June 27, 1942.
I had been called back into the army, and had been sent to the Yakima Firing Range for training from Fort Lewis. When I got married I got a three-day pass from the Yakima Firing range for the wedding. I had returned to Seattle on the bus the Wednesday before the wedding to get my car and drive it back to Yakima. On the Friday when I was leaving the base I got a flat tire, changed the tire and drove to Ellensburg. I stopped and gassed up and had the flat fixed. By the time I drove to the floating bridge it was just before midnight. MPs were guarding the bridge because it was wartime. I had received a 3 day pass, which started the next day at 6:00 AM, the MPs said I would be AWOL because I could not make it back to Yakima in 5 minutes. I explained that I was getting married and going to my dad's house for the night. They told me to drive straight there and not to leave before morning. We got married on Saturday night, and had a small reception at dad and Tan Beyas's house with a few friends. We stayed at a downtown Seattle hotel that night then went to Alder Brooke Lodge on Hood Canal, for a two-night honeymoon, and then it was back to the Army. I was stationed at Fort Lewis until April 1943. The following weekend was the 4th of July. Sophie, Shang and a friend came down to Fort Lewis Friday night for a dance. At just before midnight they made an announcement that if we could be off the base by midnight we would get a 3-day pass. We drove all night to Cannon Beach, Oregon and slept in the car for a few hours. There I was in uniform with 3 women. We tried to find a hotel, cabin any place to stay, but the place was booked for the holiday weekend. I saw a guy with a house for rent, I asked him if we could rent it, he looked at me and said "what are you up to soldier"? I explained that I just got married to Sophie and the other girls were her sister and friend, he said okay. We went and lay out on the beach and got really badly sun burnt. I almost got court-martialed when I got back to Fort Lewis with my sunburn. I came home to Seattle on Wednesday nights and on weekends.
On April 8th I got orders to go to the Mojave Desert, California. I got a pass, and on April 10th, my son Stan was born. I left both wife and baby in the hospital, not being able to stay for the Brit Milah, and went for desert training for 5 months during the hottest time of the year (April through August). After that, I was off to Muskogee, Oklahoma. Sophie and Stan came there in August 1943; and I found an apartment for us, three floors up with no elevator. There were two apartment units using an adjoining bathroom, with 2-inch cockroaches everywhere, and a tavern below with loud music playing at all hours. But we made do. I would come in from camp three or four nights a week and on weekends. That is where we met our friends Ted and Ros Blumenfield. This was the first time Sophie was away from home. She did not like it but we were in love and she put up with the heat and bad living conditions.
For the fist time in my life I saw and experienced racial segregation. What would happen is the city bus would come into the fort, and the first stop was by the Quartermaster's where the Black soldiers were. So the black soldiers would get on the bus and sit down, as the bus went around the base the white soldiers would get on and fill up the seats and then stand. When the bus got to the gate the driver said "No White Soldier stood while a Black Soldier sat". He would not leave the base until that was done; we would object that we were all going overseas together. He did not care and would not budge. We later complained to out captain, he told us that it was a city bus and if we wanted to go to town we had to follow their rules. Terrible, Terrible, Terrible.
My brother Leo and Helen would come up from Fort Sill in his car. We would go for a Sunday ride together. This one Sunday we saw a black boy selling watermelons for 10 cents each. We gave him a quarter; he had no change so we got 3 melons. We drove down by a river and split the melons over a rock and just went face first into them, so refreshing and messy.
My unit was shipping out to go overseas, but I lucked out and got transferred to a different division. On December 1943, this new outfit got orders for shipping out, so Sophie and Stan went home to live with Nonie Baroh.
In January 1945 we went overseas on a Liberty Ship, from Newport News Virginia. It took about seven days, and I was seasick most of the time. We landed in Marseille, France. I had my own jeep as part of my duties. My Commanding Officer was always asking me to drive him until he had his own jeep and driver.
After a week we started our campaign. We moved forward to Alsace for a while and moved in with the town folks. It was a real small farm town; we had goats on the first floor, two GI's per house. Then we moved north and in combat my job was an agent between infantry and artillery. Sometimes I was upfront with the infantry and would bring back orders on when and where they wanted artillery fire. We were right in the thick of it when General Patton's Army cut across our front lines, so for about a week we went up into the woods and captured a bunch of German soldiers who were glad to surrender. Let me explain: there were two different types of soldiers, the SS who were the real enemy and then the Wehrmacht, who where drafted and forced to stay behind and fight.
We went through many burnt out towns that our Air Force and artillery had bombed out, and the smell of human bodies is something no one should see or smell. One town we capture was Mannheim, and they teased me that they named it after me, "Morhaime". Often I would bring back to the artillery wine, vodka, schnapps and any booze from the front that the infantry had captured.
I have a few good and sad memories.
One very touching time was when we crossed the Rhine River into Germany. It was the day before Passover, and our Division Chaplain, of the 42nd Rainbow Division sent out a notice that we were going to have Passover Services. I got two other Jewish GIs and went, joining about 100 other GIs, and to my amazement out came dozens of Jewish civilians who had been in hiding and were crying with joy. For the first time in a few years to be free to have Passover, it really touched me and made me feel I was very sad and yet happy that we were helping. Fellow Jewish GIs back at our base continued to celebrate our own Passover with some Kosher Salami and Matzos that my wife Sophie sent to me the day before Passover started. Plus very delicious French wine I had learned to acquire.
I had a few very narrow escapes and a few funny ones:
One time when I was returning from the front lines I came along a narrow road on a riverbank. There were two big bulls in the center of the road, and as I came near them they turned as if to charge me. I was in a hurry because I had important orders from the Infantry, and I saw German troops right across the river. What do I do? I tried to sneak around the bull and yet not be seen by the Krauts. I was really scared. Finally and luckily I got around safe and got to headquarters in time.
Another much more dangerous time, I was with the artillery as we pulled into a small village and set up headquarters. As an agent I was at the headquarters on call at any time, as needed, day or night. At about midnight the Major woke me to drive up to infantry to find out the time and location for artillery support. He said to go to the edge of town and take a left turn and find the infantry about 6 miles up the road. I tool another agent with me and we went down a dirt road until we saw what we thought were our troops in the woods getting ready to move. As we pulled into town I did not see where the infantry headquarters was, and no GIs. We then heard a loud voice saying "Achtung", and rifle fire. I didn't know jeeps could fly, but mine sure did! We also got more fire from the troops we'd seen earlier. When we got back to headquarters I really tore into the Major. Later I came to find out it was a half left to get into the town that our infantry was getting ready to take with our support.
Going on we pushed ahead and finally got to Munich. A beautiful city but half bombed out. While I was up front with the infantry, we moved ahead and liberated the Dachau Concentration Camp. I was right up front as we rushed the gates. Just then we saw a Kraut on an open boxcar firing his rifle into the railcar, and we all opened fire and shot him. I jumped up and with my little camera took pictures of the prisoners. Most were dead, and the few still alive were mostly skin and bones in the boxcars. Meanwhile in the prison, there were a lot of various people: some American Soldiers, some Air Force, a lot of captured civilian Jews, a few French - all half starved. The following day I went and took more pictures of the prison camp. There were the cremating ovens, there was a 7-foot wall that the prisoners would scale to try to escape, and on the other side about a dozen Great Dane dogs were set loose to kill the Jewish prisoners. There were various other sickening things and tortures.
I'm sorry, I can't go on to tell more of Dachau, it's just too disturbing.
We confiscated some movies that showed prisoners being dragged down the main streets of Munich and the civilians spitting, throwing rocks, as well as hitting them with willow branches. Yet they denied they even knew anything of a prison camp or of any prisoners. All of us that saw all of this were so bitter and sad we didn't want take any German prisoners alive. But we had a job to do and it hurt to treat these animals as just German prisoners. It was very hard not to just be human and go on fighting.
About this time the war was ending, thank G-d, so our unit went into Austria, a really beautiful country. Our unit camped in the town of Innsbruck. As occupation troops, we were right near Krups Castle, which we were to guard. We also did a little looting and that's where I got my pistol. They were the biggest munitions manufacturer.
About September or October the guys with the most points were allowed to go home. Points were length of service, how many dependents you had, etc. My first sergeant and I were the first to go home. Attached to a tank Corps, we went to Paris, another town and then Marseille. We boarded another Liberty Ship, and once again I was sick all the way. But we didn't care - we knew we were going home. I was supposed to fly but with my luck I got a slow train (5 days) to Fort Lewis. On Friday, Sophie and Stan came to pick me up. The sergeant said they could not discharge me until Monday. He didn't want to give me a weekend pass. I told him I was going home without a pass anyway. He Okayed it, and I got home and discharged just before Thanksgiving.
I want to tell you a little about the religious part of my life. The first synagogue I remember was at 11th and Washington. I guess I was about 7 or 8 years old. I recall waking home to 20th and Washington on Saturday and on the High Holidays, all up hill. In the early 1930's we moved our congregation to 20th and Fir street. I recall several members of the congregation doing some of the construction in the evenings and Sundays to save on building costs. My dad along with Mr. Cordova and Mr. Romey all helping, even my brother Morrie would climb up and hang lights so they could see at night to continue the work. After the war in the 1950's, I got interested in serving the synagogue. I got on the board and wanted to follow my family's tradition of serving our synagoge, the Sephardic Bikur Holim. My dad was a founder and one of the early Presidents, and my brother Morrie had also been a President. About that same time we started planning to build our new sanctuary in Seward Park. I was President for 3 years while we built our synagogue. I am also proud that Stan followed in the family tradition and became President in 2000.
My daughter, Sue Ann (Suzann), was born the following October 17, 1947 in Seattle.
At that time, we had a house on 115 26th Avenue, off of Yesler Way.
I thank the dear lord our G-d, that I am still around and have my darling wife Sophie, and family (November 24, 2006).
I am very blessed to have such a dear family. Starting with Stan, who comes over every Friday to help mom and me fix things and visit, we really appreciate his visits. Then of course we look forward to our daily phone call from Sue, who checks on us to make sure we are okay.
And the grand kids, we love them all. We are a little closer to Sarina, our first granddaughter, who took to our swimming pool at only one year old. Sarina married Michael Natkin the summer of 2004, and had a daughter Zoey in 2005.
Then there is Annie, who married Chaim Krigsman, and who now has two children, Hadasah and Schmuel. We sure wish they lived here instead of New York, so we could see them more and watch them grow.
Then of course our two grandsons, Rob and Ben, who we helped raise. I remember taking them fishing and teaching them golf. I really enjoyed the boys and taking them to their Bar Mitzvah lessons. I also remember having all three grandkids when they would sleep over nights here and play and sometimes fight together.
I almost forgot we have our lovely daughter-in-law Esther, who takes care of Stan, and how the two of them keep the tradition of family together for the Holidays. She is a great cook and also a great gal.
I also appreciate my loving nephew Jack Moschatel who calls every week to make sure we are okay. I am his favorite Tio, now his only one.
I hope this covers my past history, hope I didn’t forget anyone, and love to all.
- Isaac S. Morhaime