1 20 1 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/34455/archive/files/1f3cd7de1589842569469362aed5a731.pdf?Expires=1792022400&Signature=rB%7EDnihFQXGBZ0vB0AmYEszLBiJXhnn35uj30JwccWVztmqAqUpJAnfG44SaPJ2IcpIB%7EtMVDzY-411GzOdGddEwtGhtU-caHuAqBAxeRHFCnHrbnhF19vWEmOKAgtjYXeychPBBjAhZskthfyy5mEPBYaPsmH2muuMEgeIeWpWsX%7EuEEpm2uWrX3K2IQfweN3O13AnzgaCqnA5E5EycLSGn96gZ3S0gV95PMmmuJYBpUT-RIOkgJninY47UtWJ2cWfqsbTR5YP4tBHC2h-U53qmzZ1ebyr199st%7ECGoO12VcCea%7EQsqQV9BvwXx9M77xc%7EtZhhwwQh5MlWVq6soTg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 803fbf73042aa657d7deca2cefa9246d PDF Text Text My Name Is Evelyn Figa And This is My Story I was bom on April 22nd, 1942 to Abraham Parket and Anne Blum in Louisville, Kentucky. My father was bom on August 10th , 1905 in Warsaw, Poland. When he was still a child his family moved to the United States settling in Brooklyn, New York. My mother was bom on July 22nd, 1907 in Berlin, Germany. She also came to the United States when she was a child and her family settled in Boston, Massachusetts. My parents would meet and eventually marry on August 14th , 1928. As a young man my father worked as a hatter making hats in New York. When they moved to Louisville in 1941 my father owned a grocery. His first was on 12th and Broadway with Mrs. Schatz, the second was on 12th and Oldham, and the third was on 6th and Ashland. My father died on April 24th, 1963 and my mother followed on February 22nd, 1982. My older sister, Diana, was bom on June 15th, 1930 while my parents still lived in New York. She would go on to marry R. Jeffery Brown. She passed away on March 11th, 2016. The first two weeks of my life I lived in my grandparent’s house on Vine Street. My bed was a drawer in their chest of drawers. After those two weeks my parents got an apartment on 2nd and Gaulbert, and a few years later they found a house on Sheila Drive in the Bon Air Estates. I started my education at Cochran Grade School which was on 2nd and Hill. My schooling continued at Fem Creek Junior High and then later Atherton High School where I graduated in 1960. I was always active in school clubs growing up. I remember in 5th grade I was a part of the school patrol guard. They had me out in the street directing traffic and the only thing I had on that distinguished me was a belt and a badge. Can you imagine them having kids do that today? Today they have adults come and direct traffic and they wear a big reflective vest. That’s much more than we had! At Fem Creek I was a member of an entertainment group called Chuckles. We would be bused after school to the armory where we would practice and at the end of the year, we would perform a large musical there. I believe that is what is now known as the Louisville Gardens. We went to Mexico one year to perform and my junior or senior year we took a boat to the Kentucky Lake. I remember that when we were going through the Locks on the Ohio River, we performed for the boat that was next to us! There were always things to do outside of school as well. I remember as a child I would wake up and have breakfast, go out to play, come back for lunch, go out again until dinner, and then after dinner go out again until dusk. We were always outside, and it was so much fun. We’d play hide and go seek and play all sorts of ball games. When I was in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade there was a movie theatre catty cornered from my parent’s apartment. My friends and I would walk over and watch movies there on Saturdays. That is something I doubt you’d see today, having children that young going to movies by themselves. We’d get around town by walking along the railroad tracks next to our apartment or by taking the street cars downtown. When we took the street car the girls would have to wear hose, gloves, and sometimes hats. Keep in mind it was just us kids doing this, and our parents weren’t with us. That is another thing I doubt you’d see today. My family would also take summer vacations to Florida. There was no television when I was little, 1 �so we'd all gather to listen to the radio which was one of the only ways to know what was going on in the world. When the television was invented. I remember us going over to the neighbor’s home and watch them turn the dials while we waited for the television to start up. I also remember we had an icebox and not a refrigerator and there was a milkman who would come and deliver milk. Things were different back then than they are today. The Holidays were another significant part of my childhood. We were a part of Anshei Sfard, an orthodox synagogue, and my grandmother was very religious. My grandmother was bed ridden so my mom did all the cooking and all the food was kosher. During passover she’d put fish in the bathtub with water and the whole apartment would smell fishy. She’d use these to make gefiltefish and our family would always come in to visit and spend the holidays with us. After I finished high school I went to the University of Louisville where I remained for three years doing general studies. I left U of L in 1963 to marry Charles Chase and we moved to New Albany, Indiana. Together we had one daughter, Candice, who was bom on September 10Ih, 1970. She works in Louisville as a marketing manager from home. Charles and I were together for twelve years when we divorced in December of 1974.1 thought Td never marry again. During this time, I worked for the Courier Journal in Louisville as a Customer Server Manager. My first four years there were spent in advertising and I eventually moved up to circulation. All in all, I spent twenty-five years working there. I always enjoyed sales and I was a detail-oriented individual. Customer server seemed like a perfect fit for me. I managed a very large department and while I had supervisors to take care of little things, I had to handle the major issues. I loved it. I was able to travel for the company to give presentations and write training manuals. It was a wonderful experience. I’d frequent the Walgreens in the Clarksville Mall and ran into Sidney Figa who managed the store. Our mothers new each other and would play cards together. We seemed to hit it off and on Thanksgiving week of 1978 I moved back to Louisville and on New Years Day of 1979 Sidney and I married. He already had two sons Daryl and Barry Figa who I always called my own. Barry has two sons, Elliot and Aaron. Elliot is a sophomore at Virginia Tech and Aaron is a senior in high school who is planning on attending college in Georgia. After I married Sidney, I joined Keneseth Israel Synagogue where I remain today. While at KI I served as a board member for three years. I chaired the production of Ki’s monthly newsletter and recruiter another member to work with me. Up until this point the newsletter had always been hand typed. My fellow KI member was able to produce the newsletter on a word processing program which was quite an accomplishment in that era. I also served as the President of the Sterling Places Lot Owners Association board of directors where Sidney and I lived. Sidney and I travelled a lot. We took bus tours all over the country and I’ve been to all but four or five states. I may have not stayed in them long, but I was in them nevertheless. We travelled to Israel where we stayed with Sidney’s family. We received the local tour of Israel, we saw the tourist locations of course, but we also saw areas that tourists wouldn’t often visit. We spent time in London and even Paris. I remember we had a hotel across from the Louvre and we asked our taxi driver when it was closed. He told us it was closed on Sunday, so we decided to leave it for 2 �Monday as we were leaving on Tuesday. Unfortunately, he was wrong and when we arrived it was closed. We’ve also went on seven cruises. I was very fortunate for those times. My husband was afflicted by Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s towards the end of his life. He spent seven years in the nursing home; so for seven years I was there every day. He passed away last year in 2017. That took away the better part of the joy I had in life. But it has shown me that I need to focus on what I have and not what I don’t. My grandson from my daughter has brought a great joy to me and we spend time together often. I’ve had a very lucky life and I’ve had a lot in life. I always try to give back. Though I’ve been retired for twenty years I volunteer with the JFCS in the Shabbot friends’ program. People today don’t share a sense of community like I did growing up and they are so isolated from each other today. The biggest advice I can give anyone is to be grateful for what you have, enjoy the company of others, and always try to find ways to give back. Interview by Irvin Golstein and Ian Stamper December 2018 3 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Jewish Family and Career Services interviews, 2001-2018 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jewish Family and Career Services (Louisville, Ky.) Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/" target="_blank" title="In Copyright" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Language A language of the resource eng heb Type The nature or genre of the resource Collection Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 20th century 21st century Description An account of the resource Summaries of 206 interviews with Jewish community members in Louisville, Kentucky, conducted by Jewish Family and Career Services volunteers. Originally started by Ann Friedman, Director of Klein Older Adult Services, the project sent volunteers to listen to seniors and summarize their stories. The volunteers used a standardized script to ask community members about their family’s immigration to the United States and move to Louisville; their family and religious life in Louisville; and what they hoped their legacy would be. Some of the interviews include supplemental material on the narrators, such as resumes, obituaries, and photographs. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource bulk 2001-2018 1930s-1950s 1980s-2018 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 024x6_figae Title A name given to the resource Interview with Evelyn Figa, 2018 Description An account of the resource Summary of an oral history interview conducted with Evelyn Figa (1942-) in December 2018. The interview was part of the Louisville Jewish Family and Career Services's project to document the lives of Jewish seniors in Louisville, Kentucky. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Figa, Evelyn, 1942- Goldstan, Irvin Stamper, Ian Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-12 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Report Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Subject The topic of the resource Interviews Jewish families Jews Judaism Jefferson County (Ky.) Kentucky Louisville (Ky.) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant 20th century 21st century Language A language of the resource eng Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived 024x6 Jewish Family and Career Services interviews, The Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ Property rights in the collection belong to The Filson Historical Society. The Filson Historical Society can provide high-resolution scans of original source materials from its holdings for non-commercial and commercial use. To learn about this process, visit https://filsonhistorical.org/collections/order-reproductions/ Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Filson Historical Society, Louisville, Kentucky Jewish Family and Career Services (Louisville, Ky.)