A Moment in Time Part 2: The Zacks
Editor’s Note: The Heritage Museum has partnered with the Big Spring Herald to highlight Big Spring history each week. This week is Part 2 of a series telling the story of Jim and Clara Zack.
Before Jim and Clara Zack left New York, one of Jim’s friends insisted on giving the couple a going away party. Jim said “My friend arranged everything and was the perfect host except for one small detail, he stuck the bridegroom with the check.” Of course, being the gentlemen that he was, Jim paid the bill and he and Clara embarked on their journey. After closely budgeting their funds for the trip and having to pay for the party, the couple only had enough money to get to Tennessee. Clara had to contact her mother for the money to continue on their trip home.
Jim and Clara worked with Clara’s mother, Lena Brenner, in the Dry Goods business. They worked out of a store front in Lubbock. Each week, they would take merchandise from Brenner’s’ Dry Goods and sell it in Lubbock. They slept on a cot in the back of the store and only had cold water for bathing and a hot plate for cooking. At the end of the week, they went back to Big Spring, paid Lena, got more merchandise, ate Lena’s good cooking and took a bath! This cycle continued for several years until Jim received word that the government was about to build a large Army Base in Killeen,
Texas. They had saved enough money to start a store and decided to take a chance on the new base.
Clara’s sister and her family were living near Killeen and they could stay with the Curry family while Jim and Clara started the business. They soon found a store-front (next door to an existing army surplus store) and opened a business selling army surplus! It was a success from the beginning. Jim soon developed a reputation for being a fair merchant and they made many friends who were stationed at the base.
After waiting 13 years to become a citizen, Jim Zack finally achieved his