The (last) remaining Jew @ Paarl Station
Maurice Goss, trading as C Goss & Son (being Son) is the last remaining Jew in Suider-Paarl, also known as “Bo Paarl” or “Paarl Stasie”. Maurice is a walking history encyclopaedia. Anyone interested in the happenings of the area, or how the Jews lived in this area, should pay Morris a visit.
Walk into his shop and start living a journey to years ago before the times of the self service convenience store or supermarket. “New” clothes of decades ago, still wrapped in plastic are on display. Bales of knitting wool are on the top shelf. Pots, pans and kitchenware are to be found. One can’t help wondering what Maurice is actually selling, because it is evident that the bulk of his stock is aimed at a market that seems no longer in existence in the area. But Maurice does have his regulars. They are sitting on the stoep of his and neighbouring properties and the occasional passing pedestrian will pop in for a packet of chips, Enos a Grandpa or a “los'te entjie”.
But then remember, his shop is still across the street of the station and hotel and also at the corner where the taxis pause for a pick up or a drop. Prime location, if somebody will just notice!
Maurice tells stories of the years when the gents in the area wore cufflinks and the dames were dressed up in hoop dresses. Families dined together on Sundays and the Jewish traders of Paarl Station were the la-di-da of the town. On Saturday nights they watched a movie at the Protea Cinema on Main Road and business was just great.
Station Street was the busiest street in Paarl. Then what happened?
............Everything!
Remember, Suider-Paarl or Ons Dorpie as it was called by the locals was not “white only”. There were two Coloured Schools, namely Zion in Hartford Street and Bethesda across the railway line. It was a place where there was room for the whites, being Jews, Afrikaners or even other Europers and mainly Cape Coloureds. It was a cosmopolitan community that lived in peace with each other. Forced removals of people of colour from the Paarl Station area in the late nineteen fifties and sixties rang the death bell for most of the businesses at Paarl station.
Other influences that lead to the decay of business @ Paarl station were:
+ Roads that took traffic away from railway lines.
+ Retail business moved to the Main Street to gain business from passing traffic.
+ Motor vehicles replaced horse carts and the cart industry.
+ Supermarkets replaced general dealers.
+ Taxis took the place of busses and trains.
+ Business has moved away.
+ All the Jews moved, all but one.
Maurice Goss stayed and the buildings remained.
According to Ann Rabinowitz’s database, Morris’ father Charlie migrated to Paarl from Warsaw in Poland.
Charlie purchased this prime corner business property in 1938. He conducted business there till the turn of the 1960’s when Morris took over.
Maurice recalls the days when some 12 shop assistants were needed to serve the buzz of trade. In those days sugar was transported by boat from Durban. Flour and all other dry produce were bought in bulk. It was sold “over the scale”, meaning everything was weighed and repacked. Candles were bought in numbers of box loads and travellers sold a collection of clothing like shirts in bales to the traders.
Nachum Shedrin was the first dealer in Paarl to sell carbonated cool drink from his specially manufactured soda plant at his cafe’s counter. Shedrin’s cafe was around the corner from C Goss & Son at no 16 Station Street (Junction House). Next to Shedrin cafe was the local butchery ....... and if you have the time, Morris will entertain you with a story about the traders from each of the buildings in the area.
The uniqueness of Maurice Goss and his shop could very well be marketed as an historical souvenir tourist stop representing the Jewish and early station trade community, ....adding a coffee shop next door in the beautifully renovated Blue House building.
..........So much opportunity!
Isn’t it time for a new approach on an old theme?
Walk into his shop and start living a journey to years ago before the times of the self service convenience store or supermarket. “New” clothes of decades ago, still wrapped in plastic are on display. Bales of knitting wool are on the top shelf. Pots, pans and kitchenware are to be found. One can’t help wondering what Maurice is actually selling, because it is evident that the bulk of his stock is aimed at a market that seems no longer in existence in the area. But Maurice does have his regulars. They are sitting on the stoep of his and neighbouring properties and the occasional passing pedestrian will pop in for a packet of chips, Enos a Grandpa or a “los'te entjie”.
But then remember, his shop is still across the street of the station and hotel and also at the corner where the taxis pause for a pick up or a drop. Prime location, if somebody will just notice!
Maurice tells stories of the years when the gents in the area wore cufflinks and the dames were dressed up in hoop dresses. Families dined together on Sundays and the Jewish traders of Paarl Station were the la-di-da of the town. On Saturday nights they watched a movie at the Protea Cinema on Main Road and business was just great.
Station Street was the busiest street in Paarl. Then what happened?
............Everything!
Remember, Suider-Paarl or Ons Dorpie as it was called by the locals was not “white only”. There were two Coloured Schools, namely Zion in Hartford Street and Bethesda across the railway line. It was a place where there was room for the whites, being Jews, Afrikaners or even other Europers and mainly Cape Coloureds. It was a cosmopolitan community that lived in peace with each other. Forced removals of people of colour from the Paarl Station area in the late nineteen fifties and sixties rang the death bell for most of the businesses at Paarl station.
Other influences that lead to the decay of business @ Paarl station were:
+ Roads that took traffic away from railway lines.
+ Retail business moved to the Main Street to gain business from passing traffic.
+ Motor vehicles replaced horse carts and the cart industry.
+ Supermarkets replaced general dealers.
+ Taxis took the place of busses and trains.
+ Business has moved away.
+ All the Jews moved, all but one.
Maurice Goss stayed and the buildings remained.
According to Ann Rabinowitz’s database, Morris’ father Charlie migrated to Paarl from Warsaw in Poland.
Charlie purchased this prime corner business property in 1938. He conducted business there till the turn of the 1960’s when Morris took over.
Maurice recalls the days when some 12 shop assistants were needed to serve the buzz of trade. In those days sugar was transported by boat from Durban. Flour and all other dry produce were bought in bulk. It was sold “over the scale”, meaning everything was weighed and repacked. Candles were bought in numbers of box loads and travellers sold a collection of clothing like shirts in bales to the traders.
Nachum Shedrin was the first dealer in Paarl to sell carbonated cool drink from his specially manufactured soda plant at his cafe’s counter. Shedrin’s cafe was around the corner from C Goss & Son at no 16 Station Street (Junction House). Next to Shedrin cafe was the local butchery ....... and if you have the time, Morris will entertain you with a story about the traders from each of the buildings in the area.
The uniqueness of Maurice Goss and his shop could very well be marketed as an historical souvenir tourist stop representing the Jewish and early station trade community, ....adding a coffee shop next door in the beautifully renovated Blue House building.
..........So much opportunity!
Isn’t it time for a new approach on an old theme?
