Ludvipol: A Modern Shtetl
A Happy Childhood
special pot that was designated for me alone. Even today, certain restaurants in New York serve mashed potatoes with greivenes. It may be high in cholesterol, but once a year, this wonderful treat is worth the price. For some reason, we never raised ducks. People used to hunt or buy wild ducks, but of course they would have to be slaughtered by a shochet to be kosher. My family was a good customer of the kosher meat markets in our town. Since we were related to the butcher, Isaac Stadlin, we had the privilege of buying the breast, which was a big deal since it had a lot of fat. People used to render the fat from the cow; it hard- ened up like tallow. To flavor soup, one would break off a piece of fat with a hammer and fry onions in it. This was considered a great luxury. Later, when I came to the United States, my uncle Jack Golub was a butcher and shared his store with a produce stand. The first day I arrived in America, I went to his store and saw a woman come in and order rib steaks. After she gave my uncle her order, she left his counter for the vegetable stand. I watched my uncle trim off all the fat from the steaks and throw it in a pail. Distressed, I thought he was cheating the woman of this valuable commodity while her back was turned. After she left, I questioned him about it. He pulled out a drum and showed me an immense quantity of trimmed fat; he told me that in America it was almost worthless. It would be picked up and sold for two or three cents a pound and melted down. In the United States, this fat was used to make soap or candles. This was one of my first lessons in the many differences between my new country and my old.
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