ANOTHER PREGNANCY
NOT A PENNY
Dora Shooster - Many days we didn’t have a penny in our house. Frank used to take his suits, he always had nice suits, to the pawn- shop. They used to give him $4 on a suit. He would give $3 to his sister, Mary, and her 4 children, and she had no water in the house, only a pump outside, no food, no heat. We didn’t know any differently. He would give his sister, Mary, the $3 so she could buy a bread and a herring, some- thing to eat, and I got along with nothing. Many, many days like that. In those days it was a big disgrace for a married woman to go to work. Right away I was pregnant with my oldest son, Izzy. He was born at 6th and Pine Streets. IN THE LIFE Dora Shooster - Oh my, in the life, Mr. Shoost- er, Frank Shooster was the kind of married man that buys flowers to tell you how good you are to him, but in his heart, everything wore in, he worried. One day I left him, I was pregnant with my second child, Harry. Izzy, the eldest, was a baby. I went out to buy a little groceries, and I saw a beautiful football at the five and ten store, maybe it was 29 cents, and I looked at mine little bit of money that I had in my hand to buy eggs, to buy bread. I thought maybe from that money I could have enough. I’ll go first to buy the football for 29 cents. So, I went and bought it. Then when I came into the store, instead of buying six eggs, I bought three eggs. It will hold me up for today. So when I came back, he said, Where were you so long Dora?’ (the Acme was only on the corner.) I told him I bought a football. I couldn’t sleep a whole night because of that. That food... I’ll put it in the middle of the table, and I’ll dress it up with a few flowers. How beautiful it’s gonna be. All this registered in my mind.
Dora Shooster - Soon after I was pregnant with Harry I became very sick, so I went to Dr. Kornfeld at 5th and Girard Avenue. Dr. Kornfeld, I said, ‘I was sent to you, but I haven’t got the dollar to pay you. If you want to trust me, it’s alright.’ I told him that Tanta Mary sent me. He said, ‘If Mary sent you, it’s alright,’ after an examination, the doctor said, ‘I can’t do much for you. What did you do to get rid of the baby?’ I told him, ‘I had done everything, and nothing helped.’ He told me that I have a tumor and it presses on the baby’s heart. He told me that he would have to send me to a professor. I told him I have no money and nobody to ask for a penny. He told me that he would give me a note. ‘When you come in, you give the note to his secretary. He won’t ask for money.’ When I got there, he told me that he wants me in the hospital the following Tuesday. I told him, ‘I already have a baby and who was going to pay the bill? I haven’t got the money. I haven’t got a $1 to give you.’ He said, ‘Sometime when you have it you can pay me.’ I told the doctor when I got back to him that I want to say my piece. I didn’t want that baby to begin with. I said, ‘Could you promise me that I will get rid of my baby? I can’t have a healthy baby with this problem, and I’m a poor woman. I have a baby now that is sickly, and I don’t want to raise a cripple.’ He told me that if he sees the baby was touched, he might be able to help me, but he couldn’t promise me. I went to the University of Pennsylvania Hospital. They had a ward for the poor people of about 200 beds. Tanta Mary took my boy, Izzy, to her place. My cousin Harry, Jake and Noochem all came to my house to say goodbye to me because I had to go to the hospital for an operation. In the late afternoon, I woke up after the surgery and I’m burning up. I wanted a little bit of water; I wanted somebody to wet my
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