VARICOSE VEINS
OY VEY IZ MIR Dora Shooster - So, one day I get a pain in the heart. I didn’t know it was the heart, so I go into Dr. Grey across the street. I was in my 30’s, and Herman was a little baby. So, I go to Dr. Grey, and Dr. Grey listens to my heart, and he says, ‘I am suspicious you have ‘fire’ in your teeth. You better go across the street to the dentist. I didn’t go home to the comfort of my house. I go right across the street from Dr. Grey to Dr. Smith. I come into Dr. Smith and tell him I was complaining to Dr. Grey about my heart. But Dr. Grey says I have pyorrhea in my teeth. So he takes a look at my teeth, and he says, ‘Yes.’ He didn’t take a needle or a picture or what. So, I says, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘If you have pyorrhea in your gums all your teeth must come out.’ Just like that! So, I says, ‘When do I start?’ ‘I’ll take out 4 or 5 now. Here.’ So, like a damn fool, I let him take out 4 or 5 teeth. I come home; the blood is running from me. My husband sees me coming in and says, ‘What happened?’ Oy vey iz mir… woe, woe is to me… and now I had to take out all my teeth. I was 35 years old. Herman asked, ‘Did you have pyorrhea?’ Dora said, ‘Who knew about that? Did I go to another Dr.? Did he took an x-ray?’ Herman said, ‘Well, the thing is, you did go back again. You had to take it over, right?’ Dora said, ‘No, he started already. He took out four or five teeth, so I had him take out all my teeth.’ The next day I went for four, till he took out all my teeth. ‘I believe I had pyorrhea.’
Dora Shooster - When I washed and when I ironed I wasn’t in the store. I was in the base- ment. And I have to run up the stairs when- ever a client comes to the store. From all that running I got varicose veins. My legs were three times the size and the veins. And I thought I’m gonna survive my husband, so I make all the arrangements, they are gonna let me know when they are gonna have a bed. I was still young. So, on a Sunday, Mary comes to visit, and I get a call from the hospital to come in that night. It comes to supper, and we eat supper. Mary goes, “Now Frank you’ll have to take me to the hospital. Frank said, “So, what do you mean, hospital? I told him, I said, “Frank, I’m ashamed. I want to look decent.” I says, “I made up my mind and... Frank said, “How come you didn’t tell me? I made up my mind; it’s 35 dollars. So, he takes me to the hospital, and he pays. I have two daughters-in-law. They came to visit me in the hospital. Frank, didn’t know what to do for me. They were so good, so good to me. They went back to the restaurant to make lunch for me. They wanted to make it there, to put this in it, that in it. I couldn’t eat. I was very sick. So, I’ll never forget Sylvia says, ‘Mother, you wait to get sick to prove to yourself what kind of friends you’ve got in the family.’ She says, ‘Some husband.’ He wasn’t the kind of husband for kissing. You know he didn’t show those... emotions, but in his heart you know he was a devoted man. So two weeks were over, Frank takes me home. Remember the pains? He used to carry me on the bed? Up and down the steps.
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