FOOLING AROUND
Herman (7)
Dora Shooster - One day Herman (6) says to his friend Sonny, ‘When my mother comes around town, tell her I’m not here.’ So, Sonny was from a Jewish man, an ice-cream salesman. His mother, she didn’t have a husband, and Sonny came along, and this Jewish man supported all of them. She used to clean the movie theater, too, remember? So, I go in. I knock on the door. I says, ‘Sonny, where’s Herman? How come you’re here, and Herman is not?’ Sonny says, ‘I don’t know.’ I went home. I look at Rosenblatt’s; I asked his boyfriends. I started thinking some- body stole him. They had him under the bed. Herman was laying under the bed at Sonny’s. HERMAN AS A STUDENT Dora Shooster- Herman was alright as a student. A kid, when he’s first starting has got to have some kind of help in the house. So, I had a neighbor help. I used to crochet for her so she should help him out, but it helped me out more. Whatever I could read, I learned from her. She used to come in and make the lessons with him, and whatever she didn’t finish I had to do it. So, I learned English. Now, I read, and I know what I am reading.
VARNISHING THE FLOOR
Dora Shooster - I took a vacation to Atlantic City for the day. So, I says, to Izzy and Harry, ‘When you come home you have to cut the grass and weed the garden.’ We had beautiful trees. ‘And Herman, you’re going to watch the furniture. Don’t let no boyfriends in here and everything should be just so.’ The boys said, ‘All right, mother, all right.’ I think as soon as I went away they started to say, ‘Yeah!’ It’s very easy to slide. They had the best time. Then they saw the mess they made. So Herman brought up furniture polish or at least that is what he thought he was bringing up. Oy, I come home. Oh, my G-d, it’s varnish, you can’t take it off! He varnished the furniture! So I called Frank, ‘You told me to go to Atlantic City and now...’ Herman Shooster - Not the furniture! The furniture I put something out of a bottle, a wax or something. I was trying to do some- thing nice for her
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