She and her husband, my Uncle Jake, had a tiny row house. They had three children, Marty, Ruthie and Fran (Fagie), from nine to three years old. We added my parents and four more kids, my brother Marvin, my sister Pearl, me, and our infant brother, Allen, who slept in a baby carriage all the time we lived there. Uncle Jake’s mother also lived with us. Can you imagine? Twelve people in that little house! With one small bathroom! And all the kids still little. I could tell by the expression on Uncle Jake’s mother’s face that she wasn’t exactly thrilled to have us all there.
SADIE AND LIL
GRANDMA MARY AND SHVITZ
A SPECIAL DISH
Once we all got impetigo, a contagious skin disease that gave you ugly pimples all over your face. When we played in the street the other kids ran away from us. With so many kids in one place in tight living conditions with neighborhood kids who were in similar circumstances it is easy to imagine how lice would be a social problem. Any child scratching his head would be immediately subjected to an inspection by an adult. Aunt Lil and my mother were very close. They talked together every day before going to work; even years later they would sit in the kitchen and talk with their arms around each other and still talked on the phone at 6 AM every morning. I remember Aunt Lil offering to buy me a big, fat, salted pretzel from a street vendor. You put mustard on them and they were supposed to be delicious. But I was still a terrible eater and I turned it down. It cost a penny then, when a penny could still buy something. I just didn’t want it. Today I would love one but the other day in a shopping mall I saw some at a stand and the price was $4.00 – that’s some increase.
My Grandma Mary was my moth- er’s mother. She had three sisters that I know of – Tanta Sania, Tanta Hennia, and one more whose name escapes me. She also had a brother named Hemia. There may have been others I don’t know about. When we were little all the women and kids would go to a tradi- tional Russian-Jewish steam bath to shvitz. That means to sit in the steam bath and sweat. It is more than that – it is a special social occasion at which my mother, Sadie, her mother, Mary, her aunts, Sania and Hemia, and her sisters, Lena and Katie, plus us kids would have a picnic in the steam bath. The women would bring food and play music and dance. Tante Sania played the violin and Tante Hennia played the tambourine. I don’t think such plac- es exist any more but they are a fond memory for me. The women absolutely had the best of times when they would go there. It was a big, happy celebra- tion for them.
I was very thin when I was a little girl. I just did not like to eat. It was the least important thing to me. My moth- er was not a great cook – so that may have had something to do with it. But there were a few dishes no one could make as well as she could – kreplach was one of them. These tiny triangular dumplings stuffed with ground beef were her specialty. They were delicious. It took her all day to make them so we didn’t get them very often; they were served with hot chicken soup. Her spaghetti on the other hand was plain noodles with a can of Del Monte toma- to sauce. Her hot cereal was lumpy and made with scalded milk with an awful scum on top from the heating. Not so good. We lived at Aunt Lil’s and Uncle Jake’s for many months until my parents found a small row house of our own to rent at, 2512 North Natrona Street. The area was a mostly a poor working class Jewish community. The row houses were all attached to each other – in a row. There was no lino- leum on the floors just bare wood. The Natrona house was about eight blocks from Aunt Lil’s. NATRONA STREET
Sania playing the violin
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