a three and a half hour trip. When we finally got to a phone – remember no cell phones in those days – and called home, my mother was furious. Fortunately Pearl had already called so we knew she was safe. When we finally got home Sylvia and I actually got down and kissed the ground. I slept at Sylvia’s house that night; I was too tired to drive home after a ten hour drive that should have taken about three and a half hours. Our mother told us, “I sent two daughters out together; I expect them to come home together. I do not appreciate this at all.” THE WAR LABOR BOARD While I was working at Allstate someone told me I could get a better job as a typist for the War Labor Board. After I was there a few months one of the super- visors asked me to dust the conference room. Again with the dusting! I told him that I wasn’t there to dust. That was the end of that chore. Once I returned from lunch to find a huge pile of work on my desk with a note on top that said, “A
with someone else’s unhappiness.” She was right. When I broke up with him he said he would always send me a card every year on my birthday. I got two. Sometimes I would stay late at the War Labor Board office and go directly to the dances at the “Y” which was another organization that hosted dances for servicemen. A young man named Don Berk used to visit a friend of his, Leonard Rosenthal, in the office where I worked. Don was in the Naval Reserve and was studying medicine. One day I stayed late and had brought my dinner with me to work. It was Passover and I wasn’t eating any bread. Don was so impressed that he asked me for a date. FOX FUR AND UNIFORMS Well, I wanted to look good for Don on our date so I borrowed a white fox stole from my girlfriend Pearl Picker who lived right up the street. Don showed up in his Navy Reserve uniform with its braiding and his decorations on his chest. He looked great in that uniform. We went to dinner at a restaurant in Philadelphia owned by a famous Jewish boxer, Lew Tendler, and then to see a movie starring Rita Hayworth, who was absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately I was a little sick and was running a slight temperature and Don thought I should have post- poned our date until I felt better. Then there was the matter of the white fox stole and his blue serge uniform. Aside from the fact that I was overdressed for the occa- sion the white fur and the blue serge were very attracted to each other. Don’s uniform was covered with fur and we had to try to clean it when we got back to my house. He was not happy about it. Don asked me out just once more but I thought he was a great guy. A few years later my mother was
Rush.” I sat down and went to work as fast as I could and finished the job in no time flat. I had become an excellent typist by now. As it turned out the work was from a woman supervisor named Alice Rush. And it wasn’t a rush job at all. Oh well. In our neighborhood the Har Zion Temple would host dances and entertain-
Don Weiss
ment for servicemen. They were held on Tuesday night and hundreds of young people attended. Pearl and I would go often. One evening we heard that a bus load of wounded servicemen was being brought to the dance and we decided to go. I told Pearl that all I hoped for was that I would meet a good dancer. SOMEBODY ELSE’S TROUBLES At the dance I met Don Weiss, who was not only a great dancer but an older, more sophisticated man than most of the others. When he took me to dinner he knew how to order and how to treat a lady. I was introduced to things like filet mignon and mush- rooms. I dated Don Weiss until I found out he was married. My mother had some good advice for me about that experience, she said – “You can’t be happy
in the hospital and her doctor was Don Berk. After she had determined that Don was engaged my mother asked him if he knew a nice boy for Dorothy. I could have crawled into a hole. Of all the things to do to a young woman! I wasn’t exactly desperate! I was horribly embarrassed. Parents sometimes try too hard to do the right thing for their children. I don’t know much more about Don except that he was a very nice guy and that he died far too young.
Eddie Sabreen & Dorothy 22
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