And, now, my family –yes – let me think about them. A warm rush of feeling comes over me when I think about that. What can you say that would be interesting or understandable to people if you said you never heard your parents quarrel- if you said you never heard your parents' voices raised- or if you said you <never heard a cruel word from them. I know it sounds dull. It wasn't. Mom used to have her own personality tricks to create excitement. She was such a beautiful lady, inside and out; a special, pampered, loved and loving woman, yet a little snobbish, and spoiled too. Her main ploy in subduing Dad to her wishes was an attack of an imaginary stomach ailment. She didn't know that she didn't really have to work her wiles on him because he was twisted around her finger at all times, with no effort on her part. Dad had no tricks- no faults, except for the fact that he had no faults. Only once do I remember him getting angry at me, and he slapped me in the face. In truth, it was more a pat than a slap, but I must have done or said something really bad for him to have had that reaction.
Being the youngest of three children, and the only girl had to have some disadvantages. Young ladies never fight, right or wrong, so that put you in your place immediately. We didn't have Women's Lib then. Oh how I needed you, Women's Lib, when my brother Herb hit me over the head with a metal statue, and where were you when he grabbed me by the feet and dragged me across the floor. You weren't picketing for me either when he ordered me to iron his pants, and I did because I knew what was good for me. And how come you were looking the other way when my brother Saul did the cruelest thing to me ever. At that time, besides Gary Cooper, the love of my life was song sheets put out every so often with the words to all the popular and old songs. I treasured these with my life. So, when Saul got angry with me and tore up my song sheets, and threw them down the commode, I cried my eyes out. He knew how to hurt me.
Herb kept the house busy with his friends many a time. He was the man to know. He played saxophone, and had a group that formed a band. They practiced at our house. I can recall another friend used to come over the house and my brother would pull out various sized pots and pans from the pantry. They sang cowboy songs and thumped on the pans in accompaniment. The song that still haunts me is “while I was standing by the window yesterday morning without a thought of worry or of care, I saw a postman coming up the pathway with such a happy face and folly, and handed me a letter edged in black”.
This young man, at fourteen, in his boyscout uniform, left home for the summer to hitch hike across the country. He left with a few friends, who incidentally came home crying the next day. That life wasn't for them. But it wasn't for my brother, He went on alone, sleeping in hobo camps, firehouse, police stations, anyplace he could find. Dad tried to give him money when he left, but he gave it back. From every state he visited, he sent back some soil in an envelope. He saw much of our country. He went again the next two summers. When he came home after the first, I can remember seeing momma cry from happiness and relief. We happened to be on the porch at the time he came walking down the street towards our house. I can also in my mind see Mom cry when he left for the trip. She restrained herself until after he left, so he wouldn't see her cry. He had asked for permission to go and said if my parents would be upset, he wouldn't go. But with unusual wisdom, they knew this was one man who couldn't be restrained. One day he came home and announced that he signed on a tramp steamer to China. Then my mother stuck her chin in the air and said, “No! I didn't stop you when you when across country. When you did this. When you did that. When you joined that. But I am putting my foot down . NO China! It was no China.
I remember once on one of his excursions across the USA, he took a little side trip. He tried to take a canoe up to Alaska, but he was forced to abandon ship somewhere in Canada due to rough waters. Somewhere there is a newspaper clipping.
Another newspaper clipping I must have is when he entered a contest to find a straight man for the comedian Ken Murray. My brother entered the contest as a double talker.. Would you believe it? To this day , I have never heard him double talk. Well. the right people did hear him, because he won the contest. Over 100,000 people originally entered. They actually narrowed the interviews down to 1,000 people. Walter Winchell said that he had a line double talk that beat all the well known double talkers of that time. Herb never got the job that was to be the prize because Harry Richman flew across the ocean with a plane full of golf ball and ping pong balls to gain publicity for his dying career, and Ken Murray put him on as his stooge. By that time, Herb's interest went in other directions.
Before he was 21, he was on his way up, up, up. He left home and had an apartment in New York. But he always stayed a devoted, generous, and loving son, and yes, brother. I owe him many debts of gratitude and have a very deep love for this strong man.
My brother Saul and I were very close. We would confide in each other, and go to each other with our problems. He really didn't have too many friends as a young boy because he was too shy. When company came to the house, Saul would hide under the bed I remember once, he ran away, and we all piled in the car to look for him. We found him in a section of town which at that time was a farm. Now it's a business section. Maybe some day they'll tear it down and make a farm of it again.
As we got a little older, Saul wanted to impress my girlfriends, but he just didn't know how. He didn't realize that lying across the dining room table when my friends came over to visit me, just didn't have the desired effect.
I felt protective toward Saul. He was a sweet boy, and had a very good heart. When Dad needed help in his store, it was Saul who ran to help. It was Saul who went to bring Dad his lunch. I think he loved it. It brought him in to contact with people, which was just what he needed.
When he got old enough to think of a career, Saul felt he wanted to be in business, but it was agreed that he should be a lawyer. He passed the Bar the first time round. Anyhow, Saul the businessman became a lawyer, and poor Saul got a rash and upset stomach every time he had to go to court. He worried about all the reasons why he couldn't win the case, and never why he could win .Well, he struggled along a few years.
It took the terrible illness of his wife Zelda to send him out in to the business world. Zelda developed a severe case of polio, and was not expected to live. When she passed the crisis, he went in to the field which he belonged in the first place. He has made a success of himself financially, and as a man, because he has become a responsible and dependable man. He has overcome the heartache of knowing the woman he loves will never walk again, and that he will never be a father. I have to be in awe of both of them, to see how they have adjusted their lives and their minds to this situation, so that people only see an attractive couple and forget to feel sorry for them.
Dad and Mom had a dress store. I used to sit there for hours on end and watch all those beautiful ladies try on those beautiful dresses. That was the flapper period, and the styles were really something. I had a special job in that store. It was quite an honor. I had a little horseshoe shaped magnet, and I got on the floor and picked up all the straight pins that dropped when someone had a dress fitted. I prayed for the time when I would be old enough to wear those beautiful dresses, but as you can guess, dad sold the store before I was big enough. But, whenever he went to New York to shop for the store, he always brought some dresses for Mom and for me. His taste was unbelievable. Never once did Mom put the dress back in to stock. It was always beautiful and always a perfect fit.
Dad once had a store in which we sold greeting cards, and believe it or not, ladies hats. I never understood that combination. But that was the way it was when he purchased it. In the rear of the shop were all kinds of hat frames, ribbons, and trimmings. I remember Dad, trying to give the salesgirls a little fun, suggested that everyone trim a hat, and the one whose hat was sold first, would get a $5 prize.
We all got busy, and trimmed hats with whatever appealed to us. I was watching Dad out of the corner of my eye. In spite of my of my young age, I was seven at the time, I felt very wise and thought him very unwise and childish. He was putting on everything but the kitchen sink- ribbons, flowers, fruit, and I can still see the purple grapes hanging down over the brim. Well, can you guess what happened? The next customer to come in was a little old lady and her husband. She gravitated right over to Dad's concoction, and said to her husband, “Honey, isn't this a beautiful hat!” Dad won the prize! We all laughed after they left the store. Dad gave the two salesgirls the prize money. After all, it wouldn't do for the employer to reward himself, would it?