Recollections of Grandma

By Ellen

I'm trying hard to remember. I remember Grandma teaching me curses - like "gezinta hay" - go to hell - and my mother was mad at Grandma for teaching me phrases like that. What else? Grandma told me she was dragged out of her house and made to watch the Cossacks murder her brother. Mom used to tell me how unhappy she and her brothers and sisters were if Grandma had company for dinner, because there wasn't much left over after the company left. Mom remembers eating a lot of potatoes, day-old bread and day-old lettuce when she was growing up. She said she was on the heavy side from all the potatoes. Mom also told me a lovely story about Grandma that I recall vividly. One day, Grandma happened to look out her window and noticed a black woman standing at the bus stop. It was pouring, and Grandma ran out to give the woman a rain coat, asking that she remember to return the coat. Mom supposed that the woman returned the coat the next day. I have a memory of Uncle May, though I don't remember which occasion it was. It was a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, as I recall, and Uncle May was beaming, as usual. He said to me, "Whoever thought that there would come a time when we could afford to feed all these people," and he was obviously elated about it. Of course, I remember Uncle Howard's cookouts, Aunt Lubah's marble cakes, and Uncle Julius' crab feasts. I remember once Uncle Howard had a serious accident. He was at Peck Iron, and he walked under an electric magnet crane, just as the crane dropped its load. He wore a neck brace for a long time, but evidently recovered. My father used to joke that the pile of metal that fell on "Rube's neck was badly mangled."

When we were growing up, we had to drink milk every night, even if we had meat for dinner. Dad let us have a soft drink only once a week. One night, Mom gets a call from Aunt Lubah that Grandma is in town and will soon be over. (I don't recall if Grandma was living in Baltimore or Richmond at the time.) There we were with meat on our plates and milk in our glasses. My mother turned white. Like a flash, she poured the milk back into the milk carton and had cokes in our glasses seconds before Grandma walked through the door. I was struck by the fact that an adult who was both a wife and a mother was afraid of her own mother.

I remember my Mom telling me that as they grew up, they all had chores to do. Rose would rather do other things, and often paid my mother to do her chores and Rose's chores. Maybe check with Gloria, Susee or Steve about this. Also, Rose and my mother were on the track team at school.