From: BSalt < BSalt@aol.com >
Date: March 6, 1998
Subject: Grandma’s Story – Roots For Doron
Dear Doron:
This will be more than you need or even want to know, but you can use what is most interesting to you. It gave me the chance to remember some things I haven’t thought about for a long time.
My story is a bit different from Grandpa’s. My grandparents were the same ages as Grandpa’s parents, probably because Grandpa was the youngest child in his family and I was the oldest child in my family.
My grandparents were George and Annie (Norvick) Meyer and Sam and Lena (Hauft) Radman. All of them came to America in the 1890’s when they were 8-10 years old. George came from a shtetl near Pinsk. Annie came from the city of Kiev. Sam also came from Kiev and Lena came from Kharkov. All these places are in Russia. Each couple met in America and chose each other to marry.
George came with his father and two older brothers. His father’s name was Ephraim Meir Bokelchuk which got changed to Frank Meyer. They settled in Baltimore. His father and mother were divorced. George’s name was Hershel Zvi. He chose the name George because he thought it sounded very American. Annie came with her parents. She had a sister and three brothers. As a young child in America she worked in a clothing factory pulling out basting threads. She never went to school. This family also settled in Baltimore. George was a milk wagon driver and met Annie when he delivered milk to her home. They married on March 5, 1903. George was 18 and Annie was 20. Their first child was Leonard (my father) born in Baltimore on Dec. 3, 1903. In 1908 they moved to Richmond Virginia. They had three more sons and one daughter. In Richmond George operated a grocery store. He became a butcher and went into the meat business, buying big sides of beef, cutting them up and selling smaller pieces to grocery stores. All his sons eventually helped him in this business. George died in 1926 at age 49 from cancer. Leonard became the “Boss” of the business. One remarkable thing about George is that he taught himself to read and write through “correspondence” courses and had a very beautiful handwriting. A year before he died his arm had to be amputated because of the cancer. How very sad and painful this must have been for him. When he died the children were 15, 17, 19, 21 and 23.
The families of Sam and Lena settled in New York City. Lena had two sisters and two brothers. Sam had 10 brothers and one sister. They met and married in NY where their first child, a son and then a daughter, Ruth (my mother) were born. They also moved to Richmond Virginia (around 1910) because Sam was offered a job there as a tailor. In Richmond two more daughters were born. Lena ran a dry goods store for a few years. Then Sam and Lena ran a grocery store together until the end of World War II.
My mother, Ruth, was a very good student. She skipped several grades and graduated from High School when she was 15, the same year as her older brother! He then became a pharmacist. The younger sisters became nurses. Leonard only went to High School until he was 14 and could legally “drop out.” He had to go to work to help support his family. But while he was in High School he learned to play the clarinet in the HS Band. Ruth helped her parents in the grocery store. She met Leonard when he delivered meat from his butcher shop to the grocery store. They married in 1926 when Ruth was 19 and Leonard was 23. I was born in 1929 and my brother, Buddy (Herbert) was born in 1933.
I was the first grandchild for both families. My favorite childhood memory is learning to read the aleph bet from my grandfather, Sam. He taught it to me from the Yiddish newspaper. I was 13 years old when WWII started. I graduated from HS in 1946 when it was over. During the war my friends and I rolled bandages every week for the Red Cross. My father planted a huge vegetable garden (called Victory Gardens) in our entire back yard. Buddy and I had to help with it and with chickens which we kept in the garage. My mother (Nana) used to preserve what we raised. We also saved and squashed tin cans and made balls out of the silver wrappers from chewing gum to turn into the government for war equipment. I do not remember being very affected by the war. I remember my Grandma Lena crying over the news of what was happening to the Jews in Europe but didn’t understand it very well. Like teenagers of all times, I was absorbed with my school work and my friends, dancing the jitterbug and the lindy to the music of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, and all the other “Big Bands” and “swooning” over Frank Sinatra.
I always liked to write poems and stories so I chose to go to Syracuse Univerisity (in New York State) to the School of Journalism. Nana’s sister lived in Syracuse so I had wonderful relatives nearby while I was in college. I was the first child in my generation to go to college. I loved my years in college and got a great education. I also met Grandpa there as he tells in his story.
A hundred years ago my great-grandparents left their parents to come to America 3000 miles away. My grandparents and my mother and father (your great-grandparents) remained near their parents all their lives. When I got married I moved over 500 miles away from my parents. Your mom moved over 6000 miles away from her parents. This is true for many Jewish families in this century. You are now in the homeland of us all. Though we are separated by many miles, we can, thanks to the telephone and the airplane, stay close and see each other from time to time, which our ancestors could not do. May we always stay connected to our homeland, to our brave and adventurous ancestors and to one another.
I love you and am very proud of you.
Grandma