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my father was born in Russia my mother is a native-born American and my mother was a very heavy young woman although very beautiful and my father was a very small man my mother was not a small woman and they had met prior to World War one and my father was quite taken with her but they only knew each other peripherally he went to war in world war one in order to obtain citizenship he left Russia not to serve in the Czar's or army and he came here and he served in the American army during the time that he was in service he wrote to my
mother my mother wrote to him we found their letters many years after they were gone and it started out dear friend Aaron and it ended up darling Aaron when he came home in 1920 a love affair began they married in 1921 I never saw two more ill-suited people and sequelae had two daughters my father had been gassed in France mustard guests and when he returned he had postpartum whatever you call it and he began going to doctors to the Veterans Administration and they began filling him with pills he never met a pill he didn't like he never gave one up and each one that they
added he added to his collection and took so our childhood was spent with a man that would have I can't turn them fits but it was very volatile did you and your sister become closer oh yes oh yes we were best friends sisters and we protected one another and your mom talk you guys at all about it my mother was the most buttoned-up person that generation was yes if she had ever been able to say what was in her heart I think she would have fallen apart she was a lovely person everyone thought that she was such a lady and she was I had one
aunt who was but she didn't live here she lived first in Akron and then California but I was her favorite and so she would send bits and pieces of things and notes to me and so forth so period and I did not have a very pleasant childhood and as we got a little older we made our own fun so to speak and then I had the opportunity i started to school at four and a half and those years she started in january if he wanted but i might my sister and i were only 20 months apart so when I went to school I was a
year and a half behind her well at elementary school they allowed you to go to summer school and pick up that half year so when I entered high school I became just one year behind her and then most of our friends were the same and so everything was kind of intermingled and we became closer yet in fact my sister they did my husband before I did didn't tell us that I know we didn't he left that for me I they we had a cousin who lived in Sioux City Iowa and they all belong to the some Jewish group I don't recall which one it was
I was too young I was just 14 they were 15 and 16 and they went to Milwaukee and Dave had a date with my sister and that's how he met her and when they came to Sioux City and Dave and I met at my cousin's house he dated my sister again and they got me a date and dave was with me on my first date and he also gave me my first kiss how did you take him away from your sister and I was she with that my sister had a boyfriend in Omaha and when they brought me a postcard from the Black Hills were
he and his boyfriend's went on and they had dropped one of the boys sisters with us and he wrote a post card and on the bottom it said PS Jerry wait for me so Harriet said oh that's great I'll go back I want to go back and and have a date with Bob I have a date with Bob on the weekend I called my father and asked if I could stay a little longer because every every summer we spent two weeks with my cousin in Sioux City Iowa and he said yeah I could stay you know because I took the bus back it didn't make
any difference and I waited for and when he came back he kissed me on their porch and he scared me and I ran in the house and us three girls were all sharing the same bed and I dived in the bed and I missed the bed and I hit the floor and I woke the house and everybody came running to see what was wrong so that's how I really came to write him every day so no did your sister wind up with Bob no she didn't but she was okay that you wound up with she was delighted she always adored him she called him her
brother we were extremely close now you guys were married and he was in the service is there a fear that you had going that he might have to go overseas you know I was 19 years old and I didn't worry about it I was so thrilled to be married to be out of my house to be with the man that I really fantasized about and loved five years of writing letters every single day and getting them fairly often in return I felt that I knew him and to this day I love the man oh I wanted to leave no walking do you know what it's
like to live in a flat with seven people and one bathroom especially when your bed is in the dining room and everybody's walking back and forth what was the happiest time in your life probably the happiest time of my life was at my youngest grandson wedding when I had my children my grandchildren my sister's children all together in one place you remember the first time you got a television set oh do I it was in Leavenworth Kansas and we got our bonus from the government and we we got a Dumont was beautiful and all the neighbors came and we set up folding chairs and it
was like a theater and the screen was this big how do you remember when your family always have a telephone in the house you were growing up yes was it a party line no was Jackson two four six eight but when you pick that up the phone there was nobody else sherry know we always had a private line okay we had no problem with like Dave's family because my father was a hundred percent handicapped from the war and every month he got a check plus he had the forethought to take out an insurance policy that paid him so much a month for a disability so
we did not feel that pinch like they've spam they did and we always had a car a Chevrolet now in your lifetime you've lived through so many momentous occasions of course world war two JFK assassination Martin Luther King assassination the moon landing in 69 something good the tragedy of 911 is there something on the national scene that just stood out in your mind that you remember exactly where you were what you were doing I remember December 7th 1941 and so it's yesterday did you hear Roosevelt on the radio I was sitting in Central High auditorium I was 15 years old and I listened to his
speech it's very time it was like the world was falling apart like a puzzle it was just cracking you and David have the two boys and the four grandkids what advice does grandma have for the next generation for my grandsons I would say stay with what your heart tells you is right and for my granddaughters i'm going to say just be happy and know yourselves and do what you makes you happy if you can't be happy nobody can you make happy pretty nice good job thanks for doing this
