Grandma's Life, well at least some of it.....

My Grandma, my sister and me.

My father only made 50 cents an hour. He worked in a coal mine. It’s the job he was assigned when he came to Pennsylvania. In his home country, he was somewhat of an accountant. He had a wonderful way with numbers. All his math was done in his head. He was a very smart man and came from a smart family. His brother was comparable to an attorney in Yugoslavia. He was also made to work in the coal mines. Immigration didn’t care what you were “over there”. They gave you the job that needed filling. Because the immigrants didn’t speak English, they were thought to be stupid.

There were seven kids in our family. The oldest kids got the new clothes. When the clothes got too small for them, they passed it down to the younger siblings. And everybody was different from the other. That’s what kept us going and drove our parents crazy. We were all individual, with our own ideas, weaknesses and strengths.

We only one pair of shoes because we couldn’t afford to go to the store often. You took care of what you had.  All the fathers had shoe kits. If any of the soles broke off, they could put them back together. One of my jobs was to shine my father’s shoes. I didn’t mind doing this. But the shoes had to be perfect. I would spit shine them. I spit on the shoes and rubbed it in until they were shining and clean.

Some of us, like Aunt Julie and Aunt Millie liked school. And some of us, like my brother Tom and ME, hated it. When our school burned down, my father thought that I had something to do with it. I didn’t. But I can say that I wasn’t sorry to see it go.

We walked to school. Both ways. Every day. It was at least a mile away. And even though we didn’t have a phone, somehow our mother always found out if we didn’t make it there. And we’d catch hell when we got home. I started school at the age of 6. 1^st thru 3^rd grades were on the 1^st floor. We received a report card at the end of our 3^rd year. If we passed, we got to go up the stairs to grades 4^th thru 6^th. It was very exciting for us to go up the stairs with the big kids.

The government gave you a book for rations. We had to ration everything because of the war. Many factories and businesses stopped making common goods and started to manufacture things needed for the war and for the soldiers.  There was only so much in your ration book. You had to make it go a long way for a long time.

Everyone had gardens.  They were called victory gardens. We, and all our neighbors, grew the vegetables and fruits we needed. These came about because all commercial transportation was used to move the troops and munitions overseas for the war. Everyone took half of their lawns to grow vegetables because you could not buy them at the store and food products were not transported. Everybody had chickens and ducks. They would lay eggs. What wasn’t used up in the summer and fall was preserved in some way to get us through the winter months. My mother made all our breads, noodles, cookies, pies and anything else that could be baked. On Saturday’s, she would make about 15 loaves of bread to get us through the week.  Grandma was the one that killed and butchered the poultry. Nothing went to waste. The meat was used for dinners, the bones and skins for broths, the feathers for pillows and the wings were used for basting. We had that much anyway.

But we were happy playing together. I think there where 42 kids on our block. We made all our own toys and made up games because we could not buy them. We made our own baseballs by putting a bunch of paper together with black tape. We used to make a big circle on the ground to play marbles. Everybody had their special marble. You got mad when someone won your marble and had to try hard to win in it back. In the winter, we borrowed our father’s big shovels. They were used instead of sleds to sled down the big hills. One of our favorite hills ended at the train tracks. A friend of ours dared to travel down the hill when a train was coming. He made it to the other side of the tracks just in time. In other words, we made our own entertainment.

There were good movies out about WWII.  I used to sell newspapers to pay to go to the movies. I had regular customers that would buy them from me. As I got older, my family bought me a used bike to make it easier. I only wanted to make 10 cents a week.  I used that money to go to movies. I still love movies.

During the war, all the men were gone. There weren’t many men left to play baseball. So, they made women’s leagues.  I loved baseball and was good at it. A baseball scout saw me and offered me a job on a baseball team! My father wouldn’t give his permission. Imagine how different my life would have been.

At 9 o’clock we had curfew. We had to put our black out window shades down so no lights would shine out.  If any planes flew past, they would not see our houses. They had wardens. If you weren’t off the street, then they chased you off the street.

A month before Christmas, we started cleaning. The house had to be spotless. My mother made all the Christmas goodies from scratch. She would save on rations during the year in order to have enough saved up to bake. Cookies, breads, rolls, pies. Everything was placed on the back porch to stay fresh for the big day. Everyone was poor because of the depression. We could not afford a tree. We had kind neighbors that where Catholic.  They celebrated on December 25^th. But because we were Russian Orthodox, we celebrated on January 7^t.h. When they were done with their tree, they gave it to us. Now, when it came closer to Christmas Eve, we were all exited. We would sit in the living room looking at the undecorated tree and tell each other stories. On Christmas Eve night, we would hang up our stocking on our bed and while we were asleep, my mother would to decorate the tree. When we woke up, we woke up to a decorated tree and little gifts in our stocking. Though we were poor, and Grandma made our gifts they were very special to us. One year, you won’t believe this, but my gift was a doll made from clothes pins. And I think my brother got a little car. Then we all had to get washed and dress nicely to go to church. When we came home from church, the table was filled with delicious cookies and cakes and dinner. It was a feast. In the early evening, my cousins would come, and we would sing Christmas carols. We would play this game as we sat on the couch. We looked at an ornament and we had to guess what ornament the person was looking at. The next day the choir from the church would come and sing carols There where three men that where like the three wise men. They kissed all the girls on the cheek.

That’s about it. I have lots more stories to tell. But it takes too much time.