Forever Torn

C15: The Late 30's (1/2)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Late 30's

Now that Harry and his grandfather were alone, Smeras' daughter Janey begged the old man to move in with her and her family in Rushmore Road. At first Smeras resisted but the fight that he put up was so unconvincing that the pair were installed with the Foxes less than a week after Janey had first suggested they come to live there.

Four of Janey's daughters were still living at home; Mary the eldest was married to a man named Max and they lived elsewhere.

Next was Bessie who was not long turned 23 and he got on with her very well, although some part of his heart silently told his subconscious that she was no Lily, but it had been over a decade since he'd seen his dearest cousin and these days she wrote once in a while and he thought of her once in a while. Life went on, especially when you were a teenager.

Bessie was nice to talk to however, although he only really felt the need once in a blue moon and the next eldest sister used to drive him from the house. Rosie was 19 and had inherited her mother Jane's strength of character but while Aunt Janey's was tempered with kindness and character, her daughter was just bossy and she thought she could tell her cousin Harry what he should do – he was after all younger but as Harry saw it, less than a few years, so what, he asked, was Rosie's problem?

One gradual change in late 1938 was that without Frade's strong insistence, Harry wasn't so religious.

Well it was not that he believed less than in years before – it was just that he had his life to live and ritual had never been too important to him after the age of 13. Some traits he had carried on to his late teens because of his Grandmother – she would insist on him laying teffilin every morning although she knew nothing would compel him to go to work looking like anything other than a boy from the East End.

With Frade passed, Harry slipped further from his grandmother's standards and sometimes Smeras would shake his head and say 'oy' and sit in the kitchen telling his daughter and granddaughters

'What are you going to do with this younger generation?'

Harry worked on Saturdays because as he saw it, that was the way of the world and he would irritably tell his Zaida he had no time for teffilin most mornings.

Rosie, who was probably no more observant than her cousin or sisters, liked to use this circumstance as a weapon against Harry so she could tell him to do what she thought he should do and Harry argued back, because HE didn't see what business it was of Rosie's to tell him anything.

A typical evening at dinner:

Rosie: 'Harry, so you're too busy with this fabulous hat making job to go to shul these days? And Zaida all alone in the world since Booba has gone.'

Harry: 'All alone, says who. I count nine of us around this table (As well as the Fox family, Smeras and Harry, their cousin Hymie – Harry's good friend and son of Smeras' niece Frayda – who gave Orcik the name Harry back in 1930 – was often around for a meal) eating Auntie's cooking and let me say Auntie, how lovely it is.'

Aunt Janey: 'Thank you Harry. Rosie you mind your tongue and eat.'

Rosie: 'But Mama, Zaida won't say anything. He should not have anyone to talk for him while Harry breaks his heart and plays the Gunser Macher!? (big man)'

Uncle Joe: 'You be quiet girl, I won't have you talk that way – Harry does a man's work, and he should be made to feel bad at dinner when he should be relaxing?'

Aunt Janey: 'What, and we women just sit and do nothing all day!? How do you think the meal is here waiting for you after a day's work. Maybe you think it just appears here!'