Uncle Myron
played both the piano and the saxophone; my father and Uncle Harry also took up
playing the saxophone, because the instrument was already in the house and they wanted
to be like their big brother. Auntie Lee, as was typical of most middle-class daughters,
helped her mother with the cooking, baking and housework, especially after my
18
grandmother became a midwife to help earn extra money for the needs of her growing
brood.
Russian Jews, at that time of history, were fairly diminutive in height, as were most
Europeans. Several studies have traced the growth in height of people between 1900 and
the present; they show that the norm was five-feet-five before WWI. Height numbers
changed during later decades due to advances in medicine and improved economic
circumstances and diets, but no member of my father’s family grew beyond the norm.
Their height, however, did not deter them from accomplishing their goals. In that respect,
they were ten-feet tall.
Music was their passion, especially for my father
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