From The Old Country
My wife and I attended a delightful dinner party over the weekend. We didn’t know the hostess, but were taken, with her approval, by friends of ours with whom we had a long-standing date.
The home we visited was extremely picturesque, set on a slight hill overlooking a large pond surrounded by beautiful gardens and woods. There were fourteen people for dinner. After drinks and hors d’oeuvres in the garden, we retreated to the house and a beautifully set table in the dining room. Sunflowers, Victorian silver condiments, blue Bristol water and wine glasses, half a dozen candles in their holders, and dark blue and gold china adorned the formal table.
The group were elderly, hence the formality of the evening, but I suppose my wife and I fall into that category as well. The guests included a retired State Senator, a former Mayor of a local town, an eminent retired trial lawyer, and experts on model trains!
Conversation covered a wide range of subjects, but I must confess I took advantage of the opportunity to “plug” my recent novel, “Bear Any Burden.” Explaining that my main character’s family had left the poverty and persecution of southern Poland in he 1890’s to start a new life in Dundee Scotland, a number of guests talked about their own family histories.
A lady of Hungarian background spoke about her father, who had been in the Hungarian Army during the First World War, but with the collapse of Austro-Hungarian Empire and the economic disaster that had followed for both Austrians and Hungarians, he’d been encouraged to move to the United States by her grandparents who were not very keen on his courting her mother, believing he had no prospects.
Her mother also had an elder brother who was a gambler and “man about town.” He was considered to be the “black sheep” of the family and was also encouraged to go the United States. They sailed to New York together, with the gambler insisting that he travel in First Class, and much to the horror of this lady’s father, he announced on arrival that he would stay at the Plaza Hotel along with some of the passengers, he had met on the journey. This was too much for her father, who immediately moved to New Jersey where he got a job as a waiter. The “black sheep” however, had met a Baltimore businessman who had taken a liking to him, and offered him a job. He moved to Baltimore, eventually acquiring the business of his mentor, and became very successful and wealthy, achieving the true American dream.
She admitted that her father really never had much drive and ambition and said that one of his ideals that he oft quoted, would be to own a large apple orchard. In the winter, there would be nothing to do, so he could read and listen to music. For most of the spring and summer, the apples would grow. He would spend a few weeks harvesting and packing and then go back to his books. Maybe he was right. Satisfaction and balance in one’s life is “success.”
Against the objections of her grandparents, her mother, followed him to the U.S. and at the age of 20, married the waiter. Despite being more ambitious and pushy, her mother never succeeded in driving her father to reach for more ambitious goals. She described her mother as a Hungarian beauty, flirtatious and charming, but very strict and cold to her children.
This intriguing little story was quickly matched by some others. The grandfather who had moved from Lithuania to the U.S., bringing with him his knowledge of printing. Realizing that all Hebrew prayer books were expensively printed in Europe and shipped to the U.S., he saw an opportunity for U.S. printing and production and created the first and most successful printing business of Jewish prayer and other books.
Or the story of the grandfather from Poland, who couldn’t speak a word of English, arrived in New York, where a ticket to Boston awaited him so as he could meet up with family cousins. He took the train which stopped at Falls River, Massachusetts; and, for some reason, he got off at that station, found himself a job, and stayed there for the rest of his life.
There are of course a million immigrant stories – each one of hope, courage, success, and sometimes tragedy.
These stories and the people behind them are part of the great quilt of diversity of the United States.
Ellis M. Goodman, author of Bear Any Burden: www.bearanyburden.com
