FMW ENR Ey TI TY Page A10 by Sylvia S. Cutler Back in the early part of this century, a little girl of eight or thereabouts was trudging from the village of Yanov hard by the Bug (pronounced ‘‘Book’’) River in the Russian Ukraine, along a lonely road to the next village; to sell a bag of salt for her mother. The child, Gittel, was entrusted with this adult task because her mother, Esther Zivia, and her younger sister, Rooshka, had been left alone on their small farm so that their father, Zelig, could seek his fortune in America, and with hard work and hope, bring his family to the promised land where could be found milk and honey, and gold in the streets. As she entered the village, so did a horde of horsemen on their steeds, shooting, burning, raping and pillaging. Villagers fell under their gunfire, and terrified, the child buried herself under a pile of bodies. There she lay until all was still, and night had fallen. Then, sait unsold, she crept tearfully and terrified home to her mother. Zelig was gone for years. In the meantime, the girls grew up, and at 35, the mother died. The older daughter, then about 16, took it upon herself to get a passport and a visa so that she and her sister could go to America. To that end she traveled to Bucharest, Romania, alone, where she registered in a hotel and stayed until she could get her papers. Where Rooshka was all this time is unknown. Returning to Yanov, Gittel sold the cottage, the farm, the livestock (their father had raised black lambs for their “fur’’...Persian lambs, for he had also been a capmaker), the furniture, their treasured feather pillows, and tucking their cash tied in a handkerchief in their bosoms, they set out for America. What they were leaving was a modest cottage with a floor of cow dung. a stove with a ‘reservoir’, a feather bed, some modest furniture, and not much else. Of opportunity there was none: Girls were not educated. Even boys of poor homes were not educated. Only the wealthy went to school. The only thing of value that remained was friends, a hand- some beau in the Russian Ar- my, and memories of a poor and painful childhood, plus the fear of being killed by the Cossacks the Bolsheviks, or others hell- bent on genocide. Gittel remembered going across the Dnieper River (or was it Dniester) in a rowboat at night. She would never speak of the experience. They traveled across Europe together: with one passport between them, Gittel had lied about her age, making herself older and her sister younger, + because passports cost money, of which they had little. During the course’ of the journey, after they boarded the boat for America, they met an older couple, Fishel and his wife. Fishel was a bearded man, and his wife wore a babushka. They had a number of children--Duvid, Yonkel, Mintza, Hasya, and Shiya. Gittel and Shiya were attracted to each other. Fishel and his wife (Sura?) took the lonely children under their wing and watched over them until they arrived at Ellis Island. Once in America, Gittel and Rooshka found their father had re-married, and his wife, Mary, was a modern ‘American’ woman with a lovely figure, bobbed hair and a flapper look. Zelig was working as a cap- maker in Philadelphia, and they had a house on Cambridge Street. Rooshka was a beautiful girl who was more interested in wearing pretty clothes, gazing into a mirror, and flirting with beaux, than doing anything else. But Gittel went to work in a factory. Eventually, at a party in the home of a ‘‘cuzina’ (cousin), Gittel met Shiya again. They began courting, attending parties at the home of relatives, going to ‘‘tay-ater” (theatre), and walking the streets of Philadelphia. When Shiya, who worked in a grocery store on Second Street, began earning $7 a week, he proposed marriage, was accepted, and announced the news to his family, who were not too happy to be losing the earnings of their youngest son. Even though Shiya’s parents had owned a ‘‘department store’’ in Kiev and had some as- sets, they were extremely penurious. Many a time Shiya had been punished for grabbing a handful of nuts or eating some “smetana’’ (sour cream) while hiding in the cellar. Gittel, too, had gone hungry many a time, and in the trek ‘across Europe had often eaten raw pumpkins or raw potatoes. America was indeed the golden land. At least they had enough to eat. They married, opened their own ALL FLAVORS REGULAR SAVE Fast Service 675-5121 $1.52 $1.69 17° Easy Parking 675-3366 “recitled’”’ my poetry, she PIZZA would tell me, and the ‘“‘odiens’’ ! “apploded’”’”. 1 made ‘Trost’ beef, and ‘‘noodls’’. I always 692 MEMORIAL HWY. they can read these words and FEATURING know my gratitude and love. They did, indeed, give us Seafood America! Steaks Homemade Italian Food Today their oldest their college. These reminiscences came Tears clouded my Photo by Alex Rebar many friends from Shiya had attended ‘‘gym- Yet « she It is with diseases of the mind as with diseases of the body, we are half dead before we under- stand our disorder, and half cured when we do. in Yiddish, —Colton The drama class of the Back Mountain Cultural Center recently visited two local community theatres. They attended a rehearsal of ‘‘Rumplestilskin’’ at. Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre and experienced the arena stage of Showcase Theatre in Wilkes- Barre. Above, left to right, first row, are: Bobby Stair, Denise Grabenstetter, Holly Carson, Maureen Johns, Randa Fahmy, Keily Aikens, Dawn Campbell and Debra School. A Greenstreet News Co. 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Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers