Everything But Money by Sam Levenson

Author:Sam Levenson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504038126
Publisher: Open Road Distribution
Published: 2016-05-09T16:00:00+00:00

I was about twelve years old when it was decided to leave the old tenement and move to a better apartment in Brooklyn—the suburbs. Sister Dora was already married and living there, and Joe, Jack and David were married, too. All felt it would be easier for Mama. Mama put up a fight against the move. She quoted an old proverb: “To a worm in horseradish, the horseradish seems sweet.” She came up with a set of arguments against progress:

1. “You can’t bake a decent cake in a gas range, only in a coal stove. Coal gives the healthiest heat. And what am I going to do with all the stove polish? Throw it out?”

2. “From steam heat you get sinus trouble, radiators knock and keep you up all night, and boilers explode. I read in the paper about a mother and eight children—blown to pieces.”

3. “Here we have a nice fire escape and a roof. In Brooklyn where will the children play? In the yard? They can get hurt there. I read in the papers …”

4. “Brooklyn is full of cemeteries. So you can’t wait for me to close my eyes. Such children! Tell the truth! The doctor told you to take me to Brooklyn? Now I understand. Soon you’ll read in the papers …”

I shall never forget Mama’s anguish as she watched each piece of furniture being carried out of the apartment, parts of our lives plucked up indifferently by strange men and thrown onto a truck. What used to be a home was before her eyes becoming just a house again, and the scenes of our family history just rooms. As she moved about from room to room she relived these scenes. Right here next to this faded wallpaper was where Sammy had had pneumonia, and this was the room where Jack and Joe had studied for so many years. A room once filled with so much hope and driving ambition would soon be occupied by strangers who wouldn’t even care. Jack had married Florence in this same front room where in the summer time the boys had made an orchestra, Jack on the fiddle, David, Mike and Joe mandolins, Bill on the uke, and Al and myself as the enthusiastic apprentices. The sudden transition from the familiar past into the unpredictable future was too much for Mama. She raised the window and looked out into the damp, dark courtyard and did what she always did when under great emotional stress. She talked to herself: “Where am I going to? What am I lacking here? So many good, loyal friends, to leave them all behind. Why? Let me remain here.”

Mama was the last one to leave the apartment. As a final gesture of respect for her old home she washed the floors.

When we got downstairs the women were all waiting. Some turned their faces away, others wept unashamedly. “Good luck! Good luck! May it all be for the best. Be well, and may your children bring you joy.

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