A history as told by Sarah Eva (Sally) Roth, August 17, 1987

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I can remember being sick and at night they pushed my crib in the doorway between Mum and Dad’s room and Harry’s and mine….probably so they could hear me if I cried. In the morning, they discovered that I had suffered a Bell’s Palsy. Probably had been running a high fever and was in a draft during the night. That has been a life-time nemesis. Other children can be so cruel when they see something abnormal. I think I was a difficult child, spoiled, I think. I could always see Mum favoring Harry and when she tried to discipline me by ignoring my whining, she would call me “Krumeh Moihl” (crooked mouth). How very cruel. Their knowledge of raising children left much to be desired, in the early years.

They did try to remedy the situation. I remember Mum taking me to several doctors. I remember her massaging my face every night and I remember a specialist telling her that when I reached my teens they would operate on me. That was my salvation, to reach my teens.

I didn’t realize how fortunate I was until I became aware that the port-wine stain in my ear could have been on my face. That stain became the thermometer for Mum….if it was very red….I was sick.

The minute it became known that I was sick, I became ravenously hungry….otherwise….I was a very poor eater….skinny as a rail….sickly. Mum would sneak cream into my milk, tonics were forced down my throat, milkshakes were poured in, egg-nogs and what have you. I always had a sick feeling. Not until we moved here and not too many years ago, was it discovered that I was extremely allergic to milk and all dairy products.

Our next move was “The Move” …. Dad and cousin Simon Horovitz (later changed to Harvey), Dad’s nephew, his sister Chaneh’s son, went into partnership and bought a grocery store….1042 Brushton Avenue….our first all gentile area. The neighborhood people, mostly moderate income earners. Quite a few employed at the Westinghouse plant, E. Pittsburgh, about one-half hour by a street-car. I think there was a Ford plant not too far away. Some white collar workers, some quite poor, of course, and a rather sizeable colored population straight up Brushton Hill.

Dad went in on borrowed money, of course.

Shall pick this saga up after dealing with the Weiner branch.

To my knowledge …. there was a family …. Haledetz …. very early on in Russia. They were dealers in Lumber. For many generations they were suppliers to the Czars. Quite a feat since they were Jewish.

A Czar was so pleased with his supplier that he rewarded him with a section of land. Another tremendous feat since Jews were not permitted to own property.

The supplier, Haledetz, being a wealthy man, built a compound on one section of the land. A grand house for him and his wife, another for each of his married children and their families, and for his brothers and sisters and their families. Thus began the village of Schedrin.

For their comfort and needs, the Haledetz clan needed seamstresses, tailors, shoemakers, maids, cooks, etc., so they brought in all the trades people, established them on the far side of the property. Zaydeh Weiner was a distant relative of the Haledetz and an expert tailor of furs and so he and his pride came to Schedrin . Thus there were two separate sections of the community … one called der haif … where the wealthy lived, and the workers section.

Zaydeh was Yesef Chaim … Bohbe was Esther Chayeh.

Something is running through my mind that Bohbe had been married before … a match marriage … and after the ceremony when she discovered that her husband was an old man, she ran away and the marriage was never consummated. Lucky for us that we werent Catholic!!!

Dad told another story … Bohbes father, a very very old man lived with them for a long time. One Saturday he just couldnt get warm enough. He sat in the little alcove near the stove but that wasnt sufficient and so Bohbe fixed him one glass of tea after another … fifteen in all … and he died. He must have floated into Heaven… Then there was the story of Dads great-great-grandfather and great-great-grandmother who were so young when they were married that after the ceremony they went outside to play in a mud puddle.

Anyway … Bohbe and Zaydeh had children … between each one that lived there was usually one who died. No such thing in those days as Birth control, or prevention. Before I enumerate the children …another statement. Dad said their house was very comfortable, quite large, containing a work-room where Zaydeh employed a few workmen. Always plenty of food and no traveler was ever turned away from their door. They were fed well and sheltered for the length of their stay. The townspeople considered Bohbe and Zaydeh to be affluent.

Dad said that Bohbe was an excellent cook and baker and he remembered that on holidays such as Passover or Rosh Hashonah, she would work so hard preparing everything that once she served everyone … she would sit at the table and fall asleep without eating, totally exhausted.

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