Yesterday we spent the day with two remarkable sisters: my mother Edna and my Aunt Rhoda.
Born in Brooklyn’s Methodist Hospital, Edna and Rhoda grew up in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. Rhoda attended Madison High School, where she met her future husband. Edna was in the first class of Midwood High School.
Their father, Sam, owned a plumbing chemicals company and was called “the Mayor of 24th Street” for his friendliness and concern for his neighbors. He was a kind and generous man, always beautifully put together with a warm, memorable smile.
Their mother, Anna, was a skilled housewife, loving mother/grandmother, working woman and avid reader. She grew up on Westminister Road in a green house with a billiard room on the third floor.
Here Rhoda remembers the Great Depression (quoted in a Time.com feature, Remembering the Great Depression):
In 1932, we lived in a two-family house in Flatbush, Brooklyn. I remember seeing well-dressed men on bread lines, selling apples on the corner of Canal and Broadway in Manhattan, near where my father had a factory. He owned a chemical company, and had to let his employees go—both the workers and the salesmen. He would go out during the day to try to get orders for his plumbing and heating products and come back with one worker. They’d work most of the night on the third floor of the walk-up to package the chemicals.
I remember my mother walking down 24th Street in Flatbush, collecting clothing and shoes for a refugee family. [And I remember] I was going to have a birthday and my mother said, “Don’t expect any presents, because the banks have closed.” It scarred me for life. It made me very conservative in my spending. I’m concerned for my grandchildren having this debt that’s going to be passed on to them.
Rhoda married her high school sweetheart and raised three children in Westchester. She still lives there, though her husband died three years ago. Always a socially conscious and politically involved individual, for many years she worked as a district office manager for Representatives Richard L. Ottinger and Nita Lowey.
Yesterday, we visited Rhoda in the airy, light filled apartment she now lives in. On a shelf there is a photo of her with Hillary Clinton and Nita Lowey alongside a plethora of photographs of her children and grandchildren. There is even a arty photo of OSFO on the subway (taken by Hugh Crawford) in Rhoda’s bedroom.
She is now a District Leader, which is an un-paid elected official who performs a set of duties on behalf of his or her political party. Each district gets to elect two district leaders, one male and one female, with the same responsibilities. The district leader serves a two-year term. Currently she is collecting signatures for a ballot petition.
We spent a lovely day with the two sisters. Rhoda, dressed in a red and white striped shirt, looked absolutely fantastic. Edna, dressed in her signature black t-shirt and white pants, looked elegant as well. Both move with grace and ease and are up to date on all the news and culture that’s fit to print (in the New York Times and more).
We ate lunch at a local gourmet shop and spent the day talking about politics, family, friends and books. While Ducky and OSFO took a dip in the apartment building’s rooftop swimming pool, I heard stories about my grandparents and my grandfather’s business, which at one time was located in a loft building on Canal Street. My mother, Hepcat and I took a stroll in Rhoda’s local Target.
It was a pleasure to spend the day with these two remarkable sisters.
