February 25, 2021 • 30 mins
Today our co host Ellin and her beloved grandson Logan lead us through remarkable family legends: a baby born on a ship, a rescue from summer camp, and poodle skirts washed in the bathtub...
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
I don't charge much for it, an autograph a price
for boarding with see, I don't just give out an autograph.
I say, have your people call my people and I'll
see about an autograph. I tell everybody get me now.
While I'm cheap, really must never say your cheap. That's
what's right, Ellen, who's gonna be on the podcast this morning?
(00:28):
It is me and Logan. Oh that's gonna be hard.
You've got to be very objective element. I want to
see how they edited it. May believe it's not your grandson,
and we'll tell it as it is, like we always do.
Have that well, I tell it like it is, even
when I'm objective. So I'm really looking forward to this.
(00:48):
This should be good. This should be good. You know what,
I don't think my life is any more interesting than
anybody else's. I think everybody has all these stories. I
just remember them. This is, of course my grandmother, Ellen
(01:17):
Bernstein Grodsky. Logan, this downless like daddy exactly. Your voice
comes through just like his, but I better know hers, Nana.
He is the most charming, the most intelligent, brilliant, sweet kind.
There is nothing negative about Logan at all. Nothing. She
(01:38):
uh always a very big presence in my life. He
was gorgeous from the minute he was born. What listen,
I'm his grandmother. What can I tell you at a
Jewish grandmother? Yet so well. I think there's two things
that come almost equally, love of course, and then related.
I think food is is very, very big. I definitely
(01:58):
associate that with her. Logan is not a material person
at all, and when you say to Logan, what do
you want, nothing, Nana, It's impossible to get him a gift.
It really is. We used to see a movie on
my birthday and that was that was enough. I have
some great books that my grandmother's got it me over
(02:18):
the years. That's always what it ended up being. There's
a massive encyclopedia of the Confederacy that she got me,
and I must have been very small when she got
it for me. It's very dense and I remember loving
reading it. He's been a voracious reader since he was
very small, and an intelligent one. I mean, I would
(02:38):
never insult him by getting him a child's book. You
don't get into the ninety ninth percentile of the S
A T. S if you're not very smart. I'm applying
to college right now. And she always tells me that
any school would be lucky to have me, and that
I should get into all these schools. And I keep
telling her I really wish she was on the admissions committee.
Believe me, if I was at the committee, you would
(02:59):
be in a Harvard any First of all, he sounds wonderful.
He's got such a lovely voice. And of course your
magect is in the beginning a very objective, brilliant, gorgeous,
which I'm sure he is. Ellen is, absolutely, he is. Absolutely.
I'm not even gonna question your Mine aren't such geniuses.
(03:22):
They're just nice, good, normal kid. But okay, you're entitled.
You're a Jewish grandmother. I have seven grandchildren, and two
of them, I would say, are really in the genius strata.
But all of them bring something to the table. You know,
you remind me a a friend of mine who's got
a very smart water and also genius. There's a couple
(03:44):
of geniuses in this world. But on Stein, maybe Bill Gates,
Logan Grotsky. Okay, I'm given to you, he's a genius. Whatever.
You're alla malus, which in Jewish means all good things, right, right, Okay,
(04:05):
the producers just gave me the titles. So here we
go Part one. I know from grandparents, and I have
a feeling that I know what this is going to
be about. Grandparenting is is wonderful because it's parenting without
(04:30):
the responsibility. She always responds to my text messages. I
can always call her up. Occasionally I'll call her up
and ask her for a recipe. Very very available, as
it's all retired. Grandparents should be one thing i'd ever do.
Has said to myself. Yeah, I can attest. Were you
(04:54):
close to your grandparents? Unfortunately my grandparents died when I
was too young. I remember more of my father's parents.
I think you have to tell the story of the
steamshift New York. Oh well, that is our famous family story.
My grandparents emigrated from Russia to England, and they met
(05:17):
in London, and my grandfather left for the United States
and left my grandmother in England, and she discovered she
was pregnant, and he worked very hard to make money
to send her a ticket to come to America. And
the ticket was on the maiden voyage of the steamship
New York. And she was of course in steerage. But
(05:42):
up above there were parties going on because it was
a maiden voyage, and the Vanderbilts were on board and
the lower group just stayed below decks. And about two
days into the trip, my grandmother went into labor. One
of the women who was down in that area with
her went up to the ships to actor and she said,
there's a young girl down there in labor, and they
(06:03):
brought her up to the ship's infirmary. And it became
known on the ship that my grandmother was about to
have a baby, and so Mrs Vanderbilt and Mrs Hoosie
Tusie and Mrs Lutzie Luzzie all took turns sitting with
my grandmother while she was in labor, and eventually she
had the baby on the ship. Fast forward, my grandfather
(06:27):
arrives at Ellis Island and everybody gets off the ship
except my grandmother, and he is frantic, and in his
very broken English, he goes over to some man and
he says, my vibe, I was supposed to come on
this boat, and I I didn't get off from the boat,
but I know she got on from the boat. And
(06:49):
he said, what's the name? And his hold her and
he says, she's at long Island College Hospital, and they
sent my grandfather in a carriage, and when he there,
my grandmother was in the room piled up to the
ceiling with gifts from all these fancy women on the ship.
And the ship's captain was sitting with her and he said,
(07:11):
Mr Bernstein, we're waiting for you to give the baby
a name. And my grandfather and my grandmother sat and
they spoke in Yiddition, and finally my grandfather turned around,
but his hands on his Jess goes the name for
the baby is going to be Samuel Steamship New York, Benstein.
(07:32):
And that was my uncle Sam's name, Samuel Steamship New York.
That's always been a favorite story of mine. It actually
made it into one of my my college essays. Such
a remarkable story. And my cousin named her son Scott
York after her father. But you know, when you have
(07:56):
a grandfather, it's it's a different kind of a relationship.
We saw him, but he had a second vibe. I
never knew that. I never knew Jennie. She used to
say call me Godma, and my cousin and I used
to say, we'll call you Jennie. I never knew that
(08:17):
he had a second wife. Yes, I remember when my
grandfather passed away, we went to the funeral and Jenny,
Oh God, I'm gonna tell this story, and it's gonna
be out there permoctly. My mother said, you go over
and you pay your respects to Jenny. So I walked over,
and I remember I was wearing a navy blue dress.
And I walked over to Jenny and she was sitting
(08:39):
on one of those little stools because Jewish people when
there in mourning, they have to sit on a little bench.
And I said, Jenny, I want to offer my condolences.
And she took the hem of my skirt in her
hand and she said, hear us such a wonderful man.
And she took my skirt and she dried her wise
(09:00):
with it. When we came home, I took the dress
and I put it in a brown paper bag and
I put it down the incinerator. I just couldn't stand
those those tears. She was married to my grandfather for
one year, and months later I was looking for something
to wear it to something. My mother said, what about
(09:22):
that blue dress with the white collar. I said, you know, mom,
I don't know where it is, but I do see.
That's a story I have never heard of. Okay, you
really hated it about me. I would be given it
to the cleaners, and that I don't give away a
good dress like that. I felt that it was so
soiled rude, but I just could never wear it. That's
(09:44):
a good. Oh my god, I don't want any to
tell you the things I've saved. I'm very conservative that way,
and it's something I'm gonna tell you own. You didn't
have to throw away the dress, just have a clean ruta.
I was fifteen or fourteen. I didn't know. I just
felt so defiled by that god my skirt that I
(10:07):
had to get rid of it. San Steamship, your adorable story.
You told me that story once before, but each time
I hear it, I just love it. It's such an
original story. And Logan loves that story too. I can
hear all my grandkids love it. It's it's sort of
you know, everybody saw Fiddler on the Roof and they
(10:29):
see all these people coming over with the piano on
their back or something, and actually these people struggled, it
would just struggle to pay for one ticket. So when
my grandchildren hear it, I want them also to hear
not only that it was a big funny story, but
that this was the struggle that their family had to
(10:51):
endure in order to get to America, and that they
should be very, very lucky that they have this life
that they do due to of those people. You know,
it's funny that you said, because here's the people that
came over from Europe. They couldn't speak English, and the
people at elis Ol and that resigning the men, they
couldn't understand their language or their names. And we used
(11:15):
to say, where did you get that name? They said,
I don't know. When I came to Less Island. That's
what they wrote down. That's good. Whatever they heard, that's
what they wrote down today. And name, my god, the
minute you find out you're pregnant, you're looking through the books,
you can't find the name good enough, different, whatever. When
my kids were growing up, oh my god, it had
(11:36):
to be like as an American as you could get.
But today we're back to the Biblical names, which we used,
the Hebrew names. We used the Hebrew names, which I love,
which I love. Now listen, don't go anywhere. We're going
to do a quick commercial. And I know you're gonna
come right back, because we'll be looking for you. And
there's nothing like Jewish guilt. Part two, Rising above expectations. Well,
(12:09):
we're a food family. My grandparents wet caters, and from
the time that this one was a little taught, he
always liked to cook. He always liked to help. He
made mac and cheese. I think I've graduated up to
more sophisticated recipes. Did you have any recipes that you
know come directly from them? Well, definitely, the brisk it
(12:30):
comes from my grandmother. The chicken suit, the mats of balls,
potato pancakes, So mostly I guess the most standard fair yes,
well for us. So what was your first job? Oh,
teach it I taught in Chinatown. Well, first I taught
in bed Fitz Darvison and it was a fun place
(12:51):
to work. It was lovely. You've also said that you
didn't think that teaching was your passion. Would you say
you don't regret it. I don't regret that I taught,
but it wasn't my passion. I became a teacher because
my mother said that that's what I should be. I
really wanted to be like my mother. I wanted to
be an interior designer, and so once I had children,
(13:12):
I started taking course as an interior design And do
you ever wish you had gone into your second career earlier? Yes,
I wish I had studied for it originally rather than
doing it after I had children. And what would you
say you are more passionate about food or interior design? Well, food,
(13:35):
as I think that's the correct answer. I'm a retired
interior designer. I don't work anymore at that, but I
work at cooking absolutely. You know, I create food every
single night. Because your grandfather doesn't even know how to
crack an egg to make it. So I think you'd
agree that those creative channels very much are available to
(13:57):
you through cooking, because you are really creative cook. I
love to cook, as my grandmother used to say, Patrika
in the kitchen. And of course the fact that you
love to cook and you did manage recipes out of
your interior design clients, that you have combined those things successfully,
I did. I did vodka source. I haven't made that
for you yet, but my vodka source comes from from
(14:19):
my clients. We've made we've made that together. Vodka source
I made with you. Yeah, don't tell your mother. I
didn't tell her. I didn't. Don't worry, I personally could
speak personally. Allen is an excellent cook, and she has
a little cookbook that she puts out for the friends,
(14:40):
which we all have. As a very little girl, I
remember my grandmother being in the kitchen and I would
stand next hour and she would say, give me from
that part, and give me from this, and hand me that.
The only thing is those old cone cooks. They never
knew amounts. You take a handful, while you're a handful
of twice it start to my innfol In the Yiddish,
(15:02):
that's called shipping gifts. It means just a minute where
will be no it's s h I T T. I
think ship. You throw it and you guess what all
that drops like ships creak on the television today. My
grandmother never never used the recipe. Part three Summer Camp.
(15:28):
Nana suffers from an excess of lucid thought. She can
draw a family tree if she wanted to, with great detail.
Here is a story for the ages. When I was seven,
I went to Camp Oh, the chicken pox story. It
was just wonderful. And the night of the banquet, kid
(15:50):
in my bunk got chicken packs. During the night. I
woke up and I felt very sick and very hot.
They called my mother in the morning and my mother said,
oh my god. We didn't have a car at the time.
And as they were talking to me, a man came
into the office and said, I'm he had to pick
up my daughter shows chicken pox. So the camp mother said,
(16:13):
will you take this little girl with you? Oh? Sure,
you know, he says, But we have to go right away,
he says, because my wife is expecting a baby and
she's due to give birth any minute. And they put
me in the car and the man's mother was in
the car. May she rest in peace. She smelled like
chicken soup. So we were driving along and I kept
(16:36):
on saying stop. All the way home. I was getting
out and throwing up, and finally we stopped. In some time,
he says, we've got to go. I can't keep stopping.
He says, I know a family and they're very lovely
people and they'll take care of her. And he called
my mother and he explained to her, and my mother said, okay,
(16:56):
tell me where I'm going. So they bring me to
this farm and this lady came out with a very
heavy German accent. And this was World War two. Times
I heard a German accent and I figured, he's leaving
me with the Germans. And I was beside myself, thinking
that Hitler was going to walk through the door at
(17:18):
any second. Finally, and I remember hearing the Murta de
murte escape kimmen, the mother has come. And then my
mother started to speak to them, and I said, when
they help? Did my mother learn how to speak German?
And I realized later on, of course they were speaking Yiddish.
These were Jewish refugees who had escaped. They invited my
(17:43):
mother for dinner. Everything was fresh from the farm, and
they made me chicken soup and they put it in
a bag and they gave it to my mother to
take with us. These things I still remember. And I
was seven. Do you think in retrospect that you were
really too young to be going away to sleep where
I can No, I was a very independent child. You
went to camp. I think I was eight or nine
(18:03):
when I first went away to camp. I could not
have gone to camp for the same reason. I don't
think I could have walked into an office building and
like done accounting work. I just don't think I could
have done it, but you were very adult as a
little boy. Logan. Maybe I could have done the accounting work,
but I couldn't have gone away to camp. That's very funny,
(18:23):
look and very true. So there you go. I don't
think I could have been away from my mother for
that long that when he didn't tell me, you never
told me. Came back to chick Camp and Chacob back.
(18:44):
Those people were so good. And finally this old man
came up and he scared me to death because I
was sure that he was the head of the s S.
I was positive, and he was carrying a rabbit, a
real rabbit. It was a farm, and he put the
rap in the bed with me, and I finally fell asleep.
I mean he infected them with the chicken pox and
(19:06):
doing mother that was going out of the war. Can
I you'd wear a mask. They wouldn't even let you
in the house. Today. You hardly hear about chicken pox anymore.
Oh you don't. I think we have to stop for
a commercial, so Poul little Nikki can go out. Should
(19:26):
have gotten an apartment with a terrorist rita Okay, next up,
Part four, A little bit of Brightness and I don't
(19:48):
have a clue what this could be about. So how
did you meet my grandfather? My mother's cousin belonged to
some kind of a group in in her temple, and
she had a very good friend there named Mary, and
the two of them decided that I should meet Mary's nephew.
(20:10):
He called, and I thought he sounded terrible on the phone,
and I felt I had to go out with him,
because you know, I couldn't insult my mother's cousin that way.
What about him sounded terrible? Well, he lived in North Carolina,
so I figured I was gonna get a Southern gentleman
with a Southern accident. And the phone rang, and well,
(20:35):
you know, they live in North Carolina, and he's going
to call you at eight o'clock. Eight o'clock, the phone rings,
and I go hello, and he says, why is this Ellie?
So his early years. I guess we're in New York.
You know, Peter doesn't get rid of anything. Unfortunately, the
(20:55):
New York accident was one of the things that he
m and so we went out. He said, you want
to just ride around a little bit. I said sure,
and we were driving down Eastern Parkway, and there's a
an island that goes down the center of Eastern Parkway,
and right in front of our car was a little
(21:17):
old couple and the cars were going on either side,
and I remember my husband took his car and he
turned it so that cars couldn't come down until these
old people got across the street. And I looked at
him and I thought to myself, I'm gonna marry him.
I did. One of my favorite things to hear about
(21:41):
is your father and his experiences with the draft during
the Second World War. Can you tell us about that.
At those days, they used to have a radio program
once a week and a judge would pick names out
of a hat. They would pick numbers, draft numbers, and
those were the men who had drafted. My father was
(22:03):
never called. Never. About two years after the war was over,
we got a phone call from a judge and he
asked for my father. He says, I was taking some
suits to give away to goodwill or whatever, and in
the cuff of the suit was this little piece of
paper and it was your draft number, sir. That was
(22:26):
the reason my father didn't go to World War two.
I know my father, who adored him. He had been
drafted or something horrible had happened, my father would have
been a different person, and all the men who were
drawn from that group was sent to the Baton death
March or something. I mean, it was one of those
terrible parts of the war. I mean there was there
(22:48):
was something divine that spanned him. I'll tell you what
my mother did for the war rapid. This is funny,
my sister and right. She would never cut our hair.
We used to have two long braids, and every morning
before school she'd get up, and we hated it and
(23:09):
we cried, I don't want the brains coming. Well, they
used to use human hair for certain known special instruments
or something. My mother, thank god, I shouldn't say thank
God for the war, but she cut her hands. Fun
it's a terrible thing to say, but we donated our
hands and the war wrafic all right, thank god I
(23:31):
found he got rid of those two long brains. I
want you to know, girls, war, the war. I'll never
forget that. He just took the car and he put
it across two lanes that were coming down, and nobody
could pass until these two little old people scurried across
(23:52):
the street. And now we are those two little old people.
If we if we could walk right, got to be
the wall. How can I tell you My first experience
would Phil, which was who was also a blind date.
(24:13):
He came into my house. I should have I should
have known them. He was wearing a brown and white
pinch striped suit but big pin stripe brown, and he
was wearing blue Swayne shoes with a thick rubb up.
Hell wasn't in his absence? I said no. The only
(24:37):
time it made a good pick is when you chose me.
I used to buy us everything except his pants. I
couldn't buy him pin paunch, pardon me. He had no tossas,
so you don't all know what it toss is pant
for falling down because he had no all Right. Last
(24:58):
on my list, here's pot five. Family is everything, and
truer words were never spoken. I think we were young longer.
Less was expected of us. At an early age. There
was an innocence that doesn't exist today. I think there
(25:21):
there's an element of countervailing forces there. They think that
we are less adventurous, perhaps less independent, and we also
have more responsibility, also have more possibility, and at the
same time, perhaps our ability to go online has supplanted
our ability to walk down the street, which is especially
(25:42):
in this pandemic age, and it's kind of scary to
some except but it is. Perhaps there are also our reality.
I will say I'm an old soul, so to some
degree I possess a nostalgia for a time I never
lived in. But also I don't have to worry about
polio these days, so that's a boom. Yeah, but you
have to worry that COVID. Yes, I do. That's true enough.
(26:07):
Did you ever expect that your family would be this big?
I never thought my family would be this big. No.
Would you say that you have a strong relationship with
all of your grandchildren and you're proud of where we've
ended up? You got to be kidding. I love it.
They all have a charm. And I'm not saying it
because I'm their grandmother, but of course i am, But
(26:28):
but they are very charming children. They make me very proud.
If you wanted to teach us one thing to prioritize
in life, what would you say? It should be family.
I want to teach you to love your family and
to care about your family. And I don't only mean
your your brothers and sisters and parents, but I mean
your entire family, because when push comes to shove, it's
(26:51):
like when Poppy had his accident and I called my
children and they rallied like nothing I had ever seen.
It's times like that, the good times everybody wants to
be in on, but it's times that you need your
family that it's important to have that connection. That's what
(27:12):
I would like to to leave you with that Without
your family, you really have nothing, you know. I think
that's something that you not only preach, but that you practice.
It's something that we've seen since day one with you,
and I think it's something we're all keen to carry
with us. You know, our familis had some tough moments,
(27:33):
and I think at those tough moments, under your leadership
and under your wisdom, we've come together to support each other.
And that's what it's really all about. I thought that
was very profound thinking at the end of Logan's it's
(27:55):
nice to hear what the young people think and how
they feel about things, but there is a lot on
the kids heads today and they and they have access
to more things. That's it, Rada. They have instant access
to the world. It's true it's true in their hand
as they walk along, and they never lift their heads up.
(28:17):
While I was always family oriented and so right or wrong,
I always say, don't stretch over the little things. Family
forget it. Everybody's gonna make a little mistake here and there,
but it's your family, they will be there for you.
That's my philosophy. It all comes down to all your
(28:37):
nata's love. In junior high school, I had a black
felt skirt with a poodle on it that really existed,
(28:58):
and you weren't over crinolins, and the crinelins had to
be washed in the bathtub in sugar and water so
that they would stand out. Yeah. Of course occurred to
me when I was older that I could have had
ants crawling up my legs from all the sugar in that.
But then we would take the wet horsehair of slip
(29:18):
that went under the skirt and we would put it
over an umbrella, and then we would let it sit
in the bathtub. I remember so many times hearing my
father's voice going, Mossy, We're gonna get the damn skirt
out of the bathtub so I can take a shower.
Are you kidding? A pudent skirt that I'm wear a
(29:38):
plute skart. I would look like a pineapple. I can't
pick it. Call Your Grandmother is a production of My
Heart Radio and Superb Entertainment. The hosts of the show
are Me readA Ka and me Ellen Bernstein Grotzky. Created
(29:58):
by Meryl Poster, produced and directed by Annistum, with producer
Abuza far An, Associate producer Emily Maronoff, managing producer Lindsay Hoffman,
and executive producers are Noo Poster, Nikki I Tore and
Mangesh Hatika. Door music and mastering by Hamilton's Lighthouser and
(30:23):
Anna Stump. At least I don't have to watch anything
in the bathtub. No, that's true. Please tell everybody you
know about this, if there's a grandchild in your life,
if there's a grandmother in your life, even if you're
just sitting there alone and listening. This is something that
the world needs now. So spread it around and another
(30:45):
five stars wouldn't hurt
I don't charge much for it, an autograph a price
for boarding with see, I don't just give out an autograph.
I say, have your people call my people and I'll
see about an autograph. I tell everybody get me now.
While I'm cheap, really must never say your cheap. That's
what's right, Ellen, who's gonna be on the podcast this morning?
(00:28):
It is me and Logan. Oh that's gonna be hard.
You've got to be very objective element. I want to
see how they edited it. May believe it's not your grandson,
and we'll tell it as it is, like we always do.
Have that well, I tell it like it is, even
when I'm objective. So I'm really looking forward to this.
(00:48):
This should be good. This should be good. You know what,
I don't think my life is any more interesting than
anybody else's. I think everybody has all these stories. I
just remember them. This is, of course my grandmother, Ellen
(01:17):
Bernstein Grodsky. Logan, this downless like daddy exactly. Your voice
comes through just like his, but I better know hers, Nana.
He is the most charming, the most intelligent, brilliant, sweet kind.
There is nothing negative about Logan at all. Nothing. She
(01:38):
uh always a very big presence in my life. He
was gorgeous from the minute he was born. What listen,
I'm his grandmother. What can I tell you at a
Jewish grandmother? Yet so well. I think there's two things
that come almost equally, love of course, and then related.
I think food is is very, very big. I definitely
(01:58):
associate that with her. Logan is not a material person
at all, and when you say to Logan, what do
you want, nothing, Nana, It's impossible to get him a gift.
It really is. We used to see a movie on
my birthday and that was that was enough. I have
some great books that my grandmother's got it me over
(02:18):
the years. That's always what it ended up being. There's
a massive encyclopedia of the Confederacy that she got me,
and I must have been very small when she got
it for me. It's very dense and I remember loving
reading it. He's been a voracious reader since he was
very small, and an intelligent one. I mean, I would
(02:38):
never insult him by getting him a child's book. You
don't get into the ninety ninth percentile of the S
A T. S if you're not very smart. I'm applying
to college right now. And she always tells me that
any school would be lucky to have me, and that
I should get into all these schools. And I keep
telling her I really wish she was on the admissions committee.
Believe me, if I was at the committee, you would
(02:59):
be in a Harvard any First of all, he sounds wonderful.
He's got such a lovely voice. And of course your
magect is in the beginning a very objective, brilliant, gorgeous,
which I'm sure he is. Ellen is, absolutely, he is. Absolutely.
I'm not even gonna question your Mine aren't such geniuses.
(03:22):
They're just nice, good, normal kid. But okay, you're entitled.
You're a Jewish grandmother. I have seven grandchildren, and two
of them, I would say, are really in the genius strata.
But all of them bring something to the table. You know,
you remind me a a friend of mine who's got
a very smart water and also genius. There's a couple
(03:44):
of geniuses in this world. But on Stein, maybe Bill Gates,
Logan Grotsky. Okay, I'm given to you, he's a genius. Whatever.
You're alla malus, which in Jewish means all good things, right, right, Okay,
(04:05):
the producers just gave me the titles. So here we
go Part one. I know from grandparents, and I have
a feeling that I know what this is going to
be about. Grandparenting is is wonderful because it's parenting without
(04:30):
the responsibility. She always responds to my text messages. I
can always call her up. Occasionally I'll call her up
and ask her for a recipe. Very very available, as
it's all retired. Grandparents should be one thing i'd ever do.
Has said to myself. Yeah, I can attest. Were you
(04:54):
close to your grandparents? Unfortunately my grandparents died when I
was too young. I remember more of my father's parents.
I think you have to tell the story of the
steamshift New York. Oh well, that is our famous family story.
My grandparents emigrated from Russia to England, and they met
(05:17):
in London, and my grandfather left for the United States
and left my grandmother in England, and she discovered she
was pregnant, and he worked very hard to make money
to send her a ticket to come to America. And
the ticket was on the maiden voyage of the steamship
New York. And she was of course in steerage. But
(05:42):
up above there were parties going on because it was
a maiden voyage, and the Vanderbilts were on board and
the lower group just stayed below decks. And about two
days into the trip, my grandmother went into labor. One
of the women who was down in that area with
her went up to the ships to actor and she said,
there's a young girl down there in labor, and they
(06:03):
brought her up to the ship's infirmary. And it became
known on the ship that my grandmother was about to
have a baby, and so Mrs Vanderbilt and Mrs Hoosie
Tusie and Mrs Lutzie Luzzie all took turns sitting with
my grandmother while she was in labor, and eventually she
had the baby on the ship. Fast forward, my grandfather
(06:27):
arrives at Ellis Island and everybody gets off the ship
except my grandmother, and he is frantic, and in his
very broken English, he goes over to some man and
he says, my vibe, I was supposed to come on
this boat, and I I didn't get off from the boat,
but I know she got on from the boat. And
(06:49):
he said, what's the name? And his hold her and
he says, she's at long Island College Hospital, and they
sent my grandfather in a carriage, and when he there,
my grandmother was in the room piled up to the
ceiling with gifts from all these fancy women on the ship.
And the ship's captain was sitting with her and he said,
(07:11):
Mr Bernstein, we're waiting for you to give the baby
a name. And my grandfather and my grandmother sat and
they spoke in Yiddition, and finally my grandfather turned around,
but his hands on his Jess goes the name for
the baby is going to be Samuel Steamship New York, Benstein.
(07:32):
And that was my uncle Sam's name, Samuel Steamship New York.
That's always been a favorite story of mine. It actually
made it into one of my my college essays. Such
a remarkable story. And my cousin named her son Scott
York after her father. But you know, when you have
(07:56):
a grandfather, it's it's a different kind of a relationship.
We saw him, but he had a second vibe. I
never knew that. I never knew Jennie. She used to
say call me Godma, and my cousin and I used
to say, we'll call you Jennie. I never knew that
(08:17):
he had a second wife. Yes, I remember when my
grandfather passed away, we went to the funeral and Jenny,
Oh God, I'm gonna tell this story, and it's gonna
be out there permoctly. My mother said, you go over
and you pay your respects to Jenny. So I walked over,
and I remember I was wearing a navy blue dress.
And I walked over to Jenny and she was sitting
(08:39):
on one of those little stools because Jewish people when
there in mourning, they have to sit on a little bench.
And I said, Jenny, I want to offer my condolences.
And she took the hem of my skirt in her
hand and she said, hear us such a wonderful man.
And she took my skirt and she dried her wise
(09:00):
with it. When we came home, I took the dress
and I put it in a brown paper bag and
I put it down the incinerator. I just couldn't stand
those those tears. She was married to my grandfather for
one year, and months later I was looking for something
to wear it to something. My mother said, what about
(09:22):
that blue dress with the white collar. I said, you know, mom,
I don't know where it is, but I do see.
That's a story I have never heard of. Okay, you
really hated it about me. I would be given it
to the cleaners, and that I don't give away a
good dress like that. I felt that it was so
soiled rude, but I just could never wear it. That's
(09:44):
a good. Oh my god, I don't want any to
tell you the things I've saved. I'm very conservative that way,
and it's something I'm gonna tell you own. You didn't
have to throw away the dress, just have a clean ruta.
I was fifteen or fourteen. I didn't know. I just
felt so defiled by that god my skirt that I
(10:07):
had to get rid of it. San Steamship, your adorable story.
You told me that story once before, but each time
I hear it, I just love it. It's such an
original story. And Logan loves that story too. I can
hear all my grandkids love it. It's it's sort of
you know, everybody saw Fiddler on the Roof and they
(10:29):
see all these people coming over with the piano on
their back or something, and actually these people struggled, it
would just struggle to pay for one ticket. So when
my grandchildren hear it, I want them also to hear
not only that it was a big funny story, but
that this was the struggle that their family had to
(10:51):
endure in order to get to America, and that they
should be very, very lucky that they have this life
that they do due to of those people. You know,
it's funny that you said, because here's the people that
came over from Europe. They couldn't speak English, and the
people at elis Ol and that resigning the men, they
couldn't understand their language or their names. And we used
(11:15):
to say, where did you get that name? They said,
I don't know. When I came to Less Island. That's
what they wrote down. That's good. Whatever they heard, that's
what they wrote down today. And name, my god, the
minute you find out you're pregnant, you're looking through the books,
you can't find the name good enough, different, whatever. When
my kids were growing up, oh my god, it had
(11:36):
to be like as an American as you could get.
But today we're back to the Biblical names, which we used,
the Hebrew names. We used the Hebrew names, which I love,
which I love. Now listen, don't go anywhere. We're going
to do a quick commercial. And I know you're gonna
come right back, because we'll be looking for you. And
there's nothing like Jewish guilt. Part two, Rising above expectations. Well,
(12:09):
we're a food family. My grandparents wet caters, and from
the time that this one was a little taught, he
always liked to cook. He always liked to help. He
made mac and cheese. I think I've graduated up to
more sophisticated recipes. Did you have any recipes that you
know come directly from them? Well, definitely, the brisk it
(12:30):
comes from my grandmother. The chicken suit, the mats of balls,
potato pancakes, So mostly I guess the most standard fair yes,
well for us. So what was your first job? Oh,
teach it I taught in Chinatown. Well, first I taught
in bed Fitz Darvison and it was a fun place
(12:51):
to work. It was lovely. You've also said that you
didn't think that teaching was your passion. Would you say
you don't regret it. I don't regret that I taught,
but it wasn't my passion. I became a teacher because
my mother said that that's what I should be. I
really wanted to be like my mother. I wanted to
be an interior designer, and so once I had children,
(13:12):
I started taking course as an interior design And do
you ever wish you had gone into your second career earlier? Yes,
I wish I had studied for it originally rather than
doing it after I had children. And what would you
say you are more passionate about food or interior design? Well, food,
(13:35):
as I think that's the correct answer. I'm a retired
interior designer. I don't work anymore at that, but I
work at cooking absolutely. You know, I create food every
single night. Because your grandfather doesn't even know how to
crack an egg to make it. So I think you'd
agree that those creative channels very much are available to
(13:57):
you through cooking, because you are really creative cook. I
love to cook, as my grandmother used to say, Patrika
in the kitchen. And of course the fact that you
love to cook and you did manage recipes out of
your interior design clients, that you have combined those things successfully,
I did. I did vodka source. I haven't made that
for you yet, but my vodka source comes from from
(14:19):
my clients. We've made we've made that together. Vodka source
I made with you. Yeah, don't tell your mother. I
didn't tell her. I didn't. Don't worry, I personally could
speak personally. Allen is an excellent cook, and she has
a little cookbook that she puts out for the friends,
(14:40):
which we all have. As a very little girl, I
remember my grandmother being in the kitchen and I would
stand next hour and she would say, give me from
that part, and give me from this, and hand me that.
The only thing is those old cone cooks. They never
knew amounts. You take a handful, while you're a handful
of twice it start to my innfol In the Yiddish,
(15:02):
that's called shipping gifts. It means just a minute where
will be no it's s h I T T. I
think ship. You throw it and you guess what all
that drops like ships creak on the television today. My
grandmother never never used the recipe. Part three Summer Camp.
(15:28):
Nana suffers from an excess of lucid thought. She can
draw a family tree if she wanted to, with great detail.
Here is a story for the ages. When I was seven,
I went to Camp Oh, the chicken pox story. It
was just wonderful. And the night of the banquet, kid
(15:50):
in my bunk got chicken packs. During the night. I
woke up and I felt very sick and very hot.
They called my mother in the morning and my mother said,
oh my god. We didn't have a car at the time.
And as they were talking to me, a man came
into the office and said, I'm he had to pick
up my daughter shows chicken pox. So the camp mother said,
(16:13):
will you take this little girl with you? Oh? Sure,
you know, he says, But we have to go right away,
he says, because my wife is expecting a baby and
she's due to give birth any minute. And they put
me in the car and the man's mother was in
the car. May she rest in peace. She smelled like
chicken soup. So we were driving along and I kept
(16:36):
on saying stop. All the way home. I was getting
out and throwing up, and finally we stopped. In some time,
he says, we've got to go. I can't keep stopping.
He says, I know a family and they're very lovely
people and they'll take care of her. And he called
my mother and he explained to her, and my mother said, okay,
(16:56):
tell me where I'm going. So they bring me to
this farm and this lady came out with a very
heavy German accent. And this was World War two. Times
I heard a German accent and I figured, he's leaving
me with the Germans. And I was beside myself, thinking
that Hitler was going to walk through the door at
(17:18):
any second. Finally, and I remember hearing the Murta de
murte escape kimmen, the mother has come. And then my
mother started to speak to them, and I said, when
they help? Did my mother learn how to speak German?
And I realized later on, of course they were speaking Yiddish.
These were Jewish refugees who had escaped. They invited my
(17:43):
mother for dinner. Everything was fresh from the farm, and
they made me chicken soup and they put it in
a bag and they gave it to my mother to
take with us. These things I still remember. And I
was seven. Do you think in retrospect that you were
really too young to be going away to sleep where
I can No, I was a very independent child. You
went to camp. I think I was eight or nine
(18:03):
when I first went away to camp. I could not
have gone to camp for the same reason. I don't
think I could have walked into an office building and
like done accounting work. I just don't think I could
have done it, but you were very adult as a
little boy. Logan. Maybe I could have done the accounting work,
but I couldn't have gone away to camp. That's very funny,
(18:23):
look and very true. So there you go. I don't
think I could have been away from my mother for
that long that when he didn't tell me, you never
told me. Came back to chick Camp and Chacob back.
(18:44):
Those people were so good. And finally this old man
came up and he scared me to death because I
was sure that he was the head of the s S.
I was positive, and he was carrying a rabbit, a
real rabbit. It was a farm, and he put the
rap in the bed with me, and I finally fell asleep.
I mean he infected them with the chicken pox and
(19:06):
doing mother that was going out of the war. Can
I you'd wear a mask. They wouldn't even let you
in the house. Today. You hardly hear about chicken pox anymore.
Oh you don't. I think we have to stop for
a commercial, so Poul little Nikki can go out. Should
(19:26):
have gotten an apartment with a terrorist rita Okay, next up,
Part four, A little bit of Brightness and I don't
(19:48):
have a clue what this could be about. So how
did you meet my grandfather? My mother's cousin belonged to
some kind of a group in in her temple, and
she had a very good friend there named Mary, and
the two of them decided that I should meet Mary's nephew.
(20:10):
He called, and I thought he sounded terrible on the phone,
and I felt I had to go out with him,
because you know, I couldn't insult my mother's cousin that way.
What about him sounded terrible? Well, he lived in North Carolina,
so I figured I was gonna get a Southern gentleman
with a Southern accident. And the phone rang, and well,
(20:35):
you know, they live in North Carolina, and he's going
to call you at eight o'clock. Eight o'clock, the phone rings,
and I go hello, and he says, why is this Ellie?
So his early years. I guess we're in New York.
You know, Peter doesn't get rid of anything. Unfortunately, the
(20:55):
New York accident was one of the things that he
m and so we went out. He said, you want
to just ride around a little bit. I said sure,
and we were driving down Eastern Parkway, and there's a
an island that goes down the center of Eastern Parkway,
and right in front of our car was a little
(21:17):
old couple and the cars were going on either side,
and I remember my husband took his car and he
turned it so that cars couldn't come down until these
old people got across the street. And I looked at
him and I thought to myself, I'm gonna marry him.
I did. One of my favorite things to hear about
(21:41):
is your father and his experiences with the draft during
the Second World War. Can you tell us about that.
At those days, they used to have a radio program
once a week and a judge would pick names out
of a hat. They would pick numbers, draft numbers, and
those were the men who had drafted. My father was
(22:03):
never called. Never. About two years after the war was over,
we got a phone call from a judge and he
asked for my father. He says, I was taking some
suits to give away to goodwill or whatever, and in
the cuff of the suit was this little piece of
paper and it was your draft number, sir. That was
(22:26):
the reason my father didn't go to World War two.
I know my father, who adored him. He had been
drafted or something horrible had happened, my father would have
been a different person, and all the men who were
drawn from that group was sent to the Baton death
March or something. I mean, it was one of those
terrible parts of the war. I mean there was there
(22:48):
was something divine that spanned him. I'll tell you what
my mother did for the war rapid. This is funny,
my sister and right. She would never cut our hair.
We used to have two long braids, and every morning
before school she'd get up, and we hated it and
(23:09):
we cried, I don't want the brains coming. Well, they
used to use human hair for certain known special instruments
or something. My mother, thank god, I shouldn't say thank
God for the war, but she cut her hands. Fun
it's a terrible thing to say, but we donated our
hands and the war wrafic all right, thank god I
(23:31):
found he got rid of those two long brains. I
want you to know, girls, war, the war. I'll never
forget that. He just took the car and he put
it across two lanes that were coming down, and nobody
could pass until these two little old people scurried across
(23:52):
the street. And now we are those two little old people.
If we if we could walk right, got to be
the wall. How can I tell you My first experience
would Phil, which was who was also a blind date.
(24:13):
He came into my house. I should have I should
have known them. He was wearing a brown and white
pinch striped suit but big pin stripe brown, and he
was wearing blue Swayne shoes with a thick rubb up.
Hell wasn't in his absence? I said no. The only
(24:37):
time it made a good pick is when you chose me.
I used to buy us everything except his pants. I
couldn't buy him pin paunch, pardon me. He had no tossas,
so you don't all know what it toss is pant
for falling down because he had no all Right. Last
(24:58):
on my list, here's pot five. Family is everything, and
truer words were never spoken. I think we were young longer.
Less was expected of us. At an early age. There
was an innocence that doesn't exist today. I think there
(25:21):
there's an element of countervailing forces there. They think that
we are less adventurous, perhaps less independent, and we also
have more responsibility, also have more possibility, and at the
same time, perhaps our ability to go online has supplanted
our ability to walk down the street, which is especially
(25:42):
in this pandemic age, and it's kind of scary to
some except but it is. Perhaps there are also our reality.
I will say I'm an old soul, so to some
degree I possess a nostalgia for a time I never
lived in. But also I don't have to worry about
polio these days, so that's a boom. Yeah, but you
have to worry that COVID. Yes, I do. That's true enough.
(26:07):
Did you ever expect that your family would be this big?
I never thought my family would be this big. No.
Would you say that you have a strong relationship with
all of your grandchildren and you're proud of where we've
ended up? You got to be kidding. I love it.
They all have a charm. And I'm not saying it
because I'm their grandmother, but of course i am, But
(26:28):
but they are very charming children. They make me very proud.
If you wanted to teach us one thing to prioritize
in life, what would you say? It should be family.
I want to teach you to love your family and
to care about your family. And I don't only mean
your your brothers and sisters and parents, but I mean
your entire family, because when push comes to shove, it's
(26:51):
like when Poppy had his accident and I called my
children and they rallied like nothing I had ever seen.
It's times like that, the good times everybody wants to
be in on, but it's times that you need your
family that it's important to have that connection. That's what
(27:12):
I would like to to leave you with that Without
your family, you really have nothing, you know. I think
that's something that you not only preach, but that you practice.
It's something that we've seen since day one with you,
and I think it's something we're all keen to carry
with us. You know, our familis had some tough moments,
(27:33):
and I think at those tough moments, under your leadership
and under your wisdom, we've come together to support each other.
And that's what it's really all about. I thought that
was very profound thinking at the end of Logan's it's
(27:55):
nice to hear what the young people think and how
they feel about things, but there is a lot on
the kids heads today and they and they have access
to more things. That's it, Rada. They have instant access
to the world. It's true it's true in their hand
as they walk along, and they never lift their heads up.
(28:17):
While I was always family oriented and so right or wrong,
I always say, don't stretch over the little things. Family
forget it. Everybody's gonna make a little mistake here and there,
but it's your family, they will be there for you.
That's my philosophy. It all comes down to all your
(28:37):
nata's love. In junior high school, I had a black
felt skirt with a poodle on it that really existed,
(28:58):
and you weren't over crinolins, and the crinelins had to
be washed in the bathtub in sugar and water so
that they would stand out. Yeah. Of course occurred to
me when I was older that I could have had
ants crawling up my legs from all the sugar in that.
But then we would take the wet horsehair of slip
(29:18):
that went under the skirt and we would put it
over an umbrella, and then we would let it sit
in the bathtub. I remember so many times hearing my
father's voice going, Mossy, We're gonna get the damn skirt
out of the bathtub so I can take a shower.
Are you kidding? A pudent skirt that I'm wear a
(29:38):
plute skart. I would look like a pineapple. I can't
pick it. Call Your Grandmother is a production of My
Heart Radio and Superb Entertainment. The hosts of the show
are Me readA Ka and me Ellen Bernstein Grotzky. Created
(29:58):
by Meryl Poster, produced and directed by Annistum, with producer
Abuza far An, Associate producer Emily Maronoff, managing producer Lindsay Hoffman,
and executive producers are Noo Poster, Nikki I Tore and
Mangesh Hatika. Door music and mastering by Hamilton's Lighthouser and
(30:23):
Anna Stump. At least I don't have to watch anything
in the bathtub. No, that's true. Please tell everybody you
know about this, if there's a grandchild in your life,
if there's a grandmother in your life, even if you're
just sitting there alone and listening. This is something that
the world needs now. So spread it around and another
(30:45):
five stars wouldn't hurt
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