Personal
a brief family album

There may be a narrative here. The photos span five generations and about 100 years. I am unsure of the story line but you may be able to unravel it. Much is unsaid. Of course the photos tend to record the joy. The sadness and tragedy mostly went undocumented. The sequence is largely chronological.
Two cents plain

Circa 1903. Street stand
Lower East Side, New York City.
Grandparents. My mother stands
on the left. Next to her
my Aunt Rose. Small child
next to her father is my Aunt Miriam.
My Aunt Sarah on right
pretending to draw
"two cents plain" seltzer.
Lena and Fanny are older,
married and gone.
A hard life.

     Mother and child

Circa 1930. My mother
and my sister Bloss.
My mother's name is Lily
so she had a blossom.
I am not yet born
but ripe for conception.
My mother's happiest years
she later confided.

     Candy store king

My father in front
of his candy store
Catskill, NY, 1943.
We spent the war years
1941-1945 there. Our kitchen
adjoined the store.
We lived upstairs. Long hours
and a thin living.
I went to 6th grade in the
Grandview Elementary School
across the street.