Monday, May 30, 2011

SHIRLEY-SINGLE WORKING MOTHER 1955

When I was five and a half,  I went to day camp through the Hecht House. They took us to a place south of Boston where there was a lake. I learned to swim there. That summer, Shirley got a job as I was going in to first grade at the Robert Treat Paine School on Blue Hill Avenue. I turned six in September. Shirley went to work for Moe Sathan in 1955. She worked part-time; she told me she insisted on only working until 2:00pm when I got out of school. She told me she thinks that's what mothers should do, "stay home until the child is old enough to go to school." (Gloria Steinem didn't mention that when I was in college !)

This photo of me sitting on Shirley's lap was taken on Passover in aunt Ruth's house by Roby I think. The apartment may have been on Greendale Road in Dorchester. I was about six or seven.........in another beautiful dress she bought for me.

Moe Sathan had an oil company and he was also a Master Electrician.  She worked as an assistant bookkeeper.  She had to take two busses to get there. She took the first bus on the corner of Angel Street and Blue Hill Avenue in front of Harry's grocery store. The bus went up Talbot Avenue to Codman Square where she got off and then took another bus that dropped her off in front of Sathan Heat & Electric. He had two guys working for him, a driver and an assistant electrician. She was making $1.00/hour. After one year she asked for a raise so he paid her $1.25/hour.

I have now finally come to the end of Things My Mother Told Me on 5.28.11 except for one thing which she referred to as "Clarification." At the end of everything she told me she said, "......I have to clarify one thing regarding the Evangeline Booth hospital. One day I was sitting at the kitchen table next to Boby, reading the paper. There was an article on the Evangeline Booth Hospital for Unwed Mothers. So I asked your grandmother why I was born there."  She said "it wasn't like that when you were born." Shirley pursued it, and once asked a Salvation Army bellringer if the hospital was only for unwed mothers and that person said yes. I said what difference does it make, Boby and Zaidy were married when you were born..............and she said......"....maybe she wasn't my real mother......" !!! I was so flabbergasted I said, "Shirley, are you writing your own book ?"

And that folks, is the way it is.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a lot of interesting information on the history of the family. And such a cute picture!