ROBY'S THIRD YAHRTZEIT 11 Tevet

I found a letter from Roby dated December 23, 1999, typed, two pages, single spaced.  In it he answers some of my questions about the Sandler family, the photograph album at Boby's house and, he lectured me regarding his use of email. I laughed out loud when I read it. I had forgotten about that part.



Dear Carol,

I am happy to read that you found my article on the Ten Commandments interesting. You asked to see the one about "Why Are There Two Versions of the Creation in Genesis?" Here it is.

I too think it is easier to send e-mail letters than writing them in longhand, or even typing them. (At the moment, I'm using a word processor, which I think is more user-friendly but, if sent via U.S. mail, is of course slower.) I am sending this via U.S. mail only because it is simpler  to send multi-page articles with clippings, etc. through the mail than it is to work them through the scanner and computer one page at a time and then print them out - one page at a time.

...from your last two e-mails, one to Bernice and one to me: "I will answer Bob's letter via snail mail since it appears he does not look at e-mail." Excuse me ????? "It is easier for me to e-mail...I wish you would e-mail me as well."  Excuse me?????  (note: yes he did type 5 question marks!)

Well...enough of that.

I would like to explore with you some of the history of the album and pictures that you keep referring to, that you used to see at Bobie and Zaidy's house on Friday nights. Some background and context: I was taking pictures of your mother and Ruthie, and of other people and places, with a little brownie camera in the 30's and early 40's. In Feb. 1943 I went into the army. I took pictures during that period. Ina matter of weeks after I was discharged, in Dec. 1946, I enrolled as a freshman at Ohio University. I kept adding pictures in an album. Somewhere along the line, I distinctly remember an album with black pages; I remember writing with white ink under the pictures. In the spring of 1949, after graduating in February, 1949, I came home for a few months. At that time, Bobie and Zaidy moved from Harlem Street to Roxbury. I did not move with them to Roxbury. I rented a room at 215 Commonwealth Ave. I moved with whatever few things I had, with emphasis on "few," which must have included whatever pictures I had. I remember that Zaidy wanted to move with as little as possible.

In August, 1949, I got married. We went right out to Ohio U., where I had been offered an assistantship for an M.A. I finished My M.A. in August, 1950, and we went right up to Cleveland, without coming back east. You were born on September 17, 1950. I did two years of Doctorate work at Western Reserve. Ellen was born in 1952. We returned to Boston in 1953. Jeff was born in 1954. We had a small apartment on Kilsythe Road in Brookline. (wow, I did not remember that!) I started to teach at Northeastern in the Fall of 1953. At that time, Bobie and Zaidy were living in the Franklin Field apartments. I do not know exactly when they moved out of Roxbury. You and your mother were living on American Legion Highway.

Now, you remember the Friday evenings at Bobie's when you were a little girl. * We moved from Brookline to Florida in July, 1956, a few months before your sixth birthday, taking whatever we had with us. As for "a stack of family pictures" that you saw here, in 1990, that you remember seeing in Bobie's album when you were a little...except for the two family pictures and two or three others, that's a mystery to me. I don't know anything about a "stack of family photos in a large manila envelope."

The picture of Bobie with the lute, and bangs, her elbow on a stone, was never in my album. I don't know when Bobie gave it to me, but it was never "just another picture for the album. The old but beautiful picture of Bobie with her Aunt Elizabeth was never in my album. The picture of Zaidy in his army uniform was never in my album. I had those pictures in separate small envelopes. I have a vague recollection that Zaidy's army picture, torn and cracked, was in the album at Bobie's. I must have have asked for it. I later had it professionally restored. I have another vague recollection that the picture of our maternal grandfather was also in that album. The album at Bobie's, as I recall, was grey, it had the rectangular shape of a bookkeeping ledger. I just cannot recall whether I ever had that picture of Bobie's father. Ruthie may have had it; I just am not sure. I hope that picture still exists. He had four brothers in the Greater Boston area. They might have had pictures. Descendants of those brothers are...all over the place, Iguess. He lso had five or six other brothers and one sister who never came to America.

You know...memory can play tricks on on. In the mind, memory can somehow be changed by strong desire. Mark Twain, in his later years, once said, "the older I get, the more I can remember things...whether they happened or not."

Does your mother have any pictures? Does Ken have any pictures? Does Barbara (Josephs) Cavalear have any pictures? Who knows, maybe Barry salvaged some pictures during those tumultuous years.

I hope to get an e-mail out to you in the next few days, including a couple of pictures.

Love, Roby

P.S. Weren't you 12 when Bobie died?

* see my first blog post, 2009