Snapshots
As I was growing up I remember these little booklets. The cover reads: "They're bound to please." Guess I liked the pun as well as what each booklet held inside. As I come across each of those booklets today I recall images from one or another of them. I never know if the photos inside are among my favorites or ones I'd sooner forget. This particular booklet has photos that help me remember. These are photos of a Passover.
Passover was and is a special time for me. In our household we always kept strictly kosher on Passover. That meant special dishes, special table coverings, special food, special everything. I remember it as a fun time when the whole family got together.
I am guessing (I may need help from Sis again), but I think the Passover depicted here is 1953 or 1954. Why? One reason is that by 1955 we had a different of dining room furniture. Another is that my brother bill entered the Army in 1954 (I'm not sure if he returned for Passover celebrations). Then there is the age of my cousin Tony to consider. He was six years younger than me. Does he look three? two? Do I look eight or nine? I would be ten in 1955.
What a picture! There I am wearing that blue and white paneled yarmelke (which I still have). At right is my brother Bill. In the left front is my Dad, then my Mother (behind my dad), my Bubee, and my cousin Tony Mirkin. It might be hard to tell, but Bill is mugging (as usual). That's the reason for the smiles on Tony's and Bubee's faces. This is the second seder. We had gone to my Aunt and Uncle's house the night before, as you will see in the photos below.
The dining room is as I remember it. That Victorian mural that went all round the room. The red brocade drapes. A glimpse of those flowered living room curtains on the side porch door (to the right of Tony's head). The table set with our Passover depression glass dishes. The flowered tablecloth. The lspecial wine decanter.The candles.
Another incredible photo! My Bubee blessing the candles.
Guess my sister Freda must have taken that first photo. There she is sitting to my (and your) left. Then there's my Dad and Mom, Bubee and Tony, and Bill must have taken this photo.
Okay now, here's that first seder. Starting on the right and moving around the table: My Bubee, Me, my Dad, my Mom, my cousin Sharon Avery, my aunt Carmelita and my uncle Carl Avery, my uncle Fred Mirkin (sitting at the head of the table and partially obscured by the camera flash in the mirror), my aunt Estelle Mirkin, my cousin Marilyn Mirkin, my uncle Nathan Avery (in sunglasses), Phil and Delta Mirkin, and their son Gary Mirkin at left front.
Here's another group of us kids in Fred and Estelle's living room. In front from left: Tony Mirkin, and Marty Mirkin (Gary's younger brother). In back are Gary Mirkin and Me.
Here, of course, is my beautiful Sis with my aunt Estelle, and my cousin Tony with a sheepish smile.
Here the booklet ends. A better view of the folks on the right side of the table. Within about ten years how many of them would be gone: My Dad, then my uncle Fred Mirkin, then Fred's brother Phil. Mmmmm? I wonder if Freda took this picture? And where's aunt Rena? I'm not sure I have any good photos of her.
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