I always remember my mother as being, well, my mama---European and although always "with it" really not very "cool".

And then I come across a picture of mama looking sleek and slender in a dark ski suit standing in the snow with a pair of ice skates slung over her shoulder. Uncle Mayer was the one who used to toboggan down the mountain with us and go on the scariest rides with us at Belmont Park. I just don't remember mama as the sporty type but that picture tells me she was.

I do know , because she told me about it, that sometime in the forties, she got her driver's license, and bought herself a car so that the family could do things on Wednesday afternoons and on Sundays when the store was closed. Daddy, though, was nervous about her driving---he didn't drive--- and wouldn't join her on any trips. Instead he'd sit in his chair at the front wimdow and say tehillim until we'd all come back safely, and then make a big fuss about how worried he was.

Mama eventually took the hint and gave up driving.