tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7224652730919207276.post6070701232871692608..comments2024-03-26T21:57:45.343-07:00Comments on Norm's Norms: Mother's Daynormsnorms.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12535995898255666585noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7224652730919207276.post-4055702253203538612011-05-05T13:23:11.914-07:002011-05-05T13:23:11.914-07:00Thanks for your story, Ruth. I suppose there are m...Thanks for your story, Ruth. I suppose there are many of us whose parents gave full meaning to the phrase, NEW WORLD, a time for erasing as well as starting out. One door opens, the other closes.normsnorms.blogspot.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12535995898255666585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7224652730919207276.post-47605652823448074022011-05-05T11:57:59.172-07:002011-05-05T11:57:59.172-07:00Your mother and my father, Norm. My dad always sa...Your mother and my father, Norm. My dad always said he was born in Brooklyn. Not until I was about 20, when he needed to attend a biochem conference in Europe, did he come clean. Guess he figured he couldn’t lie on a passport application, so he might as well out himself to the rest of us.<br /><br />He came here at the age of 7 in 1914. He was immediately quarantined on Ellis Island, stayed there for a couple of weeks, not able to speak a word of English. Then in the schools in Brooklyn he was teased. Overnight, he became an American. <br /><br />To this day, I don’t know how much he remembered of Sicily. None of that family talked about their life there. No pogroms, of course. But there was grinding poverty and rampant crime. I thank my grandfather for bringing his 9 children here. I thank my father’s older sisters who worked in the garment factories so that my father could go to college. I owe my comfortable life to those people.Ruthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04640653788022967254noreply@blogger.com