Joseph Gringlas - January 14 & 22, March 18, 1993
Family
Tell me about Marcy.
Marcy? Marcy is--as a kid in school, after the war we came to United States, lived in North Park. They, they found out in school that uh, she's got musical talent. So eh, she was only five, six years old. And uh, we found out that she was talent. And that time where we, you know, I was working and it was, we're not financial--we're not be able to do things. But we found out she has talent we gave her private lessons for a few years. Then when she graduated from high school she was, went to eh, music in Indiana. And before that in, she went, went after a few years taking private schools, she was playing with the youth, youth, International Youth Symphony orchestra from Canada. And she played in the symphony, in, in youth symphony, they had youth symphony in Detroit too. And after being in--she went to Indiana uh, Bloomington, Indiana for music, starting music. Then she was sent to--scholarship to Vienna for a year. In Vienna she was a year there and she came back and, and then at that time she was able to meet the ambassador from United States in Vienna. She--so she felt more like having somebody to come in to some place, so and she had good time while being there with that American ambassador. They gave her a lot of help, helping out those kids, where the. When she came back in, she went--she graduated, finished eh, university in Indiana, college. And she went to New York starting Columbia. It wasn't enough uh, finishing college, she went for master degree in Columbia. And she was there a few years in Columbia, she graduated from Columbia.
But not in music.
Hm?
Not in music.
Not in music, no. In Columbia she went--taking for special children education, development, little. And she worked there for hospital for Spanish children, while being in Columbia. And then she graduated Columbia. And she met, got married in New York, which is my son-in-law now.
What's his name?
Joel Greenberg. And uh, they settled--after they got married they settled in Washington. My son-in-law was uh, finish uh, uh, law degree in school in New York. I don't know exactly the name of the school. And he was in Washington and he got a job to work with the Justice Department for, in the, for the investigating of the Nazis, what they did during the war.
The Office of Special...
Office of Special, Special Investigation. Which made me feel good that my son in law is working with this, investigating Nazis. And when, when he used to come visit to Detroit and when I used to--I went to work I took him downtown, my son in law, I said, "He's going to investigate," I said, "Let me investigate them, I would investigate them, I would know how to ask them." Eh, and living in Washington for a, for a year or two and they moved to Philadelphia, which my son in law eh, joined his friends at a company, Susquehanna it's called. And, and he joined with them. So they moved from Philadelphia to--moved from Washington to Philadelphia. And they live now in Philadelphia and they have two children. Very wonderful eh, they were, my daughter's really and my son, they really, really care about us very much.
I know.
They're wonderful children.
When your granddaughter was born--your first grandchild is Sara.
Yeah.
Who is she named after?
She is named after my wife's family. Sara Kiesler. Uh, because uh, yeah, when Jake was born they named him aft...after my own brother, that's my brother in that picture. His name was Yakov. So he was named, she uh, Jake was named after his name.
When your, when your granddaughter was born, what went through your mind?
Oh, my granddaughter was born it was a good feeling because I never, never imagine my life I will see, even, after the war, I--when we survived we couldn't imagine there were some Jewish girls at all left. 'Cause went on in, in there and when I, I was married and I had my daughter and son. And then when my daughter was married and had that grandchild, first gra...grandchild was born, I was really happy because never in my dreams I would dream that I would have a family and I made a life and have and have grandchildren. So it was, it was a wonderful feeling, that brought I build normalcy in life, to have continuation of our--from, from us.
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