Irene Sobel - September 8, 1998
Warsaw Street Life
You started to say something about the street life.
Yes, I remember at that time--I don't recall seeing cars. We had electrical trolleys, we called them, and horse and buggies. And uh, for me as a little girl it was an, an exciting thing to ride in a horse and buggy and very, kind of elaborate buggies that we see in the movies or, or find here in some wealthy estates. But that was only on special occasions. Uh, my sister and I walked together to some of our relatives who apparently were within a walking distance. Uh, children played in the streets. The shopping was an old small little uh, stores a few steps down. I even remember as a child when I would play outside in the courtyard with other children, I would call my mother--would have been the fourth floor--if I could go to Mrs. Goldstein to get a, a bun and she would, when I get hu...they were those crusty uh, hard Kaiser rolls, she would slice it, put butter on it and put either ??? or chocolate and directly would charge my mother on a running account. There was a kind of a feeling of a family in the community. We--the neighbors knew us and we knew the neighbors. Even though that it was a large apartment building uh, we were on the fourth stor...story. And not all of them were Jews. I remember across from us, the neighbor right across from us, which is just a few steps across was a Catholic couple, and family. And my sister, my older sister was born uh, Christmas Eve, the 24th. And they all made special prayers and special blessing for the Jewish neighbor baby. And they were very close relationships. My...
© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn