I do not know the story of how my parents met and decided to marry.

Josephine, Berth, Frieda

But, they were married in New York City on March 3,1907.  After they were married, they produced a daughter every year for four years.  My four older sisters were born in New York City. 

Josephine was born in 1907, Frieda in 1908, Bertha in 1909, and Gertrude in 1910.They lived in a walk-up New York City flat.  My dad, having completed an apprenticeship as a butcher in Vienna, worked in a meat packing plant, going to work early in the morning and putting in a long day.  This was also not an easy life for Mother managing four babies, with the laundry four flights down.

Polly: My family before I was born:
Dad, Josephine, Mother
Bertha, Gertrude, Frieda

The Girl’s first language was German (Hungarian being the private language between the parents).  English was “picked up” from the environment by the parents until the children started school.  Then, I am told, the children began to insist that English be spoken.  By the time I came along, 9 years after Gertrude, I heard German spoken when adult relatives got together, but English was the prevalent language.

Having grown up on a large farm my mother was not happy with “city life”.…..The family moved from New York City first to Flint, Michigan, and later, to Detroit, where I was born when Gertrude, their youngest was nine years old.  (I learned much later that a birth control devise, a gold ball, had to be removed because it was creating a health problem for my mother.)  Maxine was born three years after me.  Viola was born fifteen months after that.

1930’s only Polly is missing