There was an enclave of new Boshan and Politzer immigrants in New York City in the early 1900’s where relatives congregated as they emigrated from their birthplaces for a variety of reasons. My father; to escape the inevitable draft in the army, my mother; to escape an arranged marriage. Continue reading
I do not know the story of how my parents met and decided to marry. 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. Continue reading
When the families first met……… This story really starts in Detroit, Michigan where my family moved in 1913. We lived on Gratiot Avenue (pronounced “grashet”). We lived on the north side of the street at one end and the Hans Haveman family lived on the other end of the same block. We were already a … Continue reading
Mother’s role was MOTHER. She always did what needed to be done. For the most part she was living the life she expected to live. My mother was very much a loving, generous, caring person who was limited by her lack of education, but, strong in meeting human challenges. My mother’s schooling stopped at the … Continue reading
When I was 5 1/2 years old, probably in 1924, the family moved to the country so that my mother, who grew up on a farm in Hungary, could have a garden, that subsidized the budget for food. My father bought a ten acre plot which had a large house with an apple orchard in … Continue reading
I can remember that everyday when we sisters came home from school there was a fresh round loaf of rye bread with jam for us to snack on. I think my mother would get the rye bread fresh from the bakery every day. One thing I remember very clearly, when I was 12, that on Saturdays … Continue reading
My older sister Frieda (later Fritzie) did not live at our house when I was growing up. She had been almost adopted by family friends, the Havemans, as a companion for their only daughter. The father, Hans Haveman, had a brewery. They lived on the same street in Detroit as Mother and Dad, when … Continue reading
My mother was of course the one who taught me how to sew, so she was very important in my beginnings. When my sisters and I needed a new dress, I helped her make them or I made them myself by the time I was 12 years old. Mother made our winter coats and during … Continue reading
When I was seven, in 1926, my oldest sister, Josephine had a big wedding in a Temple in Detroit. Josephine, I am told, had beautiful blonde hair and was very pretty and vivacious. After high school she had attended a business school. Before the wedding there was a large outdoor party and our front yard was … Continue reading
One October evening Dad came home and announced that we would be going to Temple after supper. It was Succoth, a Jewish harvest festival, and there would be a special ceremony and treats for the children. The synagogue was about 15 miles from our house, which resulted in our not going there very often. But … Continue reading
…..after leaving Flint for Detroit, MI, Dad bought a Meat Packing Plant, hoping a son would arrive to take over the business, but when that didn’t happen, he opted for a retail butcher shop as a means of livelihood, which was located near where we lived. I (Polly) worked at our father’s butcher shop from … Continue reading
Rustic Culture in a Canadian Province When I was 17 and after high school, Gretchen and I planned to spend the summer and the winter of ~1925 with her parents in Allenford, Ontario. I think we had already spent time there before. Gretchen drove us up in her new red Chrysler Roadster that her father … Continue reading
Gretchen and I wanted to get to know the young people in town, so we took the road around Chesley Lake and walked to the presbyterian church in Allenford on Sunday mornings. The choir master greeted us very kindly and we were recruited for the church choir. Eventually, however, the choir master discovered that I did not have … Continue reading
THE ACCIDENT: That December in Allenford, the groom was given a vacation and when he left, the Havemans discovered that he had been mistreating the horses. And particularly the tall one; the one that Mr. Haveman rode. One day, Aunt Gretchen decided that she would feed the horses. She went out to feed them and … Continue reading
Many, Many Artistic endeavors………. Around the time I started high school, my older sister Frieda, who was already called Fritzie most of the time, began working for Olga Fricker at her School of Ballet, as the costume designer. Fritizie lived in her studio on the top floor of the school which was a three story building … Continue reading
I was a working girl in Detroit in 1939. I was a freelance fashion designer making clothes for women in the more affluent Detroit suburbs, including wedding dresses, etc. Through the work/study program at Antioch College, Polly took a summer job in 1939 at the Mt. Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. When she and I talked about doing … Continue reading
The Staff Social Scene at Mt. Washington Hotel The waitresses were not allowed to date any of the hotel guests. If you did you were dismissed. But after 9:00 pm we could date each other. At 10 pm when our work was finished, we didn’t fall asleep exhausted. No! we would go out. For long … Continue reading
Finally we arrived in the Big City of New York, to look for work… Eve Marie and I found an apartment in Greenwich Village for a month. I found a job in a dress shop doing alterations. Eve Marie’s job hunting escapades were fantastic and exasperating. She was born in Germany originally and this was … Continue reading
Fritzie must have gone back to Detroit and continued to work as a fashion designer making clothes for women in the affluent Detroit area. She was doing at least some freelance work…………….. Fritzie writes on the side there: “Miss Crawford’s dress – Designed and Made by Fritzie“ 1942 It appears that as the USA entered WWII, Fritzie was … Continue reading
In 1943 Fritzie got married. The story goes, that this friend of the family who met Polly at Antioch college, Fred Pollak, asked each of the still single girls in the Politzer family to marry him. If I remember he started with Polly, who said no. Then he asked each of the other two younger sisters … Continue reading
Learning from my mother………… My Mother once told me that she had worked in a hospital for a while, I think during the war effort. She learned the correct way to change the bed sheets in the hospital rooms and showed me how to do it. It is still possible to learn how to fold … Continue reading
Fritzie continued to make clothes for our family thru the 1950’s. It could have been in the late 1940’s when there was still a baby in the family that Fritzie designed an apron/cape made of a quilted plastic material that went over the shoulder and was used for burping babies. I think there was some attempt on my … Continue reading
Hats! Fritzie enjoyed Hats very much. It is clear that she took great pleasure wearing hats and made some of the hats she wore. When she made Ballet costomes, head dresses, must have been part of her work. The hats and beehives era of the 60’s and 70’s were also the years when … Continue reading
The 1980’s brought grandchildren! Fritzie grew from age 72 to 82 during the ’80s. The years of physical changes, visiting family, watching children’s families grow, friends, some travel….. We discovered the graves of both her parents and maternal grandparents in the Los Angeles area. You can click on the individual pictures here to see more of … Continue reading
In the 1990’s, Fritzie spent 7 years living in a senior residence near my middle brother Tim, in the Denver, Colorado area. Tim & his wife, Ruth, took on the day care role and my youngest brother, Victor who lived nearby in Salt Lake City, visited her with his family often. She was very happy to … Continue reading
In 2001, Fritzie, already 93 years old, came to live with me in Israel. The only reason she decided to go, was because she was offered the thrill of taking a cruise on the Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship to get there. Still in evidence, her flare for design, color and style, continued………………… She had a … Continue reading
At the age of 95, my mother had another opportunity to express her artistic flare and sense of color. She was introduced to the weaving of little rugs and produced quite a number of them with the help of one of her day-care helpers, Svetlana. From Svetlana: “She was a good woman. Communication with her was pleasant. … Continue reading
