Jezebel
Welcome back to 'Fine Lines', the Friday feature in which we give a sentimental, sometimes-critical, far more wrinkled look at the children's and YA books we loved in our youth. This week, writer/reviewer/blogger Lizzie Skurnick re-reads Sydney Taylor's 1951 classic about a family of five Jewish girls living on NYC's Lower East Side, All-Of-A-Kind Family'.
Obviously the great tragedy of starting with All-of-a-Kind Family is that I am not going to get to talk about the dress.You know what dress. It is a white linen dress, and it reaches to the tippy-toes of hook-and-eye leather boots. It has a ruffled, lacy front. It was white. White! Now it is a lovely, warm, buttery brown. It has been hanging in the closet as usual. It cannot be yellowed with age. It is very pretty, but...Why is it light brown? How has this happened????
I'll let you clear all that up in the comments, but as we make our way through the primary texts of our girlhood, I am going to have to do something that pains me profoundly: side with Trey Ellis over Barbara Ehrenreich. (Oh, what the hell. Platitudes was one of my favorite books in my twenties, but you don't side against Barbara Ehrenreich.)
First, you must forgive me, I think, for being staggered at how profoundly these 19th-and-early-20th century works deal entirely with food, petticoats, and chores. Obviously they would not deal with hedge-fund management and the perils of kiddie soccer leagues. Okay. That dispatched, I have to say, no one could be more profoundly untouched by extensive rereads of whatnot-dusting and helping-ma-make-sausaging than I. Because as I make my way through yet another deliriously fetishized vision of household labor ("I want a little washboard and a little tub so I can wash my dolly's clothes", Gertie answered at once), I cannot but reflect that, although I, too, am in need of a little washboard and little washtub so I can wash my dolly's clothes, I never even pick up a Method wipe.
So Barb, no worries! And now we come to the series itself, the wonderful story of Ella, Charlotte, Sarah, Henny, and Gertie, 5 Jewish (what else?) girls growing up on the Lower East Side at the turn of the century — one of whom, I now apprehend, is definitely a lesbian. If I can be chosen for a sec, I have to say that, because no Jews were harmed in the making of this series, this work, is, literally, good for the Jews. And, as much as I like a pogrom-to-DP story (see The Endless Steppe, Number the Stars) it is nice to see how Jews live, too.
Which brings us back to the housework. I had forgotten how strictly Taylor hews to the Dickensian model of providing pretty much one event per chapter, preferably something illustratable. What this means is you can successfully call up the entire text by simply listing the chapter titles. (Since you asked: The Library Lady, Dusting is Fun, Rainy Day Surprise, Who Cares if it's Bedtime?, The Sabbath, Papa's Birthday, Purim Play, Sarah in Trouble, Mama Has Her Hands Full, Fourth of July, Family Outing, Succos, A New Charlie. You're welcome.) We don't have time to cover them all today— I KNOW, I'M SORRY — but, besides Uncle Hyman coming by to eat six-hard boiled eggs and half a loaf of rye spread thickly with butter (uh, DELICIOUS) nothing has ever stuck in my brain quite so much as Mama's method of getting the girls to do a better job dusting the front room: placing buttons for the girls to find in all the hard-to-find spots.
Because I was tortured — TORTURED! — by how once the girls found one button (say, on a table leg) they might leave the rest of the table undusted. (!!!!!!!!) LUCKILY, upon rereading, I realized that Mama was crafty, and, in time, periodically placed a few buttons on one item, or none, or a penny, to prevent just such an eventuality. (Also, did anyone else ever notice that Mama, like Ma, has a china shepardess? Take out the sausage-making, and they are looking clonier and clonier.)
In contrast, I was also quite touched by the image of Pa, at his rag shop, having hands that were so cracked and dirty that the dust seeped in beneath the skin no matter how much he cleans and oils them. How can stamping rags and old books and bums cutting out sturdy pieces of cardboard to replace their hole-y soles seem cozy? It does. Anyway, the rag shop is where we meet Ella's crush, Charlie, who, surrounded by the other Italian, Polish, and Jewish peddlars, is "....different from the others. He was handsome, blond, and blue-eyed, and a good deal younger than most of the peddlars. It was rumored he came from a wealthy family and had a fine education."
Uh...wait, Sydney, no you didn't! Um, okay. I will only forgive you for that brief daven towards the master race because you are always talking about how pretty Mama is and how fine her manners are, and how she is just as pretty as that shiksa Miss Allen, the librarian who turns out to be — spoiler alert! — Charlie's lost love, not that I ever see this coming, even though Miss Allen always has a hint of sadness in her eyes and so does Charlie, and they are the only two of-age singletons in the narrative, and he has been searching for his lost fiancee FOREVER.
Accessing his vast store of shaygets knowledge, Charlie is the person that introduces us, when the entire neighborhood celebrates July 4th, to Roman Candles:
I'm just putting this in here to point out that real Roman Candles look nothing like this illustration and are lame and this fact has killed me for my entire life, and that I just realized it's possible Taylor put this whole chapter ("Independence Day," Ella answered. "It's a holiday all over the country") to show that Jews could, too, assimilate. Taylor, you're killing me.
Whatever, we're also in for more food — a la pig's tail and abalone — that is apparently delicious. As a person of interest, I am in the unique position of declaring that, if you have somehow avoided gefulte fish, stewed fruit, and matzoh balls up until now, this is indisputably so! And when Gertie and Charlotte, like Laura and Mary before them, suck the bits of salty flesh off the skin of a salmon, I can only advise you that, if no one is slaughtering a pig nearby, that is a good way to go.
You should also go to Coney Island circa 1903, the better to plunge into the Atlantic wearing 8 petticoats, holding hands with your sisters, stopping only to get lost and be taken in by an Irish policeman ("Air ye now! Well, ye come along with me...") who buys you a peanut-candy bar and a lollipop and an ice-cream and it is magically not creepy at all. This is a scene perhaps only equaled by the bathing scene at the lighthouse summer home in Cheaper By The Dozen. (Ma swimming way out? Flaking whitewash, Davy Jones' Locker, Katie-bar-the-door? Anyone? Anyone? We'll get to it.)
It is the dead of winter. Here you go. I wish I had one of Ma's limburger sandwiches too.
Which brings us to the end. This is going to tragically, I think, turn into another score for Ellis. Because watch where Papa weeps-literally weeps!-when he finally, at long last, gets a son:
I had forgotten that COMPLETELY. I am really just sitting here, watching Bridezillas, still, at age 34, stuck on Uncle Hyman's thickly buttered rye bread and boiled eggs. So, while Ehrenreich could probably start fretting over any detailed food descriptions accompanying those of the tiaras, I think we've got score one for feminism.
Unfortunately, I am now newly perturbed on that "blonde hair and blue eyes" thing. I will think about it once I get back from changing some money.
Zay gezunt!
All-Of-A-Kind Family [Amazon]
Lizzie Skurnick [The Old Hag]
Related: NPR: The Big Book Of Blogs
Earlier: Island Of The Blue Dolphins: I'm A Cormorant And I Don't Care
Little House In The Big Woods: I Play With A Pig Bladder Like It's A Balloon
The Grounding Of Group Six: Have Fun At School, Kids, And Don't Forget To Die
Are You There Crazy Psychic Muse? It's Me, Lois Duncan
Comments
Remember how excited they were when the got STORE BOUGHT COOKIES!!
The dress is light brown because they dyed it in a bathtub full of tea.
My mom thought it would be SO MUCH FUN to do the button thing when my sister and I dusted. She was wrong. It just made it harder to cheat.
You completely forgot the ear piercing scene--one of my favs, and oh, the tea dress, how I loved the fact that she never figured out where the lovely pale brown dress came from.
The dress isn't brown- it's ecru. Died to match the stain. I think that was the first time I ever saw that word. Sigh... Also, reading All of A Kind Family may be the reason I became obsessed with learning yiddish. So, ikh'll vintsch aykh ale a freylikhn silvester (af Yiddish) and let you all work *that* out in the comments.
I don't know this book. At all.
It was tea that changed the color of the dress. Didn't Charlotte or Sarah borrow it, spill something on it, and decide to dye the whole thing in tea to cover up the stain? (It's always the middle sister who gets into these scrapes, isn't it?)
@TruculentandUnreliable: me either :(
OMG! I forgot about this book and immediately remembered all the food scenes. The salmon skin was exactly first.
I never read these books, but they sound fantastic. I'll have to check them out! (Maybe even assign one of them in my class one day)
Can we also talk about the moustache cup the girls bought for Pa? And the paper cone full of spiced peas? And the kugel? I still think about Uncle Hyman whenever I toast myself some rye bread and spread it thickly with...uh, margarine.
Oy, this is bringing back so many memories, y'all. I feel a trip to Alibris coming on.
My father took me to the library every week when I was little (I started reading when I was three) and it was one of my favourite things. One book that made a huge impression on me was the first All-Of-a-Kind-Family book. I loved the story and really identified with the family because we had just my little brother and my father was really happy (my mother had decided that three kids were enough and told my dad that if he didn't get a boy he was out of luck). I never thought there was anything wrong with Daddy wanting a boy; I thought it was only fair to even the odds a bit. Anyway, I don't think I knew any Jewish people when I was little so this book meant so much because I discovered a culture that was so different from mine (little black girl living in Kennsington, surrounded by my West Indian family) but was still so familiar. I wanted to light Sabbath candles. And I wanted to eat a pickle from a barrel!!! I feel so sorry for kids today. They have all this technology but we had STORIES.
I never realised Henny was a lesbian. I always figured she was turn-of-the-century ADHD. Now I want to go back and re-read.
I remember the later books better, the one with the Italian boy Guido, the one with the neighbor who's food they eat (and becomes a re-occuring character) and the last one, where Ella makes a go at show business, only to discover she doesn't have the stomach to be a "modern" chorus-line dancer.
I don't know this book, either. I am thinking it might have to do with growing up in Minnesota.
Oh, the button game! And I always wanted to sleep on a fire escape! Still do!
This was the only book in my school library that mentioned Jews, as, naturally, someone wanted The Diary of Anne Frank banned. As the only Jewish kid in the tri-county area, I latched on to this series of books (it is a series, right? And I just didn't write endless fanfic?) with a tight little grip that didn't let up until high school.
@TheUptightMidwesterner: I grew up in Kansas, so that could explain it.
@ CHRYSS
This is totally a series. I read them all. It made me want to become a practicing Jew (my mother was born Jewish, but she was a confirmed atheist by the time I was born.) Everything I knew as a kid about the Jewish faith came from reading these books. :-)
Lizzie Skurnick, you're right on the money! This whole series was so wonderful, but it's funny as hell to read them as an adult! I highly recommmend it-- especially for scenes like Sarah getting her ears pierced (a piece of string? Ech), or one of the little girls eating a pickle right out of the barrel (still wanna do that!)
So funny to think about these books now, as an adult! I LOVED this family. I read these books over and over. (as I did with every book I loved in childhood!) I am not Jewish, so everything I know, I learned from books. This family fascinated me.
I had a massive crush on Jules...how sad was it when he went to fight in the war?
@Anibundel: YES! My parents were not terribly religious, which is fine, except they raised me & my sisters out in Evangelical Land. This was my only religious education--well that and "Conversations with Rabbi Small," by Harry Kemelman. Yowza.
I don't have time to read this long post now, but will return to it later. But I wanted to say that I, too, adored that series and recently looked it up on the web.
Like Topsy above, I was another little black girl who thought, in part because of that series, that it would be really cool to be Jewish. Although I grew up in New York and had a lot of contact with Jews, I learned a lot about Judaism from those books. Actually, I was always a sucker for early 20th century New York immigrant stories.
It always pains me to hear African Americans referred to as a group as anti-semites because that certainly was never the case in my family or anyone I knew well. But unfortunately I've now had enough encounters with racist Jews that the overwhelmingly warm feelings I used to have are somewhat tempered.
A suggestion for your feature: The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright. Remember when Mona got her hair cut?
My first post seems to have gotten lost in cyberspace.
A wonderful series.
I loaded up my iPod with some holiday songs and I cannot get Maoz Tzur out of my head.
For you NYC-ers (or visitors), I went to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum last time I was in NYC and LOVED IT. My local friends had never heard of it, I just saw it on a map and went. It's on Orchard, near Broome. It's a tenement that has been restored to how it was during the immigration boom, in part by consulting with descendants of those who grew up there. Have to go through with a guide. Really educational and inspirational, imho.
...whoa. I saw the title of this go-round and went "hmm, haven't read this one," but persevered anyway because (I can always use recommendations for more comfort reading) I was curious, and then got to the hiding-buttons bit and THE ENTIRE BOOK CAME FLOODING BACK.
Seriously, no idea why I apparently had repressed my reading of this book (maybe it was the filler entertainment between bouts of devil-worshipping sexual abuse at my satanic daycare?), but that was totally awesome!
Oh, how I adored the All-of-a-Kind books; they made me want to visit the Lower East Side so badly (it was just over the bridge, after all). Eventually, I moved there. Now I'm here and the neighborhood is gone. I guess I'm going to have to travel via Alibris to visit. I believe I got the first of the series through the Scholastic Book Club, a cherished program in the NYC public school system.
@lolainblackglasses: i went there last time i was in ny too. it was awesome, despite the old lady in my tour group who went on a rant about the chinese people who refuse to learn english. i tell everyone who is traveling to nyc that they have to go and see it.
@TruculentandUnreliable: Or living anywhere west of New York? I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn like a fanatic, and plenty of Chaim Potok, but this book is news to me too.
I loved this book.
YES! The Saturdays! I loved the Melendys!
Oh, Lord. I think I remember every single mention of food in this book. When Sarah won't eat her soup? When they go shopping for Shabbos and Henny gets a pickle, Ella gets a sweet potato (I think), and Sarah gets hot chick peas in a cone? When Charlotte and Gertie buy crackers and chocolate babies and eat them in bed--very, very slowly?
I think I remember actual syntax from this book as well. "Less than half a penny I don't sell." (Re: C&G asking for a quarter penny's worth of candy.)
I think the reason I was so into these books was because my mom desperately loved them when she was little, on account of being Jewish and growing up in South Philly in the early '60s.
@Seeräuber Jenny: when I was a kid, my rabbi used to work a lot with the minister at the AME church down the road. some of my fuzziest memories are of joint services with the two congregations.
(actually, my whole town was enormously anti-semetic, to the point where I actually Learned In Public School That Jews Were Going To Hell, and the AME was pretty much the only group to reach out at all.)
@dashrashi: The food...oh, the food! Sydney Taylor made it all sound positively ambrosial. And I was so jealous of my Jewish friends! (Come to think of it, I was also jealous of my Catholic friends--all of my friends' moms cooked better than my own.)
I still have the four books that comprise the series; they're still available on Amazon.
(I hope someone here eventually covers the Edward Eager books.)
What a terrific book! Through some quirk of memory, I think of the hidden buttons every time I dust. I remember that Mama wasn't worried about the girls staying awake in bed, saying that they were resting even if they were awake.
@Seeräuber Jenny: Oooh! Oooh! I'll write about The Saturdays! And The Four-Story Mistake, too.
Rats. First post a no-show.
I nearly jumped up and down when a woman bought this book today, because I loved this series so much. I wanted sisters who could all dress identically to me! I also wanted to dress up in my brother's clothes for Purim, like Ella did in her father's/cousin's? clothes, but my mother wouldn't let me. Le sigh.
I vote for Edward Eager's Half Magic! Maybe some Lloyd Alexander? The Chronicles of Prydain were wonderful...
I CANNOT wait for your "Cheaper by the Dozen" write up, as I remember all of those references and so many more. Also, I would love a review of "The Four Story Mistake." I was just thinking about that book the other day -- the part where the older boy, I can't remember his name, gets up early in the morning and has freshly caught trout and black coffee down by the river.
Sadly I did not read the "All-of-a-Kind Family" books as a child, but they sound delightful.
Speaking of characters attempting to make a go of it in show business, did anyone else read the Gemma books by Noel Streatfield?
Ah, goodness. For some reason, even though I'm male and raised Roman Catholic, I adored these books as a kid (and still own a few of them). Fabulous stuff, like reading Eleanor Estes.
@GinaRomantica: Oh yeah! She borrowed it for a party because her blue one had a rip in the armpit, and she didn't want to fix it, and spilled tea on it at a party so they tea-dyed it and it came out beautifully.
The moral I got from this is that if you cover up a misdeed well enough, you skate.
As the only Jewish family growing up in Old Greenwich, CT in the early 70s, my Mom thought it wise to buy me the entire series. My main memory is of Ella and how badly I wanted her to "get with" Jules (was that his name?) I also remember a chapter in one of the later books in which the son is almost hit in the road by a streetcar(?) only to be rescued by a female stranger. The family invites her to the house and one of the younger sisters whispers, "she's fat," and an older sister whispers back, "she's not fat, she's just sort of roley-poley." I'm sure I'm paraphrasing (I was only around 7 at the time) but those books were a big hit in my house, along with the entire Little House series. What IS it about stories of housework and domesticity that was comforting to girls of my era???
Oh! yes! as mentioned above, Edward Eager's books, particularly Half Magic, withstand the adult re-read without losing one scintilla of their luster!
*sigh* I have to dig this out and read it again. The review has brought up so many points I COMPLETELY MISSED as an innocent child.
I love this! Permissible regression. Are you all going to do the "Pawpaw Trees" series?
@PeachesDelux: "when I was a kid, my rabbi used to work a lot with the minister at the AME church down the road. some of my fuzziest memories are of joint services with the two congregations."
That must have been a kickbutt service. I'm AME - do you think we can arrange to do that again? We can have the best food ever.
Yes! This series! I was trying to remember what they were called during Hannukah this year, so this is a perfectly timed post. At least my parents remembered them too, since the last book I couldn't remember the title of no one else had read...
I loved all of these books, and still have them...they're falling apart!
Does anyone remember the Melendy children series that began with The Saturdays? That was a great series too!