Sadie B’s company was
pleasant.
Just Kissable.
Evening at Channukaa
Partyat Jack’s (Zichlinsky)
Hart St. home.
—————
Matt’s Notes
“Sadie B.” must be Sadie Breindel, one of the three distant cousins with whom Papa shared a bed when he first came to America (Clara and Eva were the others, and all were the daughters of Max and Dora, who continued to favor Papa with their generosity throughout his young life).
As we’ve noted before, my grandmother used to shout “you slept with my husband!” when she’d see Sadie in later years, and though this line never failed to kill I’m now starting to wonder if Papa didn’t actually carry a torch for Sadie. I thought it might have signalled more than just brotherly affection for her diminutive figure when he called her “little Sadie” earlier in the year, but what else are we supposed to think when he refers to her as “just kissable” in today’s entry? (At least I think it says “just,” though the word “kissable” is unmistakable.)
Papa may have had Sadie’s kissable lips on his mind as he watched her eat latkes and sing about the Maccabees at Jack Zichlinsky’s party, but little did he know my grandmother (a.k.a. “Nana”) was less than three blocks away, or that he was destined to meet her and fall for her completely within the next four months. (Jack was at #24 Hart Street and my grandmother lived with her family at #226.) I don’t know exactly when he met her, but we’ve recently unearthed the letters he wrote her throughout their courtship, the first of which is dated April 22, 1925. I’ll be posting them next year.
