Brought all my things
home from Mendel’s where
I lived until now,
Bought some neccessities
for my own use,
I am arranging my little
lone 2 room apartment,
I see I’ll have yet to do
lots of work until everything
is in shape.
—————–
This is the first time he’s mentioned “Mendel,” who is clearly the person he’s boarding with, but we don’t know much else about him. He’s probably a friend or even the owner of a more formal boarding facility (my sense, after visiting with the people at the Tenement Museum, is that Papa was just renting a cot in someone’s living room or kitchen). In any event, the apartment mentioned here is where Papa lived until he met my grandmother.