Baba sent me this email about her and Papa when they were young couple with small children that I wanted to share with you all a little about my family history;
Dearest,
I have a story to tell you that I hope won't bore you. It's ancient history yes, but still applicable to your situation, so hang on.
When Papa got his Ph.D., he couldn't find a job. A lot the returning Vets went back or started college under the G.I.Bill. (Btw, G.I. stands for Government Issue). Your grandfather had spent enough time overseas, 3 1/2 years, that it took him all the way through college and graduate school. The problem was, all these guys started at the same time and then, more or less finished at the same time. So, the market for Ph.D.'s was glutted. The only job offer he got was in one of the Carolina's for $3800/yr. So when he was offered a Post-doctoral fellowship at Cal Tech, we jumped at it. It paid $4200/yr. Wow! we had been living on so much less for so long, we thought we would be on easy street. What we didn't realize was that everything on the West Coast cost double what it did here in the East. A loaf of Wonderbread cost 30 cents a loaf, which was a lot then. Well, we found we couldn't really live out there. We had to pay too much rent in the apt. we rented in Alhambra. It was a beautiful place compared to what we had been living in in Illinois. (An old WWII barracks for officers and their families.) We had no furniture as we sold it all before we left Stadium Terrace. I had a few dishes (courtesy of my mother), some pots and pans, a few lamps but nothing else - nada. My mother sent us $1000, which is probably equivalent to $5,000 in today's money. We went to a furniture store in LA and that money bought us: A table and 4 chairs, (the one that was beside the washer on Brookfield Rd.), Three beds, a double for me and papa and twin beds for your mother and John. A washer, and a refrigerator and I think that's everything. We bought a chest of drawers in a second-hand store (the old maple chest. Papa and I used the linen closet to put our clothes ). And later on, I bought a lamp I fell in love with in a furniture story with some birthday money my mother sent me. It was the one with the spots on it. Rob has it now.
So, we were pretty much in the same situation you are in now. Except, everything had to be paid for with cash. There were no credit cards and no stores where you could get things cheaply. We were thrown into a world we weren't prepared for. Papa got out of there after one year and we came back east for the job with General Cigar. It paid, $6800/yr in a much lower cost of living area. When I told people we had paid 30 cents for a loaf of bread, they gasped! We only lived in the City for one year; it was awful. We lived in an apartment that was so dark that Chris Bennett joked when they came to visit that we needed miner's lamps. I turned 30 that year. Then Papa had to have gall bladder surgery. While he was in the hospital, I looked around at various new developments. At that time, you had to have 30% down in cash to get a mortgage from a bank, which, of course, your papa and I would never be able to get together. Then I found a new development of ranch homes out in Landisville that with the G.I.Bill, you could purchase with 5% down. As soon as papa was well enough, we went out to look at it and we bought it. We lived there for 9 years and we loved out little home.
However, it wasn't so easy for our kids who were picked on as we were the only Jews living there. The rough kids down the street even pelted the twins with snowballs when they were too little to even know enough to duck. I think that was the final straw as your mother and John took a lot of grief. John used to get beat up regularly and I made a habit of leaving the boys in their cribs and driving to the High School to pick up John so he wouldn't get beat up on the way home, though my heart was in my mouth to leave the twins unprotected. Those were hard times for me. Then we moved to Brookfield Rd. Your papa and I loved that house and our kids didn't get picked on so much, at least, not because they were Jews, as there were many Jewish kids in Manheim Twp. Schools. Anyway, I've kind of run on with my story. The fact that you were picked on so, we never knew, as you never told us. Grown-ups are kind of dumb that way. We should have suspected something was going on. So, all the above is the reason I'm glad to help you to get some stuff. In doing so, I'll feel that I have repaid my Mother for all the help she gave us all the years papa was in grad school and afterwards. And now it's up to you, to pass this on to any children you may have in the future.
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