Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Brownsville: The Jewish Years, by Sylvia Siegel Schildt

This book was recommended to me by a cousin. My dad and his siblings grew up in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn so I definitely jumped on the recommendation. I had already learned a lot about their childhood from my dad and also my Uncle Len's stories. This book helped provide a more detailed picture of what life was like at that time.

The author uses an informal style to tell her story. The typos and grammatical errors are proof of that. The author and my Uncle Len appear to be about the same age and attended P.S. 175 at the same time. It would be funny if they had been classmates. I'm looking forward to bringing the book up to New York at Passover to show the family and see if my dad and Len have the same memories of Pitkin Avenue, the "Main Street" of Brownsville.

Of course the Brownsville of my dad's childhood doesn't exist anymore. I guess all things have to change. My ancestors wouldn't have worked as hard as they did if they hadn't wanted better lives, or to put it better, more opportunities, for their children. Maybe we need a little more of those simple days now.

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