By Alan Mironer -
Grandparents, Abram & Baille, children Pauline, Mary, Barney (my father Baruch), Joseph & John emigrated from Warsaw in 1900; two more daughters, Rose & Mae, were born later in Gloversville. The family arrived in Boston and since Abram had a trade as a skilled glove cutter, immediately settled in Gloversville. Abram and Baille bought a house at 29 Union Street, next to the Littauer Playground and lived there for their entire lives. Abram was one of the founding members of Knesseth Israel and Baille was a member of the Ladies Aid Society & Council of Jewish Women. Both are buried in the Knesseth Israel Jewish Cemetery.
In January 1940, my parents bought their home at 14 South Park Drive for $6,000 and lived there until my father’s death n 1973. We celebrated my 5th birthday there that same month and my mother baked me a chocolate cake with vanilla icing. In December 1940 my brother Merril was born as Littauer Hospital.
I attended after-school Hebrew School held at the Jewish Community Center, taught by Rabbi Jacobson. I learned to read Hebrew (Ashkenazi accent), prayers, writing modern Hebrew using a series of workbooks called GOALS. I remember walking to Hebrew School from Oakland Avenue grade school, stopping with classmates at Krauss’ store at corner of Prospect Place and buying a few pieces of penny candy for an energy injection. I also attended Sunday school at the Center, learned biblical history and holidays. I went to Hebrew School during summer public-school vacation and learned davening, putting on tefillin, Hebrew grammar and a little Yiddish; classmate Stephen Wing, tuition was 50 cents.
The Jewish community welcomed refugee from Europe during that time; many doctors; Dr. Kurt Kaiser and family. The shul was very crowed during the High holidays, many people milled around outside on steps and sidewalk. I remember Sabbos morning minyan; Reverend Abraham Shapiro, Samuel Sack, Samuel Madora, Nathan Hass (German refugee, he taught me the service), Isaac Wolcoeff (shul shamus), Isadore Lakind.
I loved building model airplanes (still do) and went to Zuckerwar brothers hobby shop on East Fulton Street. I bought comic books at Trask Cigar Store and went to the movies at the Glove and Hippodrome (Saturday afternoon westerns and serials, now site of the synagogue) Theaters. Admission was 14 cents. I saw my first movie, Pinocchio at the Glove. Other early movies: Frank Buck’s Bring Them Back Alive (about circus animals) and They Died with Their Boots on (Errol Flynn planning General Custer, often on television which I watch and enjoy). I remain an ardent movie-goer to this day.
I listened to a whole schedule of radio programs. Late afternoon just before supper: Dick Tracy, Jack Armstrong, Hop Harrigan, Captain Midnight and Tom Mix. One of these programs was interrupted by the announcement that President Roosevelt had died. On telling my mother, she started to cry.
Evening programs: Suspense, Inner Sanctum, Molle Mystery Theater, Gang Busters, I Love a Mystery, Escape, Lone Ranger, Green Hornet, Jack Benny.
We had a Victory Garden during the War. I joined 4H and won a prize for my tomato at the Fonda Fair. I took swimming lessons at the Center pool and “acted” in Jewish-themed plays produced by Raina Horwitz. They were put on at the Center on Sunday afternoons, followed by a meatball dinner. There was Israeli dancing taught by Yolanda Glockner and Boy’s Scouts at Jewish Community Center: Troop 3; Scoutmasters Izzy Bernstein, Harold Goodheim, Dr. Harold Bauer.
I remember walking with my mother on a cool, summer evening under a clear sky lit up by millions of stars, up Kingsboro Avenue and down East Fulton St to Lakind’s Kosher butcher shop to help carry home our weekly allotment of meat; there were ration stamps and no car during the War.
I remember swimming at Caroga Lake and Sacandaga Park; ice cream at Washburns; my father taking me to semi-pro baseball games at Glovers Park on Fifth Avenue Extension. I remember fishing for the first time with a cheap rod from Woolworth’s and hooking a large fish at Sacandaga. It broke my line and got away. I have never forgotten the large, greenish fish (Northern Pike?) swimming in an s-pattern on the surface of the water and me, not knowing what to do. This experience hooked me; I remain an avid fisherman to this day.
I remember kids involved in the War effort: picking and bagging milkweed seed pods from field across Kingsboro Ave from Melchoir Park (they were used for filling US Navy life jackets); scrap metal drives; kids bringing pots, pans and other metal objects to Glove Theater for free admission to Saturday morning cartoons. There were huge piles in the street.
VJ Day evening was warm and huge crowds gathered at the Four Corners to celebrate the end of the War. Thousands of baseball cards were thrown like confetti from windows above. Refugee families, survivors of the Holocaust, came to Gloversville and were supported and helped to find housing and jobs. My mother spoke fluent Yiddish and comforted them. One family, Isaac Naiman, was settled in an apartment in Sam Jacobson’s house.
I remember by Bar Mitzvah – taught by Hebrew School teacher, Aaron Weiler; Haftorah, Mishpatim; Israel Independence – little blue boxes used to collect money for Jewish settlements in Palestine before Independence. My mother was active in Hadassah and taught Sunday school. I remember her sitting at the kitchen table on Saturday night preparing her lessons. Later, she and Esther Tasner taught the aleph, bet to entering students at the Hebrew School.
I remember my Jewish friends, classmates, neighbors – Rita Wolf, Martin Rubin, cousins (Rose’s children) Barry & Sanford Warner, Gary Nelkin, Morrow Solomon, Sanford Rosenberg, Doris & Lenora Jacobsen, Walter Salm, Norman Chancer, Richard Finn, Alan Lazaur, Gerry & Judy Kazner, Kenneth Goldstein, Stanley Suval, Stanly Zagin, Dick Blumenberg, John Kennedy, Larry Segety, Barbara Coplan …
My family had warm friendships with our non-Jewish acquaintances and neighbors, too. Having grown up in Gloversville, my father seemed to know everyone – Jews and non-Jews. I remember only a few instances of over anti-Semitism, never violent.
I think I received a superb education in the public school system. I cannot imagine a better environment to grow up than Gloversville.
