A typical history of a Jewish family living in the southern states in the1920s /30s 15/8/22
I found this interesting as I can compare it with Jewish life in rural South Africa the I was aware of in the 1950s. In 1995 Stella went to visit the Tennessee which she had last seen in 1933 when her family left the town she named here Concordia. Her parents got there by horse cart in 1920 with her brother Joey 7 and sister Miriam 5.At the time the town had a population of 5318 whites and negroes. These town were steadily loosing population. What was called a" Jew store" was part of every town. The mother was not keen to leave her NY family but Nashville had a Jewish community, she looked back, while he looked to the future.
When the arrived there the Medlin boys told them to go to Bookie Simmons who was a wealthy spinster and wanted company she was the daughter of Coco Cola wealth. "I child shall lead you" Isaih11.6 quoted T.
Late 1800s a typhoid plague claimed Aaron's fathers mother, father and grandmother so grandfather brought him up in Podolska near Kiev. His only education was what he got from his grandfather in the evenings enough for his bar mitzvah. He worked in the grandfather business but with the pogrom's the business deteriorated and took steerage from Hamburg to NY. Amongst his jobs was delivering coal on a wagon. Paid a bribe and got recruited to job in Miami but left the ship in Savanah where he worked for a Jewish store. Avram Plotchnikoff became Aaron Bronson.
In the south Jewish stores opened on Saturdays unlike NY. Savannah had more blacks than whites, he got involved in a service league and girlfriends taught him to read and write English Palmer script and improve his speech and now became a US citizen but he wanted to marry a Jewish girl so returned to NY.
Her mother left the stetle at age 9 got 2 years schooling in the NY and got a job stuffing cuddly animals.
Aaron married Reba when she was 17 and convinced her to come with him south after Joey and Miriam were born. The went to Nashville. Because he was a good salesman his boss took him on a buying trip to St. Louis here , he was introduced to the merchants who considered him trustworthy for credit.
A shoe factory was being build in Concordia and no Jewish dry goods store was there. from Nashville the travelled with a wagon in 3 days to Concordia, cheaper than taking a train. The store was to serve working men and farmers as well as the coloreds(who came i the back door. There was suspicion of anybody not a southerner , white and Protestant. To get a store on the main road he happed to deal with 2 men who were foes of each other.
The author Stella Ruth was the only one born in Concordia and in the Southern tradition she was called by the 2 names.
What church do you belong to? One could change religion between the Protestant denominations. All life took place on the porch in the south. There was no Catholic church in the south then it came later with Hispanics coming.
1609 Henry Hudson discovery what he thought was the north west passage, Reba remembered the celebration of this in 1909
1914 to 1917John Purroy Mitchel was a very honest mayor of NY and Reba fondly remembers attending his inauguration as a kid.
Bookie took a liking to Miriam and taught her to play the piano. We later find out that Bookie wanted to marry into a wealthy German Jewish family but her father would not allow it. The Klu Klux Klan had a big say here and we don't know why they left this Jewish family alone perhaps because of Bookie or their shop landlord. Workers would not patronize a store without their tacit approval. Saturdays farmers did their business shopping in the morning and personal shopping in the afternoon.
The school year started late after the Tennessee harvesting season. They had storm cellars in case of tornadoes. They bought a Studebaker car that Joey at the age of 12 drove. Purple Jesus a cocktail of grapes an moonshine.
1927 Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer was the first talkie movie. In the south you called you boyfriend your beau.
Aaron was part of every possible minority for the rural south - a shopkeeper, foreign born , a Jew a white and Negroes were the majority in the town. When they were away their neighbours looked after their house and garden as was the norm.
1929 when the Wall Street collapse the shoe factory was in debt, Aaron got the town leaders raised money to keep it ticking over. Because the factory was the biggest employer in town and workers were receiving IOUs for wages. Bookie insisted that she would loan money to the factory on condition that it stopped child labour, which was considered more reliable and cheaper than hiring Negros.
Reba insisted that Joey be sent away to learn for his bar mitzvah so he spent a year in NY at his mothers father home. When he returned to Concordia he was moved to a higher class but wanted to be in NY and so was returned there.
Miriam was taught piano by Ms. Bookie and was the top girl in dancing. At 17 she wanted to go off with T but Reba said no and in 1933 they sold the store to a chain stores and came to NY where all 3 married Jewish spouses. Aaron got paid out for the business and 20 cents a $ for inventory as well as the money he had leant to the factory which returned slowly. The days of Jew Stores was coming to an end as chain stores took over They bought a garage in NY and were able to run it successfully. Stella at arriving at the NY school was sent to speech lessons with foreign kids as her southern accent was considered unacceptable. Reba was the one that mow missed the south the most.
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