These Stories were published and distributed at the Echenberg Family Reunion in Quebec in 2006
In 1977 Joshua asked his grandparents and Suzanne's uncle Ben about the family history for a junior high school assignment. Here are some of the responses he received...
Glassman-Memories of Ostropol including the story of story of Edel Rabinowitz Zabarska...
I remember the stories my parents told me about their lives in Ostropol. My mother, father, Steinberg, was a boot-maker; as a rule they sole to peasants and the method of bargaining was for the seller to hold his palm out whereupon the buyer would strike his palm as hard as he could. This punishment would continue until one or the other could no longer endure it. That was the price. My mother claimed this had hardened her hand so well that she had a grip like a man. During the Revolution, the shop was regularly invaded by the Red Army and the White Army. The Soldiers would threaten to shoot my grandfather when he ran out of boots, and only the pleas of his 8 children could dissuade the soldiers from this terminal denouement...
Galya Diment Professor, Thomas L. & Margo G. Wyckoff Endowed Faculty Fellow, Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Washington, Seattle...