Things I Remember

By Mirian Ampolsk

       My first remembrance was when I was about three years old.  My father, Isidore (Itzik) had a dry goods store on Orleans Street where we lived in an apartment above the store.  I can remember at Easter there was always a long table placed on the sidewalk in front of the store where Easter Eggs were placed.  At that time, if I remember correctly, Grandma and Grandpa lived in an apartment above the Katz Furniture Store.  Grandma's sister, Lena and her husband Philip, who owned the store, lived in an adjoining apartment.  The furniture store was a block away from our store.  Grandpa, I believe, also had a dry goods store on that block.  After Aunt Annie married Uncle Abe (Katz) I believe they had a grocery on the same block as our store. 

       We moved from Orleans Street to Conery St. about 1928.  Grandma and Grandpa lived on Baronne Street possibly at that time.  I remember Grandpa making feather pillows in quarters in the back yard.

       Aunt Pearl married Bea Shapiro in N.Y.C. after moving back to N.O., they opened a delicatessen on Freret Street.  In 1932 I moved to Marlin, Texas to live with a maternal Aunt and Uncle so I don't remember much about the family for a period of 9 or 10 years.  When Grandma died Feb. 15, 1941, I mad a trip to New Orleans then at which time I met my husband, Maurice Ampolsk whom I married later that year.  Aunt Pearl died a few months after Grandma.

       What I remember most about Grandma was her sweetness and her gentleness.  I still have visions of her sitting and embroidering.

       I remember Grandpa telling me after purchasing a radio console that there would be no need for newspapers in the future because all the news would be heard on the radio.  Little did I realize how much foresight he had.