[Ghoulish Delight]

On my dad's side, my great grandfather, a Jew in Poland, deserted the Polish army pre-WWI. He started his family in London where he worked at the Phillip Morris cigarette factory. Phillip Morris gave jobs to a lot of the Jewish community in London, and, as odd as this sounds in today's terms, he allowed his employees to bring cigarette making materials home so their wives could earn extra income.

They eventually moved to Glasgow with two girls. In Glasgow the family grew by a boy and 3 more girls, the "baby" being born in 1905, currently living in Seattle and would be happy to tell you all about those 103 (and a half) years in between.

My grandmother, the hardhead of the family was the first to cross the pond. At 18 she was in Chicago, getting married. Her sisters followed shortly, thre settled with her in Chicago, the eldest in Canada. My grandmother with unfailing support from the youngest, ran the family business. She had a daughter with the husband she had married at 18. She divorced him, eventually remarried and had my father, 18+ years after his siter. He and his cousin were raised together by the siters and my aunt (with my grandmother doing less of the raising and more of the businessing as I understand).

I've never gotten the full story of the move west to California. But there wasn't a whole lot to it other than getting away from Chicago winters. Whcih is a perfectly reasonable reason. My dad was also motivated by not wanting to live the antiquing life (the business did well, but it's a difficult business to do, even if you're good), so he went to California for college.

I know less detail about my mom's side. My great grandparents escaped Russia. They also settled in the Chicago area. Their solution for the Chicago weather was to operate a resort in South Haven Michigan on the lake which earned the nickname "The Catskills of the Midwest" for its healthy Jewish resort industry. My mom grew up spending most of her summers at the resort, and much of that helping around the resort. Writing daily dinner menus and performing adorable song and dance numbers as entertainment for the guests.

But the resort culture passed, business dropped, and the resort eventualyl closed. And without the resort to escape to, the winters caught up with them and they eventually migrated west like so many others.

My parents met out here when they crossed paths in their young careers as LAUSD teachers which they both did until they retired in the past few years.