The Early Years

My parents were born in 1898 within weeks of one another but thousands of miles apart. Esther Poloway was born on August 29th in Baltimore, Maryland. William Golberg was born on Shabbos Tsheuvah, the Shabbos between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in the Ukraine, then a part of Russia. Time was measured by his people by Hebrew Holydays. They were married on February 12, 1924 and moved into a newly built three bedroom, one bath cottage at 3326 Ingleside Avenue. Along with them moved in Dora, William’s mother and Sophie, Goldie and David, William’s siblings. The three women slept in the back bedroom, David in the middle bedroom and the newlyweds in the front bedroom. When Kenneth arrived March 21, 1925, he slept in a crib in his parent’s bedroom.

Dora was a strong willed woman. Her two daughters were unmarried and remained so throughout their lives because that is how Dora wanted it. Sophie was beautiful and Goldie was attractive, both with numerous suitors. But Dora rejected each and every suitor for reasons true and/or fanciful. She had lost a husband near the turn of the century and she simply did not want to let her daughters go. And that is how the system worked in those days.

Kenneth was the first grandchild and did not lack for attention. In fact, he was no doubt, inundated by affection. In those days children were basically raised by their mothers and Kenneth was raised primarily by four mothers and secondarily by two fathers. William had a full time job. Although he did not attend religious services frequently because he worked on Saturday, he was very active in the operation of his synagogue, the Petach Tikvoh Congregation, located in a cottage on Denmore Avenue between Belvedere and Spaulding Avenues. William was “handy” and maintained the house and property. He built a room in the basement and partitioned the large kitchen into a food preparation area and an eating area. To earn extra money, he repaired and adjusted key cutting machines and refurbished automatic door closers at a work bench in the basement. William’s days were full. He did not get involved in the growing strife between his wife and his mother.

Dora and Sophie assisted in the cooking and cleaning. Goldie worked out of the home as often as she could find work. Dora was strong willed and Esther was not. Esther did not complain. Two women cannot operate in the same kitchen, especially a wife and a strong willed mother-in-law.

David married and moved out. Harry Janoff, the grandson of Dora’s sister, Chana Liebe, who attended Johns Hopkins University, moved into the middle bedroom. I can remember being admonished to be quiet because Cousin Harry needed quiet to study. Harry moved out and Ruth arrived in 1929. Kenneth and Ruth slept in the middle bedroom. When Marvin Bennett arrived in 1931 he went in to the parents’ bedroom.

The house was not built on the corner of Ingleside and Hamlin Avenuess. There was an overgrown ten foot strip of land between the house and Hamlin Avenue. Poisin Ivy grew wild on the land nad guess who frequently caught poison ivy and who frequently was slathered with calamine lotion. . William finally purchased and cleared the strip, planted grass and four maple trees and a cherry tree and a pear tree. He also built a garage at the back end of the strip. Behind the house was a peach tree which bore an enormous amount of fruit. Late each summer, everyone worked in rhe basement, peeling and cutting the peaches to make peach preserves; enough to last the entire year until the next harvest. We sat at an old kitchen set, painted a bilious green, which found new life in the kitchen behind the Kenmar Food Market at 238 South Stricker Street some two decades later.

By 1938, Kenneth was 13 years old and Ruth was 9 years old and they shared the middle bedroom. This was not appropriate and Esther had finally had it with her mother=in law and sisters-in-law. Esther issued an ultimatum to William; they had to go! William chose and an apartment was found for the three on Queensbury Avenue just south of Belvedere Avenue. Dora and the two siblings left; Dora hurling curses at Esther, in Russian, of course. They would subsequently move into the first floor apartment of a house on Wylie Avenue, purchased jointly by William and David and then to an apartment on Glen Avenue where they lived until they died. They are buried on the Hebrew Othodox Memoerial Society Cemetary located at 6800 German Hill Road. William and David were the primary support of their mother and sisters, in life and in death.

Kenneth and Marvin Bennett moved in to the back bedroom and Ruth into the middle bedroom. Life became more conventional on Ingleside Avenue.. .