What was your overall impression of your grandfather?
I saw him as a good-spirited, hardworking man, still ambitious as he grew older. He was always gentle to other people. I could also see that he was well-respected in the community, and this was impressive to me.
What did you know about his writing activities?
I first became aware of his writing when I watched him writing, sitting at his desk at the back of the store. When his first book poetry came out, we were given many copies and I brought them to our synagogue’s religious school, but the book was mostly ignored. The Bible was not an important subject of study in our family, and it’s my perception that the poetic form he used was not really appreciated or even well understood. The book also was belittled because he used a “vanity press” and didn’t have a “real” publisher. Even Aunt Belle, one of his top champions, did not appreciate his work. When his novel Greed for Power came out, we all read it, and we knew that one of the characters was a negative impression of our father, the poker player, so we read the book to find other “gossip” about various family members. Maybe if he had received some public recognition he would have been more successful in his work. The notion within the family was that David was merely pursuing his hobby, and not doing anything serious. But he didn’t give up. Even when he was about 90 years old he was going to hire someone to teach him to type, but it never materialized. What was the Concord Street house like? It almost felt like Grandpa was too little for the house. It was a big house, which gave him great stature as a businessman who could afford such a large house. Now the apartment where he later lived, that was always neat and attractive — though it did seem like every time I went over there, Grandma Lena was on the couch or laid up in bed. That seemed kind of sad to me.
Did you visit his store?
Well of course I worked at the store a great deal when I was a teenager. No pay, though. Truthfully I did not like to hear some of the interaction between David and my father Al. He would be putting down Al for something, and then Al would call him “you old man” right in front of me. For them to work together in the same little space, believe me it was not always peace and light.What was your impression of your grandmother and her relationship with David?She was very kind and pleasant to me. She seemed to focus on positive things at least where I was involved. Frankly they seemed pretty distant from one another. She was always consulting her Doctor Tregilgas, and his basic advice must have been for her to stay in bed. Whatever the problem, stay in bed.
Was she well enough to walk?
I don’t know. There was almost a sense of feeling sorry for David, because he had to live with what kind of amounted to an invalid. Lena seemed to irritate him more as time went by.
How did your father speak about David and Lena?
Generally he was polite about them, except for those times in the store when they would snap at each other. I never heard any stories about Ben-Zion or the past events in Russia, though. Maybe that was part of David wanting us to become Americanized. There just wasn’t much discussion of history in either family, though David was writing history and probably thinking about it all the time. He was never outwardly disrespectful of her, and so for that reason some of his comments in the diary were pretty shocking to me. When I think of it, I do not remember seeing very much wholesome interaction between the two of them. It does seem that she limited David by constantly being sick. I guess you could say that their public image was definitely not the same as these personal feelings. The public image was of a happier couple.
How did your grandfather experience his religion?
Every holiday the customs were followed just right. We did not always go to services though; it was at least a 10-mile drive from South St. Paul to the Temple of Aaron. David did not always go with us. Even though the family was observant in the sense of celebrating the holidays and keeping kosher, we didn’t put a lot of emphasis on religious study, and maybe that is why David’s pursuits were not the center of attention. We didn’t study the Torah or the prayers, and he didn’t act as a teacher for us in any way. In a sense David’s work was more of his private “salvation” or therapy for him.
Did you ever hear David talk about politics?
Actually I don’t think I ever really knew what his politics were. I have more memories of him being involved as a good citizen of South St. Paul. In fact, I probably did not know all the things he did. I was never aware that he had been on the school board, for example.
Did you ever hear David comment on his business and his success?
He didn’t really speak about it to me, but we grew up as one of the richer families in town. Only once did I hear about not having enough money, when my mother said they didn’t have enough money to pay the butcher’s bill. And even though he and Al had disagreements in the store, I think that David was overall pretty satisfied with Al and the business. My mother made a big deal that Al played poker so much in the later years, but that didn’t seem to bother David very much (though he did have a not too likeable character in his novel Greed for Power who played poker all the time). They did seem pretty well-off for South St. Paul. There was always a dignity in their life. And also things were always kept neat. That is kind of a statement in itself. And Lena’s meals were just wonderful, it didn’t matter if the economy was up or down.
What do you think about David’s assessment of Helen, Belle, Mose, and Al?
The diary was pretty revealing about this. It’s probably the most disturbing part of the whole story. There were never any kind words about Helen, I mean none, and then you look at Belle, always lots of praise and blessings. So what happened is that one daughter blossoms and the other has to struggle a lot more. Today a set of parents would really be criticized for that kind of labeling.... I mean that people become what they are labeled as, and that’s not fair. Mose was always praised too, especially compared to Al. But Mose was not perfect, I mean you can see where he did things that were just as destructive as Helen. It just shows how important it is for parents to see what is positive in each and every one of their children. Al was not so perfect, but sometimes I wonder if David was holding him back, maybe not intentionally, by giving him less praise than he gave to Belle and Mose. To my eyes, Aunt Belle was just perfect, always dutiful, always respectful. Same for Abe Calmenson when she married him. Mose was very nice also.