4. Mama’s Nice Little Man

Monroeville, in 1883, had a population of about six hundred. Our parsonage, across the street from the white frame church, was five blocks from the business center which was one block long. These business buildings were mostly two storeys high. The most imposing was a three-storey brick structure which housed Redelsheimer’s General Store. The Redelsheimers were the only Jewish family in town. Mr. Redelsheimer was a short, chunky man, probably in his early sixties. He was always in the store, except on Jewish feast or fast days when he closed the shutters and locked the door; for he was a very religious man, and a good man, too, my parents thought. He always wore a black skullcap and shuffled about with quick, short steps in floppy slippers, waiting on his customers with a courtesy and dignity unmatched by any of the other merchants.

I have tarried here a bit, for Mr. Redelsheimer made quite an impression on me. I had never seen a Jew before, but had heard a great deal about them. They belonged in the Old Testament. Moses had led them out of Egyptian bondage. Joshua had marched them around Jericho until the city fell down. David had killed a giant with a slingshot, a story I never tired of, though the picture in Chatterbox showing young David triumphantly holding up Goliath’s bloody decapitated head by its ears was so fascinatingly gruesome that Mama pasted the preceding page over it, much to my disappointment.

In Mr. Redelsheimer I had found a real Jew who resembled these men of old, with his sober face and kinky reddish-brown beard. When I entered his store with Papa or Mama he gave me a polite little nod and a wisp of a smile, almost as if I were a grownup. He was very gracious toward our family and never charged us the full price for our purchases. I think that this should be quite enough about Mr. Redelsheimer, at least for the present, if we are ever to finish this story, seeing that I am only six now and still have a lot of ground to cover. The Redelsheimers had a beautiful home in the next block east of the store. It was shaded with tall maples. In the rear of the house was a large vineyard that must have been very carefully tended, for it was loaded in October with the largest and most luscious Concord grapes I have ever seen. There were three children. The two older girls were away at school. We had glimpses of them in summer. The boy, a little older than I, went to our public school. Sometimes he asked me to come over and play with him. I was invited to ride his tricycle: I pined and prayed for one of my own, but that was far too much to hope for. When the grapes were ripe, Adolph asked me to come and have all I wanted. They were delicious! I was given a heavy basketful to carry home. I can’t recall that anybody in town was prejudiced against the Redelsheimers. Certainly the kids in school never pestered Adolph about his race.

* * * * *