Page 184 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

The First World War and after

east, and took Long Beach, Compton, and its surroundings. In the
beginning, I built up a retail trade in Highland Park, which I worked
every second day, and the other places the other three days. In time, I
gave up the retail trade and established my regular grocery trade in
the vicinity of Compton and Long Beach. The investment in that
business was very small; one had his stock disposed of every day, and
his investment in his pocket. But I could only make a meager living,
enough to sustain a family of four, with a wife who was very
economical as a cook, who could make a good meal, and make
clothes for the children, keeping them as clean and neat as any
American children could be.
Had I earned more money and accumulated more, I do not think
that my children would have been nicer or more cultured, intelligent,
and modest than they were, and are now. I worked hard, which is no
credit to me, as I only did as other men do—their duty to the
family—but my late wife was the one who did the hard work, with
the finances, keeping the house in order, making good meals, and, as
a mother, she lived only for her children. She watched over their
health, running to school or driving in an old car in any weather to
college, to music lessons, or wherever else. Her devotion to her
children’s education was in full measure, and she was recompensed
when her children were awarded the best marks in the university and
praised by those with whom they came in contact. I was a hard-
working man, working long hours, with no time to take interest,
inquire, and direct their studies. It was Fannie who was the
proofreader of their papers, correcting them, directing them what to
write and how to write, and, in time, she also learned from the
children, when they discussed their problems in higher studies with
her. As Solomon said, “From all my teachers I learned some, but
from my pupils I learned the most,” so did Fannie and I profit from
our children’s education.
About nineteen twenty-two, things began to boom in Los
Angeles, and people began to build and move around from one
section to a newer one. We were living in very crowded rooms in that
house on Twenty-first Street, and Negroes began to move in on that
street, a very low class. Hilda was going to Junior High, and played
violin in the orchestra. A black boy broke into her locker and stole
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