Page 39 - WhyAsInY

WHo are tHese PeoPle? (Part 1)
have developed an interest in learning about what influenced them or their development. Another explanation might be that shame or, more accurately, the avoidance of activities that might lead to shame was an important motivator for her, and that there was some deep, dark secret that she did not wish to disclose. On the other hand—and I now wonder why—I never asked.
The fact of her parents’ early deaths probably contributed more than anything else to my mother’s psychological makeup and, therefore, I think, indirectly to mine. As I learned sometime in my teens, she was also, far too briefly, the older sister of, I believe, Francine, who died either as an infant or within the first two years of life. Mom was, as I have noted, the younger sister of Beatrice and Rose, upon whom she became quite dependent after her losses. Immediately after her father passed away, she moved in with Beatrice and Aaron at 414 Hampton Avenue; she shared a room with Avis and became very close with her. Aunt Rose soon moved nearby.
Mom was an extremely bright woman who, had she been born thirty years later, would likely have gone to law school. I do not recall an argu- ment with her that I ever won, no matter what my age. That is not to say that her logic was flawless, but it didn’t matter. She was as tenacious an opponent as I (and countless shopkeepers) ever crossed swords with. Conceding a point was a tactic unknown to her. She was legendary for having forced Loehmann’s to accept a return of a garment for the first time in its history. She returned carpet that had already been installed on a flight of stairs (not because it was really damaged but because she realized that she didn’t like its pattern); she returned two pairs of shoes for every three that she took home (much less tried on and rejected in endless sessions in the shoe stores); and, best of all, she got Nissan to take back a car with a fair amount of mileage on it when she successfully argued that the damage that a brick had caused to its hood when it came crashing down from a highway overpass violated the dealer’s “No-Chip Paint Guaranty.” I have no doubt that she prevailed only when the man- agement realized that she was going to camp out in the showroom and publicly drive one and all crazy until they succumbed to her logic.
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