What I learned From Grandma Wortman©
Posted: Sunday, September 18, 2011
by Arlene Wright-Correll
http://www.learn-america.com
September 11th was also Grandmother's day those that status was hardly mention in this country because of remembering the WT attacks. However, I remember my Grandmother, Ruth.
This year some of my cousins have been delving into family history and have been coming up with old photos, birth certificates, facts and memories of parents, grandparents and who knows what else.
I remember my mother’s mother, Ruth Naomi DeCastillia-Wortman the most because she was the back bone of our life in Brooklyn as we were coming out of what was then called the “Great Depression”.
One of my cousins has uncovered a picture of her when she was about 18. They also unearthed a marriage certificate from her first marriage and a story about this first marriage that I never heard about. Apparently her parents wanted her to marry a young man from a well-off family and kept at her until Ruth finally and reluctantly agreed to it. Right after being pronounced husband and wife she walked out of the church and went home to her parent’s house where she proceeded to wash the dishes. It seems she stayed there for two years. I do not think the marriage was ever consummated because on the marriage certificate to my grandfather, Adam, both names indicate that this was a first marriage for each of them.Even at this late date I learned you could not make my grandmother do something she did not want to do.
Life was not easy for Ruth and Adam in the tenements of Brooklyn, New York in the early days and I do not think it ever was because we often lived with them when life was not easy for my family.
However, upon reflection, I have determined that she was a rock. I guess early on Adam was a drinker and I my earliest memories of him was that he was and apparently would come home and hit her now and then even though I never saw that happen.
However, I do remember the results of one time when Adam apparently gave Ruth a shove or hit her or something and when he came home drunk and fell into bed she tied his hands and feet to the metal bed. She kept him that way the whole next day when he awoke and every time she passed him she poked him with the broom handle. We kids were wide eyed when we awoke. I do not think he ever whacked her again.
That day I learned she stood up for herself and that was a lesson for me to stand up for myself. I do not remember what he did for a living but I do remember when I was about 9 or 10 years old he became a bookie and he was that until we moved to Long Island when I was 12.
There were good times between them and here is one of them at Coney Island in their later years which are really how their faces are in my memories of them.
There was always something cooking on her stove in that railroad flat as they called these tenement apartments on Kosciusko St.off Broadway in Brooklyn, New York. She made great cupcakes that she cut a cone shaped hole in the top of once they were cooled and filled the hole with lemon pudding. Upon replacing the cone shaped top into the pudding she would sprinkle confectionary sugar on top of all of them. These cupcakes were made from scratch and were delicious.
Watching her mix her ingredients, she would show me how to do it and would always say, “Stir in one direction only. Do not stir one way and then in the opposite direction.” I cannot remember her reason why, but I learned to stir in one direction only and still do to this day.
I do remember lots of Christmas’ in that Brooklynrail road flat on Kosciusko St. Ruth always had a tree which she allowed us kids to decorate with cranberry strings and popcorn strings. But the big thing was she always bought a large case of marshmallows. We would put 2 on a stick of snowmen bodies and put cloves in for eyes etc. and then put tooth pick arms in and hang them on the tree. We were never allowed to touch them until the tree was taken down and by that time they were hard as rocks and we kids devoured them. I grew up with an addition to stale marshmallows and do you know to this day I have had a bag of marshmallows open for 3 years and they still have not gotten hard. They do not even freeze hard. Bummer!
I remember when I was about 6 years old she became bed ridden and would run the whole household from the same bed she tied Adam in. I became her legs for her even at that age as she would give me a list and some money and send me to Woolworths or the A&P store for whatever she needed. During that time I quickly learned how to count change, shop correctly, not get cheated and go all over Brooklynby myself. I did that until I was about 9 years old at which time my mother, father, sister, brother and myself moved up to Ridgewood, Queens.
I think it was shortly after that my dear Grandmother, Ruth passed away.
There are lots of other stories back in the attic of my mind and eventually our life got a little better during WWII and we moved to Long Islandwhen I was about 12 years old.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Great article. I love the tying to the bed story. This is as real as it gets. Beautiful.thank you.
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