So the vision shared by Helen Storrow, Edith Guerrier, and Edith Brown proved true. With the inspiration of the library clubs, the girls bettered their lives in America. They mastered English, and many went on to become librarians and teachers at a time when few women held professional jobs.
But the immigrant girls and their families paid a price for their successes. As the girls made their way in America, they lost the language and customs of the old world. Connections between the generations were often strained, as grandparents like Nonna clung to the old ways and grew angry when their granddaughters embraced the new.
Yet in Boston’s North End, the immigrants’ heritage endures. Wonderful Italian restaurants and grocery stores and Russian-Jewish tailor shops line the streets, recalling a time when the journey from the old world was fresh and recent, and the new world was a puzzle, yet to be solved.
GLOSSARY OF ITALIAN WORDS
bambina (bahm-BEE-nah)—little girl, sweetheart
bella mia (BEL-lah MEE-ah)—my dearest
bordanti (bor-DAHN-tee)—boarders, lodgers
Buona fortuna! (BWO-nah for-TOO-nah)—Good fortune!
cannoli (kahn-NO-lee)—a dessert made of a thin pancake wrapped around a sweet, creamy filling
Capisci? (kah-PEESH)—Understand? Get it?
cassat (kah-SAH-tah)—cake
grazie (GRAH-tsyeh)—thank you
Innocenza (een-no-CHEN-zah)—a girl’s name
La vita è così. (lah VEE-tah ay KO-see)—Life is like that; so it goes.
Mannaggia l’America! (mahn-NAH-jah lah-MAY-ree-kah)—To heck with America!
Molta felicità! (MOHL-tah fay-LEE-chee-tah)—Much happiness!
Nonna (NOHN-nah)—Grandma
Per cent’anni! (payr chen-TAHN-nee)—For a hundred years!
sì (see)—yes
zia (ZEE-ah)—aunt
zio (ZEE-oh)—uncle
GLOSSARY OF YIDDISH WORDS
Azoy gayt es. (ah-ZOYgayt es)—So it goes; that’s life.
bubbe (BUH-beh)—grandma
Oy vay is mir! (oy VAY iz meer)—an expression of surprise or shock
Matela (MAHT-uh-luh)—a nickname for the girl’s name Matel
mazik (MAH-zik)—a spirit that causes mischief for human beings
Shabbos (SHAH-bus)—the Jewish Sabbath, a day of rest and prayer. It begins at sundown on Friday and ends after sundown on Saturday.
shul (shut, rhymes with “pull”)—a Jewish house of prayer, a synagogue
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I could not have written this book without several special people. Historian Kate Clifford Larsen has written extensively about the Saturday Evening Girls. She was generous in sharing her work and research sources so that I could learn about the places and times of the story.
Barbara Maysles Kramer, whose mother Ethyl (Epstein) Maysles was a Saturday Evening Girl, welcomed me into her home. She shared stories and photographs from her mother’s girlhood and showed me her wonderful collection of pottery made at 18 Hull Street.
Good friends Debbie Roth and Leah Schollar, who is a teacher of Judaic Studies, recalled the old people in their Russian-Jewish families. Elizabeth McCarthy and Donna Zaffy told me of their Italian immigrant grandmothers.
These family stories helped me fill in the details of ordinary life that make a book feel real and interesting. Family stories also remind me that although great events often change the lives of large numbers of people, history also happens one family at a time.
About the Author
Katherine Ayres writes fiction and nonfiction for all ages and teaches writing to graduate students at Chatham University. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and when not writing or teaching, she loves to walk, hike, kayak, spend time with kids, knit, and keep watching for bears. Visit her at www.katherineayres.com.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text Copyright © 2000, 2009 by Katherine Ayres
Map Illustration by Troy Howell
Line Art by Laszlo Kubinyi
Cover design by Amanda DeRosa
ISBN: 978-1-4976-4663-6
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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