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Travels with Our Aunt

We Cleveland cousins were lucky to have a huge extended family. The home of our Grandmother Dora and Grandpa Sam was the hub of family activities. They lived at 1258 Rozelle in East Cleveland, and I remember going there for Sunday dinners almost every week until Grandma Dora became sick in 1956. We spent most holidays at their home, too. Grandma’s large oval table was often set for12 people. For Thanksgiving, we children sat at a separate table in the living room. On the Sabbath and Yom Kippur, we walked to services at the synagogue that was one mile away, because Grandpa was Orthodox.

One person who stood out among the many relatives was Aunt Myrtle Olchin (b 1907 d 1970).  Aunt Myrtle was the second eldest of Sam and Dora’s nine children, and she married Arthur Olchin in 1938.

It is no exaggeration to say that Aunt Myrtle was one of those special people who makes everyone’s life a little better. She was wonderful, kind and generous, especially to all of us little cousins, taking us, by ourselves or several at a time, to movies, lunch, and downtown Cleveland for shopping excursions and those memorably thick chocolate malteds at May Company (they left a mustache on your face).

My favorite luncheon place was the Pickwick Cafeteria on Elm Street in Cleveland. Along with an impressive assortment (especially to a kid) of all kinds of foods, the Pickwick had the most delicious mashed potatoes. They would make a deep impression in the big serving of just-right creamy potatoes and ladle on the most yummy hot gravy. Ah, I can almost taste them now; they were so heavenly.

We all loved going to the Pickwick with her. Son of my Aunt Irene (Finkelstein) and Uncle Harry Spikell, my cousin, Armond, had a legendary appetite and was famous for eating several varieties of potatoes (mashed, fresh fried, baked, etc.) in one meal at the Pickwick. (Yes, I saw it myself.)

The train trestle for the trains going to the big East Cleveland Station were very close to our grandparent’s home, and Aunt Myrtle often took us to the station to see the huge steam locomotives followed by many cars. One time as a young child, I was terrified when a train thundered past the platform without stopping.

Aunt Myrtle, a child of the Depression in a family of 11 people, tried to give us opportunities that she might have missed. For instance, Aunt Myrtle sent my sister Jan and me to puppet making classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art when we were in our early teens. The classes were wonderful, and it was no less wonderful that we were trusted to take the long bus ride into the city ourselves. When I was 13 and in that gawky, awkward stage, Aunt Myrtle sent me to modeling classes in the city. I learned correct posture, to walk gracefully (I hope), and how to apply make-up. The classes and the personal attention did a lot to build my self-esteem.