| Fannie talks about herself
Nathan Meiches, Fannie's father
[Q = Len]
Q. What I'd like to talk to you about is your father, Nathan Meiches. What do you remember about him?
A. Everything.
Q. Tell us.
A. My father, Nathan Meiches was a very brilliant man. Everybody would come to him, you know, friends, not for money or anything, to make out their will. Not everybody but a few people. He was a brilliant man, anyway. He'd give them advice and everything like that. What else shall I say?
Q. You once told me that he was an inventor. He invented a chimney?
A. Oh, yes, he did. But I think that Sam [Fannie's oldest brother] went to take care of it, and I think he botched it all up. First thing you know I saw chimneys like that. Just a pipe with a cover over it. The reason my father did it is because some company that he used to buy sacks from burned down, and then they found out that whatever it was, it was from the sparks from the chimney. He advised somebody to take care of it. That way. That's the way they did it. And what else shall I say?
[skip in tape]...to the house, and he'd give them advice about something, or he'd write a will. Did I say that before? And he’d write a letter. I mean, a nice letter. Not just anything.
Q. What did your father look like?
A. Like you, I think. He didn't have...he wasn't...he had nice hair, but he wasn't very hairy. And over here he had a beard like yours, except that he had some hair on this side too...on both sides. He didn't have very many gray hairs either. He had a straight nose like yours. I don't know what else to say about his looks.
Q. If I remember, he had rheumatic fever, isn't that right?
A. He had something. Yeah, he did.
Q. And it damaged his heart?
A. I don't know. They didn't talk about those things. I don't know what he had. But whatever he had, I think that's what it was.
Q. And then later he developed a stroke.
A. He had a stroke, yeah, so he walked, you know, with a cane.
Q. How old was he when he had this stroke?
A. Well, he lived two years after the stroke, and he was almost 50 when he died, so he must have been 48, something like that. He was very young. He was taller than Sam. He wasn't a short man exactly. He was very thin.
Q. I have a New Year's card that he drew...
A. It came down from my grandfather, and then he got it back somehow, you know.
Q. Oh, I see. He sent it to your grandfather.
A. Yeah, he sent it to my grandfather and then somehow, you know, it was found in a Gamara, so he...I think my father took it.
Q. It's a beautiful thing.
A. Did you see it?
Q. Yes, I have it.
A. Well, he made it. He was very artistic. One time he took a cigar box and...you know, to put a clock in...he made a hole there to put an alarm clock in. What he put on top was a long thing that made it look like a clock. You know, like this [points to a cuckoo clock on the wall]. He made it real fancy, so it really looked very colorful, but he didn't...he made it in colors. He didn't make it look like...
Q. It was not like a wooden clock.
A. It wasn't like a wooden clock. It was painted...you know, painted in color like this. Not bright colors or anything. And, of course, that's not the only thing that he did, but he wasn't always home. You know, after my mother died, I don't know what happened because she died when I was 15 months old when Bessie was born because I'm 15 months older than Bess. And what else? ...He wasn’t home all the time. He was mostly in Volochinsk. That's a different township and a different state...county or whatever it is.
Q. How far was Volochinsk from Chon?
A. Oh, not very far. Of course, over there you went with a wagon, so it took probably all night, but it wasn't very far at all. [Tape jump] much about those things. It's just what I heard.
Q. You were quite small when you left.
A. Well, no. I was ten or eleven years old when we went away. I became eleven years old when I was in this country already.
Q. I know that he was one of the founders of the shul on 24th street. [B’nai Jacob]
A. Yes. [Tape jump] proud of it. I mean, I wasn’t interested in the shul. It's all right.
Q. That's the shul you belonged to, wasn't it?
A. Sure. We lived across the street from the shul. I should talk about a shul...what do I know of it?
Q. Yes.
A. Yes, it's nice. Every Saturday almost...not every Saturday, but nearly...he would have a kiddush. You know people would come in and have a drink and talk, and then they'd go home. And then we would sit down and eat our dinner for Saturday. You know, you don't eat too much. Papa wasn't a man that drank and neither was my grandfather.
Q. Well, since you couldn't eat until after shul...then if you had all of these people over, you must have been very hungry when you ate.
A. What do you mean? Sure...sure I...when we were hungry. You know, this...our family, and other families, we didn't have a big breakfast. Sit down and eat eggs and stuff. We didn't have a big breakfast. So, maybe my father didn't even have breakfast. He went to shul, and he came home. Maybe sometimes he'd invite somebody else into the house to have kiddush. And then maybe he didn't. Everything went fine. What are you thinking about?
Q. I'm thinking about questions to ask you.
A. I see. I want to talk about my father. And, of course, I didn't know my mother at all. I knew my mother's sister.
Let's see what else. People used to come down and help him. Mrs. Bloch came down. The old lady. He wrote her a Tsavuah, you know, a will. And lots of people used to come and have him write a letter, you know, cause they couldn't do it. I mean, a certain kind of letter. Not just any letter.
I'm trying to remember. On one Saturday night, a woman came down. She wanted him to write...just write a letter. But he didn't get paid for it or anything. But he wrote her the letter, and he wasn't feeling too well, and that was Saturday night and Tuesday he died. So he wasn't feeling too well.
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