The Bible tells us "and thou shall number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years,"--

It was the first night of Chanukah and the last day of our parent's "Sheva Brachot", exactly 50 years ago one Sunday night in the year 1894.

Many an event took place during each of the seven 7-yr. periods that followed.

The first three years of the first 7-yr. period found "Papa" as we are wont to call our father, engaged in furtherance of his studies of the Law in the Bet Hamidrash of his home town synagogue and living on "Kest" with his wife, in the home of his in-laws, Naphtali Friedman's. There they had all their meals. However, their sleeping quarters were eight blocks away in a one room apartment that was given to them, rent free, by "Fetter Mendel" who was mother's grandfather's brother. The room was very meagerly furnished with no water in the room. The lavatory was in a field about a hundred feet away.

On January 10 of the fourth year, A.H. was born. It was now time to earn a living. Of a five-room house, rented by his in-laws, two rooms were given the Schreiber’s, one of which became a grocery store. Merchandise came on credit -Papa had lost almost all his "Noddin" in a partnership trying to raise sheep, but all the poor sheep died. Business was poor for the merchandise was also sold on credit - nobody paid on time. Hardly two years went by and Papa already had to start taking a good portion of the stock for his own use, for there now was another mouth to feed; Sam was born. The latter part of the sixth year of this first period found business growing from bad to worse. To top it all, the Schreiber’s had a whole house on their hands, for the Friedman’s, together with two daughters - Aunt Pearl and Aunt Fanny, left for the golden land of opportunity - America.

Our father was now convinced that grocery business on credit was no good. There had to be some other means of livelihood. He thought his problems were over when promised the retail concession of the town bar. Such was not his good fortune, because a week before he was to take over, after neglecting the grocery almost completely, the concession was given to the newly arrived brother-in-law of the promisor. Then and there he made up his mind to come to America.

Actually, Papa was left high and dry with two children and a wife on his hands. Mama immediately took all her linens, together with Papa's "Talit" with its silver ornaments, and ran all over town trying to borrow $ 50 to get Papa to London, but no luck. On her way home, dejected, with tears in her eyes, she met the wife of the husband who was boarding in Grandpa Friedman's house in America, who loaned her $ 50, but took only the linens as security. Four days later Papa, with an overnight bag, left the town of Zboro, a village of 500 people, situated on the outskirts of Bardfeldt, then Hungary now Slovakia; thus ended the first 7-yr. period.

Papa reached Vienna, where he spent "Shabbes". From there, he went to Hamburg where a ticket was purchased for the boat ride to London. Half starved and with not a cent left to his name, Papa boarded the boat, his eyes all filled up because he was unable to buy bread that was being offered for sale at the dock. The boat was much worse than present day ferries. Seats were arranged in a bench-like manner alongside of the boat. The berths were tiers, one on top of each other. The food was black bread and black coffee. It was the first night of Chanukah then and the man who brought candles along gave Papa the honor of lighting them for all - certainly a pleasant start for the second period.

The boat ride took three days and two nights before finally reaching London where, at a cousin's house, he was to await the receipt of a ticket for America. This soon came, together with $5.00, which took him to Liverpool - an overnight ride from London. How he actually got there could almost be a book. After all, he was a foreigner, from a small village, in a strange modern city who had to travel by subway to the train depot and then from Liverpool to the dock, where a small boat was to take him to the Main Liner and, as luck would have it, it rained all the time. Suffice it to say, he finally boarded the boat all washed up. It was Christmas time and an elaborate dinner was being served. In contrast, Papa got a pail of herring and bread instead, which food was his for the remainder of the trip. He was very fortunate though, since the Liner was a very beautiful ship and he had a room all to himself. Everybody was nice to him and tried to bring him food, which he naturally turned down.