Music Monday

 And the theme:

  Yesterday was National Grandparents Day.  Either honor yours or your grandchildren through with your song picks 

I don’t have grandchildren yet, so I guess that means honoring my grandparents.

All of my grandparents were born in the 19th Century and came to America in the early part of the 20th Century.

 My paternal grandparents died before I was born.  They were from the same village in what is now Belarus. (Some records say Ukraine, but I’ve confirmed it was Belarus.  Both were part of the Russian Empure at the time.) My grandfather came to NYC in 1909. My grandmother followed in 1911.  They were married in 1912 and settled in Brooklyn.  My father was the youngest of their five children.

My maternal grandmother, the only grandparent I knew, was born in Poland - it was part of Austria then.  She came to this country in 1920, sailing from Rotterdam to NYC.  When I visited Ellis Island, it was her voice I heard in my head. She married my grandfather in 1928 and they settled in the Bronx.  My mother was the eldest of their three children.

My maternal grandfather died when my mother was 11, so he was always something of a mystery.  He was born in what was then Russia but is now part of Poland.  He came to this country in 1920 … by walking over a bridge from Mexico to El Paso, Texas. I have no idea why he went to Mexico, but he crossed the Rio Grande to get here.

So let’s start with a song that epitomizes the world my grandparents came from.

They brought their culture with them.  Here’s a Yiddish song.

And the same song in English.

Shared culture … 

A little cross pollination, an Italian girl singing in Hebrew.

And because they were immigrants, and we must not forget that we are a nation of immigrants… from The Jazz Singer (a very Jewish story, btw)…

Our grandparents are our roots …  we must remember who they were and what they have given us,  who we are because of them …