Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-04-04

/
! speak Yiddish and once studied
to be a rabbi and cantor. Well,
that's how rumors get started.
The fact is. ! am plenty jew
ish. And / was never allowed
to forget it when / was a kid.
nor sometimes later on in life.
Now I see others getting slapped
down because of their religion,
and it makes me feel bad; it
doesn't seem to happen to me so
much anymore now am con-
sidered a success.
There always was something
blocking my way. 1t was either
because of my religion. or be-
cause / was sickly as kid. Even
my mother blocked my path for
a long time.
All kids. by a certain age. think
they know what they want to be
when they grow up. Some want
to be doctors, others cops. Some
even want to be Good Humor
men. The only thing I ever
wanted to be was a big league
baseball pitcher. l believe it's
as honorable profession as any
other. But my nom didn't think
so. According to her, anybody
who had such ideas was a no.
good bum
My mother was always very
religious. She still is. AS l write
this, she's a grand old lady of IS.
She has always strictly observed
every belief of the old Hebrew
faith, with an extra powerful re-
spect for God. It's safe to say
Nom ruled our family. What
ever ground rules we had, she
made them. Although she's a
tiny woman, she never hesitated
to whale the stuffing out Of me
or my three brothers, but es-
pecially me. She tried to drill
into us deep sense of love for
our fellow men and just as deep
faith in the Almighty. She
even hoped I would turn out to
be rabbi.
Dads Rule Best
But I think it was my dad, God
rest his soul. who taught me
what has proved to be my most
valuable rule of living: To keep
trying in spite Of any SetbackS.
My father was a skilled lock-
smith and ironworker. Once,
when I was small, my father let
me help him in his shop while he
sweated to perfect a mysterious.
special kind of iron door. Finally
one night I said, Pop. if you're
having such trouble with this
idea, why do you keep working so
hard at it?"
SON." he said, remember
this: 1t you ever want to do
something. don't go around ask
ing people if you should do it or
not. Have faith in your convic-
tons and give your ideas a good
try"
never forgot that. Especially
because he was creating this spe-
cial door for the White House in
Washington. Theodore Roose-
welt was President. When my
dad installed it, the President
was so delighted he called him in
to congratulate him personally.
No immigrant was ever prouder
than my father.
My mother and father fol-
lowed a dream. They left com.
Portable circumstances in Russia
to come here and start from
scratch. My dad. Samuel
Schacht. was born in 1868, the
son of a prominent farmer.
Mon1--Ida-came from an aris-
tocratic family. Her father was
a learned rabbi. and in their
village the old man was sort of
like an umpire in baseball. Any
crisis that arose, the people
would 60 to Mons father for
advice. And his decisions were
always final. too.
Sam and Ida were married in
1887. Right away the govern
ment tried to conscript my dad
into the army. but Sam and Ida
were too much in love just to
accept this latest government
oppression, so they decided they
would flee Russia and head for
America.