When they still lived in Szaszregen, Clare happened to run across two torn bills on the top of Isaac's chest. Claire decided to paste them together and buy herself something. She went down to the drug store and bought some perfume. She loved the smell and put some on everyone. Back at the drug store, the druggist happened to notice that the bill Claire used was two torn half's but they were from two different bills. He thought Claire was trying to steal from him and told Herman what she had done. Claire said that it was the first time that her dad had ever hit her and he did it in front of everyone. Claire was so upset that she ran out of the house and hid in a haystack in the barn. She stayed there for a while but after hearing some mice noise, she got scared and hid in the outhouse. Soon everyone was looking for her. They were all calling her name but she was too embarrassed to come out, so she continued to sit in the outhouse. After a while her father found her and hit her again.
Claire was always wondering why she was so short. One day she went up to her father and said to him, "Papa, you had so many children you must not get too much sleep. You must have been very tired when you made me." Herman was shocked that his daughter would say something like that. In those days, it wasn't proper to talk about such things. Herman spit on the floor, looked at Claire, and said, "Beautiful daughter, how could you talk so ugly." He was really upset at her.
I don't know who told me this story. Their house in Szaszregen was on a large piece of property that contained another smaller house in the backyard. This smaller house was rented out. One of the renter's was a shoemaker who was missing some fingers. He was also short and the children would make fun of him. He paid his rent with shoes.
Sam was eleven when he came to the United States. On his first day in America,
his brother Ben took him to a candy store where they sold newspapers. While
Ben was paying for the newspaper, Sam stuffed as much candy as he could into
his pockets…without paying for it! When they got home, Ben saw all the
candy and asked Sam where he got it from. Ben was shocked to find out that
Sam would take candy without paying for it…that was stealing! Sam told
him that it wasn't stealing because on the ship he had heard many people say
that "America was a Free Country and "Everyone was Free in America."
Naturally Sam assumed that the candy was there for the taking. Of course Ben,
being a good big brother, made Sam take the candy back to the store.