Kicking & Screaming Into a Wonderful World

Maurice, Evelyn & Margaret

         Weidenthal family lore has it that on Thanksgiving Day, many years ago, a little guy to be named Maurice, for his grandfather, came splashing out of his mother’s womb, kicking and screaming, hanging on to his twin sister’s big toe for dear life. 

         The event is reported to have taken place at a small hospital converted from an aging apartment house on E.55^th St. between Cedar and Woodland Avenues.  It was not much of a neighborhood   and in a matter of days young Maurice and his twin Margaret were hustled up Cedar Hill to a rented duplex on Meadowbrook Blvd. near Lee Rd. in Cleveland Heights.

        

To Whom It May Concern:

On This Special Day, Thank You.

For depositing me on this planet, kicking, screaming and hanging on to my sister’s big toe for dear life….

And choosing the United States of America endowed precious gift of human freedom, unrivaled in world history. Smack in the middle of the Roaring Twenties. Between the War to End all Wars, and the war of the greatest generation.

For permitting me to live in remarkable times. To have shared for a brief moment the sights and sounds of Flappers, Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, and Dancing in the Dark, silent movies, dance marathons, Al Jolson and Maurice Chevalier.

For endowing us with a gutsy, selfless mother who could survive the gruesomely premature death of her husband and our father when were just five and she was still in her thirties.