Chas. H. Bernstein

Because he was an "only" child, my dad Charlie was very family conscious and he passed this on to his children.

He was basically brought up by his Grandma Kroina as his mother Yetta Sussman Bernstein went to work. They had an apartment in the same building at 240 Grand Street in Manhattan. It was one of the few buildings with central heat.

He had many family memories.

One year, after he had learned about Thanksgiving in school, he begged Kroina to make a turkey. Either kosher turkeys were too expensive or were unavailable so she bought the largest capon that she could find and roasted it. She fooled him with a capon for several years! Maybe she was the root of the Sussman humor because all of the cousins said that their grandfather Isaac Sussman was a dour old man. Maybe we should call it the "Weiss" humor as that was her maiden name.

My father always said that his grandfather "liked Chick (Coleman) better because he was a "good davener". They called my father the "Rabbi Killer" ' because most of the rabbi's that taught him Hebrew in school died.

Another of his vivid memories was the evening that he was at Kroina's apartment and Aunt Lena Sussman Allisberg arrived and was hustled into the bedroom from which "terrible screams" began to emanate. He tried to go in but was barred from entry. He remembered being very frightened by all of the commotion. After awhile the screaming stopped. He had listened to the birth of Sally Allisberg Cholever. The Sussman daughters all came to their mother Kroina's house to give birth.