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The Lipskys Meet the Salters 89
SITTING IN THE CORNER
When I was in first grade, we lived in the Echo Park area, which was a gentile neighborhood. One Saturday, I was invited across the street to play with
some of my classmates. There were lots of girls sitting on little chairs in a very large room “playing school.” There was a stool in the corner of the room.
One of the girls, the “teacher,” was holding a paper hat. She called my name, and as she put the hat on my head, said, “Janet has to go sit in the corner because she’s Jewish. And now we’ll all draw some pictures.” As young as I was, I knew this was a bad thing to do, so I threw the hat on the floor and ran out of the house with tears streaming down my face.
My mother told me that when she
and my dad moved to Los Angeles and
were looking for apartments to rent,
there were signs on the doors that read:
“No Dogs or Jews.” We lived in the Mid- Wilshire area on Gardner Street for a while, and I went to Laurel Avenue School. We also lived on Limone Street.