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Our Forefathers and Foremothers 3
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Fannie with her first husband, my grandfather, the feckless Hyman Friedman, in New York, 1892.
When the children had grown a bit, and each took care of the next younger one, Fannie needed to start earning money as Hyman took to drinking when his business was slow.
Fannie opened up a dairy restaurant and did the cooking while Etta, who had to drop out of school, worked as cashier. Fannie hired Polish “shiksas,” non-Jews, as waitresses, and did such good business, she opened a second restaurant nearby.
Customers paid their bill using the honor system. They came to the cashier, announcing what they ate: “I had two blintzes, a bowl of borscht and hot
