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sidney lipsky
by Janet
THE HANDSOME LIPSKYS
Rae and Louis Lipsky were born and married in Russia. They had ten children. The eldest joined the Russian army, becoming a Cossack and thus a disgrace to the family, and a second child passed away. Rae emigrated to America with their eight children, two girls and six boys, when Sidney was two months old.
Sidney, my father, said he was born on Thanksgiving Day, 1900, so we always celebrated his birthday on that holiday. It didn’t matter about the true date. The records of his birth were probably destroyed when the Czar’s mounted soldiers set fires in all the Jewish shtetls.
My father was the second-youngest child; Little Sam was born two years later. Sidney and Little Sam were the best of friends and loved each other dearly. Big Sam, one of the older of the Lipsky children, was 6 feet 4 inches, whereas Little Sam was 5 feet 10 inches; thus, their names. The children were blue-eyed, handsome or beautiful, and mostly blonde.
My dad and Little Sam had such charisma that everyone they met wanted to hug and kiss them. My father was so affectionate I could hardly wait for him to return from work so we could hug and kiss. He always carried my drawings in his pockets and bragged to his friends how talented I was.