Barsams During the Depression
New York Christmastime 1933, around the time Annie and Warbucks meet… My father, Ed, had just completed his third semester in the Engineering School at The College of the City of New York, now known as City College CUNY. It’s a good thing that with good high school grades tuition was then free, otherwise he could not have afforded to go. He and his younger sister and brother lived with their parents in an apartment in Washington Heights. Dad’s Pop sold Persian rugs as an independent contractor with the renowned Avakian Brothers firm. Grandma stayed at home. When things were good movie stars would furnish their Hollywood mansions with rugs from Avakian in New York. But with the Depression, not many rug sales. Grandma took on word-of-mouth sewing jobs and made every last penny count. There had to have been sacrifice and deprivation, but Dad said he never felt it. My father chose Engineering (and enjoyed a life-lon...