Letter From Aunt Dorothy

Steven Fieg forwarded a letter dated July 1, 2000 that he received from his (and my) Aunt Dorothy Fieg Roman in response to questions about her upbringing.  The letter is, of course, well-written and informative, and has that stamp of gentility that was so essentially Dorothy.   Here it is, lightly edited:

Dear Steven and Eleanor:

   First of all thank you for the beautiful birthday card!  Second, I will try to answer some of your questions about myself and the Fieg family.

   I started wearing glasses in 6^th grade, 12 years old.  As I recall, I didn’t like it much.  Those were the days of rimless glasses and you had to be very careful not to break them.

   Mom was a person of great patience and I'd say Dad was also.  I never heard them argue about anything.  As I look back, they sacrificed a lot for all their children.  As you probably know, communication was sparse. You were just supposed to know that they were proud of you.

   [In school] I had to follow brothers and sisters with excellent school records.  If your last name was Fieg, you were expected to be at the top of the list.  My favorite subjects were English, biology, chemistry and geometry.  My least favorites were algebra and Latin.  My dad tried to help me with algebra but I was nearly hopeless.  

    I did go down to Dad’s shop now and then. The smell of new lumber was great. His cabinet maker, can’t remember his name, made a maze for an experiment I was doing with white mice.  I entered it in the science fair and won a year's scholarship to Hartwick College.  I bet you didn’t know that!!

    Of course, Mom’s life revolved around her grandchildren. She knew the birthday of every one of them - quite a feat when you realize she had twenty-five grand-children when she died.

    I only have a few memories of favorite family foods.  A couple of my favorites were roast chicken and meat loaf.  Grandma made delicious pies and strawberry short cakes.  She made jams and jellies every year and I remember her canned peaches were the best I’ve ever eaten.  Dad liked chicken or beef stew with dumplings.  Mom was a died-in-the-wool teetotaler, so if Dad wanted a beer he and Uncle Frank went to the bar that carried Loenbrau, which was my Dad’s favorite brand.

   I can’t imagine Dad without his pipe.  As kids, we give him packages of Granger tobacco which cost ten cents then.  Hey, that ten cents was a lot of money back then!!

   You asked about Uncle Bob, dead for 24 years.  It was almost love at first sight, although I didn’t think we'd be married 4 months later!  We did just seemed to “click.”  He had that wonderful upbeat personality and was always taking all the responsibilities.  If I was ever worried about anything, he’d say “Don’t you worry about it – let me do the worrying!"  I never tired of listening to him playing his sax; he was a fine musician.

   I haven’t answered all your questions but maybe later I can refer to your letter and have more information.

   I'd really love to make a trip to Ste. Genevieve, and to visit Aunt Maxine, before I’m too old to travel. I’m seriously considering it, we’ll see.

   I’m going to Mark and Cyndi’s house in MD very soon.  Can’t wait to see them and their kids.

   I’m enjoying the perfect summer days we are having. Hope you are well and enjoying life.

 

Love,

Aunt Dorothy