Bertha didn't like school. She wanted to work and make money for her mother. Her younger sister, Gittie would come home each month with an honor certificate, and Bertha would get all C's.

Their mother, Ida used to get migraine headaches. She would lie down and put an acohol-covered washcloth on her head to try to ease the pain. Bertha would take this opportunity to get her mother to sign her report card. She figured Ida wouldn't want to read the grades, and that she would just sign it. Bertha would wake her mother up and say, "Ma, please sign this for school." Ida would sign it and turn it over. She saw the C's and said in Yiddish, "gai endrey-ad"* which loosely translates to "go to hell."

Photo: Hymie Solomon, May 1958