...before the money really ran out, before the beatings got worse and more frequent, before they had to move to Henry Street on the Lower East Side...
...where the rats were bigger than Mitzi the dog.
In those Brooklyn days being left handed was not allowed. He was sent home for not knowing how to write with his right hand.
And of course on the first day of school, his name, a Hebrew one, was changed to an English one.
