Hi everyone. So I guess the main thing on everyones mind is "What the hell. Why do we need to do this open forum writing? I don't want everyone reading what I have to say, why would anyone care about that sort of thing." I don't mind that everyone reads my stuff, I just don't think I'm that interesting.
I suppose I should start at the beginning. For as long as I can remember I'm German, mostly. My father's side is ALL German, nothing else. My uncles used to try to teach German to my sister and I but we only were able to pick up a few words here and there. "Mitt Schlag" (with whipped cream (literally "with beaten" but colloquial)) and "Verstehen" (a rather abrupt command for "understand?") became the extent of German we could understand at that point. My grandmother Catherine (Arnold) Werfelman(my father's mother) would tell us about how on her side of the family her grandparents spoke almost no English and that when she was growing up that she and her 4 siblings were entirely unable to speak with their grandparents because they were never really exposed to the language. And I suppose in those days, the German population of NYC had pretty much headed out west and the New York Germans were in South Brooklyn (Sheepshead Bay area). My grandmothers family stayed in Jamaica, Queens until her parents died (1962 and 1965 respectively)
My grandfather Ronny Werfelman(my fathers father) died in 1976. I never met him (obviously) but from what I understand, when his grandparents arrived in America (1888) and moved to South Brooklyn, they did all they could to get their kids into good schools and did what they could to learn English and assimilate. They had moved around the city a little as had their kids and by the time my grandfather was born, his parents had too, had relocated to Jamaica, Queens. My great grandmother (Martha Werfelman(by marriage)) spoke and kept German traditions. She died when I was 8 and all I remember was that her apartment smelled like sauerkraut and pork when ever we went over there. She also cooked enough food for ten extra people but I think that was because she was 95 years old and bored.
I was later sent to German school because my babysitters kids were going and my parents, being the frugal people they are, decided that German school was cheaper than the babysitter and seeing as she was already going there she might as well drop us off too. So my sister and I started German language classes. It worked out in my favor, I took my German language Regent exam the same year I took my French one for public school. I took the same exam in 2 languages... unfair advantage you say? I think not... I got the same score on the exams. A happy 84. Just a point below what I needed to bypass my SUNY language requirement. >.< Whatever... I'm over it now. We also have attended The Steuben Day Parade in NYC every year since I was in middle school.
And after all of this I think that basically it boils down to this: I identify with the German people to the extent that I speak their language at the level of a 4 year old. I can also cook traditional recipes with out the recipe card in front of me. Impressive right? Yeah...whatever. I don't live in Jamaica, Queens either.
I beg to differ, Jen--you ARE interesting. This is quite a detailed family history and was a pleasure to read. It is my hope that the blog will help us to feel more and more like a community as the semester progresses in addition to providing a place to have meaningful discussions on issues that too often get swept under the rug. All of our voices are important and deserve to be represented in a "public" setting.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't quite doubting whether I was interesting or not, it was more of a sarcastic twist. That sounds narcissistic. I just mean that my perspective on my ethnicity is fairly basic, I don't identify too strongly with something that would (should?) be something that defines me.
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