Every Friday after he came home from working at the auto plant my father gave me a boxing lesson Keep your fists up Gordy he’d say holding up his big strong hands like targets Then after dinner we’d listen to the Friday Night Fights on the radio Everyone did in Detroit especially when Joe Louis was boxing Detroit made two things great boxers and cars millions of cars But when the Great Depression came people stopped buying cars Times got hard in Detroit But we still had Joe Louis in our corner
By 1937 there was talk of war with Nazi Germany That fall my father lost his job and his big strong hands turned into tense clenched fists So my mother started sewing for Mr Rubinstein a tailor The Rubinsteins had fled from Nazi Germany so they would be safe
It’s not much money she said but it will keep us in groceries On Mondays Mr Rubinstein and his son Ira delivered pieces of sewing to my mother Gordy you and Ira go out and play Mr Rubinstein and I need to go over this work
