‘Ethel at 100’ – a Poem by Ishmael Reed
Writing exclusively for Haaretz, the renowned American writer pens a poem in honor of his mother-in-law, Ethel Strasser, to mark her 100th birthday
Ethel Blank Strasser is my mother-in-law. I married her third daughter, Carla – a distinguished choreographer, director and author whose latest book is “Storming the Old Boys’ Citadel,” about two women architects of the early 1900s. Ethel was born in 1917, the same year as my mother’s birth. When we think of The Greatest Generation, males are usually the stars in the Hollywood movies and books. Historians when writing about the World Wars and the Depression concentrate on Great men.
In their memoirs – Ethel’s “Under The Blankettes” and my mother Thelma Reed’s “Black Girl from Tannery Flats” – we get the point-of-view of how ordinary citizens coped with those traumatizing events.
I was alarmed by my students’ ignorance of the challenges faced by Ethel and Thelma’s generation. We’re lucky that they, excellent storytellers, have given us a record.
Ethel at 100
For Ethel Strasser
The Quaker state offered your family refuge
From the hairy grasp of a mean Czar
Pittsburgh was a steel town, and you had
To be as firm as that metal as you girded
Against a Depression and World Wars
Like Thelma, my mom
You tolerated the foolish men
A ceiling that was not glass but
Brick
Like hers
Your career goals were stunted
Yet
You raised four girls, virtually alone
Which meant that while middle class
Families consulted travel agents
You were consulting the midnight oil
Clipping coupons
Stretching the dollar
Making do
Cutting corners and then there
Was the chicken pox
Mononucleosis
Measles
And symptoms that are yet
To be diagnosed and then
The dance lessons
The violin lessons
Art Lessons
Plus the boyfriends
Ethel Strasser
Your job at Carnegie Tech qualified
The children for free education
Like Thelma, you were a 1917er
Born in a world even
Messier than now
Something about which the
Millenns
Have no notion as they sip
Their Blonde Cappuccinos
Peer over their tablets
And chat on Facebook
About their cats
And now you are 100
A survivor from a period
During which millions of
Your sisters perished
They are having
A party for you at
Blauvelt, New York’s
Oscar’s Italian Restaurant
Your daughters are there
Women of high distinction
Gail, Sonya, Carla and Judith
“The pride of Pittsburgh”
Their children are there
And grandchildren
And great-grandchildren
Who could form
A subcommittee for the U.N.,
The youngest, Lina, corrects her teacher’s
Japanese
We have a choice of fish or
Veal
There are drinks
All around
And when they wheeled
You in
Below the hush that
Filled the room
I thought I heard
An angel whisper
That Ethel!
That Ethel!
Ishmael Reed
Copyright © 2018
Ishmael Reed is a Distinguished
Professor at California College
of the Arts
His new novel, “Conjugating Hindi,” was
published in April
His new play “Life Among The Aryans”
A serious comedy, will premiere off
Broadway in June