Chapter 1 - Sam & Ida Rappaport
The family
This is the family that Sam and Ida Rappaport raised, three sons and two daughters, who turned out to be good people. See the family tree here
Some words about our names. We were called, and we called each other Louie, Mitchie, Pearlie, Ettie and Bucky. Mom would frequently append the Yiddish diminutive to our names so that they became Labele, Perele, Ettele, and, yes, Buckele. When the folks used our Yiddish names we were Chaim Label, Michel, Peshe Minnah, Ettele, and Yitzchak or Itchkie.*
Bucky selected his own nickname. After he and Mom saw a cowboy picture at the Lyric theater (a movie on Clinton St) that starred the famous cowboy Buck Jones, Yitzchak decided he wanted to be called Buck. And from then on he has been called that by family and friends. (When Bucky was born in 1926, Dr Applebaum, the physician, asked Pop what was the baby's name, and Pop answered "Irving". And that is the way it was recorded. None of the other kids liked that name, though, and Pearl had it changed officially to Erle.)
*. The ch sound in Chaim or Michel in Yiddish is pronounced with a throat clearing sound, as in yecchh
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