#2 My Father Always Said by Mimi Schwartz

1. "But everybody's going. It was the wrong argument to make to a man who fled Hitler's Germany because of everybody." (269)

Schwartz's father wanted to raise his daughters with the option to make their own decisions, stand up for themselves if the crowd seemed to be following the wrong path. He wanted them to do so, but within his moral code. Be the stronger person, don't do something just because everyone else is- the typical battle every family with teenagers goes through. Her father brought her to his home town in hopes to raise awareness of the world and to prove that outside of Queens real-life scary events can happen.

2. The essay is told by Schwartz both as a young teenage girl and as a grown woman. Schwarzwald translates to Black Forest [Germany], which bears a strong resemblance to Forest Hills [Queens]; one that she cannot see just yet. When Schwartz flashes forward to re-visiting her father's hometown it shows that she holds an interest in his past- which in the bigger picture is her past as well. She was too young and nieve to fully appreciate her Germany trip as a teen. It appears that as she grew older, she matured and her interest in her family's past became very important to her.

3. Schwartz's interest is growing, her father's stories and experiences in Germany are becoming more real to her. He gives a brief explanation of Kristallnacht and she urges him to continue the story, she is interested in knowing more. She wants to understand why her mother doesn't want to be seen outside of the Temple or why her father won't even enter the Temple.

4. She is making more connections and parallels between her own life and her father's childhood.
"This was his school, he said, and it looked like mine, but P.S. 3 has a paved playground and good swings. This just had dirt." (273) She is asking more questions out of curiosity, thinking it was strange for school children to be seperated according to religion and not age. She is now seeing that events in her father's childhood were not fair, its hard for her to imagine. She wants to hear more from her mother, hear the happy times that her parents spent together while dating in a small town. While her parents open up and share their stories she is opening herself by genuinely listening.

5. The graveyard scene holds close to her heart, her memory of the weather, light, and feel of the cemetary is vivid. She makes it known that she was taking everything in. More and more connections are made, placing rocks on the graves reveals her growing curiosity and sensitivity. Looking at the children's graves reminded her of a sister that passed away before she was born. The reality of death was unsetteling and it made her uncomfortable.

6. Forty years later she is still interested in her father's past and his home in Germany, as an adult she seeks out the true and disturbing facts. Her father returned from their Rindheim trip, realizing where he came from was not as perfect as he had remembered. He was happy to have his family in America and understood the opportunity his girls had, opportunities that he did not have at their age. He embraced NY as his home and knew his family was lucky to be there.

Schwartz recounts her trip to Germany as a teen and interjects moments from her adulthood. Many teenagers are too self centered to realize the hardships in life or their parents lives. Her trip helps to make her father's stories of Rindheim tangible. She opened herself up and made many valuable connections to her life and her fathers. But it is in her adultlife that she is able to come full circle and relate to her father on a more intimate level. One point of this essay is to never take your opportunities for granted. Schwartz realizes she was lucky to grow up in NY with a family that kept her safe. As a child its hard to imagine your life any differently, as a teen on her Germany trip she sees that life could have been very different for her and as an adult she fits all the pieces together.