What's The Story, Grandpa?

           I don’t know much about my grandfather’s early years except this:

            Abraham Lilienthal was born in New York City in 1884 or thereabouts. (His records were lost in a fire, so he was never certain of the year.)  His parents had immigrated here, one from Minsk and the other from Pinsk. (Don't ask me which.)  His father owned a factory at one point, but then lost it all.  Grandpa was an excellent student, and as he passed his two older brothers in school, first one, then the other dropped out. He went on to graduate not only high school, but college and then law school.

            Grandpa was a garrulous man and loved to tell stories about his life. But the only stories I remember all took place after he was grown up and married to my grandmother.

            And that’s a problem for me now.

            Because not so long ago, my aunt was sorting through some boxes in her basement when she came across a medal that my grandfather had won for a “Prize Short Story” in February 1914.

            The medal is a small piece of silver, roughly the size of a silver dollar, and on the front are the initials, RSS NY.  If you Google RSS, you come up with Rational Response Squad, Radiation Research Society, Racing Rules of Sailing, Reconfigurable Radio Systems or my favorite, Really Right Stuff.  None of these – or the dozens of others – can possibly be the organization that awarded the prize.

            But even if I could decipher that acronym, I'm sure it wouldn't lead me to a copy of Grandpa's winning short story.

            What could he have written about?

            World War I started in 1914, but later in the year. (Not that my grandfather fought in it.)

  According to historyorb.com, the following all happened in 1913:

•         The Hudson (the first sedan) was introduced at the Auto Show

•          Jim Thorpe was signed by the New York Giants

•          In Manhattan, Grand Central Terminal and the Woolworth Building both opened

•       Civil War veterans from the Confederacy and the Union got together for the Great      Reunion of 1913

•         Arabs attacked the Jewish community of Rechovot in Palestine, and the Hebrew language was taught in schools for the first time.
•           President Wilson said the United States would never attack another country
•         Charlie Chaplin began his film career, earning a whopping $150 a week

            But what are the chances that a 19-year-old boy wrote about any of those events?  More likely he wrote about falling in or out of love or coming of age in the early 1900s when there were still pushcarts and gas lamps and no TVs or even radios.

            What I wouldn’t give to read that story now!

            Which brings me to a confession: My grandfather  told me once that he used to write short stories. 

            “I’ve got my stories all stored away in a box. And if you want them, they’re yours.  I’ll give them to you to do with what you want,” he told me once.

            At the time, I must’ve smiled or given one of those noncommittal teenage grunts. Obviously, I didn’t show enough enthusiasm for Grandpa to bother getting that box down from the shelf in his hall closet or to bother telling me what his stories were all about.

            But Grandpa, I'd sure like to read those stories now!