My Courtship of Inda
By Uncle Nussie (aka Nathan Posner)
(from his book: NOT BY BREAD ALONE )
“No sooner had I acquired my driving license than Mac assigned me to a
route in Brooklyn. One of the customers along the route was the
Tumbarello Blouse factory in Canarsie. “Tumby” worked exclusively for
Vanity Blouse Co., which was owned by Morris Cedarbaum, my uncle.
The person in charge of the production department and dispensing
work to the factories was a young lady named Inda. Although she had
many additional functions for the firm, the aforementioned duty was the
only one that brought us in contact with each other. I soon made it my
business to personally make deliveries at Vanity every day, leaving my
helper to make other “less important” deliveries and pickups.
Before long, my visits to Vanity began to take up more and more of
my time. And my thoughts, too.
I fell for Inda immediately. Her knowledge of the business impressed
me, as well as her “strictly business” attitude. She was cute, shorter than
I, and slender.
One night, while driving home from the City (Manhattan) with Pop
alongside, I said, “You know that girl Inda at the Vanity?”
“Yes,” he answered.
“She’s the kind of girl I’d like to marry.”
“So what’s stopping you?”
“Where do I shine to a girl like her?” I asked.
Pop’s answer changed the direction of my thoughts and my life.
“If you like a girl,” he advised me, go after her.”
From that moment on, I became a different person. I had only one
aim—to woo this girl and make her my wife. I was obsessed with
thoughts of her and could barely survive out of her sight. I became a
fixture at her desk. She couldn’t get rid of me because my Uncle Morris
Cedarbaum owned the place. Hanging around there, I discovered she was
getting calls from another admirer. Brazenly, I sometimes picked up her
ringing phone, and if it was that other guy, announced that Inda was out
and gone for the day.
After a while, during one of Pop’s monthly visits to Inda to ascertain
the amounts of shipments for the prior billing period, she complained to
him of my actions. I think she was just probing for Pop’s attitude toward
the relationship. Pop’s reply to her was that Nat was a good catch and
that she should not discourage me.
I sometimes brought her chocolate, which I discovered she had an
affinity for. That spring, the flowers were in full bloom in Canarsie in
Tumbarello’s yard, and often I collected a bouquet that I brought to Inda
or left upon her desk. Her home was along my route, and as often as I
could, I persuaded her to allow me to drive her home. She often worked
until 7 or 8 p.m. I would wait for her and take her home to the East Side
(downtown), where she lived with her sick mother. On the way there, I
would make sharp right turns, and Inda would obligingly fall onto my
lap. Those moments close to the girl I was beginning to love dearly are
among my fondest memories.”
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