Will the Real Uncle Sam Please Stand Up?...

Ever since I was a small child this family story has fascinated me.  I have heard it so many times, from so many different people that I am not sure what the real story is...all I know is that most of it is true...there are documents to support it.  

My grandparents, Max and Mary, met in London, England where both had emigrated from Russia.  They were young and in love and soon became engaged, making big plans to join relatives who had gone to America...the "goldeneh medina"...the golden world.

My Grandparents Engagement Photo

After they married they continued planning for their journey to America...to join relatives already living and working in New York. Grampa would leave first, get a job, find a home and make enough money to purchase passage for Grandma to join him.  And so the story begins 

Just before Max left he was informed that he was to become a father, so it was with a mixture of excitement and regret that he took leave of his pregnant wife and left to make his way to America.  At first he stayed with relatives, but soon found work and finally a small place to live, in the Bronx.  He was ready to send for his beloved Mary to join him.

Barely out of her teens, the heavily pregnant Mary wrapped herself in a large shawl to hide her body, afraid she might be denied passage because she was so close to delivery...but the  big event was a little less than a month away so she felt sure that she would be fine.  And that is how she boarded The Steamship New York...leaving from England to New York on it's maiden voyage.

Steamship New York

 In the early 1900's a maiden voyage was a great celebration for the First Class Passengers.  Long before the "glitterati" and fabulously wealthy became Jet Setters, they cris-crossed the oceans by ship...and no crossing was more festive than a maiden voyage...food, wine, entertainment, tea on the deck,  shuffelboard and shopping in the  ship's chic little boutiques.  

My grandma was not a first class passenger! She was below decks with "the huddled masses yearning to breathe free..."!  While the wealthy reveled above, my grandmother, alone and frightened, remained below in the lurching, swaying steerage accomodation.    As the days passed, she began to feel quite poorly, finally catching the attention of a fellow passenger.  The woman quickly dispatched her husband to the ship's infirmary to notify the doctor of Mary's condition.  She was immediately moved to a soft, clean bed in the infirmary, and it was not long before the entire ship knew that a young girl was about to give birth on the ship!  Word spread among the socialites and these women took turns sitting with Mary as she labored.  When the fat, black haired baby boy was  finally born,  a bevvy of delighted, highly social godmothers rejoiced with with the new mother.

Max was totally unaware that he was already a father as he made his way to Ellis Island.  He arrived and remained with the others who were 

awaiting the arrival of their loved ones as they went through the stages of entry.  One by one the others left him and Max realized that Mary had not arrived at Ellis Island! He quickly found an immigration official and asked, in his broken English, for help.  The official returned with a huge smile on his face...indeed Mary had arrived, but she was at the Long Island College Hospital in Brooklyn.  The Steamship line had arranged to transport Grampa to the hospital, and off he went, weak with relief and excitement.

The Long Island College Hospital was one of the first in New York to be associated with a medical school.  It was modern for the time and expensive...but a baby born on a maiden voyage made the steamship line benevolent. So, Max arrived to find Mary ensconsed in a private room, surrounded by beautiful gifts from "the godmothers" and the Line.  Standing beside Mary was the ship's captain.  He waited politely while the couple embraced and a nurse brought the baby in to meet his Papa. 
 After a while the captain stepped up to my grandfather and said,
"She refused to name the baby until you arrived. Of course this will all go into the ship's log..."   All the while Grandma murmured the name
"Shmuel (Samuel) die numen ess Shmuel."  But it seemed the captain was pushing for them to somehow name the baby for him! Max and Mary conversed quietly in yiddish, wanting the baby to have a meaningful name but also wanting to honor the circumstances.  Finally my beaming grandfather turned, and in his best English said, " Mein son is Shmuel... in America he is Samuel Steamship New York ......!  And indeed, that was Uncle Sam's name on his birth certificate.  It was his name in school and at work and sadly, on the death certificate that showed that he left us in his late 40's far, far too early.  He was my father's older, adored brother, but by the time daddy was born Grandma and Grampa were Americanized enough to give him the middle name of Charles!!!

When the ship was scuttled, many, many years later, they sent Uncle Sam the ship's maiden voyage log and a steering wheel.

When my father's family gathered my grandma often cooked some of her wonderful meals, but I most remember her  apple pies.  I recall the sweet aroma of the baking apples permeating the rooms. There were always two little extra pies for my sister and me.  Sadly, grandma did not write her recipes down and her method was "a handful of this, a spoonful of that...!" so I have researched and tested and this is as close as I have come...

      First, I have to confess that I use ready-made pie crusts... I cannot seem to make a good pie crust so I look for the best read-made available and proceed from there...

Filling:
2/3 cup sugar
3 tbsp all purpose flour
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
3 lbs of Granny Smith apples. peeled, cored and sliced into 1/2" slices and squeeze lemon juice over slices to prevent darkening
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins
1 1/2 tbsp. orange juice

Egg wash:
1 egg
2 tbsp milk or cream:

Directions:
 1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Combine dry ingredients ...sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and mix together,  add apple slices and toss them  in dry ingredients with your hands...then add vanilla and orange juice.

3. Take prepared  crust and, following enclosed instructions,  place 1/2 in a pie pan. Add the apples mounding them in the center. Cover with the other half of crust. Fold dough over itself aso that the fold of the dough is flush with edge of the pan. Flute edges with thumb and forefinger.
4. Mix egg yolk and half and half and mix, then brush over the top of pie. Cut slits in crust to allow steam to escape.
5. Bake about 20 minutes then reduce heat to 350...bake until golden brown and bubbling...about an additional 30-45 minutes...let stand to cool at least one hour before serving.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream....