Andrea holding a Puppy

My parents were originally from Hungary, but they lived in Australia before I was born. Then, in 1954, they immigrated to the US. My brother, sister and I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Although I was the youngest of the three kids, I often felt like I had to take care of everyone else. My brother had problems at school and needed lots of help with his homework, and my sister was temperamental. I was the smiling one who tried to make everyone else happy. In general, I really was a happy kid.

Andrea as a girl with her neighbors

I played outside with the neighborhood kids every day after school and most of the day during the summer. We did not go into the neighbors' houses. Most of the families were big, and nobody wanted more children in their houses than they already had. Our neighborhood was racially and economically diverse. On one side lived a couple with nine children. The father was a mail carrier and the mother was a childcare provider. On the other side were two English professors with four children. We played games, built forts, and climbed the gingko tree in the abandoned churchyard across the street.

I also spent a lot of time at home with my family. Mostly we spoke Hungarian in the house because my grandmother (Anya in MARIKA) lived with us, and she didn't speak English. We ate dinner together every night, and I often lingered after the meal to listen to my parents tell stories of their pasts. I used to lie down underneath the table, and the adults would forget that I was there. I heard stories of the war, the holocaust, the hard times in Australia.