Rebecca Katechis (RK) and Carolyn Schlam (CS)

CS: We lived in a very chaotic environment and the apartment was very – seemed very small.

RK: Well one of the reasons it seemed so small was that there were always so many people in it. Oh my God, Uncle Mac is here. Oh my God, Uncle Sol. And so you had to go out and get a big wet kiss from Uncle Mac. And during dinner everybody would be talking and talking at once, and talking very fast.

CS: The quality of their language was so rich, even though the actual subject matter was the most inane, insignificant stuff. I mean, mommy used to go to the supermarket, she’d come back and do forty-five minutes on the bargains at Olinsky’s.

Now, when we were kids, we hated this.

RK: There was this incredible feeling that we had to get out of that house. Who wanted to talk about Olinsky’s when the Vietnam War was raging and we wanted to go out there? And how dare you scratch my Bob Dylan record?

CS: When I think about our family, at this point in time I see them in a completely different light. None of them were great thinkers. None of them were great inventors. They weren’t scientists. They didn’t do anything of note. And yet they loved…

RK: They had children.

CS: They had children. They were alive.

RK: In the end we want to say to them, yes, I hated how you were, but man, I like it now. And not only do I like it now, but I’m transforming into you. I don’t know how I turned out to be a 50-year-old woman, but I’d like to be a 50-year-old woman like you. I’d like to have fun and a few yucks. And I really think you did a good job.

RK: I believe we really see them for who they were, and we say thank you.