Greek Girl's Secrets. Efrossini AKA Fran Kisser
grocer neighbor Pericles in Greece had this older sister Angeliki, in English it would be Angel.
She was the oldest sibling in that family and the only one that had immigrated to America bravely by herself when she was just a youngster. In the 1960’s this lady must have been in her seventies. Efrossini understood this lady’s pain. She knew she had some sad stories to write about.
Angel was legally blind but, in her apartment, she was able to get along and even sew such magnificent custom beaded wedding gowns. Efrossini remembers Angeliki having to hold the fabric so close to her eyes, sewing the beads, pearls and sequences in great patterns. She was even very famous for her craft, locally. This lady could not write to her brother and family in Greece. Maybe she did not know how to write. So, when Efrossini found this out she was so eager to go there and write Angel’s letters to Greece.
Her tiny kitchen had two indoor laundry clothes lines strung above the doors towards the ceiling where she would hang her wash. When the clotheslines were free, Angel would turn her dozen parakeets loose in that kitchen and it was a sight! Efrossini hurried up and ate what Angel would fix her before the birds started to fly.
Angel had promised Efrossini to create a one of a kind, the most magnificent beaded wedding gown for her, whenever she was married. Efrossini was fed well, she wrote lots of letters for Angel to all the Greek relatives and she was giving $10 dollars for her efforts. This was a lot of money for Efrossini. If she did not need it, she would not have taken it. But she needed it desperately.
She also took the letters with her to mail them at the post office the next day. Angel loved Efrossini so much for helping her in such a way. She told her so, while hugging her and kissing her.
Efrossini always made sure she left early enough not to be walking in the dark, under the bridges saying her prayers again and again to find the strength. Her prayers kept her going and they gave her much needed strength. She also thought how she would budget and spend her ten dollars. She needed so much: shoes, stockings, shampoo, toothpaste and some fig Newton cookies. They reminded her of her mother’s fig preserves which they ate on toasted bread in the winter.
When she had the money, she bought something to eat slowly and relish its flavor. Her childhood was long gone, and she had to act and think like an adult now
At the house one time after she returned from Astoria, she had six heavy, old-fashioned metal venetian blinds waiting to be taken down and carried to the bathtub. The living room ones were as wide as the bathtub. They were so heavy! In the tub she used hot water, bleach and detergent to wash them in, without rubber gloves. Her little hands suffered from the hot water and bleach.
At night she had to sneak a little of her aunt’s hidden Jergens almond scented hand lotion. This venetian blind ritual was done seasonally. The windows were open in the spring and summer and the blinds got dusty. This was a difficult job for her especially after she had just walked for six miles.
It was ironic she had walked to Angel’s house to help her but to also earn a little money, to be able to buy her necessities and a little food.
Angel fed her, but the few hours she spent there, and that long walk back consumed any nutrition she had in her belly and now she was famished again.
The short cut she always took under the bridges by the highways had no retail food stores. She had $10 in her pocket and she was still hungry!
With her head held up high, she walked without fear. She had God on her side. She was dreaming of tomorrow when she could buy at the five and ten cent stores after school, her much needed toiletries and a little food. This is what kept her going, giving her strength to do those venetian blinds. She looked forward to eating fig newtons.
She always had to find something that gave her pleasure to make it through hard times. Efrossini day dreamed that is how she comforted herself. The girl was lucky she had so much love in her first thirteen years of life. She hung on that to keep her faith that someday things would be different. She would say: this too will pass…
Efrossini was compelled to do well by her responsibilities and duties, to keep her sadness inside her but to always wear a smile. At school they called her SMILEY. If her school mates only knew, what she was going thru. But they did not really know. A couple of times someone hinted but Efrossini never revealed anything to school mates.
1948, (from left) Achillea, Taki, Malama, Panos, Stelios baby girl, Efrossini
CHAPTER 16
SOLVING THE HAIR DILEMMA
When Efrossini’s hair was getting almost shoulder length, her aunt took her to her usual beauty shop and told the hairdresser to cut the hair short and then give her a tight, curly permanent so Efrossini would not waste much time on her hair. Her aunt wore her hair in a permanent, but it was not very tight. Efrossini objected but it did not do any good.
Efrossini just hated that hairstyle. Older ladies usually wore a hairstyle like that.
One day she produced an idea how not to have another curly permanent. Since her aunt was very frugal and she did not have to be, Efrossini promoted a money saving idea to her. She told her, when she was shopping for her toiletries she noticed at Woolworth’s do it yourself home permanents. Those were the Toni perms, in a box.
Efrossini loved to play with her hair and she believed she could learn to cut her aunt’s hair and give her a permanent just like she wanted. It would be a soft type of a permanent, which would give her nice manageable hair where she could just run the comb thru without cumbersome rollers, the setting of her hair ritual. The perm was very inexpensive. It was much cheaper than a trip to the beauty shop. Without much thought the aunt said, let’s go to the store. Wow! Efrossini thought she finally made a connection with this woman.
Efrossini was jumping for joy. Her aunt would never take her to another beauty shop ever again.
Yes, she became her aunt’s hairdresser gladly, not to have her hair in a terrible short and curly perm. Efrossini went to the library and in a cosmetology book she looked up the directions how to give a basic haircut. She learned about conditioning treatments for hair if they were necessary, also.
She had a hobby now, she was excited. Next time her aunt needed a haircut Efrossini was able to do just that. Her aunt was very pleased. In one haircut she recovered the price of the hair cutting scissors, she said. The hair cut was very pleasing and finally the aunt praised Efrossini for a great job. Every month she gave her aunt a haircut. Every four months she gave her aunt a Toni perm. The smart girl’s idea had worked. She was very pleased with herself. Efrossini worked on her own hair and even attempted cutting it.
It took a couple of haircuts to perfect her hair cut since she had to work with a mirror to see the back of her head. Years later, her high school graduation photograph sports the very haircut and style she created for herself. It was a hit and a real classic to this day.
When she went to visit her aunt Fotini in Brooklyn, Efrossini offered to cut her hair and give her a Toni perm. Fotini was very enthused about her niece’s willingness to attempt such a technical thing. Efrossini gave her a very becoming haircut and the best perm she ever had, Fotini claimed. Together they went to church proudly in the morning.
Fotini bragged about Efrossini to her friends after church and they were even invited to a friend’s home for brunch. There, she met the friend’s teen age children.
She had such a wonderful Sunday. Her aunt took her back to her house gave her $10 and thanked her for the wonderful hairdo. She was so proud of her niece, Efrossini.
In the late afternoon she walked to the subway station, rode the subway to Corona and walked back to Jackson Heights. Her aunt Fotini and young Efrossini agreed to keep the hair works a secret, not to upset the aunt, Efrossini she had to live with. Efrossini learned to adapt to her living environment.