Dear List,

So many of you responded to the VM post that I fear I may have missed
someone in my thanks. If so, rest assured it was an accident.

A couple of interesting things struck me as potentially of general
use, so I'd like to share some notes >from the translations:

1. A native Russian speaker wrote it was obvious that Russian wasn't
the writer's first language, which was probably Yiddish. Something he
could tell >from the word usage and script.
2. A couple of folks noted that of the two brief messages, the one in
what should have been the address area was actually a rhyme, and not
a personal note. Sure enough, when I looked closely I could see the
matching of characters in the word endings. Kind of equivalent to the
high-school yearbook "2 Good 2 Be 4-Gotten" or a Hallmark card.

So in addition to confirming Esfiri Podoksik's name and learning
there was an Uncle B on the receiving end, I also learned:

= that her schooling in Russian must have come late in childhood, and
this may have been the norm for Jewish children who weren't wealthy
= that there were cliches available there and then as if it was
today. Undoubtedly these helped, as they still do, to say what you
have a hard time putting into words yourself for whatever reason.

In case anyone's curious as to the little rhyme, I've reworked the
translation so it rhymes in English but still says what all the
generous translators wrote me:

"I beg my face you will recall,
And not forget me, not at all."


Michelle Frager - NY area
Bel/Lith: FRAKT, WOLFSON, PODOKSIK
Ukr/Rom: TREIGER, SEROTA, ZEKTSER