011o<br > l~harlng was a way of life for our entire family in the little<br > house in Pumpian， Lithuania， where I was born in 1907，<br > two weeks before Chanukah， the Jewish "Feast of<br > Lights，" which usually falls in December. Living in our<br > small， one-room wooden house with its thatched roof<br > kept us all in close harmony and there was even a<br > measure of joy， despite the hardships of those days in a<br > tiny town in Eastern Europe.<br > Life there during my childhood was quiet and leisure-<br > ly， and I liked Pumpian very much. I liked the feel of my<br > bare feet on the smooth， flattened earthen floor that was<br >cool both in summer and winter. For warmth on cold<br >winter afternoons and nights， we huddled as close to the<br >huge， rough-brick oven as we could. And for light we had<br >the soft glow of candies and our kerosene lamp. Putty，<br >supplemented by rags， was stuffed into cracks to keep as<br >much of the cold air as possible from coming through the<br >two double-paned windows in the "front" of our house，<br >which actually faced our backyard. Our one-room abode<br >had no other window. The door of the house also faced<br >the back yard， where Mother， with all of us helping，<br >planted a garden and raised vegetables during the warm<br >Spring and Summer mouths.<br > Here， too， each year Father built a succah， a kind of<br >booth， where we celebrated Succoth， one of the many<br >~olidays that played a major role in the life of the Jewish<br >;ommunity of Pumpian. Succoth marked the traditional<br >rewish harvest time， and we helped Father roof the tiny<br >landmade wooden structure with branches and we deco-<br >ated the inside with flowers， fruits， and nuts symbolic of<br >he harvest. The succah and the Succoth recalled the<br > m.p~rary hastily erected dwellings of ancestors in<br > )Or!y years of wandering in the our<br > -~， otter the exodus from Egypt. desert on the way to<br > 1<br >