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some fun things. One time the whole school put on a play, and all the kids dressed in costumes representing the different nations of the world. Mary Lou and I were made up like we were from Japan. We were supposed to sing a song together called “Sing-A-Lee, Sing a Low-Down Tune,” but the teacher was so taken with my singing that I did most of the song by myself. After the show, all the parents gathered around me and asked me to sing. They thought I was “sophisticated,” since I had just come from New York, and they wanted me to do all the latest songs, like “Pennies from Heaven.” They dug into their pockets and gave me dimes and quarters to sing for them, which was extraordinary, since this was during the Depression.
    Having lived in the city my whole life, my time in Pyrites was my first real exposure to nature. I’d never seen so much open space, so many trees and flowers, lakes and rivers, and just because it was so different from Astoria, I instantly liked it. I experienced a sense of freedom unlike anything I’d ever felt before. One of my favorite things to do was ice-skate on the beautiful St. Lawrence River. It was so peaceful there. I’dgo for miles and miles. The river froze solid—people drove big trucks right over the ice, that’s how thick it was.
    After about nine months—a whole school year—my mom decided she missed me so much she wanted to have me back, so plans were made for my return.
    I found out later that not long after my father’s funeral my Uncle Frank had decided my mother needed a vacation, and he took her and my Aunt Emma to the country for a week. He also decided that my family should move to a smaller and more affordable apartment. Although Mary was only sixteen at the time, it was left to her to make all the arrangements for the move, and have everything ready when my mom returned. So all by herself Mary found us a new apartment right across the street from Grandpa’s house on Thirty-second Street. Frank and Emma lived downstairs from my grandparents, so the family was now very close. Mary decided that she would share a room with my mother, and John and I would once again share a pull-out couch in the living room. I don’t know how she was able to handle so much responsibility at sixteen, but the move went smoothly. Mary has always been an amazing person.
    When I returned from Pyrites, my family was already moved into the new apartment. It was one more shock in a very traumatic year, but I think I understood why we needed to make the move. With my father gone and my mother working all day, Mary was left to watch after John and me, and it was much easier on her for us to be in a smaller apartment, right across the street from my grandparents. My sister is a beautiful, wonderful woman whose whole life has been devoted to family. She was a surrogate parent to John and me, and she’s always been my main source of emotional support.
    My mom kept working all day at the factory, and as before, she did piecework all evening. We’d meet her every night at thesubway station so that she wouldn’t have to carry that big bundle of dresses by herself, and in the morning we’d do the same thing in reverse. Even though she got paid by the dress, she’d sometimes pick one out and throw it aside. When I asked her why she did that, she told me, “I only work on quality dresses.” She wasn’t intentionally teaching me a lesson about integrity, but many years later, when producers and record companies tried to tell me what type of songs to record, in the back of my mind I could see my mother tossing those dresses over her shoulder. This has always been my inspiration for insisting on singing nothing but great songs.

C HAPTER T HREE

    My uncle Dick, one of my mother’s younger brothers, had been a “hoofer,” a dancer-for-hire on the vaudeville circuit. He performed under the name “Dick Gordon,” and was quite well-known. At the height of his career he even played the New York