I came to America in 1914,
by way of Philadelphia.
That's where I got off the boat.
And then I came to Baltimore.
It was the most beautiful place
you've ever seen in your life.
There were lights everywhere.
What lights they had!
It was a celebration of lights.
I thought they were for me:
"Sam was in America."
Sam was in America.
I didn't know what holiday it was,
but there were lights.
And I walked under them.
The sky exploded! People cheered!
There were fireworks.
What a welcome it was!
What a welcome!
I didn't know where my brothers were.
I had an address on a letter,
but when I went there, they'd moved.
I found the man
who knew the name Krichinsky.
He was a little man with big shoes.
I'll never forget him.
He had such big shoes!
They were brand-new, beautiful shoes.
He told me this was
how he made his living.
He would break in shoes
for the wealthy.
Stuff them with newspaper
and walk in them.
I said, "What a country is this.
What a country."
The wealthy didn't even have
to break in their own shoes.
So this man with the shoes took me
down one street after another.
We walked and walked...
...and the skies would light up
and explode in a celebration.
And then we came to Avalon.
And the man with the shoes yelled,
"Krichinsky! Krichinsky!"
And my four brothers looked down
and saw me.
"Sam!"
Sam.
Sam.
And that's when I came to America.
It was the Fourth of July.
Boy, did they used to celebrate.
Big celebrations.
They closed the streets
and would celebrate through the night.
What happened to the guy
who wore the big shoes?
The funny thing is, he did it
for another two years.
He brought his brother
into the business.
They would walk the streets, breaking
in shoes. Then he got an idea!
Why not make shoes that fit right?
They became custom shoemakers:
The Solomon Brothers.
They made shoes, pants.
And then they were a department store.
But the Krichinsky brothers,
wallpaper hangers.
The five Krichinsky brothers,
wallpaper hangers.
And we worked and worked
and worked.
Except Gabriel didn't work.
Gabriel used to point a lot.
"There's a crease, it's not straight."
He was the inspector.
He was the inspector.
How did you all get
to be wallpaper hangers?
It was your grandfather William.
He came to America first
and worked in the department store...
...where they sold wallpaper
and do wallpaper hanging for people.
So he became a wallpaper hanger.
And as each brother came over,
we all became wallpaper hangers.
But on the weekend, we made music.
What music it was!
We liked American music.
We were very popular ourselves.
One night...
...I looked across the floor
and I saw...
...this young, lovely girl.
I wasn't handsome,
and I didn't have a beautiful body.
But when I touched a woman...
...they fell in love with me.
Oh, the family! How it grew.
The wives, the kids.
Krichinskys everywhere, everywhere.
So we had the family-circle meetings.
We put money in the hat to bring over
the cousins, the aunts, the uncles.
And then, out of the blue,
William gets the flu.
It was a terrible epidemic,
the flu of 1919.
Thousands died.
William died.
He was a young man.
He left three kids.
Sam, how many times do we
have to hear this story?
We know this story.
We heard it before.
If we don't tell them, they don't know.
Last year, Bill died.
Was very warm last year
when Bill died.
How many times
do we have to hear this?
The children know this story.
I'm telling them about
when I came here.
Yeah, we know about it.
We all heard it before.
Dad, you want to cut the turkey,
or do you want