My first post!

Wow, my first blog post! What should I say? Well, maybe an introduction would suffice for now. My name is Steven Elias. I was conceived in Florida to a Gail Fritz and adopted at birth in 1969 by my mother and father, Sophie and Solomon Elias. As an infant I moved to Venezuela where my parents, for over 25 years, ran a factory which produced women's and children's clothing for Macy's, Lerners and other big fahion retailers. They also had a retail operation of their own which was run under the name Fredericks. When my father died in 1975, my mother was left alone to run the business and raise me. It was very difficult undertaking which would completely consume an average human being, but being a holocaust survivor, my mother fought her way through the difficulties and eventually buried my father, sold the business and moved us back the the US in 1978 to be with her sister, Roma.

Roma lived in a humble split level ranch in Valley Stream, NY with her husband Nathan Obenzinger. Spanish was my first and only language and since we lived in a middle-class non-hispanic neighborhood, I had an incredible difficult time assimilating to my new environment. I went to the local public school and was beat up on a regular basis because they thought I was Puerto Rican. Eventually my mother had to transfer me to a private school so that I could have a more normal upbringing.

These formative years were very difficult for me and I think that I will elaborate on them in my next post.