Morris Beja 
Tell Us About . . . a Memoir [EPUB ebook] 

EV E RYBODY I S F ROM S O M E P L ACE .
Morris Beja—who has lived his adult life in Ohio, aside from
extended stays abroad—is from the Bronx. In this book he gives
a vivid account of what it was like to grow up there, in the thirties,
forties, and fi fties. He presents a memoir of his life and family
and world, but he also conveys the importance of ephemera,
of the fl eeting: of the moments, impressions, places, objects,
commodities, products, snatches of song, advertisements,
phrases, people in our lives that one doesn’t realize at the time
are memorable, but which turn out to be indelible. It may
not be a question of their being worth remembering, in the
sense of being “momentous” or “revealing” or “beautiful” or
“moving”—or any of those things in any explicable way. But
they are there—for always. Or they come back to you, after
being lost for years and even decades. Perhaps no one who is
not of your own generation could appreciate their importance;
maybe no one could. Th e signifi cance may be only for you, of
all humanity. Th at makes them all the more fascinating.