Nathan Yablin-My Father
My Dad came to Watertown, NY from Lazdijai,Lithuania in 1908 at the age of 14, and he arrived in the US at the date of the wedding of his older brother, Abe--He had a job waiting for him in the waste paper business of his uncle, Jacob Stubinsky(later Stabins). Jacob's wife was my father's mother's sister. Dad enrolled in night school and must have been a good student because his night school teacher always called me Nathan too. He was drafted in the US Army in 1918 and survived the flu epidemic. His first duty station was to guard the Portsmouth,NH Naval Prison. There, one night,he lost the keys and apparently had to serve six months extra for it. After discharge from service he returned to Watertown and started his own company, The Great Northern Junk Company with Abe and Charley Phillips. He and My Mom were married in 1919 in Syracuse by the well known Rabbi Yalow--We lived very modestly-- the 3rd house up from the railroad tracks--but we were well taken care of. My dad also served as the Baal Korah for the Holidays at Congregation Degel Israel in Watertown and later at Temple Beth El in Syracuse. He died at age 76 of metastatic colon cancer.My Mom died in 1968 of Acute Leukemia preceded by Myelodysplastic Syndrome.