Florence Mazo (nicknamed "Bloomalee," for her "Jewish" name "Bloomer") reminiscences about growing up in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Mazo family, which played a role in the city's Jewish community. Her parents were Essie Tandet and Elihu or Elliot Mazo. They met in Odessa, Russia, were married there, and had two children before they came to the United States at a date the interviewee is unsure of. Her father's brother, Dave Mazo, had come to Charleston first; the family followed him there. In all, her parents had 10 children, she being the second or third born in South Carolina. Her father started out with a grocery store on King Street near Queen Street and the Charleston Library Society, but eventually was better known for the delicatessen he ran on upper King Street, number 478, between Mary and John Streets. They carried kosher foods and served a wide clientele, both black and white. Her father, although not ostensibly religious, was a very kind man, always giving to charity, being good to his employees and refusing to "embarrass" customers by asking for payments due him. Florence Nirenblatt relates fragments of memories about store employees and neighbors such as the African American Jake who read the Yiddish paper, The Forward, and the gambler and card player Joe Truere, called, "Jew Joe." She distinguishes her "uptown" branch of the family, interested in athletics and similar pursuits, from the "downtown" branch of her Uncle George Mazo, who eventually ran the store on lower King Street. His children followed more intellectual pursuits, Earl Mazo becoming a biographer of Richard Nixon, Norma being a painter, and Frances Mazo Butwin being an author and translator. Another uncle, David Mazo, ran a store on Folly Beach. There are many fragmentary stories about her family's movement back and forth between Charleston and New York, and mentions of her sister Mary Bodne becoming owner of the Algonquin Hotel in New York City.
