Bubbe Flo

Florence Korrostoff Gussman

Florence Korostoff Gussman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 13, 1930. Her parents were Sonya (née Gabin) and Menashe Korostoff, who had come to United States in the early 20th Century as immigrants fleeing the pogroms of the Ukraine.

Sonya and Menashe had a laundry on Girard Avenue in downtown Philadelphia. They washed the dirty laundry of the sailors who came to the Port of Philadelphia. When Flo was three years old the family moved into Mayfair, a newly built section of the city in Northeast Philadelphia. They owned a Unity-Frankford corner grocery store in a “goysha” neighborhood. They lived above the store at Algard and Devereaux Streets. They worked long hours and made a living.

Life revolved around family. The immediate family consisted of five people, which included Sonya, Menashe, sister Matilda (four years older then Flo), Flo, and brother Irving (two years younger than Flo). There was always extended family living with them. There were aunts and uncles saving for a down payment on a home, new immigrants looking for work, picture brides waiting for weddings, nephews coming for school, wives needing a respite from husbands, and so on. Even the Alte Zeyde, Flo’s grandfather came to live in Philadelphia in his later years. In addition, Sonya was very active in the Zionist Movement and she was among the founders of “Pioneer Women”, an organization of women who supported women and children’s institutions in what was then Palestine. The house was always filled with scores of Pioneer Women having meetings and organizing. The household was lively with parties, celebration of the holidays, and family drama.

After finishing elementary school and junior high school, she chose to study at Philadelphia High School for Girls in far away downtown Philadelphia. It took a trolley and the elevated train to get there. It was not just far away as the crow flies but far away as an academic haven for public school girls bound for college. Latin was a required subject. High School was a wonderful time. Flo pitched for the softball team and served as president of the student body. Summers were spent at Labor Zionist Camps enjoying the chalutzim and lifelong friendships that started there.

Flo won a four-year scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania. School was wonderful but Flo didn’t fit in with the Main Line Girls. She commuted from North East Philadelphia but could not find her place among the college girls. She loved saddle shoes and bobby socks, sports, and all things Jewish. She quit after two years to get married. She had meet Alfred “Obby” Gussman at a Habonim meeting. He was fresh out of the army, tall, and handsome.

In 1950 they married. The newlyweds lived with her parents while saving for a house in the Oxford Circle section of Philadelphia. Obby worked at RCA in Camden in the production line of television cameras. Flo raised their three children David, Debra, and Ruth.

In 1960 when Ruth started kindergarten, Flo got a hankering to return to college. She returned to school with a vengeance completing her undergraduate degree in teaching at Temple University and then a series of masters degrees in education and counseling. She put her pitching skills to work in family baseball games where she was the designated pitcher for both sides. She would watch each kid do a few practice swings and then hit the bat with her pitches when the game was in play. Every kid got a hit and a chance to run the bases. Games ended when it was time to eat or the sun was setting at Burholme Park.

In the 1970’s she was a beloved teacher in the Cheltenham School system. She and her best buddy Ed Massa team-taught in the elementary school. Mom loved teaching science best. Her bridge units are still a wonder in educational innovation. They wrote school plays where every kid learned to sing and dance and have a speaking part. Parents qvelled and vied to get their kids placed in Flo and Ed’s classrooms. Summers were spent taking her unappreciative children across country camping, seeing the National Parks and wonders of America. She implanted a love of traveling and/or camping in her children. We remain deeply patriotic to this day.

In the 1980’s Flo became a master educator. She taught teachers how to teach. She worked as a school counselor. After a few years, she and Ed returned to the classroom. She didn’t mesh with administration. Flo was also a master in conflict management and consensus building. Over time, she got tired of fighting with administration to put the kids first, the parents second, the teachers third, and not have the administrators on the list at all. In 1998 Flo’s beloved mother Sonya died. Obby and Flo weighed out their options and decided what to do next.

She and Obby brought Menashe to live with them. They all moved to Toano, VA to live on the same street as their beloved grandsons just a few houses away. They enjoyed Menashe’s good company until he passed away in 1992. They spoiled their dogs Willie and Pitzy. Flo traveled to New York, California, Colorado, China, and Morocco to spend time with her children. Obby finally got his ham radio shack and four grandsons to teach Morse code to so they could get their ham licenses. Flo collected the family lore and made detailed family trees long before the Internet was available. She gathered data by long distant telephone calls to cousins and carefully listening to the family stories told by the aging immigrants of her parent’s generation as their lives wound down. Flo began to write the stories she had collected. The love of teaching never left Flo. Her kitchen became a workshop. She taught two generations how to make challah for the Sabbath including how to make delightful challah birds.

In the decade of 2000, Flo and Obby fully embraced retired life in Virginia. They participated in the synagogue sharing the presidency. They decorated the house for the Jewish holidays and welcomed extended family into their home just like Sonya and Menashe had done on Devereaux Street. They gardened. They made parties. Flo organized her collection of Seder plates. She made toys out of wood. Not many women take up jig saw carving in their 70’s. First she made a huge Noah’s Ark for her grandsons with a pair of animals for every letter of the alphabet. Then she made an elaborate wooden circus where all the toys did tricks. She made the most amazing groggers for Purim. They celebrated Bar Mitzvot and then weddings. In 2008 after a sad stretch of illnesses, Obby died. Flo grieved the loss of her husband and 58 years of marriage.

In the decade of 2010, Flo in the company of her terrier Maggie began collecting in earnest. It started with a few cacti plants and a few ceramic Noah’s Arks. Both collections grew to amazing numbers and threatened to take over the house. Despite their prickly objections, the cacti were confined to the sunroom. The Noah’s Arks were wrangled into curio cabinets where they still manage to escape occasionally onto coffee tables and even threaten the Seder plates in their display cases.

On May 13, 2020 (or whenever the Coronavirus pandemic ends), Flo will celebrate her 90th birthday with her children, grandchildren, and six great-granddaughters.