Most of us like a mystery. It gives us a chance to stretch mentally as we try to find answers to questions. Some mysteries can be solved quickly; others can take years. The Great Chicken Mystery of 1945 took more than 60 years for us to solve.

Marilynn has always been an observer, even as a little girl. It was not a surprise to family and friends when she decided to become a journalist. She has the ability to remember events from long ago; what people said, what they wore, what food was served, and how it tasted. Sometimes, people are intrigued when she tells them that they wore My Sin perfume at a bar mitzvah, held at the Southern House, in 1952. Other times, they want to run and hide when she relates her impressions of their escort, who wore a tie-dyed tuxedo to their sister-in-law’s wedding in 1971. Marilynn has learned to spare the feelings of family and friends by carefully selecting the memories she chooses to trot out.

The Great Chicken Mystery was solved in 2007 when we did a talk and book signing at Temple Teferith Israel, in Winthrop, the town where we grew up in the 1940s and 1950s.

Sea Foam Avenue, the street where we lived, was located in a part of Winthrop that was known both as The Beach Section, and The Jewish Section. The latter politically incorrect reference was never offered in an offensive manner. It just happened that many Jewish families chose to live near the two synagogues, Temple Teferith Abraham, and Temple Teferith Israel, and the Jewish Community Center, which were located in a 12-block area. Having one’s grandmothers, aunts, cousins, and friends living one or two streets away was a definite plus. If you didn’t have a date for Saturday night, you could “visit.” Sometimes you could sit on someone’s porch and enjoy the sea air while sipping an iced tea.

We’re sort of getting off the topic.

Many of the merchants who catered to the residents of our neighborhood, were purveyors of kosher food. We had three butcher shops, on Shirley Street, the main thoroughfare, but there was only one kosher poultry shop. This was during World War II, and Fort Banks was located in Winthrop.

Lefkowitz’s Poultry Shop was on Shirley Street, at the foot of Sea Foam Avenue, and it was a gathering place for all of the Jewish women in the neighborhood. Everyone bought her Friday night chicken from Mr. Lefkowitz.

After we wrote Heirloom Baking and Heirloom Cooking, we went on two book tours all over the country. Marilynn loved telling the story of Lefkowitz’s Poultry Shop, and the unselfish women who gave up their Friday night Sabbath chicken dinners for the boys at Fort Banks.

Women shopped for food almost every day, and Marilynn always accompanied our mother on these shopping excursions. It was a great way to stay in touch with neighbors, and exchange recipes and share news.

Since Marilynn was about four, her memory of those by-gone days was of the women congregating at the poultry shop and being told by Mr. Lefkowitz that there were no chickens available for Friday night’s dinner because they were for the boys at Fort Banks.

Volunteers were called for, and the women all began plucking the chickens for the boys, while making changes in their Sabbath dinner menus. This was during rationing, and the mother of the family had to be particularly inventive with menus. Marilynn recalls the laughter and the good cheer as the women dressed in coats, babushkas (scarves), bobby socks and boots plucked chickens, amid the aroma of singed feathers.

This is a lovely story, and it is, for the most part, true. It was Anita Yeshman and Rona Mael, who gave us the answer to the Great Chicken Mystery. Both ladies are members of Temple Teferith Israel, and when Marilynn told her chicken story, they filled in the blanks. It seemed that the Rabbitzin, (the Rabbi’s wife) and several of the women from the sisterhood decided that they should provide a communal Sabbath dinner for the soldiers from Fort Banks every week.

All of the women cooked and baked for the dinners which were held at The Jewish Community Center. Any soldier or sailor was welcome. One of the women came up with the idea of asking the young Jewish marriageable girls from Winthrop to serve as waitresses. Several marriages were the result of these Friday night Sabbath dinners.

Marilynn remembered the first part of the story, and Anita and Rona provided the second part of the story.

With the Great Chicken Mystery of 1945 solved, we can end this story with the usual words, “everyone had a good time, and they all lived happily ever after.”

If you’d like a really good chicken soup recipe, we suggest that you try Mama’s Chicken Soup, on page 124 of Heirloom Cooking. This is our mother, Dorothy’s, recipe, and she always used parsnip in her chicken soup. Our good friend, Mark Samels told us recently that he made Mama’s Chicken Soup, and it helped him through the sniffles.

Have fun cooking and baking!