Sun-Sentinel
September 11, 2007

'Dough' relates to both money, baking in memoir

The title of this memoir, "Dough," is meant to convey the two meanings of the word: a mixture of flour and other ingredients stiff enough to knead before baking and, more colloquially, money. The dough for baking refers in the book to the store established by the author's grandparents on New York's Lower East Side. Dough, as money, is a major element in the story.

Zachter's grandparents bought bread and cakes from wholesale bakeries and sold them to customers who came to the store and to restaurants in Manhattan. The store was a "commissioned bakery" where nothing was made on the premises. The author's two bachelor uncles, Harry and Joe, worked in the store and took it over when their parents died. Their sister, Helen, Zachter's mother, was a graduate of Hunter College and was employed as an elementary school teacher. She gave up her job to work in the store full-time so as to help her brothers after their father died. When she married, she reduced the number of hours she gave to the store, but, full-time or part-time, her only compensation was the leftover bread and cakes she could carry home. Zachter's father was a claims examiner in the Brooklyn office of the New York State unemployment insurance department. He too was pressed into service for the store. Every Monday, after work, he would drive to the wholesale bakery in Brooklyn to bring "stuff" to the Lower East Side store. He was paid nothing by his two brothers-in law.

When the author was old enough, his uncles wanted him to work in the store but his mother objected and, instead, he went to Brooklyn College, commuting from home and training to be an accountant. He had wanted to major in English but his parents insisted on his studying accounting so that he could get a job after graduation. Later, he went to law school at night. Both as a student and after he married, he struggled financially, borrowing money and living frugally without being aware of how rich his uncles were.

After Uncle Joe died, the store was closed and Uncle Harry became ill, moving in with the author's parents. When Harry was 83, having lived a long life as a pauper, Zachter, at the age of 36, discovered that his uncles were millionaires several times over, having successfully invested in the stock market. They had hoarded their "dough," wearing old suits, driving a 20-year old car, and receiving their dental care at a discounted student clinic. They worked seven days a week and only closed the store during Passover which they spent in the tiny apartment of Zachter's parents who also lived very modestly. In the summer, Zachter and his parents would take a brief vacation in Miami Beach where they stayed in low-rate, run-down hotels.

This idiosyncratic story is told cheerfully by Zachter who, having inherited millions, now lives in Princeton, New Jersey with his wife and two adopted children He devotes himself full-time to writing, having broken away completely from the cramped lifestyle of his workaholic family. This book is the first result of his literary pursuits and he is now preparing a new book that will be a biography of Gil Hodges, manager of the 1969 World Champion New York Mets. If he succeeds in writing as well as he has in "Dough," the biography will undoubtedly be a winner.

Dr. Morton I. Teicher is the founding dean, Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University and dean emeritus, School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.