The Color of Water test

What church did mama and Dennis open

New brown memorial Baptist

New Brown Memorial Church

Mama and Dennis opened this and named it after friend who died

Where does mama cry

Church

What is the color of water

god

Who is james' godfather

Deacon McNair

Ruth's sister

DeeDee

Where did Ruth originally live

Suffolk Virginia

What does Ruth hate

Death and guns

Who did tateh hate

Black people

How much older is sam

2 years older than Ruth

When and where did Sam do

Went to Chicago in 1934 when he was 15

How did Sam die?

in a plane crash in Alaska; was in the Air Force during world war II

How many kids did Ruth have

12

What number kid was James

8

Where did Ruth and her kids live

Redhook then queens

Was Ruth good at cooking and housekeeping

Nooo

Who was Ruth's hero

Jfk

Did the fam tell lies

No. Just stories (Ruth's way of saying lies)

Who was the Golden child

Dennis

Dennis Mcbride jr

Golden child
Oldest
Artist
Med school

Helen McBride

Second oldest sister
Artistic
Quit hs to become a hippie and ran away

Rosetta McBride

Oldest sister
Smartest
Queen of house

why did Helen quit school

white mans education was not for her

Why did Helen run away?

She had a fight with Rosetta when she was 15

Where did Helen go

To stay with Jack in Harlem

Judy Jordan

Sister of James
Second Jordan kid

How many sisters did James have

5

What is Mama's name?

Ruth Jordan

Shul

Yiddish term school but it was basically a synagogue

What did Tateh expect Sam to do

to work like a man (as a child) and run the shop with him

What did Tateh say to Ruth as she was leaving back for New York?

he knew she was going to marry a black man and to never come back if she did

What was tatehs unofficial Suffolk job

Circumcise kids and kill cows

What school did Ruth go to

Thomas Jefferson elementary

Ruth's real name

Ruchel zylska, then Rachel shilsky, then Ruth Mcbride Jordan

Gentile

A non-Jewish person

Ruth's best friend

Frances a brunette gentile girl

What did turn left Ruth starve for

Not food, but love and affection

Where did Ruth send her kids

Jewish puncli schools

What happened to James in school

Kids were racists

What did James pretend

That his reflection in the mirror was a different person

Tragic Mulatto

Refers to how biracial characters have been depicted in literature; the idea that a biracial person is sad or suicidal for their inability to fit in to any of the communities to which s/he presumably belongs.
Ruth was sad when James asked abiut this

What happened when Helen returned

She came back 5 years later with a daughter

What happened to Richie

He got married at 18 then divorced
Cops found him with 90 dollars for college and thought it was for drugs so he was arrested and plead guilty because his lawyer told him to. Charges were dropped.

Ruth and milk man

James was sold spoiled milk and when the guy wouldn't get him a new one Ruth fought him and threw milk in his face

Who did James dance as for his white classmates

James brown

Reverend shilsky

Tateh

Ruth's first boyfriend

Peter
Black

Ruth first pregnancy

Pregnant at 15 by Peter
Only person who knew was mameh because mameh found her bracelet in the alley
Went to NY to have an abortion

James birth father

Andrew Mcbride
Died before James was born

Hunter Jordan

Ruth's second husband and James's primary male role model.
mechanic for the New York City Housing Authority.
He met Ruth shortly after her first husband's death, married her, and had four children with her. Like Dennis, he was rather conservative. He shared Ruth's notions of the importance of God, family, and education.
He died of a stroke when James was a teenager, and his entire family recalls him with fondness.
Did jail time for seeking booze

How did hunter die

Stroke

How did Andre Mcbride die

Cancer

What did hunter buy the fam

Pink house in st albans queens
He stayed jn for Greene Brooklyn

Henry Jordan

Hunters brother who got too drunk while driving James and Judy

What happened to hunters Brooklyn house

Was gonna be turned into low income housing but that never happened

Where was hunter from

Richmond

Who was the oldest when hunter died

James

Hunters favorite

Kathy

Author of The Color of Water

James McBride

what did Mameh suffer from?

polio

What did Mameh place in the brown lunch bag she gave to Ruth before Ruth got on the bus?

her Polish passport; it is a picture of Mameh with Sam and Ruth on her lap; Mameh knew she was dying when she did this and it is the only picture Ruth has of Mameh

Mameh's sisters

Oldest was Laura in Manhattan
Mary on the Bronx who ran a factory

Mamehs parents

Bubeh and zaydeh

Zaydeh

died when Ruth was little, she thought he was just sleeping, now claustrophobic, and tells her children to really make sure she is dead and flick her

Mameh and tateh real names

Hudis and fishel shilsky

Bubeh

Ruth's maternal grandmother, she is one of her few family members Ruth recalls fondly. Bubeh allowed Ruth to stay with her in New York. While Bubeh tried to shape Ruth's behavior in some ways, she also gave Ruth some space, and seemed to accept her.
From Brooklyn
Diabetic

Aunt Betsey

Youngest aunt cared for bubeh took Ruth to get her painful abortion

What did Ruth lose after hunter died

Her fire

James after hunter died

Got bad grades and dropped out of 10th grade
Stole a purse and sold weed
Got fake report cards but Kathy gave him c grades so Ruth called the school found out the truth and sent him to be with Jack

Where did jack live

Louisville, Kentucky

Jack's husband

Big Richard

The corner

The bar James would go to in Kentucky

Chicken man

Part of the crew on "the corner." Chicken Man is endearing and intelligent, but he has done little with his life, wasting money and time on the corner drinking.
Small and smart

Where did James get a job

Gas station

Who owned the gas station

Herman big and mean and Ford James

Mustang

Chicken man's gf
Not official

Chicken man death

Stabbed in an argument about a woman

Why did Ruth go back to Virginia?

She wasn't doing well in nyc school

When Ruth came back to Suffolk

Peter knocked up a black girl and is getting married

Ruth's graduation

Protestant church
She wanted to go in the church cause Frances wanted her to but couldn't cause in her heart she knew she was a jew
Went to NYC next day

Ruth drives

Hunters car with James and z, Helen's daughter. Z almost smashed head in windshield

Ruth bff

Irene Johnson
Died a year after hunter

Who could/ couldn't drive

Rachel shilsky could
Ruth Mcbride Jordan couldn't

Where did Ruth work

Aunt marys factory

How did Ruth meet dennis

He worked for aunt Mary and he was aunt marys favorite worker

What happened after Ruth quit the factory

She worked as a hair person but was fired cause she didn't know how to do black people's hair

Ruth job after hairdresser

Manicurist at barber shop

Rocky

Ruth's boss
Rented her a room

How did Dennis feel about Ruths job

Not angry, disappointed
So she went back to bubeh

Where did the fam move after hunter died

Wilmington dele ware

Who didn't want to move

He girls of the fam

What did deleware not have

Subway
People took the bus

David McBride

Older brother
Did an illegal u turn and was questioned

Did the fam stay in deleware

They went back to NYC but didn't have enough money so went to deleware again

James gave up drugs for

Band

The Dawsons

David and Ann gave scholarships to needy musicians if you worked on their estate on weekends

Was James good at his job

Nooo
He got fired cause he slept on the job in a field but Ann still sent him to Europe. They kept in touch

What happened on the bus in deleware

Thanksgiving turkey fell out

Who went to Oberlin College in OH and encouraged James to apply?

James's sister-in-law, Becky, Dennis's wife; she said James should apply because it had a great liberal arts school, a conservatory of music, and scholarship money. James was accepted.
Ruth tried to hide it but she cried when he left

Dennis occupation

Violinist from North Carolina