REMEMBER STOCKINGS WITH SEAMS?

Seeing the back of a woman’s leg captured in my uncle’s home movies from the 1950s brought back memories of my childhood and the fashion of women wearing stockings with seams. My mother was fastidious when lining up that seam so that it was perfectly straight.

To my mother’s embarrassment, the baker’s wife at the neighborhood bakery would practically sing to her in Yiddish, “Look at those shayna fisaloch,” as we walked in the door. Being in earshot, while figuratively “tied to my mother’s apron strings,” Mrs. Beinstein’s lively chant at Beinstein’s Bakery on St. George’s Avenue in Roselle, New Jersey still echoes in my mind.

Shayna (Yiddish: שיינע; Polish: Szejna) is a feminine name of Yiddish origin, meaning "beautiful" or "lovely", and evocative of the Yiddish phrase "אַ שיינע מיידל" ("a shayne maydel", or "a lovely girl").*

That thought of whether the remarks were about my mother’s beautiful legs, or the stockings making her look lovely as they were adorned with meticulously aligned seams, makes the idea of our granddaughter’s Hebrew name Shayna Chaya even more poignant since my mother’s Hebrew name was Chaya.

Found on the internet, “Chaya is a girl's first name of Hebrew origin. It is the female version of ‘Chaim,’ a Hebrew word and boy's name meaning ‘life’ or ‘living.’ A parent wishing to celebrate both new life and their Jewish faith will delight in Chaya, a meaningful and elegant choice.”

The ultimate naming for our granddaughter Solly Ilah, whom my mother would have adored, allows our beautiful granddaughter to carry the name that translates to “Lovely Life.”

While stockings with seams up the back are no longer fashionable, I’ll be on the lookout for hosiery with modern lines for our little Shayna Chaya. She’ll someday appreciate the story about the baker’s wife, and her great-grandmother whose name she carries along with a name for other beloved ancestors. I can almost hear our five-year-old shayne maydel* giggling about that.

*variation of maydel = maideleh (MAY-deh-leh)

My brother Stu about 1952 in front of woman with stockings with seam