“why is this night different from all other nights” My cousin Jalen read in Hebrew from the Haggadah as he is the youngest of the family. As the second night of Passover, my family gathers once again to celebrate the lord bringing us from the land of Egypt, where we were slaves of the pharos to the land of Israel where we would be free men.
The rain was coming down for the 3rd night in a row, making this the most rainiest year since 1955 and my father (as we all were) worried about the pump holding up. However, not during the Passover Sedar. With my twin brother’s and his lovely wife Lindsay’s dog Looch contented by running in circles to try to catch his own long tail in the living room, we all took turns reading a paragraph or two, or more if we desire. My sister, speeding up the services at times because she had to go to Football practice (my sis the professional football player) With my grand parents saying “what page are we on?” “is anyone reading?” (yes, but too softly for them to hear) My father headed the long dining room table and the only difference from last night, my mom’s friend Dina was at her son’s house and my dad’s friend Al, (who came right before the dinner was being served) joined us when he got finish with work. (he is Jewish but his family isn’t so he always comes for at least one night of Passover to feel Jewish)The service is concluded with the singing of “dyanu”
And we ate the big feast which my mom prepared so well. (somehow she serves about 20 at a time but always cooks for 40, the good Jewish mother she is, she has to make sure her kids go home with a care package) She made a Matzah stuffed turkey, brisket, and chicken fingers. She had mash potatoes, broccoli, stuffing balls, and cranberry sauce. Prior to that we had salad and cabbage soup and my aunty Sarah’s chopped liver and of course, Kannishes. (my mom makes Matzah ball soup for one night and cabbage soup for the other)
As I started this entry by typing “why is this night different from all other nights?”, which is answered religiously in Hebrew and in English.
HOWEVER! On this night, talks of Bobbie, my mom’s 70 year old friend, showing off a watch she got from a guy she had dated before she got married, that the guy gave her while staying at the “banga banga hotel”
Stories of “revere beach” when it had rides and top notch clubs (which the lights of Barbra Streisand, Chubby checker and others I didn’t know, headlining, as they were just starting out) That moved on to my 92 year old grand father talking about strip clubs during the 1930’s-40’s on Revere Beach that stayed around till, actually there is still one there. However, hearing my par describe the places and the women. How their husbands were always next to the stages. He told us a story how he was doing a paper for college and was aloud to go back stage with two of his friends to interview the women. and my dad’s friend Al saying how he knew one dancer who worked there who save up money to go to law school, and is now a judge.
My aunty Sarah and Bobbie saying how they knew a lot about the strip clubs. My grand mother (nanna) saying “how do you know about those places?” Aunty Sarah saying how when she was 14 she worked at the penny store down there. “besides, there were big flashy posters hanging all over the streets” My nanna replied to that “I never got to go down there. I always had to be home by 9”
My par telling stories that he and his gang played cards down there. (my grand dad was a bad ass back in his day. No one would ever mess with him. He was a strong tough football player before going into the army) and later on, when he owned a business, he would take his business partners and clients to the club to conduct his work business. (He owned a scrap iron business for 50 or so years with his brothers)
My dad brought over his laptop to search for pictures from Revere beach when they had rides. My grand parents were just in awe over all the information a computer has. My father describes google as a big encyclopedia. My dad then brought up my great uncle’s obituary. Par was like “this is wonderful.” (it had all his siblings names, of which he is the last of the 8of them) “you put this in here?” my dad trying to explain that it was from the Boston Globe and how every news paper is now on the computer to which my grand father says “so how do you get the paper in here?” (meaning peaces of paper) He didn’t get that it was all electronic. He understood it all eventually. He was not only a strong man back in his day, he also had the brains as he was a history high school teacher while he was playing professional football. Heck, he went to college. He graduated in 1931.
My nanna was no dummy either. She went to post high school (which would be now considered an Associate degree) for book keeping. She was a typist. Not sure how fast she could type though but she was asking me if the keys are the same on the computer. “is the keys still A S D F J K L ;?” to which I happily said yes it is. It was dessert time in the middle of this conversation somewhere as my mom had finished cleaning up and she put water on for tea and my dad put the coffee on. Heidi made an apple spice cake, someone made a chocolate cake. My mom made biskets and had strawberries and whip cream. I was eating the thumb print cookies Hayley and I made Sunday night. It is just little balls of dough, put your thumb print on the top and fill the print with jelly and you can put nuts or chocolate chips in. I usually eat 5-8 during a sitting. They are so good. Well, Koasha Jelly is the best anyways. It has chunks of fruits in them.
The gathering started breaking up about 10, my brothers had 45 minute rides in front of them and the last of the gathered parted about 11. My cousin Hayley had to stay an extra night because the rain was so bad and it wouldn’t be good if she drove in the rain at midnight for 5+ hours. She hit the rode about 6;30 AM. She came into my room while I was writing this to give me a hug and tell me she was heading home.
|
Loading...
