The Story

Blizzard

missmaxx — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:24:19 +0000

I have a memory of the big blizzard in 1996. The snow came so high that it was close to the top stair of the red deck in the back. We were so excited and we went to a hardware store (I think somehow randomly I remember the store was called Rickles) to buy toboggans and snow coasters. I remember thinking all sleds were called sleds if they would work for sledding so I was skeptical about them being called toboggans. We got home and used them right away, didn’t like the coasters and returned them for more toboggans. They could hold two (or even three!) kids. They were bright orange, and we spent hours going up and down the snow covered backyard slight slope on them. The cold didn’t bother us too much I guess. We were having too much fun.

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: blizzard, sledding, snow

30 Days Later

missmaxx — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:43:18 +0000

I want to expand and elaborate upon some of the thoughts that I spoke about at my father’s Levaya.

I would like to especially convey these thoughts to my parent’s grandchildren so they can get a fuller and more complete understanding of how your grandfather lead his life, his accomplishments and the impact he had on other people as well as the Jewish and secular world. He wrote three Sefarim…

Let me tell you about the tools and prerequisites he possessed in order to accomplish what he did during his lifetime.

1. He was smart. He read profusely. Every morning after coming home from Shul he read the New York Times from beginning to end. There was no wasting time (bitul zman). Whenever he was somewhere with me; on the train, for example, he would always take a sefer or a book.

The only television programs he watched were the news-programs and nature and animal programs. Especially loved Animal Kingdom. He occasionally watched the Ed Sullivan show to make my mother happy. That wasn’t very often. Let me explain. He always went out of his way to make my mother happy. Watching the Ed Sullivan show just wasn’t one of those things.

Your grandfather’s life was filled with great experiences. His devotion, his love for people, his emunah, and love for yiddishkeit enabled him to live great heights in the Jewish and secular world. Learn from him. Strive to acquire these tools and adopt these qualities. You will be better people for having done so.

Your grandfather’s 500 or so articles in the Jewish Press will soon be published. Dennis Fried has agreed to edit them and put them in book form. Read it. You will learn a lot. You will also be very proud.

To all of you sitting here this morning, I would like to say thank you for coming.

May we only celebrate simchot together.

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: death, eulogy, grandpa

Marry Poppins

missmaxx — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:27:54 +0000

I remember the day on Hanukkah when my father and his friend Allen presented me (and my two siblings) with Marry Poppins. I think I was in third grade and It was in a splendid colorful plastic VHS case; Disney made their packaging very attractive and thus after a few minutes or an hour I forgave the new video for not being Snow White. I had been watching a lot of Snow White with Temi and I wanted that movie. I had put in a specific request for it, but The Father bought Marry Poppins. Truth be told in retrospect this was probably one of the greatest things The Father was correct about. Snow White is not even one of my top Disney favorites. Marry Poppins is an all time classic, and I quickly learned to love the 3 hour movie and all its songs. I even recall one time shortly after seeing the film for the first time and already singing the songs, calling up one or two or three of my little friends and boasting about how I sang like Julie Andrews. (A cute fantasy maybe, but definitely not true). My parents indulged me though and I would go through most of the songs while acting the scenes out of the movie. I subjected my entire family to me doing live musical theatre renditions of Marry Poppins in our living room.

And by the way, Marry Poppins is still one of my favorite movies. I would never dream of sitting and watching Snow White.

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: child, Disney, marry poppins, memory, singing, snow white

Heartstrings

missmaxx — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 05:31:52 +0000

I heard the song “Mr. Bojangles” the other day on the radio and I was ecstatic. It’s funny that probably most people in the store where I was did not even notice or care about the song and it caused me so much happiness. The reason is (and I texted her right away to let her know) that Mumsey used to sing us songs and play the guitar for us sometimes. We would all come and sit (I think we were always freshly bathed, but it could be that it was just so once, or it could be it was never true, but in my memory we were freshly bathed) on her bed and listen. We thought she had the prettiest voice in the world and I thought she was an extraordinary guitar player. Down below her bead in the wonderworld of vast darkness and random shit, we also knew she had a banjo but she did not know how to play it. So during these sing song sessions, we would learn random songs. Mr. Bojangles was one of them. Puff the Magic Dragon. One song had lyrics that went “I’m a liberal…” and we would often sing along or try to and we’d all read over her shoulder and on that bit of notebook paper with “I’m a liberal,” she had chords written down. But once I was singing along and we got to the line and it said “I’m a liberal c g.” And that’s how I sang it saying “c g” It was a hilarious moment, and from that time on we always sang that line that way…with ‘c g.’ I’m trying to think of other songs we sang. I think it’s adorable though how we thought Mumsey had such an amazing voice, when now we are definitely older and wiser and know the Truth. The truth is Mumsey is very, very tone deaf.

Posted in Uncategorized

Glimmer

missmaxx — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:00:18 +0000

There is nowhere really to start with Mumsey. There is nowhere to end. It’s just like a spiraling swirling horror story written in bright colors. I say it’s written in bright colors because I do what I can to cover it all up neatly and forge a fantastical bond with her. She does what she can to cover everything up and pretend it’s all dandy and rosy. And then there’s the horror story aspect to it too… Every time I think I come to a new level of understanding with her she ends up saying something or acting in such a manner which undermines that understanding I came too, bashing away the calm connected to that understanding, frightens me exceedingly so that I feel like a little girl again, haunted by scary thoughts, and wishing to hide under the covers and make it all quiet.

Here lies another problem. The whole little girl thing. Was I ever that little girl who was able to cry to her mother, and let mother make it all better? No, not really. I speak in that terminology amongst others, especially when I’m sick. I relate the whole nostalgic, “I wish I could be a little girl again and have my mother take care of me and make it all better.” But really this is fake nostalgia. It’s acting nostalgia. It never happened. From the time I was little I had a way of forcing myself to be independent. I asked how much Temi’s clothes from the gap were. I knew I had to know every detail of a scenario before I could pose it before my mother expecting an answer. And even then most of the time I got no immediate decision. I understand some of that was because we were struggling financially because of The good for nothing Father, but it is also partly her way of just handling things. To answer in riddles, and make us wait. But going back to the other little girl independent things. I would arrange my own play dates. I would find out when things were on sale. I have one memory of Jasmine Barbie being on sale for $7.99 in the toys r us page of a circular. I stared at and treasured that black and white photo of the doll. I wanted it so badly. (I might as well point out at this point that I had no genuine interest in Barbies, it was just a typical thing that girls my age wanted, and even though I was paving my own independence in some ways, the peer pressure scheme of things had not yet hit me…and so I wanted that Barbie badly). I never got that Barbie, or any other for that matter. I think this reality might have added some spice to my personality and I’m grateful to it in retrospect, but there is no doubt that at the time it added another mis block to my buildup. I didn’t have a typical upbringing. And Barbies were certainly not the start or finish in that department. In fact the Barbie thing is probably just a speck somewhere in the middle.

I want to pause right now and just let you know that I just had one of those glimmer of hope moments with Mumsey. See, Mumsey is my dearest term for my mother. Like Little Lord Fauntleroy called his mother Dearest, I call her Mumsey when I feel those glimmer of hopes moments. So I half asked her and she half offered to drive me in to the city tomorrow to help me move. And so the two halves equal one hole happy reality of her aiding me. So it might be hard for me to continue on the distraught rambling I started earlier. After all I’d like to cling on to the glimmer of hope moment.

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: chapter 1