This Weeks Very Short Story: Chapter 16

This Week's Very Short Story: Special Edition 
I have a friend that went to the University of Michigan. I went to Michigan State University. He still lives in Michigan. I live in California. We don't talk much. Years ago, I started calling him when Michgan State beat the University of Michigan in football. For years, I did not have to call him very often. Today my wife said, I guess you don't have call him and then this happened. (On the last play of the game, Michigan fumbled, MSU ran it in for a touchdown to win the game.) I called, he didn't answer his phone. 

In high school, my son worked at a music store. One day my son said that Jose Feliciano came into the music store. I asked my son, what kind of a car was he driving? Felix Navidad!

On my birthday, I took care of a group of 3 Board & Care homes in the morning. At the second house , there is a woman whom I have seen for many years. Usually I ask her to sing Bei Mir Bist Du Schon in Yiddish to me. For my birthday, I asked her to sing happy birthday to me. She sang a complete version. I told her that she was the first one to sing happy birthday to me on my birthday. She then fell back to sleep. I doubt that she would remember that I was even there. Not bad for 101 years old. 

As I was listening to the Rabbi read the Ketubah in Hebrew very slowly at my son’s wedding, I started to miss my father in law Moniek Margulies. He was a speed Hebrew reader. 

I was very calm and collected at the beginning of my son’s wedding even with the troubles we had with traveling to Israel. We had never met his bride to be or her parents. Then we got to meet her as she sat to meet people with her wedding dress on prior to the wedding. I then started to cry like a baby.

My cousin has red hair, so did his mother. When I was a child they told me that he was adopted. I found it hard to believe. 

On my father’s side of the family we referred to my aunt as Aunt Ethel. On my father’s sister side of the family they called her Aunt Rusty. I always assumed it was because of her red hair. It was not until later that I found out it was because of her gravelly voice. 

I don't buy lottery tickets, so I can't win. I do have a rule that if they buy tickets at work, then I go in. Why, you don't want to be the one left at work the next day. This happened to a doctor I knew, she did not go in and the office won the lottery. She is probably still working. 

This Weeks Very Short Story: Chapter 15

My younger son could get out of many things with a smile and twinkle in his eyes. One time this did not work was when he was staying with my parents in Las Vegas. He must have done something wrong and quickly found my mother’s hand on his bottom. After that day he always behaved around her. 

I remember at Lincoln Jr. High School in Ferndale Michigan that I and some other students were pushed out of gym class early. The punishment was to bend over and a swift swat of the gym teacher’s shoe on my back side. I can’t remember if this was real or a nightmare. 

When they finally built a built in pool at Oak Park High School, I went out for the swim team. I found out that practice started at 6 a.m. That was the beginning and ending of my swimming career. 

Not being an early morning person, in college I tried to get my class to start at 9 a.m. and preferably at 10 a.m. I think I only had one 8 o’clock in undergrad school. In medical school, they did not give us choices. 

During college at Michigan State University, I hated classes on Tuesday and Thursday’s. Those were days you went from early in the day to late, sometimes into the evening. They usually included chemistry labs, physics labs and biology labs. My last term as a senior my schedule was Monday, Wednesday and Friday…. Heaven. 

I don’t eat fish. I used to say that I only eat Jewish fish… gefilte fish, lox, smoked fish and herring. The only two other types of fish I used to eat were tuna which isn’t really a fish because it comes in a can and McDonalds’s fish sandwich which can’t necessarily be identified as fish. Now it just doesn’t happen very often. 

One time I went to Santa Cruz, California for the day with a medical school class mate. Somehow for dinner I let him order some type of Chinese food with fish. Well, I go real sick. Not sure if it was from the food or from my first time in the ocean or from the terrible sunburn that I got before I ate the Chinese food with fish. 

In San Francisco, we lived in three places in two years. The first place we had to move very quickly from. No, it wasn’t because we didn’t pay the rent. We just wanted to not live there when the police released the crazy neighbor the police had taken away. 

In high school, I would sleep with a hat on to keep my hair straight. My senior picture was taken with my hair as straight as possible. In my first year at college that all ended. 

Now that I look back at a picture of myself in college, I can now see why I had trouble convincing people that I was drug free. 

This Weeks Very Short Story: Chapter 14

In the early 1980’s, one of my guilty pleasures was getting my car washed. It wasn’t just getting my car washed. At the car wash, they had a guy who shined shoes. I would sit up on his throne, watch the cars get washed and the people waiting. I was on top of the world. It is very hard to do this these days with athletic shoes though. 

Growing up I always liked the Lincoln Town Car, the one with the suicide doors. Why you ask? Because, I equated owning one with being rich. There was someone I knew whose parents had 2 of these cars. Flash forward to the Lincoln dealership in Beverly Hills, CA. I was looking at a Town Car and my wife knowing the story, said go ahead and get it. Then within a few moments later, she said, when am I going to get my van? Well, she got her van, I never got a Lincoln. For the two weeks that I spent in Michigan for my 40^th high school reunion, I did rent a Lincoln Town Car. Even cruised it down Woodward Avenue during the Dream Cruise. Heaven. 

Recently it was reported in the news that an 8^th grade boy was charged with assault when he kissed an 8^th grade girl. She said it was unwelcomed. Well, I was a 10^th grade boy who still loves kissing that 8^th grade girl some 45 years later. I guess you know what my sentence was. 

When my younger son finally started college in Ohio, I was yelled at by my wife. How could you let him go so far away she cried out? Funny, I do remember that my wife was with us as we toured colleges in Michigan and Ohio. 

From the stories that I was told, my father in law Moniek Margulies, was given a bicycle and told to leave when they knew the German’s were coming in Poland. My translation is that he was faster than a speeding German. Thank God for that. 

From stories that I was told, my mother in law Riva Lipenholtz Margulies, was in the part of Poland where the Russian’s came and invited them to vacation in Siberia. Baruch HaShem. 

It may be hard for some to believe that to get my younger son to go try out and play baseball, we had to tell him that his friend Timmy was going to play. One season and he was hooked. I don’t think that Timmy played that many years. 

After the first year of T-ball, I knew that my younger son (around 6 years old) had some innate abilities. When I took him to hit ground balls to him, he started backhanding the ball. He was also able toss up a ball, all by himself and then hit it with a bat. Two things I am not sure my older son could do today. 

In high school, I went to a party with a friend of mine. He drove as I was not old enough to drive. We went to pick up his girlfriend and her friend. When we got there, I moved to the back seat and next to me then sat his girlfriend’s friend who was also her next door neighbor. I still let that girl sit next to me, sometimes even drive. That is how it all began. 

Many years ago I went to a Junior Detroit Red Wing’s game at the same place where the Red Wings played. A women a few rows in front of me, caught the puck with her head, blood everywhere. I have never been to a hockey game since. It is much safer to watch on TV anyway.   

This Weeks Very Short Story: Chapter 13

THIS WEEK’S VERY SHORT STORY: SLIGHTLY LONGER VERSION, SPECIAL EDITION

Back in 1982, friends of ours, David & Bonnie Pollack, saw a notice of a meeting for a group in formation of young Jewish couples, so we attended. This was the start of what would become a significant part of our lives for a number of years. The group would later become known as Kadimah B’nai B’rith Young Couples Group # 5224. 

Well, many years have passed since we last met. Some of us now have children that are older than when we first formed the group. Some of us are still in contact with a number of Kadimah members and consider them to be amongst our closest friends today.

Life has happened to all of us.

We have had the blessings of life that include having children, watching them grow up and move on; some of them have gotten married, some have given us grandchildren. Some of us are still working while others have retired.

There have also been changes in our so called Kadimah family. There have been divorces and there have been remarriages, even one marriage from previous divorced members.

There have also been the challenges of life. We have lost a number of members including one past president. Many of us have lost one or both of our parents. We have had children that have had difficulties with life. We have children that have gone through life changing events and there was one that’s life was ended tragically. There are also members themselves that are going through life changing events even now.

Through it all, I consider being a member of Kadimah one of the best things that we did. I am grateful for the time that we spent together. We met new people. We worked toward a common goal. We raised money for a good cause. Most important, we had fun doing it.

We had an above ground pool when we lived on Ithaca and Greenbriar. I was part fish, spending quite a bit of time under the water. 

I am driving with my mother and she points out a sign for the Neptune Society, so I ask her if she would like me to sign her up. I told her that my older son would not like it. She said that that doesn’t matter to her because she won’t be here anyway and I would have to deal with it. 

Around Bar Mitzvah time, I noticed that some guys got a manicure with clear polish in addition to getting a new suit. For years, I wanted to get one. Finally in the early 1980’s I was working in a building where there was a manicurist that I had become friendly with. I told her the story and she said come by and she would take of it. So I had the manicure, passed on the polish. I won’t necessarily be doing that again. I guess I can check that off the bucket list. 

This Week's Very Short Story: Chapter 12

This Week's Very Short Story: Chapter 12

I got married in 1977 and it wasn’t until 2 years later that we went on a honeymoon, unless you call driving across the country and moving to San Francisco as one.   

The night before we got married, we sneaked out and saw the Star Wars, on our 3^rd anniversary we went to The Empire Strikes Back and on our 6^th anniversary we went to Return of the Jedi.  By my calculations there should be 12 Star Wars’ movies and they are working on the thirteenth.  

I was talking to my wife awhile back and she said that she talked to our eldest son and that he had a job interview that day and one the next day.  I said I guess that he has a black suit for that. 

On a trip to Chicago for an interview to podiatry school, I came by a backgammon store.  On the way back after the interview, I went back to the store and bought my girlfriend a backgammon set.  Little did she know that I was planning on getting it back.  After an accepted proposal, today I still have the backgammon set and the same girlfriend.  

For the most part, I do not gamble.  I used to say that the only money that I would lose in Las Vegas were the coins that I would put in the pay phone to call home when I was away at a seminar. Now there are cell phones.    

We once went to Las Vegas with friends and my in-laws.  The only thing that we lost was my mother in-law in Caesars’ Palace.  We searched for a long time and we did not find her.  She had gone back to the hotel where we were staying without telling anyone.  Not to say that my father in-law was upset, but we did not see him until the next day as we were going down for breakfast and he was leaving the casino after a night of card play and heading to his room to sleep.  

I have told you that I am ambidextrous.   What I did not tell you is whether I could do anything well with either hand.

When I was a kid in Oak Park Michigan, I loved to fly kites.  I would start with a paper kite, add a tail and off I would go.  We would run and run, just trying to catch a little wind to get it up in the air.  When I had children, we would take them out to Santa Barbara California to fly kites.  All I had to do was put the kite together, sit down and let the kite go straight up.   

People ask me if any of my children went into medicine.  The simple answer is no.  The long answer is that I did not want to do what my father did either.  He was an engineer.  When I was young, I remember my father being laid off every so many years.  I did not understand this.  He worked for Ford, Chrysler, Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) and at the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) in Warren Michigan to end his career.  It turns out that engineers would lose their jobs when government contracts changed.  I just did not like that idea.  As for my children and their reason why they choose something else, you would have to ask them.   

This Week's Very Short Story: Chapter 11

This Week's Very Short Story: Chapter 11

I am so old that I remember that if you wanted to send a note to someone across the country, you actually had to take out a piece of paper and a pen, write the note, put it into an envelope, put a stamp on it and put it in a mailbox and wait days for the other person to receive it.   

I am so old that I remember a time when the most important thing you had to worry about was that you had to be home when it turned dark.  And usually it wasn’t until you heard you mother screaming for you down the street or a neighbor telling you the same that you went home.  

I am not a gambler.  For years, I bowled in a ‘scratch’ bowling league which had cash prizes.  There were also side bets.  I never entered the side bets until someone let it slip that the other guys would put money on my bowling and when I hit a good game they would make the money. From that time on, I started putting in on the side bets.  My best season was one where I made enough money to cover my expenses, buy a new bowling ball and bag for my two balls.  Essentially I bowled for free that season.   

This Week's Very Short Story: Very Special Edition on the marriage of Amanda Tanowitz and Shawn Tanowitz.  Last night I went to the wedding of the daughter of my two friends. I have known them before their daughter was born.  When the daughter announced her engagement, I had heard a song that prompted me to make a video of pictures including the music for the newly engaged to congratulate them.  Prior to the wedding, I heard a song which was about a father giving away his daughter and said that I need to make another video.  I asked the mother if it was ok for me to make a video to be used as the father – daughter dance and was given approval.  The mother gave me pictures to add to the ones I have taken of them over the years.   When I finished the video, I call the mother and told her that it was done and that I had to have it approved by my boss, (my wife :)  , but that I think it was ready because it made me cry.  This is what I made for Amanda and her father. It was played at the wedding last night.   

For years, I took pictures of baseball players on the teams my son played on.  The coaches gave me access to go and photograph in areas where others did not, because I stayed in the back ground and did not interfere.  The parents and players liked the pictures that I took that I either printed for them or put them up on the web site.  The hardest person to photograph was my son.  The hardest picture to get was one with the two of us.  

In high school and college, I was always pro-choice in choosing what book to read for class.  I choose the one with the fewest pages.  

One thing that my wife never has to worry about is that I would drink her coffee.  

When I was getting into the elevator at my mother’s assisted living place, one resident gets in the elevator with me and asks if I am going to dinner.  I replied that I was going to pick up dinner and that I do not live here and that my mother lives upstairs.  She says that they won’t be able to tell the difference.  She then goes on to ask me if I am married.  I tell her that I have been married a long time.  She asks if my wife is still here.  I tell her that my wife is upstairs with my mother and my son.  The door opens and we go our separate ways.  I guess that I missed out on a dinner date.    

This Weeks Very Short Story: Chapter 10

This Weeks Very Short Story: Chapter 10

My younger son was always competitive.  Most people think it was all the sports he played, playing baseball, football and basketball in high school.  No, it started much earlier.  In second grade, he competed in reading with a classmate for the highest color and level of reading assignments.  He did get ahead when she went out of the country for an extended vacation with her parents.  

My college roommate in San Francisco was born in California.  In Michigan when it gets cold, you turn up the heat.  So when it got cold in San Francisco, I would turn up the heat. He would turn it down. He would tell me to have a cup of coffee or put on a sweatshirt. That was our dance.  I have now lived in California long enough that I now put on a sweatshirt.    

Awhile back we were moving out an oak entertainment center that we had for many years. I never realized that over the years that the entertainment center gained weight just like I had. 

As a freshman in college living in Akers Hall at Michigan State, someone had this crazy idea to gather up all the toilet paper in the dorm. The next idea was to spike the chocolate milk with Ex-lax.  I don’t think they ever went ahead with that part.   Someone should look under the closed cupboard next to the sink in the common room,  on the first floor and see if there is a bunch of old toilet paper, though.

I started cooking when I was in college.  I cooked for my roommates too.  Early on I found that I liked cooking better than cleaning up.  Once my roommates got tired that I did not have to clean up and they decided to make me dinner so that I had to clean up.  They cooked hotdogs and beans.    

One of my first dishes that I started cooking in college was spaghetti with meat sauce.  Just like my Italian mother taught me.  

In East Lansing during college there was a restaurant that had a salad bar where you could eat as much as you could on one plate, one time through.  The engineering students would have been proud of the way we were able to stack the plate at least 6-7 inches high with no spilling over.  

I am so old that I remember when the Big Ten actually had 10 teams.  

I am so old that I remember when the legal drinking age was 18.  

I am so old that I remember that we had to walk to school and home through the snow and there were no line up of minivans or SUV’s dropping off or picking up the other children. 

I am so old that I remember paying 19 cents a gallon for gas in Oak Park and that I would not go across the street into Detroit and pay 17 cents because I did not trust the station.   

One day when I was leaving work, I said have a great evening to another leaving employee.  She replied that this is the best time of the day.  I thought about that and now realize that the best time of the day is when you wake up in the morning.