This Weeks Very Short Story: Chapter 23

In 1972 my choice was to get a car and go to Wayne State University or go Michigan State University, no car. The car I wanted was a small Toyota. A girl in my high school class got one. I don’t know where she went to college. So there we were; my mother and I going to look at a Toyota just outside of Detroit in 1972. 

I did not get that Toyota in 1972. It wasn’t until 1981 when I finished all my schooling and we were living in California. I finally got my Toyota, a 1981 Toyota Tercel, 5 speed, rack and pinion steering. It was great for driving over Laurel Canyon daily to work. 

A few years after I got my Toyota Tercel, I went back to the same dealer and wanted to get a Toyota Cressida, the top of their line. They sort of laughed me off the lot, not wanting to deal with me. I then went to Nissan and bought their top of the line, a Maxima. I have owned 3 Nissan’s, still have one. Automotive salesmen take note. 

It wasn’t until 2015, that I even looked at a Toyota product. FINALLY after 35 years, I bought one. No disrespect this time. 

Not to say that we did not have much when we were growing up but sometimes the large box that a washing machine or refrigerator came in was as much fun to play with as getting a present. 

When I was 13, I got my first radio that had AM and FM. I even think it had shortwave, though I don’t think that I listened to it. Having FM eventually opened up a new world to me, album oriented rock and alternative rock radio. Stations like WABX, CJOM out of Canada and WRIF baby. Many a night would I fall asleep listening to what we now refer as classic rock. 

Sometime during high school, I went to a bingo to raise money for the Jewish War Veterans group that my parents belonged to. This was a time when it was illegal to hold a bingo, but they let charitable group do this. Well that night, they had a fill the whole card bingo and win a stereo… complete with AM/FM, turntable, speakers. Well, I won it. I left right after winning. That night I couldn’t sleep, kept getting up to look at the stereo unit to see if it was real. 

This Weeks Very Short Story: Chapter 22

I never really talked to my son’s about girls, dating, marriage. My younger son, Seth had been going out with a young lady for some time and I noticed that she had been running in a number of races, 5K, 10K, etc. So I sent a text to him stating that Allison had been running a number of races and that he should catch her before she runs away. I did not expect and did not get one right away. Sometime later, he said do you remember that text that you sent me. I played like I did not and then said yes. His only comment was that was the idea. Well he officially caught her. 

My first roommate in the Fraternity house was not a Fraternity member. He happened to be a saved Christian. He had this car with a large engine. One day as we were driving down some of the small streets in East Lansing he decides to show me how fast his car can go. As I sat glued to the back of my seat, I told him that I understand that he knows where he is going after this life, but I am not in any hurry to find out. 

One movie that I had a hard time watching was ‘Philadelphia’. Another movie, ‘Rent’, I just could not make it through. 

To make things much simpler in my life when it comes to what to celebrate or not, I have decided to follow this rule. IF they are serving food, celebrate it. This works for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chanukah, New Years, Birthdays, Anniversaries, Reunions and Everyday Life. 

A medical school classmate of mine retired and grew his beard. He became Santa Claus. Now when I think of Santa Claus, I think of him. I was thinking that when I retire, I would become Harry Hannukah, but I think my older son beat me to it. 

My father was a very progressive thinking man; he foresaw the migration of people out of Detroit into the suburbs. When he bought his first house, he looked to Oak Park; or was it just cheaper there. 

This Weeks Very Short Story: Chapter 21

Before Cup Holders: My mother had a 1960’s Dodge Lancer. I loved that car and dreamed that one day I would get to drive it. All it took was my mother driving with her cigarette in one hand and a coffee cup in another. We were stopped at a light and I think she was drinking the coffee and dropped an ash on her lap and then went to brush it off. Well, she popped the clutch, and we were jolted into the back of a large truck. The front of the car was ruined, it was the end of the dream. 

I like cilantro. My mother said it tasted like soap. Maybe I like it because of all the times my mouth was washed out with, that would have been Dial though. 

One night we decided to go out to see a movie and then dinner. We got to the movie. It was one of those new theatres with a good sound system. Immediately when the movie started I felt like I was part of the movie. It was a war movie. It was almost like I could feel the bullets flying by me, not just from the sound but I swear you could feel the breeze as they passed. I would look over to see if my wife was hit. By the time the move ended, we felt like we had been through the war. We had to walk around for awhile before we could even think of going out to dinner. The movie was Saving Private Ryan. 

It’s hard to believe that this Jewish boy was listening to Jethro Tull’s Agualung and the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar in 1971. A few of us even knew all the words to the songs, I can’t say that now. I guess that we needed balance in life in those days. 

In October of 2016, I was on the way to Michigan State for a college fraternity reunion I stopped and had breakfast at McDonalds. After eating I had to make a U-turn, a Michigan left. Upon turning I noticed a food truck, Gourmet Grill Cheese truck. I had seen this truck on facebook posted by someone I went to Hebrew school and attended the same high school with. So I pulled over into a gas station and asked if the person driving had the same last name of the person I knew. He did. We talked awhile; he was on his way to Cedar Pointe to work. I told him to say hello to his father. As I love grilled cheese, I only wish he was set up to work. Maybe next time I visit from California, I will run into him again. 

This Weeks Very Short Story: Chapter 20

One of my summer jobs during college was working in Pharmacy in Detroit. It only lasted only a short time. The owner was a family friend. He continued to work even after being robbed a number of times and he was shot when supposedly someone followed him back to Oak Park. Working at the counter in the Pharmacy, you got to know the local people and their preference of cigarettes and snuff amongst other things. One day I got a call and they told me not to come in, another robbery, one too many. They were going to close down the Pharmacy. It was the end of an era of local individual owned pharmacies. 

One summer while in college, I worked at Sinai Hospital in Detroit purging old x-rays. They did this to get money from the recovered silver. It was a night job from 11p.m. to 6 a.m. I worked with a group of people that all got hired at the same time. Once we got the swing of things and completed what was expected of us each day, we would slip off for a little sleeping time. I would sleep on the x-ray table. The x-ray tech would wake me before everyone showed up for work in the morning. 

Years ago, I was doing some per diem work in Torrance, CA. It was about 50 miles from my home. I worked there during a rainy season. Yes, it did rain in California. At that time I was driving a Volkswagen Jetta. If I left there before 3 p.m., I had a chance to get home quickly. This did not happen often. Leaving after 3 p.m., I would get on the 405 freeway and drive for a short while and then come to an almost dead stop. Sitting there in traffic, in the rain with the wiper blades going back and forth gave me claustrophobia such that one time I had to get off the road. I then got out of the car and just stood in the rain. That night I told my wife that I need to drive the van. 

For years when I made my videos or writings, I have signed them…. A RAMS PRODUCTION. Robert, Arlene, Matthew, Seth. Now that the RAMS football team has moved back to Los Angeles, I can’t wait to get that cease and desist letter. Like they are going to notice. 

We went to see my parents at Riverside National Cemetery for the first time about a month ago. They had put up the headstone. It reminded me of a new subdivision being built and instead of houses it was headstones. Blocks and blocks of them, with no grass. They should have the lawn's put in by the time we visit next.

This Weeks Very Short Story: Chapter 19

I started wearing glasses when I was 3 years old. While still in elementary school, I learned to play the card game gin rummy with my next door neighbor. Somehow one time he let it slip that he knew what cards I had in my hand by looking at my glasses. 

I remember that first trip to the Castro district of San Francisco in 1977 to sign a rental agreement for an apartment. As young newlyweds we walked down the street hand in hand as though we had entered an episode of the twilight zone as the couples all looked different that we did. 

My parents had a poodle that they inherited from my grandmother.  Prince (my grandmother's choice of name) loved me and always showed me his teeth when I came close to him.  I think this started when I came home first and had to throw Prince out into the snow while I had to clean up the mess he made going through the garbage and spreading it though out the house.  Oh yeah, there was a little growl with that smile. 

I am not a pet lover, nor am I a pet hater.  In college, I was doing some research out of the Veterinary Center on a manx cat. I was invited to go necropsy room to take a section of a cat for research.  What I remember is going into the necropsy room and seeing a cow splayed open.  Next I saw a Lassie dog that had just been put down, I then walked out, never to go back.  I did do my research with specimens provided to me down in the basement of the veterinary center on the electron microscope alone.  

I went to college to major in Mathematics and minor in Accounting to become an accountant.  A Fraternity roommate of mine went to school to become a Veterinarian.  We both ended up doing research on an electron microscope in the basement of the Veterinary Center.  My friend had findings from his research and was able to get a paper published.  My research led nowhere.  I ended up going to Podiatry Medical School; my friend is now an accountant.  

For the second night of Passover, we went to a friend’s mother’s house for dinner. Her mother is 92. They had another friend’s mother there that was 98. All the other people there were older than me and my wife. I now realize that if we were doing a Seder, my wife and I would have been the children and my wife would have had to do the four questions. And no, we did not have to sit at the kids table. 

This Weeks Very Short Story: Chapter 18.5

As the youngest and the only remaining sibling of a larger family, my mother said she was the last of the Mohicans. Guess the tribe is all together now. 

There is a book call Tuesday’s with Morrie. We had Saturdays with Mom, especially after my father passed. Almost every Saturday, my wife and I would go to Moms. For the most part, it was never before 12 noon. For Mom, the day just didn’t begin until after 12 noon. We would take her to do her shopping, an experience in its self or pick it up ourselves when she wasn’t up to it. Sometimes we would take her to get her hair or nails done and out for a late lunch or dinner. There were occasional outings to a movie, Santa Barbara or Laguna Beach, less as time went on. It was always an adventure. Saturday’s will never be the same. 

I don’t read for enjoyment much. The reason is that if I sit that still for any amount of time its lights out. I don’t remember my father reading books very much until he retired and then he read constant. The result usually resulted in him taking a nap or a good night’s sleep. 

As part of a coed explorer scout group, we did a community service project in Oak Park, Michigan where we painted an old, at least two story wood sided house, Climbing up the ladder to scrape and paint the upper levels was fun, not to say helpful to the older couple that owned the house. I look back now and I am glad that I have a one story house. 

While living on Ithaca, the neighbor across the street had a motor speed boat made of wood. We got to help strip the wood and sand the bottom so the boat could be refinished to go back in the water. Our pay was some fresh cucumbers right off the vine. As the oldest, I did get to drive the boat years later up in the Georgean bay area of Ontario Canada where they had a cabin. I also got to shoot the 22 rifle and walk around with a pellet rifle and shoot things. This was the end of my Davy Crockett days. 

This Weeks Very Short Story: Chapter 18

The story I didn't want to write.

A mentor of mine always answered everything is fantastic, couldn't be better when asked how he was. He learned it from a mentor of his. He also learned that his mentor would say this even when everything was not all right. Well this may work in an office but I just can't keep that attitude tonight.

This evening my mother, Helen Binder​, passed away. It was one short last illness that took her life in addition to her many medical problems. Her mind was sharp to the end.

In the last few days many people stopped by to see her, including my son from Baltimore and his fiancée who had a short layover in Los Angeles on his way to Hawaii for a wedding. Mom loved it.

The night before last as I was leaving I said see you tomorrow as she was giving me two thumbs up, she said maybe not. It was difficult to sleep that night thinking that would be her last words.

Today toward the end of the day she kept talking about getting dressed and finding her shoes and purse and taking a trip. At times she felt like she was on a plane. She kept talking about Israel. I asked her who is there and she replied my son Matthew. I asked who else and she said my daughter in law Shaina. I told her to have a nice trip. Her reply was, OH Robert! Again as I was leaving I said see you tomorrow; she just gave me a face.

I am told by the nursing staff that she went peacefully. I hope she has a nice trip.