Holiday Memories

Let’s take a break for a bit. I've been thinking of the ghosts of holidays past, with apologies as appropriate to Charles Dickens. So here, in no particular order, without further ado, are some random holiday memories:

1. Tashlich. Now this is a walk to the river. That’s where we cast our “sins,” on the first afternoon, or on the second if the first day happens to be Saturday, and back home I’d walk down to the Red River, because it wasn’t so far, I could go to Kildonan Park, that was pleasant, or just walk up to Scotia Blvd and there were a few open spots there where you could stand on the river bank, and I used to go by myself, until the kids got old enough to walk, it was a long journey altogether, because it’s about 40 minutes there, at my pace, and then another 30 minutes or so to the Chabad House, and afternoon services, although usually one does tashlich after the afternoon service, then a 30 minute walk home, so by the time we’re done, it’s quite the safari.

I always remember one particular year, it was a while back, I’m guessing now about 17 years ago, and I happened to be reading a biography of Bob Dylan, not very holiday appropriate, but that’s what I’d been reading, and I guess the songs from Blood On The Tracks were running through my head, and it’s good that they were, because I remember what a miserable day it was, raining, this nasty miserable rain, the whole way, and I just got soaked, and it was cold. “It’s a wonder that we still know how to breathe.”

2. The old man who yelled. Ok this one is a bit strange, and this goes back a long way, back to when I attended services at the CT, and that last year I went there was 1984. Well, there was this old man who sat in the back, and he only ever came during the high holidays. That part is not so strange. But he was very intense, he followed the service with great intensity, you could see how he followed every word on every page, and during the responsive prayer he would respond; boy would he respond, he would get louder and louder as he got more and more excited. So we came to call him the old man who yelled. I assumed he was from out of town; it made no sense that someone that enjoyed the services that much would not be a regular. But no, he lived a few blocks away…

3. The lady with the harelip. Sorry about this one. I don’t feel good about it. But it’s how it was. She used to look after the kids. It seems to me that wherever I was, she was, she gravitated from one place one year to another place the next. I don’t think that’s really true; she was at the BA, and she may have been at the TT for some years. But everyone knew her, and that’s what we called her, the lady with the harelip. And she always looked after the kids...

4. Headache. We all get headaches from fasting. Hunger, dehydration, and, worst of all, caffiene withdrawal. That’s normal. We bear it. One year, though, I’m still traumatized from that year. It was Yom Kippur, by the end of the day, it just felt like there was a vice around my head, I couldn’t stand, literally, not figuratively, literally, I could not stand up so I had to sit during the final Ne’ilah service, throughout which one is really supposed to stand, and I was fainting and feeling nauseous, and it seemed as if it would be better to break the fast, and get some strength back, and finish the service properly, because I could not concentrate on a single word. So I went down into the kitchen, fully intending to make a quick cup of coffee and go back in, but I could not bring myself to do it. So I sat in the kitchen and listened from there, until the final shofar blowing, after which the fast is officially over, although we still have to go through the end of the ne’ilah service, about another five minutes, and then the evening service, say another 15 minutes, then havdalah, before we eat, but given my condition those were formalities, so I made myself coffee right then, and it rejuvenated me, like a miracle cure, but the experience traumatized me from then till now. And it was a long time ago, maybe even 20 years ago, and I’ve always kept an emergency supply of pills since. I should keep an emergency cup of espresso.

5. Cigarettes. Ok I’m sorry if my kids are reading this. But yes I used to smoke, and this was before I was married, I used to go to the aforementioned tashlich with my friends, we’d walk together, and we’d have smokes, but no way to light them. So we’d look to find someone smoking, and get a light, and it was a problem if he / she would hand us a lighter, we had to say no please just give me your cigarette, because we couldn’t use the lighter, it being Rosh Hashana and all, but we had to keep smoking once we got lit, so we would take turns, so we would always have a light. It was a smoking-go-round, the whole way there and back…

6. Kreplach. Look it up. It is a tradition to have kreplach on the eve of Yom Kippur. And so, being traditional, we have kreplach on the eve of Yom Kippur. My wife makes them, and makes them well. She makes everything well, and I don't say that just because she will read this. I happen to be writing about kreplach. She fills them with ground beef.

Okay this was totally random. I’ll do better next time…