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Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe
Syosset, New York
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There are "bukh" clubs for "yeder cyner"
(everyone): Red Hatters ("Well-Red Ladies" - Minneapolis, MN), retired
teachers, passionate tea drinkers who love reading books (Celestial Seasonings'
Book Club"), and more.
Gerald Clarks (Time Magazine), writes,
"HOW much more nostalgia
can America
take? The compulsion to paw and moon over the good old days extends far beyond
Broadway; without question, the most
popular pastime of the year is looking back.
Sometimes it seems as if half the country
would like to be dancing cheek to cheek
with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in a
great ballroom of the '30s The other half
yearns to join Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid
Bergman on a back-lot Casablance of the
'40s to whisper, 'Play it Sam. Play As Time
Goes By...The sense of deja vu is everywhere."
So, welcome to the Nostalgia "Bukh" Club.
April 2009
1. This month's selection--chosen by Cindy--is "Help! I'm A Prisoner In A Chinese Bakery" by Alan King, author of "Anybody Who Ons His Own Home Deserves It" (with Jack Shurman), Copyright 1964, retal price: 60 cents.
2. Discussion about the book's dedication:
"Dedicated to my father, Bernard, who for seventeen ("zibetsn") years never opened his mouth ("moyl") in the house and to my mother, Minni, who for seventeen years hasn't known that my father has not opened his mouth in the house."
3. Background information:
Alan King 1927 - 2004)
The youngest of several children, King
was born Irwin Alan Kniberg, in NYC,
the son of Minnie (nee Solomon) and
Bernard Kniberg, a handbag cutter. He
spent his first years on the Lower East
Side of Manhattan. Later, King's family
moved to Brooklyn. At 15, King dropped
out of high school to perform comedy at
the Hotel Gradus in the Catskills
Mountains. He began his career with
one-line routines and other material
concerning mothers-in-law and Jews...
Ex. [on love] "If you want to read about
love and marriage, you've got to buy two
separate books."
4. Cindy begins the discussion about when Alan King and Jeanette Sprung are getting married (1947). It was like a three-ring circus. "In the middle of all this pandemonium, the band broke into a hora, the traditional Jewish folk dance for all festive occasions. What's traditional about it is that the people who are dancing never have the slightest idea what they're doing...Someone's nine-year-old kid, who thought the Mogen David wine was Kool-Aid, passed out on top of the wedding cake."
The group discusses whether this description of a Jewish wedding is accurate. Zelda says that she took dancing lessons at The Little Shop of Horas, and immediately described how to dance the Hora:
1. Stand in a "krayz" (circle) holding the
hands of the people on either side of
you.
2. When "di muzik" starts, follow the circle
as it rotates.
3. Step to the side, passing your left "fus"
(foot) behind your right.
4. Move the right "fus" behind the left
"fus."
5. Step to the side again, passing your left
"fus" in front of your right this time.
6. Continue as the circle keeps spinning,
adding a little hop to your steps as you
go faster.
7. Move toward the center of the circle,
and throw your hands still holding
those of the people beside you, in the
air.
8. Lower your hands and move backward.
9. Repeat several times.
10. Resume spinning around the circle.
5. Rita opens the book to Chapter 9 -
212-555-1212
Looking at her Nokia "tsellular telefon,"
Rita agrees that telephones have
changed. Alan King says, "All the
prefixes used to have such lovely
sounding names--like Evergreen and
Whippoorwill and Forsythia and
Magnolia. Do you know what my prefix
is now? 5981. That's right. I just
received a notice that my new number is
598-6015 I can't even remember my
wife's birthday so how the hell am I
supposed to remember a number like
that?...Now I'm not too crazy about the
telephone operators who are still left.
I don't think they care about their work.
For $1.25 an hour I don't expect them to
take vows, but at least they could do the
basic job they're hired for.
'Operator,' I said, 'would you give me the number of Sam Schreiber, 124 East 3rd St.?"
'You can find that listed in your directory," she replied.
'Excuse me, lady. You happen to be busy? You have another job? You climbing poles? Stringing wires, maybe? Would you mind looking up the number for me? I happen to be illiterate."
Rosemarie and Rita chuckle and share the radio jingle, MElrose 5-5300 and BUtterfield 8. Cindy does an imitation of Lily Tomlin's wisecracking, snorting tele- phone operator, Ernestine.
"One ringy-dingy. Two ringy-dingys. A
gracious good morning to you. Have I
reached the party to whom I'm speaking?"
6. Rita, who is a snowbird, discusses page
113. Alan King and his wife arrive at
Kennedy Int'l Airport at exactly eleven
o'clock. "This was no mean trick, because
we were going to Florida for six days
and my wife has twelve bags. I've got
the wash and wear suit on a hanger,
because there's no room in the twelve
bags. I've got my underwear in the inside
pocket and a brown paper bag with a
chicken-fat stain with my socks. I'm
traveling like a gypsy and she's got
twelve pieces of matched luggage."
Rita reminds the group of Alan King's spiel on life-as-a-new-South Foridian. (He lived part-time Lake Worth's Wycliffe Golf and County Club.)
On Military Trail "Everything is Military Tral in this part of the world. No matter where you are, you always feel comfortable. My wife says, 'You're lost' and I say, 'No, I'm not, there's Military Trail.' But it's Military Trail in the Keys."
7. REFRESHMENTS
Our hostess, Betty, reminds us that Alan King was a passionate eater, cook,
and restaurant buff. In his honor, our members enjoy:
Fortune Strudel (with some little pieces of paper). The message: "Lil bought the same blouse you're wearing and she paid $5 less for it. But don't say I told you!" Potchkuh Mousse Au Chocolat Bubba Au Rhum Candied Dates Zoff Tikk Golden Custard Zei Guh Zint (All recipes thanks to Ruth & Bob Grossman's Kosher cookbooks.)
8. Next Month's Selection
The members voted to read the 1972
book titled:
"How to go to work when your husband
is against it, Your childrn aren't old
enough, And there's nothng you can do
anyhow" by Schwartz, Schifter & Gillotti.
______________________
Marjorie G. Wolfe loves reading about
celebrities. She can relate to Jeanette
King (Page 127): "Jeanette was the one who
introduced me to a joint checking account--
that's another name for alimony for married men. Before I was married, I'd
worry all month if I couldn't find a five-cent
mistake in my checkbook. Last week,
Jeanette wrote forty-two checks and made
$3,200 worth of errors. She not only added
up the checks, she added in the day and the
year. She not only added it in, but I paid
it."
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