Heroes and bagels
The other day, I walked into a room and there was one of those bugs in it.
You know the kind that looks like a centipede? It was orange? No? Just in my house? Anyway, because I am slightly unhinged, I yelled, “Dad, there is a scary bug — can you come and kill it please?” Now I know my dad can’t come and get it rid of it for me. But he was always the one who took care of these things.
One weekend, I was on some NCSY shabbaton, and when I got home, I was told that my mom saw a mouse and jumped up onto a chair. She called my dad, who was at the hospital delivering a baby, but this was an emergency!!
My mom stayed on the chair in the kitchen until my dad delivered the baby and came home. Apparently, my dad killed the mouse with a broom. The end of that story is that the exterminator went up to the crawl space and missed a beam and my mom came downstairs to see his leg sticking out through the ceiling. Don’t worry, the exterminator was fine.
The ceiling, not so much.
The point of the story is that my dad was always the hero in these stories, and after I killed the centipede, I started crying because I realized that I hadn’t lived in the same house as my dad in over 31 years. And I usually start crying when I think about him. But he did teach me how to kill bugs.
My sister recently told me about the show “Shrinking” on Apple, and I start crying every time there is a father-daughter scene. That wasn’t a spoiler alert, and it is a really good show.
In other news, before Yom Kippur I had asked my mom if she wanted me to get her a bagel from the bagel store in Fair Lawn. “There was a fire, it isn’t open,” she informed me.
What?? Now, you need to know that when I was growing up in Fair Lawn, there wasn’t much, so the bagel store was pretty much the highlight. There used to be a liquor store next to the bagel store, which may or may not be a Greek restaurant now, and I bought my very first Diet Coke there a zillion years ago with my friend Vicki.
In any event, I remember when I would go with my dad and four bagels cost only a dollar. Now, five bagels are $7.50. First we lost Zayde’s (which will always be the New Royal bakery to me) to a fire — and now the bagel store?? It made me very, very sad. Hopefully, it will reopen again.
But since I had told my mom I was going to get her a bagel, I had to deliver.
Off to Teaneck Hot Bagels I went — and the line was around the corner. I had never seen a line like this for bagels before. Husband #1 had warned me because he had waited on this line in years past (to get himself bagels, not me, don’t worry, he isn’t anything if not consistent).
The fun thing about waiting on line is getting to listen to other people’s conversations, and taking part in them when appropriate. Well, it probably is never appropriate to join a conversation that you aren’t a part of, but I learned from my mom that you can never ask strangers too many questions.
A couple behind me was talking about their upcoming trip to Israel for Passover. I turned around and said, “Passover? We haven’t made it through Sukkot yet!” And then we had a whole conversation about trips that had been planned and canceled and yada yada yada.
I waited on that line for 24 minutes to place our bagel order. Of course they didn’t have the kind my mom asked for and I forgot to get a bagel for Aide #1 because I was so flustered at what bagel would be a good substitute for a salt bagel and whatever. I can never do anything right anyway. Good times. Sorry for all the run-on sentences.
Hope your fast went fast and that the upcoming year is filled with short lines, wonderful vacations, and all you wish for yourselves and your families.
Banji Ganchrow of Teaneck is looking forward to a pre-Sukkos mini Camp Babka with three of her favorite campers.