How D'ya Like That?

The purpose of this blog is to bring the spirit of my Bubbie to your Shabbat table... Please print and share...in memory of Yehudis bas Alexander.

My dear grandmother, whose yahrzeit was remembered this week, grew up in Chicago and LA and was the last Yiddish speaker in the family.

Only she didn't call it Yiddish. She called it talking Jewish.

And did she like to talk! She wasn't a gossip - she enjoyed conversing about meaningful things: current events, history, literature, her grandchildren. But current events was her forte, and when she heard something interesting, she would exclaim,

"How d'ya like that!"

She and my grandfather eloped to Reno. They had to, she told me, because her parents didn't approve of Charlie – his family wasn't good enough. It was middle-class Ukrainian Jews looking down on lower-class Ukrainian Jews. Or maybe it was upper-middle looking down on middle, I don't know. The point is, there was great disdain and disapproval.

Yet somehow my grandmother absorbed 0.0% of that attitude. She didn't disdain anyone (other than Yassar Arafat). She had a good heart and intuitively saw the humanity in everyone she met. Taking her on any errand was always a long ordeal because she would find any excuse to stop and talk to anyone. She might pass a perfect stranger on the sidewalk and ask them the time (while looking at her watch, mumbling something about it not keeping good time) and before the hapless lady or fellow knew what had happened, she had pried out of her or him their entire family history, their personal taste in politics, prose and clothes, and of course reciprocated about herself. All the while, she would be repeatedly touching their elbow. 

I wonder how my bubbie would deal with today's 2-meter rule. I am guessing it wouldn't faze her at all, she'd talk all the same, just at a distance. Not sure how she'd manage without the elbow.

To honor her mamalashon, I taught my kids to call her Bubbie, and she liked that.

(Maybe the next step will be for us all to learn Yiddish?)

Here's to you, Bubbie! We miss you and assume you're getting the personal story of each and every angel you meet.

Question for your table: Who's the friendliest person you know? What's their secret?

Shabbat Shalom.

 

PS - Click on the image above to discover a related treat to lighten your quarantine or comfort your social-distancing.

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