My First Jew...

[laughingwillow]

I remembered this incident after reading sistah J's thread entitled some of my best friends are jewish....

When I was a kid in rural Iowa, I had no idea what it meant to be jewish. Matter of fact, I never much thought about it. Seldom had both the catholic and protestant brands of christianity in all their glorious flavors: Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran. Heck, we even had a couple radical denominations, like Dutch reform and Assembly of God.  What more was there?

Well, I found out one day around the age of 13 while tossing a frisbee in front of our great grandma's house. The sight of the first beemer we'd ever seen on the streets of our little town lead to an accidental direct hit on the little blue speedster of my dreams. The car screeched to a halt and out jumped a short, balding middle-aged man. The guy's face was a little pinkish when he started pointing and shouting but the color quickly darkened as he unleashed the verbal fury in our direction. I remember seeing that car door open and preparing to bolt, but the guy never took a single step past his open door once out of the car. Both my cousin and I stood and stared at the guy, not knowing whether to laugh, run or apologize. Then we watched him, slack-jawed, as he leaned back into that shiny beemer and left the scene, just like that. I don't even think we got the chance to say "sorry."

So we headed for our grandma's house and told the parents what had happened. My cousin's mother explained that LK was a jewish fellow from New York City who had somehow ended up on our corner of the prairie.

Anyway, I thought about that for awhile. I'd met my first jew. But the guy looked pretty much like any other average joe in our town. No way I could tell him from a catholic or protestant by appearances. But then it struck me. A jew from New York City was a person who did a lot more yelling and lot less chasing than the adults we were accustomed to tormenting with snowballs and frisbees.....

lw

[judih]

ha! lw.
now, that is something of a truism. 'A lot more yelling and a lot less chasing.'
that short fuse gets lengthened over years of being lit.

Over here, in israel, richly embedded in the vocals is a severe case of humour. It'd be interesting to test-drive a variety of internationals in various sleepy corners of the prairie.