I AM FROM

I am from a baby blue Volkswagen, Tollhouse cookies, borscht and schav, kippers and Grandma Reggie's rugelach.

I am from so many homes and places... up the hill, on the water, down around the bend, ending in a peaceful vineyard under the shining sun.

I am from the garlic and onion, the orchid, cinnamon and vanilla.

I am from a matzoh ball eating boisterous family singing songs on the way to Jones Beach, being crunched in the car between Charlie and Jeff with my feet on the big middle hump, fighting my brothers for the last egg salad sandwich...pretending to shoot strangers with our finger guns to see if they will shoot back, sleeping in the well of the rear car window on the way home.

I am from a past filled with mostly wonderful memories...feeding deer at the Catskill Game Farm or helping Uncle Dickey get water out of our sinking canoe at Kiamesha Lake where the Flaxmans, my great-grandparents owned a bungalow colony.

I am from the deep rooted culture and traditions of New York Jews, of good-hearted immigrants who carried regret and sadness but yet were full of light and love. From songs taught to me in classic Yiddish ("Ofen Pripitchik") to lessons on why you always bring bakery when invited to someone's house.

I am from tzedakah (charity), and old wives’ tales (bubbe meises) such as never to swim after you eat...which was hard because we were always eating.

I'm from the tiny Mongolians with a last name meaning China (Jen Jen or Chien Chien) who found safety in Odessa on the Black Sea, and from the beauty of Austria.

I'm from a Jewish mother who taught me to bold enough to do crossword puzzles in ink, and from the laughter of family hearts games passed on through the generations. From produce carts on the Lower East Side, and Flaxman's unpainted furniture’s, a sweet and eloquent paternal grandfather who was valedictorian of his Cornell graduating class, and a rough and tumble grade school educated maternal grandfather who went from owning a produce cart to being the Treasurer of the New York Liquor Authority.

I am from a time and place that exists no more, where egg creams were 10 cents and two movies a quarter. Where you hopped up on the spinning leather stool and picked out more candy than you could hold for five cents. A time and place that now sounds like it couldn't have possibly existed. Where we didn't worry about the sun, the pesticides, global warming, gangs, or media overload and when everything was closed on a Sunday.

I am from Natalie, who is from Dora, who is from Ida.

But mostly I am from the children who came from me because they are the best part of what makes me who I am.

By: Carol Flaxman ©2012