Update 12-7-10

Hi,

Not a lot of mail this week, which sometimes happens around holidays.  So, first, Happy Hanukah.  Second, I was at a kids' concert on Saturday, and a 6-year-old lumbered through "The Dreidel Song."  The program mentioned the song was German, which I'd never thought about, and the way kid slowly played the tune, it sounded like a German funeral march.  Afterward, I did some checking:

First, semi-dependably, from Wikipedia:  "I Have A Little Dreidel," also known as "The Dreidel Song," is a Hanukah song in English, which also has a Yiddish version.  The Yiddish version is "Ikh Bin A Kleyner Dreydl" --  "I Am A Little Dreidel."  The author and lyrics writer for both versions is Samuel Grossman, and the composers are Mikhl Gelbart and Samuel Goldfarb.  The English and Yiddish versions are roughly the same, with the Yiddish one making the dreidel out of "blay," which is lead, while the English version makes it out of "clay."

Secondly, a related link, from "I Have a Little Dreidel -- The True Story" by Susan Wolfe
    Everyone knows the song, My Dreidel, but I know who wrote it.  When he was a young man living in Brooklyn Heights, eking out a living between the Kane Street Synagogue and the Bureau of Jewish Education of New York, my grandfather, Sam Goldfarb, wrote My Dreidel.  In fact, along with his brother, Israel, he wrote many liturgical and holiday melodies, including Shalom Aleichem and Adon Olam.  But there is no doubt that My Dreidel is the most famous of them all.
    I remember the fifth-grade music teacher at Island Park Elementary School on Mercer Island, Washington, introducing the song that our class would sing at the school-wide holiday program.  I raised my hand to get her attention.  "My grandpa wrote My Dreidel!" I boasted enthusiastically.
   "No one ‘wrote’ My Dreidel," she answered.  "It’s a Jewish folk song."  It took a call from my father to convince her otherwise.
   Years later, another teacher taught another class of children.  At their Chanukah party, as the teacher started to sing, one of the dads’ hands shot up in the air.  "My wife’s great-uncle Sam wrote My Dreidel," he announced.
   That’s how we discovered a new set of cousins, three thousand miles and almost ninety years from where a young man scratched out a cheerful tune in his well-worn composition book.
    Grandma and Grandpa moved west just after the stock market crash of 1929.  They settled in Seattle, where he got a job as the music director at the city’s large, Reform congregation.  He worked there, organizing and directing adult and children’s choirs, producing holiday plays, and training boys for bar mitzvah, until his retirement in 1969.   (The link to the longer article:  http://musiced.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=musiced&cdn=education&tm=7&gps=412_382_855_567&f=00&tt=13&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//www.beingjewish.org/magazine/winter2001/article4.html ;)

Next, a conversation lifted from Facebook.

From Eric Hilton:  To all my Valley Stream friends -- Does anyone remember the name of the kosher Jewish deli that was located in the Green Acres Shopping Center in a stand-alone set of stores next to a bakery, which I believe was called Schluckers?  Hope you can help me out with this ever-nagging question.  Thanks.

From Richard Macioce:  Eric, that deli was called Murphy's Kosher Deli, I think.

From Scott D'Addario:  Hilton's Kosheratorium

From Eric Hilton:  Thanks, guys. I should have known better than to pour my heart out to my very sensitive musician friends.

From Jane Anne Levitan Smith:  Hi, Eric.  You're not thinking of Len's are you?  It was not a kosher deli, just a sandwich shop in Green Acres.  And how about Zan's?  Or David's?  Or Dave's Kosher Deli?  I'm trying to remember.  Hang in there.

From Arlene Ainbinder Lynn:  Ben & Sol.

From Barbara Blitfield Pech:  Ben & Sol.

From Eric Hilton:  Thanks, Barbara.  You are the second person to reply with the same answer -- Ben & Sol.  For some reason, I just didn't remember the name.  Was the bakery name correct?

From Arlene Ainbinder Lynn:  Yes, the bakery was called Schluckers.

From Barbara Blitfield Pech:  I'm still trying to drop their "black out cake" crumbs from my hips.

From Eric Hilton:  If I remember correctly, Ebenger's was known as having the best blackout cake in the world.  Was Ebenger's in Brookyn or in our area?

From Barbara Blitfield Pech:  Maybe commercially, Ebenger's had that reputation.  But as a mom and pop, Schluckers won hands down -- and Wall's was best at everything else.  I was never an Ebinger's fan, but Cushman's made amazing coconut custard pies, and I'd kill for anything from Dugan's.

From Eric Hilton:  We had both Ebenger's and Dugan's, and I remember another company called Krug's, where I would get a comic book called "Peter Wheat."  I remember them delivering the best cream-filled cupcakes.  Gilda remembers Dugan's in Lake Mohegan.  And the vanilla and chocolate cupcakes... I'm plotzing.

Finally, two actual notes that came in this week:

From Laura Littner Fulton:  Since my parents lived at the same address in Valley Stream from 1957 until 1999, I believed that they would have received any notice of a reunion, so I assumed there hadn't been any such celebration.  Though the detective work was faulty, I am glad that I have been rediscovered and would love to hear from old friends.  Meanwhile, I hope you all enjoy the holiday season. lauralfulton@yahoo.com

And from Barbara Blitfield Pech:  For anyone who didn't see my Facebook update -- I missed Robert Fiveson last week in Florida, but I did share a lovely afternoon with Valerie Nelson Gillen and her husband George this past Saturday.  They were on their way to Key West.
    Also, a note to the soon-to-be-snowed-in up north:  Miami winter boasts a "brisk," sunny, 55 -degrees, with picture post card weather.  As in the past, "special rates" are available at The Pech Palace for anyone who can dig out and who needs a few days of sunshine, blue skies, and...

The South '65 e-mail addresses:  reunionclass65.blogspot.com

The South '65 photo site:  picasaweb.google.com/SouthHS65


Rich