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Aug. 29th, 2004 02:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
levertovfanSo I'm back from Miami and glad to be back. Much as I love my paternal grandparents, and much as I'm aware that they are getting older and any particular visit could be the last, spending three straight days with them is tiring. Grandpa still hasn't given up on his mission to make my father and I more Jewish, but as he gets older and weaker, his methods of persuasion get sloppier and less vigorous. He used to pound on the table and demand things out of us. Now he produces repeated reminiscences about the world that he grew up in, most of which start out "When I was growing up, we all spoke Yiddish" and unfold in stock phrases. The logic behind it seems to be that this was/is a good way of life, but from what I can make out, most Jews who lived in the tenements in Brooklyn Park with him stayed there partly from the need for self-protection. The argument "When I was growing up, I was hit in the head with rocks by anti-Semetic kids and called Christ-killer, and then therefore you should be Jewish" lacks persuasive logic. His parents, Yiddish-speaking immigrants, didn't have much choice of leaving the religious world, even when they ceased to believe in the religion that held them all together. Thankfully, my father and I do have the choice.
It is urgent to Grandpa that we should participate in that world. I can respect that. As Dad invariably responds to these passionate monologues, Dad and I are interested in these reminiscences from a historical standpoint, but we don't have to live his life.
It's amazing how Grandma and Grandpa only remember or are interested in my Jewish friends. Grandpa did tell dad to bring Linda (dad's shiksa wife) to his 90th birthday, which, if he lives, will be in February. It's progress of sorts. Linda may, ironically, end up being the only of his daughters in law that he likes.
Grandpa does have the satisfaction of his first great-grandson, born to what I predict will probably be the only Jewish marriage made by his grandchildren. I met 7-mo old Brandon for the first time. He's an adorable kid, and sweet-tempered too, to be able to stand seven people standing around and cooing and clucking at him without making a fuss.
It is urgent to Grandpa that we should participate in that world. I can respect that. As Dad invariably responds to these passionate monologues, Dad and I are interested in these reminiscences from a historical standpoint, but we don't have to live his life.
It's amazing how Grandma and Grandpa only remember or are interested in my Jewish friends. Grandpa did tell dad to bring Linda (dad's shiksa wife) to his 90th birthday, which, if he lives, will be in February. It's progress of sorts. Linda may, ironically, end up being the only of his daughters in law that he likes.
Grandpa does have the satisfaction of his first great-grandson, born to what I predict will probably be the only Jewish marriage made by his grandchildren. I met 7-mo old Brandon for the first time. He's an adorable kid, and sweet-tempered too, to be able to stand seven people standing around and cooing and clucking at him without making a fuss.
