I remember in the 1930s going to Coney Island in the summer. The subway ride was a nickel. Teenage boys would buy Eskimo Pies and ices and sell them on the beach out of big ice chests. They would go along the water’s edge where people bought ice cream. But the boys were competing with vendors who had stands on the boardwalk so the cops were forever chasing them away. The boys would run off, but when the coast was clear(!) they came back to sell more ice cream.
My father-in-law, Solomon, born in Whitechapel in 1887, was noted for singing an endless number of English music hall songs. One in particular springs to mind. Please click the player below to hear Solly’s rendition of Poor Old England (1907), lyrics provided.
Poor old England, isn’t it a picture? Everything you see you must agree,
The carpet on the stairs, the table and the chairs are made in Germany.
When I go up into me bedroom, lying in a tiny cot
Is a little baby boy, mother’s pride and only joy,
That’s the only little thing that England’s got.
Velvel (his Yiddish name), pictured above, was born in London in 1914. When his parents went to record his birth, they told the registrar his name was “Wolf,” the English for Velvel. The well-meaning bureaucrat advised, “He’s going to be a nice English boy. You don’t want to call him ‘Wolf’. Why not call him Walter?” And that is how my husband got his name.
Mind, you, Wolf is a perfectly good English name. Remember the writer Wolf Mankowitz who wrote “A Kid for Two Farthings?” It was made into a film with Celia Johnson and Diana Dors.
So there’s nothing wrong with a kid called Wolf.
Pictured above are my in-laws from England, Solomon (“Solly”) and Annie. Solly was born in London in 1887. He possessed an inexhaustible repertory of English music hall songs, developed over decades of dedicated practice. He would sing at the drop of a hat, to Annie’s dismay. In 1955, my husband recorded his dad. I am providing just one example here among dozens of ditties. The recording is a song called “The Weaker Sex”. Click the player below to hear him, lyrics provided…
By the wink of her eye she can capture your body and soul.
By the wave of her tongue she can drive you up the pole.
She can rush a man, crush a man whenever he goes too far.
Oh, the weaker sex are wonderful strong they are.
Pictured in the photo are two couples both named Harry and Fanny. On the left are my cousins from Providence, and on the right are my parents. At one time, the name Fanny was very popular for girls. You may remember the comedienne Fanny Brice who was the subject of the musical and movie Funny Girl. I must have had at least six relatives named Fanny. It may have a lot of meanings and origins in names including Frances. But “Fanny” has fallen somewhat out of favor among English speakers. Click the player below to hear the Yiddish meaning of my mother’s name, “Fanny.”
This is one of my favorite genres. I am taking the liberty of providing a list (link above) that I compiled in 2005 of authors (left-hand column) and detectives (middle column), with brief descriptions of the detective and his or her milieu. I put an asterisk next to the authors I particularly enjoyed. I also put an asterisk next to names such as Dorothy Sayers, Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie (forgive!) and Ngaio Marsh because they represent early 1930s and 1940s English women mystery writers. So the asterisk system is somewhat flawed. However, if you see two asterisks, those are the authors whose books I particularly enjoyed. For instance the character Hamish McBeth (M.C. Beaton), and the Joan Hess series about Arly Hanks in the small town of Maggody, Ark. Arthur Upfield’s Australian Aborigine detective series was great also.
If I knew of movies or TV series, I indicated that in some notes. I did catch a mistake–and you will see a hand-written note: Donald Westlake, and not Carl Haissen, wrote the Archy McNally stories about an investigator living with his parents in Palm Beach, Fla.
Josephine Tey was inexplicably omitted from the list. The Daughter of Time is one of my favorite books..
I am sure I have forgotten to put asterisks on some of the books that I have loved, but I never fool myself into thinking that my taste in literature (or anything else for that matter) will correspond to anyone else’s. If I can lead you to a fun read or two, then the list is worth it. And of course, it needs updating with the contemporary detective stories of the last decade and beyond, such as the anticipated title below.
A “shidduch” is a match made for an arranged marriage. Click the player below to hear it used in a typical sentence…
Matzoh brei is Jewish French toast. It could be served as a sweet dish with jam or syrup or as a savory dish. I definitely prefer to use salt and pepper for a savory flavor.
There are so many ways to say it. The Amish say, “We get too soon old and too late smart.” How true that is for me. I never felt I was good enough and I was always afraid to do things. And now I am too old to do stuff. Now I’m brave when it’s too late. So you must “Seize the day!” How would we say this idea in Yiddish? Click on the player below to hear what I told my daughter…
“East side, West side, all around the town…” You know that famous song from 1890s? For our 50th wedding anniversary, my daughter made a film of my husband and me singing songs of the Gay ’90s. Here is a clip…
oldjewishlady.com 