Assignment 15

Posted on December 25, 2007 by

It’s December 25 and I’m sitting up at 6:46AM waiting for at least 7 so I can sneak over to my parent’s house and rip into the gifts.

For today’s assignment, I want you to write about your most vivid holiday memory. You can go on for as long as you want, but make sure to have each word be poignant and powerful. Don’t ramble on about the smell of your late aunt Mildred or the twinkling lights or the waves in the punch bowl—UNLESS that carries the story/description forward.

Put your description in the comments below…I’ll have mine up before the reindeer get out of sight or the last Hanukkah candle burns away.

Keep writing.

Assignment

Permalink

3 Responses to Assignment 15

jeff says:

December 25, 2007 at 7:52 am

It’s the rug. A rich green rug that’s just long enough to reach my ankles. But it’s not shag. We gather on the rug out of sight of the living room. Excited to bolt down the stairs, we pace. Stockings in hand, they arrived at the foot of our beds. But across the expanse of green lie the stairs…and below them the tree. We pace on the cool rug in our slippers. Anxious.
Alan Wilensky says:

December 25, 2007 at 3:29 pm

“….say you fucking believe in Jesus, you Kike bastard”, Bobby Smith was giving me my annual Xmas beating, as I was the only Jew on his block. He wan an older kid that almost never discriminated by faith or National origin when shaking down the kids walking to the Brickett Elementary school in Lynn, Massachusetts.

The days before or after the Xmas holidays were special, however; Bobby felt a need to evangelize. I must have had ‘Jew’, written all over my face, as my family was not religious and I wore no distinguishing garb. I did all I could during the year to avoid Bobby, but he was like hunter and stalker, often on my scent as good and sure game.

“….I don’t believe in stupid Jesus…oof…”, he was reigning blows upon my face. Something in me, something genetic, would not give him the satisfaction of lip service to his false messiah. I would only learn, years later of the self sacrifices Jews gave at the point of the spear, the gun, and the mob.

Long before the German atrocities of the 20th century, the Jews had been subject to forced apostasy, and something ingrained in my young soul resolved to never acquiesce to such brutalization or pressure.

“…..I’ll beat you until you say it”….he was sticking to last year’s script, I mused.

It ended when he tired of my amalgam of physical compliance and mental resistance. Not too many marks of the permanent kind remained, except a seed which sprouted years later. This seed would launch me into a strange, wonderful, and tragicomic 15 year immersion into the hassidic Jewish community.

I walk these deserted streets on Xmas day, alone at 49 years, and desolate in my soul.

At these times, I become reflective of my two broken marriages in the orthodox Jewish community,

Only a parent can implant this quality of blind hatred within a boy of 11 or 12, and I wonder if these beatings, taken at the tender age of six at Bobby’s hand, had anything to do with my later religious awakenings.

It’s quiet here in the streets of San Mateo.
Clownface says:

January 1, 2008 at 10:58 pm

Wow. Powerful. Not sure my New Year’s Eve memories of the smell of Bugles and the fizz of faux cola in my nose can come close. Thank you Alan.

Assignment 15

3 Responses to Assignment 15

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Be Social

Jeff Cutler

EVENTS

Recent Posts

Jeff Cutler’s Other Blogs

Also find me here…