I don’t usually provide follow-ups to my articles.
More often than not I modify and alter identities and sometimes even genders in order to guarantee the privacy of my characters. However this one time I used actual names. This one time I felt assured that the characters of my tale of almost 45 years ago would never see this article. After all of the participants who at the time were not frum one of them was now living in Israel and was a rebbi and two had gone on to their “next station.” There was only one person whose whereabouts I had no idea of but felt certain he’d never see the article.
And then came the phone call.
Remember the article I wrote before Succos (#477)? The one entitled “A Succah Grows in Brooklyn” about the neighborhood Jews who helped me build my succah in Canarsie in 1971? Remember Lenny Waldman? The fellow who helped my cut down s’chach for the succah? The fellow who I was so sure wasn’t connected with the world of Mishpacha that I felt comfortable using his real name?
Last night Lenny Waldman called me.
I was sure he was kidding.
There was no doubt in my mind that he was pulling my leg.
Create a free account to keep reading.
