Being a pudgy red haired boy, I was the perfect target for bullies and other ‘insensitive’ children. I remember with not too fond memories how I went to school every day in first grade.
My mother would prepare my favorite sandwich and then she carefully placed a chocolate bar and a bag of pretzels next to my thermos which fit exactly into my red lunch box.
When I arrived at yeshiva, the following scenario repeated itself daily.
How it began I can no longer recall; however, soon enough it became a firmly established ‘ritual’.
I would take the ‘school bus’ to yeshiva and generally our bus arrived a good twenty minutes before school began.
I have no recollection of any teacher being on ‘yard duty’ or of any official supervision which was in place from the time the bus arrived until line up began.
I would alight from the bus, head off to the school yard and even before I could place my ‘stuff’ down, Larry was there.
Larry Drickstein (name changed) was the strongest and meanest kid in the class.
Every morning he would approach me and I would reluctantly hand over to Larry both the chocolate bar and the bag of pretzels.
At first, he would demand to see the contents of my lunch box and take what he wanted.
Soon enough, he became familiar with my lunch menu and I would simply hand over the goods automatically without any need for Larry to officially ‘shake me down’; I simply did what I knew I had to do in order to avoid a punch in the stomach.
I never told a soul about our ‘arrangement’.
I certainly would never tell a teacher as Larry had made it very clear that any tattling would lead me to me being ‘beat up’.
Every day for the majority of the year, I supplied Larry Dickstein with a chocolate bar and pretzels and in return I had the peace of mind that of knowing that today I would not be beat up.
One day the yeshiva announced we would be going to the New York Aquarium in Coney Island on a trip.
The night before I asked my mother if I could have some spending money for the outing; she gave me one quarter. I carefully wrapped my quarter in my napkin and off I went to school.
When I arrived at school Larry was there and I promptly handed over the ‘goods’; however, Larry noticed the strangely folded napkin. “Hey Carrot Top (Larry always had a way with words) what’s in the napkin?”
“Nottin”
Larry grabbed the napkin and I attempted to resist; however, before either of us could say a word the quarter fell out and dropped through the grates which were on the floor of the yard and descended to the depths of Brooklyn where it remains to this day.
I had no chocolate, I had no pretzels and now I had no quarter.
First grade finished, Larry and I went our different ways and the last I heard Larry became a doctor and I a rabbi.
Last month I was visiting someone in a hospital in Manhattan.
As I am sitting near the bed of the congregant, I hear from the behind the curtain the other patient saying, “Dr. Drickstein, how can I thank you enough?”
After the Doctor had left I stopped by the bed of the ‘roommate’.
“I’m sorry to bother you; however, was that Dr. Larry Drickstein who was here?”
“Yes, why do you ask?”
“I have the perfect present for you to give him to express your thanks.”
Later that day, a box with one chocolate bar and one bag of pretzels arrived at the office of Dr. Larry Drickstein with the following note: “As per the suggestion of your old friend Ron Yitzchok Eisenman, please accept these as a token of gratitude.”
Two days later I received 100 bars of the finest Swiss chocolate with a check for $360.
The note attached read, “A dollar a day for the year -fifty years ago -when I made your life miserable.”
This was followed by an email, a phone call and finally a lunch date.
Over half a century from when we first met, Larry and I had lunch and laughed about old times.
At the end of the lunch he handed me a small box.
“What this?”
“Open it and you’ll see… there is one thing still missing.”
As I opened the box I noticed it contained only one coin; a shiny mint condition quarter from the year 1965.
It may take five years and it may take fifty; however, somehow and in some way everything comes full circle.
“If Not Now, Then When?”- Hillel
Ron Yitzchok Eisenman, Rabbi, Congregation Ahavas Israel, Passaic, NJ
T
No comments:
Post a Comment