A little wander

 Perhaps it is because I spend so much of my time indoors these days, each small trip out of the house feels like something of an adventure.

I went to mail a package today. On the way, pigeons became crenelation on an otherwise unremarkable building.

After I mailed my package on this grey day, my eye was pulled by mossy ironwork

and hydrangeas that had seen better days.

As I crossed 96th Street I passed lively bird feeding time.

I stopped into the thrift store and saw a spitoon.

 

I don't think I had ever seen one before.

I don't know if the copying out of the prayer I learned in childhood had unlocked one of the long-abandoned rooms in my brain but all morning bits of a song kept bubbling up.  I remembered first just a word or two scattered through the song but eventually, a holey remnant of the song was remembered. Eventually, it was enough for me to google the first line of the song.

טוב טוב ללמוד תורה

It is very good to learn Torah

I was able to find the source of my ear-worm here on track 15. We were a Hebrew speaking household. My parents did the best they could to provide us with Hebrew books and records. We owned lots of storybooks from Israel but we also had a fair number of Hebrew school books and records in our home library. Uri and Riva of the primer series ( the Hebrew School version of Dick and Jane) were my imaginary friends which gives you an idea of my not very interesting imagination as a little kid.

But back to this record. We played this one often on our little portable record player. Every one of these cringey songs is burned deep into my consciousness.

For those of you who don't understand Hebrew-- the preachy song translates as...

It is very good to learn Torah

our Torah is precious

It is very good to learn Torah

Torah, our Torah was given by Moses

And who gave it to Moses? Our Father our King

Ok, this isn't great poetry. It's isn't even particularly good music. It is however a good tool to teach the value of studying Torah and giving a tiny bit of theology to little children. 

Anyway, I Googled the duo, Nacha Rivkin and Ella Shurin. Nacha, was the founder of the Shulamith School for Girls in Brooklyn.  Ella composed a great deal of music used in Jewish schools in the U.S.

I grew up here in America but the cultural life that I lead as a kid was a tiny pocket of  American Hebrew Zionist culture that was created for us by our parents. There are times when it feels like the world I grew up in is like a milkweed pod in a big field about to be blown away Each time I find a piece of it still in existence I am amazed.

As always I am delighted that Google has helped me to gather the scattered seeds of my childhood.