{"id":10384,"date":"2012-08-08T08:00:32","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/?p=10384"},"modified":"2012-08-08T08:44:59","modified_gmt":"2012-08-08T12:44:59","slug":"funeral-repping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/2012\/08\/08\/funeral-repping\/","title":{"rendered":"FUNERAL REPPING"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

When my<\/strong><\/span> parents spent winters in Florida, I occasionally represented them at their friends\u2019 funerals in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t like the work. My mother would call from Boca Raton and say, \u201cEdith was such a good friends of ours. Please go, son.\u201d<\/p>\n

Screw Edith.<\/p>\n

\"\"But I<\/strong><\/span> went. The hardest part was walking from my car to the shiva<\/em> house.\u00a0 I pictured a bereaved relative opening the door and saying, \u201cWho are<\/em> you? Have you no decency?\u00a0 We don\u2019t want any!\u201d<\/p>\n

That never happened.\u00a0 I mingled with\u00a0 mourners.\u00a0 I was often the youngest non-relative there.\u00a0 Occasionally the rabbi would recognize me . . . \u201cYou have such a Stratton punim<\/em>.\u201d I looked like my mom or dad.\u00a0 Take your pick.<\/p>\n

I eavesdropped.\u00a0 That was the action. An old woman said, \u201cWhen I feel sick, I want to die. Then I get better and want to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me<\/strong><\/span> tell you something, deary,\u201d another woman said. \u201cThey don\u2019t ask when you want to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

My Cleveland Heights friends didn\u2019t talk like that. They talked about marathons, 10Ks and Tommy’s milk shakes. \u00a0 A rabbi talked to me about the Cleveland Browns. Rabbis are into sports now, but a generation ago it wasn\u2019t that common.<\/p>\n

A food broker said, \u201cI sell Heinen\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heinen\u2019s<\/strong><\/span> didn\u2019t interest me — not until at least fifteen years later.<\/p>\n

I spent about twenty minutes per shiva<\/em> call.\u00a0 The mourners were always appreciative.<\/p>\n

My parents made me do it.<\/p>\n

I’m glad.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Footnote:
\nWhile shiva repping, I met a California man who\u00a0 produced Joel Grey\u2019s shows for 27 years. \u00a0I said, \u201cI\u2019ll send you my band\u2019s CD and you can show it to Joel. \u00a0No, on second thought, I won\u2019t<\/em> send it, because Joel might sue me for ripping off Mickey Katz tunes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t worry,\u201d the producer said.\u00a0 \u201cLebedeff\u2019s people tried to hit Joel up for royalties on \u2018Romania, Romania\u2019 for years.\u00a0 No luck.\u201d<\/small><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"\"Yiddishe Cup plays 7 p.m. tomorrow (Thurs. Aug. 9) at Cain Park, Alma Theater,\u00a0 Cleveland Hts.<\/span>\u00a0 We’re doing a tribute to Mickey Katz.<\/span><\/p>\n

A documentary filmmaker from D.C.\u00a0 plans to be there.\u00a0 You might wind up in the movie.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Tickets are $20-22 in advance and $23-25 manana.\u00a0 Discounts for seniors and students.\u00a0 www.cainpark.com<\/span><\/a> and 216-371-3000.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When my parents spent winters in Florida, I occasionally represented them at their friends\u2019 funerals in Cleveland. I didn\u2019t like the work. My mother would call from Boca Raton and say, \u201cEdith was such a good friends of ours. Please go, son.\u201d Screw Edith. But I went. The hardest part was walking from my car […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coming-of-age","category-shul-talk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10384"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10707,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10384\/revisions\/10707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}