<\/p>\n
My father told me that when he graduated<\/strong><\/span> college in 1938, he wanted a job — any job.<\/p>\n I, on the other hand, wanted “meaningful work” when I graduated in 1973.\u00a0 “Meaningful work” was a popular term then.\u00a0 I first heard it from Lawrence Kasdan, the Big Chill<\/em> director.<\/p>\n I tried being a bricklayer. \u00a0A “brickie.” \u00a0I got a joiner, mortar and mason’s trowel.\u00a0 I knew another Jewish bricklayer, who talked up the profession.<\/p>\n My father said incredulously, “You want to work with your hands?”<\/p>\n Just a thought, Dad. <\/strong><\/span> I learned a bit about roofs, radiators and hot water tanks.<\/p>\n Whenever my father had tools in his hand — which was rare — he was often loud and profane.<\/p>\n It’s not innate — Jews swearing with tools.\u00a0 I know a couple Jewish car mechanics and Jewish fix-it guys. \u00a0It’s all about how you were raised. \u00a0My dad gave me arithmetic workbooks in elementary school.\u00a0 For fun, I plotted graphs. \u00a0In high school I got fast on the abacus.<\/p>\n If you want a number, see me.\u00a0 Here’s one: the rent on apt. 1 at 1409 Marlowe Avenue was $80 in 1965.\u00a0 Now it’s $525. \u00a0The rent has approximately kept pace with inflation. Eighty dollars in 1965 is $540 now. My father told me that when he graduated college in 1938, he wanted a job — any job. I, on the other hand, wanted “meaningful work” when I graduated in 1973.\u00a0 “Meaningful work” was a popular term then.\u00a0 I first heard it from Lawrence Kasdan, the Big Chill director. I tried being a bricklayer. \u00a0A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landlord-biz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1202"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8561,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions\/8561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n—-<\/span>
\n2 of 2 posts <\/span>for 1\/13\/10<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"