Flashback 1979: It was the holiday season and my public
elementary school decided to have a Hanukkah pageant instead of a traditional Christmas
pageant. These days, either one being
held in a public school would lead to hordes of Atheist protesters lining up
outside the school to protest the separation of church and state, but that’s
neither here nor there in this memory.
While I am certain my parents
would have preferred their gentile daughter to play Mary or a Christmas angel
in a school play, I was specially selected to play a dreidel. It was a 6-year-old’s dream come true. I was asked to spin around like a crazy
person singing “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel” on stage! I may not have been able to skip and clap at the
same time, but I felt up to the task.
Opening day arrived and I donned
my dreidel costume. What does one wear
to become a dreidel, you ask? Well, it’s
a very complicated costume consisting of a brown paper bag painted in cheerful colors with a holes cut out
for your head and arms. My school obviously had a big theatre budget.
As I waited backstage with two
other fellow dreidels, one of the tops, Jim Shaw, asked me to be his
girlfriend. I happily agreed and then we
took the stage. Once on stage, we sang
and spun and sang and spun. Perhaps we
were fueled by our newfound love. Mind
you, our relationship did not include telling others we were
boyfriend/girlfriend, kissing (ooh, cooties!), or hand-holding. It was almost as if we didn’t even know each
other.
The Hanukkah pageant was a one
night only event for fear that all of that spinning would lead to permanent
vertigo, but this one night will live on in my mind forever. In addition to having my first boyfriend for
a few dizzying hours, I also learned that I like potato cakes and applesauce
together. Our love may have dwindled,
but I still love a good latke.
Happy Hanukkah, everyone. Mazel Tov!
