The Free Spirit

The First Holidays, 1957 (Part Three)

"Give me, give me some cherry cherry pie..."

In 1957, Hanukkah started at sundown on Tuesday, the seventeenth of December - or the twenty-fifth of Kislev, the ninth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. "There are twelve months on the Hebrew calendar," I explained to my husband on the plane when we were departing to England on Sunday, the fifteenth of December. "There's Nisan, which is around Easter time, and the start of the Hebrew year in which we celebrate Passover. There is also Iyar, which is late April/early May, Sivan, which is in May and June and in which we celebrate Shavuot - that's the day the Jewish people got the Torah - then Tammuz, which is June/July and also known as the month of the golden calf. Then there's Av, in which we celebrated Tisha B'Av, which is a fast to respect the day the Holy Temple was set aflame. After that is Elul, in which we celebrate Rosh Hashanah - Mum used to wake us up every morning blowing the shofar, which is a horn blown every morning from the first of Elul to Rosh Hashanah - and then Tishrei, in which on the tenth of the month, we celebrate Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar - this is in September/October now. Then Marcheshvan, in which they say the Great Flood happened, then Kislev, which we're in now - it is I believe the twenty-third day of Kislev now. Then is Tevet, then Shevat - your birthday falls in Shevat - and then Adar. Are you still with me?"

"...wow. I didn't even realise that Jewish had its own calendar and all that," he said to me, astonished at all of the information I had just fed him.

"Judaism, love. The people are Jewish, the religion is Judaism," I told him, giving him a light kiss on his lips. "I hope you were paying attention, because my mother will quiz you on it."

"On second thought, I think I'll stay home," he said, feigning getting out of his seat.

"Don!" I cried, pulling him back down. "I'm only kidding! And it's too late anyway, we're already leaving the airport..." I paused for a moment. "Are you nervous to meet my parents?"

"Your dad, not so much... but your mama sounds frightenin'," he replied, and I laughed. "She isn't that bad... I also may have promised my former coworker a date with you."

"You did what now?" I laughed again, having written to Trixie about a week ago telling her that she was right, I did indeed marry Don Everly of the Everly Brothers, and that she could come and meet him if she liked while I was home. I didn't actually promise her a date with him, but it was fun to tease him. We dozed off on the plane, then arrived in England several hours later. At the London Airport, I led my husband down into the Tube, and he was quite fascinated with the business of it. "Hey, it's like New York City!" he said excitedly.

"It's less confusing than New York City, my love," I told him, taking his hand and leading him towards the District Line. Once we were on, I checked the overhead map to make sure I remembered where I was going. "We'll be able to ride this train all the way to the Stepney Green station, and then its a short walk home." We rode from the West End to the East End, listening to the announcer call stations such as 'Westminster', 'Charing Cross' and 'Blackfriars'. I started paying attention as soon as I heard 'Tower Hill' being announced, and three more stops spat us out at Stepney Green. As we climbed out of the Tube station, my husband seemed excited to see the beautiful city of London like he had always heard about, expecting to see Big Ben as soon as we stepped outside, but he was quite disappointed with the sight that met his eyes. There were old buildings still crumbling, and still falling apart from the war that ravaged through here and destroyed the town only seventeen years ago. Buildings were run down, a smell of industrialisation littered the air and the bright fashions he had heard London girls wore were nonexistent in these parts. "It might not be the London you were dreaming of, but it is home. Come on, now. Just a few streets this way and we'll be there."