Recently we spent several days in the Baltimore—Washington area. It was President’s week. No longer are Feb 12th and Feb 22 chosen as special days to note. When we went to school Lincoln and Washington were not linked together. We had two separate days off whenever and whatever day of the week their birthdays fell on.
Obviously during the many years that we lived (abroad) in Montreal there was no mention of President’s anything. Interestingly they also do not celebrate the birthday’s of any of their most famous Prime Minister’s. A great plus for us living in our new home is the constant reminder of patriotism in this country and the commemoration of important people that helped to sculpt the land that we live in. One of course being Martin Luther King. We recently saw the movie Selma and do suggest that everyone make it a point of watching it.
However, what we really want to make note of is one of the reasons that President’s Day stays in our memories. We knew that we were getting married long before we told our parents. It is difficult to express those thoughts to loving, caring adults when you are seventeen and eighteen. Although we were determined and they knew that we were, they were unable to wrap their minds around such a thought. In order for us to do something positive to make ourselves feel as though we were moving forward towards our goal we went to a President’s Day sale at Fortunoff’s in Westbury. How sad it is that the store no longer exists. There was no household item that you could not get there as well as gorgeous jewelry. The only things that they did not carry were clothing. We pushed through the crowds who were there looking to buy holiday specials and came upon our first purchase for our new home. It was a black hamper. What we were thinking in retrospect we cannot figure out. It was probably just a statement that we were making about the fact that our relationship was for real and no one would be able to try and stop us. The hamper stood in Nina’s bedroom in her parent’s home for almost 3 years. As soon as we moved into our luxurious rental on the corner of 184th Street and Amsterdam Avenue our hamper came with us and for many years our laundry would be stored in it. It also came in very handy because everytime we moved it served as a perfect receptacle to store various things in. As our family increased we realized that we had outgrown our hamper and if we look around today we do not think that anyone has a hamper anymore. Another relic of the past. It has gone the way of the diaper pail. Diaper pail one might ask. What is that? We explained to our granddaughter in Baltimore several days ago, that while at YU, and even after we left there we washed our own diapers! What she said? Nina explained how we would rinse them out in the toilet bowl (not always the most pleasant experience) and then put them into the diaper pail which stood next to the crib. Every few days one of us would go downstairs to the laundry machines in the basement of our apartment building and wash the diapers. Who can imagine? We remember that several weeks before we were leaving Washington Heights women dressed as nurses appeared in all of the local parks trying to “sell people” on the idea of using paper diapers called Pampers. These women were looked at as if they had lost their minds. Today in our lifetime if someone were to suggest that we should use cloth diapers on our babies and wash them ourselves we would certainly be looked at as crazy. So many changes. All memories arising from the wonderment and excitement of our black laundry hamper.
By Rabbi Dr. Mordechai & Nina Glick
