Rocket for the 4th! Jerry’s stories keep giving

It’s been almost three years that I’ve been writing this column. At first it was just a recipe and a paragraph or two about the origins of the recipe or a humorous story to go with it.

One day when I was at a loss about what to write about, I took a chance and wrote about the birthday party my husband had when he was six years old, which included the three friends he was able to invite, gefilte fish, roast, kishka, kugels, rugalach and shlishkes. Add to that about 15 “greenas” (European-born) relatives dressed in shabbos attire, Moishe Oysher playing on the victrola and needless to say, it was hysterical. Question was, would readers enjoy it, or would they think it was inappropriate. Thankfully people said loved it and before I knew it, Jerry would come home from shul and rattle off the names of men in his section who loved the article. OK, he didn’t rattle off the names, it was more like, “Judy, so many people loved your article,” Jerry reported.

Curious, I asked “who?” He went on to explain it was men who sat near him in shul. He tried to describe them, but that didn’t work. He knew one was a lawyer, one owned a plumbing company, wasn’t sure what the third guy did but he was tall, funny and friendly and another was really nice and his wife and mother-in-law loved the column as well. 

The following week, when he came home from shul, he had regards from more people who like the column, and yes no names to go with compliments. I felt like I was on a game show and had to guess the names with useless facts that Jerry gave me about them. 

I’m glad to say that three years later, Jerry knows everyone’s name and loves their company in shul. Thanks for the compliments Sharon and Gideon Bari and Mrs. Feit. You too Mitchell Markowitz, Howie Lasky and Eric Hack.

Shout out also to Harvey Scheff, known as a great YU basketball player that Jerry always admired and whom he met at a recent dinner honoring coach Johnny Halpert. I’m honored that not only his friends, but that Jerry’s basketball cronies follow my column as well.