LIAR?
It's amazing what we remember. From grades 1-8, I attended a Hebrew Day School. My friend Dee Dee Marino went to Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, a Catholic School. The Rabbis at our School used to tell us of The Nuns and their Notorious Spanking Machine.
Still, in our own classroom nobody escaped Reb Chorufsky's ruler... He called everybody by their last name and would whack them on the head if they gave the wrong answer or fell asleep. It must have been a Jewish tradition handed down by the teachers.
My father grew up in Brooklyn and attended a "Chader" or after school Hebrew program. If he gave the wrong answer or talked in class, Rev Schmuel would yell "BESS" (thick Hebrew pronunciation of Bass!) "Vould you care to tell de cless how you came to det answer?" And then, like Reb Chorufsky, Rev Schmuel would whack him on the head with his own ruler.
Years later... My father became a Physician. He went to Cornell and became an attending Pediatrician at New York Hospital! He went back to Flatbush, Brooklyn to visit his mother. He happened to run into Rev Schmuel. on the street near his old Hebrew School.
"Hello Rev Scmhuel... do you remember me?" My dad said.
"Bess... is dat you?" Rev Schmuel said.
"Yes, Yes it's me Richard Bass" my dad says.
"So Bess... vat are you doin' now!? Rev Shmuel asks.
"I'm a Doctor! I am a Pediatrician and have a private practice!
"A medical doctor, Bess?" Schmuel says.
"Yes" my dad is bragging a little!
"LIAR!" (pronounced Lie ah) Schmuel barks and walks away.
My father says he was sure Rev Schmuel was annoyed that he didn't have his famous ruler with him!
This is one of my favorite stories
©Copyright March 8, 2005 by Robin Amy Bass
This story was related in response to the poem
"The Punishment Line"
©Copyright March 6, 2005 by Colin F. Jones