Gerry Summons Up The Past

On September 13, 1945, just after World War II
ended, Gerard Sarnat was born. I was called Gerry for short. But if
you take my name back to the little Polish village my grandparents
were from, way back to the Gesundheits and Sarnatzkys, back to before
Sarnatzky somehow got shortened up at Ellis Island and German
Jerrys made Gesundheit super unpopular after World War I
and before we got Frenchified; I’m really Gesundheit Sarnatzky.

Before I toddled on The Lower East Side and not poor any more,
when my Zeyde* died, we lived with my grandmother up three flights of stairs.
Bubbe* was always there, staring off in the distance, or on the floor
feeding matjes* herring to fatten me up, or spoiling her boychick*
on dill pickles Mom hated but never summoned the nerve to say Stop.

Though a Gaelic nickname, gift for gab, and auburn sidecurls; skulking home
after class let out, Irish gangs kicked my ass, called me Girlie and Kike.

My parents were off working, but Bubbe comforted me while I cried.
When she held me tight and wore short sleeves, I had a good look and practiced
my numbers. If she noticed, Bubbe stood up and put on a sweater.

When Bubbe passed, Dad told me what they were called but never said a word
about why they were there. What I do know is that I never got any
put on my skin. Which wasn’t a big deal since they weren’t the rage like when
my youngest daughter got one on her neck which caused me a lot of grief
though I bit my tongue. Perhaps just a coincidence, but I became
a plastic surgeon who removed tattoos folks wanted to move on from.

Traveling to Eastern Europe with my wife and grown children and families,
we track down Skidel, the tiny shtetl* where my Bubbe was once from.
I tell them the whole story, that the solid red brick is like grade school
on the corner of Orchard and Delancey was. It’s almost lovely.
A bird sings. Grassy railroad track ties fade toward the horizon. Auschwitz.



  * In Yiddish, Zeyde means Grandfather; Bubbe, Grandmother; matjes, brined; boychick, term of endearment for a little boy; shtetl, poor village in Eastern Europe