Awake: 5:15am Temp 71 sleep 5+55 Overcast
elevation 797 ft. overnight @ Watertown, WI.
Late morning, Sallie talks Larry into driving us all to the town of
Columbus, WI. En route, Sallie notices a fresh strawberry stand where she
buys, I think, a ½ flat. Then we continue to Columbus. We are about (3)
hrs early for the advertised Horse & Carriage competition show (the
advertisement failed to post the time), so we sauntered around the
beautifully restored & newly built carriages & peered into the stalls of
their horses. Sallie realizes her time for cooking dinner for 13 people
tonight may be in jeopardy if we wait for this event to begin….so its back
into the Odyssey & down a different road which takes us through the town
of Waterloo & Lake Mills. Next we are pulling into a driveway where Larry
makes a cell phone call & asks Arnie: “could you come out to your
driveway?”
Arnie & his wife, Mary Jane, are interesting people. For the short time
that we had, we discovered that Arnie will be 80 yrs of age July 28th &
has many hobbies: roller-skate dancing; repairing electronic organs in his
basement + other devices; does wood carvings & takes good care of his wife
Mary Jane. During their younger days, they were world travelers. Arnie has
a pilot’s license & was active in Ham Radio but I don’t know if he is
still active. In their living room, Arnie demonstrated the electronic
organ & its sound characteristics & then played some snappy tunes. I am
confident he could have easily entertained us a lot longer but we needed
to move on. Tonight’s dinner preparation was calling Sallie & she needs to
do some serious grocery shopping.
Back @ the S & L house, Sallie takes the Honda Odyssey to go shopping &
Larry invites us to join him on a local tour driving one of his older
Cadillac’s. 1st though, we visit the Farm & Fleet Tractor store where he
returns a torque wrench that works intermittently.
Then it’s down the road to where(3) brothers have farm land & we begin
looking for one of the brothers. As we walk, Larry is pointing out what
the brothers have built on this property: a fiberglass shop with a lot of
tools & machinery but we didn’t venture inside; next we walk by a
brother’s underground home with only a southern exposure, but we didn’t
knock or want to disturb anyone. Then we follow a path leading us to a
small home built with bales of straw covered with a hard concrete. I have
pictures.
Obviously none of the brothers are around so we follow our leader, Larry’s
request to snap off a good amount of growing asparagus to add to tonight’s
dinner meal. It would have been interesting to meet with these phantom
brothers as I have many questions I would like answers for.
After a somewhat sober factory tour of Larry’s retired business of making
bins & removable arm extensions for garbage trucks & the tools, machinery
& equipment that remain, we return back to his home. Along the way
however, he does point out another house that belongs to one of the
brothers.
Sallie has returned from grocery shopping & is in high gear in the
kitchen. (3) of the ladies from Chicago have already arrived, dropped off
their suitcases & gone to the local outlet mall for shopping, but not for
groceries. Kathy volunteers to cut the ends off the green beans & de-stem
those fresh strawberries. I want to help so Sallie asks if I would shuck
about (2) dozen ears of corn, then break them in half. When I am finished,
Larry invites me upstairs to his office for some even more important work:
to discuss airplanes & machines, etc. Larry had accumulated some 4,500 hrs
of flying time so far. By the time Larry & I are finished with our highly
technical discussions, we are called downstairs into the less busy
kitchen. At this time, Kathy & I are being honored to meet their guests:
The (3) that drove up from Chicago: Debbie the driver, Rochelle & Vivian.
From Milwaukee: Elaine & Mel. From across the field: Sallie’s brother,
Bruce, his wife, Marsha, & 2 of their sons, Jeremiah & Micah.
Now I’ll let Kathy take over.
Monte and I feel privileged to have been included in Sallie & Larry’s
Sabbath celebration. Of the 13 people present, we were the only Gentiles;
S & L are orthodox Jews as are their friends from Chicago and Milwaukee
who have come to share the Sabbath. So, I will try to relate what I as a
Gentile understand of this happy and holy time.
To an orthodox Jew, Friday sundown to late Saturday evening is Shabbat
(Sabbath); meaning to “stop” or “cease.” As God created for 6 days and on
the 7th He stopped creating, so the orthodox Jews stop “creating” and
spend that 25 hour period getting back in touch with the meaning of it
all; a time to relate with their Creator and all He has given them. They
spend this time with friends and family giving to all the spiritual and
physical nourishment needed to grow as individuals in God’s love. By
commandments (mitzvahs) they are forbidden to do many things, things which
would in any way focus their attention away from God’s creative power and
love and onto their own ability to change things, such as; drive a
vehicle, watch TV or listen to the radio, turn lights on or off, talk on
the phone, pay bills, use any kind of writing implement, etc. Things like
money, pens, etc. (muktzak) must be set aside because they have no use
during the Sabbath. Cooking is also forbidden, thus Sallie’s need to have
all cooking done before sunset and in sufficient quantities to last to the
end of the Sabbath.
At 7:30 pm Shabbat began with special candle lighting by the women (for it
is woman who brings light into the home). The table was set with the
finest china. Ritual prayers (Kiddush) were said, led by Larry. Wine and
food were blessed (Bentched); wine drunk; songs chanted and everyone
washed their hands in preparation for eating the special bread (Challah).
The Friday evening meal is the most formal and has the most food served. I
don’t think I can remember all the food but it was all very tasty. A good
sampling is: gefilte fish, soup, roasted chicken, noodle kugel, several
vegetable dishes incl. the freshly picked asparagus, several salads, cake,
cookies, and fresh strawberries for dessert. When we were finished eating,
final prayers and blessings were prayed and sung.
After the table was cleared, we all spent time talking and/or reading.
Dishes cannot be washed until the end of the Sabbath. Monte and I returned
to our MH about 9:30.
High temp=85 Lights out:11:13 pm
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