Mom may have given up a lot, when we all moved from High Prairie to Edmonton, such as working with Dad, and being active in the town, but I think in some ways, she managed to find an outlet.
One of my earliest memories, is the Haddash Baazar. Mom was very active in it, and come that time of year, I remember looking forward to the big day. I mean the house would have all sorts of stuff in the basement, to be sorted, then sent out to the Baazar. It was big too, as it was in the local sports complex, but I remember the time as being when Bubbah Becky would be over a lot more, helping with baking.
And it was nice too, because while they made all those home goodies I loved, like Cinnimon Buns, Strudel even, she always managed to make me something to nibble on. Guess it is why I was never a skinny runt.
The smells were so mouth watering, and the house was always jumping with people phoning, dropping stuff off, or just showing up to help. Funny how that has all changed today, where the sense of community seems to have passed away, like so many other things. Oh sure, there is one here, but so tiny in comparison, so, well uninviting.
Maybe it is me, I don’t know, but things have changed. No more sense of real community, least not for us. I mean we dropped off a lot of stuff once, and hardly a word passed. Hardly even a notice today of when the Baazar is happening, or if it is. I miss those times, and you know, I think Mom does too.
It was like you felt you belonged, to something beyond just those immediately around you. There was that ‘small town’ feeling, even in a big city like Edmonton. Everyone knew everyone, didn’t matter which Shul they went to, or if they even went, they were Jews, and came together. Today, it is like a collection of people who have little in common. Maybe I am being bitter, I don’t know, but I miss those days of going to the Baazar, of smelling all that Jewish Cooking, of hearing a thousand different voices, speaking in different languages, and yet not, because everyone was chattering away in Yiddish.
When Mom passes on, that feeling will too, because there just isn’t that sense of community anymore. Call it what you will, modern times, progression, whatever, but you know, the old time values, the old time beliefs, are dying out, as the older generation moves on to God.
Strange how ‘modernization‘ isn’t really all it is cracked up to be.