American Jewish Life

Had a nice breakfast with Aline at John & Sonia's.  After, we went down to Graveling Point just to view the water.  I dropped Aline off at the library--she was working noon to 5:00--then zipped home to dig into a task I've been putting off for weeks.
This entailed looking through forty or more issues of American Jewish Life, a tabloid-sized monthly published by our next door neighbor in Ewing, Sam Jacobs.  Why?  Because I wanted to find the articles I had written for the publication from about 1971 to 1975, when I started at Rider.
I tried my best to avoid reading much of them; otherwise, I never would have finished.  However, I dipped in to a few and was pleasantly surprised to find that, overall, they aren't bad.  I wrote on a wide range of topics, from the Munich Olympics massacre of Jewish athletes to the opening of a new bagel place in Trenton to the machinations of Henry Kissinger.  I interviewed the N.J. chancellor of higher education; lots of state, county, and municipal political hacks; a rabbi here and there; some entertainers and "personalities"; and a number of other people of note, including the last private owner of The Trenton Times.  He was a member of the prominent Kuser family and his great-grandfather had founded the paper in the late 1800's.  In hindsight, I think that sale in the nineteen seventies may have led to the newspaper's decline.
I often reviewed restaurants, which sounds like fun, but was my least favorite assignment.  They were invariably advertisers in American Jewish Life and Sam gave me to understand I should write favorable reviews.  I disliked that aspect, but wasn't honest enough, I guess, to refuse.
Sam paid me and pretty generously, too, and I enjoyed the work. However, caring for a home, husband, and four children left me strapped for time on occasion.  In those days, Sam had to drive a distance away to prepare the paper, bringing the typewritten copy to Somewhereville, where it was set in type and printed.  (How archaic that seems today!)
I had a bad habit of procrastinating with actually writing a piece after I had completed an interview or researched a subject. Several times, I remember having Sam hovering over me while I was at the kitchen table typing up the last few words of an article. As soon as I added the --30--, he would practically snatch it out of the typewriter, and rush out in his car.
Well, I meandered on about all this reminiscing longer than I had intended.  Besides the above, I went through one of my bottom cabinets, prepared two big boxes for the thrift store; went to B.J.'s and Wal-mart; left a large bag of books at the library, and so on.
Had a Skype call from the Sweetie of the East and enjoyed interacting with him while he ate breakfast, brushed Daddy's hair, and occupied himself with various baby matters.