[78-L] Benny Goodman

[Dave Burnham]

My wife was Jewish and when her parents were around, I'd hear one of them ask the other if Dave was around; when the other said, "yes, he's in the kitchen", that would be the last word I'd understand, they'd switch to Yiddish. 

Actually I can't remember them saying "is Dave around?", it was more likely "is the noodnik around". Never did find out what it meant but I don't think it was a compliment, nor a Russian satellite. 

db

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 26, 2016, at 10:13 AM, Donna Halper <dlh at donnahalper.com.invalid> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On 6/26/2016 9:19 AM, Jeff Sultanof wrote:
>> Most likely it *was *Yiddlsh, especially during that period. Among most
>> Jewish families, Yiddish was spoken in the home, and English was spoken out
>> in the world. Parents relied on children to teach them English, which they
>> learned in school and out on the street.
>> 
> I'd be shocked if it weren't Yiddish.  Most European Jewish immigrants 
> spoke Yiddish as their lingua franca-- it had different accents (folks 
> from Lithuania pronounced words slightly differently from folks who came 
> from Russia or Poland-- for example, you said "zy gezoont"-- you should 
> be healthy till next we meet... a way to say goodbye-- if you were a 
> Litvak, a Jew from Lithuania.  But if you were from Russia, you 
> pronounced it zy ge-zint), but it was the common language for Jewish 
> immigrants, and I grew up in a bilingual home as a result.  My parents 
> were born here-- my mother's side from Lithuania, and my father's from 
> Russia. Their parents and relatives were not born here, however, and 
> Yiddish was used both to communicate with the relatives and to speak in 
> a "code" when my parents didn't want us kids to understand what they 
> were saying (which is how I learned it). And yes, it's true that the 
> children were expected to learn English and translate for their parents 
> and other relatives, much like we see today with immigrants from China, 
> Vietnam, or Spanish-speaking countries.  As for Benny's mother, 
> biographers note that she never learned to read or write (schooling for 
> girls in many countries back then was limited or was not a priority).
> _______________________________________________
> 78-L mailing list
> 78-L at klickitat.78online.com
> http://klickitat.78online.com/mailman/listinfo/78-l