Lovely column. Each year, when we roll lout the bamboo roof, I go on recall: -- conjuring up the sukkah my father built, with green canvas walls and pine schach that left its needles on the table, and that rewarded us with a distinctive smell. That's what I miss most every year.
Wonderful story, Gary! My very first Jewish communal programming effort was as a 15 year old USY'er in Omaha, Nebraska. Not many members of our Conservative shul had sukkot in their backyards, so I designed a simple plan and recruited a bunch of my teenage friends to build a sukkah for $20. We had about a dozen delighted takers. We had no idea what we were doing. On the first night of the holiday, a wind came "sweeping down the plain" and every single one of those sukkot collapsed. A valiant effort. The next year, we brought in adult reinforcements and it was a success. To this day, we use freshly cut corn stalks for schach, a rarity in Southern California where most use palm fronds. Hag sameah!
Lovely column. Each year, when we roll lout the bamboo roof, I go on recall: -- conjuring up the sukkah my father built, with green canvas walls and pine schach that left its needles on the table, and that rewarded us with a distinctive smell. That's what I miss most every year.
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach.
Each time I read this story, I love it even more.
Great.
Be well and love to the whole family,
Stewart Ain
Wonderful story, Gary! My very first Jewish communal programming effort was as a 15 year old USY'er in Omaha, Nebraska. Not many members of our Conservative shul had sukkot in their backyards, so I designed a simple plan and recruited a bunch of my teenage friends to build a sukkah for $20. We had about a dozen delighted takers. We had no idea what we were doing. On the first night of the holiday, a wind came "sweeping down the plain" and every single one of those sukkot collapsed. A valiant effort. The next year, we brought in adult reinforcements and it was a success. To this day, we use freshly cut corn stalks for schach, a rarity in Southern California where most use palm fronds. Hag sameah!