Congratulations to Daniel J. Kroll of Epsom, N.H., who received a
bachelor of science degree in engineering and management from
Clarkson University on May 10, 2014.
Congratulations to Benjamin Roy Kroll of Epsom who has been
recognized on the Dean’s List for the Spring 2014 semester at
Norwich University.
Epsom Public Library
From time to time, patrons of the Epsom Public Library write book
reviews, essays, or, in this case, a story to be published in our
newsletter.
Mort Glazer is one of those patrons who is not only a voracious
reader but also an excellent writer. The following is his story,
“Revenge."
Readers’ Corner
Revenge
By Mort Glazer
I first met Jacob in the late 1940’s when he was visiting his Aunt
Sadie in Brookline, MA. My family lived next door to Sadie, and our
homes were set on the highest point of Brookline with a view towards
Boston, Cambridge, and beyond. Sadie was a warm and lovely lady, who
had the terribly tragic misfortune to lose both her sons and their
wives, along with 488 others, in Boston’s Cocoanut Grove fire, on
November 28, 1942. With the exception of paying the usual respects,
the neighborhood left her and her remaining two children to their
private grief.
I began to notice that at least two weekends a month, an extended
family would visit, one of whom was Jacob, along with who I assumed
were his grandparents. He would enter his aunt’s home, and usually
ten minutes later, he would emerge with a glove and tennis ball and
start playing stoop ball with himself against the stairs. Although
he was short for his age, and stocky from the waist down, with a
rather large rear end, his hands were very quick, and very few balls
got by him. Within ten minutes, his grandfather would come outside
and shoo him away, complaining that he was driving everyone in the
house crazy. So Jacob would go out in the middle of the street and
toss the ball as high as he could and then run under it as if he
were an outfielder. I use the word “run” loosely, as he was
extremely slow, but he was able to make these circus catches
nevertheless.
One Sunday, I decided to introduce myself to him and came out with
my glove and asked if he would like to play catch. Se we threw the
ball back and forth or played grounders. He caught everything within
his limited range, but if any ball did get past him or, God forbid,
he made an error, he would get red in the face, angry with himself,
and then we would resume play, as if to him it were life and death.
The balls he would throw to me became harder and eventually out of
my range entirely, although I was reasonably fast and had good
hand-eye coordination. His face was always twitching, either his
eyebrows going up and down or eyes blinking. The more irate he
became, the more he twitched, and occasionally he made squeaky
noises.
This went on for over a couple of months on the Sundays he would
visit, and on one hot August day we finally sat down under a shaded
tree and had our first conversation. He was 13-years-old at the
time, I guess, and I was going on 17. I asked him why he always came
with his grandparents, and he said his grandparents were dead.
“Those are my parents. I was a change-of-life child. It was a
mistake.”
I asked why he twitched, which set off a series of tics even worse,
and he said he remembered they started when he was around five after
he stepped on a broken milk bottle while walking barefoot in the
woods. He was rushed to the hospital and screamed at the doctor not
to cut his off his leg. He threw up, and the doctor was “pissed,” he
said. He’d had the tics ever since, and the kids at school were
always making fun of him.
They had plenty of ammunition. I was short, chubby, and a Jew. I
think we were the only Jews in Charlestown, and my father owned a
junkyard there, and no one was going to make him move because he was
a Jew. Some of these kids were in my class, and I was smarter than
all of them put together, and I used to piss them off when I raised
my hand to answer a question they were too stupid to know. So they
began to wait for me after school. But I knew every exit, which they
couldn’t cover since there were only eight of them usually, and they
preferred to stick together as a group. You won’t find many bullies
that’ll attack without friends around. So I would escape through one
of the exits; however, they would have lookouts, and although I was
able to get home safely most of the time (knowing every backyard
between my home and school) they would sometimes catch me and
surround me in a circle. They would shout, “Jakey, the fat Jewboy.
What’s with the crazy face, you filthy Jew?” Stuff like that. My
only defense was to act like I was crazy and charge at one of them,
and he would run away, cause I could never catch anyone. Then they
would make a circle again, and the same thing would be repeated,
until they got tired.
I told my father about it, and he says to me, “Don’t be a coward.
Fight them” I said there were too many. So, what does my father do?
He goes out and buys me boxing gloves. What, am I going to take my
boxing gloves to school? I got three older sisters, and no brother,
so I’m alone. No brother – no nothing This went on from the third
through the sixth grade, and I could never get my hands on one of
them.
Over the course of many Sundays, he told me more stories about this
guy named George Harrison, an older kid that would wait in doorways
for him to walk by. This guy was tall and lean with a face like a
wolf. I’d be walking along, then suddenly from behind I would feel
someone’s fingers wrapped around my throat, and he would say, “It’s
time to die, Jew!” or he would grab my arm and twist it behind my
back. He had this sick laugh. I was never so scared in all my life.
I screamed that my big brother would kill him, and he would punch me
hard and run. Then after about a year it suddenly stopped, and I
never saw him again.
Many years later, we met for lunch, and he told me he had decided to
confront Harrison. Jacob was then in his early 20’s and running his
father’s junkyard, never having finished college or heading off to a
profession. He said that one day he started thinking about Harrison
and was determined to have it out with him once and for all. He knew
where he lived, but first he went out and bought a knife and hid it
in his pocket. He knocked on Harrison’s door, not knowing if he
still lived there, and a woman answered. When he asked if George
Harrison lived there, she laughed and said, “He’s safely away. He’s
in Walpole State Prison, thank goodness, serving a life sentence for
murder and armed robber.” Jeez, I wanted to stick a knife in him so
bad. I guess I was lucky he wasn’t there, but, you know? The shame,
humiliation, and hate are still there, eating me up.
Whenever we met for lunch throughout the 50’s and even into the
60’s, his childhood was still very close to the surface. He wasn’t
the fat, undersized kid anymore; he was muscular from physical
labor, with grime embedded in his fingers. He had been in the army
reserves as an infantryman in 1962 and didn’t look like a guy one
would want to take on. In 1964 he married a girl named Miriam, and I
was an usher at his wedding. She was a school teacher and very much
in love with him. They had a son in April of 1967, and I went to his
son’s briss, and that was the last time I ever saw Jacob.
Some time in May of 1967, when war between Israel and the Arab
nations seemed inevitable, Jacob and some of his friends left to go
to Israel to fight, despite Miriam’s stricken hysteria and his
heartbroken parents. When the Six Day War started on June 5th, one
of his friends took a picture of him heading to the front in a truck
with other soldiers, all in uniform and shouldering or carrying
weapons. Standing next to Jacob was an older tall, blond,
broad-chested soldier with his arm around Jacob, just like the big
brother he’d always wanted. Jacob was beaming.
Jacob died from a gunshot in that war, and I sometimes wonder if,
before he died, he saw in the enemy the faces of those kids who had
picked on him, and was charging them... trying to catch them...
finally, at long last exorcising the shame.
Epsom Public Library News
Movie
The library will show the star-studded movie, The Monuments Men, on
Wednesday, June 11, at 7:00 p.m. George Clooney, Matt Damon, John
Goodman, Bill Murray and Hugh Bonneville play art historians or art
experts searching for paintings and statuary stolen by the Germans
during World War II. Movie critic Roger Ebert says that the movie
“adds something else as well: an appreciation of how hard it is to
get people to care about art when cities have been reduced to rubble
and whole populations wiped out. . . .The Monuments Men presents its
heroes as mice – skittering through the margins of history, trying
not to get stepped on. They’re mostly too old or out-of-shape to be
effective soldiers, and they’re aware that the combat troops they
pass in the field would support their mission only to the point
where they had to choose between saving a Picasso and getting
shot.[The movie presents] a realistic portrain of wartime, one that
shows the heroes being thwarted by higher-ups who aren’t bad people
but just have different priorities.”
We hope you’ll join us for an entertaining evening, complete with
popcorn and soft drinks.
Meal Management To The Rescue
On Wednesday, June 18, at 7:00 p.m., the library will host Nancy
Carlson, a certified professional fitness trainer with GetFitNH, who
will present “Meal Management to the Rescue.”
There’s no doubt that prepping and planning your meals is not only
crucial to achieving your best body, but also extremely challenging!
Today’s hectic lifestyles make “grab and go” a lot more likely than
“sit and relax,” Nancy says. Who’s got the time to prepare?
In this seminar Coach Nancy, a mom of six who homeschools her
children and is a full-time fitness professional, will guide you
every step of the way.
You will learn how to easily pull mealtime together for your family.
You’ll also walk away with a week’s worth of dinner meal plans plus
the ability to expand that to a whole month.
We hope you’ll join us. Get Fit, Epsom!
Organize Your Wishes For The Care You Want
The Concord Regional Visiting Nurse Association will present
“Organizing Your Wishes for the Care You Want” at the library on
Tuesday, June 17, from 1 – 2 p.m.
Advance care planning is making decisions about the care you would
want to receive if you happen to become unable to speak for
yourself. Your wishes are based on your personal values,
preferences, and discussions with loved ones.
Learn information, tools, and steps to help you plan for futue
medical care and treatment. You may obtain further information by
calling (603)24-4083.
Letter
To my constituents in Allenstown, Epsom, and Pittsfield,
This week, the House met, for the last scheduled session, to vote on
64 committee of conference reports. Many of these were controversial
bills where the House and Senate had taken different positions;
others were scheduling accidents, since the Senate met after the
House last time and even if everyone agreed on the substance,
amended House bills have to be approved by the House. Forty three
reports were approved by voice vote, with no discussion.
The most important bill we dealt with was SB369, revising the
Medicaid Enhancement Tax. This was an agreement reached between all
but one hospital and the state, where they agreed to pay their taxes
and not sue the state, and the state promised to lower the rate of
the tax and use all the proceeds for Medicaid payments and
reimbursements of uncompensated care. The deal protects the current
budget, but leaves about $200 million in extra payments promised
over the next two, with no extra revenue in sight. After some
explanations and discussion, it passed, 278-72. I voted against it
because it’s a short term fix, I don’t understand all the
implications, and cutting the next budget may be easier if we’re on
record as not supporting this agreement. Dan voted for it, because
he believes the issues will be easier to deal with in the context of
the entire state budget.
No committee of conference report was rejected; the closest was
HB1167, on exceptions from boiler inspection requirements. The House
had amended this to exclude home offices; the Senate rejected this
change. After some debate, it passed, 182-152, and home offices will
now subject residential boilers to the state inspection
requirements.
Interested readers can email me for my newsletter, with more details
than fit here.
Representative Carol McGuire
[email protected]
782-4918
Epsom Food Pantry
Well another good week at the Food Pantry. Our selection just seems
to get better all the time. The last few weeks we have had fresh
apples as well as onions. We have been fortunate to have meat given
to us along with some nice whole chickens. I want to remind all you
folks who do the home garqen not to forget a row for the Pantry,
Also at our last meeting we decided to try an evening session so on
June l6th we will be open from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM and give it a
trial run. Our main goal here at the Pantry is to accommodate our
members who work at different hours so they can participate at their
home Pantry.
Until next time, Priscilla
Obituaries
Carol Smith
Carol (Graeber) Smith died Saturday, May 31, 2014 at Concord
Hospital. She was surrounded by her loving family.
Carol was born January 29, 1961 in Philadelphia, PA, the daughter of
Raymond (deceased) and Carol (Stein) Graeber. Carol moved to
Fontana, CA in 1969 and graduated from Fontana High School. Carol
lived in Epsom for the past 16 years.
Carol loved nature and being outdoors. Animals and gardens were her
passion. She loved to laugh and dance and she especially loved
summer barbecues with her husband, children and grandchildren. She
loved people and was a very dear and loyal friend. Carol was also a
great decorator and enjoyed decorating her home for Christmas, her
favorite holiday. Decorating the Christmas tree was her favorite
part.
Carol is survived by her husband, Dean Smith of Epsom; her mother,
Carol Graeber; two brothers and sisters-in-law, Raymond Graeber and
Kati Simpson and Stephen and Angel Graeber, all of Fontana, CA; five
children, Teresa Drouin and her husband, Kyle of Pembroke, Jeff
Smith of Pembroke, Stephanie Smith, Dean M. Smith and Mariah Smith,
all of Epsom; three grandchildren, Jessica, Austin and Ariana; and
many aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins.
A Celebration of Life will be held at the Smith Residence, 324 North
Road in Epsom from noon until 8:00pm on Saturday, June 21, 2014.
The Cremation Society of NH is assisting the family
with arrangements. To view an online memorial please go to
www.csnn.com.
Donations for the memorial fund may be sent to the Smith Family, 324
North Rd., Epsom, NH 03234.
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