Special to Lehigh Valley Source
Hello friends
Last Friday I finished work early enough to attend with Debby the second commemoration of the death of Dave Lelchook from Sa'ar. Dave was killed in a rocket attack outside of his home during the war with Hezbollah three summers ago. His friends had chosen to honor him by playing three abbreviated softball games that enabled a representation of all of the Israel Softball Association's teams to participate. Delegations of players came from as far as Eilat to participate in the tournament.
Dave's family is also drawn here for the event, including his family in the US. [He is from Newton Center, Massachusetts]. There is always a short ceremony between games.
Debby and I brought our patio chairs and sat along the third base sideline under one of the few trees that grow near the infield. We sat next to Jane and Debbie [Sternberg] and caught up on news regarding Karni, Shelly's work at Nes Amim, Haley's senior year in high school.
Debbie S. is off to Asheville for two weeks and she discussed her flight itinerary. Evidently US Air has initiated flights to Tel Aviv. The airline flies to Philadelphia.
While we chatted, Bill hurled for six innings, which we consider an impressive feat for someone zeroing in on 60! His birthday comes in mid-November. We made a date for dinner or at least a drinking session at the Subaru Six [Noam's pub] for Friday evening.
The humid weather has been as disagreeable as it can be. "Hey", I can hear Bill say, with his long arms stretched like a besieged water carrier, "It's summer"! This may well be but while we were distractedly viewing one young left-handed batter who continually fouled Bill's pitches to the third base side of the infield [which means that Bill's stuff was far too fast for the batter who was having trouble getting the bat around on Bill's lightning pitches], the skies clouded, almost the way I remember the first signs of a mid-summer afternoon's New York downpour . The field fell into a shady respite and a breeze [now where did that come from?] coolly caressed our faces! All I can say was that I am glad I didn't miss it!
It reminded me of a family outing more than twenty years ago in Boulder.
It was mid-summer and as hot as one might expect it to be, although the town benefited from its elevation and the nearby mountains. In the afternoons storm clouds arrived as if on queue. They began their brief but raucous turbulence, a torrential shower enveloped the streets and then just like that, a shaft of sunlight broke through the cloud barrier, a steamy mist rose from the pavement, and "summer" returned.
Our boys only associated showers with our local winters and had summarily proclaimed that winter had arrived......early!
Debby found herself minding a very well behaved and very handsome Bernice Mountain dog, whose leash was firmly embedded beneath one of the legs of Debby's chair. It is a good thing too, because if the dog had become aroused at the specter of his owner rounding the bases, Debby may have made her unplanned debut onto the infield.
On Sunday it actually did rain. It began as a sprinkle and then "intensified". It fell short of a downpour, and if I was drenched, it would have been more from the humidity than anything else. A fifteen year old kid that is working with me described it as a "downpour" which is typical Israeli hyperbole for stretching the facts when the routines of summer are slightly unsettled.
Gilad has returned for the weekend with Marley [his female puppy]. Next week he will be here attending a wedding at Achziv for Noam, an Eilon native who has become involved with Ariel Silber's daughter. Silber, in case you are not aware, was the keyboard player for the successful and legendary rock group Tammuz. In recent years he has moved to Matat, a hilltop community that neighbors the old Sasa Taggart fort. From his home there he very publicly espouses his ultra-nationalist views while proceeding with his musical career. Evidently his daughter shares her father's beliefs and Noam whose principal love in life has been the farmyard livestock, has had to "sacrifice" his herd of goats and flock of sheep and other ungulates for the greatest passion of his life, who has ostensibly insisted on moving to a West Bank settlement. Evidently, his political views were not strong enough to resist this newer passion, and despite the wisdom and discouragement of his friends [and perhaps family] he has assented to live in the territories. Some people reckon that the wedding reception, if nothing else, should be colorful, perhaps with an interfusion of ultra-nationalist skull-capped die-hards commingling or not with their contemporary and sometimes leftist counterparts from kibbutz. As I expect that the wedding will be held at the reception center on the east side of the road, the most vital element will be missing, the beach front setting at or near sunset amid the numerous artifacts of antiquity that ally themselves with those wondrous crepuscular flourishes of light and adumbrated shadows before the sun's submergence into the sea; a wavery outline of time. Love-Barry
Enclosed is one of the various team portraits of the Shomrat-Adamit softball team that was taken in 1991. The late Dave Lelchook, who caught for the club, is kneeling at the right with a catcher's mask on his knee. Bill is standing behind him.
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