The Parakeet Named Dreidel
The first blog started with thoughts about the value of reading. Particular Place and People centers around reading. The main character, Linda talks about the books she reads as she becomes older. I did not mention the book, Black Beauty. Next to Little Women, Black Beauty was my favorite. I just bought the original 1877 edition on Amazon. When we are young, we may lack the experience to appreciate all a book offers. New movies of Little Women and Black Beauty entertain us because screenwriters find fresh meaning in the original work.
Books may bring us together. I used to read to my daughter every night. I remember falling asleep right after reading and quietly getting up. I read her the books for her generation: Good Night Moon, Hungary Caterpillar, and The Giving Tree. The last book made me cry every time I read it to her. If I reread it today, I would cry.
One night, she asked me to tell her a story. I told her the short story “The Parakeet Named Dreidel” by Isaac Singer.
Here is the story summarized:
When young David and Mama and Papa are celebrating Hanukkah one frosty winter evening in Brooklyn, Papa sees a parakeet sitting on the window ledge. He lets the parakeet in and everyone is delighted to find that it speaks Yiddish. They name it Dreidel and it becomes part of their family. Many years later, when David is in college, he is at a party one night and tells Dreidel's story―only to discover that Zelda, a young woman at the party, owned the bird herself as a child. Papa and Mama are worried that they will have to give their beloved pet back, but then David and Zelda decide to get married after college, and everyone agrees that they should take Dreidel with them as they start their own family.
She loved my storytelling. That became a tradition for a while. As an adult, she recommended books for me to read. She suggested Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Everything is Illuminated. This powerful book connected me to my family’s past in Lithuania. Without her recommendation, I may not have found it.
A reading coincidence happened last night. My daughter set up my website and posted my first blog. As you recall, I mentioned Master and Margarita. She emailed me that she read this book over ten years ago because a singer, Regina Spektor, said it was her favorite book. “What are you reading these days?” is always a worthwhile question. Books and oral storytelling bring us together. I love meeting people who have read one of my favorite books. An immediate bond occurs.