Chapter 6, Wedding
Do you remember my Uncle Rone? You know, the one that took me to Tel Aviv and gave me too much to eat, and you know what happened later. The one who took me to the beach and gave me my “white butt”. Uncle Ronny is my father's younger brother. Dad is the oldest, next in line is Aunt Rosette, Aunt Fortune, Uncle Ronny, and the youngest is Uncle Claud. Uncle Ronny was getting married. He was marrying my Aunt Claudine, or in Hebrew, Rachael, my mom's younger sister. Isn't it cool? Two brothers marring two sisters. Their kids are going to be like my brothers and sisters – more than just cousins.
Aunt Rachael is very beautiful. She is slim with big smiling eyes and long black hair that fall straight down her tall back. Aunt Rachael was a secretary for the union. Sometimes she took me to work with her. She lets me play with the paper clips, and I made long colorful necklaces, attaching the clips together, wrapping magazine paper around each one of them and gluing it together. This is a gift for Mom, I would say, and Aunt Rachael would answer, "and it is a very pretty gift."
I like to be with Aunt Rachel, and Aunt Rachael likes to be with me. We are good friends. When Mom was sick and I was little, before Avi was born, Aunt Rachael used to help me go to the bathroom. Later on sometimes when she went to the bathroom at work and I needed to go too, she took me to the ladies’ room with her. Obviously, she couldn’t take me to the men's room.
I was with Mom and her older sister, Aunt Marie, in the ladies’ room of the party venu helping Aunt Rachael get ready for the wedding. Mom helped her with the makeup, Aunt Marie helped her with the hair, and I held the hair pins and brush. Aunt Rachael looked so beautiful. Her long black hair was arranged like a tower on her head and long curls came down her soft cheek. Mom called those curls bottles, I don't know why, they didn't look anything like bottles.
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| Art by Sarah Tibi |
"O, oh," said Aunt Rachel. "Can you believe this? All day I've been trying to go to the bathroom and couldn't. Now that I'm all dressed and made up, I must go, and I don't think I can hold it much longer."
"It couldn't be so," Mom said. "What are you going to do?"
"We'll have to help her," Aunt Marie said very matter of factly. "You! Young boy. Go open the toilet's door and hold it open! “Ida," she said to my Mom, "hold the bottom of her dress on the left side. I'll hold the right. When I say go, we'll both pick up the dress above her head. Carefully, not to ruin the hair do. Claudine, you walk backward to the stall and do your thing."
"O.K." Aunt Rachael said a few moments later, "I'm done. Now what do we do?"
Again it was Aunt Marie who came to the rescue.
"Up," she said. "Come forward. young boy!" She always called me that. "Pull a long strip of toilet paper and come over here. Give it to me!" she commanded when I looked at her, opening my eyes big, like asking, what am I going to do with it?
"Over here, hold this," she pointed to the dress where she was holding. I rushed to her with the paper and tried to hold the dress where she asked me, but she is much taller than me. I held the dress underneath her and the rest of it fell on my head covering practically all my body.
"It's better that way" Mom said. "This way he can't see what is going on down there."
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Matbucha / Makbuba
A Moroccan or Tunisian Cooked Salad. It is served on small dish to accompany any meal. We take a little with a spoon and add it to whatever we eat. Between bights or to mix with the bight we are eating. It could be made spicy hot, or mild to not at all.
Ingredients:
3-4 Ripe Tomatoes
4 Sweet Peppers
4 Hot Green Peppers
8-10 Cloves of Garlic
½ Cup Oil
1 TBSP Paprika
½ tsp Cayenne
1 tsp Salt
A Pinch of Sugar
1 TBSP Tomato Paste
Directions:
Roast the peppers, put in covered bowl and peal when they cool down.
Put the Tomatoes in boiling water for half a minute and peel them. Chop them and cook for 5 – 10 minutes after they start boiling. Add all ingredients except for tomato paste.
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