A horror show at her grandparents’ house
A Jewish woman recalls what happened during a sleepover with older relatives during her childhood
Photo by deviantart.com
As editor of the Yiddish section at the Forward, I often come across wonderful anecdotes that people share on social media about growing up with Yiddish-speaking relatives.
Debi (Devora) Nevel Drecksler is one such writer. The author of I Saw Bubbi in the Mirror: Life Stories of a Jewish Girl Raised in the 50s often posts childhood memories on Facebook, with such a vivid gift for detail that I almost feel like it could have been my own.
I recently found a post of hers on Facebook, about a childhood incident in the 1950s, that was so good I had to share it:
When I was a little girl, I begged my parents to let me sleep over at my Bubby and Zaydie’s apartment. They finally consented.
That night Bubby made a delicious chicken dinner in her big pot. She and Zaydie conversed in Yiddish as I gobbled up my food. She cooked differently than my mother (more old country) and I loved it.
After dinner, we sat in their comfy living room until I grew very tired. Bubby tucked me into their bed. I would be sleeping in the middle of the two of them.
Hours later, I woke up abruptly and started to scream. There was enough light in their bedroom to see two drinking glasses, one on each nightstand. In the glasses were teeth soaking in a liquid.
Both my grandparents woke up and tried to calm me down. I stared at them in horror. They were these two toothless people who looked like strangers to me. “Where is my Bubbie and Zaydie?” I cried. “What have you done with them?”
My Bubby got up and ran to the phone in the kitchen. I could hear her talking to my father in Yiddish. Thirty minutes later, my father came to take me home. He gave his parents big hugs and they chatted for a few minutes in Yiddish.
On the ride home, I was relieved when my father told me that everything was alright and that no one was upset with me.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
