A Few Catskill Recollections

Many years ago, my late husband and I were at Grossinger's Hotel for a weekend. We were headed for the theater one evening after dinner and had to pass through the bar to get there. Standing at the bar chatting with several other men was none other than Dustin Hoffman, who was, by then, well known for having starred in The Graduate. I grabbed Marvin's arm and, in a whisper, said "Look! There's Dustin Hoffman!" He stared at me blankly and, in his normal speaking voice responded, "Dustin WHO?"

The bar was nearly empty at the time, so sound carried quite well - and the gentleman in question looked at us, smiled, and gave us a sort of half salute.

I never let Marvin live that one down! I was so embarrassed I couldn't get up the nerve to ask for an autograph!

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With another couple, my husband and I drove up to Homowack Lodge in the Catskills for a few days of R & R. One of the afternoon activities was an informal get-together in the lobby, with the social director conducting little Q & A session, that sort of thing. On that particular day, we were able to grab seats "front row center" - a comfy sofa - because our friends were ALWAYS the first to arrive anywhere.

The topic of that session turned out to be "Learn a Bissel Yiddish." Words were tossed out and the meanings discussed and/or explained. One word in particular caught my attention, since I remembered my Bubba having used it, so I was able to give the correct response. The word was "yahslis" or "yahslin" - "gums" (the mouth type.)

There was a group of folks there from Boston, who made the discussion quite lively, since they were members of a club where only grammatically correct Yiddish was allowed to be spoken at meetings. So we were learning some new things. Then it was asked if anyone knew what "ahgris" was. As it turns out, it's Yiddish for "gooseberries." On hearing that, my friend Lee looked at me, I looked at her, and the two of us exploded into laughter. Our husbands tried to calm us down but we only laughed harder. Of course, then we had to explain to everyone what we were
laughing about.

We had both - somehow - strung together "yahslin" and "ahgris" and had the same thought instantly. There was a lady in our town whose name was Roslyn Agriss. Nothing funny about that. But we had both made the same connection - and she had instantly become "Gums Gooseberry!"

I made the mistake of telling a friend about this - one who just happened to live directly across the street from Roz. He said hearing our story made it impossible for him to ever look at that poor woman again without losing it!

Footnote: All of the above - husband, friends, even Roz - are gone now. So it remains a memory for me alone - making it all the more precious.

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I would love to be able to recall the words to "Klainah Roitah Foorendickeh Mahntel" - "Little Red Riding Hood" - in Yiddish, which was recited to us by the Social Director at Homowack on that same occasion. I repeated the story many times but that was eons ago and I have forgotten it.

If anyone should happen to know the Yiddish version and is willing to share it - I would be very grateful!