That's life: Adventures in apple picking

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Adventures in Apple Picking
Dear That’s Life,
Elul brings with it a number of different rituals. From blowing the shofar on a daily basis to saying selichot in the days leading up to Rosh Hashannah, people prepare themselves for the yomim noraim in many ways. As for us, we go apple picking.
Years ago we decided that it was important for our children to know that fruit came from trees — not from supermarkets. So, in addition to the special recipes I make specifically for this yom tov and the cinnamon and sugar challah I bake only for Rosh Hashannah, we take a drive out to the eastern end of Long Island and pick our own apples.
The orchard we go to is also part of the ritual. We have tried others before settling on this one and because of the apple orchard, the berry picking, the fresh flowers we can cut and the corn maze, everyone has a good time. Plus, some of the best pictures we take all year are taken on the day we pick apples.
Labor Day weekend out in the Hamptons was going to bring some additional traffic and although the orchard is technically in Water Mill, it is nestled in between all of these hot spots.  The parking lot was pretty full when we pulled up and we noticed an increase in customers the likes of which we were not accustomed. Clearly, we were not going to be alone with the Macintoshes.
We were picking our Galas as my youngest son threw himself down on the ground in a tantrum (prompting me to audibly exclaim, “Man down!” as I am accustomed to doing), while an attractive couple wearing sunglasses tried to maneuver around us and avoid stepping on the Wallach who was beating the ground with his fists. While I did not recognize her, I knew in an instant that the man in the khaki shorts was Rocco DiSpirito, celebrity chef and television personality. For those of you who are big fans of food television programming like I am, then you can appreciate my excitement as I began to silently freak out. (And to those of you who said, ‘What’s a Rocco?’ Just trust me that this is a big deal.)
No, I did not ask him for an autograph and no, I did not stop and take a picture with him. I’m a New Yorker, for pete’s sake, and we take things like this in stride. Of course, I did text as many people as I could think of who would appreciate the moment, but besides that, I stayed cool.
When my husband went to pay for all we had picked, he asked the proprietors if they had noticed Rocco. “Rocco, who?” was the response he got, but they did tell him Katie Couric had been there last week and some of the women from the Housewives of New York City reality show had been there that morning. Ironically enough, despite her annual income, Katie only had $60 on her and could not cover the $130 bill she had racked up. I guess she did not know that they did not take credit cards at the farm. She had to be directed to the nearest ATM. Had she asked me, I would have told her: cash or check only.
MLW
Expect the
unexpectable
Dear That’s life
After spending much of Sunday afternoon in the city, I opted to walk home from the Rosedale train station to enjoy the moderate weather. Being rather familiar with the area, as a lifelong resident and atuned with a city mentality, I ventured homebound taking in the quiet remnants of the day. Keeping my relatively brisk pace, despite a heavy backpack, I was well on my way when a car driving in the opposite direction slowed to a stop. At first I thought maybe they were lost and needed directions, but I quickly realized that they stopped because of me. The conversation went by quickly, while I was asked if I needed a ride and if I was comfortable walking in the area — I noted that I live right over the border in Nassau, expressed gratitude to the anonymous young frum couple for offering a ride, that I was fine and that I grew up in Rosedale and they need not worry. The last glance I caught before the couple drove off when I declined the ride was of slight confusion. Many newcomers don’t realize that the synagogue that they pass when driving on Francis Lewis Boulevard once housed a successful congregation and that Rosedale had an active, nice sized Jewish community and there are families still there.
I’d like to express great hakarat hatov to the couple that stopped to offer me a ride, it put a smile on my face and reminded me I will always be a Rosedale kid.
Tina Weiss
Valley Strea
“We are at a real deficit of $250,000,” Rabbi Elozer Kanner, one of the Hatzalah coordinators, told The Jewish Star. “The bank is borderline overdrawn from day to day. We release dribs and drabs to pay our bills based on what is in the bank.” Hatzalah had $10,000 in the bank as of Friday, he said.
Perhaps to demonstrate that from adversity arises opportunity, a young leadership group  has formed and will hold five simultaneous parlor meetings on Sunday in Cedarhurst, Woodmere and North Woodmere.
The purpose is “to reach out to the people who will be the pillars of the community in the next 20 years,” explained Moshe Ratner, a member of the committee and a Hatzalah volunteer. Most members of the committee are not Hatzalah members.
“There is a whole committee of young men who are stepping up to the plate and saying, ‘What can we do to help?’ Its really very gratifying,” said Rabbi Kanner, who bears much of the fundraising burden himself.
Mendy Haas, Shalom Jacobs, Alon Goldberger, Aron Solomon, Avi Goldstein, Moishe Reich, Sholom Jacobs, Uri Dreifus, Avi Dreyfuss, Ushi Klein, Elliot Gluck, Jeremy Frenkel, Dovi Faivish, Yisroel Wasser, David Sokol, Moishe Reich and Avi Kahn are also on the committee. Two others, Meir Krengel and Avi Davis, are also Hatzalah volunteers.
Most of the group lives in Cedarhurst and Woodmere, where fundraising efforts are being concentrated, “because a lot of the support for the [annual Hatzalah] barbeque doesn’t come from here,” explained Ushi Klein, 33. “The age group at the barbeque is usually much more mature.”
Rabbi Kanner agreed.
“Traditionally, much of our support came from Far Rockaway, Lawrence and from [the] middle-aged and older,” he said. “Young people are facing the challenges of tuition, families, parnasah [livelihood] problems and, what should I tell you? They’re obviously finding it hard.”
Only twenty percent of families in the Hatzalah database have written a check to the organization this year; overall fundraising is down about thirty percent in 2009, Rabbi Kanner said.
In addition to the overall drop in contributions, the deficit is also attributable to the recent purchase by Hatzalah of a site in Woodmere where a new ambulance garage and training center is planned. $200,000 was raised for the purchase; another $400,000 was taken from the operating budget and only some was replaced.
Two ambulances, including one that is brand new, are currently parked outside the Edward Avenue Shul, just off Peninsula Boulevard. Hatzalah would like to get them indoors, both in order to protect the vehicles, which are valued at about half a million dollars, and to protect “medications on board the ambulances [that] are sensitive to extremes of heat and cold,” said Rabbi Kanner. In addition, snowfall slows ambulance response, he said, when ambulances are parked outside. “When you have the ambulance inside, you come and you drive off,” rather than first having to brush the snow off, he explained.
Hatzalah will have a hearing before the Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals in November. If it goes well then a groundbreaking and a fundraising campaign will follow, Rabbi Kanner said. “If neither the community at large, nor an individual [steps up] to the plate then we will not be able to build this building.”
The garage portion of the facility is to be named after Mark Davidman, a”h, a Hatzalah member who was killed in a motorcycle accident and “is sorely missed,” Rabbi Kanner said. He expects to name the training facility after a different individual designated by a donor.
“Although we look forward to building a new building, we’ll always remember with gratitude the hospitality that has been provided to our ambulances by the Edward Avenue shul,” Rabbi Kanner added.
The young leadership committee of Chevrah Hatzalah doesn’t plan to stop with the parlor meetings,  Ushi Klein explained.
“My hope is to form a young initiative committee for Hatzalah to host a separate event every year specifically targeted to these communities and to people who don’t normally go to the barbeque at The Sands.”
Klein is grateful to Hatzalah for treating his daughter after an accident in the home one Friday night last year and hopes others will attend the parlor meetings on Sunday evening and bring their checkbooks. “Whatever they can give will be appreciated,” he said.
“It’s not so much dollars and cents as community-wide support — that’s what we’re looking for,” Ratner said.
“Everyone will agree that there is a very large younger crowd moving in, and they seem to take it for granted that, wherever you move from, Hatzalah is just a resource in the community. As people move in, the call volume goes up, and it translates into money. Every oxygen mask, every diesel fill-up ... it’s never been like this ... even the hospitals are surprised. They think we’ve changed our destinations. We haven’t changed anything. We’re just going there more often.”
Issue of September 11,  2009 / 22 Elul 5769

Dear That’s Life,

Elul brings with it a number of different rituals. From blowing the shofar on a daily basis to saying selichot in the days leading up to Rosh Hashanah, people prepare themselves for the Yomim Noraim in many ways. As for us, we go apple picking.
Years ago we decided that it was important for our children to know that fruit came from trees — not from supermarkets. So, in addition to the special recipes I make specifically for this yom tov and the cinnamon and sugar challah I bake only for Rosh Hashannah, we take a drive out to the eastern end of Long Island and pick our own apples.
The orchard we go to is also part of the ritual. We have tried others before settling on this one and because of the apple orchard, the berry picking, the fresh flowers we can cut and the corn maze, everyone has a good time. Plus, some of the best pictures we take all year are taken on the day we pick apples.
Labor Day weekend out in the Hamptons was going to bring some additional traffic and although the orchard is technically in Water Mill, it is nestled in between all of these hot spots.  The parking lot was pretty full when we pulled up and we noticed an increase in customers the likes of which we were not accustomed. Clearly, we were not going to be alone with the Macintoshes.
We were picking our Galas as my youngest son threw himself down on the ground in a tantrum (prompting me to audibly exclaim, “Man down!” as I am accustomed to doing), while an attractive couple wearing sunglasses tried to maneuver around us and avoid stepping on the Wallach who was beating the ground with his fists. While I did not recognize her, I knew in an instant that the man in the khaki shorts was Rocco DiSpirito, celebrity chef and television personality. For those of you who are big fans of food television programming like I am, then you can appreciate my excitement as I began to silently freak out. (And to those of you who said, ‘What’s a Rocco?’ Just trust me that this is a big deal.)
No, I did not ask him for an autograph and no, I did not stop and take a picture with him. I’m a New Yorker, for pete’s sake, and we take things like this in stride. Of course, I did text as many people as I could think of who would appreciate the moment, but besides that, I stayed cool.
When my husband went to pay for all we had picked, he asked the proprietors if they had noticed Rocco. “Rocco, who?” was the response he got, but they did tell him Katie Couric had been there last week and some of the women from the Housewives of New York City reality show had been there that morning. Ironically enough, despite her annual income, Katie only had $60 on her and could not cover the $130 bill she had racked up. I guess she did not know that they did not take credit cards at the farm. She had to be directed to the nearest ATM. Had she asked me, I would have told her: cash or check only.
MLW
Dear That's Life,
After spending much of Sunday afternoon in the city, I opted to walk home from the Rosedale train station to enjoy the moderate weather. Being rather familiar with the area, as a lifelong resident and atuned with a city mentality, I ventured homebound taking in the quiet remnants of the day.
Keeping my relatively brisk pace, despite a heavy backpack, I was well on my way when a car driving in the opposite direction slowed to a stop. At first I thought maybe they were lost and needed directions, but I quickly realized that they stopped because of me. The conversation went by quickly, while I was asked if I needed a ride and if I was comfortable walking in the area — I noted that I live right over the border in Nassau, expressed gratitude to the anonymous young frum couple for offering a ride, that I was fine and that I grew up in Rosedale and they need not worry. The last glance I caught before the couple drove off when I declined the ride was of slight confusion. Many newcomers don’t realize that the synagogue that they pass when driving on Francis Lewis Boulevard once housed a successful congregation and that Rosedale had an active, nice sized Jewish community and there are families still there.
I’d like to express great hakarat hatov to the couple that stopped to offer me a ride, it put a smile on my face and reminded me I will always be a Rosedale kid.
Tina Weiss
Valley Stream