From Aleppo To The Shores Of The Charles River . . . Love Knows No Boundaries!

Photo by MarashGirl©2022

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, MOMMY AND DADDY!!!!

Marash Girl loves her mommy and daddy so much, but they are no longer with her . . . as both her mommy and daddy were angelic, each in his or her own special way, they have joined the angels in heaven. Marash Girl remembers her dad laughing as he told her the following tale. Peter's Marashtsi Friend: So, Peter, I hear you are getting married. Are you marrying a Marashtsi or an odar? Peter: I'm marrying an odar! Marashtsi Friend: Is she Italiatsi?(Italian?) Peter: Nope! Peter's Marashtsi Friend: Irrish? (spoken with a heavily rolled r) Peter: Nope! Peter's Marashtsi Friend: Eengleesh? (spoken with heavy Armenian accent) Peter's Marashtsi Friend: Vell, who you marrying? Peter: Ainteptsi! At which point Peter's Marashtsi friend started laughing and pushing Peter, recognizing that Peter had been teasing all along. Of course, Peter was marrying Jennie (Lucille Mae), the love of his life who was born and brought up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the beautiful younger daughter of Antepsi Armenian parents, Yester Bosnian and Garabed Vartanian of Aintab or Antep (the city known today as Gaziantep), both of Jennie's Antepsi Armenian parents having escaped the Armenian Genocide by fleeing Turkey and arriving safely in the United States of America early in the 20th Century. (More on Peter's parents escape of the genocide of the Armenian people in future blogs. Stay tuned!) And although very few folks had been invited to the wedding, as there was very little para in those days for a young couple to feed a large gathering, so many folks arrived at the Armenian Brethren Church in Watertown, Massachusetts, to witness Peter and Jennie's wedding, that the couple had to change the venue of the wedding service at the last moment, moving the minister, themselves, and all in attendance from the Armenian Brethren Church in Watertown, Massachusetts, to the Western Avenue Baptist Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a church large enough to accommodate the crowds that had gathered to witness the marriage of the young couple that was so adored by all! Note 1: odar (pronounced with a heavily rolled r) is the Armenian word for foreigner. Note 2: In the old days, and even today (as evidenced by the title of this blog), folks of Armenian origin self identified by the name of the city from which they hailed in the old country! For example, if they came from Aintep, they were known as Ainteptsis; if they came from Marash, they were known as Marashtsis! Get it?

Remove your shoes before entering the house . . . an "is-shoe" of contention!

When Marash Girl was living in Manhattan, and later in Cambridge, the custom was for visitors and residents alike, before entering, to remove their shoes and leave the shoes outside or just inside the doorway . . . thus, when Marash Girl married Marash Boy, she expected the same custom to prevail, but as in all marriages, opposites attract! Marash Boy saw nothing more anikramlī than requesting guests to remove their shoes before entering the house. Guess who won that argument!!!

Remembering Charlie Merrick and Norman Krim - - They Remembered It All!!!

Charlie Merrick (several generations older than Marash Girl) and Norm Krim (a generation younger than Charlie Merrick) . . . though neither knew the other, the Norm who lived in the East and one who lived in the West (the East and West of Massachusetts), both good friends of Marash Girl, both wih incredible memories . . . On different occasions (as the two never met), Marash Girl asked them the secret to their incredible memories . . . and they both had the same answer. "I write it down . . . ," Charlie in his yearly bound memorandum, and Norm in his little black book from the Harvard Coop. Oh, and let Marash Girl not to forget to add that they read their writings over on a regular basis, just to insure that they would remember those facts and incidents correctly!!! How Marash Girl misses Charlie Merrick and Norman Krim!!!

And Speaking of Depressing . . . or rather the Depression . . .

Marash Girl's father Peter would tell of folks who, during the Great Depression, used to go to the Bick in Cambridge, (better known as Hayes Bickfords), ask for a glass of water (which was without cost), pour tomato ketchup (also without cost) into the water, and gratefully drink . . . their nutrition for the day.

Line Dancing in Boston, Massachusetts

Marash Girl's recent chat with Professor Renato R. (Chato, as she knew him) called to mind the time Marash Girl, while at the Armenian Booth of the Fun Fair (an outdoor fair sponsored yearly by the International Students Association in Cambridge, Massachusets,) sold tickets for an Armenian dance taking place in Boston that evening, to a young Navaho man (a student at Harvard College at the time), tickets for the Harvard/Radcliffe/BU/Tufts/Jackson/Simmons Armenian Dance.... (a fundraiser for the Harvard-Radcliffe Armenian Club, as well as for the Armenian clubs of the other colleges and universities in the Boston area). Attending the event, while dancing the Armenian line dance at which Marash Girl's mother and father were "chaperones", Alan (her Navaho friend) commented that the simple Armenian line dance, the "bar" as it was called in Armenian, was eerily (Marash Girl's word) familiar, calling to mind the simple Navajo line dance. Two peoples geographically distanced, and yet . . .