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

Photo by MarashGirl©2022

Patsy and Eddie . . .

Seeing sidewalk art (check out yesterday's blog post) brought Marash Girl back to the days of Claflin (Elementary) School . . . and the two who were sweethearts very early on . . . was it second or third grade? Their classmates used to chant to them: Patsy and Eddie sitting in a tree, K-i-s-s-i-n-g! First comes love, Then comes marriage, Then comes Patsy with a baby carriage!" N.B. Whoops! Forgot to mention that we're celebrating Abraham Lincoln's birthday! Happy Birthday, President Lincoln!

Yegoor, Bahchig Daahm!

Marash Girl forwarded the following illustration to an Armenian friend who resides in the Middle East (parenthetically, a friend she has never met . . . or kissed!): "Yegoor, yelag daahm!"(which translates from the Armenian into English, "Come, I'll give you a strawberry . . .")

Illustration taken from the internet. Her friend's response? "Yegoor, bahchig daahm!" (...which roughly translates, "Come, I'll give you a kiss!") . . . a phrase typically used when an adult is speaking to a young child in response to the child's offering something . . . But, hey! Marash Girl will take it!!! Note: The "a" sound in Armenian rhymes with the "u" in the English word "drum".

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?

Miss Peoples and the 12 Inch Ruler

Driving by the "play area" bordering the back door of Frank Ashley Day Junior High School last week, (the door through which students attending Day Junior High School entered when the school sponsored dances for the students) reminded Marash Girl of the then assistant principal, Miss Peoples (Marash Girl can't believe that she still remembers that name) and the 12" rule! Day Junior High would sponsor monthly or bimonthly "record hops" (dances where the music was not live but rather provided by a would be "disc jockey" (probably one of the teachers) playing popular music from his record collection over the PA, i.e.,public address system. The music was often romantic, slow and sensuous, an encouragement for students to dance slowly and very close to one another, much to Miss People's dismay. As it happened, Miss Peoples kept a 12 inch wooden ruler by her side -- probably left from her days of teaching mathematics to 7th graders. Miss Peoples (and this is the truth, so help me . . .) would approach every dancing couple, and, using her 12 inch ruler, measure to make sure that the students were distanced sufficiently to fit the 12 inch ruler between what she deemed to be the two young (potential) lovers! Marash Girl wonders if any of the Frank Ashley Day Junior High School graduates of that day remember those dances in the gym and the indignity of being found remiss by Miss People's 12 inch ruler....

"NO PARKING AFTER DARK!"

"NO PARKING AFTER DARK!" But that means we can't "park" or walk along the Charles River tonight to celebrate New Year's Eve! Not fair!!!!

Photo by MarashGirl©2021 N.B. In the 1950's, to "go parking" was a slang expression meaning to take a person of the opposite sex in your automobile and to park your automobile in a secluded spot with the express purpose of "kissing or caressing" the person with whom you were parking.

BMB LOVES BMB!

Yesterday's blog picturing love memorialized in stone, as it were, or more precisely inscribed in cement, brought to mind an incident from Marash Girl's childhood . . . Once the young 'uns in the family and the neighborhood learned that the boy next door had the same intials as Marash Girl, it was all over for both the boy and Marash Girl . . . the chants of "BMB loves BMB" haunted the two for months, thus ensuring that both the boy and Marash Girl would rarely look at each other again, much less greet each other! N.B. Barry, should you be reading this blog, Marash Girl is sending her "love"!!!

Carved In Stone . . .

A love carved in stone . . . (or cement, to be more precise!)

Photo by MarashGirl©2021

On Being Armenian . . .

It is said that Armenians pray in Armenian and swear in Turkish. The question is, in what language do Armenians make love?

FOR THE LOVE OF BOOKS . . .

Marash Girl woke up this morning remembering Jimmy, the man who used to work in (or was the head of) the used book department at the Salvation Army Store on Boylston Street, Boston, all those many years ago. Jimmy loved books so much that he actually had to move from the apartment he was renting in Boston, to an apartment twice the size in order to make room for the loves of his life . . . his books!