But you're Armenian . . .

Leo T.....ian started a new job with a Jewish wholesale fruit company in Western New England, a company serving all of the restaurants in the area.  Leo was hired to be one of their sales   representatives. On Leo's  2nd day on the job, the owner, who was Jewish, gave Leo the combination to the safe as well as access to the company check book.  Leo asked, "But don't you want to check me out before you give me access to all your money?" The owner simply replied, "But you're Armenian!"

'END BUSINESS WITH CONCENTRATION CAMPS'

                                   "END BUSINESS WITH CONCENTRATION CAMPS"

                                            Photo by Marash Girl taken at Wayfair walkout 

on Wednesday, June 26, 2019, in Copley Square, Boston, Massachusetts

Trading at Lunchtime in Newton Corner, Massachusetts

Marash Girl would carefully package lamejun and veggies every weekday for the kiddies' lunch only to learn that they had traded their lamejun lunch with the odar children for sandwiches of peanut butter and jelly on white bread. . . . . Go figure . . .

N.B. Odar=Non-Armenian

Martha and the Red Square

When sister Martha was a young girl, she loved to paint.  One day, she presented our family with a painting of which she was so proud.  It was a large red square on a sheet of white paper.  The family smiled politely and went on with their conversation, never dreaming that years later, not Martha, but a famous artist would have painted a red square, a painting featured at an exhibit at the University of Connecticut!

SITTING IN UNION STATION . . .

Sitting in Union Station awaiting the train heading for Boston, Marash
Girl noticed that the woman sitting opposite was knitting, but she was knitting in a way that
Marash Girl had never seen before.  At the beginning of each row, she would add two stitches, and at the end of each row, she would delete two stitches, thus creating a scarf that slanted its way all the way to what would soon be the end of the scarf.  Marash Girl approached the woman to ask where she was from  . . . as it turned out, the woman was from Germany, and often made scarves in that way, scarves that would slant their way to completion . . . Would that life could be so easy. . .

GRANDPA GARABED AND MARTA MAE

HERKES SEVSING MARTA MAE
MARTA HERKES SEVSINGLER.

AS MARTHA ROCKED IN HER LITTLE HANDWOVEN WICKER ROCKING CHAIR, GRANDPA GARABED VARTANIAN, HER GREAT GRANDFATHER, WOULD ALWAYS SING THE ABOVE DITTY TO HER.

MARTHA, DO YOU REMEMBER . . . .

You're pretty, too . . .

What a beautiful little girl, said Mrs. Boulghourjian, as she looked at the little three-year old blond, blue-eyed Marashtsi child. . . 

Oh, and you're pretty too, dear, she said as her gaze turned to five-year old brown-haired, brown-eyed Marash Girl.

Inch ga, chiga

What's up, buttercup

Inch ga, chiga

Ne var, ne yokh

All of the above require a question mark at the end of the sentence, but my computer is misbehaving . . . or sick, hopefully not permanently . . . and will not allow me to place a question mark at the end of the above sentences which are all questions and, respectively, in English, Armenian, and Turkish. The interesting thing about the Turkish and Armenian sentences is that they give the responder the option to reply in the negative . . . the sentences translating, 'WHAT IS THERE, WHAT ISN'T THERE'

LOCKED IN A SECOND FLOOR BATHROOM WITH A TWO YEAR OLD

When Lorig was three years old, Marash Girl was actively interviewing survivors of the Armenian Genocide, recording their stories of survival for posterity . . . [those interviews are available at the Armenian Museum of America in Watertown, Massachusetts, as well as at the Library of Congress] . On with the memory --

Marash Girl often took one of her children with her, well behaved as they were, on the venture.  While interviewing an elderly Armenian woman in her second floor apartment in Watertown, Massachusetts, little Lorig had to use the bathroom, which she did, with aplomb.  Independent as she was, she carefully locked the bathroom door upon entering the bathroom, but . . . you've probably guessed the next sentence from the title of this blog  . . . when she was ready to leave the bathroom, she could not unlock that door. Unbeknownst to us, the woman we were visiting never locked the bathroom door because it could never be unlocked. . . Vaht to do . . .

We called the Watertown Fire Department, hoping that they could help, and even though the bathroom windows in that apartment were tiny, the wonderful Watertown, Massachusetts, Fire Department made it through, unlocked that bathroom door, and the rest is history . . . as recorded here . . .Thank you, Watertown Fire Department, and all emergency services that are out there to save us from certain disaster.

N.B. Marash Girl checked with Lorig yesterday, just to be certain that this memory was not a nightmare but a reality; she confirmed that it was a reality AND a nightmare.

CAMP HAIASTAN

Just returned from dropping my granddaughter off at Camp Haiastan . . . her Christmas and birthday present from her 'Ama'.  https://www.camphaiastan.org/

Beautiful grounds, beautiful people, a dream keep alive1

vote Lorig for d20 candidate

9/11 in Newtonville

I don’t want to forget to mention that on 9/11, my dad (who lived in Newtonville most of his adult life) went next door to his Muslim neighbors (the only Muslims living in Newtonville at the time) and sat with them throughout the day,  silently in their living room.  Just sat. No words.

Chocolate Chips and Herald Sulahian

One of the fondest childhood memories for Marash Girl was the visits made to our home by our cousins, the Sulahian family.  Why?  Aside from the fun, it was the chocolate chips.  Chocolate chips, you ask?  Yes!  Chocolate chips.  Because all of the kids in the family loved chocolate chips, Mother Jennie could not keep them in the house unless she placed them on the very top shelf of the kitchen cabinet.  That worked.  It worked, that is, until Marash Girl's cousin Herald visited.  Herald is very tall and he, too, loves chocolate chips, or did, way back then.  I wonder if he still does . . .

Happy Birthday, My Little Three Year Old Anoushig!

S . . . . r

For years, Marash Girl found it an embarrassment when someone (probably from Watertown where all the tai-lingual Armenians live) would drive by with a Massachusetts license plate that flaunted a lewd Turkish word.  Although in Massachusetts, all vanity plates were scanned before issue in order to avoid such an occurrence, apparently the scanner didn't know Turkish.  As Marash Girl hasn't seen this license plate in years (and she won't tell you the word, but you can guess it . . . and it didn't start with F . . .), she assumes that the scanner has learned Turkish as well!

If you live in Takoma Park, Maryland, Vote for Lorig for Progressive Leadership!

Dear Friends,

I am thrilled to be able to announce that today I am now running as a team with SENATOR WILL SMITH, DELEGATE DAVID MOON, and DELEGATE JHEANELLE WILKINS.

I am proud to be running with a team whose members have been endorsed by a number of progressive organizations and a coalition of activists and community servants. We are running as a team because we have shown a track record of legislative success and share a profound commitment to our community and positive progressive politics. Together, we bring our deep connections to every part of District 20. Together, we will become a powerful team to represent you and we are asking for your vote.

As Will Smith wrote in announcing our team, “...especially in this national political climate, I have become all the more appreciative of the type of politics we have inherited in District 20, a great tradition of progressive activism and positive politics. We have always looked to expand our tent and to bring more people in to the civic space so as to open the doors of opportunity for anyone willing to work hard. I believe our team will continue to advance and uphold those ideals in Annapolis.”

To join our campaign and help us win the primary, click here.

With hope for our future,

Lorig Charkoudian

P.S. Early voting for the primary starts on Thursday, June 14, 2018 and runs through Thursday, June 21, 2018 from 10 am until 8 pm. Election day is Tuesday, June 26th. You can obtain additional election information by visiting the Maryland State Board of Elections website at: https://elections.maryland.gov/voting/early_voting.html

Paid for by Friends of Lorig Charkoudian, Jill Feasley, Treasurer, Tebabu Assefa, Chair

Friends of Lorig Charkoudian
P.O. Box 11281
Takoma Park MD 20913 United States

If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please  unsubscribe.

Armenian Ceramics and Pottery, Armenian Quarter, Old City, Jerusalem

                              Armenian Ceramics and Pottery, Armenian Quarter, Old City, Jerusalem    


                                       Thanks to an unknown Marash Girl enthusiast for above photo!            

Happy Birthday, Dylan Marie!

Photos to Follow!

The Leaf Stealer

A short story?  Not yet!  But a true story!  Medzmama, born in Marash, a survivor of the Armenian Genocide, was as generous and as honest as a summer's day is long.  But when it came to house plants, you could not trust her.  In the hope that she would come across a plant with a stealable leaf, she would always keep a wet handkerchief, or in later days, a wet kleenex, or a wet paper towel in a small plastic bag in her purse, with the hope that she would come across a stealable leaf, a leaf that she could carefully remove from a full-grown house plant (a plant in someone else's house), to take home hidden in the wet handkerchief in the plastic bag in a side pocket of her purse, and plant in the soil of an established potted plant, in the hopes that it would root, and that she could transplant the rooted leaf into a pot of its own.  And she did exactly that, ending up with a houseful of plants that she had started from leaf.

The Harvard Reunion

Ever take a look at yourself in the mirror?  Most of us flee the opportunity.  Actually, Marash Girl's mother-in-law used to tell Marash Girl that once she had passed the age of 50, she stopped looking into the mirror, at least not for very long!  (She was once the beauty of Marash!) But attending Marash Boy's Reunion made it impossible not to look reality square in the face, even if it was not your face!  There they were, all Harvard Men, all of an age before women were allowed into Harvard, all looking their age. Had that much time really passed?