Happy Fiftieth
Anniversary

ERICA MEYER RAUZIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

M

y parents' 50th an-
niversary was January
19.
Whew. I figure to get
this far, they had to survive a lot
of minutia. I'm not counting big
stuff, like World War II, active
professional careers or life's var-
ious calamities. rm counting the
trivia that adds up to a mountain
range of detail in 50 years.
To make it to the half a centu-
ry mark, they had to put up with:
• Moving into at least six res-
idences, including a newlywed
basement apartment with damp
walls and no furniture to speak
of. "When we were a young cou-
ple, of course we held pot-luck
buffet parties and( ate on lap
trays," Mom explains, "We didn't
own a dining table."
• A menagerie of pets, includ-
ing Tawny (blond cocker spaniel,
the first and most beloved dog),
Cookie (white cocker spaniel),
Mackie (guess), Judy (the Irish
setter who was pretty stupid ex-
cept for her trick of following the

milkman through the neighbor-
hood, biting the tops off the milk
cartons, and drinking all the milk
— we had to keep her in on Tues-
day and Fridays), Prince (beagle)
and Spunky (mutt), plus others
I probably don't remember.
They've also tolerated an assort-
ment of pets belonging to their
three children and four grand-
children, including Freckles,

Our parents took us
through braces,
chicken pox,
vacations.

Magic, Hank, and Yofi; a couple
of reprobate cats, Andrew and
Miss Daisy; and even Iggie, my
son's iguana.
• An intense variety of hobbies,
from water-skiing, to ocean sail-
boat racing (Dad), needlepoint-
ing (Mom), politics (of every

stripe: civil rights, feminist, Jew-
ish, intellectual, journalistic, civic,
state and national), theater,
books, film, music, flying (they
took their four-passenger air-
plane all over the continent with
Dad as pilot and Mom as navi-
gator) and last, but still king, golf
• Packing for travel to the four
corners of the world, but not to
Australia, yet. Mom went to Chi-
na and Nepal with a group of
women journalists. Dad went to
Russia and Japan, with two dif-
ferent newspaper groups. To-
gether, they've been all over the
Caribbean, all over the United
States, on a camera safari in
Africa, on a USIA speaking tour
of South America during the
Cuban missile crisis, all over Eu-
rope (and they're cruising from
Florida to Rome for their an-
niversary); to Israel, Canada,
Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii, and
more, by car, plane, boat, train,
and even mule-back, up the steep
streets of a sun-bleached Greek
island.
• Raising three children who
turned out to be a Manhattan
writer, a New Jersey attorney-
entrepreneur, and me. That in-
volves taking us through braces,
contact lenses, measles, mumps,
chicken pox, family vacations,
schools, colleges, trips, marriages,
corporate start-ups, and our in-
dividual productions of newspa-

per stories, paintings, books, le-
gal briefs, mortgages and chil-
dren of our own. That last seems
to justify all the trouble we
caused.
• Holding strong beliefs, based

•

on putting their Jewish founda-
tion into action. My parents don't
believe in lip service; they believe
in deeds. When my brothers and
I were children, our family lived
50 miles from the nearest syna-
gogue. Dad's only day off was
Sunday, so he'd get up at dawn,
go water-skiing, and then drive
us 50 miles (pre-expressway) to
Atlanta for Sunday school at the
big Conservative shul his parents
helped found. We'd sing college
fight songs all the way there, and
eat huge, dripping deli sand-
wiches and big sour pickles all
the way back.
Together, my folks have been
through everything from illness
to investments, from boat own-
ership to home renovation, from
child-rearing to college reunions,
and that's not even the hard stuff.
The hard stuff is the decades of
driving car pools, making reser-
vations, calling plumbers, and
managing all the bothersome de-
tails that make up daily life, par-
ticularly with three children.
Mom and Dad, I'd like to say
Happy 50th Anniversary and
thanks for handling all the logis-
tics, but that doesn't completely
cover it. Just remember when
you said, "Someday you'll appre-
ciate all we did for you. Someday,
you'll have children of your own."
Well, here's your anniversary
gift: You get to be right. ❑

he
oni
BAS
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