Let's Face It

Things Change

someday disappear. It's like the great
s I look
Ira Gershwin lyric, "In time the -
back upon
the waning Rockies may crumble, Gibraltar
may tumble/ They're only made of
year, there
clay.
are two great losses
So it is with the Great Stone Face,
that stand out.
relegated
now merely to old post
The first is the
cards and history books.
Great Stone Face of
Which brings me to my sandwich.
New Hampshire.
GEORGE
A
small thing, perhaps, in compari-
The second is my
CANTOR
son.
But tastier, and also my own.
sandwich. I don't
Reality Check know which one dis-
It had been on the menu of Stage
and Company in West Bloomfield
turbed me more.
for about 20 years. It was Number
The Face, also known as. Profile
43, I think; corned beef, lettuce and
Mountain or the Old Man of the
Russian dressing on rye.
Mountain, was one of the enduring
Jack Goldberg consulted with me
natural landmarks of New England:
on
what I wanted my namesake
A rock outcropping in the shape of
sandwich
to contain. I told him, he
a man's visage, it protruded from
said
no
one
would ever order some-
the mountainside, hundreds of feet
thing like that and then he put this
above a clear lake.
one together, instead.
It was a place of
What a thrill. I had
stunning beauty, the
made
it to the top in
subject of a short story
my
own
hometown.
by Nathaniel
Now
when
my wife's
Hawthorne and the
relatives from New
-
visual signature of the
York came in for a
entire state. It even
visit we could take
appeared on New
them there, show
Hampshire's license
them my sandwich
plates.
and
prove to them
I was taken to see it
that Sherry hadn't
by my parents on our
married beneath her.
first trip to New
I even ordered it
England almost 50
myself
sometimes, as
years ago, and when I
The Great Stone Face of
a
token
of support.
took my children to
New Hampshire
But
the
menu was
the area for the first
redone a few months
time, we made a point
ago and reports start-
of going there again.
ed trickling back to
It seemed to be the
me
that among the
very symbol of the region's perma-
missing
was
old
Number
43, the
nence and strength. It was there
George
Cantor.
I
didn't
believe
it
when the first Europeans came to
until
I
could
see
whether
it
was
true
the White Mountains. Generations
with my own eyes. It was true, all
of tourists visited the place to draw
right.
it or photograph it or simply gaze
Times change. Things happen. I'll
in awe. It could have been taken for
get
over it. But they've got salads
the face of the Almighty, if such
and
sandwiches on there named for
imagery were conceivable.
people
who have been dead for
And then it was gone. A spring
years.
Many
of them weren't even
avalanche wiped it away as if it were
the work of an hour. Only a tangled Jewish.
Never mind. Life is bigger than a
bunch of rocks was left, greatly
corned
beef sandwich. Fame is a
resembling an abstract artist's con-
foolish
thing to try and spread on
ception of a tangled bunch of rocks.
bread.
It is a reminder, I suppose, that
It's just that I thought we were in
even the earthly things that seem
a permanent relationship. And now
most impervious to change will
I'm left with just .a slice of old dill
George Cantor, a West Bloomfield
to hold on to. 1-
resident, is a native Detroiter and
longtime Detroit journalist. His e-mail
address is gcantor@thejewishnews.com

I

Chanukah With The IDF

Israeli infantry soldiers gather to light Chanukah candles as sundown approaches on
Dec. 21 in a bunker on a base overlooking the West Bank city of Nablus.

Chanukah In Baghdad

Jewish troops from the 447th Air Expeditionary Group, U.S. Air Force, celebrate
the beginning of Chanukah with a menorah lighting at Baghdad International
Airport. They include, Phil, a technical sergeant from New York; Mike, a lieutenant
from Connecticut; Katherine, a nurse from Florida; and Seth, a technical sergeant
from New York.

IN

12/26
2003

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