Monthly Archives: February 2024

I am a Cryptoquote addict

Hello. My name is Marilyn, and I am a Cryptoquote addict. The addiction actually snuck up on me.

For years I had done the daily crossword puzzle in Schenectady, New York’s, Daily Gazette,when I got to it before Larry. An English major in college and a reading and writing teacher as an adult, I have enjoyed a sense of satisfaction and contentment to find the exact word to fit into the correct boxes.

Crossword puzzles, however, had never become addictive. I have never dwelled upon the fact that I don’t know a Stanley Donen movie (“Deep in My Heart”), a phrase for being stuck (in a rut), a six-letter word for crown (diadem) or the 1967 and 1968 Super Bowl MVP (Starr). I am not ashamed of resorting to online crossword puzzle solvers if I can’t figure it out. I defer to Larry for most sports questions, as he defers to me for arts and literature. I have even quit and tossed them, unfinished, into the recycling bin.

But Cryptoquotes were/are different. After years of seeing Larry’s handwriting in black felt tip pen under the AXYDLBAAXR is LONGFELLOW hint, I decided around 1992 to find out the attraction of decoding a nonsensical jumble of letters into a meaningful statement. It was love at first attempt.

Not only did it satisfy the reading teacher in me (recognizing those two-and three-letter consonant blends such as “th,” “sh,” and “ght” often unlocked the puzzle), but I also was intrigued by the messages that the Cryptoquote revealed. Some needed explanation—Who is Morpheus, and why should I care about his hand?— but others were humorous or prophetic enough to type into my Favorite Quotes journal I keep on my computer.

Larry graciously gave me full right to the Gazette until our move. As our Orlando paper doesn’t carry it, my dear husband found an on-line source that he prints out for me daily.

Unlike many crypto puzzles whose solutions are puns or, for me, just too simple, the King Features Syndicate Cryptoquote finds sometimes lengthy quotes from notable people, many whom I admire. I solved the following only two days after Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s death on September 18, 2020: “My mother told me to be a lady. and for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.” Other solutions offered me insights that I continue to carry with me. Since decrypting Plato’s words, “Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools talk because they have to say something,” I have often thought twice before blurting out something just to fill the void.

For twenty-two years I have been given words of wisdom —and some laughs—from individuals ranging from Abraham to Zachariah, from Chaucer to Cookie Monster, and from Shakespeare to Shakira, as well as the prolific Anonymous and Source Unknown.

Larry and I have a routine. Sitting next to each other on the couch in the den, Larry hands me one of the two crossword puzzles he has printed out that morning. Sometimes we each finish it alone; other times, one of us asks, “Do you want to start working on it together?”

The minute I am finished—or have given up—I immediately dive into my Cryptoquote. Most of the time, I work through it quickly. There are nights when I don’t go to bed until I can figure it out. When I get desperate, I ask Larry for a hint. (“Is the third letter in the first word an ‘e’?). He consults the online solution and provides the clue.

And, yes, there are days that I cannot solve it. The next day, I usually have to kick myself for missing the obvious. Not figuring out the words Merry Christmas in a holiday greeting from “Your Cryptoquote Friends” on a December 24th puzzle embarrassed me as did not realizing the author was the Notorious RBG herself. I have worked on those with whom I cannot easily break the code on long car rides, in doctors’ offices and, admittedly, boring group ZOOM calls.

I knew I was truly addicted when, two years into my doing the puzzle, the Cryptoquote was not in its usual page in the Gazette. I began flipping rapidly through the classifieds and then through the entire D Section. Nothing. Frantically, I began searching through the entire paper, thinking . . . hoping . . . that maybe the powers that be had decided to move the heart of the paper to a more prominent section. On the Op-Ed page? Next to Ann Landers? In the obituaries?

“Larry,” I yelled to my husband. “I can’t find the Cryptoquote.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. He began a search, calmer, less hurried, but no more fruitful.

Not fooling around, I called the paper. to the source. Hi,” I said to the Gazette operator. “I don’t know if you guys are aware of this, but . . . The Cryptoquote is missing!”

On the other end of the line, there was a brief moment of silence. Then a tired voice said, “Yes, we are aware of the situation. We will publish two Cryptoquotes tomorrow, unless you want to come to Maxon Road for a copy today.”

I quickly calculated the time it would take for the round trip to Schenectady. Forty minutes; with GE traffic, maybe an hour. I declined the offer. I can wait until tomorrow, I thought. It will be hard, but I can wait.

There was something in the operator’s tone, however, that made me quickly realize that I was not the first to call.

“Have you gotten other complaints?” I asked.

“Dozens” she said wearily. “The phone began ringing off the hook at 6:30 a.m. and hasn’t stopped since.”

“Were most as nice as me?” I asked tentatively.

“No,” she said. “There were a lot of angry callers demanding to know why they hadn’t been published.”

I expressed my sympathies, thanked her for her help, and hung up, breathing a sigh of relief. Tomorrow . . . less than 16 hours from then, I would have two puzzles to solve. Furthermore, I could come out of the closet and join the ranks of those who are addicted.

My name is Marilyn, and I am a Cryptoquote addict.

Versions of this blog post were published in The Jewish World and the Heritage Florida Jewish News.

Our Family’s Business Pearl’s Department Stores Written by Frances Cohen

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This story was written by Francis Cohen, my mother, soon after she and my father moved into Coburg Village in 2006 and my mother joined a writing group.

The story of Pearl’s Department Store is a very interesting one as it involves so many of my mother’s family, the Pearls.

Let’s start at the beginning. Uncle Paul, my mother’s twenty- year-old brother, was living on the lower East Side in New York City with his family in a crowded flat. With very little education and a short, skinny build, he was only able to get a job in a sweatshop making $7 a week. After seeing a doctor for a persistent cough, Paul was diagnosed with consumption, a direct result of poor working conditions and a poor diet. It was suggested that he leave the city.

My grandmother Vichna had a sister Ittel, and she, her husband Archik Perelman, and their family lived in Burlington Vermont. Lil encouraged him to pay them a visit. Paul liked the North Country, and his health improved in the country air near Lake Champlain. With Lil’s financial support, Paul started in the peddling business, learning the trade from Archik and initially following his routes.

Paul went door to door with a pack on his back peddling his wares throughout Vermont and Upstate New York. He soon expanded the business so that it would not compete with Archik’s territory. After saving enough money, Paul managed to get a horse and wagon. Since he was doing well, he asked his brother Joe to join him in his rounds.

As the two brothers peddled their way through Vermont, they realized that the farmers and families to whom they sold merchandise found it difficult to pronounce their last name, which was Ossovitz. The customers, who knew Paul and Joe as the nephews of the peddler Archik Perelman from Burlington, Vermont, referred the two of them as the “Perelman Boys.” For simplicity’s sake, my uncles gave their last name as Perelman.

A year after they started their partnership, Uncle Paul and Uncle Joe decided to open a store in the small village of Alburgh, Vermont. They bought a piece of land with a barn on it. While the store with its second- floor apartment was being built, Paul and Joe slept in the barn with the horse and wagon. Many years later, Paul related to me that they didn’t need an alarm clock as the horse would wake them. Simplifying their name even more, Paul and Joe named the new store “Pearl’s Department Store,” and the family legacy began. Three of the brothers, Joe, Paul, and Morris, eventually legally changed their name to Pearl. Sam, the oldest, was the only brother to keep the surname Ossovitz. Thereafter, however, all the relatives identified themselves as part of “the Pearl family.”

Paul and Joe soon established a second store in Swanton, Vermont. When war was declared in 1917, Uncle Paul was drafted into the Navy. Joe ran the store while Paul served his country. When the war was over, Paul was happy to come back to Alburgh. Soon after Paul’s return, Joe announced that he and his wife Leona wanted to go back to New York City.

In 1923, Paul married Bertha Leibesman, the second cousin born the year Lil came to America. They lived in the apartment over the store. “Birdie,” as she was known by her family, was very bright and was a big help in making Pearl’s Department Store a success. Within a few years, they were owners of a chain of twenty-two stores in upstate New York and in Vermont. They became very wealthy, the most successful of the nine Ossovitz children.

In the 1930s, the country was in the midst of The Great Depression. Many members of the family needed help, and Uncle Paul was in a position to do so. Uncle Paul’s philosophy was, “Helping someone with a handout only helps them temporarily. It’s more important to give a man a job.”

Over the years, many family members came to work for Pearl’s Department Store. Six of his siblings and/or their husbands worked for the chain, as did fourteen of the grandchildren. My husband Bill and I were one of the first grandchildren to work for Uncle Paul. Uncle Joe and his family also moved back up from New York City and resumed management of the Swanton, Vermont, store

All the stores were successful. The people in these small villages loved to shop at Pearl’s. The managers and their staff were friendly, and the store carried clothing and a great deal of other useful merchandise at prices the average family could afford. Stores were scattered throughout Vermont and New York. The central store and warehouse were in Glens Falls and were eventually run by Paul’s son Elliot and his family.

By the 1960s most of my aunts and uncles had retired.Most of the grandchildren had left Pearl’s to open their own businesses, and local people continued managing the stores. When Paul died in the 1990s, his son Elliot took over the management of the stores.

Time brings many changes. By the 1970s, many superhighways were completed, including the Northway. The small towns became bedroom communities. It brought an end to the small-town, family-owned stores. People now preferred to travel on the superhighways and shop in big malls.

The last Pearl’s Department Store went out of business in 1983, seventy years after who once was known as Pesach Israel Ossovitz had first started peddling with a pack on his back. But the Pearl family will always be grateful to our Uncle Paul for his setting up businesses for so many and supporting many others when they opened their own stores.

For more information about Pearls and similar businesses, check out #afamilyofstores.com. Managed by my brother, Jay Cohen, the website gives a detailed description of many of these stories, inlcuding those in Upstate New York and Vermont.

A version of this article originally appeared in the Jewish World News, a bi-weekly subscription-based newspaper in upstate New York.

Is help available? Decipherer happy in her addiction….

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Hello. My name is Marilyn, and I am a Cryptoquote addict. The addiction actually snuck up on me.

For years I had done the daily crossword puzzle in Schenectady, New York’s, Daily Gazette,when I got to it before Larry. An English major in college and a reading and writing teacher as an adult, I have enjoyed a sense of satisfaction and contentment to find the exact word to fit into the correct boxes.

Not only did it satisfy the reading teacher in me (recognizing those two-and three-letter consonant blends such as “th,” “sh,” and “ght” often unlocked the puzzle), but I also was intrigued by the messages that the Cryptoquote revealed. Some needed explanation—Who is Morpheus, and why should I care about his hand?— but others were humorous or prophetic enough to type into my Favorite Quotes journal I keep on my computer.

Larry graciously gave me full right to the Gazette until our move. As our Orlando paper doesn’t carry it, my dear husband found an on-line source that he prints out for me daily.

I knew I was truly addicted when, two years into my doing the puzzle, the Cryptoquote was not in its usual page in the Gazette. I began flipping rapidly through the classifieds and then through the entire D Section. Nothing. Frantically, I began searching through the entire paper, thinking . . . hoping . . . that maybe the powers that be had decided to move the heart of the paper to a more prominent section. On the Op-Ed page? Next to Ann Landers? In the obituaries?

“Larry,” I yelled to my husband. “I can’t find the Cryptoquote.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. He began a search, calmer, less hurried, but no more fruitful.

Not fooling around, I called the paper. to the source. Hi,” I said to the Gazette operator. “I don’t know if you guys are aware of this, but . . . The Cryptoquote is missing!”

There was something in the operator’s tone, however, that made me quickly realize that I was not the first to call.

“Have you gotten other complaints?” I asked.

“Dozens” she said wearily. “The phone began ringing off the hook at 6:30 a.m. and hasn’t stopped since.”

“Were most as nice as me?” I asked tentatively.

“No,” she said. “There were a lot of angry callers demanding to know why they hadn’t been published.”

My name is Marilyn, and I am a Cryptoquote addict.

Versions of this blog post were published in The Jewish World and the Heritage Florida Jewish News.

Dr. Phibes May Live Forever!

Trees sing to the heart as we note Tu B’Shvat

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On a beautiful, chilly January morning, my family and I made our way up the path in Muir Woods National Monuments. As part of a planned family reunion, our children had made early morning reservations. A weak sun shone through the trees, a small creek caught the light, the redwoods soared above us. I was in the woods again—an absolutely pristine national monument that had survived fires and earthquakes to awe us with its beauty.

Muir Woods, managed by the National Park Service, is located on Mount Tamalpais near the Pacific coast in southwestern Marin County, California. It contains 240 acres of old growth coast redwoods, formally known as Sequoia sempervirens. Although ancestors of these trees covered the United States millions of years ago, the Sequoia is now only found on a narrow, cool, damp strip of land on the California coast..

About halfway through our adventure, I stopped to observe unusual signage. With its large caption, “History Under Construction,” the board told the background of the Monument as it was first written and later updated to reflect not only the contributions of its original supporters but also the hereto unmentioned role of the Native Americans, whose stewardship had started thousands of years before the original timeline and ended when they were literally wiped out by disease and public policies. Updated information also included the role of the women who were critical in saving Muir Woods from commercialization and logging.

Most importantly, the updated board unblinkingly took an honest look at the complex legacies of the park’s founders, many who believed in white superiority that extended beyond the park’s borders. John Muir, for whom the park was named, used racist language when writing about Native Americans. William Kent, championed as a conservationist for donating the land to the federal government as well as authoring the legislation that established the United States National Park Service, also lead anti-Asian policy and rhetoric, He and the other “champions,” Gifford Pinchot, Madison Grant, and Theodore Roosevelt, were all proponents of eugenics, the set of beliefs and practices which aimed at improving the genetic quality of the human population, in part by forced sterilization the members of disfavored minority groups.

“The role of the National Park Service is to preserve history – the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between,” stated in 2023 article on the US National Parks Service website, “History Under Construction.” “It’s not our job to judge what history is worth telling, but to share an accurate and comprehensive history.” I appreciated the way in which Muir Woods had not “cancelled” history but revised the way it was presented to show a more realistic, unbiased view of the park.

It was not until Larry and I were flying home from our California trip that I realized the timing of our visit was also significant on the Jewish calendar. Tu B’Shevat, known as Israel’s Arbor Day, is held on the 15th of the month of Shevat. This year, it occurs on January 25th.

The importance of trees and the environment dates back Biblical descriptions of the Garden of Eden and its reference to a tree of life. Post-biblically, Tu B’Shevat started out as an agricultural festival that helped farmers mark the passing seasons, one of four “birthdays” in the Jewish calendar. Based on, in my opinion, a fairly complicated connection to taxes and tithing, the holiday disappeared after the destruction of the Second Temple. In the 16th century, the Kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of Safed and his disciples revived it by instituting a Tu B’Shevat seder in which the fruits and trees of the Land of Israel were given symbolic meaning, with the belief that prayers offered at the ritual meal would bring. humans and the world to spiritual perfection.

On Tu BiShvat 1890, Rabbi Ze’ev Yavetz, one of the founders of the Mizrachi religious Zionist movement,and his students planted trees in the agricultural town of Zikhron Ya’akov in Israel. The Jewish Teachers Union adopted it in 1908. It was later taken over by theJewish National Fund (JNF) established in 1901 to oversee land reclamation and afforestation of the Land of Israel.

Modern Jews view the holiday as the opportunity make a Jewish connection to contemporary ecological issues, including responsible stewardship of our planet and ecological activism. This was most clearly pointed out to me in Hazon’s Tu B’Shevat Haggadah. Along with the explanation and prayers for the four glasses of wine and four fruits, the booklet (available online here) offers way in which one can get involved in climate action, food sustainability, soil advocacy, and educational resources especially focusing on the environment.

Meanwhile, we can continue the custom Rabbi Yavetz and his students started 133 years ago: planting trees. Since 1901, JNF has planted over 250 million trees, created and built over 240 reservoirs and dams, developed over 250,000 acres of land, and established more than 2,000 parks. As suggested on Clifton Park’s Congregation Beth Shalom website, trees can be planted in support of the hostages, in support of Israeli troops, in memory of a loved one, or just because you would like to plant a tree in Israel. In addition, JDF is provided extended services since the October 7 attack on Israel, both physical, medical, and emotional support as needed. Furthermore, the organization gives the communities devastated by the war “the promise of rebuilding for tomorrow.”

For those of us who care deeply about our planet’s future, we need to continue to visit beautiful places like Muir Woods and celebrate beautiful holidays like Tu B’Shevat. Chag Sameach!

A version of this story is found in the January 25 issues of The Jewish World and the Heritage Florida Jewish News.

https://forward.com/life/439413/the-forwards-guide-to-tu-bshvat-judaisms-most-underrated-holiday

www.jnf.org

https://www.reformjudaism.org/tu-bishvat-history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muir_Woods_National_Monument

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tu_BiShvat

The text in white was featured on the original timeline. Everything in yellow was added by the United States Park Service

An explanation and an apology!

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If you clicked on a link on my “Marilyn’s Published Articles From Around the World” and found yourself here, this explains it!

Dear Blog Subscribers,

For the past several months, I have been working on my blog, There Goes My Heart. I have been correcting several missing or defunct links, updating stories, and making sure each of the over 220 articles that I have posted have related pictures and images.

Most importantly, I have been adding in stories that I realized had never been published.While working on this, I have tried to set up later publishing dates. For example, the updated story of our Hallmark Hanukkah was supposed to be sent out on December 10, 2024, to coincide the the holiday. Unfortunately, my technical skills failed me, and within an instant, I had accidentally published the story. I will be working with WordPress, my platform, to make sure this doesn’t happen again. I also revised my “Marilyn’s Books” page, which lists books and provides a link to Amazon if you are interested in purchasing them.

If you feel overwhelmed by the number of articles you have found in your inbox recently, apologies! I try to send out one blog post every two weeks, maybe once a week if I am catching up. Going forward, please be assured that I will limit my posts to that number.

If you are enjoying my blog, I’d love to hear from you in the comments section. Please feel free to share my posts and even my blog address with friends and family who may enjoy them.

By the way, if you click MENU tab, you will see a link to “Marilyn’s Published Articles Around the World!” That page has a list of all my articles that have been published literally around the world going back to 2013 and even earlier. Each one (with a few exceptions which I am still working on) contains the link to the actual article or my blog post. You may enjoy browsing the page to dip further into my library.

Thanks so much for following my blog. I so appreciate your support. Keep reading! Keep commenting! Keep sharing!

Warmly,, Marilyn

Never mind the bucket list! Just live life!

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Never Mind the Bucket List! Just Live It!

One winter afternoon while living in the Capital District, Larry and I had lunch at a Chinese restaurant with a former co-worker of his who was planning on retiring in a few more months.

“Can you two give me some guidelines as to what I should do when I leave the job?” she asked. She knew that she had to do something. She couldn’t picture herself just sitting home and having no structure to her life. “I certainly don’t want to be bored!” she explained.

Four years earlier, Larry and I were both in our last months of work after long careers in public service and education. People were continually asking us what we were going to do after we retired. Larry had a simple, straightforward plan: We would travel, and we spend more time volunteering for Special Olympics.

I, however, fearing boredom, felt the need to line up more ducks to keep me happy. What would I do with my life once I did not fill my time with a forty plus hour a week job? I too sought advice from friends and relatives who had retired before me on how I could survive all the “free time.”

“What free time?” commented a former superintendent of schools, who has spent his retirement volunteering on numerous boards and organizations. “If you want to be in control of your time, keep on working.“

“You’ll never look back,” a former co-worker stated. “You will wonder how you ever worked as your days will be so full.”

I wasn’t convinced.

Larry retired in May 2010, but I still headed to the office for seven more months. I left the house at 7:30 each morning after kissing my sleeping husband’s head as he nestled under the covers. He made up for it by having dinner ready for me when I arrived home. However, my desire to join him pushed me into a pre-retirement blitz at work. I confirmed my retirement date with my boss, went to a New York State Education Teacher’s Retirement System seminar to line up the paperwork, and began cleaning out my files. Then I turned my attention to creating and implementing my retirement bucket list.

First on the list were all those hobbies that had been put on the back burner. The short list, in addition to travel and Special Olympics, included the following:

Read all the books on my “Read Before I Die” list;
Complete the crewel piece I started twenty years earlier;
Learn how to knit;
Update my fifty photo albums;
Organize the two drawers in my file cabinet filled with my children’s artwork, report cards, and special projects;
Relearn French;
Learn Spanish;
Put together all of my stories and my mother’s stories into a book.

Yes, this woman was going to be productive in her golden years!

Although I already had a number of unread books on my book shelves, I hit a couple of used book sales and downloaded numerous classics onto my Nook. I purchased orange and royal blue yarn and needles to knit Larry a Syracuse University scarf. On impulse I also bought Red Sox theme flannel to make him a throw to commemorate his favorite baseball team.

At the office supply store, I selected new photo albums to replace the ones that were falling apart as well as file folders, labels, and markers for my home organization project. I downloaded a language app for my français redux and purchased a Spanish for Dummies for my español. Mom’s files were piled six inches thick into a drawer, ready to polish and publish.

Throughout this entire process, Larry looked on with a mix of mild amusement to outright incredulity that I needed to prepare so much. And he feared all these projects and books and anticipated classes were going to fill my dance card so much we won’t have time to just be.

After all the planning and anticipation, my last day of work arrived. On December 17, 2010, I fought the traffic on the Northway and Route 7 one last time. I completed the required written instructions to my successor, signed my exiting papers, and said my final goodbyes. Then I drove my last rush hour trip home to Clifton Park. It was time to tackle that bucket list!

I reflected on all this planning over the dinner with Larry’s co-worker. I thought of the hundreds of unread books on my shelves that had been passed over for more current ones in the local library. An added bonus: I could get them in big print, a big advantage for my “golden years” eyes.

I tried to work on the Elsa Williams crewel piece. My eyes had changed since I started it, and I doubted it would ever be finished.

The knitting? Abandoned after four unsuccessful attempts at learning how to cast on. The Red Sox throw? I pinned it together, but I never took out the sewing machine to stitch up the sides.

The pictures were still in envelopes, the photo albums still unwrapped. This was 2014, the digital age, and I needed to think of tossing most of them, scanning the favorites, and putting them into a digital album. My children strongly encouraged me to toss—not organize—all the childhood memorabilia I had saved. I haven’t had time to refresh my French or learn Spanish; I needed time to work on my own English as I edited and re-edited my stories and my mother’s story for The Jewish World. At least I was working on one of those items on my bucket list.

So what did we do those first four years since we retired? We traveled to Machu Picchu, the Galápagos Islands, the Danube, Bryce and Zion. When we were home, we spent time volunteering for Special Olympics—coaching track and field and bowling. Yes, in the end, Larry’s simple, straightforward approach to retirement was the most realistic.

Most importantly, the most satisfying activities of the retirement years in Clifton Park were in many cases activities that were never on my radar. Weekly visits to a couple of friends at Daughters of Sarah nursing home evolved into my volunteering at their memory enhancement unit. After taking Zumba at a local elementary school, I realized how much I loved exercise classes and joined the YMCA.

Over dim sum on that cold winter afternoon, Larry and I offered this advice to our friend: Yes, you can speculate as to what you would like to do once you leave your job for the last time. However, you may never get to many of them. As a matter of fact, you should just kick the bucket—the bucket list that is. Let life take you where you had only dreamed of going. And that is actually the best retirement advice of all.

A version of this article originally appeared in the Jewish World News, a bi-weekly subscription-based newspaper in upstate New York.

Melanie Gall: The Canadian songbird

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“Sweet and nostalgic, [Melanie Gall] is like a Disney princess from the Lower East Side” Uptown Magazine (2012)

My mother loved Judy Garland and Deena Durbin. She would have loved Melanie Gall.

My husband Larry and I first became acquainted with Melanie, a Canadian chanteuse, in 2019, through our friends Mike and Teri Chaves. The three had met in a Cancun resort, where Melanie was on vacation the week before her performance at the Orlando International Fringe Festival. The Chaves, with whom we had already made plans to go to the event, insisted that we join the three of them for dinner.

Over white wine and baked trout. I learned more about Melanie and about what we had in common. We both grew up Jewish in a small town. We both loved the Great American Songbook. We both loved Judy Garland, and in her Orlando Fringe show, Melanie was going to be performing several of Garland’s songs, including “Over the Rainbow” (my favorite song of all times). Melanie was the same age as my son, and she reminded me of Adam in her adventurous and independent spirit.

That evening, we joined our friends to see her one-woman show, Ingenue: Deanna Durbin andJudy Garland. One of 150 performances scheduled across Loch Haven Park and Lowndes Shakespeare Center. Melanie’s one-hour tour-de-force told the story of the friendship and the Hollywood-created rivalry between Judy Garland and Deanna Durbin, two 1940s superstars.

We enjoyed her performance so much that we went back the next night to watch it again. Each time I heard Melanie sing Durbin and Garland songs, I kept thinking how my mother—whose iPod shuffle contained songs by only two artists, Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra—would have loved to be sitting in the audience.

Melanie’s show not only played to sell-out performances, but won top prize for Best Solo Show, Musical. When we hugged goodbye, I promised to write a story about her before she returned in 2020 for next year’s Fringe. Of course, that didn’t happen. Nor did it happen in 2021. But two weeks ago, Mike emailed me: “Guess who is coming to Orlando! Melanie Gall!” This May, Melanie will be back in a new production at Orlando International Fringe Festival, A Toast to Prohibition, her fourth time at the festival.

The four of us quickly bought tickets for both her shows. Soon after, I sent Melanie an email sharing news of our purchase and asking if she was still interested in the article I had promised before COVID. Within an hour, she wrote back, “I’m so excited to see you at my show, and of course I’d love an article!”

After some background research, I learned that Fringe Festivals are arts festivals featuring alternative or experimental performances and exhibitions. The concept of Fringe Festivals began in Edinburgh, Scotland, when eight theatre companies turned up uninvited to the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival in 1947. With the International Festival using the city’s major venues, these companies took over smaller, alternative venues for their productions. The initial Fringe Festival in Scotland established the two elements of the event: the lack of official invitations to perform and the use of unconventional venues.

There are now over 300 festivals held across Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and North America. Edinburgh remains the largest in the world with over 55,000 performances of 3,548 different shows in 317 venues. The second largest is held in Adelaide, Australia, and features more than 7,000 artists performing in 1,300 events. Edmonton Fringe, the first in North America, was held in 1982.

No matter where they are held, all fringe festivals have some common features. Acts invited to the event are not judged or juried, often chosen by lottery if size constraints are needed. The casts of the shows are small, with one-person shows common. Shows are typically one-hour, single-act productions, and the sets and other technical theater elements are also kept simple. The shortened time frame as well as the lower priced tickets allow audiences to attend multiple shows each day.

The Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival, the oldest fringe festival in the United States, is a 14-day annual arts festival held during the month of May at various venues including Loch Haven Park, Lownde Shakespeare Center, and Renaissance Theatre. Although a seasoned Fringe performer around the world, Melanie first performed in Orlando in 2011 with her show My Pal Izzy, based on the early life of Irving Berlin (another one of my mother’s favorites).Melanie grew up in St. Alberts, Alberta, the oldest child of Karen and Gerald Gall. Melanie’s grandmothers were born in Canada and the States, but her paternal and material grandfathers were immigrants from Russia and Poland, refugees from anti-Semitism and the rise of Hitler. Her parents were founding members of Temple Beth Ora in Edmonton, where Melanie became a Bat Mitzvot. Ironically, I learned during the pandemic that my cousin, Rabbi David A. Kunin, had served in her synagogue and Karen had participated in some Torah studies with him before Rabbi Kunin relocated to the Syracuse, New York, area, my husband’s family’s home.

Growing up Jewish in St. Albert was, according to Melanie, “Dire.” She recalled that only two Jewish families lived in the city, and several of her teachers were overtly anti-Semitic. “There was no reference to any culture aside from Christian/Catholic culture,” said Melanie, “And my fellow students were taught in their churches on Sundays that Jews had killed their God.”

Melanie found joy and solace in her musical family. Her great-grandfather had been a cantor, and one of her grandfathers was the frontrunner for the Jack Young Orchestra, a big band in the 1940s. Melanie’s mother, Karen, spent years as a cantorial soloist in their synagogue. “Music has always been a part of my life,” Melanie recalled, “and I could sing before I could talk.”Although her brother is not involved in music, her sister Wendy is a bassoonist.

Her small high school did not offer ways to use her musical talents. Melanie took private voice lessons, and after graduating high school, she pursued her passion with her bachelors in music from University of Alberta. Melanie continued her musical education with professional diplomas from the University of Western Ontario, and the Glenn Gould School (formerly the Royal Conservatory of Music) in Toronto. She holds a masters of music degree from Brooklyn College and an advanced Professional Studies Degree in Opera from Manhattan School of Music. She also studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.

An internationally acclaimed vocalist, Melanie has traveled to Africa, South America and the Caribbean for both solo recitals and opera performances. Between 2013 and 2018, she performed in both English and French in several countries that had been under-represented theatrically, including Zimbabwe, Algeria, Morocco, Chad, Sudan, and Zambia. While there, she led outreach programs for children and young artists in local schools and orphanages. In addition, Melanie has worked with First-Nations Communities in Northern Manitoba, fostering a love of music and building performance skills in youth. Melanie has sung at both Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, and performed her Vera Lynn cabaret in London’s Royal Albert Hall. Her voice and talent has led her to performances at fringe events in Australia and New Zealand.

Melanie has written and internationally toured in several award-winning solo shows. These include The Sparrow and The Mouse; Piaf and Brel: The Impossible Concert; In the Mood for Love, with songs from ‘American Songbook’s women composers; and Opera Mouse, a children’s introduction to opera; In 2014, she starred in Red Hot Mama: A Sophie Tucker Cabaret, an off-Broadway one woman tour-de-force written and produced by Eric DeWaal

During the pandemic, Melanie’s performances were curtailed, but it didn’t stop her creative talents. Melanie’s book: Deanna Durbin, Judy Garland and The Golden Age of Hollywood, the first-ever biography of 1930s superstar Deanna Durbin and her relationship with Judy Garland, was released in July 2022 by Lyons Press. She is now working on her second book, about the history of house sparrows in North America and the people who have adopted these “wild” birds as pets.

Melanie has never specifically built a show based on her Jewish background, but she references Jewish composers and artists in every one of her shows, including Irving Berlin and Sophie Tucker. She also was pleased to make a connection between Durbin and Anne Frank, a fact she includes in her book. “Deanna was Anne’s favorite star,” Melanie said. “Anne pasted her picture on the wall of the family’s hiding place, and it can still be seen today.”

Melanie is a leading expert in historic knitting music from WWI and WWII. Her interest led to her recording several albums on the topic, as well as two shows: More Power to Your Knitting, Nell! and A Stitch in Time. For over twelve years, Melanie and her sister Debbie hosted the popular The Savvy Girls Podcast that offered “a playful and thoughtful look at knitting, travel, and life,” with a regular listenership of several thousand.

Melanie’s goal? “My long-term goal as a recording artist is to make ‘lost’ popular historic music available once more, she said, “And to ensure that the popular music tradition from the early 20th century is not forgotten.

Sadly, I didn’t get to go to see Melanie in 2022, as I came down with COVID earlier that week. Larry, COVID negative, got to go. Larry said the show was terrific. He came home with a small table Melanie had used as a prop, and we use it every night when we eat outside on our lanai. Just a “fringe” benefit of our knowing this lovely and talented woman.

More information on Melanie Gall can be found on her website at http://www.melainegall.com. More information on Orlando International Fringe festival, can be found at orlandofringe.org.

Versions of this story were published The Jewish World and the Heritage Florida Jewish News.