Friday evening, the scene in the Katz-Mayer home was the usual. Miriam was cooking dinner. Karl was in the den reading the newspaper and half listening to the television news. Joe was lying on the sofa, half asleep, in dreams of the farm and his cows.
The telephone rang, and Miriam answered it in the kitchen.
"Hello."
"Hi, Miriam," said Lu. "What's the news?"
The caller being Lu, Miriam patiently sat down, lit a cigarette, and kept an eye on the oven
timer, as the two ladies talked.
"What are we going to do about the condition of the temple?" Lu asked.
"Well," Miriam replied. "You'd need to talk to Karl about that. I think we're probably the smallest reformed congregation in the United States--about a doaen or so of us--and Karl's the president. I'm sure we'll get around to doing major repairs some day, but wouldn't you agree our houses need work, too?"
"Sure, I guess," Lu replied.
After several more minutes of small talk, the timer on Miriam's oven saved her, and she ended the converstaion.
"We'll talk again soon, dear, " Miriam said. "Good evening."
During dinner, the usual conversation went on around the table.
"We need some rain mighty bad!" Joe said.
"If our crops go down any more," Miriam said, :maybe we can close the store and I can become your secretary, Karl."
"By the way," Joe asked, "How's that new boy you hired to help out at the store?--name of Sam something?"
"Sam Masters," Miriam said. "He's a good worker, but I think he's got a crush on Heidi."
"Well," Karl said, "I thought she had a date with Rick Morris tonight."
"She does," Miriam replied. "That's where she is now."
Meanwhile, the subject of boys and dating wasn't going so smoothly in the Back home. Tippy and Pamela were upset over Jean's present choice for her boyfriend.
"Smith's a damn bum!" said Tippy, referring to a handsome, tall, Gentile boy of nineteen who, in Tippy's book, had three strikes against him: he was Gentile; his parents did not belong to the country club; instead of going to college, Ray Smith was working in a local car dealership.
Actually, Ray was not unlike many of the youth of Cole. He "ran wild," according to many, and smoked and drank at an early age. Many in Cole had done it, and were doing it.
One could only look at Miriam Katz Mayer to see what excitement it was to grow up in Cole. But, of course, to Tippy, Miriam was now a responsible adult. Tippy, a rather nervous, subdued person, could be outspoken about this "new generation," and he was letting off more steam than usual this particular night. Tippy was talking in the present tense, and the present tense was now all about his daughter, Jean Back, and Ray Smith.
"Baloney on what you say!" Pamela would break in. "Just because Ray Smith is not Jewish, not a college student--must you cut him down for that?"
"Smith--he should go to college--fill his empty head!" Tippy answered.
"The point is," Pamela said, "Ray Smith is good to Jean, and I'm afraid the two are in love."
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