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Penny Candy at the Elran Mini-Market
11.05.2003
When Sarah and I moved our family to Givat Ze'ev in the summer of 1997, we both felt as if we'd stepped back in time. Givat Ze'ev has that small-town community feeling that has all but disappeared from America's cities. Even in relatively small cities (as far as Jewish population goes) such as Omaha, Nebraska, with which Sarah and I are intimately acquainted (Sarah being a native of Omaha), the sprawl of daily living has gotten quite large indeed. You must get into your car to go to the Post Office, to work out at the gym, to get groceries, to drop you kid off at school or at a friend's. In Givat Ze'ev, it's possible and convenient to do all of these things without entering a car. Indeed, because we are Sabbath observers and do not travel on Shabbat, and because there is school on the other six days of the week, my children can go weeks without seeing the inside of our car.
For kids, perhaps the happiest small-town feature of Givat Ze'ev is penny candy. My father still waxes poetic about the penny candy of his youth: Mary Janes, Charlotte Russes, Hootens, and Indian nuts. When I was growing up, penny candy was largely absent from my life. In Givat Ze'ev, however, penny candy is alive and well, and for the children of the town's public religious school, its home is at the Elran mini-market. Sunday-Friday mornings from about 7:30-8:00, Renat Aboudy and Alex Dudelzon, the owners of Elran, preside over something like a grandparent's paradise, with all of the cute little kids queuing up for their roll (lahmaniya) and chocolate milk--and their penny candy.
A kid with a shekel or two in his or her pocket (the shekel is worth about 22 cents) can live it up at Elran's. A full range of lollipops costs a shekel each, big gumballs cost as little as 30 agurot (7 cents), and the ever popular hamtsoots costs just a half-shekel each (these colorful strips of gummy candy have a sourishly sweet flavor from which their name derives). Renat takes great care to be respectful of the rights of her young patrons. Though most adults dropping in to Elran are less interested in admiring the lineup of cuties than in picking up their groceries, Renat's basic position is: first come first served, child or adult Once I saw a man reach over the line of children with his bread and milk, but before Renat would serve him she had the man ask permission from the children. In practice, most adults are not content to obey Renat's rule, and so Alex will often set up a side, adult-only check-out line, with Renat all the while muttering to herself "this is not educational."
In a wonderful way Renat views her few minutes with the children as an opportunity to educate them. Any child who gives Renat or Alex an order (e.g., "gimme a plastic bag") will automatically have their request rejected as Renat says something to them like "You're familiar with the word 'please,' right?"
Renat's concern with educating the children extends beyond manners and goes into financial responsibility and environmental awareness. Once, my 10-year-old Ezra was 20 agurot (about 4 cents) short on his usual choco, lahmaniya and hamtsoots. Renat pointed this out to him, and Ezra smiled and said "forget it." She said, "No, I'm not going to forget it, you'll owe it to me." Ezra said, "My father will pay you." Renat responded, "No, you owe me the money and you're the one who is going to pay me back." And the next day Ezra did.
On the environmental front, Renat wages an ongoing battle against the automatic request for a plastic bag to hold the children's candy. She teaches the children to think about the environmental costs of the bag (in producing it and in disposing it), and she only grudgingly gives out bags for just a few small candies.
The "morning show" at Elran goes on vacation when the kids do, and the already hot May temperatures are a signal that summer break is just around the corner. I'm going to miss those kids when I drop by for my daily bread. On the other hand, Renat, who is blessed with more than her fair share of sex appeal, has started coming to work wearing low-cut T-shirts and tank-tops--so there is some comfort in that.
Copyright 2003, Teddy Weinberger
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