Stacey’s Memoir Mondays Post: Chanukkah & Old Friends

Chanukkah 1996

Originally uploaded by teachergal

I threw my first of many Chanukkah Parties in my Washington Studio Apartment when I was 19 years old. I invited friends, Jewish and non-Jewish, over to enjoy some latkes, sufganyot, and music.

Several of us walked down to the National Menorah, which is located near the National Christmas Tree, on the National Mall, to commemorate the first night of Chanukkah together. Then, we briskly walked back to my apartment, through the cold, to light our own menorahs and enjoy some food.

My friends Marc and Stacey arrived about a half-hour into the festivities and found the song, “The Latke Song,” by Debbie Friedman, pretty amusing. He started singing the chorus over and over again, which made several of us laugh… hard. The more latkes I cooked, the more we heard Marc’s voice singing the chorus. Eventually, someone snapped a photograph of three of us laughing as Marc sang the chorus yet another time.

In 1996, I was only about a year into my friendship with Marc and Stacey. Twelve years later, we’re still friends, though we live FAR away from each other, rather than just a few blocks away in our respective apartments/dorms. Marc lives in California, while Stacey lives in Israel. We couldn’t be doing more different things with our lives either. Marc works in technology, while Stacey is a rabbi (she co-officiated at my wedding). However, even though we’ve taken very different paths with our lives, and see each other a lot less than we did as college students in Washington, DC, I still consider both of them to be dear friends. Looking back at photographs, like the one of the three of us in December 1999, makes me smile. It makes me thankful to have wonderful friendships despite the physical distance that has come between us through the years.

The most recent photo of the three of us together at my wedding: (Click on the photo for details.)