I was embued with
a Purim spirit just thinking
a little of days gone by
Down in my neighborhood
I saw some cheep masquerades
just a shadow of a Purim
in the old world.
Visited my sisters.
I talked with the 20th
Century girl on the phone,
I long for a closer association
with her, I am constantly
thinking of her.
————
Matt’s Notes
Just a few days after meeting the “20th Century Girl,” Papa has become the very picture of a lovesick young man. Nothing can distract him from his longing; even children running by in their Purim regalia make him feel worse. (Not that he was happy about the state of Purim in New York to begin with, as we saw yesterday.) If this were an old cartoon he’d be kicking a can down the street. Maybe a car would drive through a puddle and splash him.
I wonder where he talked to the 20th Century Girl — he didn’t have a phone in his apartment, so he must have borrowed a neighbor’s or used a pay phone in his building or on the street. I’m sure he prearranged the call with his friend Rothblum (who introduced Papa to the 20th Century girl) during their conspiratorial shvitz a couple of nights earlier.
In any event, when she talked to Papa, the 20th Century Girl might have looked a little something like this:
Image source: Young woman posed with a telephone, 1915. Library of Congress call # LC-USZ62-89817. No rights information indicated.