6:30 am Slept last night with
checker, and now am writing at
Claras house for the morning services
at which a child of a friend will
be named after the departed cousin
10:30P.M.
I did not work today I
wandered around many
places, and I am dead tired. For the first time
I am going to retire early today
Received an annoying
letter from father, my mother
did not feel well.
Oh god keep my parents safe
and in good health.
————
Matt’s Notes
It’s a little incongruous to see Papa describe a worrisome letter from his father as “annoying,” considering how he follows it up with a sincere prayer for his parents’ health. Maybe “annoying” had a different connotation back then, or maybe, having just read a letter from home in what was probably Yiddish, German or Hungarian (or one of the other six or seven languages he grew up with) Papa is thinking in another language and has therefore slightly mistranslated an appropriate foreign word for “worrisome” into the less appropriate “annoying.”
The point is, kids, you should never call your parents annoying. I certainly never would.
This entry also has a word I can’t figure out in the second line — it looks like “checker” but I don’t know why he would say “slept last night with checker.” I assume Papa’s saying he slept outside of his home, maybe at his sister’s, but I’m not sure. Any ideas?
