In the Sukkot of our memories, life was sweet

This week, we got our sukkahs out of hiding, bought our lulavim and etrogim and those new Yom Tov fall/winter outfits (clothes that we won’t be able to wear yet, although we’ll certainly spot one or two women suffering through the heat in their suede or fur trimmed suits, all in the name of fashion … come on, you’ve been there once or twice).

And then there is the planning for not one, but two, three-day Yomim Tovim. And we will eat, till it’s time to eat again — all six meals, all three days, both Yomim Tovim.

I always loved Sukkot, since I was a kid, back in the days when my dad would build the sukkah from scratch with iron poles that he purchased along with beautiful brocade material from my grandfather’s curtain shop on the Lower East Side. It was so elegant. And I loved decorating the sukkah, something, unfortunately, that my kids didn’t inherit from me. Never fails, each year about an hour before Sukkot I can be found in the sukkah dangling off of a stepladder stringing the dozens of green lifelike 12 foot leafy garlands. Once those are up and covering the entire top of the sukkah (of course leaving just enough spaces to see the stars), I add flowers for the finishing touch. I usually end up falling off at one point, but as long as it’s near the end of the decorating process, it’s all good.

Unfortunately, both my dad and my husband’s dad are not with us anymore but they are here in our hearts and in the stories we tell each sukkot. When Jerry was growing up, before his dad had his own business, he, his brother and parents lived in a one room apartment. When walking in the Flatbush neighborhood they lived in, his dad would always stop and admire a particular house on Avenue N; he thought it was just perfect. It was not semi-attached as most houses were then, and it had a nice backyard and a wider than usual driveway with ample space for a sukkah. Of course it wasn’t within his means then, but he would always tell his wife and kids, “One day I’m going to buy that house for us.” He went as far as telling the owner the same thing.