Grandpa and Grandma are already sitting at Hole in the Wall when I walk in just a few minutes after Marty and Matt. Janet comes in then carrying a sheath of papers, followed by Anat and Maya. Two conversations start immediately and it’s hard to follow, so I tune into Matt telling us that Paulie called the night before with news that Hannah had lost her job waitressing and could she work at Banner for the summer. Milt, when he came a while later, said that Paulie was as smooth as usual, saying, “Hannah got fired; can you give her a job?”
Matt said, “So she’ll be starting at one this afternoon, and I sure hope she covers up.” We understood, because at the father’s day dinner she came showing a lot of cleavage, and then we discussed who should be the one to mention it to Hannah. I said that everyone has to learn proper office attire, and she’s a smart kid who will probably pick up on it pretty quickly. Milt said she’ll be doing the same kind of work as Matt, which is searching for land to build on.
Mom told Grandpa that she’d gone to the library to get him some large print books she thought he might like. I said, why don’t you read Audacity of Hope, so you can understand Obama, which started a little political ranting. Grandpa brought up Clinton and Carter again, with the usual disdain, and Mom yelled at him that nobody cares about that long ago; he keeps talking about bad presidents from the past. I said, why don’t you complain a little about Herbert Hoover, or Harry Trumann? Milton told an anecdote about McCain saying on a video that he voted with Bush blah blah blah, and then another video snippet showed Obama accusing him of voting with Bush, and then another video showed McCain accusing Obama of repeating falsehoods about it. Grandpa missed his opportunity to talk about McCain being a hero.
Janet missed that whole discussion, because she had to answer her phone. She told me this might happen; she was waiting for a call from the congresswoman, Judy Biggert, whom she has been educating about Israel as part of her AIPAC job. There is a bill coming up today in congress regarding insurance claims by Holocaust survivors. Germany is trying to block access to the documents needed to prove who should inherit those insurance policies bought before the war. Janet reminded us that of the 180,000 Holocaust survivors, about one half are living in dire poverty. They weren’t able to access their papers apparently while fleeing from the Nazis, or after surviving the camps. Judy Biggert wanted to know how the Jewish community felt about it, and Janet explained, after reading through her documents, that she ought to vote in favor of the bill.
Then Janet returned for the end of the election discussion, and said that McCain has voted with Bush 43% of the time. She often has those kinds of facts at her disposal, which are hard to argue with, so Milton couldn’t really reply.
The kids were still chatting at their end of the table, with Marty, and then Matt spoke up to say that in his few weeks at Banner, he has already heard back on a certain number of properties, and that a few are really close. I told Milton that since Matt did all the work, they should reward him handsomely since there is hardly anything left for Milton to do on these deals. Just sign your name, I said. Of course, now starts the complicated and indecipherable financial maneuvering that Milton excels at, which none of the rest of us understands.
Anat told us that she is driving up to Habonim on Friday, if anyone wants to send anything for Becky’s 19th birthday. Grandma asked if Becky likes cookies, and there ensued a discussion of great cookies we have known. I love those giant Carol’s cookies, and it turns out that Milton knows the actual Carol, so maybe Becky will get to enjoy them this weekend. She hasn’t been feeling great, really she didn’t have much time between returning from Tanzania, recovering from Malaria, and having gum surgery, to recover and be completely healthy. I asked if everyone received my email with her address so they can send her birthday cards. She’s jealous of all the little girls in her cabin who get four or five letters every day.
Lollapalooza, the giant outdoor mega-continuous concert is coming up, and Maya recalled being worried about both my Becky and cousin Becky, who have a tendency to get lost. Anat said that she had a visiting friend who had no cell phone or anything, and she didn’t worry at all when he went missing all day. She talked about her plan for her 25th birthday in August; to get a bunch of friends together and do some kind of Habitat for Humanity project. We all kind of laughed about it, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one wondering where on the north shore were there habitat properties.
Someone told Maya that she looked very tan, and she told us a little about her job as a lifeguard in one of Gadi’s complexes. She sort of runs a little class, while the parents sit by the pool, for the little guys, playing games with them and organizing activities. She told us about her four completely different courses for the fall; she plans on law school so she can major in anything she wants. She declared her major to be philosophy, but her classes sound like they are in multi-cultural studies. One class reminded Anat of her classical musical course at Michigan, in which the professor was such a snob, he kept telling them that he went to Julliard, while Robin Williams was there, but no big deal. And he told the class that only a few rock songs had any merit.
A propos the fact that I am also somewhat of a music snob, Anat told the story about Gabie once singing harmony at the Shabbat dinner table. Apparently she complimented me afterwards about sharing my love of music with him, and I replied that “he was flat”. The word flat is said, in Anat’s retelling, in a sing-song voice with two syllables. We talked a little about the concert Marty and Cindy had taken me to on Sunday night at Ravinia that I had enjoyed immensely. The jazz singer Diana Reeves had started, and she was great, followed by the Manhattan Transfer, whose tight harmonies I’ve loved, but whose sound was off balance. Marty tells me that I turned him on to that group while still in high school.
Janet orders three desserts, none of them pie, so we can all dig in. Milton tells us that Claire is up at camp for a month, but she asked to come home early. They asked her a lot of questions, and it turned out that she remembered Uncle Leon dying just three days before she finished camp last summer. Milt and Ibby made the mistake of telling her that G’Ma, Ibby’s grandmother, isn’t doing well, and that made Claire want to come home. When they told her that G’Ma is doing much better, she agreed to stay longer at camp.
Emily is only there for two weeks; so she isn’t here long enough to have to get a job, and she gets a little camp but not too much. I told Milt that Gabie also plans to return from Cooperstown and do nothing but play baseball a few times a week until he goes away to camp. We started telling stories about when Claire or one of the kids had been spacey, and Milt told us that Claire had her picture in the Glencoe news for raising funds to help animals. She and two little friends had gone around the neighborhood, with no documentation or anything, asking for money. They came back with over $700. Anat had fun riffing on that idea, going around asking for money with no proof of anything.
It was lovely having three of the next generation; they talked a little about their ‘teen club’, in which they meet monthly to go out for expensive dinners with Grandma and Grandpa to complain about us parents. Grandpa leaned over to say that he just loves to listen to them. His favorite saying, of course, is that the purpose of having grandchildren is justice, meaning of course, revenge.

Mom and I arrive first, right at noon, and the others straggle in over the next twenty minutes. We start chatting about the father’s day dinner she hosted, and how Aunt Ruth was as usual busy complaining about various aches and pains, interrupting anytime the conversation didn’t include her, and being generally disagreeable. I tell Mom that David and I will just be flying in on August 3, the day they just announced to be the unveiling of Uncle Leon’s stone. We agree that if our presence was important, someone would have asked first about our schedule before planning such a date.

Dad is the last to arrive, so we’re sitting down, the four of us siblings, plus Matt Pinsky and Mom/Grandma. This week we’re at the Egg Shell, which is a quicker meal than some of the other places. Usually, we order an apple pancake as dessert, but this time no one remembers until it is too late, and we’re all disappointed.

Janet tells us before we order, that Maureen, the wife of our second cousin Bob, is in the ICU; she has been battling lung cancer for months. Matt isn’t sure who she is, so I do a little family tree clarification. Janet had invited Maureen and Bob over for dinner, and she’d been having sudden trouble breathing in spite of being hooked up to an oxygen tank. She is younger than me, and a very beautiful, always strong looking woman. I’m silent for a while, reflecting on our luck, our blessings.

Marty tells us about buying a new car, that his brother in law in the business called him about it the minute it was brought into the dealership. Now he has to sell his old BMW, and Matt wonders aloud if Marty might want to donate it to him. Milton says that Matt can’t afford to own two cars, and we have a discussion about driving at college, which Matt would like to do. Milton can’t stand the idea of him driving the 600 miles out there, but Matt says it would be nice to be able to visit his girlfriend, Lauren, at Maryland, which in any case costs $80 to take the very long and inconvenient bus ride.

We ask about Lauren, and Matt tells a story about dragging her on a bike ride that didn’t end well because she caught him staring at some skaters going by, one of whom was only wearing a towel. He tells us that Lauren is kind of like his mom, and Milt relates how once on the boat, Lauren and Ibby were wearing a similar looking outfit, and agreeing about everything they discussed. That gets us talking about the boat, and I ask Marty about his plans to replace the forty foot motor boat he sold last year. Marty isn’t thinking about it for now, but maybe he’ll look into it next year. He still pays for the slip at Montrose, and we ask if he’s able to rent it out. Apparently, this is illegal; the harbormaster was just canned after raking in a ton of money doing it.

This leads to a discussion about corruption in Chicago; Janet tells us about her childhood friend, a city social worker who now has a bunch of no-nothing supervisors, all appointed by the corrupt Cook County Board president, Todd Stroger. Somehow this leads into national politics, and Milton has surprisingly emerged as an Obama supporter. He spouts a bunch of facts about McCain wanting to raise more taxes than Obama, which riles up Grandpa, who then wants to talk about McCain being a hero. Grandma asks if anyone has seen the Obama commercial with a young woman, baby on her lap, talking to the camera saying something like, “Even if McCain wants us to stay in Iraq for another hundred years, my baby is not going over there”.

“Is that really an Obama commercial?” Milton asks.
Grandma insists that she never said it was an Obama commercial. Milton tells a few more stories that are unflattering about McCain. Janet reminds us that McCain didn’t ask for 100 years of battle, and tries to clarify the situation. Grandpa clearly wants to argue with Milton, but it has gotten late. I ask Grandpa is there’s anything he wants to share with us while we’re all still there. Marty says, “Does anyone here know anything about mentoring?” We all laugh, including Grandpa. It doesn’t bother him that we poke fun at him. We’re all proud that he is still trying to make the world a better place, at age 80. We just don’t want to help!

Then we decide that next week we’ll meet early, at 11:45. Oysy Sushi? No, Janet hates it there. How about the new kosher place, Mizrahi? Too small and it has very slow service. I tell everyone that I’ll let them know. Then, I run to do some errands and get back home to Gabie, who is eating chips in front of the television.

Grandpa and I arranged to meet at Stir Crazy at noon, so I am surprised to receive a phone call from Matt Pinsky at exactly 12:00, telling me that they are sitting down at Di Pescaro. But, after two years of Grandpa Lunches, I’m used to last minute changes in venue, or confusion about time and place. Then I call Janet and Marty to update them, and Janet is running late so she gives me her order.

Matt is working at Banner for the summer, and it turns out that he hates Stir Crazy, so the confusion is a little cleared up. But Janet isn’t all that fond of Di Pescaro, so we will have to compromise over the next two months. There is usually a lot of discussion in determining the restaurant, with some saying anything is fine and others wanting a specific place. Of course, when Anat and Maya join us, they’ll probably want to have breakfast food, so that will mean Egg Shell.

This is the first time Janet and I have seen Matt since he finished his first year at Penn State. We start out by asking him questions about his year. He is so handsome and grown up that we can hardly believe this is the same gawky kid who didn’t know what to do with his long arms. He tells us that Penn State wasn’t a perfect fit for him, and explains how the students are mostly east coast, which he hadn’t realized was so different. He does a mean imitation of fast talking New Jersey kids, and tells us that he would like to pull up his grades in the next year, then perhaps transfer to someplace in the Midwest.

Grandpa listens with a big smile on his face, as usual just happy to be surrounded by some of his children and at least one grandchild. I lean to Matt and say, “Let me tell you what I tell my students when I mentor them.”

Of course, everyone laughs because they know I am poking fun at Grandpa, who has started a foundation for mentoring troubled teens in Chicago. We all know that he is itching to mentor all of his 12 grandchildren, and we guess that he has often shared stories of mentoring with Matt. Nonetheless, I repeat Grandpa-isms with great relish to Matt, telling him that he has to get the grades and call the shots. Matt has apparently already figured this all out, after a fun but not academically brilliant year.

Matt has always had a sweet nature, like his father, but today he is additionally thoughtful to Janet and me, asking if we mind that he orders shrimp. Of course not, we say. Then while helping Grandpa to share a portion of his dish, he says to me: “I’ve used this fork in the shrimp; would you like me to use a clean fork for you?” All of us smile; what great kids we’ve raised in this family!