Oy America, What Has Become of You?

Many Israelis travel "abroad" for a change of scenery and a break from the "situation." It's such a small country and some destinations (e.g. Turkey) can be as cheap as a weekend jaunt from California to Las Vegas. The USA as a tourist site has the most cachet, but for me, until now, it was simply a revisit to my first home. I usually make an annual trip to see my children, grandchildren, brother, and various other family members.

The past couple of years I began to feel like a visitor/tourist, complete with camera. What has changed? As I adapt to life in Israel, each year my angle of vision moves a few degrees further away from where it started. But the target is moving too. Here are a few symptoms:

There are more fat people in airports. Once I get where I'm going, they disappear, so I conclude that either they hang out in airports a lot, or they don't go where I'm going once we land. Does my family favor thin neighborhoods?

Everything is bigger. Maybe that's to accommodate the fatter people. Or maybe the people are getting larger to accommodate the bigger merchandise. For example, kitchen utensils.

The photo shows two potato peelers: the new one that I bought on a recent visit to the USA, next to my old one, which was actually imported to the USA from Germany about 20 years ago and still works. It has a little protrusion for removing the potato eyes. The new one has a non-functional protrusion, and was probably made in China. It has a humongous handle, with a little chain for hanging it up on a hook. I keep my potato peelers in a small drawer. My hand is roughly the same size it was 20 years ago. If I were to replace all my kitchen equipment, I would need a larger kitchen to store the larger utensils. Is that the point of the bigger and bigger MacMansions? More space for bigger stuff? Because it can't be for bigger families; families living together are smaller nowadays. Old parents and unmarried aunties and uncles are shipping off to retirement housing with rooms directly proportional to their retirement income, so these larger family homes simply provide more living space for fewer occupants. This allows each younger person living en famille to be more isolated separated from the others in their own homes, without having to go outside and encounter - God forbid - a Stranger!

On a more positive note, my favorite line from this visit was spoken by Pippi Bluestocking, my beloved Florida daughter-in-law, introducing me again to Little Bear, my beloved 19-month-old Florida granddaughter:

Little Bear, this is your Savta. Remember her? She lives inside the computer. We let her out to visit you for the weekend.

Happy Purim, everyone!