The Israel American Friendship League asked me to entertain Mrs. Blanchard of the League for Women Voters. "We have to be nice to her" I was told, "She has 50,000 members behind her. We were to be ten in all, five from the League and the foreign office and five personal invitees. I invited Meyer and Naomi, that's two, ourselves make four and Mr. Geri is five! From their side were two from UNESCO, two from the foreign office and Mrs. Blanchard. Quite an important dinner!
The Succah was really charming this year. Even Mrs. Hoffman, Joe's mother, said she had never seen a nicer Succah and she meant it!
How to make the meal interesting? I decided for entry I would have something typically oriental. I bought "Chumus" and bread called Pitta. The chumus looks like putty, is spread on the pitta in a thin layer and a spicy red cayenne pepper is served with it and you eat it with that Arabic bread that is made in the middle of the night by fat perspiring men dressed just in shorts. A special tool, made of wood like a rounded mallet is then thrown to "open" the ball of Chumus and then thrown like clay flat on a dish. I t is then scooped up on the "bread" and eaten. I used my best blue flowered dishes, decorated the plate with red pepper on the outside and center with sprightly green parsley. This rather vulgar Arab dish had been changed to a delicate offering .
The table looked lovely and it was 7:30
To get back to the meal. I thought that having started off so oriental, I would finish up "American" with "apple pie.
The telephone rang! A gentleman from the foreign office took sick and couldn't come.
And so we were seven!
At 8 o'clock, the bell rang. It was Mrs. Blanchard. So we were three! Where was UNESCO and where was Meyer? Meyer finally arrived but UNESCO never showed up.
It was 8:30 when we finally sat down to eat. It was a good meal and I can tell you everyone had plenty to eat. Mrs. Blanchard had two large helpings of roast beef and she declared it was the best roast beef she had eaten in all her (treffneh) life. I considered it a compliment. Though we were so few, the food was good and the conversation as well. I can say "A good time was had by all!