Stories I Tell Myself
Linda Brody Bakst on Brooklyn, growing up, identity and more
Category: Family life
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Note: I have no expectation that Steven Spielberg will read this or hear about it, but I want to put it out into the world. Of course, if any reader has a connection to him, please share it! Dear Mr. Spielberg, I am writing to thank you for creating the Shoah Visual History Foundation. It…
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I have some exciting news to share! My book, More Than Matzoh Balls: My Search for Jewish-American Identity, is being published. It is available to preorder now on Barnes and Noble and will be available soon on Amazon (see link below). You can also request it from your local bookseller. It will be in print…
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What was I thinking? That was the question I was left with after a conversation with some family members. What was I thinking when I didn’t assign my kids chores when they were growing up? A small group of us were talking about how old we were when we learned to cook, if we learned…
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What are my priorities? I am a grandmother, called Nana by my granddaughters, which makes me smile. I ask myself, how much of my life do I want to shape around theirs? I grew up with my Nana living upstairs in the apartment above mine in a two-family semi-attached house. She was a gift to…
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My family has a movie club. It functions the same way as a book club. A member picks a movie, and we get together on Zoom to discuss it. The person who picks the film moderates the discussion. The number of participants varies from month to month, but typically there are about 19 of us.…
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Editor’s note: I received the following email from my brother, Mark Brody. With his permission, I thought it merited sharing. I just read a headline, I only read the headline as that is all I can tolerate, which indicated that federal funding is being cut to the programs which provide tutoring to children. After reading…
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I don’t have a sister; I have two brothers. But, I find the dynamic between sisters particularly interesting, maybe because I don’t have one. I could be romanticizing it based on Hallmark cards, but it seems that for some it can be a deep, lifelong friendship; a connection different than the relationship between a sister…
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This photo came up as a memory on Facebook a couple of days ago. It was bittersweet to see it. I remember that day clearly. It was only a year ago. Gary and I were in Florida for our annual pilgrimage to see the Mets during spring training. We took a short drive from our…
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Aunt Clair’s ashes were sitting in a cardboard canister in the closet of our Manhattan apartment. The third anniversary of her passing was coming up soon. Her final wishes were to have those ashes spread over her parents’ graves. For many reasons, it had not been possible to make that happen, and as her yahrzeit…
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We gathered at Riverside Cemetery in Saddle Brook, New Jersey. In Jewish tradition, a year or so after a person is buried, you have an unveiling – literally the unveiling of a headstone or footstone that is the marker commemorating the individual’s life and death. Though it has been less than a year since my…
