passover at aunty honey s and uncle harvey s in new jersey my sister would hold her breath over the george washington bridge and we would laugh at her she d frown everyone including nana ida would be standing by the front door as we pulled up and we d count down four three two one and we d fight to be the first out of the car having come this far having come so far for this feast this feast of new yeast and the matzo balls are so hard when you cut them they just fly why passover on this day we read of plagues and misfortunes then start eating uncle harvey s the cook ma laughed so loud that she shook cousin gary is reading porn we ve run out of skullcaps some men are wearing acapulco beach club bandanas that really really really should not be worn we are jews from like the first 5 000 years laughing through our tears joyous vulgar anything goes but we wear nice clothes that s the way i like remembering this scene manic and high why passover in the passover prayer book we read about what pharaoh did to the jews about how pharaoh wore those big gold platform shoes and how the jews escaped stealthily by splitting the red sea wait wait i think that was a movie anyway when i tell the story of passover which i am instructed to do i will include how the jews of natick traveled over the hudson river and had an unforgettable seder more details about that later  it s later michael as the youngest sings out the four old questions what they mean is unknown my father is playing trombone then we go to meet elijah at the door i can see the faces round the table and the grins are getting larger and the voices begin to soar one two three four and i think that we will never laugh so hard never feel so free i think life that night was more perfect than it will ever be uncle bernie and my mother overwhelmed begin to cry why passover uncle bernie passed over uncle harvey passed over nana ida passed over and my mother my mother passed over passover passover
['broadway', 'show tunes']