א ביסל איבער דרייַ יאר צוריק, מיין פרוי און איך געחתמעט מיין זון אַרויף פֿאַר אַ זומער טעטיקייט, The Midland Park Players. This is a drama group that spends about three or four weeks preparing for a play and then showing it to the parents, friends and relatives. It’s always been done very well.

איך טאָן ניט וויסן אויב אַלעמען 'ס קינד איז ווי דעם, but my son is extremely reluctant to try new things. Knowing this, we signed him up for the program. We’ve found that it’s best to alert him to these kinds of things early and often. אַזוי, אין סדר צו באַקומען זייַן נאַטירלעך ומכיישעק, מיר דערציילט אים פרי און האט אונדזער בעסטער צו מאַכן עס געזונט ווי שפּאַס, אאז"ו ו. Even with a multi-month advertising campaign, he still wasn’t convinced. We forced him to do, כאָטש, און ווי איז אָפֿט דער פאַל, he had a great time.

דורך די צייַט די צווייט יאָר ראָולד אַרום, he had once again convinced himself that he didn’t want to participate. אָבער, מיר האט געחתמעט אים אַרויף און אויף נול-טאָג, I dropped him off one morning at the high school where they practice. When I went to pick him up after lunch, ער איז געווען זייער יקסייטאַד, אַלע סמיילז און מודיע, "The play is the וועלוועטעען ראַבאַט and I want to be the Rabbit". He had spent literally months carrying on (מאל כיסטעריקלי) וועגן ווי ער האט נישט וועלן צו האָבן עפּעס צו טאָן מיט פּאַרק פּלייַערס און נאָך דער ערשטער טאָג, he wants to be the lead role in the play. We’ve seen this pattern before.

(פיל צו אונדזער יבערראַשן, ער האט באַקומען די ראַבאַט ראָלע און ער איז געווען אַמייזינג.)

Fast forward a few years. He’s been in Park Players three times now, so he’s something of a veteran. This summer (2008), Players starts up again. אין דער מיינען צייַט, ער ס לעסאָף קאַנווינסט אונדז ער טאַקע doesn’t want to play soccer and he never liked basketball. That left him with no extra-curricular activities for late Winter / early Spring. A client with whom I was working mentioned that his daughter was in a program called Stage Right. Stage right is a slightly more expensive version of Park Players and it’s not in my town, but adjacent to it. Perfect.

The thing to know about that town is that it’s practically another country in terms of wealth. It has a high-frequency train right to Wall Street and NYC in general. It’s just a wealthy place. One of the on-going family discussion themes is whether we should have moved to that town instead of where we live now. It’s a bigger town, זייַן שולן פאָרשלאָגן מער מגילה פֿאַר די קידס, אאז"ו ו. My wife grew up in that town and her parents live there, so we are "hooked in" despite not living there. I personally grew up in different circumstances in Massachusetts, so I don’t have a lot to say about this during family dinner conversation. This isn’t to say that we aren’t very happy where we live. We just know that that town is a level above our town economically.

Stage Right’s next program started too soon for us to launch our normal advertising campaign to overcome my son’s reluctance. This is when he came up with one my personal favorite arguments against doing something: "Friday nights are הויפּט נעכט פֿאַר שלאָפן אָווערס!" Stage Right was going to interfere with his weekend socials.

דער טאָג קומט, מיר ברענגען אים דאָרט און פאַלן אים אַוועק און ווי מיט אַלץ אַנדערש, זייַן נאַטירלעך ליבע פון ​​נאָר זייַענדיק לעבעדיק גענומען איבער און ער ס 'געווען בעת ​​אַ גוט צייַט מיט אים.

דאס פאַרגאַנגענהייַט אָפּרוטעג מיין פרוי האט גערעדט צו אים און פֿאַר די ערשטער מאָל, I think he’s tailoring his discussions very precisely for his audience. She had asked him how Stage Right compares to Midland Park Players. He tells her that "In Park Players, we have teenagers that help us out. There aren’t any in in Stage Right. In Park Players, teenagers make all props. In Stage Right, we have to bring our own props. We have to do everything. And then he twists the knife: "I thought this was supposed to be a rich town."

כל די יאָרן, I never really thought that he was hearing or understanding anything as it related to the "rich town". אָבער, עס טורנס אויס ער איז געווען.

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אַבאָנירן צו מיין בלאָג.