By barry, son or ruben and rose on Saturday, April 29, 2000 - 11:09 am:

i remember when i was a kid on the not so mean streets of williamsburg and it was saturday and all the chassidim would walk down the street in their caftans and white stockings and wigs. they would be contemptuous of us as we played stickball and stoopball and football and chinese handball on the shabbos.

then i discovered the blessing of shabbos in my life. however, i never did get orthodox and i still play ball on shabbos, now with my dog akela who is sweet and like me is getting on in years. and in our neighborhood in berkeley, calif, the local chassidim (though much fewer in number) still walk down the street as we get in our car to go to the movies or some such thing and we say: 'good shabbos' and they say 'good shabbos'. and to all of my relations i say: 'good shabbos'.

love, barry, son of rose and ruben.