community, six droll cocksuckers at a lawn party somewhere: “How is your boat …?” Fuck that shit, fuck that shit, she’s got a point in my ass, what the fuck did they ever do? They can’t make a joke for chrissake. I’ll tell you something, you’re sitting down, the reason that the goyim hate us the whole time, in addition they were envious is; we don’t descend to their level …
(Pause)
because we wouldn’t fight. The reason we were persecuted because we said, hey, all right, leave me alone, those Nordic types, all right, these football players, these cocksuckers in a fuckin’, wrapped in hides come down and ’cause we don’t fight back they go “Who are those people …?”
(Pause)
“Hey, let’s hit them in the head.” Because we have our mind on higher things.
(Pause)
Because we got something better to do than all day to fuckin’ beat the women up and go kill things. My dad would puke to hear you talk that way. I swear to God. Alavasholem, he would weep with blood, your father, too, to hear you go that way. What are they doing to you out there?
(Pause)
You’re too shut off, Bob. You should come back here.
(Pause)
My dad.
(Pause)
Youknow, when we were growing up, he always used to say: It will happen again. We used to say, huh …?
BOBBY : I remember.
JOEY : I used to say, “Papa, you’re here now. It’s over.” He would say, “It will happen in your lifetime.” And I used to think he was a fool. But I know he was right.
(Pause)
I’m sorry that now he isn’t here to tell him so.
(Pause)
Because I wish he was here.
(Pause)
BOBBY : ’V’you been out to Waldheim?
JOEY : Judy and I went last month. We try to go once a month.
BOBBY : Would you like to go out?
JOEY : We could go. Yes.
BOBBY : Just the two of us.
JOEY : I know what you’re saying.
BOBBY : When can we go?
JOEY : How long will you be in town?
BOBBY : Till the weekend.
JOEY : You want to go tomorrow?
BOBBY : Yes.
JOEY : All right.
(Pause)
We’ll go in the morning.
(Pause)
BOBBY : I’ll pick you up.
JOEY : All right.
BOBBY : We’re really going to go.
JOEY : All right.
(Pause)
JOEY : I’ll tell you something else: I would have been a great man in Europe—I was meant to be hauling stones, or setting fence posts, something.… Look at me: the way I’m built, and here I’m working in a fucking restaurant my whole life. No wonder I’m fat. I swear to God. You know how strong I am? We went to Judy’s folks, they had a tree had fallen in the road. Up in Wisconsin …?
BOBBY : Yeah …?
JOEY : I picked it up.
(Pause)
They wanted me to take a crowbar to shove it aside, the car could pass. I didn’tknow what they meant. Huh? I wasn’t showing off … you know I’m strong …
BOBBY : … since grade school.
JOEY : And Arthur says, “We got to move the tree …” I picked it up, I put it over there, I put it down, he’s standing there, a crowbar, all their mouths are hung open.
(Pause)
It was a big tree, too. That’s what I mean, Bobby, that’s where we should be, farming somewhere.… Building things, carrying things … this shit is dilute, this is schveck this shit, I swear to God, the doctors, teachers, everybody, in the law, the writers all the time geschraiying, all those assholes, how they’re lost … of course, they’re lost. They should be studying talmud … we should be able to come to them and to say, “What is the truth …?” And they should tell us. What the talmud says, what this one said, what Hillel said, and I, I should be working on a forge all day. They’d say, “There goes Reb Lewis, he’s the strongest man in Lodz.” I’d nod. “He once picked up an ox.”
(Pause)
Or some fucking thing. I don’t know if you can pick up an ox, Bob, but I tell you, I feel in my heart I was meant to work out in the winter all day. To be strong. Of course we’re schlepping all the time with heart attacks, with fat, look at this goddam food I sell … that stuff will kill you,
(Pause)
because we wouldn’t fight. The reason we were persecuted because we said, hey, all right, leave me alone, those Nordic types, all right, these football players, these cocksuckers in a fuckin’, wrapped in hides come down and ’cause we don’t fight back they go “Who are those people …?”
(Pause)
“Hey, let’s hit them in the head.” Because we have our mind on higher things.
(Pause)
Because we got something better to do than all day to fuckin’ beat the women up and go kill things. My dad would puke to hear you talk that way. I swear to God. Alavasholem, he would weep with blood, your father, too, to hear you go that way. What are they doing to you out there?
(Pause)
You’re too shut off, Bob. You should come back here.
(Pause)
My dad.
(Pause)
Youknow, when we were growing up, he always used to say: It will happen again. We used to say, huh …?
BOBBY : I remember.
JOEY : I used to say, “Papa, you’re here now. It’s over.” He would say, “It will happen in your lifetime.” And I used to think he was a fool. But I know he was right.
(Pause)
I’m sorry that now he isn’t here to tell him so.
(Pause)
Because I wish he was here.
(Pause)
BOBBY : ’V’you been out to Waldheim?
JOEY : Judy and I went last month. We try to go once a month.
BOBBY : Would you like to go out?
JOEY : We could go. Yes.
BOBBY : Just the two of us.
JOEY : I know what you’re saying.
BOBBY : When can we go?
JOEY : How long will you be in town?
BOBBY : Till the weekend.
JOEY : You want to go tomorrow?
BOBBY : Yes.
JOEY : All right.
(Pause)
We’ll go in the morning.
(Pause)
BOBBY : I’ll pick you up.
JOEY : All right.
BOBBY : We’re really going to go.
JOEY : All right.
(Pause)
JOEY : I’ll tell you something else: I would have been a great man in Europe—I was meant to be hauling stones, or setting fence posts, something.… Look at me: the way I’m built, and here I’m working in a fucking restaurant my whole life. No wonder I’m fat. I swear to God. You know how strong I am? We went to Judy’s folks, they had a tree had fallen in the road. Up in Wisconsin …?
BOBBY : Yeah …?
JOEY : I picked it up.
(Pause)
They wanted me to take a crowbar to shove it aside, the car could pass. I didn’tknow what they meant. Huh? I wasn’t showing off … you know I’m strong …
BOBBY : … since grade school.
JOEY : And Arthur says, “We got to move the tree …” I picked it up, I put it over there, I put it down, he’s standing there, a crowbar, all their mouths are hung open.
(Pause)
It was a big tree, too. That’s what I mean, Bobby, that’s where we should be, farming somewhere.… Building things, carrying things … this shit is dilute, this is schveck this shit, I swear to God, the doctors, teachers, everybody, in the law, the writers all the time geschraiying, all those assholes, how they’re lost … of course, they’re lost. They should be studying talmud … we should be able to come to them and to say, “What is the truth …?” And they should tell us. What the talmud says, what this one said, what Hillel said, and I, I should be working on a forge all day. They’d say, “There goes Reb Lewis, he’s the strongest man in Lodz.” I’d nod. “He once picked up an ox.”
(Pause)
Or some fucking thing. I don’t know if you can pick up an ox, Bob, but I tell you, I feel in my heart I was meant to work out in the winter all day. To be strong. Of course we’re schlepping all the time with heart attacks, with fat, look at this goddam food I sell … that stuff will kill you,
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