A Wall of Light - Edeet Ravel [44]
Diary of a Young Man50
29 January 1922. Since we’ve established our commune, new people have come to join us daily. They’re all “Shomrim” [members of Young Guard] from every corner of the world; some were part of the Tiberius road “work brigade,” some came from the Hartiya road, others from the Afula-Nazareth road.
Our camp, white and sparkling, stands proudly on the slopes of the Carmel. We are three to four per tent; a few boards around a central pole serve as our table, and the beds are our chairs; in the young women’s tent there’s a white tablecloth, a vase of flowers, glowing pictures and a polished lamp.
Our only work is paving the road from the new [Jewish] neigh-bourhood [Neve Sha’anan on Mount Carmel] to the city [the lower part of Haifa]. The work is arduous, but most of us are veteran road workers and we’re used to it.
Dori
Some children have teeny-tiny dolls. As small as my fingernail. I don’t know where they come from. I really want a doll like that so I asked Daddy next time he goes to the city to buy me one.
He bought me a doll but it’s way too big! It’s the size of my finger not my fingernail. I cry and say no no I wanted a teeny-tiny doll! He laughs and says I couldn’t find a smaller one.
I feel bad when he says that. He looked and looked but he couldn’t find. And now I’m complaining instead of being happy.
He says he’ll make me a chair and a bed for the doll. We go to the garage and get metal. Daddy cuts the metal with special scissors and bends it with pliers and makes little chairs and tables and beds. We put the doll furniture on a wooden tray. I’m happy for real now. The dolls are a little too big but they have wonderful furniture. And Daddy made it.
Our First Year
22 June 1949. Two of us got up at 4:30 this morning to dust the vines.
An early rising in the kibbutz is always tough but also refreshing: deserted grounds and a brilliant sunrise, the clean empty kitchen into which one stumbles rubbing one’s eyes, the Primus humming away and the sleepy-eyed cook and first helper moving heavily about; something different, usually a bit better to eat; and that rare atmosphere of intimacy and unanimity, of calmness and order, before the hectic day explodes.
We used portable back and stomach dusters. The stuff puffs its way out in a foggy little cloud and settles on the leaves like powdered sugar being lightly sprinkled on doughnuts.
Amazing to think that this yellowish powder—consisting of sulphur, lime, and sodium fluo-something-or-other—is going to keep these beautiful, green, carved platters of leaves from being attacked by various insidious insects and diseases.51
Dori
Lulu has chicken pox. Shoshana tapes sticking plaster with our name on it to the back of our plates and tells us not to touch Lulu. But Daddy says you can’t have chicken pox twice and it’s better to have it when you’re little.
If I get chicken pox Mummy and Daddy will be able to visit me right in the middle of the day. So when I play cards with Lulu on her bed and no one’s looking I touch her pyjamas.
I hope it works.
Baby Diary
November 23
Didn’t eat anything from Edna at 2:00. Only ate a drop of pudding and refused the rest. Simply shut her mouth …
Very sociable. Laughs at everyone—also at the children next to her, Simon, Niv.
Dori
I have chicken pox. Everyone has it except for Skye because she had it in Boston. This morning she had to go to Galron all by herself.
Now she’s back. She’s showing off the puppet she made there. The puppet has a red satin gown that covers your hand when you hold it. She says we had so much fun today so much fun over and over and over. We all feel bad that we missed making puppets but we pretend not to care.
I don’t like having chicken pox. I feel sick and thirsty all the time and my spots are itchy. But at least Mummy and Daddy were in and out all day long.
Diary of a Young Man
5 February 1922. Yesterday at the Meeting we had a lengthy discussion about our attitude to work. There are those who