Memories Of Golus

I was walking down the street in Jerusalem the other day and I had a flashback to my days when I worked in Newark, New Jersey in the early 1980s:

Back then I used to commute by train from my suburban New Jersey town into Penn Station in Newark. After work, I would return to Penn Station and take the train home. The trains were quite prompt, and missing a train could mean waiting half an hour for the next one.

One day upon leaving work I glanced at my watch and I realized that if I walked at my usual leisurely pace to Penn Station I was going to miss the train. Dressed in a suit and tie, sporting a leather "Wall Street" yarmulke and carrying a briefcase in my hand, I immediately started sprinting down the street in Newark towards Penn Station. I must have looked pretty strange.

All of a sudden I saw a Afro-American guy, probably a resident of the city staring at me and shaking his head. He openned his mouth in wisdom and said, "Dat guy be wantin' to get out o' Newark real bad."

I think I caught the train.