Sunday Memories

Kodem Ha'tzimtzum or more appropriately -Kodem HaGiloih v'dal

There was a time when I was avidly into games; RPGs, CCGs, Tabletop war-gaming . . . you name it, I played it.

Every Sunday I would travel with a friend of mine, Tommy Stein, to a gaming store. I hate to generalize, but being that humans function as a matter of principle through generalizations . . . Gamers have no lives. At least not the ones with whom I would deal with.

One was rather large, his beer belly would hang out from under his sweat-stained Gen Con '88 t-shirt.
He lived at home.
His mother's home.
Or rather, in his Mother's basement.
Another was as skinny as the first plump . . . he would dart about nervously, always shaking and twitching. He was very proud of his job -the graveyard shift at Del Taco . . .
There did appear to be a few normal gamers around, a few students like myself . . . there was one guy who even came with his wife -they were married right after we started coming . . . though I believe there Characters had been married some time before we arrived.

The store was located in Burbank -named after New Hampshire born dentist and entrepreneur David Burbank- a part of L.A. that I'd been told swarmed with NeoNazis . . . the fact that the store owners, two guys who would at time wear Military fatigues, sold several WWII soldier action figures (it's funny that for girls they're called dolls, but for boys, action figures) -the Hans Muller doll with the 2 cm Flugzeugabwehrkanone vierling 38 was rather interesting-
Tommy and I, seeing that for all extensive purposes were the only Jews there, tried to keep a rather low profile . . .
One day 'Skinny' seemed to be particularly nervous . . . bouncing around the table top to look for a better move, he took out his measuring tape, placed the end in his mouth, and began to shake back and forth.
One of the other teenagers who would come, winked at Tommy and me, and then said to 'Skinny',
"What are you doing, davvening?"