Not a Nickel to Spare

by Perry Nodelman

  The game was over, and I was so glad nothing serious had happened. But no one seemed to be leaving. Everyone was just milling around on the field and muttering, like they were waiting for something bad to happen. That was when a bunch of goyim standing on the little hill out past centre field spread out a large white blanket with a black swastika sewn onto it — just like that sweater coat the last time, but even bigger.

  Everyone started shouting, “The swastika! Look at the swastika!” A bunch of Jewish boys tried to rush the goyim to get the blanket. Some of the Harbord boys who were still on the field grabbed bats and started swinging, and suddenly, everyone had their sticks and pipes out and they were all fighting. Some Jewish boys got hold of the swastika blanket and ripped it to shreds, but when they tried to hold up the shreds to show the crowd, they got pushed down and trampled. Everywhere around me people were punching each other and hitting each other with sticks and things.

  Benny must have decided things were getting out of control, because he said we had to leave right away and he grabbed my hand and started to pull me through the crowd. By then I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I nearly got hit three or four times, but we made it to the edge. As we were standing there trying to catch our breath, one of Al Kaufman’s gang came running up the hill, heading for a car he had parked there. He told Benny that Al was sending him to go down to Spadina and round up more Jewish guys, because the fighting was only going to get worse. Benny asked him to take me with him, to get me away. By then I was back to being myself again, and I was glad to go. Everyone in the park seemed to be completely out of their senses, and they were attacking each other without even seeming to notice or care which side the other person was on. There all had crazy meshuggeneh looks in their eyes and there were people shrieking and yelling and there was was blood everywhere. It was awful.

  I tried to get Benny to come with me, but I knew he wouldn’t. I saw him head back down into the Pits as we drove off. I hope he’s okay. I’m really, really worried. Why doesn’t he come over and let me know?

  The Up-town man drove really fast and stopped the car in front of the Goblin restaurant at College and Spadina. He told me to find my own way home, and then he climbed onto the top of the car and started shouting, “Gevalt, me shlugt yidn!” Suddenly the street was full of men, pouring out of the delis and other places and asking who was beating up Jews. When the Up-town man told them, some of the men ran out into the street and stopped the cars and trucks that were passing, and then as many men as could jumped into each of the cars and trucks and told the drivers to head for the Pits. The Up-town man was still shouting when I left to go home. I snuck in the cellar door, and no one knew I was late except Gert and she won’t tell or else.

  I hardly slept all night. I kept seeing the crazy looks on everyone’s face and those sticks and pipes crashing into people heads.

  Where is Benny? What’s happened to him?

  After Midnight

  Benny finally showed up. He has a lot of awful bruises and he says he has a very bad headache, but he seems to be okay. Kayn aynhoreh. And now I know what happened after I left.

  After he saw me drive off with the Up-town man, Benny headed right back into the Pits. He could see the Jews all gathered together around the Harbord team to protect the players and each other, because there were so many goyim. He somehow managed to get through the crowd to where they were and he says things looked pretty bad for a while. But then the cars and trucks from Spadina started pulling up, and the Jewish guys leapt out of them and ran down the slope and just started attacking whoever was in front of them. Everyone was fighting everyone else. Benny says he picked up a big tree branch someone had knocked down and waded right in himself. He says he hit all sorts of goyim. He seems very proud of it, too. I don’t know whether to be happy about it or not. He does seem okay, I guess.

  Finally, after an hour or so, some policemen on horses showed up, and then a bit later more came on motorcycles, and they all rode into the park and tried to stop the fighting. They did get a lot of people to leave the park, and it looked like everything was over. But the streets around the park were still full of little separate groups of Jews and goyim, and every once in a while they’d meet up with each other and the fighting would start again right there on the street. Benny says he could see people standing at their windows inside the houses, staring out and looking frightened.

  The motorcycle policemen started patrolling the streets, breaking up the fights, and telling everyone to go home. But as soon as the police left, everyone just went back towards the park again.

  On the way there, Benny got hit on the head by a rock, and this guy he knew, Joe Gold, took him to his aunt’s house on Christie Street, where she cleaned him up and put on a bandage and told him to go home. But he didn’t, of course — he just went right back to the fighting. Honestly! I could kill him!

  Back at the Pits, the mounted police and motorcycle police had made a complete circle around the park, which was full of goyim, and they wouldn’t let anyone else in. As Benny was standing there with a bunch of Jewish boys and staring at the police, he heard a rumour that a Jewish boy had been killed. That got everyone even angrier.

  I wonder if it’s true. I hope it isn’t.

  Anyway, Benny said that then more trucks full of Jews showed up and they rushed the police and broke through their lines. Benny went along with them, and ended up fighting with a bunch of goyim with blackjacks and steel pipes. He says he gave them as good as he got, which from the looks of his face is pretty good.

  The police finally broke up the fight and pushed everyone up the slope of the park and onto the street again. But of course the same thing happened as before. They just kept fighting in the streets around the park again. As Benny was being shoved out of the park by a policeman, he saw another truck show up with more Jews on it. But by then there were lots and lots of police around, and they surrounded the truck and made the driver leave with the Jews still on board. Benny ended up on Christie Street with a few other Jews, with a large group of goyim trying to get at them. The police kept rushing at the goyim and pushing them back and they finally did.

  Finally, by about midnight, things quietened down. Benny got on a truck with some of the Uptown guys and got a lift back to the neighbourhood. As he was walking down Spadina to get home, some cars went by with goyim in them shouting “Hail Hitler.” Seeing those anti-semits coming right into Jewish territory made him really mad, he says, but he was alone, so he hid in the shadows until they were gone.

  But he says it’s not over yet, because the Up-town Gang is planning to be prepared for Friday night, when the two teams are supposed to meet again at the Pits for the next game of the playoffs. Benny’s already picked out a good heavy pipe to bring.

  It makes me so furious. He won’t be satisfied until he kills someone, or someone kills him. None of them will. I can’t believe this is happening to us. To Benny. To me.

  August 18

  All day yesterday everyone was talking about the riot — even Ma and Pa, and they never pay any attention to the news. I guess you can’t blame them. They can’t read the English papers, and we can’t afford the Yiddish one. But still, it drives me crazy. Pa always says it’s none of his business, because the goyishe shmendricks who run things will run them the way they want whether he finds out about it or not. He says that’s just the way the world is and always has been and Jews just need to stick to their own places and their own kind and be good Jews and go to shul and mind their own business.

  I am going to have to write really small now, because there’s not much paper left and I still have lots to say. There’s so much to tell and so much to think about. Would it be so bad to ask Benny to lend me some money? Yes, it would be. I know it would.

  Anyway, we were all sitting on the front porch after supper because it was so hot inside, and Benny came around and told us that the Tely says the riot was caused by communist agitators who showed the swastika because they knew it would g
et people excited. Benny said that’s totally ridiculous — why would communists want to show a swastika? The Nazis hate Commies and vice versa. Anyway, he knows for sure it was the boys from the Pit Gang because he recognized some of them. Pa gave Benny a nasty look and said that no god-fearing Jew would behave the way the boys did in the park or even be there at all and Benny should be ashamed of himself. My face turned beet red but I certainly didn’t want Pa to know I was there, too, so I didn’t say anything. Benny tried to argue with Pa and he told Benny he’s meshuggeneh and he doesn’t know anything, just like his pa. I had to drag Benny away before he started yelling at my pa.

  Pa has a point, I guess. I was terrified when I was there in the Pits, and maybe it would have been better to just stay out of it and be safe. But would it really be safe? Can you be safe anywhere when people hate you so much just for being Jewish? Shouldn’t you try to do something about it? Maybe not fighting, but something. I love Pa, but I think he’s wrong. Just as wrong as Benny is for thinking that hitting people with tree branches is the answer.

  I took Benny around the corner to the swings in Bellvue Park, and he told me it was only a rumour that a Jewish boy got killed. Thank goodness. But a whole bunch of guys got treated at Western Hospital for head injuries and other things.

  Benny also told me he had just been up to Christie Street, where he went to bring Joe Gold’s aunt some chocolates to thank her for looking after him. I think he really just went there looking for trouble, but I was too polite to say so. Anyway, he says there was a gang of goyishe boys out in the street — little ones no older than me. I gave him a kick in the ankle for that. The boys weren’t saying anything much, just trying to look tough and hanging around outside of houses where Jews live and trying to look menacing. As Benny was leaving some boys called him a kike and one threw an apple core at him and then they all took off. He saw them heading off for the Pits and decided to follow them, but when he got there, there were policemen everywhere, and they told him it’s a dangerous place for Jews to be, because a bunch of goyishe boys with chains and broom handles were there just waiting for trouble. They sent him home.

  Benny thinks it’s unfair that the goyim are allowed in the Pits and he isn’t. He says he could even hear chants of “Hail Hitler” coming from the park, and the police weren’t doing anything to stop it. But he was by himself again, so he decided that maybe the policemen were right after all, and he left. But he says it’ll be a different story tomorrow. Tomorrow, he says, those anti-semits will see what Jews are made of.

  I didn’t even try to talk him out of it. He is completely obsessed and completely meshugge. We might as well start planning his funeral. Benny is doomed. Maybe we all are.

  August 20

  There’s just one page and the back cover of the scribbler left. I’ll have to work hard to squeeze everything in.

  The next playoff game has been postponed for a week. I’m so glad. There hasn’t been any serious trouble in Christie Pits or anywhere since the night of the last game. Benny is still in one piece, and so is everyone else.

  Benny was right. The papers say that it was the Pit Gang that showed the swastika blanket, and some of them have been arrested. Benny says as far as anyone can tell, they’re just a bunch of hooligans. They certainly weren’t commies and they have no connection to the Nazis in Germany or even to the men out at the Beaches who started the whole swastika thing. They’re just mad because Jews have started moving into their neighbourhood and they think it should be just for goyim. I’m glad they got arrested and the Jewish people who live there can have some peace. It’s their country, too. It’s our country, too.

  Still, I’m not happy about Benny and his plans. He wants to go to the Pits tonight with a bunch of other boys even if there is no game. He says they just want to show the goyim that the park doesn’t belong to them. According to Benny, the Jewish boys don’t want to start a fight, but if anyone else starts something, then they’re ready to die with their boots on like the brave British citizens they are.

  They have to, he says, because he knows the police are on the side of the goyim. One of his friends from the belt factory was at a meeting at the Labour Lyceum a few nights ago and he heard this man from the CCF, Captain Philpott or something like that, blame the police chief for the riot. The night it happened the chief sent truckloads of cops down to a labour meeting at Trinity Park even though he knew there might be a riot in the Pits. Benny says the chief did it because he’s an Orangeman and he hates communists and he doesn’t care what happens to Jews.

  Well, maybe that captain is right and maybe he isn’t. But going off in a gang to the Pits is just going to cause trouble. There must be a better way. There has to be.

  And darn darn darn! I’ve got just a couple of inches left at the bottom of the back cover and then that’s it. The end. I have to get a new scribbler. I don’t want to stop. I like writing about everything. Even when I write about really scary things I don’t feel so scared anymore.

  Epilogue

  Sally did manage to get another scribbler to write in, a few weeks later. But by that time, she was back in school and busy with homework, and it seemed as if everyone had forgotten all about the riot and the swastikas, including Sally. She never wrote another word about it. In fact, the scary night at Christie Pits was the last outbreak of violence between the Jews and the swastika gangs. Benny and his friends stayed out of trouble at Christie Pits. At the postponed game between Harbord and St. Peter’s the next week, only seventy-one people showed up, and there was no trouble. Nobody knows why. St. Peter’s won the game, 5–4.

  Sally continued to do well at school. She was at the top of her class in Senior Four. Myrtle MacDonald came second, and they both went on to Harbord Collegiate, but Sally never did talk to Myrtle. Sally felt guilty about staying in school when times were so tough, but Sophie insisted.

  But the Depression didn’t get much better, and the lack of money in the family finally ruined Sophie’s plan for Sally to go to university and become a lawyer. Instead, she went to work as a receptionist and bookkeeper at a fur coat company on Spadina, Kaufman Brothers and Fine. She modelled fur coats for the customers whenever one of the Mr. Kaufmans or Mr. Fine asked her to, even though she thought she wasn’t pretty enough. The customers didn’t seem to mind.

  While Sally was going to school and modelling coats, Benny kept on working at the belt factory and getting into trouble with his father. He got involved with the Cloakmakers union, and spent a lot of his money at the racetrack and at the bootlegger’s. Sally thought it was disgraceful, but even after she made new girlfriends at Harbord, Benny was still her best friend — even if he insisted on always coming over to give her the bad news about Hitler.

  Things just got worse and worse for the Jews in Germany, and not many people in Canada seemed to care very much. The government wouldn’t even let very many Jews who were trying to get away from Hitler come to Canada. It made Sally very angry.

  Then in 1939, World War II began. As soon as Canada joined Great Britain and other Commonwealth countries in the fight against Germany and the Nazis, Benny signed up for the army. He told Sally he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he didn’t. She was angry at him for putting himself in danger, but secretly proud of his bravery. He joined the Infantry and died in the raid on Dieppe in August of 1942.

  Sally was very upset when she heard that Benny had died. So was Harvey Tischler, Benny’s best friend, who had joined the army the same day Benny did. Harvey was so short-sighted that he wasn’t able to join a fighting regiment, and he spent the war years in the Service Corps at Camp Borden, north of Toronto, working in the Quartermaster’s stores. Sally ran into him on Spadina one afternoon in 1943 while he was on leave, and they had a good time reminiscing about Benny and the band and the events at Christie Pits. Sally decided Harvey didn’t smell anywhere near as bad as he once had. A year later, they married.

  A year after that, Sally moved with their little baby Benjamin to Allisto
n, a small village a few kilometres away from Camp Borden, to be near Harv. Sally’s parents and sisters were furious with her, especially because no other Jews lived in Alliston and no kosher food was available there. They told her she couldn’t manage to live so far away from the community and from her family and her own kind all by herself. A few weeks after she moved, the entire family came up to Alliston on Pa’s truck, convinced Sally would have had enough by then and would be willing to pack up her things and come home with them. But she and little Benjy stayed, and she made friends with people in the town and with other army wives. None of them was Jewish. One of them turned out to be Myrtle MacDonald’s older sister — a woman Sally especially liked.

  After the war, Harvey left the army and joined his father in his jewellery business, playing in bands on evenings and weekends. Sally offered to sing with the bands, but Harvey, who had heard her very high voice, always made a face and said no. A few years later, he bought his own jewellery store in Edmonton, and he and Sally and Benjy and Benjy’s new sister Sharon moved there. It was thousands of kilometres from Toronto, but Sally still kept in close contact with her family, especially her favourite sister, Dora.

  Sally’s sisters all married. Gert was the first to go — she married Chaim when she was just sixteen and had her first child almost immediately. Pa was furious, but told himself that at least Chaim was Jewish. Sophie was furious, too, because the older girls were supposed to marry first. But she and Dora soon had husbands, too, and eventually so did Molly and Hindl. They all married good Jewish boys that Pa approved of, and they all ended up having children and living quiet lives within a few blocks from each other in Toronto. They remained one another’s best friends all through their lives.