VLVL The Pisk Sisters--JAPs?

[davemarc]

From: jbor <jbor at bigpond.com>

> they wore
> "their hair in" a style most commonly associated with African-Americans.

The Jewish Afro (or Jewfro) is not associated with African-Americans, except
by analogy. It is a style commonly associated with curly-haired Jewish
people who let their hair grow out. It's a familiar term in the New York
area.

> Even
> the Tupperware detail suggests that they were rich kids.

Tupperware parties were a mainstream phenomenon. Tupperware products are
hardly associated with the rich and privileged. They were certainly seen in
middle class households.
>
> > As far as Danish being a type of pastry (and therefore a confection of
> > privileged class), they're as much a type of pastry as donuts.
>
> They're a type of pastry. If you're accustomed to buying a Danish for
> breakfast and shopping at ritzy department stores then you're not on the
> breadline.

Regarding Danish, I assure subscribers that they're not a pastry associated
with the wealthy. As I said, they're more on a level with donuts. In fact,
they're arguably lower-brow because one can slice away at a Danish,
stretching it out for days or sharing it with, say, family
members--economical for anyone who wants something sweet to go with the
morning coffee.

Regarding "ritzy department stores," I agree that the basis for comparison
with Magnin's is unclear. However, those who are not very familiar with the
American department store situation might be interested to know that a very
likely possibility has to do with the size of the stores. In the 1960s, New
York City was home to a number of enormous department stores--we're talking
Macy's, Gimbels, A&S, B. Altman, and Alexander's as well as Bergdorf
Goodman, Bloomingdale's, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Lord and Taylor. Different
department stores suited different "classes" of shopper, but a crucial
factor that distinguished New York department stores was the enormity of
their selling space and the variety of available goods. The flagship Macy's
at Herald Square, famous as the world's largest department store, attracts
tourists as well as bargain hunters with its Escheresque city block of
floors and half-floors. The WPA Guide quantifies its size at 10 acres of
selling space; the NYC Access travel guide of 1991 says that "more than
400,000 items are displayed on its 9 floors." Compared with such a store,
Magnin's would be seen as having a decidedly lesser magnitude.

Incidentally, I just realized something else: Ditzah compliments the ladies
toilet at Magnin's--the quality of the bathroom facility would actually be a
typical frame of reference for New Yorkers who maintain mental maps of where
they can get access to public rest rooms. That's a nice touch.
> >
> > Also note that the Pisks specifically remember "apartment living" in NYC
as
> > "warm and neighborly." That's different from remembering the whole of
NYC
> > that way, or perceiving it through the eyes of an outsider. It's quite
> > possible that kids growing up in an apartment building in the 1950s and
> > 1960s would recall their apartment building as being a warm and
neighborly
> > environment and find the less intimate living conditions in California
to be
> > "cold and distant."
>
> You've rewritten the text to make your point. "They found West Coast
people
> 'cold and distant' .... " (196.24) This is the context of the comparison
> they are making.

This is the full context:

"They found West Coast people 'cold and distant' as invariably as they
remembered apartment living in the Big Apple being all 'warm and
neighborly.'

"'*We* are not the ones who have to encapsulate *our*selves inside our cars
all the time,' Zipi would point out, 'are we? no, and our dogs and cats
never have to get sent to shrinks, and *we* certainly do not come up out of
the water, fuck somebody right there on the beach then go jogging away
without even leaving their phone number,' which had in fact happened to
her....'"

So I don't really see any problem with my description above or below:
>
> > The Pisks carp about the West Coast world of cars, pet therapy, I.
Magnin,
> > and the "easy-come easy-go" sex lives of surfers. Between the two of
them,
> > they miss Danish, warmth and neighborliness, a standard of big and
bustling
> > NYC department store set by the middle-class Macy's, and New York City
as a
> > sentimentalized whole: "California's only reality for them was to be
found
> > in the million ways it failed to be New York."

d.