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GIVING MYSELF A PARTY
When we lived in Ocean Park, I became friendly with the neighbors and their children. Many of them were Mormons who often invited me to church parties, although my mother discouraged me from joining in. During the Jewish holidays, we would walk my grandparents to the temple in Ocean Park and sit outside on the benches waiting for them. My mother, father and I were Jewish, too, so I wondered why
we didn’t belong to a temple.
When I was about seven and it was my birthday, my mother was too depressed to plan
anything. So I asked my father to drive me to the market, where I got grape sodas, cookies, ice cream, a little cake and some candles. I invited a few neighbor kids and Carter, the dog who lived nearby, and I gave myself a birthday
party.