Fruma: Oyi Cheftziba!  My acing back!

Cheftziba: Tell me about it.  I haven’t been able to bend over since the Israel Egypt Peace treaty! 

Fruma: I know.  It seems like decades since we were young, bold and beautiful.

C: Fruma, it vas decades ago… you haven’t been beautiful since the fifties…

F: But do you remember the good old days, back when we snuck into the beit shean valley, to build our beloved Kibbutz?

C: Ah yes… beautiful Tirat Zvi… The British didn’t know what hit them…  and by the time they figured it out and came to kick us out, we already had a legal settlement waiting for them.

F: actually, they didn’t kick us out because of that.  When they saw my radiant smile, all they could do was smile back and leave us alone.

C: You kidding?  They took one look at you, and ran for their lives!

F:  But remember how life was back then?  With the misquotes- Malaria of course, the hours on end of hard work in the boiling sun, the Arab attacks… and after a day like tta, the boyes would sit in the beit midrash learning into the night… azoyi!  Those were the days…

C: Oyi!  We used to sleep on the floor, cause it was cooler there.

F: But we were the lucky ones.  The boys had to sleep outside! 

C: At least THEY didn’t have to do all that sweaty laundry!

F: Your right.  Cheftziba!  You remember the war?

C: which?  The one when Yehoshua captured Yericho?  Yes, I was a young girl back then…

F: No stupid, your old but not that old… The one that started when David Ben Gurion declared the state of Israel.  1948. Ring a bell?

C: Oh yah!  THAT war.  They sent us women away from the kibbutz.  They were afraid that the Kibbutz would fall, because it was completely isolated, surrounded by Arab villages.   I remember…  the Hagana was sure that Tirat Zvi wouldnt stand a chance because we were the “Frummies”… 

F: Yes.  They sent the women and children to a safe place.  I remember the night before we left…  I went to visit my Yankele on guard duty… He said to me: Fruma! I said to him: What?  He said to me Cant you ever just be quiet?  I said I don’t think so… 

C: You know, I think that the women were sent away for reasons besides safety…

F: Yes, well we couldn’t stay away long anyway…  we came back ASAP because the Kibbutz held out through the difficult battles of the war of independence, and has been growing ever since.

C: It’s Givaldic.  I’m so cheppy we’ve managed…  Of course it has all been worth while, because now Tirat Zvi is most famous for it’s incredible meat factory…

F: you think I can eat meat with cholesterol like mine?

C: No, but they can!

F: Enjoy Yeladim.  Lehitraot!