2.70 Clara's Kosher Boarding House in Miami Beach

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70. Miami, Here We Came

Friday, 9 AM: traffic heavy on Causeway between Miami and the Beach. My Ali is in high spirits. And she is a travel agent too! Anticipating our being a mixed-race couple would cause trouble at hotels and guessing Brenda might know a good place to stay, Ali called her and discovered friend Lorna’s Aunt Clara runs a beach boarding house and got address so here we be, turning corner on Beach Road and seeing Clara’s Boarding House – Kosher Laws Observed.    We park, enter gate and walk a front lawn overgrown with white showy marshmallow hibiscus flowers on small trees, thorny red roses on creepers and odd weeds. On veranda I note white-beard gentleman in rocking chair wearing old fashioned long black jacket and black skullcap. To his left is same-age woman in long black dress, reading newspaper that from its headline is not in English. My Oriental face and Ali's American Aryan blue-eyes and blonde hair excite their interest.

   Front door opens and matronly gray-haired lady looks at us with friendly eyes. Without even introduction, one knows it is the Clara.  She speaks in accent that my writing can only suggest. We enter front parlor that gives feeling of relaxed old-country Europe. Slightly shabby sofa and several single-seat couches form the outline along walls and on the floor a Persian rug.

   Set against the far wall is a 1920's phonograph Victrola that one can imagine playing old Enrico Caruso opera discs on Sunday mornings. Pictures of European scenes hang from flat blue walls and pairs of electric candle lamps are at each corner. Clara tells us it is off-season with two boarders, the ones we saw on the veranda, Mr. and Mrs. Lifshutz, and she assures us that Jewish people understand the plight of strangers. She apologizes that her food follows the kosher laws. Then she asks Ali if I am Japanese and, when Ali says Yes, she says Jewish people especially Russian Jews her own origin feel friendly towards the Japanese because we beat the Czar in the 1904-1905 war. She is surprised at my good English as I tell her we Japanese always give thanks to the Jewish because their rich men financed our Emperor Meiji’s war against Russia. Now I see I am starting off right.

   A week is $25 and includes 3 meals. Ali gives Clara a $50 bill and asks no receipt. She leads us up stairs to adjoining rooms – big brass bed in center, writing table by window, closet with wood hangers and ceiling fan activated by chain. Ali mentions we need to bring in things from the car and Clara shouts downstairs “Oi, Chefferson!” and a white-haired Negro gentleman comes up the stairs, relaxed and rather elegant in open-neck white shirt and brown slacks pants. He also wears black skullcap like the gentleman on the veranda.

  
Later we each relax in rooms and Clara calls in from the hall: “Vy dontchya take a dip in de Ochen? Swim zuits I got if ya need.”
To read next, click 2.71 " I Do Not Think, I Know!"

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