Fiddler on the Roof

Last night son David and I were watching the 1971 movie of “Fiddler on the Roof”. He along with Pete and Will were in the Billings Studio Theatre production with me back in January 1980. I played the Rabbi. At the time I was the Representative of the Big Sky Area Baptists on the national board and was a member of the Billings School Board. (This is an aside.) The Calendar for the coming school year was presented to the Board during the production and I moved that the year end Christmas Vacation by deleted and that it be called “winter break” or something similar. The Conductor of the orchestra for the play was Jewish and many of the kids in the cast were also Jewish. As “Rabbi” and as an American Baptist Clergyman I felt that the seperation of Church and State is important. The motion Passed and the Roman Catholic Education reporter for the Billings Gazette made a big issue of this in the paper the next day. Later my collegue at Rocky Mountain Colleger who was also on the Board labelled me as the Grinch who stole Christmas. That appeared in a bold headline on the story the next month that that some of the Board were going to move to rescind the previous action. The Chairman of the Board stopped me one day at the local Osco Drug Store and implored me to reconsider. I knew that I had at least 3 votes on the Board to retain my motion and a local Congregational Pastor spoke to one of the members who belong to his Church and she agreed to vote to sustain the previous action. Needless to say I was not re-elected to the School Board the next year, but a woman who was a member of the local Temple Beth Aaron was. The Superintendent dealt with the whole question by listing “holidays” at the end of the Calendar rather than throughout the list.

I’m not sure that it is right for me to share my grief with my readers, but there is something I have to share in some way and I have not been able to speak it to anyone. And sitting her at the keyboard it is not easy.

When Tevya learned of one of the daughters desire to marry he finally relented and in a following scene speaks to his wife that they love each other. I anticiapted the next line from my memory as he began to sing the lovely “Do you love me?” I could not keep the tears away as I thought of the many years Betty and I were able to speak our love to each other, and when her heart was near its last beat she looked up at me with eyes wide open as if to say - “I love you.” and “Good-bye.” We never really got that last chance to say out loud to each other “I love you.” But I find myself remembering that last moment and say again and again - “i love you, Dear. Sweetheart, I have loved you so much.”