Re: A QUERY

[Kame'a Media <media...>]

Dear Owen:

When I was a kid  I left home with the carnival
(Conklin and Garret Shows) and travelled with them.
(Romantic, eh?)
This was back in the day of the sideshow that included
freaks, knife-throwers, fire-eaters and hoochie dancers.

I shared close quarters with Schlitzie (b. Simon Metz),
billed as the "Missing Link" and the man who had the legal papers
to exhibit him.  (Schlitzie,   appeared in
Tod Brownings film "Freaks" (c.1927) and some other films).
 He was microcephalic; that is, a "pinhead".

The man who had the legal right to exhibit him was a
Gypsy lion-tamer and sword-swallower.  My knowledge of,
and experience withthe Roma began with him.

(As far a "going there",  political correctness and family values have done away
with the sideshow in the USA and Canada, replaced by sanitzed, corporate
entertainments).

See the book - "Bury Me Standing" by Isabel Fonseca.
There is another one about the "Devouring" (translation of the Rom for
"Holocaust"),
 "And The Violins Stopped Playing".  Can't recall the author.

Wolf



Owen Davidson wrote:

> Dear Wolf,
>
> As much as I hate the imperial call which makes us trot out our sources, our
> sorcerous horses: where did you read/hear/learn this?  I would go there.
>
> Owen
>
> Kame'a Media wrote:
>
> > Dear Trudi:
> >
> > One could not be both a Jew and a Gypsy (Roma or Sinti)  in a social 
> > context.
> > They are two distinct peoples with entirely different origins, belief
> > systems, languages and cultures.  The Roma have no books;  theirs is 
> > entirely
> > an oral tradition.
> >
> > True, both shared marginal social status and second-class "citizenship".
> >
> > Perhaps your informant meant that some Jews lived a "Gypsy-like" existence;
> > that is,  --attempting to survive by music, horse-trading, prostitution,
> > smuggling contraband and other various criminal/underground activities.
> >
> > There was certainly some intermarriage;  Gypsy women with Jewish men being 
> > more
> > likely than the opposite, although both combinations would have been rare,
> > given the cultural differences,
> > not to mention the harsh opprobrium a mixed couple would have faced in their
> > respective
> > families and communities.
> >
> > In more recent history, some European Gypsies have adapted Christian beliefs
> > and practices,
> > but continue to maintain their traditions, especially those regarding
> > "uncleaness"
> > and contempt for =gadjos= (everybody else).
> >
> > Wolf
> >
> > Trudi Goodman wrote:
> >
> > >     6/13/2000
> > >
> > >    Hi, Trudi Goodman, here, I am doing research on Jews and Gypsies
> > > especially in Eastern Europe.  Does anyone know if there were in fact 
> > > Jewish
> > > Gypsies in  the Odessa Region...one person I've spoken to "thinks" that he
> > > "remembers" that there were.
> > >    If no one knows...all you folklorists out there can you point me in the
> > > right direction???
> > >
> > >     Thanks,
> > >
> > >     Trudi the G
> > > ________________________________________________________________________
> > > Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
> > >
> >
>
> --
> Owen Davidson
> Amherst  Mass
> The Wholesale Klezmer Band
>
> The Angel that presided oer my birth
> Said Little creature formd of Joy & Mirth
> Go Love without the help of any King on Earth
>
> Wm. Blake
>

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