Re: Klez anecdotes for concert introductions

[Helen Winkler <winklerh...>]

My kids really like this story, especially the part about sticking pins into 
the groom's pants:
 
http://people.netscape.com/morse/barg/antyiz72.htm

A N T 0 P 0 L 

(ANTEPOLIE) 
 YIZKOR BOOK 

EDITED BY BENZION H. AYALON 
 Published by 
Antopol Committee in Israel, Actively Assisted by 
The Antepoller Yizkor Book Committee in the U.S.A. 
Tel-Aviv, Israel, 1972 
  The joys and the sorrows of Antopol Jews found their echoes in the synagogue 
courtyard.  Most wedding ceremonies were performed here: the canopy would be 
put up in the yard for the bride and groom from the farthest parts of town.  
First the groom was brought here, accompanied by musicians walking through the 
streets, and then the same band would go back to bring the bride while the 
groom stood alone waiting under the canopy, his face turned towards the 
synagogue.  While waiting, the groom was not allowed to move, and we, the 
urchins, hanging around the yard, would sneak up to stick a pin into his pants 
and laugh at his helplessness.  The ceremony itself always impressed me deeply. 
 The many lighted candles, the long pleated wax tapers (at the rich people's 
weddings), in the hands of happy festively dressed men and women, the flames 
moving in the breeze; the familiar standard tune of the benedictions and the 
festal pleasing voice of the cleric performing the ceremony with a flair of 
pomp, all these remained indelibly stamped in my memory.  On going back from 
the wedding canopy, the band would strike up a sorrowful march, which used to 
evoke the jocular comment that the music sounded like "Bagroben dem Kop" 
(-something like: "Ruined for life...").