Page 5 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - September 14

BARRY COLEMAN
Born – Manchester, 1944; Manchester Peleg and Leeds Ken; Bradford and
Leeds as a student; Pre Aliyah Mazkir Garin Zayin, Rosh Ken Glasgow and
Rosh Ken NW London; Aliyah - 1968 to Kibbutz Amiad, during which time
he was Mazkir Kibbutz and held positions in the kibbutz company “Amiad
Water Systems.” He has been on Shlichut twice – USA 1973-1976 and UK
1982-1984. Education Director at Beit Yigal Alon at Kibbutz Ginosar -
1990-1992. Resides at Kibbutz Amiad

P aired for the very first time. Pulses raced,
arental Guidance is advised whilst
reading the following. There may be
breathing became faster and, out of the plastic
references of an ideological nature not
sound, and we, together with other millions,
necessarily suitable for all ages. transistorized depths, there came that familiar
were to be the first to hear this new song. And
It was all about the girls, the relationships, those there it was, the Mersey sound, the close
Lancashire Jewish lasses, roaming in between harmonies that went straight to the top of the hit
the dance halls from the Shrubberies to the parade. My claim to fame was to hear the first
Waterpark to Woodlands Road, always ending broadcast with millions of others and our little
up at Laps to read last week's paper under a group of happy Habo campers.
greasy pile of a sixpenny worth of chips.
That was a long time ago. Pete Seeger has
I was persuaded by a friend of a girlfriend's passed on at 94, no doubt still rambling there,
friend to try 88 Bury Old Road – the dance of and now, the present has come round to here.
the season. And so from "Teenager in Love,” Did we overcome as we sang along? And did we
"Sweet Sixteen" and "Dream Lover" I instead really count how many roads must that man
got Tom Lehrer poisoning pigeons in the park walk down? And did all our ramblin' bring us
with a Vatican rag, and the Weavers and Dudaim joy? I look around in my mind and I am witness
vying for our vocal chords. I put a CND button to the droppings of a lifetime. Almost like an
in my lapel and stopped eating South African animal making territorial claims within a
oranges.
collective history. Was this truly my history, or
Wasn't that a time? When a marquee smelt of a was I living in a collective historic canvas
grass-embellished field and peat bog campers painted together with others? Blowing in with
were in Derbyshire adorned by bog paper, and the wind?
not in trenched Flanders. Did it not all start on On to Hachshara, which was never about
the Wirral Peninsula – did we not arrive via the preparation in terms of farming skills, although
Mersey Tunnel - in spring prior to the Lake knowing how to turn a clod could be useful in
District's Charlotte Mason? Was Penrith in the general scheme of things. It was all about
between? All was nature around us, the self-realization. That in the here and now of the
cooking, the bird songs, fending for ourselves Movement hierarchy, there was a pinnacle one
off this quiet green land.
step before Nirvana. From a Chanich becoming
Apart from the radio! a Madrich to a Rosh this or that, staffing at
camps, Sgan Rosh, Rosh, then Rosh Ken and,
As four o'clock in the afternoon approached, the before that final blowout of Aliyah, going on
radio was switched on, because the new and Hachshara. Here was the personal example, the
latest single release of the Fab Four was to be self-realization, dedication, commitment,

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