Sweeping is fun

It rained the weekend of Independence Day which bears no significance whatsoever except that we had originally planned to show our friends a good time at the town pool.

“What are you doing this July 4th weekend?” our neighbors asked.

“We’re hosting friends from out of town,” we answered.

“Oh, how lovely,” they responded. “From where?”

“All the way from New York City!” I gushed as I clapped my hands together and smiled wildly to be sure to emphasize the sarcasm behind my wide-eyed glee. We don’t consider the trip from the Upper West Side to South Orange to be a vacation, but our New York friends do. While we’re not that far away from each other, I do understand why a drive through the tunnel constitutes a vacation. Our dilapidated bungalow may not hold a candle to a rental home in Martha’s Vineyard or a beach house in the Hamptons, but our house in the suburbs of New Jersey offers an escape from the congestion in the city, room enough for guests and an on-site chef who makes meals to order and mixes cocktails all day long.

Furthermore, for families with children, we provide two boys who enjoy most activities (especially when bribed), a swing set and access to various playgrounds and the aforementioned town pool.

We had plans on Saturday, but we determined that Sunday we’d spend the day at the pool. Hours of swimming and splashing and baking in the sun would surely lead to exhausted children by bedtime. It rained all day long, and we made a new plan. It was our visitors who inquired about the Liberty Science Center (home of interactive learning experiences), and we agreed that it would be an excellent rain destination with 5 children under the age of 8.

As we walked from this room to that, I noticed that we were there with a significant number of Jews and Asians. While I had no means of calculating the exact percentages, this was definitely not the typical population at The Land of Make Believe amusement park or Fun Plex or the cinema. It is at this point that my mother would have made a crack like, “You see why WE are at the Ivy Leagues?” and I would have rolled my eyes and dismissed her entirely. Neither of my parents went to Ivy League schools.

But once I made the initial observation, I couldn’t stop taking a quick count in every new exhibition we entered to establish that, in fact, there were a whole lot of Jews and Asians. I tried not to make sweeping generalizations even though that’s the only kind of sweeping I like to do. In fact, there was a whole lot of everything at the museum. Why, we even ran into another gay family from South Orange at the cafeteria…who happened to be Jewish come to think of it.

The observant Jews stick out. Young, wig-wearing mothers. 10-20 kids per family (I may exaggerate a wee bit). Prayer shawl fringes hanging out of shirts. “Nachum! Tsvi! Go with Abba to the bathroom.” They’re tough to miss. And the Asians – be they East Asian or Indian – are easy to identify in a crowd. Are the percentages of Asians and Jews higher in a science museum than at the corn maze? Perhaps. Are our children more likely to get into an Ivy League school? Given that Asher’s favorite part of our visit was the enormous bag of popcorn he ate, I’m not going to take that bet.

Then again, I’m not going to be shy about calling it like I see it. Jews and Asians like science museums. Christian fundamentalists don’t. Neither group cares for mechanical bull riding. Sweeping generalizations come from bits of truth...for the most part.