Manny, Manny

Mile-End Montreal in the 40’s. These are the people I grew up with. These are their stories…they are also mine… The Levinskys were our downstairs neighbours at a time when gathering on the front porch each evening, weather permitting, was a daily occurrence.

Manny Levinsky was everyone’s friend. Always in good humour, Manny could be relied on to have at least one new joke each day. Some were even funny. His friends always laughed at them even if they weren’t. Manny told them that he wrote them all himself. His friends let him think that they believed him.

Manny was hearing impaired. His parents, Sol and Libby never wanted him to wear a hearing aid. They thought it would make him too conspicuous. They felt that it was just as well he not hear everything being said. Wrong decision. But this was the 1940’s, hearing aids were large and very visible and of course appearance was very important. The result when talking to him was everything usually had to be repeated at least twice. Not always. Usually. So Manny became known as Manny-Manny! Manny didn’t mind. After all, everyone had a nickname in those days.

Occasionally he would even pretend not to hear them when people called him with only one “Manny”.

Manny didn’t work. Well, hardly ever. He went to high school until he was 19 and only graduated when the principal, Mr. Webster, felt that anyone who had repeated every grade from 8 to 10 deserved to be recognized for their perseverance – if not for their academia. This had nothing to do with his hearing. He just didn’t like school. Manny wasn’t unhappy at this turn of events. Now he could spend more time at the corner soda shop, playing the pinball machines and drinking… what else – sodas!

Whenever Sol or Libby would ask Manny if he was looking for a job, he would shrug his shoulders. They chose to take that as a “yes”. The fact was that Manny was looking – only not for a job. Each day he would walk the downtown streets looking at people and in store windows. Work he had decided, was not a decision to be taken lightly, nor made in haste. Turns out Manny never did make this decision.

Let me clarify. There were times when he did work, but never at anything that required a commitment. Neither long-term (more than 2-3 days) or short-term: And never on weekends! And as long as there was a decent amount of time between jobs. Work, he had discovered was strenuous, and a man needed his rest.

For his meals (only lunch and supper) Manny would stroll through the produce aisles of the various stores in his neighbourhood sampling the fruit. He varied his diet depending on what was available. Winter produce was less to his liking.