A Bucket of Ice

I sit at the Waterfront Hilton, gazing at the many white tents. The Air Force is here this week as well as the Thunderbirds as an  air show is scheduled Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The best place to watch is on the hills of Huntington Beach, just in back of the Regency Hyatt and in front of a few old majestic buildings.
    Besides calling for my next apartment, I examine my stories that emanated out of San Diego. While I stayed at the 'Y" built in 1924, some of my stories had a Jewish twist to them. This one I wrote in 1912 and was copyrighted.

                                                    
 A Bucket of Ice "c" George Garrett 1912

 It has been one year, yes one year since I had moved into the downtown  Y.M.C.A. on Broadway's San Diego.. Down the hall on the second floor is an ice machine. I take my plastic bucket there to replenish it with ice -- to drink from during the night. To its brim I fill it and leave about one glass full of water.
     The ice melts in about two hours and then I can drink ice cold water. It is another hot a humid day off the Harbor. I hurriedly gulp down the water and remembered a visiting professor from Alabama University who taught chemistry and lived in my hotel during the Convention at the Grant Hotel up the street.  I had suffered with Asthmatic Bronchitis all of my life and San Diego's weather made it worse. In a matter of time, I would be in heaven, God be willing.
     One late afternoon on the steps of the 'Y', I asked the small lean professor his secret of longevity as we sat on the steps of our building in the American Plaza section of San Diego. I call it Bankers Corner since three banks live there with one twenty stories tall.
     "Well George, I am here for a convention and was born in India. Can't you tell?"  His amicable smile relaxed me.
     "May I ask your age kind sir?" He appeared younger than the wrinkles on his face.
      "I am seventy five years old. You might think I am a lot younger, but there are three secrets to my youthful look. I eat only vegetables, fruit and nuts. Also I drink two quarts of water every day...It takes a little practice George but in time you will learn. We are just like car engines. When we keep them clean and use quality fuel, our hearts run better and softer."
       The little Indian got up to leave, and I asked him for the third step of longevity.
       "Sorry George, I got to go walk five miles. Yes, that is the third step."

About two months after our meeting, I made my usual walk again to the showers and toilets down the hall. After a shave I took a long, good look. Why I don't look a day over thirty nine. Again I left a little water inside my bucket while I filled it up with ice. But why am I always keeping some water at the bottom. OH.! It helps to melt the ice and I can drink it. It was then the idea came to me like a bolt of lightening.
    The Rabbi   spoke about removing our resentments during the Day of Atonement at the Hyatt Regency ballroom. Wouldn't it be great if each of us had a little water in our veins of resentment. We could remove past resentments and fulfill our lives with love...get it? 
     Now at my new synagogue on Warner Avenue in Huntington Beach,  My Rabbi's message during a  during a Pasha,  that in order to get closer to HIM, we must pray each morning, put film on and also study, study and study the Talmud some more. some more the Talmud