12/20/11 - NNHS Newsletter

Understand that things happen for a reason.

The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve.

They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc, and on December 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished.

On December 19 a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm hit the area and lasted for two days.

On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high.

The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home. On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity, so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.

By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later.

She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area.

Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet. "Pastor," she asked, "where did you get that tablecloth?"

The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria.

The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten "The Tablecloth". The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria.

When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. He was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or her home again.

The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home. That was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a housecleaning job.

What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return.

One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving.

The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how could there be two tablecloths so much alike?

He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again all the 35 years between.

The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier.

He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked on the door and he saw the greatest Christmas reunion he could ever imagine.

True Story - submitted by Pastor Rob Reid who says God does work in mysterious ways. I asked the Lord to bless you as I prayed for you today, to guide you and protect you as you go along your way. His love is always with you. His promises are true, and when we give Him all our cares we know He will see us through.

So when the road you're traveling seems difficult at best, just remember I'm here praying and God will do the rest.

When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you need. Take 60 seconds and give this a shot! All you do is simply say the following small prayer for the person who sent this to you.

Father, God, bless all my friends and family in whatever it is that You know they may be needing this day! May their lives be full of Your peace, prosperity and power as they seek to have a closer relationship with You. Amen.

Thanks so much, Fred! I awoke sleepless in the middle of the night and was devastated to read of it. As it was one of my Very Favorite Places on Earth, I had in fact had already placed it on today's edition when your note arrived. From the Daily Press - 12/20/11: Hampton restaurant to close after 60 years By David Macaulay, dmacaulay@dailypress.com \|757-247-7838 6:26 p.m. EST, December 19, 2011
		HAMPTON – When Nick Sorokos' father bought The Oasis restaurant just before Christmas in 1977, the teenager was less than impressed. "I thought dad had bought a dive," he recalled. "Everything was '50s retro." But it was a busy dive. Business people would come in for lunch as well as some of the older people from the Wythe community who would follow a well trodden path down the bustling Kecoughtan Road. Sorokos soon came to appreciate the charms of one of the city's oldest restaurants, a place with an exotic past and a rumor of a visit by Elvis Presley. The Christmas of 1977 is likely to hold happier memories than the Christmas of 2011, when the restaurant will close after losses mounted during the recession. The Oasis has been a fixture in Hampton since 1952 and menus from that era list combination ham and cheese at 60 cents and a grilled hamburger for 40 cents. The food has remained as traditional as the clientele, although the building first opened as a gentleman's club in the 1940s when burlesque dancers were on the menu.
Nick Sorokos at the Oasis
Oasis closes Image by Sangjib Min Daily Press / December 13, 2011
Sorokos said the restaurant was in some disrepair when his family took it over but it did a "tremendous business." "I remember the place being packed. There was older clientele. It was just bustling but it was an old place." When he later took it over and upgraded it he said some of the regular clientele gave him a hard time. "They said, 'We like things the way they were.' I said, 'But there are holes in the booths and there are tin cans propping the table up.'" Nick Sorokos took over the Oasis from his father, Jim, in 1983 and gave it a facelift. He said the restaurant is the one of the oldest in the city. "Everyone else has gone by the wayside." Glory days The premises at 3506 Kecoughtan Road was built in 1945 and first opened as The High Hat Club. The Ives family opened the Oasis in 1952. Sorokos said in these days Kecoughtan Road was a major highway that petered out to the west where there was a golf course and an airfield. "It's just a family friendly neighborhood restaurant," Sorokos said. Sightings of Elvis are apocryphal, but Sorokos said he was told by a customer who was a child at the time that the "King of Rock 'n' Roll" visited the Oasis after playing at the Paramount in Newport News in the mid-1950s. For the best part of three decades since, Sorokos said, trade held up at the Oasis. But there were signs of what was to come after the closure of the Sentara Hampton General Hospital off Victoria Boulevard in the 1990s. That deprived the restaurant of business. The flow of traffic through Wythe slowed dramatically, but the Oasis managed to reinvent itself, Sorokos said. "We just thought that the neighborhood would continue to support us." 'Three lousy years' But three years ago the recession hit and hard times came to the Oasis. At the same time Sorokos said new chain restaurants were opening in the Power Plant and the new Peninsula Town Center, which has 17 eating establishments. "We've had three lousy years, this being the worst of them all," Sorokos said. He estimates the restaurant's trade has fallen more than 40 percent in the last three years. Employees were reduced from 22 to 12. "We were supposed to have the place sold but the deal fell through last Friday," Sorokos said. Sorokos' wife, Caroline, paid tribute to her customers. "When we got married we had 400 people at our wedding – 250 of them were Oasis grandmas and grandpas. They were my family," she said Tuesday. The imminent closure of the restaurant has upset regular clients such as Thom Christian, 70, who said he has been eating at the Oasis all of his life. "I am sad about it," he said. "The food is good and reasonably priced. I'll have to find another place."
My heart is breaking.....

Here are some links to Hanukkah recipes: http://www.twilightbridge.com/hobbies/festivals/hanukkah/recipes.htm http://allrecipes.com/recipes/holidays-and-events/hanukkah/ http://www.epicurious.com/recipesmenus/holidays/hanukkah/recipes/ http://youlovecoffee.com/jewishrecipes/ http://www.foodnetwork.com/holiday-central-hanukkah/package/index.html And here are some recipes by some familiar names (they don't really appear to have any particular bearing on Hanukkah, but, well, you know....):

COCOA NUTTY COFFEE CAKE	CRESCENT YEAST COFFEE CAKE	LEMON PARFAIT PIE	SCOTCH CAKE
Mrs. J. L. Levinson (Selma) - mother of Ilene Levinson Lieberman ('65) of Israel	Mrs. Ira Hirshman (Lee) - mother of Mike Hirshman ('65) of CO and Janet Hirshman ('68) of VA	Mrs. Franklin O. Blechman (Marie) - mother of Judith Blechman ('57); Libby Blechman David ('61) of VA; and Frank Blechman ('65) of Northern VA	Mrs. Sol Ellenson (Bernice) - mother of Harron Ellenson ('65) of MA, and aunt of Rabbi David Ellenson ('65) of NY
p. 166	p. 171	p. 185	p. 222
These were all taken from Always in Good Taste, collected by the Hampton Roads Section of the National Council of Jewish Women in August, 1972. "I bought it on eBay!"


12/20/11 - NNHS Newsletter - First Night of Hanukkah
	Wishing you and those you love all the good fortunes of life, health, happiness and peace throughout the New Year. *Best Wishes at Hanukkah!*