A voice from the past.

Fifty-seven years have passed. An old friend, Herby, has found me and now we are conversing on the Internet. The e-mails flow back and forth and old times are caught, held and remembered.

I remembered that he was the guilty victim of corporal punishment meted out by the Rabbi's cane at our Hebrew school in the East Bronx. He couldn't stop being the class clown (he really was truly funny) and the Rabbi couldn't stop going after him with his cane. I'm not sure who won that war!

The memories he carried of me reopened a portion of my life that had almost faded. His first question, "Do you remember that German Luger you had? We used to play with it, whatever happened to it?"

It was 1944.

My Uncle Murray, the Infantryman War Hero, was sending home Nazi souvenirs as his unit battled up the Italian Peninsula and into Germany. My closet was full. I had a Nazi flag (Swastika) as big as a beach blanket, I had a German helmet, German medals but my biggest prize was my German Luger.

The Luger arrived with a shiny leather belt and a buckle printed with the words "Gott Mit Uns," translated (God is with us). Suddenly I was the most popular 9-year-old kid in my neighborhood. Everyone wanted to see my Luger and watch me disassemble it.

As I read today in 2001, of accident after accident from guns found by kids in the home I grow sheepish. What a dumb thing! A 9-year-old with a Luger. Crazy!

It remained in my closet until 1948. In June of 1948, my Uncle Sheldon burst into my bedroom and asked "Stanley, Where is the Luger? The State of Israel has been declared and they are collecting weapons to send to Israel, as they do not have armaments."

I pointed to my closet and soon my prize possession was whisked off to do battle across the oceans. I know that the original manufacturers did not intend it for that purpose, to help Jews fight for their homeland.

There you have it, my confession!

I was a bad boy in 1944.

Old memories reawakened!

I almost wish that corner of my life was not reopened by finding my dear old friend.