I started this essay on Sunday in New York, intending to finish it in Florida a day or two later, but on deadline, of course.
So far in the Northeast, we’ve had pretty mild and nice weather, although we are still several weeks away from the start of winter. We had several months without any rainfall at all, and some municipalities are calling it a drought, urging people to take fewer showers, and in one area of New Jersey, I read that restaurants are serving drinks without ice to conserve water.
Eventually, it will rain and it might even snow. The point is that for those who wish to avoid the brutal cold of the north, they’re thinking like the Canadian geese and heading south to Florida for the winter.
The great thing about the Sunshine State for Observant Jews is you can head just about anywhere in South Florida and not miss out on anything you might need during your stay.
For just about all of us, that means kosher food, shuls, mikvahs, seforim, shiurim, and lots of good friends who for some reason become even better friends when we encounter them in different venues away from home, such as at shul or in the local supermarket.
In any case, this is the season of the snowbirds, who are defined by the fact that they are planning on hunkering down in Florida for at least the next four to six months. On the other hand, there are the “snowflakes,” that is, people like us who have no set plan or schedule on when they decide to migrate south.
So, how did we manage to evolve into part-time Floridians, braving the cold winter weather of New York on some occasions while indulging in the balmy warm weather of Palm Beach County at others?
I believe that, like many aspects of one’s life, it is a behavioral matter that is passed down in one form or another from your parents. For as far back as I can remember, my parents made their annual ten-day jaunt to Miami Beach. In those days, they either stayed at the Crown or Caribbean Hotel on Collins Avenue. My dad loved the boardwalk, especially after dinner and Ma’ariv, when he would encounter old friends from various parts of the world. Sometimes they were readers of his and enjoyed discussing his latest articles that appeared in the Yiddish press in those days.
I must have had it somewhere in the recesses of my mind to emulate that practice. After all, it would be a nice thing to just get away from it all and leave the frozen winters of New York for the warmth and sunshine of the South.
I remember on one of those first trips we made down here once the children were a bit older, that it rained almost non-stop for two days. I thought, “Wow, my parents never mentioned this.” I can still see the rain dancing around on Collins Avenue; it looked like it had no plans to stop but of course, it eventually did.
My parents made those ten-day trips once a year and that was it. In those days, when summer arrived, they would escape to Israel for a much longer period once we kids were all safely tucked away in summer camp.
As I write these words, I think it was inevitable that we would follow in their annual getaway trips and perhaps even expand on it. So, largely due to my parents having chosen to be interred in Israel, we are at a point when we are in Israel two to three times annually.
Then there is the warm weather Florida aspect to this tradition. I’m going to stop the New York version of this article here and continue once we are safely ensconced in our place in Florida.
So, here I go. This week we are snowflakes.
The flight down to West Palm Beach International airport was smooth and quick. If you leave on time and the weather is good, you can make it down to Florida in about two hours and ten minutes. As you land, there are what looks like hundreds of feet of private jets parked at the section of the airport that you catch a glimpse of once you start descending over Palm Beach.
I kept an eye out for Trump’s plane, Trump Force One, which if he’s in town, has to be parked here but it must be kept out of sight for security reasons.
The fact of the matter is that the weather on Monday in New York was superb for so close to Thanksgiving. Some of the shuttling back and forth between New York and South Florida is indeed about the weather. Aside from the present drought in New York, our consolation prize has been spring-like weather almost towards the end of November.
But if it’s unusually mild in New York, the meteorological dictum is that it will be even warmer down here. And it is. This week, while it was still pretty nice up in New York, the great thing is that it was even nicer and warmer down here.
The snowbirds start migrating south right after Sukkos. The snowflakes are coming down this week, but most of them have return tickets to wherever they came from that leave a week or two from now. Ask most of them why they are returning to their increasingly cold winter in New York or Chicago and they will shrug their shoulders and tell you that they don’t know.
Down here in Boca Raton and Boynton Beach, there are increasing numbers of people who are establishing this location as their home base. In other words, they have transplanted themselves and are now year-round Florida residents. While it is a beautiful thing, it also requires a tremendous cultural change if you lived your entire life in New York.
I mean, how are we going to live without bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Van Wyck Expressway 24 hours a day? Here in South Florida, for the most part, if you need to go somewhere that is 14 miles from your home, it takes 14 minutes to get there. In New York, a 14-mile trip can easily take two hours. If you’re accustomed to that, how can you possibly live without it?
Some of the people down here are part-time snowbirds, so let me explain. Those folks have sold their homes in either Brooklyn, Monsey, or the Five Towns, spend six months down in Florida, go to their children for the chagim (all of them), and then spend most of the summer in the Catskills where they might own or rent homes. If it works, it works.
Now, is that living or is that living? The real answer is I don’t know. All I can report is that we arrived down here on Monday afternoon with a temperature of about 80 degrees. The plan is to try and stay longer down here than we ever have to date. As you are reading this, so far, it’s looking good. n
Read more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
