The other day I heard a loud, sing-song voice calling in my neighborhood. Sticking my head out of the window, I could tell the caller was moving slowly through the streets. I thought, “That’s sad. Someone has lost their dog and they’re driving slowly through the neighborhood calling for it.”
Then I heard it again this morning. Surely the dog wasn’t loose again! I asked Yaacov, “What is that man saying?” Y replied, “It’s an Arab guy saying ‘Alte Zachen’,” and explained that it was Yiddish for “old things”. This man drives around Tel Aviv and you can give or sell him your old junk. Y died laughing When I told him that I thought that the man had been calling for his lost dog!
So we’ve decided that Alte Zachen is a perfect name for a dog! We’ll call him Alt or Zachi for short. (Too bad we can’t have a dog in this apartment. 
)
Check out this post on another blog about memories of the Alta Zachen man. Savtadotty even caught the Alte Zachen man with her camera while walking her dog!
3 responses so far ↓
Shirat HaSirena // Nov 27, 2006 at 12:27 am
Ha ha! That’s hilarious! That guy makes me laugh too…driving all around to take your old junk. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure…
Idan // Nov 27, 2006 at 10:31 am
Growing up, I remember the sound of the alte zachen horse-and-cart clip-clopping past my grandmother’s balcony every day after we came back from swimming at the beach. Ah, memories.
Steg (dos iz nit der šteg) // Nov 27, 2006 at 2:31 pm
In Jerusalem i just remember hearing AAAABAAAATIIIIIIIIIIYAAAAAAHHHHH!!! from the roving watermelonmongers.
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