Harold Goldberg

During Shiva, I heard many wonderful stories about Dick and I hope that
people record them and send them to you.  

There are many great moments I had with Dick as our relationship blossomed
but most of them will remain private.  The one though that I thought no one
else would know about was his wood chopping phase.  I think it was the first
or second time I came to Ballard street in the early 80's and  I wanted to
make a good impression on my girl friend's father.  It was Thanksgiving and
Dick had a huge pile of cut up but not yet split wood on the back driveway.
I eagerly went out to join him as he was using various tools, as only Dick
could, including an axe, a old wood saw,  a sledgehammer with various
interesting wedges, a maul and a thing that he got later that I believe was
called a Froe.  In any event I spent 2 or 3 days splitting wood with Dick
and at some point I asked him where the wood came from.  He indicated that
it was from a neighbor's tree and that was that.  As I got closer to the
family and maybe it wasn't until Alisa I got married, that he let me into
his secret about where the wood really came from.  He would go running to
look for trees that the city of Newton had tagged to be chopped down. (This
could be the real reason he ran every day)   He would eagerly wait for the
city to cut the tree down.   Dick had figured out that the city used one
crew to cut the tree down and then another to haul it away.  Before the
city's second crew showed up, he would drive over and begin hauling the wood
into his back yard.  He figured the wood would only go to waste and in his
own way, he was doing a mitzvah by using the wood to heat the house in the
winter and of course, clearing it out of the neighbor's yards much faster
than waiting for the city to show up and take the wood away.  

During Shiva, I stepped out on the back porch and I believe I saw wood that
we split over 15 years ago, still sitting in the wood pile, plus all the
other wood he has split since. Dick provided for his family in many ways but
we will be especially warmed and comforted by his memory as we stoke the
wood stove on Ballard street for at least the next 20 years, with the wood
he so dearly split and stacked for all of us to share.  

Harold Goldberg