Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84; site aluxp.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!lll-crg!dual!qantel!ihnp4!aluxp!moran From: moran@aluxp.UUCP (moran) Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish Subject: n.r.j.singles Message-ID: <273@aluxp.UUCP> Date: Sun, 11-Aug-85 17:31:04 EDT Article-I.D.: aluxp.273 Posted: Sun Aug 11 17:31:04 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 14-Aug-85 22:29:24 EDT Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Allentown, PA Lines: 51 Recently, I had the (mis)fortune to attend Homowack Lodge (in the Catskills) Shabbos Nachamu Singles Weekend. Yes, I had heard all of the stories about how it was a meat market, etc., but I wanted to see this legendary event firsthand. (I also figured that it was infinitely better than going to a shadchen or otherwise being "fixed up".) Well, all the stories are true. While this wasn't the first Homowack singles weekend I've been to, it certainly was more of a zoo. I did have some interesting conversations, and I made some observations firsthand. Some of these are surely stereotypes but they really held up. I'm looking for comments by the net. (Obviously, this does not fit on net.singles.) ===> The women there that are still college age seemed, on the whole, to be doing nothing with their lives but looking for a husband. They seemed to be hanging around until he shows up. (One memorable example told me that she was taking off a year teaching, and then "I guess I'll go to dental school." The reason that she was taking a year off was to _avoid_ dental school!!) ===> (equal time) Very, very many of the guys there were socially, well, retarded. This is no doubt due to growing up in an all-boys environment in school. But one would think that for those that are working or attended co-ed colleges they could at least open their mouths during meals (optimum meeting times)! Some of these people really looked like nice guys, but they were painfully shy. Whether they expected Ms. Right to sweep them off their feet, I don't know. ===> (corollary to 1 and 2 above) The most interesting people I met were either >25 years old (and presumably with more learned social sense) or they were not quite as religious as the average person or they were ba'ale t'shuva (more "normal" teenage social lives). Singles' weekends still seem to me to be the lesser of all evils, especially for non New Yorkers who would have to schlep to NYC for anything else (Simchas Torah in the upper West Side? Forget it!!). Any comments are welcome, and it is to be hoped that this topic will liven up the net a little. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Alan Lustiger {Bell Labs machines}!aldvp!altuxb!ail AT&T Technology Systems 555 Union Blvd. Allentown, PA 18103 (215)439-7883 Reach out and touch the right choice with the future built in.