Growing Up Below Sea Level by Rachel Biale

Author:Rachel Biale [Biale, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Historical, History, Middle East, Israel & Palestine, Holocaust
ISBN: 9781942134633
Google: zCn5xwEACAAJ
Publisher: Mandel Vilar Press
Published: 2020-01-15T03:30:36+00:00

CHAPTER 11

From Now On, Call Me Danny

“From now on my name is Danny,” I announced to my third-grade classmates at lunch. “You should all call me that. Only that.”

“Even in class?” Roni asked.

“Well …” I hesitated. “When the teacher calls on me I have no choice. But you all must only use only Danny—all the time.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. In our small class of eleven I usually got my way.

I had mulled over the name for a long time. What suited me most? It had to be a common name, a quintessential boy’s name. Of course, not the same as any boy’s in my class, or the grades right above or below us, since they shared many activities with us. I am not sure why Danny appealed to me above all other names. Could it be because it was actually ambiguous and could be a diminutive of Daniela, a fully legitimate girl’s name? Perhaps I had prepared an honorable way out for myself in case “being a boy” backfired.

But, right now, I was determined, and pressed full steam ahead. Just changing my name was not enough, of course. I got a boy’s hair cut when the barber from Beit She’an, the nearby town, came for his regular visit, the first Friday of the month. With a wet comb, he styled a tall cowlick above my forehead. Cowlicks were all the rage and even appeared as a marker of confident masculinity in a popular song about Dudu, the heroic Palmach fighter. Generally, I wore tank top undershirts in place of the short sleeve ones the girls were given, but I sat proudly, bare chest puffed up, shirtless in a row of girls for the annual class picture.

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