You must remember the traffic sign that indicates a bumpy road ahead? As a teenager, when learning the  ‘Rules of the Road’, my friends and I used to refer to it as ‘Dolly Parton lying down for a nap’.
 
Bless her. I’ve always had a soft spot for Dolly, even though for the most part I can’t abide country music. But she does have a beautiful voice, crystal clear, and with a sweet, melodic way of interpreting a lyric that seems far more genuine than most country and western style screachers and preachers. Of  course, to many people Dolly is just as famous for her gravity defying figure that makes her resemble an upside down egg-timer in silhouette. Whatever is holding them up can’t be any less strong than the girders supporting the Clifton Suspension Bridge!
 
As a musician (of sorts), the thing that always impresses me most about Dolly Parton is that she has written nearly all of her own hit songs and  constructed memorable melodies complemented by meaningful lyrics that cross over from country to mainstream with consummate ease. ‘Love Is Like A Butterfly’, ‘I Will Always Love You’, ‘Jolene’, ‘Coat of Many Colours, and the most commercial of them all, ‘9 to 5’, the song from the hit movie of the same name which was a smash hit in 1980, and in which Dolly first jumped to prominence (if you’ll pardon the pun) and stole the show from co-stars Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. She was also nominated for an Academy Award for the title song.
 
And it’s that very melody, that upbeat, toe-tapping song written over thirty years ago that was the catalyst for one of the most heart-warming sights I’ve witnessed in Israel in a very long time. If I’d had more presence of mind (which is most unlikely these days as my mind seems to absent more often that it is present), I would have videoed the scene on my mobile phone, but was too wrapped up in watching the unfolding scene to record it for posterity to prove that sometimes, life in Israel isn’t all doom and gloom.
 
Picture the scene. I intentionally arrive at my local Rami Levi supermarket at 230pm, the time when most people are having a lunch, at work, or hiding indoors from the heat. It was rather warm outside, something in the region of 34 degrees celcius. I entered the store, pushing my trolley, and felt a small wave of happiness wash over me as the air-conditioned hit the parts that other temperatures can’t reach.

The local Rami Levi store serves the Jewish communities of Zichron Yaakov and Binyamina, the neighbouring Arab communities of Fureidis and Jisr-Az-Arqa, as well as numerous kibbutzes and small villages in between. The
workforce is made up of both Jewish and Arab workers, as is the regular clientele. As I had anticipated, there weren’t many people in the store this early afternoon and I set out filling up with locally grown, fresh vegetables; I know they were fresh as they still had the soil on them, not like those sterile, clinically packed cling-filmed monstrosities you get at Waitrose or  Tesco.
 
After doubtless muttering to myself about how prices had gone up  again, I headed over to the cheese counter where a very sweet young Arab girl was ‘giving it some’ with the slicer. I ordered 400 grammes of ‘Tal Ha’Emek’ (very good for cheese toasties and kids school sandwiches) and herself had just begun to place said cheese onto the white cheesepaper when the music came on in the store and the opening, rumbling bars of ‘9 to 5’ struck up.
 
Adjacent to the cheese section is the fresh meat counter where a Jewish and an Arab butcher regularly work side by side, cleavers in hand, with never a sign of intent to reduce one another to bite size pieces, unlike the diced chicken and minced lamb that they are well known for. Within four bars of  the music building up and before Dolly made her vocal entrance, knowing glances were exchanged between the meat and cheese staff (much in the way that Laurel & Hardy glanced at each other in ‘Way Out West’ the moment before they began their legendary, ‘impromptu’ dance before entering the saloon), and  then, right on cue as the platinum blonde country diva hit the opening words  ‘Stumble out of bed and tumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition etc..’ the cheese slicer was abandoned, the cleavers were lowered and the staff went into a clearly well rehearsed hand jive coupled with accompanying singing in various Israeli Jewish and Israeli Arab accents.
 
A member of the management (wearing a ‘kippa’ – a knitted skullcap) came sidling along as I looked on in delight (and a matronly type opposite me looked on in disbelief), and then, just as I reckoned he was about to bring proceedings to a halt, the manager also started singing along trying to mimic the movements of the butchers and the cheese girl. It only lasted a  minute or so before they all descended into fits of laughter. I applauded, and the sour-faced old bag just tutted and walked off, but what a great sight. One to remember.
 
I’ve been to this supermarket many times before and often noted how amicable the staff is and how well everyone seems to get along. What a shame moments like this aren’t recorded and shown to the outside world to prove that life here is basically as normal (or as crazy) as anywhere else, and even though revolutions are springing up at all points of the compass around us, good people are good people whatever religion, colour, or creed they might be.

Add Comment