The Dixie Voice:Wending Its Way To The Top

Lawrence Creek. He's the editor. He and his family
were self proclaimed machas at my temple and in the community. His grandfather Frank Creek managed Camelot Trailer Park from a early model caramel colored Lincoln Continental. Residents literally sat in the back seat amongst discarded Krystal boxes and rags to sign their leases.

Frank tried to stop my dad from being bar mitzvahed at the
last minute...that was before my grandmother took Frank
Creek down a few notches. Suffice it to say,
Dad was on the bima on the designated time.

Larry, grandson of Frank, was picked on by everyone I knew. He was the classic smart alek-y kid with thick glasses that made you angry whenever he entered the room.
His reincarnation from book smart nebbish to
media mogul would occur years later in the promised
land.

At that time, he was probably in his late 20's and he
had started a jewish paper in Hill River that was
mostly political "zion this zion that" with the
prerequisite listing of social events like births, bar
mitzvahs and confirmations. There was a well established
society trade called The Shank Bone which was the
Dixie Voice's competition. The Voice had minimal
advertising while the The Shank Bone was chock full of ads
from every Hill River jewish owned business from metal scrap
yards to the prominet jewish attorneys and dentists.
It was all society. I was actually in it several times for various dances and party. There would be a blury black and white of me and my date...with the caption, Clay Kaintock escorts Bunny Ravitz to the "Showboat Formal etc. Dismal days
The Shank Bone was run by a family named Blitzen.

In the 90's, Larry went to Jerusalem trying to
promote his paper and he came across a noted Jews for
Jesus rabbi.The rabbi asked Larry if he
knew the Blitzens of Hill River. For the Creek family, this
was a biblical moment on par with parting of the red
sea.

It turns out that for two decades the Blitzens were
secretly practicing Jews for Jesus followers. I cannot
express how much scorn was generated in the
Hill River jewish community, especially from all the
merchants who had been paying for ads for years. I
mean drug dealing, interracial marriage, homosexuality
all paled to this offense.

Larry did not even have to write an article about it
in his paper. In a community like Hill River the tongue and
the telephone are a stronger media than papers, radio
and TV combined. The Shank Bone was kaddish that same
month.

In fact the Blitzens were literally forced out of
town. They had a daughter a year younger than me who
was divorced by her husband because of this deceit.

Clay