Chapter Four - The Rise of Lex

Jenna was a member of the only Orthodox Jewish Congregation in Gomer, she had been since she was 21. At her Grandfather’s influence, though not at his formal urging, she early on took a “Back to Basics”, she thought, and she was better for it.
“Why is it that you put yourself having to obey all those rules?”
“Dad, it’s not like that, you know it’s not. You just don’t like being reminded of Grandpa”.
“I like Grandpa, indeed, I adore him. But I do not like his devotion to the Mechitza. How is it you do that? You have to be right there and you men and women can’t even sit together. What is this, some sort of separate but equal stuff there? I mean, all you do is go sit with the old widows and your Mom and I couldn’t even sit together. What do you do that for?”
“Dad!! Because then those old widows aren’t alone.”
Lex, Jenna’s grandfather, was a touch boorish, and from time to time, he would show his quite pronounced skills in asserting superiority. Of course, it was done with a twinkle in his eye, which tended to minimize his nature to the uninitiated. Or at least, that part of his nature. His piety, however, was quite established, and he enjoyed that devotion, a devotion which the young Jenna would witness, and quietly hope to emulate. Given his prickly – yet sincerely good nature – those who were closest to him at the peak of his powers, however, saw him in a more comprehensive light, leaving home at the earliest age. Some, even, to the farthest corners of Ohio. Although such thoughts would remain unsaid, Jenna suspected her Mother and Father indeed preferred Lex in his current, more subdued life, than to the personality of his younger, more aggressive days.
Jenna, however, quite enjoyed her grandfather, and enjoyed him the most, generally on Sunday afternoons. After Jenna’s grandmother passed away, Lex moved into a residence for seniors, in downtown Gomer- the “Oakwood Home For the Distinguished”. Sunday afternoons……
Jenna felt that he –Lex- had to be bored out of his quite lucid mind, sort of stuck there, with no real ability to do so much anymore on his own. Jenna would often take her acquaintances to meet Lex; she wanted to give him an introduction into her own life and interests, but also to suggest that he was still important – still current. He had been quite active as a younger man. There was always someone to see or someone to meet, and of course, always something to talk about. With Steve in tow not long after refreshing their old friendship, Jenna thought if nothing else, she could get a good argument going, something to brighten Grandpa Lex’s day. Truthfully, Lex really did want to argue with Steve. But he wanted to keep Jenna happy, largely because she was now a member of the congregation that his parents – Jenna’s great-grandparents - founded when they settled in Gomer as young immigrants. Lex heard often as a boy (as did Jenna, her Mom, and everyone Lex ever met) about dad/Grandpa/Great-Grandpa putting the roof on the Shul. Great-Grandpa was not a roofer by trade, but he knew he had to help out, so he climbed a ladder and worked until the work was done. Until his death as an old man, he always wore his pants rolled up; to catch the sawdust—keeping it from getting into his boots. That time, on the roof and in the timbers of the Shul, was the first and last time that he had ever used a saw or had hiked plate shingles up a ladder. But he liked being reminded of that work he and his fellow new Gomerites had done, all those years ago. And, that is the life Lex saw as a boy, and as a young man.
Lex’s parents had left Europe with its hope intact; arriving well before the first World War and the attendant attempts to make the world safe for democracy. They weren't running from anything. Their intent was one of self-interest, and not self-preservation. They landed in Ohio, in a healthy immigrant community. They lived at home, the way they had lived in Europe, and expected, that this America would reward them, too.
As a boy, Lex attended grade school with dozens of other immigrant children; Europeans, one or two Asians, and a small parcel of French-Canadians, whom no one quite understood. Lex's best friend was a small Danish boy who spoke German, as did Lex, and they were joined at the hip. Growing up, Lex's ingrained sense of parochialism would disappear as a result of his earliest memories; Germans, Danes, French, Catholics, Jews - these are not the distinctions one makes in Gomer!! Lex however spoke often of the one time, and the only time, that he had ever gotten into a fight. Lex threw the first punch at the boy who called him "Kaiser Wilhelm". Neither Lex nor his friend ever spoke German to each other again, and the boy never called Lex another name. Lex told his own kids those stories, to suggest – gently – that there were lessons to be learned in loyalty to one’s friends!
Lex told Jenna these tales of his childhood; he would tell anyone these stories, partly out of genuine affection for his father and mother, and his own childhood, but also because he liked those old days better.
In his old age, he remained a very good politician. He saw in much of Jenna his own wants that he’d had as young man when his family became the pillars of the community, and he was nothing, if not sentimental. No one would have ever forgotten the story of Lex’s – and indeed Jenna’s -roots, but there was something about him that wanted to keep repeating; “dad” this; “mom” that; “when I was a boy”, "back in 1966 and Lyndon Johnson was President" ; there was a certain life to these stories, even when they had been told dozens upon dozens of times. Jenna’s mother could think only of her upwardly mobile father when hearing those stories; they reminded her of nights when Lex would be out late, shoring up support for whatever project he had, working nights with the Lion’s club, or lobbying for a theatre in Gomer, so people could see newsreels about the war.
Lex’s influence was simply different. Lex was routinely one step ahead of the great issues of the day, with savvy resembling prescience. Lex’s civic obituary had been first been written in 1938; he would find personally and directly that a European of his nature was not likely the most effective spokesperson for the idea of a peacetime draft. Lex’s family entertained hecklers, nasty letters to the editor by a contingent of WWI Gold Star Mothers, and public questions about his motives, and his loyalty. The wall around America was high, and Ohio was in the heart of the immense generational reliance on the two-ocean isolationism, and he knew it. But the Kasners always were a resilient bunch, and Lex kept on. Lex’s neighbors would not realize the nature of Lex’s position; to them, he was a simple businessman with parents whom everyone liked. But Lex Kasner had a few more friends than just the inner circle in Gomer.