Menorah Meme

Irina at The Ignoble Experiment started the Menorah Meme--asking fellow bloggers to post pictures of their Menorah and write a story in connection with it.

I wanted last night to see if my daughter would draw a picture of our menorah that I could then scan and upload, but that did not work out.

One of the wonderful things about Chanukah as you grow older is being able to relive the joy and wonder of lighting the menorah through your children. Tonight, two of my daughter's friends are sleeping over, which was also nice.

None of my menorahs have any particular memories or stories connected to them. There is only one menorah that I can recall that has a memory associated to it.

No, it's not this one:

...unfortunately.

I remember back in college when I was studying at Columbia University. One Chanukah in the dorm, when we all set up our menorahs, someone cobbled together a menorah of his own, using:

• A fresh roll of paper towels
• A box of candles
• A box of matches

Oh to be young and foolish--and have a fire extinguisher nearby.

He set up the roll of paper towels on its end, put the box of candles on top, on its side--and set up the candles on top of the box.

We lit our menorahs and left the room.

A little while later, when we smelled the smoke, we came running back and--surprise--the roll of paper towels had caught fire, and the heat had cracked the glass window.

Naturally, I sprang into action...

I was too panicked to remember about the fire extinguisher, so I filled up a pitcher with water from a sink and doused the fire--and made an enormous mess.

Just mark it down as one more learning experience in college.

Technorati Tag: Chanukah.