Tuckahoe Elementary School
Richmond Virginia
Pennies at a Jew Boy in 1954

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This article describes antisemitism - a fancy word for "jew hating" - at Tuckahoe elementary school in Richmond Virginia in the 1950s.

They tossed pennies at his feet!

The dull copper penny strikes the tiled hallway floor with a chinking sound followed by a soft scrape as it slides along in front of Danny's sneakers.

He does not look down, as a normal person might, at the sound.

"Hey jewboy, go get it! go get it!" echos from the hard sides of Tuckahoe Elementary School's corridor, followed by high-pitched screams of laughter.

Another penny skips past him, a neolithic weapon, brandished by Richmond's Neanderthals.

Clink, shhhhhhh sounds the penny as it hits then slides along the asphalt-asbestos Tuckahoe tiled floor. Asphalt asbestos is toxic, it is silent. The pennies say shhhhhhh!

"Hey Billy!," one of them calls to a pal, "What happened when Eddie Fisher sang 'There's a Gold Mine in the Sky'?"

Immediately comes Billy's well-known refrain

"50,000 Jews joined the air force!"

Peals of laughter.

Danny looks straight ahead.

He will be deaf.

Deaf to pennys, and deaf to this banter.

"They can't be talking to me," he tells himself.

"Not me. I'll just keep walking. Not me.

They can't be talking to me.

He knows they are calling exactly to him.

But he contines. "They'll see. This doesn't apply to me."

He walks. Another penny ricocchets off of his heel.

Catcalls. Hoots.

Against his will Danny's hand reaches up to his face as he turns the corner. He touches his huge, jewboy nose, this billboard of shame, and feels its soreness.

It was just yesterday. A common day. He can still hear Johnny Rasmussen's fist, and the gross crunching sound as his nose and Rasmussen's fist completed a similar conversation. That crunch sound.

"Infantry." he considers, white hot rage hidden below an eleven-year old's quiet, freckled, cheeks. "Infantry. I'm gonna join the goddam Infantry."

He turns into Mrs. Revere's classroom and joins the other few who are already in their seats before the bell.

If you're late she claps her hands in the most terrifying manner.

On the last day of the school year Allen Riffle gives Mrs. Revere the finger. The rest of the class stares with saucer-eyes.

Clap! Into the hall!

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