Coolness.
A fellow, not too long off the boat, was walking down Delancey Street when he heard someone calling him. He turned around. "Meyer!" yelled the voice. "Meyer Greenbaum!"
It was a guy who Meyer had known from the actual boat. "How are you doing? I confess, I've forgotten your name, I'm sorry. And, you should know, when I came here, I got myself a new name, I'm now Mike Green." said Meyer (Mike).
The stranger said, "I'm known as Sean Ferguson now."
"Sean Ferguson!" exclaimed Meyer/Mike. "How the heck did you get such a name?!?"
"Well", said Sean, "before we left Poland, my brother told me that our last name, Klifnigkiciwziovec, would be so hard for the clerks at Ellis Island to spell and say, that they'd change our name. So, he said, I should be prepared, and have a name handy, and just use that."
"And you picked Sean Ferguson?"
"No, I picked David Klein."
"Then how the heck did you end up Sean Ferguson?"
Sean/David answered, "I was on the boat, and I kept trying to remember that name. I kept saying it over and over to myself, David Klein, David Klein, David Klein. And I got myself all worked up. So when the time came and I was in front of the clerk and they asked me what my name was, I blanked out, slapped myself on the forehead and said, '
Shoin fergessen!'."*
* Note: In Yiddish,
Shoin fergessen means, "I forgot it".
