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THE SPERBER KIDS


Just to tie up loose ends, after our short detour to Cyprus, I thought I'd finish up my mom's side of the family.  For the linguistically curious, Sperber means sparrow hawk in German.  A number of years ago, the Sperber family had a reunion, one of four, and some nice tee shirts were designed with a sparrow hawk on them.  You've got to be creative when you have a reunion. We even had one on a cruise ship that sailed from New York City to Halifax and back.  There must have been 75 family members!   It was a memorable trip as I had an attack of gout, my one and only.  In Halifax, which has more bars and breweries per capita than anywhere else in the world,  I hobbled around town to the different breweries, imbibing wonderful beers.  I guess in medical school, I missed the lecture on gout...for beer is probably the worse thing to ingest during an attack!  One of my cousin's kids was married to a practitioner of eastern arts and he came to our cabin and gave me acupuncture!  Temporary relief followed but, fortunately, I've never had another bout.  As usual, I digress, but it's always good to remember things while one still has a memory!
Below is a photo of the second Sperber Family Reunion in 2009 in Pennsylvania with everyone in their spiffy sparrow hawks shirts!  I will add that since 2009, the family has grown in leaps and bounds with more marriages and many more children.

I've already told you much about my mother but, as I mentioned she was the 4th of five children.  I've  told you she was a beautiful woman and recently, I found photos of her that I think are very special.

 My dad's photo of mom in "film noir":

THE TWINS

My grandmother, Fannie, was blessed in 1911, not by one baby but two...girls.  Although they looked very much alike, I'm not certain they were identical twins, even though I was able to tell them apart.  They were never dull and always made me laugh.  If memory serves me, Helen was the artistic twin.   An example of her work is shown here:

She wrote a few popular songs and hoped for a big break in the music business but, alas, it never happened.  She was written up in the Daily News once by a columnist who found her music promising but, boy, was she ever excited about that! Helen passed away at 68.  Helen married Dick Simon ("Uncle Dick") who was young at heart until he passed at 84. It's always good to remember everyone by at least one thing.  Dick was an excellent ice skater and my fondest memory of him was his teaching me how to ice skate in the Ice Casino at Rye's Playland.  He was very patient and encouraging.  Both their kids, Lennie Simon and Beverly Walters live with their spouses, Barbara and Allen on Staten Island.  They lay claim to having the best pizzeria in the world on that island, Denino's !  Beverly and Allen have two children, Greg and Amanda, both married, each with a lovely daughter.

Ruth was more of a serious nature and wanted to become a violinist.  I don't think she ever kept it up but I heard she was quite adept at it.  Ruth worked for many years as an administrative assistant in the Chemistry Department of NY's City College.  Like her sister Helen, she died quite young at 65, 3 years before her twin.  She and her husband, George Harvey, had one child, Adrienne, a very bright young woman who attended the prestigious Hunter College High School in NYC.  Adrienne would come to live with us in Mt. Vernon for periods of time when her parents were going through a divorce.  She was like a little sister to me!  She grew up, married Marvin Yoches, and had two boys, Brett and Damon.   Brett is married to Tara and they have two teens.  I remember seeing Brett in  several movies when he was younger, having walk-on and extra roles.  Damon and his wife, Kristy, live in Los Angeles.  Damon is an animation film editor and just back from three years living in Finland.   Unfortunately and sadly, Adrienne died quite young at age 50.

THE BOYS

Milton and younger brother Seymour, as previously mentioned were Sovereign Caterers, "Food Fit for a King"!  Following in their father's career, they must have fed tens of thousands of hungry party-goers throughout the Greater NY Metropolitan Area, including my own Bar Mitzvah.  I remember occasionally working for them on weekend summers when I was in college.  Once, I even served, using white-glove French service at a fancy country club in Westchester and spilling a serving on someone's lap!  They had quite an excellent reputation, providing fine service and excellent food.  Here they are at work:

Milton married Ruth Ackerman and they had three children, Laurie, Darryl, and Matthew.  They are pretty spread out with Darryl in LA,  Laurie in Chicago, and Matthew in Israel.  Between them, there are numerous grandchildren all doing great things.  Laurie is married to Marshall Levine and has two children from her first marriage, Alex and Joshua, and Samantha from her second marriage.  Matthew married Laura Gruber, having moved to Israel many years ago where they were original founders of the first Reform kibbutz, Yahel.  They have three kids and a growing number of grandchildren. Milton lived to the age of 88 while Ruth lived to be a spry nonagenarian until her death.

Seymour, a young man in the 1940's, fought in the Pacific Theater of WW II.  He made many lifelong friendships among his comrades during the war.  Here's a photo of Seymour which I believe is in New Guinea:

Seymour or "Uncle Si" as he was known to us, married Bernice Brachfeld.  They were very special to me and, when they decided to do something or travel somewhere, they would just get up and do it.  I remember in 1974, when I was a young intern in Syracuse, they decided to pay us a surprise visit all the way from Long Island.  When they arrived at my hospital, they had me paged just so they could hear: "Dr. Mayer, please call the hospital operator"!!!"  They got a lot of "naches" (yiddish word meaning pride or joy) out of doing that!  Many years later, when he was managing a restaurant at a Long Island country club,  I arrived there with my wife and asked the waitress if I could speak to Mr. Sperber.  "Who shall I tell him is asking", she asked.  "Dr. Mayer from the Health Department", I answered.  She disappeared into the kitchen and we heard a racket of pots and pans being moved as well as a vacuum, providing a rapid cleanup of the kitchen facility.  Uncle Si eventually came out of the kitchen, a bit sweaty and saw me...the joke was on him and we all had a big laugh.

Uncle Si and Aunt Bernice

Si and Bernice had two children, Caren Sue and Russell.  Russell, like his dad and grandfather, went into the catering/restaurant business.  He married Lois Heide and they had two kids, Rochelle and Glenn, both married with children.  Caren married Sam Feinberg and had two children, Faith and Ross, also both married with kids.  She then married Larry Cadman in 2004.  Caren unfortunately left us way too soon.  She was one of a kind.  I remember talking to her on the phone a few weeks before her death for an hour.  We talked about cocktails, one of her favorite things and her health, among other things,  and she ended the conversation with her signature "That's the story"!  Every year since, we drink a cocktail in her memory.

1952 Miami Beach: My sister, Lois holding Caren Sue Sperber, while I pose!

Time and space won't allow me to delve into all the Sperber great-grandchildren, but believe me, we've become a BIG family with wonderful achievements too numerous to list.  As a farewell to this side of my family, here's an old photo of me and my Sperber cousins (minus Caren and Russell who hadn't been born yet) with our Nana Fannie behind us...she was always behind us!

From back to front: Fannie, sister Lois, Laurie, Lenny, me (peaking out from behind Darryl),Adrienne, and Beverly

NEXT: MY DAD AND THE MAYER SIDE

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