I come from a huge family on my father’s side. My Father had eight siblings, six of them surviving into adulthood. His Mother (my Bubbi) had three siblings, all of them surviving into adulthood.
Many of this group of aunts, uncles and cousins went on to have big families with many of their children producing large families and now their children are having children. The result…I have more cousins on just this one side than a lot of people have in their entire family. We number in the hundreds!
So many of my fondest memories are associated with my Father’s side of the family. My Father met my Mother at the Royal Palm Hotel on Miami Beach, which was owned by my Father’s Uncle, Joe Rose.
According to my Father…”I looked across a crowded dance floor and saw the most gorgeous woman in the world dancing and laughing with an older man. Finding out it was her Father, I went up to her and asked if I could have the next dance. Five minutes later, I asked her out for the next Saturday night and every Saturday night for the rest of her life!”
I loved that story and made my Father repeat it dozens of times through the years.I used to close my eyes and visualize how beautiful this 1940’s scene must have been. I could see my gorgeous 22 year old Mother twirling on the dance floor in her party dress, with her long curly hair cascading down her back.
Here is my Mother’s interpretation of that first encounter…” I was dancing with my Father and a tall redheaded man walked up and asked if he could have the next dance with me. My Father smiled and said “yes”. My first impression of your Dad was that he was very tall and lanky and his suit didn’t fit quite right. But when he opened his mouth to talk, I was mesmerized by his rich, melodic voice.When we were dancing, he asked me out and I said “yes” without any hesitation. There was something about him…..”
My youngest daughter suggested that I write a book about all the family stories that were handed down to me.
What an interesting idea!
