before they were married
partying like it is 1969 (my favorite pictures)
engagement party
most of these are too dark (cheap cameras back then or cheap scanner, not sure which)
⊕ Brooklyn, NY | 1970.01.01 | Photos | David's family
first year of marriage
their year without monsters (until Eileen came along)
⊕ Brooklyn, NY | 1971.01.01 | Photos | David's family
sarah borrows camera
Sarah takes my old camera for a spin during my party.
Also, don't miss my birthday party and julie in nyc for the same trip
⊕ Brooklyn, NY | 2003.12.21 | Photos | David's family
julie and family celebrate my 30th birthday
Also, don't miss sarah gets camera and julie in nyc for the same trip
⊕ Brooklyn, NY | 2003.12.22 | Photos | Birthday, David's family
orli's 2nd birthday
orli celebrates her 2nd birthday (a little after the fact) in Sheepshead Bay
⊕ Brooklyn, NY | 2004.02.21 | Photos | David's family
grandma's 90th birthday
grandma celebrates her 90th birthday in Ben's Bayside
⊕ Queens, NY | 2004.02.21 | Photos | David's family
visiting the mazer's
random pictures from the mazer's
⊕ Wayne, NJ | 2004.03.06 | Photos | David's family
ella's first family gathering
at the epstein's in buffalo
⊕ Buffalo, NY | 2004.06.04 | Photos | David's family
Moms Birthday and Retirement
New Jersey at Eileen's House
⊕ Wayne, NJ | 2004.07.17 | Photos | David's family
Randy and Moms Visit Seattle
Pictures of dinner with family (before surprise engagement)
⊕ Seattle, WA | 2005.06.15 | Photos | David's family
The Mazers See Shiny Ring
Visiting Eileen's family before we return home from our trip
⊕ Wayne, NJ | 2005.06.15 | Photos | David's family
Chicago Visits
A Bar Mitzvah and a 60th wedding anniversary
⊕ Seattle, WA | 2005.08.28 | Photos | David's family
Thanksgiving 2005
We visit NYC for Thanksgiving. Lots of monsters.
⊕ Brooklyn, NY | 2005.11.28 | Photos | David's family, Thanksgiving
Romp around Seward Park
We take in Mt. Rainer and Seward Park with Cousin Nancy.
⊕ Seattle, WA | 2006.05.14 | Photos | David's family, Seward Park
Sagamore
My family storms the Sagamore hotel in Lake George.
⊕ Lake George, NY | 2006.07.10 | Photos | David's family, Sagamore
Uncle Serge and Carol Visit Seattle
My uncle and Carol visit Seattle; a boat ride around Lake Washington with special guest Bill Gate's house.
⊕ Seattle, WA | 2006.09.06 | Photos | David's family
Visiting Eileen
I finally got around to posting these pics from when I visited my sister and her family a couple of weekends ago. Enjoy!
⊕ Wayne, NJ | 2006.12.20 | Photos | David's family
Visiting Buffalo
Julie and I visit my sister and her family--including two new members--in balmy Buffalo.
⊕ Buffalo, NY | 2007.01.01 | Photos | Buffalo, David's family
Grandmother Molly
My grandma died today. I tried to organize my feelings here, but I have mostly failed. Molly Figatner was born in 1914, and would have been 93 years old this week. She struggled with Alzheimer’s for over a decade before passing peacefully this afternoon in New York with her son at her side. She leaves behind a devoted son, three grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. The funeral will be on Tuesday. Julie and I are travelling to NY tomorrow morning to attend.
My grandmother with her two sons (my father is on the left) in 1969
For much of my life, my grandmother lived in an apartment in a middle-class housing project in Canarsie, Brooklyn. When they first built the housing projects, they designed them to provide affordable housing to the growing middle class. Like many housing projects from that time, it was a failure, and over the years, it became more rundown and crime ridden. My parents and uncle tried to convince her to move, but she preferred to stay in her rent-stabilized apartment. She grew up during the depression, and she believed in saving every one of her pennies.
My uncle tells a story about my grandmother’s visits to Sizzler and other all-you-can-eat establishments. She would bring a large purse, and move up and down the buffet lines, filling her purse with food when nobody was looking. It’s difficult to relate to this story because I have never lived through such times. It’s so easy for me to take food and money for granted. It is only when living in a time of wanting that you truly appreciate what you have in times of plenty.
My grandmother remarried when I was very young. Her wedding, which took place in our first house in Sheepshead Bay, was the first wedding I ever attended. I don’t remember much from it, but I do remember running downstairs to my other grandmother’s apartment to use her bathroom instead of waiting in line to use ours. I remember being very proud of this fact. Clearly, with this much insight, I was destined for big things. Her second husband, Lou, was an artist, and we would sit and watch him draw and color cartoons for hours at a time.
Her home was a reprieve from my mother’s somewhat-strict Kosher kitchen. It was at my grandmother’s that I would eat cheeseburgers. My mother describes a chicken dish that my grandmother cooked. As far as I can remember, she never made it for us kids, probably because we wouldn’t have eaten it. What I did eat were her grilled cheeses. She cooked them in thick slabs of butter. She would press down on the sandwich with a plate to seal in the cheese, and create unimaginably thin and amazing grilled cheeses.
There is much more I didn’t know about my grandmother. She lived a difficult life, but I never asked her about it. I never took an interest in most of my family’s lives. It’s something I regret. I wish I were more outgoing, more willing to sit down and pry into their pasts so I could learn about where I come from. I failed to do this with my grandmother before she grew too sick to remember. I failed to do this with my mother’s mother as well. Such interesting times they must have lived in. How quickly and easily those times can be forgotten.
⊕ Seattle, WA | 2007.02.04 | David's family, Diary, Grandma
Grandma's Goodbye
As written and delivered by my sister Eileen
I will miss my grandma so much. All those things we should have talked about, the things I could have learned.
My grandma was a quiet person, but a doer. Until just a few years ago she was a very independent person, and always on the move. Whether she was playing at the senior center or proctoring exams, she was on the move. My grandmother would always come to all the grandkids functions, and we liked her there.
She had a tough life, but never let us see that side. She had a contagious laugh, that I still hear today, and a wonderful warm smile that stayed with her right until the end. She taught my brother David, my sister Randy and I how to play Rumicube, how to make silver dollar pancakes, and how to enjoy life. I remember that she had so many friends who loved her, but no one who loved her like her family.
Her son, my uncle Freddy visited her everyday for 8 years, missing only 2 days in those years. He was so very devoted to her, his sweetheart as he would call her. He loved her so. My mom who insisted that she, even wheelchair-bound, be a part of all family functions. She felt it important that she remained part of our growing family holiday dinners and even towards the end of her life, a part of our every growing clan.
My entire family truly enjoyed her company and appreciated her. My grandmother had battled breast cancer, and won, lost my dad, her son when he was only 44, but still kept moving, kept doing. We all should be as strong a person as my grandma was. I know everyone who came in contact with her, truly felt her sincerity and her kindness.
We will always share stories and pictures with all her great-kids so that my grandma’s memory never, ever be forgotten! We will miss you grandma – give my dad a big hug from us, we know you are in a better place, where you feel no pain and you are still smiling.
⊕ Seattle, WA | 2007.02.05 | David's family, Diary, Grandma
Passover in New York
Visiting the families in New York and New Jersey.
⊕ Brooklyn, NY | 2007.03.31 | Photos | David's family, Passover
Epsteins in Taiwan
My sister and her family visit Taiwan before our wedding
⊕ Taipei, Taiwan | 2007.06.24 | Photos | David's family, Taiwan
Thankgiving in NYC
Spending Thanksgiving with family and friends.
⊕ New York | 2007.11.27 | Photos | David's family, Thanksgiving
The Hamptons Vacation
We visited Julie's sisters and Steven in NYC, and then went for a weekend in the Hamptons with my family. We celebrated my mother's 60th birthday, and spent much of the time at the beach and pool.
There are lots of photographs. With six nieces, I found most of the photographs too cute to delete.