FAMILY MATTERS
After Al died of hypochondria which led him to thinking he had cancer, which led him to eSloan Kettering and the experi-Ziering
mental cancer treatment which did him in, I remember going to their ghetto house and being horrified to see Al’s eye glasses still on the table by the sofa, and his slippers still in the closet, waiting for him.
Kate continued to live in their little house, even though the neighborhood was dangerous now. She loved listening to Bob Interview Notes
Steele, the “morning man” on WTIC because he kept her company and she regarded him as a friend. Kids from the neighborhood would break in through the windows and steal things out of the house while Kate – deaf, blind, and growing somewhat senile – sat Mortimer ZIERING on 1/2/93 (Age 80)
by her radio in the kitchen trying to pretend she was unaware.
Dad never wanted to have a Thanksgiving without Aunt Kate, so he’d drive down to the border of Hartford and Boomfield Bob talked with him
and pick her up. Aunt Kate would somehow find her way her way to the curb, and Dad would take her to Avon (Deercliff Rd.) He noted:
where he would immediately pour her a shot of whiskey, and she would immediately drink it – Russian style. Then he would pour
- Wolfe ZIERING had an older sister named Yedta
her another one, and Kate would toss that one back, and then point to some presents she had brought – often made and wrapped
- Leah KESSLER’s Hebrew name was Laki
at the Hartford Senior Center.
- He noted that the ZIERINGS moved many times to escape whatever pogroms had been enacted.
As Kate became dotty the presents turned out to be more figments of her imagination than fragments of giving; we guessed
- Wolfe came to this country and worked in a fur factory on Bleeker Street. He earned $3.00 a week. After two years of that anything valuable had been stolen by the workers at the Senior Center, as her gifts were often simply toilet paper which had saving, he brought over David. Together, they brought over Philip. later they brought over Leah and Edis.
been folded into little squares. Kate called “bandages for the troops.” (During WWI women wrapped bandages for the wounded
- MZ noted that to escape the draft, Wolfe starved himself so that he would fail the physical. This delayed his induction and the Army shipped them to the trenches Europe) We thanked her profusely just the same, of course, and Dad would pour her and gave him enough time to escape. He left Bessarabia by way of an “underground railroad”. He left at midnight and another whiskey.
travelled to Germany, then France, then England. In England, most stopped for awhile to earn money for the voyage.
By this time we were eating Thanksgiving dinner, Aunt Kate was looped; she would be chattering to herself while the rest of Along the way, they stayed in friendly houses.
the family was saying, “Pass the turkey.” In the middle of one of the last Thanksgivings we had with her, our “Pass the turkey”
- Edis (Judith) was married twice. The second husband was named KESSELMAN. MZ remembers writing her and the
requests were silenced immediately when we heard Aunt Kate say clearly: “It burnt Al’s prick.”
address was Bricova, Romania. She was probably killed in the Holocaust.
We stopped eating immediately and all said: “Huh?”
Kate then told us the story about how the rest of the Zimmermans lived in Brooklyn where they didn’t have fireplaces, and
- Re: Honey LUCAS (Louis STRUMWASSER) MZ believes that he was not in prison and was merely a bookie. The rest
they looked forward to taking the long train ride up to Hartford to have Thanksgiving every year – because Al’s was the only of the family felt that he was the black sheep.
Zimmerman house with a fireplace. After the meal, the men also looked forward to taking off their clothes and lying naked side
- MZ and Jack ZIERING went to a Yankees game in 1917 - the first year that Babe Ruth had been traded from Boston.
by side on the carpet in front of the fire. (Who wouldn’t?_
Jack was an avid baseball fan.
One Thanksgiving, the fire crackled a little too much and a spark flew out and “It burn Al’s prick.”
- MZ says the ZIERINGS were Levites
Aunt Kate fell silent, then nodded to my father for another glass of whiskey.
Dad would pour it without reservation, and then propose a toast.
Wolf Reuven Ziering (or Reuven Wolf Ziering - presumed)
“Until next year, when we’ll all be right here!”
b. approx. 1800
And Kate would say: “Yes, God willing. If there is not another Holocaust; if there is not another war: if there is not an earth-quake or an epidemic that will kill us all.”
Jacob Ziering
“L’Chaim!” Aunt Kate would say.
b. approx. 1830
“Bottom’s up!” Dad would say.
m. Leah Kessler, d. 1898, Bronx, NY. d. of Wolf Kessler. Son is Wolf Reuven below
“Skoal!”
Wolf Reuven Ziering
“Slainte!”
b. 1864. Near Dolina, Kalush
“Down the hatch!”
d. 1917, Denver, Colo. Age 53.
m. Helen Silverman. Bob’s ancestor.
m. Sarah Meyrovici
Dorothy Ada Ziering
b. 1895. Rivington St. NYC
d. 1978, Farmington, CT. Age 83.
m. Dr. Charles Jacob Greenstein
Francine Barbara Greenstein
b. 1924. New Britain, CT
m. Dr. Alvin Liftig
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