Introduction-4

Captured there on video are Jerry, Michael-David, and Bruce, kibitzing as they bobbed up and down while treading water in the sunshine.

Three boroughs plus Colorado

You may recall that the four sons of Morris Rubenstein and Esther Simon didn't set up house on the same street, but they did typically reunite for holidays. Sidney and Bea Rubenstein had a house in Brooklyn; Arthur and Ruth Rogers lived in an apartment in The Bronx; and Sam and Yetta Rubenstein were in Queens. Larry and Tess Rogers moved 2,000 miles west in 1947 to put down roots in Denver, Colorado.

Across the fruited plain

Keeping in touch with relatives was so valued by Larry and Tess that my brother and I spent more than one August in the hot back seat of our light green Pontiac.

Sidney, Larry and Arthur (from left to right above), worked in the fields of the farm near Kingston, New York, where the family were living at the time of the 1920 census. The class photo, right, was taken outside the one-room schoolhouse, where the boys were enrolled during the time they lived on the farm.

On the farm (above, work; below, school)

Click here for a blowup of the class photo.

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As we drove across the fruited plain to New York City, we picnicked on sandwiches in town square parks, counted Burma Shave signs on the highways, and lived for the afternoon treat of Dairy Queen.

The Rubensteins spread out

The next generation is even more spread out geographically; consider just the networking mavens: Jerry and Eve Rubenstein are up in Rochester, New York; Bruce and Norma Rogers live in Nashville, Tennessee; Michael-David and Jan BenDor settled on a farm near Ypsilanti, Michigan, and Robin and Gordon Poer live in Carrboro, North Carolina.

In 1942, when Sam posed for this photograph with his mother, Esther Simon Rubenstein, he was a soldier heading off to World War II.

Dashing off an E-mail

Now none of those geographic factors are the daunting barriers they once were. Thanks to the computer age, we can be as communicative as we wish, and can do so with astonishing ease. Dashing off an E-mail is far more likely to happen than picking up the telephone. And our web page has continued to grow.

When Arthur Rogers married Ruth Rubel on June 12, 1938, Sidney and Bea Glazer had been married for three years. Larry and Tess Deich were in the last couple of months of their engagement, and Sam and Yetta Kornbluh had met but not yet started dating. The wedding took place in the garden of the home of Ruth's brother, in Woodmere, Long Island.