Tag Archives: Uncle Sam

Something fun

Posted on by
7

One day a while back my brother asked me whether I thought Uncle Sam looked like our grandmother.  I said that I saw a family resemblance among all four of Bessie and Joseph’s children for whom we had photos.  (Poor Frieda—there does not seem to be any picture of her.  Maybe Harry took off with them all…)  To me, they all resembled Bessie.  Here are some close-up head shots of Bessie and the four children.

Bessie Brotman

Bessie Brotman

 

Hyman Brotman

Hyman Brotman

 

Tillie

Tillie

 

Gussie Brotman

Gussie Brotman

 

Sam Brotman

Sam Brotman

I did not see as much resemblance between Max and the other children, not surprisingly since he had a different mother.

Max Brotman

Max Brotman

That made me wonder whether Max looked more like Joseph than the other children, or did he look like his mother? (And sadly, we have no pictures of Abraham.  It would be nice to be able to compare Abraham and Max.  Morty and Paula, if you are still reading, do you have any photos of your grandfather??)  We have no photo of Joseph, so it’s all speculation.

So I thought maybe if we combined a picture of Max and Hyman we’d have some clue as to what Joseph looked like.  Totally unscientific, I know, and also illogical, but when you are searching, anything seems like a possibility.  So here’s a picture that morphs Max and Hyman.

max and hyman morphed

max and hyman morphed

Here’s Hyman and Sam morphed—a much closer resemblance:

Sam and Hyman morphed

Sam and Hyman morphed

 

Then I went a step further and combined Tillie and Gussie—the results are striking.  The two sisters had a strong resemblance.

Tillie and Gussie morphed

Tillie and Gussie morphed

Finally I combined all four of Bessie and Joseph’s children (Hyman, Tillie, Gussie and Sam) and all five of Joseph’s children for whom I have pictures (Max, Hyman, Tillie, Gussie and Sam).

Hyman, Tillie, Gussie and Sam

Hyman, Tillie, Gussie and Sam

Max, Hyman, Tillie, Gussie and Sam morphed

Max, Hyman, Tillie, Gussie and Sam morphed

 

Obviously these prove nothing, except perhaps that I am easily amused!  What do you think?

One Uncle Sam mystery solved

Posted on by
4

It seemed that there were multiple Uncle Sams remembered by different cousins.  Judy remembers one who was the life of the party at family gatherings and known for eating flowers.  Bonnie C. remembers one who drove her to the airport in Florida when she visited her father there.  Denny remembers one who lived in Arizona and wore a white cowboy hat.  And then there was the Uncle Sam who visited my grandparents every Friday night and never left New York City, lived alone, and was a cab driver.  I’ve often wondered whether Uncle Sam had multiple lives and personalities or whether there were just a number of a different people named Sam Brotman.

Well, we have now resolved at least one of those mysteries.  Below is a photo from Rosalind Haber’s wedding in 1956 (with more to follow in a subsequent post[1]) showing some of the groomsmen from the wedding.  I asked Judy who these men were, and she identified them as her father Charles Haber’s brothers Jack, Sol, and Abe, another Haber, and Charles’ nephew Jack Simon. Mixed in with all those Habers standing to the right in the middle row with the silver hair and those distinctive Brotman cheeks is none other than the Sam Brotman who Judy remembers from family events!

Image

I showed the photo to my parents, and they confirmed that that is the same Sam Brotman who lived in the Bronx and visited my grandparents every Friday night, bringing a strawberry shortcake every single time.

Here’s a photo of Sam with my grandmother and my aunt Elaine; you can see that it is the same face.

Image

So how could the same person be perceived so differently? My parents remember Sam as a quiet, shy loner who rarely spoke at family dinners.  Judy remembers him as funny and outgoing.  Could he have just been quiet in the context of my grandparents’ home and himself when he was with the Habers? He must have been quite close to Renee and Charles to have been made a groomsman at their daughter’s wedding.  Perhaps they brought out the best in him.

Now if we could only figure out who those OTHER two Sams were….

[1] Thanks to Naomi Ratner and Ron White for sending me these photos!