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| Aaron Cerf |
When asked to describe Aaron Cerf, Leo said, "Grey hair. His face had a beard and all. He looked to me like, and I have always thought, he was a Spaniard. Just a typical type. He had a very narrow face." With a swat on his hindquarters, Leo continued, "He used to use the newspaper on it. Go by and naughty...and whack, he'd hit you with the newspaper." Wondering whether he was teasing or serious, Leo responded, "He was serious, very serious. We respected him greatly. I think we all have a sense of humor, too. Just in business things, everything is very serious with us."
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| Center house is 2102 Bush Street, San Francisco, where Aaron Cerf and family lived from about 1903-1908 |
According to Leo, when Aaron and his family lived at 2102 Bush Street, San Francisco, the house was only two stories high. An upper level was added sometime later. Aaron lived in the whole house with his wife, Phoebe, and their children, Bernard, Lucien, Emile, Felice, and Arthur until they married and lived elsewhere.
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| Phoebe Levy Cerf |
The wife of Aaron's grandson, Al Rosenberg, was named Adele Gross Rosenberg. When we asked her what stories she remembered about her husband's grandparents, she replied, "The stories were that they made their own wine down in the basement, that their home on Bush Street was sort of the center of the family even after the grandfather died and the mother was there and Arthur was there until she died, I guess. It was the center of their family existence. They were a very devoted family, they really were." Adele confirmed the family was very proud of their French background.
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| Leo Rosenberg Alexander as a child |
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| Cousins Leo Rosenberg Alexander and Al Rosenberg |
Leo also said, "I remember on Sundays or on Saturdays I would go to the synagogue on Bush Street. It was the French colony. They were practically all French because there was quite a colony in their district. But I had to go on Saturdays with my mother, and with my father when he was not busy. You had to kiss the grandmother and the aunts, and I hated it. Early French, the men were downstairs only, and the women were upstairs on the balcony [which is gone now]. It really was old. The carpet was red. [In conversations] they mentioned a lot of Cerfs that were cousins, but I was too small to get in to listen to it. [The women] had coffee klatches, as they called it, for the afternoon to do a lot of sewing and things like that. We had to get out and look from outside in and wait so we could get some cookies."
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| Sisters Clotilde Cerf Rosenberg, Felice Cerf Hofman, and Clarisse Cerf Rosenberg |
Even after the grandparents had passed away, Aaron and Phoebe's daughters and daughters-in-law continued the coffee klatch tradition. Adele, who was Clotilde's daughter-in-law, remembers, "Clotilde and Clarisse were sisters and they were always together and with Regina [Bernard's wife]. They had a whole little coffee klatch type of thing. But Clarisse was sort of the matriarch. I have kind of a classic story to tell about that. Clarisse, Camille [her daughter], and Leo [her son] gave us a Dresden sort of a bowl for a wedding present. It was one of these with a figure holding a bowl and it was for fruit or whatever. Lots of little flowers and that sort of thing were on it. And I was having the whole family for an evening. I was only eighteen when I got married, so I was not very up on these things. Anyhow, I had a cleaning man that came who wanted to wash this dish. I had not unpacked it. It had come while Al and I were on our honeymoon, and my mother had put it on a sideboard. And there it was. And I said 'No, you better not touch that. I will do it.' And I took it, and I put my hand under it. And, of course, it was in two pieces. And so, of course, the whole thing fell and went into smithereens, and they were coming that evening. And there was always that sort of, almost a fear of Clarisse, invoking her displeasure. And so I didn't know what to do. So I called Ida [my brother-in-law's wife] and she said I had received a lot of duplicate gifts and taken them back. Why didn't I go down and buy another one. So I went down. No two were alike, but that wouldn't make any difference, and I bought another one. It cost $25. In 1925 that was a lot of money. Anyhow, we lived on the top floor of a walk-up apartment house and there were three flights of stairs to go up. And this was sitting in the dining room. By the time Clarisse got up to the apartment, she plastered herself down in the living room and never moved the whole evening. So she didn't know whether I had it or I didn't have it. Of course, I kept it."
References:
Interview with Adele Gross Rosenberg, March 28-29, 1992, San Mateo, California.
Interview with Leo Rosenberg Alexander, December 22, 1991, Watsonville, California.
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