My Gramma Clara
By Karen van Oene
With help from "Aunt Ruthie"

Gramma Clara was my grandmother, mother to my own mother. She was born Clara Weiser in the lower East side of New York City in 1907. She was the oldest or 6 children and the only one to graduate High School. Her father left the family when she was a young girl so she became a responsible adult at a very early age. Even as a young girl, Clara had a heart as big as the city.  As a young adult, she worked for a NYC based coturier where she did passementerie (the art of braided and knotted trims.) That were used for high-fasion clothing. At that time, she worked accross the table from a German Lady who spoke no English. Gramma Clara jumped at the chance to teach the woman English and in return....the woman taught her German. Clara was fluent in German for the rest of her life.

Gramma Clara seemed to always be a shining little light in the lives of people who eventually became very successful. One such story is that about a young man named Matt Smilin. When they were young, Matt sold matches in a portible vending cart on the streets of NYC. One day, the cart caught on fire and burned up. Feeling terrible for Matt and his only means of income, Clara spent hours with him picking out the matches that were still good. Matt was able to sell these on his own and make the entire profit. Matt Smilin eventually went on to become one of the Biggest produce distributors in Manhatten; Smilin Brothers.

After marrying Ralph Silverstein, my grandfather, and having three children of her own, they ran a small "candy store", sort of a soda fountain, small diner, and gift store in Brooklyn where the local teens would hang out and keep out of trouble. Twenty two of those boys were drafted to fight in the service during World War II. When the boys left to war, Clara packed each of them a care package including gum, cigaretts, cards, razors and toiletries. She would continue to write to those boys every week and place a single stick of chewing gum in each envelope as this was a rare commodity during wartime. If one of the boys was killed in action, Clara, devistated, would put a cigar box on the counter to take up a collection. She would then take the money to a the preist of the family's church and arrange for them to hold a High Mass for the young man. Most of her "boys" returned home and each announced that it was the letters and the stick of chewing gum that came each week which kept their moral and strength up for another day. Later, when one of the boys would get married, she would convince the Jewish Veterins to donate their building, gather up as many women as she could, and prepare salad platters and cold cut platters for the wedding so they would have food which the families normally could not afford after the war. Durring World War II, She also volunteered at the Veterins Hospital, forging relationships with the soldiers and employees that would last a lifetime.

When she retired, She and my grandfather Ralph (Another great story for another time.) moved to Florida to be close to the family. After Grandpa Ralph Died suddenly, Gramma Clara decided she needed to be self sufficient. At the age of 65, she learned to drive a car so she could visit her children and grandchildren, and to swim so she could take her grandchildren to the pool when they came to visit. Spending time with gramma was amazing and wonderful. (Again, another story) Clara used all her free time to volunteer. For 25 years, she volunteered for the Broward County school system where she taught reading skills to children who were learning disabled. While in Florida, her 7 grandchildren were all attending school in Broward County, four of which were seriously involved in the music programs. Being a lover of music and the arts, she decided she would use her talent in passementerie and crochet to help raise funds for the Pompano Beach and Plantation High School bands. She would knit shawls that were so spectacuar and intricate, women would do anything to have one. The bands decided to hold raffels for the shawls which Clara would knit every year and ended up raising hundreds of dollars as women and their husbands would by from 20 to 100 tickets each just to increase the chance of winning. Gramma Clara would never miss a concert or music event that her grandchildren were involved in. In turn, we would never miss one of hers when she sang for the Condo Club.

When her grandchildren were off to college, she made a promise that for every letter they wrote to her, she would send 5 dollars back. She called this "Ice Cream Money" and would say, "Buy a little something from me to you like an ice cream or a little chachki." Needless to say, we wrote gramma lots of letters, always ending in "Love and Kisses" with a full page of X's and O's just like she wrote to us. TO this day, I don't know what I would have done without that "Ice Cream Money" In 2003, Gramma Clara died peacefully at the age of 96. Her three children, 7 grandchildren and spouses, and 11 great grandchildren are her legacy.

There is so much more to the story of Gramma Clara, but the premise is that she has inspired me to do something that would benifit school music programs. Besides purchasing bushels of apples and bags of vidalia onions, I have created Bing Bang. It is through this performance group that we can raise money for percussion instruments, hardware, and repair but we are now using a portion of our profits towards "Ice Cream Money" for students who are accepted into prestigeous music schools, intend to major in a music related field, and who have a connection with percussion. In 2005 we were able to present our first little bit of Ice Cream Money to two recipients. Please support Bing Bang and go to a concert!!