Dubeyous Achievements

Cheri

Stella: Cheri Suzanne was born July 6, 1955. We had bought one of the little G.I. houses in North Hollywood, and I was raking the front rocks because we had no lawn when I went into labor. Obviously, we didn’t get the lawn that day. I didn’t finish the job.

We hoped Cheri was going to be a Yankee Doodle Dubey. By that I mean born on the Fourth of July. But Cheri was late, so she’s definitely a Dubey because we Dubeys run late.

The house we bought for $345.

Stuart

Stella: Stuart Paul was born May 10, 1957. I think by that time we had the lawn in, so it wasn’t necessary to plow the land. In the birthing room, my doctor said it would be a while and went out to dinner. I guess Stuart didn’t get the memo. His head popped out and there was nobody there. They said, “Hold him in!” I suppose we were always tinkering with Stuart’s birth time: The cutoff date to start school was May 1st, and his birthday was May 10th, so we blocked out the zero so he could go to school a year earlier. But we kept having to celebrate his birthday on May 1st until he was a teenager.

Then it was the Vietnam War, and they were choosing inductees by lottery and date of birth. We confessed to Stuart that he would be in a good place because we could switch the dates. This traumatized him to no end—not the prospect of going to Vietnam but that we’d been fibbing about his birth date all those years. He thought maybe he was adopted.

James

Stella: I remember Cheri was crying in the bedroom when she was seven years old because she wanted a baby brother or sister. I told her, “You’re going to have one.” Because that’s the kind of mommy I am.

James Marc was born July 15, 1963. He was late. All my kids were late. I guess they liked it inside. Cheri and Stuart used to go under the crib and bang on it with their feet and scare Jamie. He hasn’t recovered yet. Jamie ate well. All I had to do was promise him water, and he’d eat anything. When he was older, he could get his own water.

He still likes to drink a lot of water.

Fred

Stella: Fred is quite a talented clarinet player. He must be a natural at it. He never seems to practice! It’s nice having a practicing lawyer in the family. Fred is always great about helping friends and family out with legal issues, even mundane stuff like traffic tickets. I think he’s been to every courtroom in Southern California, and a few up north, too.

He is in his car constantly. I don’t know how he does it. He’s also very generous about opening his home up. He and Cheri have thrown many a family event there. Oh, and he loves to barbecue steak for us for Shabbat dinners. Not the best thing for our cholesterol, but tasty.

Sally

Stella: Sally’s very bright and a great naturopathic doctor. She is very knowledgeable about the human body and has always been a true help to everyone in our family in the natural ways of healing. It’s not unusual to find one of us lying on the sofa, after a family dinner, with acupuncture needles sticking out from head to toe.

Sally had a big furry cat named Jasmin. When Sally was pregnant, she and Stuart searched mightily for a name they liked as good as “Jasmin.” Needless to say, they couldn’t. What they did was rename the cat Razmin so they could name their daughter Jasmin, or Jazzy.

Sally is also an amazing gourmet cook. Everything is very healthy, except maybe the margaritas. They’re good, though.

Danielle

Stella: Danielle was our first grandchild. I always tell her, “You made me a grandma.” And I keep telling her she has a good keppie.

She graduated with high honors and then went to Israel and picked up a Masters degree and an Israeli boyfriend or two. Now she’s in law school at USC. I think, like Jamie, she went into law because it opens a lot of doors. And now she has a boyfriend from a family of Peruvian Jews.

I’d like to go to Peru, but it’s not a pressing ambition.

Rachel

Stella: Rachel was born with a smile on her face. She’s very charming and engaging. You notice her when she’s in the room. Now she’s working as a waitress at a college place where they come for beer, and she’s making tips like crazy.

Does she cook? Water, maybe. I don’t think she will receive an Emmy for culinary arts.

She loves clothes and is very creative. She went to this place where they resell clothing and they didn’t want to buy her tops, so she went home and put paint on them and went back and they bought all of her clothes.

Nicole

Stella: Nicole loves horses, and she rides them. I can’t believe she does horse jumping. She’s quite brave. I would never do something like that.

She’s also very good with little children. At the high school they sent her across the street to a day camp and paid her for working with the preschool kids. I love her very much. She likes the Wii games. I play the game where you go bowling and one where you do tennis. Nicole is very good about sharing what she has. She’s kind and visually she’s very astute.

She also knows how to butter up her grandparents. When we asked her what the best part of our Caribbean cruise was, she said, “Because you were there.”

Jasmin

Stella: Jasmin is a very delightful child, very bright, very independent. We took her on our cruise to the Caribbean. You can get the most phenomenal food on a cruise, but she ran back to the cabin and called room service for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on white bread. I said, “Why white bread?” and she said, “Because it’s so unhealthy!” and she loved it.

Because, you know, they eat healthy at home.

Jazzy will go to places I’d be afraid to go, like hiking up in the mountains. She’s also very good at ballet, which I don’t do. So, of course, it’s just fascinating to watch her.