Pleasant Memories of the Spitzers

Margaret Ruttenberg ’76’s essay (“Memories of Princeton Past Through a Child’s Eyes,” September issue) opened for me a flood of pleasant and delightful memories of weekends living in the Spitzers’ home. In the fall of 1959 my wife and I were offered the opportunity to stay with the Spitzers’ two youngest daughters over a weekend. So began our distinctive adventure sharing a number of weekends with the girls over the next couple of years while Professor and Mrs. Spitzer were out of town. With a maid and cook caring for the home it was indeed an attractive and privileged opportunity. Having grown up in modest West Texas homes, my wife and I found our graduate study lives being exponentially expanded as we lived and briefly observed life in this gracious home.

As Dr. Ruttenberg indicates, the house was an enormous, distinctive, and unusual faculty home of many rooms with an attached observatory, empty servant’s quarters, and a large attractive yard. Exploring the home was indeed an adventure when accompanied by two delightful, inquisitive, smart, and fun girls. We were entertained by their original dramas on the stage in their large, well-equipped playroom, led throughout the house playing hide and seek, and serenaded at bed time with Gilbert and Sullivan recordings as the girls learned the words of each musical so they might participate in summertime Princeton Gilbert and Sullivan Society presentations. For my wife and I to participate briefly in the family life of the Spitzer children was indeed a welcome interlude from our graduate school grind. Professor and Mrs. Spitzer were most gracious, friendly, and trusting in their employing us for those weekends. Our privileged experience in this home is a most pleasant memory of our Princeton days.