Long-time Fresh Meadows resident Sidney Weber is preparing for a major milestone as he gets ready to celebrate his 100th birthday on Sunday, Nov. 23.
Weber grew up on Division Avenue in Williamsburg before moving to Fresh Meadows, where he purchased a home for $19,500 in 1952.
Growing up, he had studied at a traditional yeshiva and began helping out at his father’s business by around the age of 12, joining his father Julius as he delivered kosher sodas to religious families across the city as part of the Good Health Seltzer company.
Julius, who founded the company, operated five routes across the city as well as a bottling plant on the Lower East Side. His father had also made deliveries to several Prohibition-era speakeasies throughout the city before Weber came on board.
Weber still remembers traveling on delivery routes throughout the city in a horse and buggy before Julius purchased his first truck for around $850 in 1939.
His father later began selling some of the five delivery routes to immigrant delivery drivers, who took up the mantle of delivering sodas packed in traditional seltzer bottles to religious households throughout the city.
Weber eventually branched out on his own route in his father’s company, beginning a 40-year career of delivering specialty soda to homes in Brooklyn and Queens.
His son Richard, who sometimes accompanied his father on the routes, remembers lugging heavy crates of soda up five-floor walk-ups along the routes. He also remembers arriving at pickup points in Greenpoint or Williamsburg in order to start a workday at 4 a.m.
Driving delivery routes for 40 years, Weber has naturally seen drastic change throughout the city, none more so than in his native Williamsburg, which has transformed from a working-class neighborhood into a middle-class area full of luxury buildings in recent years.
“I should have bought real estate there,” Weber said wistfully.
At the age of 22, shortly after branching out on his own, Weber met the love of his life Marion in Upstate New York. Marion had been due to meet Weber’s cousin but ended up meeting the soon-to-be centurion instead.
“You snooze, you lose,” his granddaughter Jamie said.
The couple moved to Fresh Meadows shortly afterward and started a family, welcoming three sons, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren over the years.
Family remains central in Weber’s life as he approaches his landmark birthday, with Weber stating that he looks forward to visits from each and everyone of his clan.
“I live for the family,” Weber said. “That’s what keeps me going. That’s my whole life.”
He retired from the soda delivery business in 1988 long after the business model had gone flat and subsequently spent around ten years selling used cars before eventually retiring for good. He insists that he made more money in those ten years than in his 40-plus years delivering soda.
“It wasn’t a smart business,” his son Richard said of the soda delivery business. “But it was a big one.”
But despite retiring almost three decades ago, Weber has kept active.
In his retirement, he joined the Ford Model A Club of America, proudly driving a Ford Model A from 1930 for a number of years before selling the car around two years ago. The car, which is five years younger than him, had no power steering and required users to double-clutch in order to function.
An avid car enthusiast, Weber also taught all of his grandchildren how to drive, a practice he continued until he was about 90 years of age, despite the fears of his daughter-in-law Dana
“You were 90 years old when you taught Jamie how to drive, I should be a little nervous,” Dana told her father-in-law at his home in Fresh Meadows.
Weber still lives at his Fresh Meadows home to this day and remains active in a number of local organizations.
He visits his local senior center twice a week to go dancing and remains an active member of the fraternal organization the Knights of Pythias, where he regularly plays cards with other members.
“Thank God I’m in pretty good shape,” Weber said. “I can’t complain for the age,” he added, jokingly insisting that he still feels like an 89-year-old.
“I never needed a hearing aid. My head’s working, thank God for that,” he continued. “Another ten years like this, I’ll be happy.”
He believes the secret to a long and healthy life is to have as few worries as possible, adding that he strives to be as carefree as possible – except when it comes to family.
“Don’t worry about a thing,” he advised. “But you always worry about family.”
Weber has reached a century in such good health in spite of a former habit of smoking 10 cigars a day, which he persisted with for 30 years until warned by his doctor that it would have a detrimental impact on his health.
“My throat started to bleed,” he said. “The doctor said, ‘if you don’t stop smoking, you’re going to die,’ so I stopped smoking.”
He has maintained his sweet tooth, however, frequently enjoying an apple pie every week.
He also remains an avid wrestling and baseball fan and looks forward to cheering on the Mets next year as they look to improve on a disappointing 2025 season that saw them miss out on the MLB post-season.
In the meantime, however, Weber and his family look forward to celebrating a huge milestone on Nov. 23.
“I don’t know how many people have that opportunity (to celebrate a family member’s 100th birthday),” his son Richard said.
