Richmond Street

I remember Aunt Mary's house well.

I spent a lot of time there in the summers. There was a huge open field behind the house, and beyond that field was Lincoln Park. There was a boy who lived next door whose name escapes me. He was like Huck Finn when it came to the park, he knew it like the back of his hand.

I used to go to Aunt Mary's and go off with that boy into the park. It was supposed to be a scary place, but we never saw a soul in our travels. Upon entering the park we where in the wilderness. we would roam for what seemed like hours and then come to a familiar place, the entry point right in time for lunch. There was always something waiting to eat when I came in sweaty and starving. I was welcomed in by a sandwich and a cool drink. Aunt Mary would often have a chopped up Bologna sandwich mixed with relish and mayonnaise that hit the spot for the formerly marauding adventurer across the wilderness that was the park.

The time there was among the best times I remember in "little boy" growing up terms. Aunt Mary and Grandma always seemed to me more like sisters than mother and daughter.

Miscellaneous

Pig's Feet
Domini, tell your son he is a better man than his cousin Joe in Ohio. I never would even try pig's feet, and I shall go to my grave having never tasted pig's foot!

Warino count!
With reference to Patty’s inquiry the family of Joe Warino (Uncle Joe) has 18 immediate family members. Joe (Uncle Joe) 2 sons, 2 daughter-in laws, 12 grandchildren, 2 great grandchildren. Gary (Shellie), Gregory (Jenifer) & Josephina, Johanna, Stacie (Steve), Emily & Rache. Joe (Linda), Joe (Jenifer) & Joey, Charles (Stephanie), Lindsey (Dustin)

Gianoglio’s House
With regard to Patty’s reference to the house on Richmond Ave. I have one very distinct memory of sitting on the front porch and you could see forever. I would get so excited when there was an electrical storm as we would sit on the porch (metal glider, we weren’t too bright then) and watch and count the number of times lightning would strike the tall radio and television station towers. Now that was cool!!!

Joe Warino

Rulli's and Uncle Blackie!!!

Sorry I have been missing in action, school and work have gotten the best of me! However, tonight I took a break to catch up on the blog, and I just love it. I love hearing/reading the stories and all I do is laugh hysterically when I read them! I actually remember my mom crying in Rulli Brothers. It used to happen to me a lot with Uncle Blackie, I would see him and he would remind me so much of Poppie that I would forget it was Uncle Blackie! I thought maybe I would post a picture of Mara, Dean, Nunnie and my cousin Jennifer to share! It is from 2 Thanksgivings ago...

Fifth Quarter

Eating "lungs and tongues," pig's feet, or even "goiters" is not as strange as it sounds. Italians are known for their love of organ meats, also known as offal (or awful to those who are not fans.) For the last two hundred years or so, Rome's offal cuisine has been known as “Quinto Quarto,” or fifth quarter. Roman butchers, called "vaccinari" (cow workers,) were very skilled and famous for their ability to refine any cut of meat. At first, the cows were split in half, and then in four quarters. What was left (inner organs, hooves, heads, tails, glands, brains, sweetbreads, even testi­cles) was called the fifth quarter; hence the "fifth," meaning useless or worthless, as in "the economy's fifth wheel." Coincidently, the offal weighs about one-quarter of a slaughtered animal's total weight.

In the days before refrigeration, organ meats were difficult to keep. Because they were the first things to spoil, slaugh­terhouse workers received them to round up their meager pay. This gave rise to scores of recipes, mostly for beef parts. Over a fifty year period, the “inferior” cooking of the vaccinari became renowned citywide and evolved into dishes for connoisseurs. Once considered meat of poor quality, the offal are now considered delicacies that Italian restaurants and their patrons eagerly pay for.

How Many Cousins?

Hi family, I'm glad to be part of this blog. Thank you cousin, Dominic for setting it up. I would like to know how many (#) family members are related to the Warinos; if you have counted (i.e. first and second cousins, Aunts and Uncles, etc.) I would also like to hear from you, members, as to your first, earliest recollections of family get togethers.

Trotter Experiment

Two days after all the posts about pig’s feet, Sonny and I made a quick trip to the grocery store, and on our way through the aisles, we saw packages of pig’s feet in the meat case. Sonny stopped and said, “Hey Mom, are those what everyone is writing about?” I thought it was an astonishing coincidence. Believing in providence, I grabbed the smallest pack ($1.74 for 2 lbs.) and threw it in the cart.

The next day was Saturday, and everyone was out of the house, so I thought it a perfect time to try cooking up the trotters. I found a recipe on the internet that resembled the instructions that JoAnn had described and added the ingredients to a pot. I brought the mixture to a boil, then reduced the heat, covered the pot, and left the mixture to simmer for several hours as the recipe called for.

About a half-hour later, Dom and Nic walked in. Dom started gasping for air and opening windows. Nic said, “Oh my Stars! That smells worse than my sneakers after the Peachtree Road Race!” Thus I was banished to finish cooking the concoction outside on the grill. Once they finished cooking, I removed the feet and placed them in a jar. I added the vinegar to the boiling liquid and brought it back to a rolling boil, then poured the liquid over the feet, placed the lid on the jar and set it aside to cool.

After a day in the refrigerator, the jar contained a solid mass of congealed feet and jelly (no black dots floating in the jelly as the allspice was strained before pouring the liquid.) Sonny was the only one of the Romeo men brave enough to taste the finished product. He said that they tasted like pork ribs with way too much vinegar. The jelly was not a big hit. I could really taste the pork, but the vinegar taste was strong, and nobody mentioned all the little bones in previous posts. I’m glad I tried it, but I think it was a one-time effort.

Demarinis Family

Dom, your post about Louie Demarinis was so funny! I loved both him and Ange. He had such big, beautiful eyes and Ange was the sweetest person in the world!!

Wonderful In-Laws

This evening as I sat with my mom (Connie) reading the post's. She was laughing and laughing. She is really enjoying this blog. When I was done reading she sat there with this big smile on her face. I said, "Mom what are you thinking about?" She said how Grandma and Grandpa where the most wonderful in-laws in the world. She said some evenings she and my Dad (Morris) would be over Grandma and Grandpa's house, and Grandpa would just be waking up at about 9:00p.m., to get ready to go work another night shift. She said Grandpa would be so tired and Grandma, would pat him on the back and say, "Don't worry Gid, you only hava seven more nights!" And then Grandma would start with her contagious giggle and everyone would start laughing including Grandpa. She said Grandpa would put on his coat and hat, have a lunch in his hand, and some of his fellow employee's would pick him up and drive him to work. Grandma would stand at the front door and wave. Mom said people just loved them...

I asked her if Grandpa had viscots in his lunch, but she couldn't remember. (Ha Ha)

Joyce & Connie Warino

Pavlik Fight

I really like watching Kelly Pavlik fight. I boxed some as a kid (much to Mom and Grandma's chagrin), and not well mind you but some.

Last night, I bought the Pay-per-View fight with Kelly fighting Rubio (should have just been "Rube"). I wasn't aware until the shift from Madison Square Garden that the fight was being broadcast from Youngstown. Ray Mancini was one of the announcers. I was sooo excited, then it struck me how long I have been gone, I didn't even know there was such a place as the Chevrolet Centre.

It was not much of a fight, but I enjoyed scanning the crowd between rounds to see if I recognized any of the people in the stands. Good to know the "mob look" is still in style.

Related to the fight, Ray Mancini was announcing and was on camera at the end. When Jimmy Warino was getting married (I was a groomsman). He and I went out for a few drinks to chat and catch up. The bar was the Boatyard on Belmont Ave. It was crowed and there was someone behind me who tapped on my shoulder, I turned and saw nothing and continued talking to Jimmy. Then there was a real commotion and Jimmy prompted me to see what was going in behind me. Ray Mancini was standing there and was was pretty upset as he had apparently tapped me asking to squeeze by and I hadn't noticed or seen him (bit of a height difference). He was hiking up his pants and about to hit me when one of his sidekicks settled him down. I remember thinking, "Go ahead, hit me Ray, I'll be rich."

Bugs Bunny, Air Conditioning & Broken Bottles

Jeannette Demarinis Garbarz told me a story about her grandfather, who was one of the funniest men I have ever met. Ange made dinner and a very young Jeanette really liked it. Louie said "Yeah, you like that "chicken" and Jett said she really did. Then Louie, stuck his teeth out and said "You justa ate Bugs Bunny"

Further on him, I was riding in his car once in the summer with he and Grandma and it was hot in the car. I said, "Uncle Louie I'm hot, can you turn on the air-conditioning?" He said, "air-conditioning? You want air-conditioning?" He rolled down the window a bit, and said, "there Domini, that's air-conditioning."

Another time he was in the kitchen with coffee and a bottle of whisky. He said "Domini, look at this bottle, its a broke." I looked over the bottle and told him it was not broke, that it looked OK to me. He unscrewed the cap and turned it upside down showing me it was empty and said, "See its a broke".

There is as a "broke" wine bottle sitting next to me as I write this.

More Delicacies

Didn't Grandma also make a dish called tongues and lungs? I think they were boiled and put into some type of sauce. You pay a lot of money in a French restaurant for something like that now.

Warino delicacies

My Mom says that when she was growing up, Grandpa would bring home calf kidneys and Grandma would have to boil them over and over to make make sure that the urine was out (lovely, huh?) before she would fry the kidneys with peppers. Anyway my mother said the house would stink so bad never realizing that the smell was pee!! She didn't like the kidneys when they were fried either! She doesn't remember if the boys liked them but she remembers that Aunt Mary did. Speaking of Aunt Mary, growing up she ate a dish that Grandma made and encouraged her to try but didn't tell her what it was. After eating and liking it, she asked what it was and Grandpa told her it was the goiter of a cow. Needless to say Aunt Mary wasn't happy! Grandma and Grandpa laughed and laughed. Meanwhile Aunt Mary got mad at my mother for not telling her what it was.

More Food Memories

Since the past several posts have been about food, my favorite subject, I just wanted to share something that I remembered after Dom wrote about cavatelli. One day when I was little, my mom and I went to Grandma's so she could teach us how to make cavatelli. I remember walking into the front of the house and calling "Grandma" and from the back of the house where the kitchen was would come "Hallo". She made making the cavatelli look so easy. She would make the dough with flour that was in the sugar canister, Dad said she couldn't read, but she knew how to find what she needed. The flour was turned into this smooth dough that we would roll into small balls and make an imprint with our thumbs. After they were fininshed, Grandma would drop them into boiling water and they would be delicious when they were finished. I have tried this on my own and the dough dissolves in the water and I end up buying some sort of pasta at the store. I can't find cavatelli in Portland so I always buy the dried ones at Rulli's when I'm in Youngstown.

I, too, remember the dried red peppers that my Dad would fry and serve with eggs and Italian bread on Sunday mornings. I wish I knew how to make those peppers, I really love them.

Have a good weekend everyone. Cook something delicious!!

Being Sick

I remember being sick at about 15 years old and coming home from school. Grandma was always very maternal toward me. She asked what was wrong, and I replied "I just don't feel very well."

As always she said, "take your clothes off." Well at 15ish I had become shy toward my nudity around her and my mom. and I said something like "Grandma, I am 15" .

Cooly, she stared at me through her 84-year-old eyes and said "What, you grew something else since the last time I saw you?

Rulli's and the Warino Doubles

Denise, I really enjoyed your post about Rulli Brother's. That is one of my favorite stores. I am really excited because they are opening a new Rulli's on South Ave. in Boardman that is just huge. It's suppose to open sometime this month. My father and I would always go to Rulli Brother's after his dialysis treatments. He would buy all the foods that he wasn't allowed to eat and just come home and make a feast. He also had a friend that would pick him up and take him in his wheel chair and they would stroll around Rulli's. One day while I was in Rulli's shortly after my father passed away, I thought Oh I can do this, I have all three of my children with me. When I walked into Rulli's with my three small children (at the time,) and had a major melt down. My poor kids where like "why are you crying? Is it because this store stinks?" I just said "No, I just get so excited to come here!" I then said, "this is probably what Poppie is doing in heaven, just walking through all the "Angels' grocery stores" in heaven. We all laughed and all of a sudden, Dean who was about 5 years old then, said "Hey mom, there's Poppie!" My heart sunk to my stomach, and I said "Dean, Poppie wouldn't be here, he's in heaven." Allyson who was about 9 at the time, shout's out, "Well then this must be heaven on earth, Look!!" I go flying down the aisle chasing this man who looked so much like my father. When I pushed my shopping cart up next to this man, we all just stopped and peeked over, and to our surprise it was
Uncle Blackie!!! The kid's where so excited and I explained what happen, and we all left and went out to lunch with Uncle Blackie. He made our day....

Coke Man

Whenever I have dreams of my father he looks like he did in this photo. I love this uniform. I can remember him delivering the 24 count, yellow and red wooden cases of 6 ounce glass Coke bottles to Grandma’s house. His hands were so large he could wrap one hand around a Coke bottle, stick his thumb in the opening of the case (to place your hands) and lift two full cases at a time (one in each hand). I thought he was the strongest man in the world.

This is a photo of him at the Canfield Speedway during the Canfield Fair. I remember one night during the Canfield Fair when Dad was close to retiring, the phone rang at 1:00 a.m. I could hear him yelling through the wall “Oh no, you didn’t wake me. I wait up all night for you people to call”.

Lung Balloons

One winter night, my father and I brought a half of lamb (literally) to Grandma’s house. The organs were in a cardboard box individually wrapped in brown paper. I remember Grandma giggling as she unwrapped each part. Suddenly, she pulled out a lung, pinched off one of the openings and blew it up like a balloon. She had a hard time blowing it up because she was laughing so hard. It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

Rulli Brothers

My first trip to Youngstown was a cultural experience. At first, nothing seemed dramatically different from Atlanta. After visiting with relatives, Dom and took me on a tour of Youngstown. We drove by the Sparkle Market where he used to work, then took a scenic tour of Mill Creek Park. We sat on the hood on Dom’s car while we ate chocolate pecan ice cream from Handel’s. Then we headed to Rulli Brother’s Italian Market to pick up a few things to take back to Atlanta.

As I stepped through the doors, I realized this was no ordinary store. Meats and cheeses hung from the ceiling. The deli case was loaded with capicolla, mortadella and soppressatta. Shelves were stocked with cans and jars of exotic sounding delicacies like giardiniera, caponata, and cipollini onions alongside a huge selection of olives. The bakery section had all sorts of fascinating goodies like foccacia, panettone and pandoro, mustaccioli, and biscotti. They had the boxes of torrone candy that Dom received each year at Christmas from a friend's Mom. Then there was the produce area with escarole, endive and cardoons. This was a veritable wonderland of food! They even had the equipment to make pasta, pizzelles, and cannollis at home, and the espresso pots did not have an electrical cord. My head was spinning!

Dom ordered mortadella, capicolla, prosciutto, as well as a ball of the butter provolone hanging from the ceiling. We bought one of the stove-top espresso pots and a few biscotti to nibble on the drive back to Dom’s Aunt’s house. I reluctantly left the store, frequently glancing back to permanently imprint the vision on my brain. Even years later, there is nothing in Atlanta that compares to that Italian paradise known as Rulli Brothers!

From Alaska

Hi,

Thanks for all your hard work, Dom. Thanks mostly for our children, so that they can learn about the family.

Luv, Jo Solley

Pig's Feet

I was never able to join in the pig's feet decadence. I remember my Mom loved them. Just the sight and smell used to make me queasy. I recall seeing them featured in a couple of bistros in Paris and thinking maybe I had missed something. I still didn't try them.

The "Warino Seven" really had a bond that I have come to understand is impossible for any of their children to fully comprehend. It's easy enough to glean bits and pieces (or even feet apparently) of what it must have been like to grow up on Truesdale/Albert Street. But, I am afraid we will never really know.

I write this because I hope Aunt Rose and Uncle Joe will share more of the growing up stories. I wrote one story that Rose told me about when Grandpa hunting his shoes while late for work one morning, but in so doing really wondered about what a typical day might have been like back then (when all were home on a Tuesday evening for dinner, for instance).

Thus far the focus of this blog has been on when the grandkids were around, I doubt the evenings as a young family for the Warinos involved much dressing up or sport coats. I bet they were "real meals" though and when I think of that famous question, "if you could have dinner with anyone in history...?" Instead, of Leonardo DaVinci, I think I would choose to eat dinner with the "Warino Seven" when they were kids.

Cousins

I might be prejudiced, but isn't that a great picture of Vic and Nic. Vic must be special because that is now 2 pictures of him on the blog; (the other with Alfie.) You can tell Vic and Nic are from the same family, can't you? We teased Dom and said that Nic looked more like Vic than Dom! That picture was taken at my daughter, Christine's, in SC when Dom and Nic came to visit us when we were down there last May. My daughter and her husband had never met Dom, but you never would have known it. We were all so comfortable and we had a great time.

Joyce, I do remember lupini beans and loved them too!

And the memory of food goes on......

Joann, your blog was so funny. I remember when Grandma and Grandpa would put the big jar of pig's feet on the table, I would run. I was afraid of them. The black round circles floating in the jel (which must, of course, been the allspice) just freaked me out, especially when they would say they were pig's feet! Do you remember, I think they were called lupin's? The boy's would again sit around the food feast and hold the yellow round bean in between their thumb and point finger, squeeze the beans, and try to shoot it out of the skin and into their mouths. Aunt Rose will remember what they are called. I just saw a jar in a little Italian Deli this weekend, and started to laugh at this jar. The guy next to me said, "Are you OK?" to which I replied "Oh, I'm sorry.... my Uncles use to shoot these into their mouths." He picked up the jar and said "Oh really?" I just walked away.

Denise, Your post was so cute. It really is hard to keep everyone straight. I am the "Viscot" queen. So far both recipes are great. The store bought one's just don't get it......

Big Italian Families

I did not come from a big family. I had a few Aunts, Uncles and cousins, and we were never very close (either in proximity or bond.) I saw my grandparents once or twice a year on a big holiday (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter or summer vacation,) and cousins even less frequently. The term cousin in our family referred to first cousins all of whom were born in the same generation between 1958 and 1968. Our boys have no first cousins.

That must be why the Warino family and its member’s connections to one another is so fascinating to me. Dom’s excitement about the new family blog is contagious and I feel that I have come to know all of you through the stories (both posted and unposted!) I must say, however, that I stay confused about who is related to whom and how. I actually wrote down a scorecard of sorts just so I would not have to keep asking “Whose daughter is she again?” or “Whose brother is that?” The scorecard only goes through the first cousins (two generations from Fanny and James.) Then I started getting lost in the “first cousins once removed,” and “second cousins;” and you can just forget about my ever figuring out a “second cousin twice removed.” Apparently there are none of those yet.

So when Nic and Sonny look at the blog and the pictures, and ask how they are related I patiently try to figure out the Math and explain the relationship. Dom on the other hand just simply says, “Oh, that’s your cousin.” To which they reply, “Cool! Which viscot recipe do they use?”

A Valentine Treat

Happy Valentine's Day from Aunt Rose and JoAnn!
Here's a treat for the day - Pickled Pig's Feet and Ears! According to my mother, Aunt Rose, Grandpa would bring them home from the grocery store and Grandma would boil them in water reserving some of the water and adding equal amts of vinegar and some allspice to create this "lovely" gel when refrigerated. The boys, as Dominic refers to them, and the girls loved them and believe it or not I loved them too!

More Food

Dom, your post is so true. I would hide my lunch at school if I had pizza that my Dad made packed in my lunch for fear someone would laugh at me. I wish I had that pizza now! In the summer months, there's a commercial on the radio about Youngstown and it always reminds me of Gram and Grampa. They said in it something like, "Who ever heard of church festivals, cavatelli, meatball, sausage and pepper sandwiches." "Did you ever see a cookie table at a wedding like you see in Youngstown?".... tables loaded with cookies. "Wedding soup, almost every restaurant in town has wedding soup." Brier Hill pizza... Fried dough and fried wands with powdered sugar. Pasta Fagiole, pepper and egg sandwiches. I can remember sitting at my parents house and saying "Gosh, Dad that's all you talk about is FOOD! Well, the apple doesn't fall to far from the tree! We are Blessed!

Food

What do you eat now?

I think more and more of what we ate on Truesdale. It's really quite funny of you think of it.

When I moved to Georgia, I remember new friends jeering of what I ate and referring to things like calamari as bait, etc. Jimmy Warino once said to me at Ursuline when I was being teased about what I wanted to eat or ate, he said "what do they know, they don't know nothing." I remember that moment. He sounded just like his dad.

We ate well, didn't we? I remember things now that I can never have again more than anything. Grandma used to make me sandwiches for school from the bread she made. Hand slices of lunch meat, a slice of the oil marinated eggplant she used to can, all wrapped in a piece of wax paper. By the time I got to lunch the whole sandwhich was a big oily mess, according to my class mates. What did they know, they didn't know nothing.

Pubacha Cruscht, not how you spell it, but she would dry long red sweet peppers. Then (this was a rare treat) she would fry up the peppers. They were like a homing device. Her kids would drop in just in time for some of the fried dried peppers. They were, in my memories, Italian potato chips. They were crispy, salty and about the best thing I ever remember eating.

The cavatelli she made were amazing. Just flour and water. She would roll out the dough and pinch a piece, roll it then take a small piece, roll that with some flour and then roll it into a small shell and easily toss it to the side. She made these by the 100s. I've tried to make these several times over the years with very little luck. It looked so easy, but in fact it's impossible for me to make. She had cold hands, you see. I think that is key. The dough remains subtle, even with the rolling action.

Rabbits, they were everywhere. See my old post about finding rabbits frozen in mid-leap when I looked for a Mr. Freezie stick in the freezer (these were cheaper than Popsicles.) Rabbit was always cooked in tomato sauce and presented as chicken. I eat rabbit frequently now.

Baby salad greens from the garden, we used to grow leaf lettuce and scallions (green onions) in the back yard with wonderful tomatoes. Now I pay some ungodly sum for the weeds we used to pull out and bathe them in good olive oil and red wine vinegar. Then we used Mazola oil and a splash of Regina red wine vinegar. Those salads were much better. I was told not to use a fork to eat salad. It's meant to be eaten with your fingers.

Pizza. The Warino's were way ahead of the curve on this one. I remember having pizza in grade school on special occasions. It was foreign to the Slovaks at St.s Cyril and Methodius. Like Thai food was here a couple of years ago, just eating it was and adventure. It was nothing like the current variety, more like bread with some green peppers, a light glaze of sauce and a sprinkling (and I do mean sprinkling) of cheese.

Biscotti. It almost makes me angry to hear Biscotti advertised to me in fine restaurants dipped in chocolate, and served with the American version of gelato (which is nothing like the real thing.) These were substitute for Viscots, but much better at sucking up any dunking target.

WINE, such a big deal now. Should we have Merlot, Pinot Noir, Valpolicella, or Beaujolais with rabbit cacciatore? We just had big gallon jugs of generic red around back then. Very little debate about vintage or varietal. It went with everything.

Birthday

Here is a photograph I found of Grandma on her 84th birthday.

3rd Honeymoon

Attached is a photo of Morris and Connie Warino dated July 14, 1947. The photo was taken at the Hotel Astor in Times Square. The note on the photo in my mother’s hand reads “3rd Honeymoon”.

You guys are getting old...

Congratulations to Gary and Shelley on their new granddaughter. She is so pretty. Man, I can't believe how old Gary and Jo Jo are getting... they're both Grandpas!

Grandpas

Sooner or later you become a Grandpa: Josephina Johanna Warino daughter of Greg Warino.

Gary Warino

Happy Birthday Uncle Joe!

Here’s a picture of Dad (Uncle Joe) with his "younger sister" (Aunt Rose) celebrating at his birthday party, Sunday, February 8th. His actual birthday was on February 7th.

Joe Warino, Jr.

Warino Dogs

I remember there being a brown dachshund (wiener dog)… I can’t remember the dogs name however I spent many a Sunday walking it around the block! Was this Aunt Phyllis' dog, and does anyone else remember it, and what was the dogs name???

Joe Warino, Jr.

Alfie

Grandma used to say Alfie understood more Italian than me!

Rose and Morris

Aunt Rose and Uncle Morris in 1937. Rose says she was about 17 in the picture. After trying to learn how to ride a bike with 2 wheels with no success, Uncle Morris got her a neighbor's tricycle, and they posed for the picture.

Submitted by Vic Canacci

You didn't mention....Domini!!!!!

The "Viscots" on Sundays too, let's not forget about the viscots!! LOL
It's so funny when you mentioned the big window in the kitchen. Grandma and Grandpa would hear the car's come up the drive way and would know who was pulling up the driveway. Boy, those where the day's!!! I love being Italian!!!!!!

Shy Italians

So it seems with the exception of a few members, we are the shyest Italian family in the world.

Put on your memory hats and send me posts. I will publish them for you.

Sundays on Truesdale II

I can also remember being at Grandma's on Sundays. There would be so many people crammed into the small kitchen with everyone talking at once. I also remember when there was no more room in the kitchen to sit and eat, the kids would use the basement steps as trays and put their legs through the space under the tray. I also remember when we would get bored with the adult talk we would walk around the block, such an adventure! Those we happy times.

Sundays on Truesdale

It strikes me that on any given Sunday up to 50 people ate "dinner" on Truesdale. There weren't that many plates, there was no dishwasher, the fare was simple, and there was seating for about 8 (because God forbid we would have ever used the "dining room".) But, everyone seemed to get what they came for.

We have had big pasta dinners here in my home in Atlanta and had 30 or more "eat pasta", but the ensuing logistics always overshadow any real enjoyment of the event, at least on my and Denise's part. Just managing the dishes and the "who's kids don't eat what" is daunting enough a memory to prevent us from doing it very frequently. It's a once-a-year effort and we end up swearing not to do it again.

This is what makes me think back to the days on Truesdale. We had the manner of a meal I wrote of above most Sundays. I wish I could say how it really occurred, I am sure it was not as seamless as I recall, but it did seem so routine, and remains a the best of my memories. The "boys" always sat at the table, on the side by the window. It was like a well rehearsed play, with all the "actors" knowing exactly what has to occur, and who should be where, when. What is remarkable is that the meal occurred several times, not at once. Some families intersecting others, some eating, some just having coffee. The flow of people was notable if you think of it.

Often the "fare" was cavatelli that Grandma and Aunt Mary would make for hours on Saturday. Grandma would stand and make them using the ironing board with a board on it. They made mounds of them. Sometimes we had soup as well, the wedding soup with escarole and those little veal meatballs. That soup was awesome. It was hot and just a little oily and always made me feel good.

The red sauce was very different than we make now. Not chock full of meat, but thin and tart. Any real meat that was in it was not typically bought expressly for that purpose. Some of the rabbits, I mentioned in an earlier post would find their way into the sauce and usually some pieces of meat (sirloin, etc.) from meals past. We didn't have loads of Parmesan cheese to put on it, or even real Parmesan cheese at all for that matter. It was really just eating pasta and time with family.

It's funny how in retrospect the "routine" is often what we end up cherishing the most. I learned a lot from those days. How the "kids" relate to each other, their spouses and their mother, the changes that occur as my cousins passed from teens to adulthood and had families of their own. Even the way my mom related to some of my cousins as friends and others as if they were her children. Those days where the best of times for me, and real highlights of growing up.

Isaly's....

I do remember Grandma and Grandpa referring to the refrigerator as "ice a box" ha ha! Does anyone remembering when Grandpa would gives us a dollar to go to the Isaly's and all of us would get ice cream in our Sunday "Best" clothes??? Those were the days...

Names

Thanks for the congratulations on baby Angie. We love the name too!

About names- this time with regard to objects. My mother tells me that once I asked Grandma how to say refrigerator in Italian and Grandpa responded: "ice a box". Now that's Italian.

Angie

I remember "vacationing" with Angie and Donny in Toledo when I was little. Luke was an infant and I remember getting in trouble for waking him once by going in to see him.

I have the same birthday as Angie and always think about her on Dec. 22nd and I always call Aunt Rose to visit on that day.

What a beautiful little girl, congratulations to all. Love the name....

Beautiful Baby

What a beautiful little girl! I love her name and the red hair too.
She's worth the 75 year wait. Congratulations to everyone.

Angie's grandchild

I meant to add on my last post that Angie (Anglyn) and Don's second son, Luke, and his wife Amber had a baby girl on January 8th and named her Anglyn Rose (Angie). Everyone is doing very well and very happy to have a girl in the Greco family- the first in 75 years!