Wedding Picture

I enlarged photo 14 from your photo gallery Dominic; that's a very nice picture of you and your Mom. In the background, that looks like my sister, her husband, and Barb's cousin, the late Jackie O'Day Ventresco. Does anyone think that was Carl's wedding to Barb? The person to the far left might be me.

Dom's reply: Yes the picture is from Carl's wedding to Barb, Joanne was my partner in the wedding.

Grandma and Grandpa Meet and Begin a Courtship

Hi everyone. When we saw Rosemarie (Warino Smith) last weekend she asked my Mom to write how Grandma and Grandma met. This is how she, Aunt Rose, remembers being told: Grandma was a widow staying with her cousin, Mary Cannatti, to help her with her children. Mr. Marino, a compare, died and Grandma and Mrs. Cannatti went to the wake. Grandpa, a widower with a five year old daughter (John Mashika's mother, Philomena), was living with his sister-in law, Mrs. Modarelli and they also went to Mr. Marino's wake. When Grandpa saw Grandma, he asked a friend if he knew who Grandma was. He also said (if you can imagine) "She's got a nica a_ _ " (tush.) (Somehow it just does not seem right for me to talk about Gram that way.) Anyway, he wanted to meet her and the friend took him to Mrs. Cannatti's to visit and they started their courtship. They married some time later (My Mom does not know how long the courtship lasted.) They lived on Albert Street where they raised Grandpa's daugher and where six of the seven Warino children were born. They moved to Truesdale when Uncle Joe was two years old. The neighbors, Mrs. Mills and her daughter Rachel, and the Decastris family, were a little out of sorts when they found out a family with six children was moving in. (Both were great neighbors though.) Aunt Phyl was born some years later and the Truesdale saga continued...

Betty Warino Christmas Stories

I remember a funny story from one of our Christmases. We still laugh about this. My beautiful mother had her 1st white Russian Drink at Grandma's. She took some coaxing for the 1st couple sips, and half way through the glass she had to pee. As we went up the steps (I had to help her,) she saw that ceramic duck on the stairwell. She picked it up and walked around the house quaking.!!! That was my mom, I was so proud that she was such a light weight drinker. Ha ha ha ha.

Another time Grandma made squid sauce and left a couple "tenticles" hanging over the dish. Then covered with another plate. When mom went to grab the upper plate, someone jiggled the table and she screamed!! She said (in her words) the squid's "testicles" are still alive."We all laughed until we cried. I made mom and dad that dinner again in Ohio and we still laughed about it. I also remember dad and grandma cussing in Italian playing that card game -Scobe!! I think that is the right name. Dad tried to teach it to us but I guess you had to know how to swear Italian style, because that's all he did trying to teach us. Ha ha ha. We never did get it.

~Jo Solley

Pictures

I also, love seeing pictures on the blog. I don't know yet how to put some on but when I find out I'll post them. That's a wonderful family picture, Joe & Linda and all the pics so far are great; I even think we all resemble each other a little, don't you? Hee, Hee!

Sunday TV

I remember watching the original Batman series in a full living room and wondering what you all where laughing about.

Further, I remember lining up chairs in the living room for the adults to watch "All In the Family." Pretty different show from Lawrence Welk with Jimmy and Sissie!

Sunday and TV

I remember those Sundays also. Patty you always wore such pretty waisted dresses, with your ruffled socks. I would always trip over the ceramic dog of aunt Phyl's (mentioned earlier.) It was so much fun going to the grandparent's house on Sundays!! Wish we could go back in time.

More memories

I do remember watching Wonderful World of Disney; what a treat. Do you cousins remember us sitting in the living room while the adults sat in the kitchen? We had our own conversations in our own young world. It seems that age groups hung out together; as I remember sitting and talking to you, Jeanie and recognizing that you, Jimmy and I, were all the same age. I also remember walking in the kitchen and Uncle Vic pinching me, in a loving way, but at the time I was a little scared it would hurt. I also remember Uncle Blackie lecturing us about the importance of brushing our teeth and surprisingly he was a major force in my dental hygiene habits. I also remember growing to love and pop lupines; never thought my cousins did too. I remember Uncle Morris in his Coke uniform and how kind, generous and loving our aunts and uncles were to us kids. And lastly, I remember playing hide and seek, outside as well as inside.

TV Time

I, too, remember watching Bonanza on the color TV at Grandma's. I also remember watching "Hopalong Cassidy" although I think that was in black and white. Grandma used to love to watch Milton Berle and the fights too.

Sunday Nights

Who amongst you family bloggers out there remember Sunday nights at grandma’s watching the first (Warino family) color TV?? Sunday nights were reserved for watching “The Wonderful World of Disney” and the Ponderosa (Bonanza) man those were the good old days…

Joseph V. Warino

P.S. I also remember watching a lot of Lawrence Welk on Sundays - DR

Catch-Up Blog

Sorry, I just viewed the blogs since I posted mine in February; guess it shows how often I get on the computer. Anyway, thanks for sharing your experiences, Dominic and Joe about my old house and my dear Mom. I had forgotten about those bologna salad sandwiches my mom used to make and about that wonderful metal glider. We used to love to sit on and that big porch. I think the friend that you spent time hiking with might have been Michael or Raymond.

One night I kept thinking of how we used to play hide and seek at Grandma's upstairs in that scary closet or someplace in the bathroom. Does anyone else remember playing hide & seek with me? I also remember hoping Grandpa would give us a dime or 15 cents to go to Isaly's for a "sky scraper." I was too shy to ask; maybe Carl asked for us.

I often tell my family about having saltine crackers and (real) butter on Christmas. Butter tasted so much better than the oleo I normally got at home. At home, I remember creeping downstairs peeking through the stair rails and noticing Uncle Blackie's "Santa" beard was off and that he wasn't truly Santa. I think he was having a shot of whiskey with my Dad. I also remember Easter Sunday at Grandma's with Gary and Joey looking so nice in their topcoats. Do you guys remember those coats? I remember when I celebrated my 8th birthday at Grandma's because Mom was in the hospital having my baby brother, Ronnie. Aunt Rose, Aunt Phyl and Grandma lit a candle and put it on a cupcake and then they sang Happy Birthday to me.

Warino Gathering

That is an excellent photo! It was nice to see everyone. I would like to see more photos like this on the blog.

Warino Gathering

Charlie & Stephanie’s wedding in January 2008:

From the left: Dustin, Lindsey, Uncle Joe, JoAnn, Carl, Linda, Aunt Doris, Shellie, Gary, Charlie, Stephanie, Rachel, Steve, Stacie, Gina, Sue, Aunt Rose, Joe, Jenifer, Linda, Joe Warino.