My Life 60i50

MY LIFE

A story about growing up poor in Bristol, RI during the Great Depression, a daughter of poor Sicilian immigrants. It’s a story of family, of love, and of simple things. It’s my story… my life.

BABE

Copyright

© 2013 by Babe.

ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4797-6218-7 eBook 978-1-4797-6219-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 06/16/2016

Xlibris 1-888-795-4274 www.Xlibris.com

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Contents

Preface

In The Beginning

Hard Times

Siblings, Nieces And Nephews

Angelo

My Cousin Sam

The Italian Way

The Patron Saint

The Black Madonna

Vendors Of Long Ago

A Ride To The Shore

Sam The Pizza Man

The Church

History In Bristol

The Chief Of Police

The Canazaro’s And The Neighborhood

Guisty’s

The Damico Family

The Arico Family

History

The Antique Store

House On Franklin Street

Walking To School

Tony

Our Marriage-Mike & Phoebe

Phoebe And Mike’s Marriage

My Dad

Our First Apartment

My Children

My Husband

My Work Life

Retirement

Florida

History Of The Franklin Street House

Trips (Just The Girls)

Trip To Italy

Hawaii

Acapulco

Portugal

The Player Piano

Organ Lessons

A Visit From Greg And Alis

Mike’s Illness

A People Person

La Vigilia

Meeting Eddy

Dancing

The Senior Citizen Prom

Traveling With Eddy

Mark’s 50Th Birthday

Poems And Stories I Like

Ante Up By Louise

My God

Could You Believe?

My 80Th Birthday

Frosty Soda Factory

Eddy, Sr.

Embellishment

Trip To California

Writing This Book

The ing Of My Sister, Helen

PREFACE

I wrote this book only because I have always wanted to write a book. Not thinking it would be about my life or anything about me. Now I’m saying what a better subject to have is about the person you know best. While I was Writing would things I had forgotten that happened in my life It is not hard to write a book about a subject you know best about. My life has changed so much from when I was born to now. The world has changed also I am not sure it is for the best. I hope you enjoy reading MY LIFE Noting how things were as today.

Sincerely your author BABE

For my parents, John and Santa, who started it all.

I wanted to write this book to record the names, dates, and events that I of my family for my sons who don’t know what my life was like or who is related to them. Time is marching on and there is no one left in the previous generations to ask.

Per tutta la famiglia mia e gli amici, ti amo oggi, domani, e sempre. For all my family and friends, I love you today, tomorrow, and always.

IN THE BEGINNING

My parents John and Santa came to this country from Sicily. They both came at different times. They were both from the county of Mascena. They immigrated to this country with their families. My dad came with two brothers Frank and Andrew. They left their mother and father a sister and a brother. The brother died in the Italian War. My father settled in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. My mother came to this country with her mom and dad and about five siblings. There were two boys and four girls. The boys were Frank and Joseph, The girls were Carmella, Mary, Nancy, (in Italian is Nunciata) and Santa my mother. They settled in Bristol, Rhode Island on State Street. One of the brothers’ ran the store across the street when he was older. John and Santa married. They lived upstairs from her parents. The parents both had sugar Diabetes. And needed her help. All my mother’s siblings were all married and had children of their own. The families were very close they visited often. Both of my Russo Grandparents died the same year but not at the same time. I never knew them. My mother told me they had the wake in the house on State Street. Family and friends would stay up all night with the body. The Priest would come to the house to pray over the body. The next morning, the body was taken to the church for the funeral mass and then to Saint Mary’s cemetery, in Bristol.

HARD TIMES

My parents had four of their children while living in a little house on State Street, including me who was born on December 29. A midwife came to my mother when it was time to deliver. My mother told me this is how it was done in those days. This was a very popular practice. I guess it was cheaper than going to the hospital and they did not have Transportation. Mom said they would wrap the baby in a blanket so tight like a mummy. They did that so the baby would grow straight and tall. Babies were not to be taken out of the house until they were baptized at the church. We moved to a house on John Street for a very short time. Then to Catherine Street by then my mom had seven children. When Johnny was born he was a preemie, my mom would put him in a box, put it close to the stove to keep him warm, put some sticks across a box with the baby in it make like a teepee and put a wet cloth on the sticks this was a reasonable facsimile of an incubator. He grew up to be the most aggressive one of us all. Someone gave my dad a radio it was during the depression. In those days you could pay for services rendered with things other than money. If the doctor came to your house you would give him a chicken or something he could use. Our relatives would come to the house to listen to the radio, about the coming war. We had a coal stove in the kitchen and it would heat the house. There was a bedroom on the first floor that was for my parents and the baby that was at the time. I all the kids in the family would sleep in the attic when we had to go to sleep we would pick up our coats and bring them up with us to have some extra warmth. The Coal stove was great in the winter time to warm your feet after playing outside in the cold.

My mother walked to work and back and always left a stew or soup for our supper. My oldest sister Josephine had to go straight home from school and take care of us younger kids.

We had to play outside rain or shine. In the winter time when Josephine cleaned the house and washed the floor, we had to play outside; she would not let us in the house. Boy, was it cold!

My mother worked the three to eleven shifts at Collins & Aikman Co. She worked in the heavy drawing room. She worked their twenty-five years. There was not any pension like they have today. They had no benefits at all. Every time she had a baby she would return to work in a very short time.

My parents, John and Santa, pose with five of their children. Angelo is on the left: Cornelius “Kelly” is wearing a suit; I’m standing in front of him: Helen is on our mother’s lap and Josephine is standing on the right. Our brother Johnny and sisters Delores and Lucille were born a couple of years later.

Lucille on Franklin St.

SIBLINGS, NIECES AND NEPHEWS

The oldest child in our family was Cornelius. Kelly was his nickname. He married Rose, she was from Barrington Rhode Island. She was a beautiful person. They lived in Bristol, my brother and my father built the house they lived in. They adopted a first child his name was David he was a baby. After a while they adopted a baby girl, her name was Lori. David was born September 18, and Lori was born August 9, David is a carpenter like his father, Lori is a caretaker for the elderly and sick people.

Josephine was next. She was the caretaker for all of us younger kids while my mother worked second shift at Collins and Aikman. Josephine married Curt, He was in the Navy, he later became a chief. They had three children, Curtis John, Patricia, and Susan. Josephine died. After a while Curt married Maria of Barrington. We always include them when we have a get together. Maria is a wonderful person. My brother-in-law Curt ed on.

Next Born was Angelo, married Etta from Barrington after serving two hitches in the Marine Corp. Stationed in Camp Lejune. Their children were Donna, Angelo Jr. Stephen, and Paul. My brother worked at Kaiser Alluminum. Donna is a hair stylist. The three boys work as carpenters.

Angelo was a saver he had a basement full with things he might use. He would always tell jokes sometime the same ones over and over. His wife Etta would laugh at his jokes no matter if she heard them time and time again. He was a joy to be around. My brother worked at Kaiser Aluminum, when he got out of the service.

ANGELO

My brother Angelo was born after my sister Josephine. He was about four or five years old. Intent on getting out of the fenced in yard, he dug a hole under the fence. Then everybody went crazy to find him. Another time my mom was working at the mill which was at the edge of the river she looked out the window where she was working and saw a little boy playing near the wall at the edge of the river she got so worried the kid would fall into the water. She got out of work and Lo and behold who was this kid? She found it was her son. She took him by the ear and got him home. He was about nine years old at the time. Angelo went in the Marines, for a double hitch, He was stationed in Camp Lejune, North Carolina. When he got out of the service he met Etta she was from Barrington. The next sibling was Phoebe. Born Dec. 29, I was named after my Grandmother, in Italian her name was Fortunata, they say it means Fortunate. One of my cousins’ name was Phoebe also like mine; she would come to our house to play after school. She liked to throw stones up in the air and then catch them. This one time she threw the stone in the air and did not catch it, it hit me in the head and made a big gash. We did not call the Dr. My mom put some salve on the gash and that was it if there was a real emergency someone would go get the doctor he would come to the house. I had three boys Michael, Richard and Mark. Michael was born December 14. He married Carol she had an adopted son Todd. Michael was a chunky kid. He would always do something that would make you laugh. He was tough on cars, every car we ever had we would give to Michael, I don’t know what he would do to them, the car did not last long after that Richard born July 2, got into his share of trouble when he was younger. The Principal suspended Rick for kicking the doorstop at school, it went flying. We had to go to school to get him back in. Another time he was friends with a minister’s son the two of them decided to spray paint the ministers car. After graduation from school. He had a few jobs and a lot of girlfriends.

Helen married Mike, a friend from school. They had three children: Sandra, Kenny and Mary Ellen. They were all cry babies. They were cranky and wouldn’t sleep so Helen or Mike would always have to rock them. Later, Kenny played football in high school. He has three children, Katty, Kevin and Shawna. Katty has two children of her own now, Jeremy and Paula. Helen’s other children, Sandra and Mary Ellen, are both married to great men. Sandra’s husband is Bill Wunchel and Mary’s is Paul DiSilva. Neither couple has children.

Helen was always a saver. She still has Kenny’s football gear. She saved everything that had belonged to her kids, dolls, carriages and more.

Delores, married a man named Ray Corcoran from Connecticut. He was born on Dec. 19. They met while he was in the Navy stationed in Newport and married. They had three daughters named Kim, Kelly, and Leigh. Beautiful girls. Kelly would do cartwheels all the time when she was young. While their father was in the Navy Band he took his family wherever he was stationed, if he could. They lived in Puerto Rico for a while and then in Norfolk, VA. My sister Josephine also lived in Virginia when her husband was stationed there for a while; Ray played the trumpet, piano, drums, and steel drums. He retired as a chief. Afterwards he would sometimes have a gig nearby that we would go to. He was very talented. He also worked with the special needs children at the Colt and Andrews schools. When he died, the funeral procession went by the schools and all the children were assembled on both sides of Bradford Street. It was overwhelming. The children dedicated a tree in his honor planted in front of the Colt School.

Kim does not have children; Leigh and Neil have two; Connor and Abbie and Kelly Corcoran Squatrito has two children named Joey and Holly.

My brother John was married to a woman named Patricia Tyrel from Seekonk, MA. They had four children: Bobbie who is living in North Carolina and has two adopted children, Eli and Isaac. Karen is married to Tom DiMeglio and has two children, Ava and Elie. Tricia and her husband Erik Carlson have a son and a daughter Emelyn and Ryan. John Paul lives with his mother Pat. John my brother held the family together. He would host family get-togethers “just because.” He worked very hard as a steamfitter and made rugs in his spare time for the rest of us. He also made me four chair pads with an A in the middle for Armillotto.

My brother Johnny was born a premie. He grew up very strong. After my parents ed on, he kept the family together. He would host impromptu get togethers. One time he had a pig roast, Helen made pig noses for all of us out of paper. It was a lot of fun.

He worked hard at his job as steamfitter. He found time to make us each a rug. For me he made two chair pads with a large A in the middle. Johnny ed on at the age of 52 years old. Long before his time.

Lucille was the youngest of the whole brood. Born on Washington’s Birthday. She married Bill and had two children, Steph and AnnMarie. Steph is a photographer at the consumer magazine. AnnMarie works at Talbots clothing store in Merchandizing.

Lucille watched my boys while I worked. The three to eleven shift.

MY COUSIN SAM

Born Jan. 12, Santo Domenic Mascena, called Sam was my cousin from Barrington. In the 1950s or 60s he bought a small piece of land in The Narrows in Bristol. I have so many memories of all the families on my mother’s side going there to enjoy the shore with Sam, his wife Dee, and their daughters Judy, Marie, and Rachel. Judy, born Feb. 24, married an Armenian man named Archie Erganian. They had a daughter named Candace Faith and shortly afterward Judy died. Marie, born March 14, was a teacher in the Bristol school system before retiring in 2010. Rachel, also a teacher, was born Dec. 27.

Every year, on the Sunday before Labor Day, all the cousins and their families would gather for a picnic on that property. Everyone brought food, drinks, and their musical instruments. We played games and the kids always liked to be on the shore picking up small crabs.

Some people bring kayaks and others swim. The food and fun lasted all day and then we’d gather around the campfire to play and sing songs. Sometimes, we danced.

Every time we get together nowadays, it seems someone has ed away since we were together the year before. Sam himself died in 2002. I really miss him. But the family still gets together on that piece of land on the shore.

THE ITALIAN WAY

In the Italian way the families would start with their first born child, named after the grandfather, meaning the father of the child’s father. Then the next child named after the grandmother’s father. If it were a girl, it would be the grandfather’s mother. After the grandparents were honored, the aunts and uncles needed that honor. Consequently if it was a large family like ours there were many families in the same boat there are about four or five people with the same names, then you start calling them by the 1st or maybe the big one or maybe with a nick name. I knew someone by the name of spaghetti, or Blacky, Baby or any other strange name. My dad’s father’s name was Cornelius there are four cousins in my family with the name of Cornelius. There are about four Josephines. So you see it can be very complicating. I was named Phoebe, in Italian it is Fortunata nobody has ever called me Fortunata. I was baptized Phoebe. I was named after my grandmother on my mom side. My sister Helen’s name was Helen Jenny. We knew no one in the family that was named Helen but we did have an aunt named Jenny. Now we are older we were told her name was Ann. I do not know how that slipped by, She was a strong minded woman. We did not see Uncle Frank’s family very often, maybe when someone in the family ed on or maybe for a wedding. Uncle Andrew family ran a grocery store in Worcester Ma. We would see them often. When they came to visit, they would bring us some Italian sausage they made the best I have ever eaten. My Dad had a cousin in Lansdale RI. Her name was Bessy. She was my sponsor when I took my confirmation. My Mom was a good looking woman. After my dad died, she ed the woman’s guild at the church. As she got older, she got multiple Myaloma a form of cancer. She stayed with my sister Helen whom was the only one in the family that was not working. Soon she was worse went to the hospital. She died a short time later. I lost my best friend. A friend found this one on the internet

The Life of an Italian Child

If you’re not Italian some of these things may seem a little strange. BUT if you are, this is a nice reflection back to the way things used to be . . .

1. You have at least one relative who wore a black dress every day for an entire year after a funeral.

2. You spent your entire childhood thinking what you ate for lunch was pronounced “sangwich.”

3. The family dog understood Italian.

4. Every Sunday afternoon of your childhood was spent visiting your grandparents and ex-tended family.

5. You’ve experienced the phenomena of 150 people fitting into 50 square feet of yard during a family cookout.

6. You were surprised to discover the FDA recommends you eat three meals a day, not seven.

7. You thought killing a pig each year and having salami, capicola, pancetta and prosciutto hanging out to dry from your shed ceiling was absolutely normal.

8. You ate pasta for dinner at least three times a week, and every Sunday, and laughed at the commercial advertising Wednesday as Prince Spaghetti day.

9. You grew up thinking no fruit or vegetable had a fixed price and that the price of everything was negotiable through haggling.

10. You were as tall as your grandmother by the age of seven.

11. You thought everyone’s last name ended in a vowel.

12. You thought nylons were supposed to be worn rolled

to the ankles.

13. Your mom’s main hobby was cleaning.

14. You were surprised to find out that wine was actually sold in stores.

15. You thought that everyone made their own tomato sauce.

16. You never ate meat on Christmas Eve or any Friday for that matter.

17. You ate your salad after the main course.

18. You thought Catholic was the only religion in the world.

19. You were beaten at least once with a wooden spoon or broom.

20. You thought every meal had to be eaten with a hunk of bread in your hand.

21. You can understand Italian but you can’t speak it.

22. You have at least one relative who came over on the boat.

23. All of your uncles fought in a World War.

24. You have at least six male relatives named Tony, Frank, Joe or Louie. 25. You have relatives who aren’t really your relatives.

26. You have relatives you don’t speak to.

27. You drank wine before you were a teenager.

28. You relate on some level to the Godfather and the Sopranos. “I maka a meata ball you can’t refuse!” “ Forrgetttabbboutit!” “Badda bing!”

29. You grew up in a house with a yard that didn’t have one patch of dirt that didn’t have a flower or a vegetable growing out of it.

30. Your grandparent’s furniture was covered with plastic.

31. You thought that talking loud was normal.

32. You thought sugared almonds and the Tarantella were common at all weddings.

33. You thought everyone got pinched on the cheeks and had money stuffed in their pockets by their relatives.

34. Your mother was overly protective of the males in the family no matter what their age.

35. There was a crucifix in every room of the house.

36. Wakes would be held in someone’s living room.

37. You couldn’t date without getting approval from your father. (Oh, and they had to be Italian).

38. You called all pasta “macaroni” and it was served with gravy not sauce.

39. You dreaded taking out your lunch at school. There was no peanut butter in YOUR lunch bag.

40. Going out for coffee usually meant going to Zia’s house.

41. Every condition, ailment, misfortune, memory loss and accident was attributed to the fact that you didn’t eat something.

THE PATRON SAINT

My mother had a patron saint, she told us about when we were growing up. She called her La Madonna de Tindaris. When we went through her things after she ed away, we found this little picture of the Madonna in a little box. She kept a few things she cherished. It ended up in my possession. I took a trip to Italy and Sicily after my mother ed on. My family does not have any people left in Italy that I know of. However, My cousin’s father did have relatives still living in Italy. However, they live in Sicily for the summer months. So it was planned if we were close to Sicily we would go and visit their relatives.

My cousins called their relatives on the phone to tell them we were on our way. We were in Teramina about two hours by car to where they were. One of the aunts who was about eighty five at the time. She arranged to have some one pick us up at our hotel and also bring us back. They served lunch and talked about their relatives in the USA. We had a

great time with them they gave us gifts to take home to their relatives.

While we were there we went for a walk down by the shore, they lived very close to the river, they dig clams and other seafood. While we were having lunch I noticed a statue of the Madonna my mother told us about. While we were at the river there was a huge Cathedral way up on a cliff. I had my husband who knew how to speak Italian ask about the cathedral. I was very excited to learn that it was the same Saint my mom had told us about. I wanted to go there but they said there was a pilgrimage that day and there would be thousands of people there I would not get there.

THE BLACK MADONNA

The story of how the black Madonna arrived in Tindari, Sicily is the stuff that legends are made of. According to local tradition, the statue, which is certainly of Byzantine origin, was one of many works of art smuggled out of Constantinople in the eighth and ninth Centuries during the period of Iconoclasminitiated by Emperor Leo III. A storm forced the ship carrying ‘the Black Madonna into the port of Tindari, where the sailors deposited their load at the local Abbey, for safekeeping. She now sits behind the alter with the inscription” nigro sum sed Formosa” (Black am I, but beautiful).

The Lady in question turned in horror to see her child Plummeting down the cliff towards the sea. However, in an act of mercy and a demonstration of unworldly powers, the Madonna made a bank of sand rise from the sea to cushion the child’s fall.

VENDORS OF LONG AGO

We lived on Catharine Street. There were many venders who would come and try to sell their wares. The Jamiels sold clothing and John Balzano sold fruit. There was a fish man, there was a man who would come to sell waffles with sugar on them. Another vender was Mr. Tapazio he came with a horse and a cute wagon, he sold ice cream for three cents a little cone. There was also a bread man; he would bring bread to our house every other day. In the summer there was an iceman. We had an icebox to keep our food cold so it would not spoil. The milkman would come every day. In the wintertime we would all fight to get the milk first. Because if it was left outside for any length of time it would freeze and we would get the cream on the top, (a frozen pop cycle) of course the milk that was left was like the one percent that we get today. The coal man would also come and put a metal slide in the cellar window. So we would have fuel for the stove. I there were men who came around the streets singing in a megaphone, no legs or arms. I guess they had the misfortune from the war. My mom would take whatever she could and run outside to give the poor souls some monies. But I was so afraid of them I would hide. Across the street there was a store named Guisty’s. We went there for penny candy. He would take about five pieces of candy put them in a small bag and sell them for a nickel. Later Mr. Guisty put in a jute box in the store, twenty-five cents a song. It became the hot spot for kids to go for entertainment.

A RIDE TO THE SHORE

Mr. Balzano the fruit-man would come by on a Sunday afternoon and take a whole bunch of us to the shore, so we could go swimming. He took us to the narrows a place where the boy scouts go in the summer. They had built teepees there for them to study about Indians and how they lived. The teepees were there for years, now I hear they are gone. If you had to walk to the shore from our house it would be about five miles. Along the way on a farm there was a bull. I was told not to wear red the bull would chase you. That was scary. We were very thankful for Mr. Balzano taking us to the shore. Later on in our life Mr. Balzano had made a restaurant out of the chicken coop. It was so popular people would stop us to ask where the restaurant was.

SAM THE PIZZA MAN

Aunt Anunciata and Uncle Tony had seven children. Steph, Angelo, and Sam, the girls names were Mary, Phoebe, Carney and Camela we call her Millie.

Sam was a pizza man. He had a place called the Knotty Pine Restaurant. It was on the corner of High street and Bradford street. The Colt High school was just down the street from the restaurant. Everybody would go to the restaurant for lunch. In later years he bought a building, it was up the street on Bradford Street. Not far from the High school. Also there was Kaiser Aluminum, a wire Company. The people that worked there would frequent his establishment. He did very well He would feed people that would come by and not take money from the really poor. He would always put his relatives to work for him, In the Pizza parlor. My sisters, Helen and Delores were among them. Sam was a peach, he made many a meal for people that could not afford it. He made meals like you would from your parents of long ago. Sam was chosen the chief Marshall for the Fourth of July parade in 1992. That was a lot of fun. My sisters and brother we all got together and decorated afloat, for the up and coming parade, we painted a sheet of plywood, and painted many pizza’s on it. We were all on the float, including my friends from Pennsylvania. Only one thing went wrong IT RAINED. We went on the float any way, With raincoats. It was a lot of fun. We did get drenched. Later in the day they had a reception we all went to. A good time was had by all.

THE CHURCH

When we were young and received one of the sacraments such as First Communion or Confirmation, our parents would take us to visit all of our relatives and they would give you money. Now they have a gathering of friends and relatives. Sometimes we would get a fit of laughing in church and people would turn around and give us a dirty look. We would feel ashamed. We were young and foolish. When I was young you did not go to church without something on your head. It could be a kerchief or a hat sometimes the hats would have a veil in the front, some hats were very fancy. On Easter Sunday, all the parishioners of our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church would ware the best clothes and the women would wear their best hats. It was almost a competition to see who was wearing what and who looked the best. If you did not have something new to wear you did not want to go to church. My Dad was a steady church goer and very friendly with father Joseph Salzano, the pastor of the church. That’s where we all took our sacraments. When it came to be my turn for confirmation, each member of the class had to go down in the basement of the church and Father Joseph quizzed us on our religion, I was so nervous, I thought I would die, but I ed. That was the year the nuns decided that we would wear hats with a red tassel instead of veils. My father’s cousin Bessy, was my confirmation godmother. She lived in Lonsdale area of Pawtucket. I chose Ann as my confirmation name. The rule in our house was, if you didn’t go to church on Sunday morning you couldn’t go out on Sunday night, to the movies or anywhere. My dad was very strict on that. The girls in our family were not allowed to wear fingernail polish at the table either. Dad was the head of the household. He sat in a seat at the head of the table, if he was not there at super time the seat remained empty. When he ed away the seat stayed empty for a long time.

HISTORY IN BRISTOL

Bristol has a vast array of history. Sometimes it was a movie being produced in Bristol. One being the Great Gadsby, with Robert Redford, that was filmed in part at Lindon Place. This is where the Colt family lived. Another film was produced by a Bristolian Bobbie Emery. He was a cousin of mine. He lives down South. The house he used in the film was a house on High Street, the house was owned by the grandparents of my nieces and nephews. The actor Anthony Quinn bought a house in the Poppasquash area of Bristol. He ed on, was buried on the Property. He lived in the house with his wife and two small children before he ed. He also directed an old Historical Play at the old court house. Bristol has the longest history of the Fourth of July celebration in the Country-over 235 years. Bristol is located on a peninsula plenty of places to dig up shell food, such as Clams, Lobsters, Conch, mussels if you like seafood. You would never go hungry here. The mount hope Bridge takes you across the water (the Bay) onto Aquidneck Island. Newport, Middletown and the small towns. Before the Bridge I was told there was a ferry that would take you across the water. There is a Navy base there. My Dad helped build the Mount Hope Bridge. He saw a man fall into the cement they were pouring in the form for a Piling. Some people chose to commit suicide and jump off the Bridge. I the poor farm, it was where the Colt farm is today. It was situated where the National Guard building is today. The Colt Family donated that whole plot of land to the town of Bristol. The town not having the revenue to take care of the land gave it to the State. It is a beautiful park. My friend and I go down to the Park often in the summer. We watch the tankers go by on their way to The Port of Providence.

THE CHIEF OF POLICE

Was a man my parents knew very well. The Police were not as strict as they are today. If the boys did something wrong in our day like rob a tire or siphon gas out of a car the police would be very lenient, especially if he knew your parents. He would take you by the ears and bring you to your father the circumstances would be different. Your father would have to discipline you. In most cases your farther would either give you a good beating or something. Your father would be so mortified that you ruin his good name, he was very hard on you. Although you got a beating from your father, you would still respect him. To think the chief of Police would come to your house to dishonor him that was very bad. My brother Angelo got a Christmas tree one-year, Blue Spruce; it was the best tree we ever had. He cut it down on someone’s property and was not caught. He did not tell too many people that story. It was all in growing up. Boys will be boys. Another time he was in an automobile accident. Him and his friends were all fooling around. They were speeding down Tower Hill Road, in those days there were not too many houses on that road, and the road was like a roller coaster. His story was, first I was in the back seat then I was in the Front seat then in the back again, He told the story it was so funny, of course if he had gotten hurt it would have been different. He was a thrill seeker and so were his friends.

THE CANAZARO’S AND THE NEIGHBORHOOD

The Canazaro’s were the people who owned the little house on Catherine Street where we lived. They lived next door to a six family house and club that they owned along with a house on Constitution Street. They seemed to have a lot of money. In a time when no one had any money. They had a very big Police Dog tied in their back yard. He seemed to be very vicious, he was there to protect their property from intruders. Sometimes Mrs. Canazaro would bring a bowl of polenta to our house for us to eat. This was a corn meal very mushy. No one in my family liked Polenta. My Mother would dig a hole in the yard and bury it. In those days you would not have a rubbish collection. You wood bury your rubbish in the yard or you would have a garbage pail in a hole in the ground. The man with a truck would come every now and then and collect your garbage. He would boil it and feed it to his pigs. He would have a pig farm. The rubbish would go to a specific place if you could get it there. The Barboza family lived in the house on the corner of Wood Street and Catherine Street that was a big family. The Browns lived in the house next door to us. On Catherine Street the family had mostly adults. Then there were the Deltoro’s ran a grocery store. They had a very large family also. Next house to the grocery store was a family the father made suressa for his customers. That man (the father) would put out his hands as though to catch us, he had a strange look about him. When we saw him we would scream and run home he scare us so bad. Around the corner on Prospect Street there was another grocery store Bianca’s. We had cousins on that street there were many stores the poor people could go to shop. They would give you credit and you could pay them a little at a time. Some of the stores in town was Jamiels they would sell clothes. Falugo’s would sell furniture, Ben Franklin (the five and Ten cent store), Hope pharmacy, Buffington Drugs, there was Ienstarts he sold clothing he was on the corner of State Street and Hope Street. I that cookies would be sold by the pound. You would pick out the ones you wanted and they would weigh them. They came in the shops in along narrow corrugated boxes. Spaghetti sold the same way. The olives and pickles came in large barrels.

We had a garden in our yard. My mom would grow tomatoes, peppers beets carrots beans, lots of vegetables. She would preserve them for the winter. All put in mason jars and boiled in a large galvanized tub in the yard over a pit fire surrounded with stones. Mom also made tomato paste, she would cut up tomatoes cook them and put them in a large clean cloth, tie them and hang them up with a basin underneath to catch the liquid after a day or so she would have her paste putting the paste in bottles capping them and store the bottles in the cellar, for the winter.

GUISTY’S

Across the street on Wood street was a variety store named Guisty’s we would go there to buy penny candy. Mr. Gusity would put five pieces of candy in a small bag and charge a Nickel. We would go there to get a loaf of bread if we ran out, And maybe a quart of milk. Later on Mr. Guisty put in a jute box the kids would go there for their entertainment, they would go there to dance and listen to the music.

THE DAMICO FAMILY

A long time ago. I a Damico family. I the father of the family bringing up a family of six children. His wife had died. There were three boys and three girls, Mike, Johnny, Larry and the girls were Carol, Jackie and Ann. Larry was my husband’s best friend, they did everything together. As time went on, I became aquatinted with the whole family. They were just as poor as us, being poor did not bother me as much as them not having a mother, to protect them and love them. As they grew up I went to school with Ann and became friends. I had a job and worked with Carol. I worked at Raytheon and Jackie worked there as well. The boys I knew through my boyfriend Mike at that time. Larry was about to be married; he had asked Mike to be his best man at the wedding. It so happened; Mike had stood up for the girl he was marrying at a previous marriage. This previous wedding was a close friend of Mike’s family. I worked at S.E. Rains Co. the bride to be (Gloria) worked there as well. She had a son Larry, from the previous marriage. She had a son named Butch which Mike and I Christened, we were honored. Gloria and Larry had a good Marriage. Carol was a lot of fun to work with. In later years, she lost a daughter to sickness. She went into a depression. I never saw her anymore. This whole family has ed on with one sickness or another. As far as I know, Carol is the only one with us. I often think about them.

THE ARICO FAMILY

Aunt Carmella was the wife of Uncle Jimmy Arico. She was my mother’s sister. Sister of the other siblings, Mary, Frank, Joseph, Nancy, my mother was Santa. Carmella ed away before I could her. Carmella had five children. There was Vincent, Tony s, Carmella and Phoebe. She ed on when her children were very young. Uncle Jimmy remarried after a while. The children’s stepmother was very strict with the children. Her name was Madelyn. She wore black clothes all the time. That in itself was enough to scare anyone. However, this is what the older people would wear. Vincent moved down south. We did not know much of him and his where about. Tony on the other hand married a girl from Barrington, RI. Her name was Mary Ciallella (Auglicized to Chellel). They had three boys Vincent, Kenny and Tony one of the boys married a girl who sang professionally. s was the older of the girls she married Frank Vorro, he was a Baker. They had a boy and a girl, the girl was Grace she went to school with my sister Helen and became very close. I Frankie the little boy that would come to our house around the comer from his, he would get a slice of bread eat the inside and put the crust on his arm like a bracelet. Phoebe was another sister in that family. She married Tony Dupont. They had a few children I knew Tony and Joe-Ann. The other children I did not know. Carmella, I would think named after her mother. We called her Angie she married Albert. They had two boys and three girls. The boys were Bobbie and Kenny. The girl’s names were Pearl, Raberta and Bernadett. We reacquainted with them very recently. Bobbie was into producing movies one was filmed in Bristol, Rhode Island on High Street in a house where my sister Helen’s in Lawlived, after they ed. Bobbie went to school with my Brother-in Law Bill. They were very friendly.

HISTORY

Captain James DEWolf

Captain Jim as he was called, was a Navy Captain in the Revolutionary War. In local History, folklore has it, He was captured once and escaped, then captured again and got away. He is a Dutch American. In later years as a public servant he was in states and federal politics. A wealthy merchant, the second-richest. There were traces of Slave Trade. He was born in Bristol, Rhode Island, born March 18, 1764. He died December 21,1837. He has a memorial in Bristol County, Rhode Island, at Juniper Hill Cemetery. This story even though I did not see it on Television myself I thought it would be interesting to all the Bristolians. My son in California has a friend Leaha she called him over to watch the documentary. She heard them mention Bristol. She knew how much Rick missed home. He is so into hearing about things from back home. He got so excited he called me. I’m glad he did. I hope you are too. I did not know anything about this man. There are lots of people with the last name of Dewolf in the town of Bristol.

THE ANTIQUE STORE

Dad had a shop on the comer of State Street and Thames Street in Bristol. He sold anything he could. He also repaired chairs and sold them. He could repair the cain on the chairs, and did odd jobs. My cousin (Angelo) till this day still talks about the experience he got from my father, his uncle. Angelo is still living. They would go up and down the streets looking for work. My Dad on one side and Angelo on the other side of the street if there was a question Angelo would wait there for my father to answer the question. When my dad gave up the shop. I took two vases that I liked. After we moved to Franklin Street my dad did upholstering in the garage. This was on the property we had bought. He taught my brother Kelly how to cain chairs and help him to upholster furniture. They also made awnings for stores and houses. Then my dad would find houses that needed repair or rebuilt after a fire he would buy them, repair them and sell them. He also built a boat which stayed in the yard a very long time. I think it was in the water just a few times. The river was just a couple of blocks away. In the summer we would walk to the river and go swimming, we also walked a little way to the green grass to swim. My brother’s put up a basket ball hoop on the garage. Kelly invited his friends (Smokie, and Jimmy) to shoot a couple of baskets.

HOUSE ON FRANKLIN STREET

Franklin street house was like a palace to us. When we moved in, there was no Bathtub or shower. My dad said that was the first thing he would do for us. It took him a while because he was working alone. He started on the first floor and went all the way to the third floor. The toilet was in the cellar, at that time. It was cold in the bathroom. He did put heat in but in the wintertime it was not enough. We would open the door to the kitchen when we were taking a shower and heat the bathroom up before we got in. There were five rooms the boy’s room and the girl’s room. There were two boys at the time my brother Kelly had ed the SeeBees so he was away. It was the Second World War. Kelly was stationed in the Philippines. The SeeBees was a unit that got there first and built the barracks for the other branches of the service. We were five girls that had to share two double beds. That was difficult. Actually, Lucille my youngest sister was born in that house so she stayed in my mother’s room, until one of us was married and moved away. One time I used my oldest sister’s belt to wear to school. She got so angry with me she did not talk to me for a while. By then, she was buying her own clothes. Our second floor to the house was rented, to help pay the bills. There was a mother and daughter and one son who it was rented to. The girls name was Clara, she played the piano and she, was good at it the music would fill the house. A cousin Angie and her husband Albert and one son lived there when the other people moved into their own house. The son in latter year’s, Bobby and my brother-in-law Bill were friends in school. Bobby in later years became a producer of films in the movies. He also had three sisters Pearl, Bernadette and Raberta. They all live around here. At another time, the Souses lived upstairs. One son was known as Babe, he was very friendly with my brother Angelo. The stairway in the front hallway was just spectacular. It curved and was very beautiful in wedding pictures.

We always listened to the radio at night. Sometimes I would put on a ruffled skirt and perform for my parents. I had dark wavy hair and sewed some of my own

clothes as I got older. My mother was pregnant for my sister Lucille at the time. She did not let anyone know she was pregnant. She worked up until the day she had her. It was a surprise for everyone. The older siblings were upset they all figured we had enough kids. In this house my parents had the front room on the same side of the sidewalk. My dad was a loud snorer, people going by on the sidewalk would hear this sound and we could tell by the look on their face, they would wonder what it was. We would laugh. The porch was a God sent. On it we’d have family gatherings, watch the Portuguese processions go by. I lots of good times. The fourth of July Parade used to go by the end of the street, on High street. All our neighbors were friendly. The Coits lived next door to us. One of the sons had an Indian Motor cycle, it would be worth a bushel of money if he had it today. They had a large building which would house Chickens and rabbits. My dad had a victory garden in our big back yard. We also had a small quantity of chickens and a rooster. The Rooster did not want us close to the barn, he would chase us. On the other side lived the Graberts. Mrs. Grabert was a peach. She had three sons. Boy did I have a crush on him. He was the youngest of the boys. All the boys were very respectful Herman took me to the movies one time at the Pastime Theater.

WALKING TO SCHOOL

We walked to school with other neighborhood kids. There were the Coits, the Graberts, the Cirillo’s, the Casano’s and the Cinerine’s, making new friends in a new location. On the corner, was the Babtista bakery we would go there and buy the warm bread as it got out of the baker’s oven. One time my sister Josephine ate the bread too warm, she got so sick. I guess it was still cooking while it was digesting. Our favorite was to put olive oil on the warm bread and eat it. It was such a good treat. By this time we were living in the house on Franklin Street. Soon after that I started at Guiteras school, it was the junior high school in town. Affluent people in town donated most of the schools in Bristol. The Colt Family donated the Colt memorial high school. They were famous for the Colt revolver. Once when I was in High school they were having a dance, I went to the dance in the auditorium at the high school, but I was a nervous wreck. I was very shy. Mr. Nash, who taught history in the Colt school. He asked me to dance I could have died. I they came out with a kit to make your hair curly, it was called a permanent I had my sister give me the permanent. It came so kinky. On Sunday I tried to put a hat on to go to Church it sat so high on my head it looked ridiculous. They all laughed, I could have cried.

TONY

Before I met my husband I went out with a young man named Tony he was from Warren. He would take the bus from Warren to Bristol, Rhode Island to come and see me. He would take me to the Movies or we would just go for a walk. The movie theater would not be very far from my house so we would walk there as well. I was still in High school and only fifteen years old. He was a very well dressed young man Tall dark and handsome. I often wonder what became of him. The Bristol Pastime Theater is no longer there. It was made into a school. We had so many memories there. There were times we could go to see a movie for a can of food it would feed the hungry. I we would see the news of the War. I would pray to God my brother would be ok. They would show pictures of the C.B.’s, my oldest brother Kelly was in the C.B.’s. The CB’s would be the first Battalion to get to where they would fight the enemy. The CBS would build the barracks and whatever was needed at the time. After seeing the news on the screen I would be so upset. They would show a series of Buck Johnes or any of those old time series. During my teen years I had a crush on different fellows. Nothing came of it. I was still very shy. I met my husband Mike on the Town common. My girl friends and I would go to the town common after supper to watch the base ball games or their practice games. Mike would come over to us and give me a pinch. The next day I had a black and blue on my arm. This was an Italian thing they say the Italian man would give you a pinch if he thought you were nice. I believe it started in Italy. After a while he asked me to go to a dance. I did not know how to dance, so he taught me. I had heard he was a good dancer. My parents had a rule you had to be home for nine o’clock. Today it is unheard of I can really say I liked the way I was brought up, versus the way kids are brought up today. They do not seem to be happy. We were poor without all the luxuries the kids have today. We would go to the five and ten cent store buy some sheet music and learn the song of the times. We were happy. We would go on outings with our families and really enjoy it. We grew up at a good time a lot of firsts radio,

airplanes, going out of space that was only a few things in my era. And more to come. We did not have private telephones, they were called party lines.

Babe on her wedding day.

OUR MARRIAGE-MIKE & PHOEBE

I hadn’t been working at the laceworks very long when Mike and I decided to get married. We met on the Town Common about four years before. Everyone would go to the Common for baseball games after supper. He’d come over to our side of the field and pinch my arm. I’d get black and blue from it! When he was working at Collins & Aikman as a service boy, he’d tease the ladies there saying, “I’m going to marry your daughter.” He didn’t know at the time that he was talking to my mother and her friend who both had five girls at home, Years later when he asked my mother if he could ask me out, she didn’t know what to say. She thought he was too old for me-he was eight years older. My sister helped her make up her mind to say it was okay. When it was time to make the wedding arrangements, my mother and father helped me. We went to the Casino which is where Seabra is now, at the comer of Gooding and Hope streets. We had a priest that Mike went to school with to marry us. I got my gown at Helene’s bridal shop and she designed it. I thought if I had a daughter she could wear it when she got married. The gown is still in my cedar chest. Maybe my granddaughter will wear it.

PHOEBE AND MIKE’S MARRIAGE

The day I got married it rained, Mike’s sister Lucy was my maid of honor, and her boyfriend at the time was John Pacheco who she married the following year. My father in law came to serenade me the night before the wedding. He came with his guitar and sang some Italian songs. I walked down the aisle carrying my beautiful Cathedral Train. I forgot to drop it before I walked down the aisle. We took studio picture for the wedding album. There were so many people at the reception, that they had to put some guests in another room. They had to serve a quarter of chicken instead of a half. After all the festivities were done Mike and I changed to go on our honeymoon. We chose to go to New York by Train. Neither Mike nor I had ever been on a train. I was lucky if I went to Providence on the Bus. When we reached New York, Mike grabbed the luggage and began walking very fast. I guess the bags were very heavy. I lagged behind. Our hotel was The Statler Hotel. There was a tunnel to get to the hotel through the train station. There was a set of stairs to go down, and not very many, about five; I fell down a man picked me up. I looked like something the cat dragged in. My stockings were all dirty and the corsage was crushed. I had never worn high heel shoes before. After we went to our room and got cleaned up, we went for a walk in New York City; there were venders selling chestnuts, and roasted peanuts, and cherries. We bought cherries and walked back to the hotel we had cherry pits all over the place. We went to the Empire State building to the top. We looked through the looking glasses. We took a picture of a bird on the ground. I didn’t think it would come out but it did, I still have the picture. We also went to a nightclub with a big Las Vegas show. Something I had never seen before.

I didn’t know how to cook when we got married so I called my mother-almost every morning for a recipe. I would write it down and pretty soon I had a whole cookbook. I think I still have it, today.

MY DAD

My sister Delores and her fiancée’ were planning their wedding, my mom and dad went with them to the Pocasett Country Club to arrange for the wedding reception. My dad asked if something unforeseen happened could they get their deposit back. The man said, only upon the death of an immediate family member. Two weeks later my dad died. I came home one day for lunch and found my dad in a lot of pain. I called the ambulance and went with him to the hospital; my mom met me there. She sent me home. Then the call came, my dad had died he was only 65 years old. My sister still got married we had the wedding in the house. We all wore black in respect for my dad. In those days that’s the way it was.

Mike was working at Kaiser Aluminum wire works. He brought his lunch to work everyday. His coworkers would steal his lunch. We learned that they liked his lunch better than their own. Some time they would make their lunch at work. While we lived upstairs from my folks I was very into having a nice apartment. I didn’t have any money to spend on things like a round table and such. I would improvise. I took three baseball bats cut the tops off the bats I cut a round piece of plywood, screwed the legs to the table and put a round table cloth on top. I got my round table no one knew what was underneath there. It looked great.

OUR FIRST APARTMENT

We lived in a rented apartment on Bourne Street when we first got married. It was next to the Favorite Laundry and only one street over from my mom and dad. It was a cold-water flat in a six tenement house; we were on the second floor. The Barbozas lived across the hall part of the time and also the Fernandes family. There was no hot water, no shower, and no tub in the apartment. We went to our parents’ houses for a shower. There were three rooms, kitchen, bedroom, and den. The stove in the kitchen was for heating and cooking. The rent was only $13.

My sister Josephine at the stove.

In the pantry there were towel drawers. One night when Mike was working, I heard a noise in the drawer and thought it was a mouse. I was so scared I ran to my mother’s house, she got my father up from a nap, my father opened the drawer, out flew a big fly. About two years later I had my first son, Michael, but only after having a miscarriage first. Later, my second son, Ricky, was born while we were living in that apartment. When the landlord decided to raise the rent to $14 we were shocked. That was unheard of even though bread was just 10¢ a loaf, we couldn’t pay a dollar more for rent and still make ends meet. So we moved to a house on Richmond Street.

Ricky was born on July 2. I that it was very hot and the Fourth of July was just two days away. I was miserable in Lying-In Hospital on Maude Street in Providence where they were building an addition. It was hot and noisy and I wanted to be at home. I begged the doctor and told him that I would miss the parade if he didn’t let me go! Bristol has the biggest parade in the country and even if I couldn’t go to it, I still wanted to be at home. After much ado, I was allowed to go home for the Fourth of July.

The people next door were great to us. Anna would take the boys into her yard to play and she’d watch them.

I put a gate up on our porch so Michael and Ricky and the other kids could play but not get away. Instead, Michael would take his clothes off every chance he got. Every time I went to check on them he was running back and forth, bare. He was also a climber. He climbed and fell off everything in the house. He’d even climb out of his bed in the middle of the night. We finally got a harness from the

hospital so he could move around but not get away.

Mike’s sister Lucy and her husband, John Pacheco, were Michael’s godparents. Lucy had Cheryl just a week after Michael was born so we thought it was a good idea for them to christen him. The christening party was at my in-laws’ house, in the basement kitchen.

When Ricky was born I chose two of my close friends from the Laceworks. We were friends for a long time. Their names were Terry and Herve Remy. They were related to the Remy who was a baseball player and later an announcer for the Red Sox. Ricky’s Christening party was at our apartment on Richmond Street. Our landlady, Sussy Antinucci, made wonderful cookies and she made a tray for the party.

A year or so later, Sussy’s husband died and she didn’t like living alone. Her children convinced her to sell the house so we had to move. We found a third floor apartment on Oliver Street. Mike was very depressed living there so we only stayed a short time.

My mother asked their tenant in the house on Franklin Street to leave so we could have the apartment. My dad put an island in the kitchen and then put the sink in it. There was a bedroom for the boys, our room, a den and a dining room. While we lived there, I got pregnant with Mark. I was very sick during this pregnancy. The doctors thought I might have polio because my temperature was so high; he had me stay in bed. Eventually, I did get better, but I never knew what I had.

Later we bought a den set to sit on to watch TV. I put plastic over the couch and chair so if the kids spilled something it wouldn’t stain. I once when

Michael was still very young and he was running around and heading through the dining room. I realized the door was open from the dining room into the stairwell that went down to the front hall. I screamed so loud it stopped him in his tracks.

Michael was prone to pneumonia and it was very bad when he was young. One time his fever was so high he was blue. We took him to the hospital and, even though he recovered, they told us he would probably always have a problem with pneumonia.

When Ricky was young he had an operation to correct a problem. Luckily, everything turned out okay, but it was not okay when he and his dad had to have their tonsils out at the same time. Ricky recovered easily but my husband did not. He had to stay in the hospital (which he begged every day to leave) and didn’t recover for a long time.

I was able to save enough money from working to put a down payment on a house. So we started looking for one in Bristol but we couldn’t find anything we could afford.

My sister Helen lived in Warren on Maple Street. When she saw this house go up for sale she told me right away. I was excited and so was she. Mike was not happy because he really didn’t want to move out of Bristol.

We bought the house from a Mrs. Galuska whose husband had died and she didn’t want to live in it alone. It had been built in the 1940s by Mr. Sevigny, a contractor who lived on the corner of Main Street and Locust Terrace. He’d built the house for his second wife’s daughter but when her husband took a job out of town they had to move.

Mr. Sevigny’s son was living in the house next door and he wanted the house when his step-sister was selling. This caused a feud in their family when the daughter sold it to the Galuskas. We bought the house from Mrs. Galuska on July 16, 1965.

I thought it was a beautiful house. It had hardwood floors, a wooden mantel and surround on the fireplace in the den, three bedrooms, bath, and kitchen. The kitchen had metal cabinets by Youngstown when we bought the house, but as soon as we could afford it, I had a Fox Kitchen made by the Amish in Pennsylvania put in. The house also had a patio and a garage. We changed the heating system to forced hot water from hot air. Later, we added a sunroom, all glass, to bring more light into the kitchen.

MY CHILDREN

I had three boys but I really wanted a daughter. I guess I would have had one if God wanted me to. When the boys married I thought their wives would be like daughters to me. Only one called me Mom. I love my daughters-in-law and I know they’d be there if I needed them, but we’re not as close as I would like. Whenever I talk to other people about this I find it is pretty much the same for them. I guess it is just the age we live in. Michael is president of the motorcycle club. Ricky and his family live in California. He’s a party person and we talk on the phone often. Mark has two jobs and is busy making money, but he forgets that that is not living, it’s existing.

This poem shows how I feel about my kids.

I was there to hear your first cry. I was there when you were a little child. In no time at all, you were in school-then out of the nest and off you went

Laying a foundation for a career-seeking your way in the world. I was there when you found someone To share your heart and life as one

I’ll be there to guide you when I can and complete what I’ve begun. I am here now to see your life unfold When you sit around the fire-s-and bygone stories are told I want you to me as fun and loving and kind. When evening closes in and I am old I will the joy you’ve given me. I want you to know it’s my children who have made my life complete.

I wanted a girl so much I chose Girl’s names each time I was pregnant. In those days they didn’t have ultra sound and sonograms to identify what the gender of the baby would be. For Michael, who is now nick named Moose because he is such a big strapping fellow but like a Teddy Bear inside). I had picked out Michelle… Michael married Carol Sullo, who had an adopted son Todd. Michael and Carol have a granddaughter they adore, named Mia she is cute. Richard would have been named Karen. Rick’s first wife was Mary Jo McKernan from Connecticut. They were the parents of Richard Michael and Shelby. Ricky Michael was a wonderful athlete in high school, Shelby. I know I’m a prejudiced grandmother, but she is beautiful! She works in merchandising. My son Rick met a girl, her name was Mary Jo. They met at Cape Cod where they both worked for the summer. It was a nightclub run by a friend Joe Jameil from Warren, Rhode Island. She was on school vacation from Boston University. The Boss Joe Jameil’s family has a couple of shoe stores one in Warren the other in Warwick, Rhode Island. Rick was a mixologist, Mary Jo was a waitress. She came from West Hartford Connecticut. After Graduating from college, she got a position teaching school in West Hartford. Mary Jo and Rick got married in the year 1984. It was a large wedding Party. Rick’s brothers all were in the wedding party. Plus as many maids as there were ushers. A good time was had by all. On the day of the wedding there was a storm. We got a bus to get everyone to the wedding, from RI. To Conn. Very often especially after they had the two babies, Ricky Michael and Shelby. One time we went to their House at Christmas time. On the way home it was so foggy we could not see two feet in front of us we took a wrong turn and lost our way home it was scary.

Her parents adopted Mary. She wanted to track down her maternal parents. While her grandmother and Aunt Vivian forbid her to investigate her maternal parents. She did keep their wishes. Not long after they ed she found her maternal mother had ed away. The father did not want anything to do with her. She was very sad. She did keep in touch with a half-sister for a while, I don’t know if they keep in touch any more. After a while they decided to move to California. The two children were still in school. They loved California the weather and such. My husband and I would go to California when we could. There was an earthquake. We felt the Bed we were in, walk across the floor this

is something I had never experienced before.

Not long after, the marriage between Rick and Mary Jo went on the rocks they got a divorce. I was very sad, not for myself but for them, I always thought they would get back together again. But no they did not. They both married again, not to each other. Those marriages did not work, I still talk to Mary Jo, now and then. My Grandchildren have grown up and have jobs, living on their own. I do not get to see them, very often. I miss them very much. Mark my third son was born very small, he was only four and a half pounds when he was born. I did not know if my husband was disappointed because he was so small, or was it because he was not a girl. Mark was my baby always, he still is. His dad always worried about him. Especially when he started to work, and he had to drive far. If there was a snowstorm and Mark had to go or come home in the storm, he would not rest until he was safely home.

Mark met Paula. One day he was feeling very down and I asked him what was wrong. Him and Paula had a disagreement. I told him if you really love this girl make it right. They married and had three children. Derek, Justin and Brittany.

Derek is into cars, Justin is doing an internship with electrical work and going to school for it as well. Brittany is in Roger Williams College.

MY HUSBAND

Mike liked to fish, Bowl, roller skate and be a comedian. He made people laugh. Everyone liked him. He was a unique person. He never would say sandwich it was sang-which to him. In the fall he would go spearing for eels. My cousin Milly’s son, Billy would go with him. They attached a spotlight, run by battery to a skiff so they see the eels. They always came home with eels. One time he came home with so many they asked the fish store to buy them. I would not cook them they were too slimy for me. They also brought home shinners they would cook them as soon as they got home with them. A few times Mike took me fishing with him, in July when I had my vacation from work. He had to bait the hook for me. When I felt a fish on the hook, I would scream with excitement. Of course he would have to take the fish off the hook and re-bait it for me. Mike was drafted in the Navy in 1942, when he turned 18 years old. He had a medical discharge. He could not tolerate the food. He was a delicate person. He was always treated special at home. If he did not like what was for supper his mother would make him something special so he would eat. Everyone would say, Jejarde moma that means in Italian, he was tied to his mother’s apron strings, or he was a mama’s boy. Pauline was a good cook. Mike wanted me to cook like his mother, but I never could. One of his favorite dishes was a delicious handmade fat spaghetti called “Endurch” served with red sauce. Mike died in September. Domenic, married Irene s Malone and they had two children, Ronnie and Pauline. Ronnie is my favorite Nephew, so caring. He loves family and a great voice, just like his grandfather. He sings in the church choir, and with another group. He sang at his uncle Mike’s funeral with my friend Lorraine’s sister Terry. Mike loved Terry’s voice. The boys were Vincent (Vincenzo), Lorenzo) Larry, Buono Fozio, Fazzio,

Migael (Mike), Domenic, and Geatano. The girl was named Lucy in Italian is Lucia. Their mother, Pauline worked at Collins and Aikman Mill; this is the same place where my mother worked. The Father, Paul worked at The Smith’s Co. they manufactured shoes, sneakers and boots.

My husband’s family—all in the service to their country and in the ITAM organization being honored.

Geytano the youngest of the boys. Had two boys and a girl. Tommy, Bobbie and Christine. They lived in Barrington for a while then moved to Florida. Guy which is what they called him. Remarried to a girl from Pennsylvania. After a while they moved to Pennsylvania. This is where they stayed even after she ed away when she had a bout with cancer.

Lucy was the youngest of the siblings. She married John, He came from a large family as well. They had two children Sheryl and John Jr. Mike and I hung around with Lucy and John. We would go to the outdoor movies or go dancing. We would sing all the way home. John had a good voice, he played the guitar, as did many of his brothers. It was a Very musical family. We were also very friendly with his brother and his wife Richie and Celia, we would go to their house to play cards. We would have so much fun. While John worked at the wire co. in Warren. He had two fingers caught in the manufacturing machine. He lost two fingers. We all felt so bad. He tried playing a Hawaiian guitar. When we had parties at my in law’s house they would sing Italian songs. Then the guys would take over and play the guitar and sing. John could not play the guitar any longer. But he showed Mike how and they would play it together. Mike would do the fingers on the cords and John would strum. They would sit next to each other and when the cord had to be changed John would nudge Mike and he would change cords. It was something to see. John ed on a while ago. Lucy’s daughter Sheryl lives with her husband Norman in Rehoboth, they had pulled up stakes and moved to North Carolina, that did not work out so they came back. John moved down the Cape Cod.

MY WORK LIFE

When I left school in 1947 I was 16 and went to work at SE Rains in Warren. They made handkerchiefs. I was the floor lady’s assistant and also worked in the stockroom putting up orders to be shipped. They asked me to be in plays that they put on there every once in a while. One time they painted me all black to play Aunt Jemima. Another time I was in a Christmas show and had to sing, All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth. For that they put a piece of black gum on my teeth. It was tons of fun. My boss was Grace Moglia. She was good to me. No one uses handkerchiefs any more, just Kleenex.

My mother also worked there. When my sister Josephine got married, my mom brought the wedding album to work to show to her friends. They all thought it was me because she and I looked a lot alike in those days.

After about three years I left and got a job at the lace works in Bristol, not far from my house. I was a winder for the weavers. The bosses were good to us there. It was at the laceworks that I learned to smoke. I didn’t like it that much but in those days everyone smoked

I had a friend named Alice. Her cousin took us to Cape Cod with a couple of friends. We drove over the old bridge in Fall River and it sounded like you were going over in an airplane! Alice had relatives on the Cape that we’d visit.

I was not a busy teenager. I was quiet and didn’t have much to say. My brother Angelo, though, was a hellion. He would make fun of food by saying that mustard was what came out of a baby’s butt and that mayonnaise was the pus from a dead man’s ear. To this day, I won’t touch either of them but I had a sister

who would take mustard sandwiches to school for lunch.

Evelyn, my cousin’s wife, told me they were hiring at Raytheon in Portsmouth. I had been working in electronics so I had the right experience for the job. I started in the cable area then went to the Nafy room.

After that I went into the stockroom but what I really wanted was to work in the inspection room. Angelo, the union president, taught me how to measure with a micrometer after my shift was over. He worked in the machine shop. When I learned how to use the micrometer, I took a test and got the job I wanted. I worked at Raytheon for 21 years.

Raytheon was doing very well at the time. There were at least four buildings in the complex: two for manufacturing, one for sonar, and another “up the hill” for management. Most of the jobs were government contracts so when you were hired you had to have government clearance and wear a badge to get into the building.

I worked in one of the manufacturing buildings on the assembly line. Working at the same job was a woman who kept falling asleep. She was getting the same pay as I and a lot of others were getting but the foreman never approached her. I thought maybe they didn’t do anything about it because she was black and they had to have a certain number of minorities working there to get the contracts. I’m not a racist but that bugged me nevertheless.

They moved the stockroom and the inspection room into Building 3 and put an automated machine in the stockroom.

Our department received all the new material and we had to measure a certain percentage of it to make sure the whole lot conformed to the specs. If it didn’t, it was rejected and sent to the MRR room where I would pull it out of stock. I’d call in the engineers to make a decision as to what to do. I took chemicals out of stock according to their expiration dates and then let the expediters know what I’d done and why.

I liked my job very much but the company was going downhill and management was letting people go or laying them off. My job was being eliminated but they offered me one back in the stockroom. I didn’t want that so I took the layoff at age 59.

RETIREMENT

Mike, my husband who was eight years older, had been on disability for a back injury and had already retired. At home, he’d taken over the kitchen while I was working and now that I was home he’d try to tell me how to cook. Uh-oh! I didn’t like that too well. We had many arguments; it was tough.

I collected unemployment benefits for a year and then retired early at a lesser amount because I was not yet at retirement age.

FLORIDA

Being retired, we went to Florida for three months each spring and rented a house.

A friend, Terry, from Raytheon and her husband, Roland, used to go to Florida, too, with a small trailer hitched to their car. They’d stay in trailer parks all around Florida until they settled in Port Charlotte. I’d get a postcard from every place they stopped at. We were very friendly with them. They introduced us to people they knew there that we remained friends with. Later, they bought a double-wide trailer that was stationary.

Terry and Roland used to teach line dancing at the club. They taught us and it was a lot of fun. They were part of a group that played an instrument that was a stick attached to a bell, a washboard, and a beer tray. I forgot what it’s called but they went to nursing homes to play for the seniors. They’d play in the community room and a whole bunch of people would follow the leader all around the room. It was lots of fun.

We stayed in the same house in Florida for those three months for a few years. It had a large master bedroom and a guest room on the other side of the house. There was a kitchen, a dining room, and a Florida room with a hot tub.

The lot faced a canal and we went fishing a few times. One day I saw a vulture near the back door and was half scared to death! We had a lot of company and we’d eat spaghetti and crabs which was a treat for everybody.

Another time we visited a house our friend Lena knew about that was also on a canal but it had a pool on the property. It was great for parties. Once, I jumped into the pool but it was so cold I thought I’d have a stroke!

A group of musicians would get together to play on Wednesdays. We’d go to listen to them and we found out that some of them had played with big name orchestras. It was really hard to just listen and not dance, the music was so good. They played at functions, senior centers and other places that were just a few miles from where we stayed.

In Florida, we’d get together in groups by home state, so we would be with people from RI, especially Bristol.

These get-togethers were in Ponce de Leon Park. You’d pay for your meal and there’d be games etc. This was a park we’d visited before with friends from Pennsylvania. We fished there and watched all the beautiful boats go by. Sometimes we’d get conchs and I’d make a seafood salad with them. We always threw the fish back that we caught.

One of the houses we leased had an intercom system that sounded like someone was talking in the room. One sound it made was a moo that was so realistic, you thought there was a cow in the house. You should have seen Mike’s face. We laughed so hard.

HISTORY OF THE FRANKLIN STREET HOUSE

When I was older, I did some research and found out that Middleton Poppasquash was the name of a person living in the Franklin Street house in the early days. I don’t know if he owned it or just lived there. The house was built in what was called the Knoll Meadows Plat.

I found a record of the Hill family living there in 1929 and someone named Edward Pierce after that. John and Mary Raposa bought it in September, 1929.

After they died, their daughter, Anna Santulli, inherited it and sold it to my parents 1941. My mother inherited the house when my dad died in 1960 and when she died in 1981 the house was left to us eight children. My sister Josephine had died shortly after my mother and of the same illness, Multiple Myeloma. Her share of getting the house went to her husband.

My boys were very sentimental about the house so I asked my siblings if I could use my share to buy it. No one else wanted it so we bought it in 1983 using money my brother-in-law Curt let us borrow. We paid him back in a year or so.

Mike and I worked very hard fixing up the apartments to rent out, doing all the repairs ourselves. First, we separated all the utilities. Then, as time went on and money became available, we made five apartments out of the house and did repairs as time and money allowed. Eventually Mike got tired of taking care of the house so we sold it in 1986.

We lived in a town with a lot of factories. There was US Rubber Co that later became Kaiser Aluminum, Smith’s and Co. that later became Converse. We had Coro Mfg., Collins & Aikman, the White Mill which became Premier Thread Co, and the Herreshoff Co. All of these companies really boomed when WWII started. They’d get contracts for war goods such as boots and military blankets. Everyone had a job in town if they wanted it but some people went to Newport to work in the torpedo station.

I worked when my kids were small. I’d been working at Premier Thread while I was pregnant the third time. After Mark was born in April, I went back to work on the 3-11 pm shift. I was a spinner at first then went to work on the mangles skeining the thread and then tying it up.

One night on break I was sitting near the window on the third floor and I saw a married man I knew in the parking lot ‘getting into a car driven by a woman who was not his wife. I never found out if this was hanky-panky or something else.

I had my ears pierced at work, Renee told me to bring in some ice cubes and a safety pin and she would do it. I had a little trouble with the holes at the beginning, but I took care of them until they healed. While I worked there I had to have a hysterectomy and then have two-thirds of my thyroid removed. Both times I went back to work at the Mill after I got well. The last time I changed jobs and went downstairs to wrap spools of thread ready to ship out.

When I left Premier Thread in 1961, I went to work at Hartman Systems making harnesses for airplanes. I had worked there for about four years when Mark started school in Warren. The other boys had gone to Mt Carmel, a parochial school in Bristol, but then they switched to Warren schools.

One Christmas Ricky came home with a puppy which we adopted. Her name was Princess. When Rick grew up and moved away, he couldn’t take the dog with him so we kept her. Michael moved out to live on his own and we made a dining room out of his bedroom right off the kitchen. I was devastated to see him go. It meant that my children were not my babies anymore.

It also meant that Mike and I had more time to take trips. We usually went on vacation with the same couples. We went to New Hampshire, Hawaii, Acapulco,

and Portugal.

TRIPS (JUST THE GIRLS)

Ogunquit, ME Nov. 10, 2000-Nov. 12, 2000 Dedicated to all the women who went on this trip with me: Helen. Lucille, Lorraine, Pat, Sandra, Karen, Monica and Cindy

We liked taking this trip so much this was the third year of doing it. Monica picked me up in her company car. Her mother Lorraine and her sister, Cindy, were already with her. It was raining so hard when we got to my niece Sandra’s house, where we were all meeting, we didn’t get out but that was okay because they were ready to go. Monica exchanged cell phone numbers with the others and then we got started. in a caravan of three cars.

Our first stop was at a Friendly’s in Newbury-port, MA. for breakfast and then we drove on to New Hampshire where we always stop to shop in the

liquor stores (tax free} and to buy lottery tickets.

Next was Kittery, ME where we stopped to shop in the outlet stores. We worked our way up one side of the street and down the other finally stopping to eat at the Bonn restaurant.

The waitress could see that we were out for a fun time so she pushed three tables together. They were uneven so Sandra, who was sitting where two of the tables met, had a hard time. Most of us had lobster sauté and some had French onion soup to warm up. We each took an apple as we left compliments of the restaurant.

It was still raining when we got to our motel, The Anchorage, in Ogunquit at about 8 pm. We were tired so we just showered and watched TV for a while and then had an early night. We were up early the next morning and bought coffee from a small hut, then went in search of breakfast. The restaurant we’d eaten at the previous year was closed so we went to the Bonn restaurant again.

Then we shopped.

We first headed to Old Navy where the prices were fabulous. We shopped until 4 pm and then we ate at Julie’s, a family-run place where the food was good and they could accommodate all nine of us.

We always bunked together in The Anchorage which was right on the ocean. They had an outdoor Jacuzzi and a pool. One time when we went there was snow on the ground, but we put on our swimsuits and went into the Jacuzzi anyway. It was okay while we were in the water, but it was sure cold when we got out!

Another time there were not enough rooms available for all of us in one motel so some of the girls had to stay across the street. Usually, though, we’d cook ourselves in the Jacuzzi, shower, and put on our pajamas and have a party in one of the rooms with snacks, Mudslides, and wine.

Since this was the same group that meets every week on Tuesdays to play cards or dice, we are very close.

We used to do crafts together and even sold them at fairs and bazaars in Warren and Bristol. Now we play a word game called Bananagrams which is a lot of fun. The hostess for that week is responsible for food and drink. It’s a good way to keep in touch with each other and we always celebrate each other’s birthday by going out for breakfast. Every time they see us come in, the waitresses ask, “Whose birthday is it today?”

That time, though, we had a gift exchange. Karen got a jar labeled Gambling Money with instructions to walk like a chicken and go into the bathroom where she found a few scratch tickets. Many laughs were had and the party ended.

After breakfast at The Maine Diner we went shopping again before heading for home. We stopped at Friendly’s for a bite to eat after stopping in Kittery for

last minute shopping. Pat only got a half of a piece of chicken in her sandwich and complained. They gave her another piece of chicken that filled the whole bun. Accommodating all nine of us made lunch take a long time. When the caravan got underway again we listened and sang to the 99 cent tape Lorraine bought of Christmas songs by Englebert Humperdinck.

On the way home we saw a car with a mattress on top. It looked like it was dancing because the front was curled up from the wind and it was moving back and forth. It looked so funny!

Sandra left the highway at the Riverside exit with Helen and Lucille and Pat and Karen. When they got to Sandra’s house, they had to put all of Pat and Karen’s purchases in Pat’s car along with my overnight bag. We had no room in Monica’s car for my bag so they had to drop it off to me.

It was a great trip!

TRIP TO ITALY

We packed our things in Richy’s car and drove to Providence to catch the bus to Logan Airport in Boston. While we waited for our flight I had to call Nicoletta because I’d forgotten Mike’s cousin Greg’s phone number in at home. We boarded our Swiss Air flight to Zurich, Switzerland and we were off on our European adventure.

The plane ride was uneventful, but it was hard trying to sleep sitting up. I had no circulation in my legs by the end of the flight.

Richy and Anna had to catch another flight to Milan to visit relatives so we met up with Mike’s cousin Greg and his wife Alis who drove us to their home in West . We had lunch there and then Greg took us sightseeing in the Black Forest. We saw quaint villages and stopped to visit a Catholic Church named St Basil.

When we got back, Alis was preparing dinner for us and their whole family: their daughter Angela and her husband, Taio; their son Matteo and his wife, Peita, and their granddaughter Bianca. Angela was pregnant with her first child (due that December) and she didn’t speak any English. Taio did speak English, so he helped us communicate with everyone. Most of the time, everyone spoke German. Alis understood some Italian and although Mike hadn’t spoken Italian in a long time, he did quite well talking with Greg.

Alis and Greg had planned this dinner party for us and decorated outside with pretty colored paper lanterns. They invited neighbors, too. We ate steak cooked on the grill, sausage wrapped in prosciutto, lots of veggies, and a thinly sliced carrot and celery salad. Everything was delicious.

Greg’s son Matteo was in charge of keeping the glasses filled so there was wine and beer from a keg that

never seemed to go empty. Two men arrived late and after they ate they went back to the car. They pulled out a guitar and a mandolin. They had come on a holiday from Messina where my family came from and they played and sang and we danced a little.

Mike was overwhelmed to think that his cousin Greg had gone to so much trouble to make our stay in so enjoyable.

We had an excellent dessert called tiramisu. It was like our ice box cake with liquor in it. The next morning after breakfast we started out for the Swiss Alps. We crossed the Rhine River which separates Switzerland from and ed by a ski jump set up for the Olympics. The scenery was spectacular.

We stopped in a little town, ate a sandwich, changed some money into Swiss francs and bought some

postcards to send back home. Then we took a bus to the top of the Alps. When we looked down, we could see all the houses in the town with their windows full of flowers spilling over the side.

On the way back to Greg’s house we stopped for dinner at a restaurant with an outdoor dining area. It started to rain just as we finished eating. Alis had bought a large Black Forest cake for our dessert. It had chocolate and cherries and was really good.

Greg took us to the airport the next morning, Sept. 2, to catch our flight and then went on to work. Alis had to see her mother in the hospital before she went to work.

The flight to Rome was a short one. We were met by our tour director from American Express who told us that Anna and Richy were waiting for us at the hotel; their flight connections had gotten screwed up so they had to take a cab to the hotel before our plane got in.

We had a chauffeured limousine ride to the hotel where the bellboy, Hotel Ournale, was waiting to take our bags to our room. Two men on the tour were on the same floor so the baggage took a long time to get sorted out. After we got our luggage into our room and settled in a bit we went for a walk around the corner, found a package store that had booths and had a beer and some snacks. The proprietor knew some English.

After Anna and Richy unpacked we took a taxi to Milly’s cousin’s house on the outskirts of the city. Antonella and her family were very cordial to us and offered a beer and dinner to us but we told her our tour was having a get-acquainted party and we had to get back to the hotel.

Antonella was like me and enjoyed handicrafts and her husband, Raffael was a journalist. Their son, five years old at the time, was called Taio. I gave him a Kennedy half-dollar as a souvenir. We took pictures and then Raffael drove us back to the hotel. We were a little

late for the party but we still met most of the people on the tour. There were about 15 people besides us.

The hotel recommended a restaurant nearby for dinner. The head waiter asked if he could order for us. At first we thought he was a con artist but we ended up having a seven-course meal for 53,000 lira per person (about $43, at the time). We ate calamari salad, egg noodles with a white garlic sauce, rice with fish and a white sauce, several other kinds of fish, and a green salad. The courses were served with red or white wine. At the end we had a liqueur. A female singer went from table to table accompanying herself on a guitar. It was nice.

Our stay in Rome included a tour of the Vatican, the city, and the Coliseum. The tour guide, who was very good-looking, was knowledgeable and seemed to have a British accent. We also saw the amphitheater overlooking the Tiber River where the Three Tenors, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, and Jose Carreras

sang in 1991.

The guided tour was in the morning but the afternoon was free so we walked to the Spanish Steps. While we were there we met a man named Mr. Marco who told us to be careful of our pocketbooks because there were a lot of gypsies around who might steal them.

We talked to him for a long time because he spoke English well. He showed us a good place for lunch, where he had just eaten, and told us he had a manufacturing company that made cameos. He had a drink with us while we ate and then we went to his factory. His partner showed us how cameos are made and some finished ones that were valued at $4,000 to $11,000 dollars. We were impressed but none of us was interested in buying a cameo, so we thanked them and left.

On the way to the Trevi Fountain we shopped for souvenirs. We took pictures at the Fountain, which was

very crowded, and threw pennies in before walking back to our hotel.

That night we went to another restaurant recommended by the hotel called Vbilo. Our waiter spoke English and was very good at his job. The food was excellent and although priced moderately for Rome, it seemed very expensive to us-about 50,000 lira per person, almost $50.

We met a couple named Welsh from Tampa, FL who had attended a wedding in and were in Rome for a few days’ holiday. During the course of the conversation we found out that his mother who was watching their son lived around the comer from Mary Jo and my son in Connecticut.

After dinner we had the maitre d’ call two cabs to take us all back to the hotel. Lucy told the cab driver that she wanted to see the Pantheon, so the cab drivers took us “for a ride,” if you know what I mean, all around the

city. It cost us each 50,000 lira-that seemed to be the magic number in Rome.

The next morning, Sept. 4, we had breakfast at the hotel and left on the bus at 7:30 am to head for Naples. We stopped at a town named Casino where a famous battle with the Germans took place during World War II. Then we got stuck in traffic for an hour because a big piggyback tractor trailer had flipped over and lost its cargo all over the road. Surely someone must have been killed. It was bad.

We arrived at Sorrento and took the boat to the Isle of Capri, the island of flowers, which stands 1,900 ft above the sea. A local guide named Mario took us to the Blue Grotto. We took turns sitting on the floor of a small boat to go through the tiny opening into the grotto where everything shimmers and sparkles and reflects the blue of the water it was an awesome experience. I saw money being ed hand-to-hand and figured that access to the grotto was Mafia-controlled. The operator

asked for American money, so I gave him Kennedy half dollars.

After we got back to the bigger tour boat we went to the funicular, an inclined railway that took us to the top of Capri. We had pizza for lunch and then met our guide, Mario, in the middle of the square. He took us to a beautiful church and we took pictures of all the sights. We rode the funicular down the mountain and then got back on the boat to get back to the mainland.

Back on the bus we went to a mosaic factory. After a small demonstration of the techniques used we went into the showroom where some of the furniture and music boxes made in the factory were on display. Then it was back on the bus to the hotel to get our luggage into our rooms before touring the Amalfi coast.

We went through mountain tunnels and zigzagged around mountain curves but everywhere we saw awesome views of the sea and the mountains.

We stopped in Kursaal for lunch and had five kinds of homemade pasta with five different sauces, homemade bread and wine. I wished I could have taken the cook back to America to make us all rich.

The next day we traveled from Sorrento to Naples and then took a bus to see the ruins of Pompeii. Mike stayed behind with Willy because he didn’t think he could walk so much with his bad legs. Besides that, he’d seen the ruins on our last trip to Italy. The rest of us were more informed this time about the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79AD that buried all the people and the city. The guide shared a lot of information with us.

On the tour we came across the house of a lord. In the entryway was a mosaic of a man with his manhood exposed. He was extra, extra, well-endowed. Lucy spotted it and started to laugh and we all knew what she was laughing at. The guide was a little embarrassed. We saw other mosaics like this in a house of ill repute. The guide said they were used to let customers

choose their pleasure.

After tipping the guide and having a beer to cool off we went back to the hotel for dinner. We had booked seats at a tarantella show that evening. Tarantella is a lively folk dance of southern Italy. The dancers and singers all wore gaily-colored costumes and invited Lucy to take part in the show. They gave her an instrument that she clanged together to keep time.

After the show, we went looking for a place to dance. We found a little nightclub, went in, and had a few dances.

After breakfast on the 6th we boarded the bus to Naples so that we could take the overnight steamer to Palermo, Sicily.

On the boat with us was a circus so we took pictures as they loaded the crates of animals onboard. The ship sailed at dusk. We had something to eat and sat

in the lounge but the bartender didn’t speak English and gave us a hard time about buying tickets to use to buy drinks. Our cabins were like closets, each having a bunk, a shower, a sink, and a door connecting the cabins.

By the next morning, we had docked in Sicily. After trying to sleep on those uncomfortable bunks it was a struggle to get up, washed, and onto the bus for our trip to the Palermo Astoria Palace.

Lora, the local guide, took us to the Cathedral of Santa Rosalia, where a wedding was in progress. She spoke with a terrible accent and was hard to understand, but the church was beautiful and filled with mosaics. The ceiling was made of beautiful wood.

Lora took us up steep stairs to a small village where we visited another church and then went shopping. There were vendors on the streets. We went into a shop that sold pastries and gelato (Italian ice cream) and ate a delicious dessert that was made by putting gelato in a

brioche (a sweet roll).

After getting back to the hotel, a few of us decided to get some lunch. Richy, Anna, Hilda, Jim, Mike, and I ate in a pizzeria where everyone stared at us… they could tell we were tourists.

We also went into an open air market and saw beautiful fruits and vegetables. I bought a bib for my grandson, Justin, who was a baby then, and some Sicilian olives. The vendor wouldn’t let me pay. He insisted that Mike pay for my purchases; that made us laugh. The vendors laughed at the half-Italian, half-American way we spoke.

Later in the afternoon, Lucy, Anna, and I went out to do some more shopping, but it was the afternoon closing time from 1-4 pm, so the shops were closed. We ended up in the same open air market and saw, in some stalls, familiar items and some not so familiar. All of a sudden we heard a voice over a loudspeaker that kind of

scared us, but it was only a truck selling pizza. Even though we were full from eating lunch we bought a slice and shared it.

Dinner that night was in the hotel. A wedding reception was taking place in the room next to us and we could see many platters of food going by. After dinner we went for a walk and met the sister of the bride and some cousins outside. We were able to talk with them for a while because one of them understood a little English.

After breakfast the next morning, we got on the bus headed for Agregento. We stopped to see the ruins and temples and met an old man selling figs, almonds, and prickly pears grown in that region of Sicily. I asked him if he knew a tailor named Anguilla, but he didn’t.

Earlier, Mike had picked a prickly pear from a tree and was surprised when the prickers stuck in his hands. He tried to get them off by rubbing his hands on his pants but that just stuck them there. He had a very

uncomfortable ride after that.

We came upon an olive grove more than 300 years old that was still producing olives! There was also a beautiful flower garden with a lace doily hanging from a tree. I took it as a souvenir.

In the center of this complex there were a lot of vendors selling souvenirs so we looked around. Then we went into a food stall that had arancini di riso, a Sicilian street food that translates to little oranges of rice. The arancini are made of rice wrapped around cheese or meat, then rolled in bread crumbs and deep fried. They tasted good.

After a long ride through Enna and Catania, we arrived in Taormina, a resort high up on a hill, and were taken to the hotel, the Grande Albergo Capotaormina.

All of our rooms had awesome ocean views and we wanted to explore as soon as the luggage was

delivered. We took the elevator to the ground level and saw two tunnels. One opened up onto the beach and the other at the pool area. We took pictures near a waterfall that fell down the side of the mountain.

After exploring the rest of the hotel we went back to our rooms to call relatives who were staying in Messina on a holiday.

Because of the language difficulty we had to ask our guide, Willy, to call for us later that evening. He made arrangements for us to be picked up the next morning. Anna and Richy called their relatives and made arrangements to be picked up after breakfast the next day, also, while the rest of the group went to Mt Etna to see the volcano, the largest active volcano in Europe. The top of the 11,000 foot mountain is said to be the home of Cyclops. The cauldron of lava is known as Hiphestus, the Greek god of fire.

The next morning, after breakfast, we waited in

the lobby to be picked up by sco, someone we had never seen or met.

Finally, two men came in, one younger and one older. We asked if they were looking for us and they were. sco was the older man. We drove for about an hour and a quarter to a village outside Messina. We met Santa, sco’s wife, and Angela, her mother. Angela was a spry 88-year-old. We also met Santa’s sister, Concetta, and her nephew and other family .

They prepared lunch and we talked and laughed. Angela told us what she knew of the Russos, my mother’s maiden name, and the DePasquales, who were relatives of Anna’s family. We read a letter my cousin Millie had sent to them. They were overjoyed to hear from relatives in America.

After dinner Angela got on the phone and called my cousin Mary Pasquale to tell her we had come to

visit. We took a walk down to the shore which was very near their house. We took a lot of pictures of everyone. Then they took us to a marina that had shops all around.

We also stopped at Nina’s house. She was another of Angela’s sisters. She picked us some grapes and gave us refreshments. When we got back to Santa’s house, we found that her sister Mara and her husband had driven down from their farm to meet us. After exchanging little gifts they gave me coffee to bring back to their relatives. We said our goodbyes and they drove us back to our hotel.

We found a note from Anna and Richy telling us that the dinner had been cancelled and the group had gone to the town to find something to eat. They were waiting for us.

We asked for a cab to take us to the little town of Castel Mola. We did some shopping and then looked for a place for dinner. We came upon an accordion player at a place with an outside cafe but it started to rain so we

went inside and had brick-oven baked pizza before taking a cab back to the hotel.

Next, we crossed the Strait of Messina from Sicily to Italy, heading toward Bari. We drove through miles of olive groves and vineyards, cross over mountains, and saw shepherds with their flocks.

When we stopped for lunch, Lucy had polenta, a cornmeal mush that was cooked like a pancake. Bari is a mix of old and new with medieval streets in the Old Town and modem hotels with all the amenities in the New Town. The Sheraton Nicholas hotel lobby was all marble and the bathrooms were tiled and had bath salts and hair dryers in them.

While ordering dinner, we asked for an antipasto to share, but because it wouldn’t be enough for everyone, we cancelled it and ordered wine instead. I guess the waiter didn’t understand because he brought us an antipasto anyway. We thought it was included with our

meal, but we found out, when the check came, that it wasn’t. Roy took care of the check and we all settled with him later.

We walked around the area for a bit and then went back to the lounge in the hotel before going to our rooms.

We left Bari the next morning, Sept 10, heading north through Foggia, and again seeing miles and miles of olive groves, vineyards, and tomato plants.

We were heading up the Adriatic Coast to San Marino, which is said to the one of the oldest and smallest republics. It was a very picturesque, medieval fortified city. Our hotel was in the heart of the city set in lanes of shops that carried leather goods and other souvenirs. We did a little shopping and went back to the hotel for dinner. While we ate a parade was going by so we ran to the windows to watch.

Our rooms were located about three floors down a steep stairway: fine going down; but you needed a chair to sit on to catch your breath going up!

After dinner we went to see the changing of the guard at the fortress. Men in medieval dress and carrying flags marched around an arena and then there was a crossbow contest staged for photographers.

We were leaving the next morning, Sept 11, so we got up early and Willy, the tour guide, took some of us to buy Italian music on cassettes. Everyone was ready to board the bus when we got back with our cassettes except for one couple who had gotten lost. They talked with a policeman who ed the rest of us by walkie talkie to let us know where to find them.

The next stop was Venice, often called the Queen of the Adriatic. Many of the streets are canals and we had to use a water taxi to get to our hotel, the Amadeus. We wandered through some of the nearby shops

and stopped for a beer at a sidewalk cafe before going back to our hotel for dinner.

We went to St Mark’s Square the next morning where people were setting up movie cameras for a show and saw the Ducal Palace and the cathedral.

It was a free day so we went to a Venetian glass factory for a glass-blowing demonstration and then, while waiting for our laundry to be finished, Lucy and I sat under a canopy at an outdoor cafe drinking a beer just watching all the people going by in water-taxis and buses.

That evening we went to dinner with Willy and Rinaldo, the bus driver, at his friend’s restaurant. It was an experience. The chef cooked some of the food right at our table in a big chafing dish. Everything we ate, clam soup, caviar and noodles, crayfish, salmon, salad, and

We walked back to the hotel ing by the

ancient Rialto Bridge.

In the morning we took a fast trip to see the Santa Lucia church before getting back into the water taxi to get to the mainland and our bus. That day we were driving through Cortina and Bressanone on our way to Bolzano for an Alpine adventure.

In this area, on the Austrian border, German is mostly spoken. Our hotel was called the Griffon and sat on the main square. While window shopping we bought fruit and pastries to eat along the way. That night after dinner we went back to the square to listen to a band concert by 75 musicians all dressed in German attire and wearing bright red hats.

Next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and boarded the bus for Florence it started to rain. By the time we stopped for coffee, it was pouring. We drove on a little way and were going up a mountain road where the “street” was so narrow at the curve that two buses could

not by at the same time. Our bus driver had to back up so the other bus could get by before we started forward again. Very tight!

We stopped in Pisa to have lunch and took a tour of the leaning tower built by Galileo. He was buried there in 1062. We went into the cathedral and discovered that the baptismal area was separate because, at that time in history, people who were not yet baptized could not enter the church.

We had some free time for pictures and shopping among the street vendors before getting back on the bus.

When we arrived in Florence, the streets were crowded with people. We had to walk a few blocks to the Hotel Brunelleschi, named after the architect who designed it, because the streets were like alleys-too narrow for cars. The church had been used as a women’s prison before being converted into a hotel. When you opened the window in Lucy’s room which overlooked

the alley, it was very noisy.

We explored a little, ate dinner in the hotel, and then walked around. We found a lounge to stop in for a drink and listened to a piano player and singer.

On Sept 15, a local guide took us to see the works of Michelangelo and then we went to Signoria Square (Piazza della Signoria) to shop for leather and gold. We ate lunch in a trattoria, where Willy and a friend went.

That night we were supposed to meet our guide, Willy, in the hotel lobby to go for out for dinner, but the times got mixed up. We got directions and went on our own.

We were nine people all together and when we got to the restaurant there was a waiting line. Two of the couples didn’t want to wait, but Mike and I, Lucy, Anna and Richie did. A waiter came out with wine and cheese for us to eat while we waited about half an hour. When

we got inside, the waiter brought a large bottle of wine to our table which we enjoyed with our feast.

As we waited for the check, I decided to sing Non Ti Scordar Di Me, which means “Don’t Forget Me.” As we were leaving, we met the owner, Giovanni Latini. We tried to ask, in our broken Italian, if he had any relatives in America. He wasn’t sure, but he gave us each a bottle of wine labeled Latini Wine. We thought he must bottle his own… it was very good. We went back to the hotel very happy.

On Sept 16, the bus stopped in Umbria at the place where St Francis of Assisi is buried. It’s a quaint town with cobblestone streets. There were lots of religious articles for sale. I bought outfits embroidered by the nuns of Assisi for my two youngest grandchildren. We had lunch in a local hotel and then got back on the bus for Rome and a farewell dinner.

Roy and Ruth were celebrating their 54th wedding

anniversary so Roy bought champagne for the group. We sang to them and another group from America ed us. After exchanging addresses and taking pictures we went back to our hotel to pack.

A few of us stopped for a last beer and then we asked if we could leave our luggage at the hotel because we wanted to make another trip to Foggia.

With just a few clothes packed into hand luggage we walked to the train station. Mike noticed that our backs were all dirty. I don’t know if someone on a second floor balcony upchucked as we went by or threw something, but the backs of our clothing were all messed up (gross). We couldn’t wait to get into the bathroom at the station to clean up. There was no paper to use but the attendant found a sheet for us to share.

Once we got on the train it was a four-hour trip. Greg and Alis met us and took us to Manfredonia to get a hotel room. Our rooms overlooked the ocean and the

view was great. The next morning Mike and I ate breakfast at the hotel-coffee and a hard roll for 1400 lira!

Greg and Alis picked us up and took us shopping; then we drove into the campagna, the countryside around the town, where they were staying in a house belonging to Greg’s sister, Lucia. She also lived in town near their pizzeria business.

They had olive groves, grapes, and vegetables growing and we saw a pomegranate tree. We met more relatives: Greg’s brothers Domenic, Vincenzo, and Antonio and his sisters Lucia and Seraphina. We also met cousins of Mike’s uncles.

The next day we went to the farm to visit with Cousin Antonio and his wife Sibonata. They had chickens, geese, rabbits, and a pig. We were impressed. They were very cordial to us and introduced their family. We visited Vieste the following day, where Mike’s mother was from. It took about an hour and a half

to drive over and around the mountains to get there. The views were spectacular. We visited with some people who were related to the cousins and were invited to dinner. They gave us cheese to bring back. They took us all around Vieste and pointed out the house where Mike’s mother had been born.

As we started back to Manfredonia we spotted a car with German registration plates parked at the beach. It was Greg and Alis’ son-in-law and his family sunning on the beach! We stopped and visited with them again. After dinner that night we walked around trying to find a place for to have some drinks and listen to music. We saw a small boy singing and playing a guitar so we went down some stairs into a little club. The music was kind of peppy, but no one was dancing until we started to. Soon, a lot of people ed in, switching partners. We had a ball!

The next day we took the train back to Rome. We were going to take a cab from the train station to the

hotel, but the cabbie wanted 30,000 lira! We walked the two blocks. At the hotel we asked for help in picking up our luggage at the Quinenale hotel where we’d left it before going to Manfredonia. We met some women in the lounge at about 9 pm, who offered to buy us a drink and then we had a quick bite of pizza at a restaurant around the comer. Again, it was very expensive.

We repacked our luggage and settled in for the night in our two-room suite. In the morning, we ordered a car to take us to the airport. It cost 60,000 lira. We flew from Rome to Zurich and then boarded our flight to Boston. It was a very long flight. Every couple of hours we were offered a snack or a meal. I was so full I just had to refuse one of the meals.

We went through Customs in Boston with no trouble and then took a bus to Providence. Sheryl, Norman, and Nicole picked us up at the bus station, so it was a squeeze. Some luggage had to stay in our laps! We stopped at Burger King and got home at about 7 pm. It

was great to sleep in our own bed and we didn’t even unpack until the next day.

The whole trip was great and made memories that will last forever.

HAWAII

On this trip we stopped first in Los Angeles and stayed there for a few days before we flew to Hawaii. We stayed there for a week then flew to Las Vegas and stayed there five days before coming home.

In Hawaii we visited one of the DelPiano boys who managed a hotel there. His family and Mike’s had been very friendly so he was surprised and happy that we came to visit him.

On Waikiki we had rooms facing the ocean. We saw a lot of surfers on the waves and it was beautiful We went to Maui on a tour bus to see the volcano. The road was so bumpy that I bounced up and landed on the lap of the man across the aisle.

While we stayed in Las Vegas we rented a van to visit the Grand Canyon. While we were looking at

souvenirs, I saw a donkey made out of paper and chalk. We didn’t want to look odd to other people so we put him in a sweater back at the hotel and named him Pepe. We also went to Yuma because Joe and Lorraine’s son was stationed there in the service and visited the Yuma prison museum.

We made a few trips to Arizona with Lorraine and Alex. We visited Alex’s brother-in-law who lives there with his family. One time we met our friends Ella and Joe DaMoura who had retired there.

One time, we took a side trip to Las Vegas which was great because there’s a lot to see. All the hotels are fabulous and one hotel even had a canal inside with gondolas. Musicians played Italian songs. It was very enjoyable. We gambled but only with money we could afford to lose.

We visited other places in Arizona such as the OK Corral, Death Valley, and places where they filmed

TV shows. We visited a rare rock and mineral show where they also sold jewelry made from these rocks. I bought some as souvenirs for my grandchildren. I think Mike bought a guitar.

One of Alex’s friends kept racehorses. We visited his ranch. Arizona is where I saw my first horse race. Outside the apartment we stayed in was the first olive tree I’d ever seen. We picked some olives and I soaked them in salted water. We took them home with us and they were fine to eat after a while. I my mother doing the same thing.

Annette and I parasailing in Acapulco

ACAPULCO

Our group of four couples went to Acapulco. They were our friends and Mike’s cousins: John and Betty, John’s sister Annette and her husband, Joe, Phyllis and Ed, and Mike and I. We stayed for a week and one day when we went into town we saw all the poor people begging in the street. It was not a clean city so we had all our meals at the resort.

There was plenty to do there, too. They even had a band. When we went shopping, I saw a checker table that I wanted but Mike wouldn’t let me buy it until the others teased him into it. We had it sent home.

We spent a lot of time at the beaches. At one beach they were giving parasail rides. Annette and I went up in a double harness that was pulled on the sand by a Jeep. I laughed so hard I peed my pants! At another beach we watched natives diving off the high cliffs.

This same group would go on vacations together. There was Phyllis and Ed, Annette and Joe and Mike and Phoebe, Betty and John. It was something to sit in a pool with a bar at your disposal, and lookout at the ocean. We did go into the ocean but the undertow was so strong it would knock you over. This same group was, Phyllis, Ed, Annette and Joe went to Acapulco a couple of times. The waves would slam you in the sand so hard that you’d swear you were never coming up again. A lady near Mike lost the top of her swimsuit. The natives there were always pestering tourists to buy their wares or ask you to sell them your flip-flops, I guess, because they were good for walking in the sand. We took cabs into town to shop. I bought my three sons a small checker set. The men went on a deep sea-fishing trip. They caught a huge fish, which they posed for pictures with. They donated the fish to a school. Some of our party got Montezuma’s revenge, and had to stay in their room until they were better. We did rent a car and went to another local to see some of the country. We got a flat tire that was

a fiasco. The natives would not help us. We were very scared.

PORTUGAL

The same four couples planned a trip to Portugal.

Our travel agent was Frank Prato, Anna and Richy’s son-in-law, who had been brought up by his grandparents in Portugal. The trip began in Lisbon, or Lisboa in Portuguese. The four couples were: Mike and I, Richy and Anna, Angie and Ray, and Frank and his wife, Lisa, who had just had a baby. They wanted to show the baby to Frank’s grandparents.

We traveled by bus, stopping at hotels and staying for a few days then moving on. We saw shows of ethnic dancing called fado and ate mostly fish dishes. Mike wanted spaghetti so we went to a restaurant where a waiter peeled a peach-that was quite a feat, we thought.

We ate hard-boiled eggs for breakfast and went right to the docks to wait for the fishermen to come in

with their catches. They’d cook the fish right off the boat. You can’t get any fresher than that.

We went to the Algarve and saw beautiful rock formations and beaches. Our hotel was close to the beach so we spent some time looking for shells.

Mike riding a burro in Portugal

Mike got sick on the day we planned to go to the shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. He stayed at the hotel taking medicine we got from Frank’s cousin, a nurse, and we went. The next day he was better so he came, too.

We also went to the farm where Frank’s grandparents lived. They were so happy to see the baby.

The next day was the grandfather’s birthday so the family had a party for him that we went to. That was the first time I ate baccala. It was served in a casserole and I liked it. The family made all the food. We sang Happy Birthday and had a great time. The grandfather was overwhelmed.

While we were staying in Lisbon and coming back from a sightseeing trip, we witnessed two men on a mophead pull up in front of the hotel. One of them jumped off, stole a pocketbook from a lady going up the hotel stairs, jumped back on the mophead and they sped off. The lady started screaming.

The streets are very narrow in the city and the cars go fast. If there’s an accident, the drivers get out and start screaming at each other. You have your heart in

your mouth the whole time you’re in a car.

We really enjoyed this trip.

THE PLAYER PIANO

When we were still furnishing our new house I saw an ad in the Warren Times for a player piano. I went to see it in a garage where the owners had kept it. It was in bad shape but I borrowed a truck to take it home. As we got near Locust Terrace, I could hear sirens. 1’d left something in the oven so I thought I’d find my house up in smoke! My heart was beating fast from fear, but, thank God, there was no fire at home.

The piano was very heavy, but we managed to get it into the house. I refinished it and it looked very nice but it was really too big for the living room. I ended up selling it to a friend, Louise’s daughter.

As time went on, my mom died leaving each of her children $1,000. I used mine to buy a Lowry organ.

ORGAN LESSONS

I took organ lessons from a man in Johnston who d on TV. He was teaching quite a few people. He gave me a couple of private lessons and I learned a little but not enough to say I can play for anyone. I can play from the Easy Play booklet that tells you where to put your fingers for each chord. In the past, I liked to play Italian songs and my brother-in-law would sing.

I haven’t played lately. As with any instrument, you lose what you learned if you don’t practice.

A 2007 family reunion at Colt State Park.

A VISIT FROM GREG AND ALIS

The first time Greg and Alis came from their home in , near the Black Forest, for a visit they stayed with Mike’s brother Larry, and his wife Raphaelina, who took them sightseeing to New York and other places. Greg is a nephew of Mike’s father, Paulo Armillotto, the son of Paolo’s sister. They’ve visited America a few times but in 2007 they came around the Fourth of July and stayed with me at my house. Lucy helped with the entertainment, along with Ron and Jackie. We had a family reunion at Colt Park for all the Armillotto and Castigliego cousins. It was potluck so everyone brought a lot of food. Greg and Alis seemed to enjoy it and we saw cousins we hadn’t seen in years. We had a great time.

I didn’t make pasta for them when they stayed at my house and I guess Greg missed it because he asked his wife to make it for him. Alis made a sauce so fast it was

boom-boom and it was done. It was delicious.

MIKE’S ILLNESS

It seemed to me that Mike was always complaining about aches and pains. He went to the doctor often but the doctor didn’t pay much attention to his complaints. After a while, he told the doctor about a pain in his back and the doctor decided he should have a sonogram. We waited in the office for the results. The doctor told him right then he had liver cancer. After that Mike started to go downhill. He was supposed to have chemo treatments but he couldn’t tolerate them. We went to Boston to get a second opinion from an Indian doctor named Dr. Sam. He confirmed the diagnosis and told us there was not much that could be done. I took care of Mike at home, but he died six months later. Just before he was diagnosed, we had given him a big 75th birthday party. All our friends and relatives came. It was a good time and a nice memory to have.

A PEOPLE PERSON

I like to keep busy. I liked to go antiquing with my cousin’s wife Evelyn. I liked all kinds of knick knacks I collected Clowns, Norman Rockwell Hand Painted Dishes, Tea Pots, I used to do needle work, sew curtains, Also did renovations like painting, walls in my house. Now that I am alone I take care of the grounds around my house. I have reached my 80 years. I still go ballroom dancing with my friend Eddy. Oh yes we are slowing down but not completely. As I sit here in the leather chair in my large kitchen I am looking at the shine on the kitchen floor. The Christmas Holiday brought lots of work. Cleaning the house for the families who come for Christmas Eve. The cookies will be made and the pickens will be prepared. We also make wine biscuits, pepper biscuits and wandies, this is a fried dough rolled paper thin, fried and dusted with confectionery sugar. These are everyone’s favorite. We make a bushel full for me and a bushel for my sister Helen we help each other make the wandies. After we finish we make trays wrapped in cellophane paper, with a Christmas bow. We give them to family and friends. Plus we also make pies for company to eat. Christmas Eve is a special night where we get our families together for Spaghetti and some kind of fish. It’s the feast of the seven fishes. I make my spaghetti sauce with stuffed calamarty. In English it is ink fish. We also have baked shrimp with scallops. The fried shrimp is a must, there is smelts, shrimp and calamarty cut in rings also fried.

LA VIGILIA

The feast of the Seven Fishes

The Italian tradition of the—“Feast of the seven fishes” on Christmas Eve evokes a sense of joyful wonder and magical anticipation.

In Italy, it is known as “La Vigilia” (la veeGee-lia) Like The English word “vigil,” the Italian term comes from the Latin word for wakefulness and watching.

The exact origin and symbolism of the feast is not known. Many claim it is derived from religion the seven sacraments of Catholic Church or the seven days it took Mary and Joseph to make the journey to Bethlehem. Others say the number seven can represent the Seven Hills of Rome, the seven Winds of Italy, or the seven

Wonders of the world. It’s also interesting that seven of the 12 Apostles were fishermen., and thither are seven letters in the word “vigilia.”

The historical origin of the feast lies in Roman Catholic religion. Christmas Eve is the Vigil before the dawn that brings the birth of Jesus Christ. Before Christmas Eve, Catholic Italians once observed a strict fast for 24 hours according to their religious beliefs. The fast ended with a meal of at least seven courses of fresh seafood dishes. Buon Natale!

MEETING EDDY

After Mike died, I was very depressed and lonesome. My sisters would invite me to go with them wherever they went to keep me busy. My friend Lorraine, also a widow, was going out with a man named Alex. They knew a man in Fall River whose wife had died about a year before Mike. He was lonesome, too, so they introduced us at a church function held at the Venus de Milo restaurant in Swansea. His name was Eddy Abdow. Nothing came of it until Lorraine’s brother-in law Ray talked to Eddy and arranged a date with me on Feb. 24, 200l. We went to dinner at a restaurant in Portsmouth and afterward I invited him to my house for coffee. He sat on the couch in the living room wringing his hands. I sat down next to him, grabbed his hands and said, “I’m just as nervous as you are.” We’ve been seeing each other since then. Ed runs a soda business with his son and is now (in 2011) 83 years old. I’m going to be 80 this year and we still go dancing. Our best dance is the jitterbug. Ed has a very calm demeanor although he worries about things ahead of time. He has two children; a son named after him and a daughter named Sonja. They both include me now in their family functions but it took a long time for Sonja to accept me. She didn’t want me taking her mother’s place. Now we are okay. Ed Jr. and his wife, Sussy, have two children, Jason and Sara, who are both very sweet. Jason is smart and Sara is bright and a very good gymnast. Sussy’s parents, Arlene and Mike are just great. Sonja is a librarian at St Philomena’s School in Portsmouth. Richard, her husband, was out of work for a while during this recession, but then he found a job and seems happy with it. Their son and daughter Brendon and Allysa go to La Salle Academy in Providence. Ninety percent of the time when I see them they are doing homework. They are good kids and very respectful.

DANCING

Eddy and I like to go dancing at the Knights of Columbus Hall in North Providence on Wednesday nights.

We have a whole gang of people all about the same age, give or take 10 years, who sit together. There are Hazel and Al, Paul and Marise, Carolyn and Ray, Sussy and Paul, Lorena and Morris, Helen and Vito, Frank and Ann, and Terry and Jazz. We get together once in a while for lunch and all get along great. Dancing is a good way to get exercise and enjoy it at the same time.

Rick and Pat take care of booking the hall, arrange the snacks, and take care of the band. Rick recently had a gall bladder operation, but he should be back by now.

Sometimes there are special dances like Hawaiian Night where you dress in tropical colors. Christmas and New Year’s are big, also.

We used to dance twice a week but now it’s harder to find a band that plays ballroom music for dancing. Sometimes we go to the Twin River Casino if they are having a dance band. When the band takes a break, we go and gamble. I take a certain amount of gambling money and when it is gone, it’s gone. Eddy doesn’t gamble.

When I first started going with Eddy, I put some music on at home and we danced in the kitchen just to make sure that I could follow him. I was very

unsure of myself because I had never danced with anyone other than Mike. Eddy dances just like Mike did so it’s okay.

We’re all getting older now and, I guess, sooner or later there’ll be no more dancing. Every now and then we hear about one of our friends dying. The rest of us go to say goodbye. It’s sad, but such is life.

THE SENIOR CITIZEN PROM

One time they held a Senior Citizen Prom. All the women were supposed to wear their original prom dresses and the men their tuxedos. I went all out and had my hair done in an old-fashioned style. My sister Helen had in her attic a top hat and cane for Eddy to use. One couple even came to the prom in a stretch limo! When it came time to announce the King and Queen, the judges went around looking at each couple and chose Ed and me. A photographer from the Providence Journal was there and took our picture and I was given a bouquet. A lot of people came up and congratulated us and it was a lot of fun.

TRAVELING WITH EDDY

Eddy and I went to Florida a few years ago and stayed in a gated community where my son Michael and his wife Carol owned a place. We enjoyed the good weather, swam in the pool, and also went to the shore. Carol’s friend Jane met us there. On Sanibel Island we were able to search for shells on the beach. Another time Ed and I went to California to see his brother-in-law Orson and his family. He took us on a sightseeing trip to the ocean in his truck. Up and down mountains we drove and I was scared stiff. When we finally got there, we ate at a restaurant and then made the long trip back. We also went to see my son, Rick, and my grandchildren. We met my ex-daughter-in-law Mary Jo at the beach and everything was cordial. Later Rick and his friend Leah took us to a restaurant on top of a mountain that was an all-you-can-eat buffet. It featured crabs but there were a lot of other foods. It was great.

Rick knew a lot of the people who worked there and he sometimes worked there himself as a side job. He works as a computer tech at a bottling company in San Jose. Ed was in his glory-he just loves crabs. He doesn’t talk he just eats when there are crabs around. Leah kept up with him and there were more than enough for everybody. We took my granddaughter Shelby and her friends out to eat a few times.

MARK’S 5oTH BIRTHDAY

On April 16, 2011, I gave a surprise birthday party for my son Mark. I asked my sisters and my nephews if they would help me. I have an “A” fib heart and it was not doing so well. They all chipped in with whatever I needed done. My Brother Angelo’s son made a beautiful cake. Stephen is the baker in the family. Paul Mascena was the one who made the pizzas and some of the food. I made some. I made a wild mushroom dish that everyone loved. The Party was at the Portuguese American club, on Arlington Ave in Warren. Almost everyone I invited came. It was a huge success. My nephews Paul + Steph played instruments. It was a lot of fun. A good time by all. Mark is holding down two jobs. He works at Brown and Sharp on the late night shift, and does another job in the late mornings after he gets some rest. He works for an electrical contractor. My son Rick lives in California he came to help me with the party for his brother. He only stayed a few days.

POEMS AND STORIES I LIKE

We used to go to friends’ homes, Football games and lunches. Now we go to therapy, to hospitals, And after-funeral brunches.

We used to have hangovers, From parties that were gay. Now we suffer body aches And sleep the night away.

We used to go out dining, And couldn’t get our fill, Now we ask for doggie bags, Come home and take a pill.

We used to often travel To places near and far. Now we get backaches

From riding in the car.

We used to go out shopping For new clothing at the Mall; But now we never bother… All the sizes are too small.

That, my friend, is how life is, And now my tale is told. So, enjoy each day and live it up Before you’re too damn old! Unknown

This one is really cute.

Are you lonesome tonight, does your tummy feel tight? Did you bring your Mylanta and Turns? Does your memory stray, to that bright summer day… When you had all your teeth and your gums? Is your hairline receding? Are your eyes growing dim? Hysterectomy for her and it’s prostate for him.

Does your back give you pain… do your knees predict pain? Tell me, dear, are you lonesome tonight? Is your blood pressure up and your cholesterol down? Are you eating your low-fat cuisine? All that oat bran and fruit, Metamucil to boot Keeps you like a well-oiled machine. If it’s football or baseball… he sure knows the score. Yes, he knows where it’s at but forgets what it’s for. So, your gallbladder’s gone but his gout lingers on. Tell me, dear, are you lonesome tonight? When you’re hungry, he’s not. When you’re cold then he’s hot. And you start that old thermostat war. When you turn out the light, he goes left, you go right Then you get his great symphonic snore. He was once so romantic and witty and smart. How’d he turn out to be such a cranky old fart? So don’t take any bets, this is as good as it gets. Tell me, dear, are you lonesome tonight? Unknown

ANTE UP BY LOUISE

Sit back and listen to a tale about eight gambling women Who loved the game of poker whether losing big or winning.

Eight swingers meet on Tuesdays taking turns on playing hostess And each one thinks her goodies are the bestest and the mostest.

The table is in readiness with ash trays, cards and mixes The mixes are whatever drink the house desires to fix us.

The game is on, we ante up and then you hear the roar When someone says, “Well I’ll bet two,” then Millie, “Make it four.” “I’m looking,” Tillie says, “And make it six in case I get it.” And then you hear, “Let’s make it eight,” you guessed it, Millie said it.

The Lincoln heads are rolling round and no one won a lot yet Then Helen cries, “Hey, ladies, look, I haven’t won a pot yet.

From Phoebe comes, “What time is it? Oh, good it’s coffee time.

And someone change a dollar cause all I have left is a dime.”

The air pollution index is so high it dimmed the light.

The aroma of coffee is so good it’s out of sight.

We play the game of poker for relaxing and for cash But the smell of food and coffee cleans the table in a flash.

The gossip lines are open now and what an education We know who’s pregnant and who’s cheating and who’s on probation.

Tillie tells what Vienna sells, like pies and cakes and rolls And how some people only come to buy the donut holes.

s gives the low down on who paid the biggest fines

And all the news the rest of us can’t read between the lines.

Millie says we must shape up because the summer’s coming And if we pay our money Elaine Powers’ deal is running.

Jackie’s like a gourmet cook and turns out food so dreamy But she would rather cuddle up to a king size martini.

Limpy picks at this and that but you should see her eyes When she spots the potato chips-s-Lays or Cain or Wise.

Helen is a smarty cause she makes most of her clothes

While we buy everything we wear and must pay through the nose.

One subject is a regular-the bra and wear to buy it “I get a 38DD, it’s a Bali, you should try it.” “Oh, I like Peter Pan or Playtex with a stronger cup.” Lou is so disgusted now, she feels like throwing up.

Oh, well. It’s all in the game. Ante up.

MY GOD

I believe in my God. He has helped me in so many things. He helped me bring up my three boys and he made me love. You know, He made me listen. I believe He made us all and He made me the way I am and you the way you are. God made everyone different. It would be a very strange world if everyone was the same. God helps me paint pictures; I couldn’t do it without Him and he made me a listener. I can get into a conversation, but if they don’t want to hear what I’m saying they just keep talking, so I listen. Talking on the phone is not my thing, so I just listen. I’m a very sensitive person. If I see something sad on TV, I cry. Being alone I can cry all I want because no one can see me and make me feel ashamed. If I have a friend who is sad, I keep in touch and tell them it’ll be okay. In my heart, I feel for them. I guess this is just the way God wants me to be.

I believe we are all angels to friends, siblings, and relatives.

COULD YOU BELIEVE?

There was a time when life was simple. Neighbors trusted each other. Few people locked their doors. Could you believe’ Farmers helped each other with the harvest. Laborers save an honest day’s work. For an honest day’s pay. A hand shake was as binding as a written contract. Could you believe There was a time when learning was a treasured privilege When children honored their parents and respected their teachers when parents considered their children Gods greatest gift Could you believe People went to church and would

stay all day. To sing together. Have fellowship and pray for one another Then they would share a huge covered dish meal No one went away empty in body or spirit. There was plenty of laughter. Music, fellowship and food to go around Happy Birthday

MY 80TH BIRTHDAY

We went to the restaurant on the 29th it was the Lobster Pot. For dinner was Michael and Carol, Mark and his family, Rick and I. It was a nice intimate dinner. My niece Tara works at the Lobster Pot. Rick had requested her to be our server for the dinner. Her boss had booked her for the bar. She was not able to. A couple of us had the lobster dinner it was fabulous. While we were eating I noticed Julie, Derrick’s girlfriend did not get her dinner until we were almost finished there was a mix up in the kitchen. She got her dinner we were almost finished with ours. We came home to my house. My sisters and nieces came for cake and well wishes to me. My sister wrote a song for me. She got all the girls to sing. They did a good job.

It went like this:

Sha la la lets celebrate Happy Birthday Sweet Phoebe e Sha La La let’s celebrate happy Birthday Sweet Phoebe e today is your day We always knew we’d gather here to tell you that we love you. You are the youngest 80 year old we’ve ever seen en Happy Birthday Sweet Phoebe e sha la la lets celebrate Happy Birthday Sweet Phoebe e Sha la la lets celebrate Happy Birthday Sweet Phoebe e When you were young you never guess you’d find the way to live the key to happiness. You are the best role model we have ever seen. Happy Birthday Sweet Phoebe e sha la la let’s celebrate Happy Birthday Sweet Phoebe e

FROSTY SODA FACTORY

Ed said he expected to close the plant at 548 Quarry Street within the next month. He plans to sell the machinery and repair the building, which he plans to rent or lease. The plant’s next bottle run will be the Last. People can come by the plant to pick up the remaining supply of soda, which came in several flavors, including strawberry and pineapple. I’ll keep for myself for nostalgic reasons, Ed said. Frosty beverage was one of 13 soda makers in Fall River during the 1940’s and on Tremont street. The most recent local soda company to close in early 1990’s according to the Herald News’ archives. Frosty grew up in a house behind the quarry street plant. He would wake up and walk alongside his father, still alive at age 85. “That was always my job. I had never done anything else”, said Ed, who entered teaching nine years ago when he saw the soda business slowing down. He earned a master’s Degree two years ago. Customers developed a sense of loyalty to Frosty Beverage which continued to home deliver 28-ounce sodas in glass bottles until 2004. Customers invited Ed and his family to funerals. baptisms and weddings. I didn’t realize people looked at us as an extended family’ Ed said. WE weren’t a business. We were like family to these people, and the customers were almost like an extended family to us. In recent years despite the company’s attempt to carve out a niche in private labeling 12 ounce bottles, the pressure of competing in a marketplace dominated by soda giants like Pepsi and Coco Cola, the prohibitive costs of repairing and balancing two careers just became too much. Frosty was my true ion, but the writing was on the wall, ED said. It was time to make a decision, and it was absolutely tugging at my heartstrings. After speaking with his 15-year-old son who did not share the same ion for the company Ed decided to shut down the operation, rather than sell it. I have so

much emotion invested in Frosty, he said, I would never sell it. That would kill me. The company will live on in ED’s classroom. He teaches a science of soda class where he instructs students on the ingredients and know how into creating a delicious glass of soda. It’s a way of keeping Frosty’s alive, and educating children, Ed said.

EDDY, SR.

The reason this story is close to my heart is that Eddy. is my companion and has been for 17 years. He is one even-tempered man who never gets mad. He is a wonderful person. Eddy is 88 years old and will be 89 at the end of 2016. Eddy has a bit of Alzheimer’s and requires care around the clock. The care takers are wonderful to him and he likes them as well. If you have dealt with a person with Alzheimer’s, you know how you must have patience with them. You also have to give them a lot of love. This is the second time I have had to deal with a person with Alzheimer’s. It is sad because you really feel for them. Sometimes I think I have it, too. There are times when I put an object away and the next thing I know; I have forgotten where I put it. It does make you worry about yourself. Eddy’s family brings him to my house every Sunday. We have lunch and dinner together, and they bring him back home where one of the caretaker is waiting for him. I take Eddy to the park in good weather. He loves to watch the boats go by. When we are at the park there is much to see and entertain us. When we stay at home, I put a CD on and get him up to rock his body because he doesn’t move his legs enough.

EMBELLISHMENT

I am now eighty-five years old. I was 80 when I started the book and had it published. Time marches on, and things happen. I have an Atrial fibrillation. Before this operation I had a lot of energy and I was a busy person, now I am sorry to say that I have little to no energy at all. In my younger years I was never sick, only with small operations such as thyroid ectomy and things of that nature that could take my life. I had two heart valves replaced with a cow valve and the second was replaced with a pig valve. When I try accomplishing daily tasks I push myself to do things but I do have to sit and catch my breath if I want to complete what I started. I am so disappointed, after the operation for my heart valves I was still in the hospital, when I started to drink liquids it tasted badly when I tried to drink it. The food was tasteless even when in the hospital and when I came home. After a few weeks at home I told the Doctors, I did not know why I had a terrible rash. I could not stand it was so itchy I would scratch and the cause of it gave me bruises all over my legs. Present day I still have the rash and my doctors still cannot figure out why the rash still exists. If they know they are not telling me.

TRIP TO CALIFORNIA

Because I had heart surgery, my sons would not allow me to travel alone. I chose my granddaughter, Brittany, to accompany me. She was overwhelmed I could not be happier. We went to see my son who lives in California, and meet with his future wife Kim. The trip was planned long before the heart operation. The Cardiologist suggested to wait a while to let the operation heal. Brit and I flew to California. In March of 2016. Brittany was so happy and was excited about going to see her Uncle and her family. She had not seen them in a long time. She had a good time. They took us everywhere. We went up a mountain in a train, saw the redwoods. It was something to see. They took us to the Cheese Cake Factory, we had lunch there and of course had some cheese cake. The next day we went to San Francisco. We went to see the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz from Fishermen’s Wharf. We bought some souvenirs for family back home. Sees chocolates were bought and enjoyed. Kim’s mother Ruth took us to a book store where I was interested in buying a book for fast learning to play piano. It’s called easy play. I did find it. By this time Brittany was getting home sick. She called home and she found out they were coloring eggs. Tomorrow was Easter Sunday. She felt left out. The next day we were going home so it was not too bad. Brittany has Autism. She is a very brilliant person. She knows the computer inside out. She goes to college and does very well there. She decided to go to college on her own. They offered to have her teach people to read. She agreed. I am so proud of her. And very thankful. It was a long flight to Boston Massachusetts. Mark and Paula picked us up at the airport to drive us to Rhode Island. It was a very long trip, and we were very tired.

WRITING THIS BOOK

I would like to say writing this book has helped my mind, it made my mind more alert. At 80 years old my mind is not what it used to be a few years back. I could not things I should . I was writing about California and I could not the things that would happen in California. My husband and I were in California visiting my son and his family. While we were sleeping, there was an Earth Quake, the bed we were in, started walking the floor. By then everyone was up and telling us what to do. It was a very strange feeling. We had never been in an Earthquake before. In the middle of this story I called my sister and asked her what is the storms they have in California. She started naming the storms; finally, she said earthquake. I said that is it. I could not think of Earth Quake for two days I felt I had to ask someone, so I did. I said you know the thing that makes the earth move. Growing up in the Era I did has made me so disappointed in the things that are happening today. The first thing is the people growing up are so free with the language (the

dirty language.) mostly everyone would say F this and F that. I am not a Prude I do not say strong language, if I drop something time and time again I would say hit. When you are older and you get arthritis in your hands it happens a lot. You are so frustrated. I have a wood floor in the kitchen there are so many digs in the wood people say that gives the wood character. I made a mistake of buying something from a magazine and I suppose they sell your name to other companies, you have no idea who gets your name and address. After I got another mailing from a company from The Netherlands? The letter said I won $22,000. All I had to do is send $10.00. I did not bother. The following week I received another mailing with the same message. Three weeks in a row. (The same message). I finally told my son about the mailings. He said someone he worked with got the same thing. He sent in $30.00. They are trying to scam us. He heard of a couple that got hooked for thousands of dollars. I cannot see paying for anything with my credit card because of all the scams. I think we are all going for a ride with the government leaders we have today. I would like to ask are they looking out for their welfare or ours I know they are not looking out for ours. How come? They get a raise in pay and we do not, it definitely is

not fair. How come they get medical insurance and we pay through the nose? It’s getting so no one wants to work anymore. They just want to collect social security. This world is upside down. How come? We pay for viewing our television and there is nothing half way decent to watch. You see 90% of commercials. The gas is so expensive you cannot step out of your door to run errands. You walk: around your house in your house coat to keep yourself warm. Keeping the thermostat low so as not to use too much fuel. As you get older, you do not have the stamina you did when you were younger. I’m not saying everyone is the same, this is what is happening to me. I have a bit of arthritis in my hands and in my back. When I open a jar I do not have the strength to open it in my hands. I bought a gadget to help me it is a round gadget I do open things. Before I got this gadget, I was going crazy. I would bang the jar on a hard surface I would do whatever I could to open a jar. If all failed I Panic looking out the window to see if anyone was around to help. In most cases there was no one. My hands do hurt at times. I would go back and try again; finally; I would remove the

jar cover then I run into the cellophane that was under the jar cover. That was not easy. Finally I got a knife and stabbed the seal on the jar. My back is bad I get up in the morning and I hurt so badly I have to walk with my whole body bent over. I would sit in the vibrating chair for ten minutes and it would loosen up a bit. I cannot understand why I can go dancing and it does not bother me enough to stop me from going. My favorite dance is the jitterbug, the faster the better. But I cannot stay on the floor for the whole segment. I guess I am slowing down.

Please this on to your children and grandchildren so they can understand your texts. ATD: BFF: BTW: BYOT: CBM: CGU: CUATSC: DWI: FWB: FWIW:

FYI GGPBL: GHA: HGBM: IMHO: LMDO: LOL: LWO: OMAR: OMSG: ROFL . . . CGU: TTYL: WAITT: WTFA: WTP: WWNO: GGLKI:

THE ING OF MY SISTER, HELEN

My sister, Helen, died on Mother’s Day 2015 at the age of 80. She had heart surgery, and she did alright for a while. She developed Alzheimer’s and stayed at home. Her family or close friends would take her out for a few hours. There came a time when she did not want to go out. She would go into her yard and sit in the sun. After a while, it started to get colder and the fall weather was upon us. Her memory was getting worse. The doctors suggested she go into a nursing home. Her daughters adjusted their lives and their work to make it easier for everybody. Cousins, nieces, nephews and friends went to the nursing home to visit with her. Sometimes she would us, but sometimes she would not. Helen’s ing was a very bad sorrow for everyone who knew her. She was a person who would keep the conversation going. She would easily make you laugh. I would go to her house to see if everything was ok. She did not like people telling her what to do. She was being difficult, but I knew it was the sickness. Helen’s property was behind mine, and we had a gate so we had access to each other. We communicated with each other by phone often. She could not stay at home any more. She could not to take her medication. Even though I lived in a house behind hers, I would call her on the phone in the morning. She would stay in bed late in the morning. When I went to the store, I would ask her if she wanted to come with me. She did come with me a few times. If we went to the grocery store, she would stare at the boxes on the shelf. Helen had two daughters, Sandra and Mary Ellen. They would take turns staying with her after work and get her set for the next day. It was very difficult. They lived quite a ways from where their mother lived. The family would take her to the park and do other things with her that she enjoyed. There came a time when she could no longer stay at home, and she was put in a nursing home in Bristol. We all went to see her at least two times a week. When

she could still talk, she would beg us to get her out of the nursing home. She even asked if she could go out the window in her room so she could go home. My sister, Delores, invited us to her house for brunch on Mother’s Day. None of us had husbands because they had all ed away. We would all get together on holidays to make sure nobody was alone. One day, Helen’s two daughters came by to give us the news that Helen had ed away. Helen was a jolly person and was always laughing. Now I was wondering how this could have happened. I was the eldest, and believed it should have been me to go first. I can never forget her. I look out my window facing the backyard and she is here no more. We talk about all the things that happened in our past years with our sisters and brothers. There were eight children in our family, and all have ed away except for three sisters who are still living.