Sicily 1956

The idea for this blog entry all started when while sitting around killing time. I decided to check out the little town in Sicily that my family originally hails from. Cannicattini Bagni. I've been there twice, once in 1956 and then again in 1966. In 1956 it seems most of my immediate family went. It included my mother's brother, Sam and his wife, my mother's sister and my little cousin Maria. We, my parents and I stayed for almost two months partly because I came down with scarlet fever. I was four and a half. I remember being in a darkened room surrounded be everyone. The doctor would come to give me a shot. I would pretend to be asleep to avoid the shot. But I digress, obviously I recovered.

So back to our story. I found the little town and stumbled upon Google street view. I knew exactly where my grandfather's house was because the back of the church, situated on the main drag of this little town, was up the street a bit from my grandparents house. I tried to post the street view from here but was unsuccessful but I do have pictures.
The red dot is where the little town is located.

 

 Below is a picture of the church that I got off the web.

 

  I have to admit that it was neat to see the front of the house the window of the bedroom that I slept in, and the steps that we were photographed on.  

 Below is a slideshow from the 1956 trip. I don't remember who everybody was but I do have many memories of the first and second trip. Both my grandmothers passed in 1957 and both my grandfathers were born in 1887 and lived to 1982. In some of the pictures I'm wearing a golden wings pin given to me by someone from TWA. I was also very impressed with the airplane we flew to Rome on... well actually in, as George Carlin once said, "...let the daredevils get on!" before we went to Sicily. The TWA Constellation.

Alrighty then, here's the slideshow from 1956. The music you hear was something I was fooling around with about 10 or 12 years ago until my ancient recording device, it used cassettes, bit the big one. I never liked the middle part and came up with another bit and an ending but when it came to recording it all it was too late. What you end up with here is the first recording and the last bit tacked on with the moviemaker. I make no great claims as a guitar player or as a musician in general. I did it just for fun. Back in 1968 I wanted to be Eric Clapton but it turns out there already was one. 



Below is a picture from 1966 of my middle sister sitting on those very same steps with one of the neighborhood kids.

 

All through history Sicily has been conquered by everybody and his brother I imagine because of it's strategic location in the Mediterranean Sea. From the Spanish, the Greeks, the French, people from the Middle east, Northern Africa and of course the Romans. It didn't become officially a part of Italy until 1860. I suppose I should get my genetics done just to see what I exactly I am composed of. I know one thing I can tan up a storm. I wish I could make money with my ability to tan. I remember back in 1971when I started at the company that I eventually retired from, I worked a black gentleman, Joe. I had taken a week off and spent it in Gloucester, at the beach, at my friend's family cottage. It was a hot and sunny week and I had tanned up quite dark and when I went back to work Joe was duly impressed. Joe and I had many laughs at the customers expense, not to their faces, that's not good for business, but I'm sure that anybody who is involved with any customer service job has their share of stories.    

 

Back in the 1920's both my grandfathers came to America to work. My father's dad came alone and my mothers dad brought his wife. My mother was born in the U.S. along with her brother and sister. My dad was born in Sicily. Everybody went back in the late 1930's, then the war broke out. After the war all the offspring came back to the U.S in 1948 0r '49. I was the first born of my generation.

 

Below is a picture my father took back in 1968 when my dad went back alone. That's his father, his sister and somebody else. Right to the right of my grandfathers head is the back of the church. This is taken right in front of the house. Apparently there was some kind of street fair going on.

 

 

 

Below is a picture of both my grandfathers at one of their farms.

 

 Back in the late 1970's my parents and my aunts and uncles got a calls from Italy telling them that the grandpa on the right, (maternal side) was getting a little confused and wandering around. His children decided to bring him to the United States. He would spend 4 months at each of his children's homes. I think I've told this before but I still get a chuckle when I think about this particular incident. At this time he was staying at my parents house. My two sisters and I happened to be there. My mother was washing some dishes and she was trying to convince her father that he was in America. Granddad thought he was still in Italy. He would say things like, translated of course, "What do you know about America?! I was there!"

My mother would say, You're in America! You're in Boston!" Well pretty close anyway.

Granddad replied, "I was in America! In Boston!"

Mother, "You are in Boston!"

Granddad, I've been in Boston! I speak English!"

Mother, "You speak English?! Let's hear you speak English!"

Granddad picks up a spoon and proudly says, Spoondella!" 

We all had a good chuckle.

 

Ok it's time to wrap this extravaganza up.

I'm outta here. 

 

 

Well whaddya know...

...after several days after wondering if I'm blogged out, I'm back blogging. I had the marathon on in the background as I did various household chores,  30,000 runners from all over the place. Just a sea of humanity. You have to admire these people who ran 26.2 miles especially with the really crappy weather we had. The wind turned the rain into water bullets. I had to go out and run an errand and it was truly awful. The last runner crossed the finish line around midnight. Dave McGillivray is the race director and is from my hometown. In 1978 he ran across the United States for the charities, The Dana Farber Cancer Institute and The Jimmy Fund, both charities famous for their cancer research. I remember following his journey on the Today Show.    

 As I said had to run an errand and some of the roads were flooding and that can be a double edged sword because after this passed winter we have some major league pot holes. They can blow a tire and ruin a tire rim and they ain't cheap!  
One cost me a nice chunk of change when I had to replace a front axle and drive shaft a few months ago. Of course I'm referring to my car As I have said before there are many wonderful things about living around here but driving on some of the roads is not one of them.

I received a letter from my credit card company saying that I was passed due on my payment which I thought was strange since I had just made a payment online and had a confirmation number to prove it. So I called the number on the notice and what do I hear when someone answers?
"Eddies emergency elevator repair. What's your problem?"
Huh? I immediately called the number on my card. Nothing is easy. Long story short after all the automated voices, press this for this and this for that, it finally asked me if I wanted to speak to an operator. No I think I want to shoot myself. I finally got a human and in fairness to him he was actually quite helpful as he pulled up my account info online as I had also done and he confirmed that I had recently made a payment and my account was up to date. I saw the same thing. A scam though "Eddies emergency elevator repair" was a pretty obvious scam and a poorly conceived one at that.

Things just get more and more complicated and technology is just passing me by. It took me a while to get my first computer. I kept asking myself, "Why do I need one?" Then I got my first one and I was hooked. Now I don't have an IPhone, I have a simple pay as you go phone. Nothing fancy I can make calls and send texts and take pictures not that I use it for that. They are nothing to write home about. I'm supposed to be able to get online but as yet I haven't been able to but I don't really care. I have only giving my cell number to my family and Arlene. I have nothing against the IPhone in fact I think they are a fantastic piece of technology. I just don't need all that technology in my pocket. I see so many people just transfixed on that little screen. It is particularly annoying at a red light. You can see their heads are down staring at their phones instead of the traffic lights. The light changes and they are just not paying attention. That's when I and others in line start blasting our car horns. Then there are the people who begin to cross the street not bothering to check to see if any cars are coming. I know I'm beginning to sound like a crotchety old man and that could be because I am just beginning to realize how old I'm getting to be. Now on the other hand I am in good health and have some money saved. I have much to be thankful for. There are many people who are in not as fortunate as I am. 

I do miss playing the guitar and making my own music. I just don't have the recording equipment anymore to do that at this point in time. I am contemplating taking some of the pictures of when my parents took me back to Italy back in 1956 and adding a little guitar piece I came up with about 10 years ago if I can find the disc I put it on. We also went back in 1965. This all started when I discovered Google street view and found my grandfathers house on Via Principessa Jolanda. I remember it because there was a big church and the back of the church was on the same street as grandfathers house and the front was on a lovely main street of the little town. I will try and put this all together in a future blog including some of the pictures of the front of the house from 1956 and the link to the Google street view. The street view is from 2008 but nothing had really changed except for the cars and I suppose it doesn't look much different today. I have to say it was pretty neat to see the bedroom window of the room I slept in.

Alrighty then I guess I've taken up enough of your time so...
I'm outta here.

Am I blogged out?

Let's just say that I've been busy. There's Arlene and her daughters, my two sisters and my friend Dave. Now I'm not complaining, well maybe a little. Then I think maybe I'm blogged out. It's been about ten years, maybe a little longer. I've been on Blogger since 2010 after Windows Live Spaces bit the big one. Still I have to admit that I do like posting pictures here. I mean there is a distinct possibility that Arlene and I will be heading back to you know where in about a month and a half to two months depending on how she feels. She had surgery of a female nature less than a year ago and she really wasn't up to it the last time we went last October but she went none the less. And recently she had a serious bout with the flu. She had amassed about 25 pounds of fluid around her lungs. She is doing much better and she is the one who suggested that maybe we can go back to you know where. I can't imagine that I could possibly take anymore pictures on the island because I have a ton. That thought led me to try better organize all the pictures I've taken since I bought my first digital camera back in 2006. I have a TON of pictures!

At this point, about two hours after I wrote the above, Arlene and I have just returned from getting a bite eat at a local sports bar/restaurant. Naturally there are many television screens showing the hockey playoffs and the Red Sox game at Fenway Park. Before the actual game started the Sox paid tribute to all the people who were injured at the marathon bombings. Besides the three people killed there were 260 people who lost limbs or were mutilated in some way. Now I don't know if all 260 people were there as the sound was off but to see all these people make their way onto the field from center field towards home plate with prosthetic limbs in wheel chairs was quite moving. Once again I couldn't hear anything but I have to admit watching all these poor people, missing one leg, both legs, arms, hands and so on was quite emotional. All these people who's lives were radically changed on a day that's always been a day of fun and celebration. I mentioned in my last blog that when I worked downtown and it was marathon day you weren't going anywhere for quite a while especially if you worked an early shift and got out at 2:00 or 2:30. But you know what, it was fun as long as you accepted the fact that you were stuck. You met people from all over the country and from other countries from around the world. What I saw tonight brought it home again, back to the day when I saw all the police cars and television trucks around the corner from where I live not knowing that that was where Krystle Campbell lived. Not knowing that Arlene's daughters went to school with Krystle and they all played at each others houses when they were kids. I wasn't in town on that day but it's still affects me.

 So to sum it up I give kudos to the Red Sox ownership for honoring these survivors. These owners have been generous people, involved in the community and not only that since they have owned the Sox they have won three World Series after an eighty six year drought.

Ok back to the pictures. As I looked at them I thought how some of them would look in black and white. I did it once before and I liked the results.

 

          

 

 

 

So that's it for now. It's just about 11pm and I think I'll go to bed.

I'm outta here.

Yup, a little more snow, the Boston Marathon and I'm not sure what else.

Apart from the tragic events of a few years ago, every year I think about working down town when the marathon finish line was right in front of the Prudential building just few hundred or more feet up from a store my former company, Star Market has there. When your shift was over all you could do was hang around until the street was opened up to traffic again. I worked a shift that started at 6 a.m. until 2 or 2:30 p.m.  so getting to work was quite easy at 5:30 in the morning. Most of the drive was a straight shot. On Marathon day you were pretty much stuck there unless you took public transportation so we would make the best of it go out to eat and possibly drink. Ok we drank. This was in the 70's and early 80's as I worked at that location 4 times over 46 years. This is not my photo.

This is a very busy store to begin with and on marathon day it was over the top. Many out of towner's staying in several hotels in the area all flooded the store for lunch or dinner as they have a wide array of prepared foods. I personally loved the spare ribs. I can't speak for the present but back then this was one of the highest grossing markets per square foot in the country. They used to like to brag about that back in the day. It's still is quite busy though. Still it was exciting seeing people from all over the world. Boylston St. was teaming with people.

Also back then I had a friend Rae. We weren't a couple but we shared a sense of humor. In fact she was a girl friend of a friend of mine and a very good artist. I could cartoon a little so we hit it off. There was no hanky-panky but there were many laughs. One night she started talking about my friend's grandmother who was a very sweet old women but our generation was completely foreign to her. She was very religious which of course only added to our banter. Well before you know it we made her into a super hero. Nuclear Nun. We never fully defined her super powers except that she could fly and shoot out holy halos from her hands. I know I have some of the drawings somewhere including a couple of comic book covers that never really became complete stories. Rae was a sweetheart and I have very fond memories of her.

Well it's still snowing though it isn't amounting to anything as it is too warm. Alrighty then my laundry is a callin' me.
I'm outta here.

Memories, particularly of my dear friend Beth.

You know I had a few different ideas as to what I was going to blog about. I have been blogging for about ten or eleven years. Actually I'm not really sure how long it's been. It could be a bit longer but I really can't remember. I'm not as much of a wise ass as I used to be though there are times when I just want to let 'er rip and just say what I want to say. I would do it much more in the old days at Spaces and most of those friends from the Spaces days are still on my friends list but the just don't blog any more. Two people in particular still visit here and once in a while somebody from the old days will pop up out of the blue. I want to thank Nookworm and Suzie in particular because they always show up. Thank you ladies I really do appreciate your visits and comments. You two are always there.

I was checking out the stats and I noticed a blog from 2013 that had six comments and I haven't had six comments in quite a while. So I checked it out to see if there, by chance there was a new comment and there wasn't but there was a comment from my dear friend Beth. She was always so kind to me. And I always went out of my way to be nice to her as she was one sweet lady. We became good friends and we spoke on the phone often. I always wanted to meet her in person and she always spoke to me of wanting to come up to the Boston area. I had always said to her that I would love to show her around if she ever came up here. Why she took to me I really don't know, but she was always incredibly nice to me and the only conclusion I could come to was that she just was an incredibly nice person. I grew to really love Beth. I think she got a big kick when I went off on some tangent and may have used some less than nice language. I would have loved to meet her in person and if she ever did come up here for a short period of time she would have been more than welcome to stay with me.

 Now as close as I am to Boston driving there can be a big pain in the ass, depending on what time you go, but once I get in there I always marvel at what I have so close to me. I never really appreciated what I have just four or five miles from my front door. I drove by Harvard University every day when I went to work for eleven years, not to mention M.I.T. For years, going back to the 1960's when I would go into Harvard Square to buy records at the Harvard Coop (short for cooperative) because they had a huge selection of music and I would hang around on the Cambridge Common, because it's a nice place and I could possibly buy a certain organic substance, which is now legal here, but back then was considered as bad as heroin. I am, after all, a child of the sixties. But I have digressed.

As I said, just before I started this edition of my ramblings I checked to see if I had any new comments and I noticed that a blog I had written in 2013 had a few extra views so I checked it out and there were no new comments but there was a comment from Beth mentioning how she wanted to visit the Boston area and I remember telling her on the phone that she was more than welcome to stay with me or she could stay in a hotel that just opened at the time literally five minutes from my front door. It's a great place to stay just outside of town and you could get into Boston quite easily with public transportation or as I said earlier, depending on the time you could be there about seven minutes by car. Now once you were in town it probably would take longer to get where you want to go because Boston unlike New York has only one section where things are laid out in a grid the rest of the city is a tangled network of streets that were laid out, as the legend goes, based on the cow paths because we are talking about the 1630's. In fact there are four roads in this town that date back to 1630 as this is the fourth oldest English settlement in the country, both here and Boston. One road in particular, Mystic Ave, which runs directly into Boston used to be called the highway into Boston. As you drive down Mystic Ave, so named because it goes by the Mystic River the same river used as the title of the Clint Eastwood movie Mystic River, though there's nothing mystical about the river. The name is derived from the Wampanoag Indian word Muhs-utug which means "big river", which it really isn't. It flows from two lakes in the west part of town and joins the Charles River and they both flow into Boston Harbor. If I remember I will video a drive down Mystic Ave because you can see some of the buildings in Boston in the distance. Now this isn't a particularly beautiful road as it is lined with car dealerships and car repair facilities, medical buildings, plumbing supplies buildings, sub shops, your typical little corner stores and other buildings that I really don't know about and Arlene's and my favorite local restaurant that I have mentioned many times in the past including my last blog, Raso's but we are talking about a road that is coming up to be almost four hundred years old. That's old when you are talking U.S. history.

But once again I have digressed. I really do miss my friend Beth. I hadn't thought about her for a bit but seeing her comment made me think of her again. Why she took to me I don't know. In my earlier days of blogging I was a bit more of a wise ass and why someone as sweet and kind as her would be the last person I would think would be drawn to me but I guess you never know. I do really miss her she never said anything negative to me or anyone for that matter. She was kind, gentle and very sweet and I wish she was still around. I would call her. She probably would have been the only person who could have told me to just shut up and it wouldn't have bothered me.

I miss you my friend but I am glad and grateful for all her visits and kind comments and wonderful conversations. And also to the two or three people that still come here to read my rambling, particularly Nookworm and Suzie. 
Thank you my friends.

I'm outta here.