Life With Fred and Lucy: Growing Up in South Philly

By Marie Gilbert

Marie Gilbert's latest book is a humorous collection of stories about what it was like to grow up in her Italian parents' grocery store in South Philly during the 1950s and early 1960s. It is also a tribute to the two spirits who have taken up residence in her attic. Who are Fred and Lucy? Find out in this memoir filled with heart, humor and some truly unforgettable antics from the Maratea clan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Mar 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543930511

Book preview

Life With Fred and Lucy:

Growing Up in South Philly

Copyright © 2018 by Marie Gilbert

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN (Print Edition): 978-1-98563-885-3

ISBN (eBook Edition): 978-1-54393-051-1

This book is dedicated to the

two ghosts who live in my attic.

Contents

Meet Fred and Lucy

Fred

A Friendly Ghost

The Pigeon Coup

Rabbit Stew

The Joker’s Wild

The Candy War

Masquerade

Oranges to Aspirins

Bolts and Candy

Lucy

Release the Kraken

Day Trips from Hell

Palumbo’s

The Cake That Ate South Philly

Attack of the Gnocchi Python

The Stuffing War

Grandmom’s Exploding Chicken

Knuckleheads

Don’t Break the Baby

Let’s Get Batty

Street Games

Uncle Ralph meets King Kong

Robert Hall

Don’t Kill Patty

Fred’s Coupons

The Curtain Man

The Soaps

Mouse Patrol

Fred’s Posse

Then and Now

Fresh Fruit

The Ghosts in my Attic

Evening in Paris

Why They Visit

Benevento

About the Author

Acknowledgements:

Meet Fred and Lucy

Are you afraid of ghosts? I’m not. I’ve been seeing the dead ever since I was a toddler. Currently, I have two ghosts in my attic. I know them and they know me. I know their stories. I know everything about them. And now they’re pestering me to share everything I know about them with the world. It’s nearly impossible to say no to Fred and Lucy; it’s always been that way. They are willful individuals. Usually, ghosts don’t like to interact with the living. But these two? They are as sociable in death as they were in life.

But this ghost story must start at the beginning, as all good ghost stories do. It’s important that you know about Fred’s and Lucy’s history. Federico Liberato Serafino Maratea’s family came from the town of Maratea, Italy, then settled down in Campagna, Italy. Fred’s ancestors were successful business people, but Fred’s father, Michael, had always wanted to be a priest, so he’d entered the seminary when he was 17 years old. The Maratea family already included several Cardinals who spent their lives serving the Roman Catholic Church in Italy.

Fortunately for my father and his seven siblings, Michael was not cut out for the celibate life and so left the seminary, moved to Philadelphia in 1905, and married Marie, who soon after gave birth to her first son. Fred’s siblings from this match included three sisters: Louise, Rita and Helen. After the death of his first wife, Michael traveled back to Italy to pick up a new wife. Rosina gave Michael four more children: three girls and a boy.

Lucy Chiusolo, along with an older sister, Anna, and a younger brother, Mario, was born and raised in Benevento, Italy. Her father, Enrico, had moved to Philadelphia when she was very young, but he would return home to Benevento for short visits every year, but always seemed eager to return to the bakery where he worked near the Italian Market on Ninth and Federal Streets. What Lucy, her mother, and siblings didn’t know was that Enrico had a girlfriend. She was a blonde cutie who Enrico took to the Philly clubs and the horse races. Did I mention that Enrico was also a bookie? He was responsible for the bets placed on the horse races by his neighbors and co-workers. Enrico was definitely living the good life here in America, but that was soon to change.

World War II was brewing and people who did not like what was happening in Europe made plans to emigrate to America before the dog-doo hit the fan. When Lucy was 15, her sister Anna sent a letter to President Roosevelt for permission to enter the States. Lucy’s mother, Marie, was not at all interested in leaving her home in Benevento, or leaving her family, but you don’t say no to the President of the United States, especially one who was loved by most of the free world. Marie Chiusolo was forced to pack up her three children and travel to Ellis Island before reuniting with her husband in Philadelphia. Poor Enrico! His girlfriend had to go and he was not a happy camper.

Although my grandfather owned a successful grocery store at Chadwick and Moore Streets near 17th street, his son Fred had no desire to work the business. Fred met Lucy while they were both working at a tailor shop in Philadelphia. They were making uniforms for our troops, and the story of how they met goes like this: my father’s position required him to move the cloth from one part of the factory to another. Each section of the factory had its own part of the uniform to complete. This was called piece work. My father had to pass Lucy several times a day. Whenever he asked her to move in her chair, she would say something derogatory in Italian to the other ladies, and they’d all laugh. Lucy didn’t know that Fred spoke Italian. One day, Fred surprised Lucy and her co-workers by asking her out on a date in Italian. Lucy was so startled that she’d been found out, she said yes.

Fred was ten years older than Lucy, and even though Fred and Lucy did not experience a storybook romance—the kind you read about in books—they still got married a few months later. Fred claims that it was because Lucy’s mother had found a cozy apartment for them around the corner from her house on Ellsworth Street. The nearness of the honeymoon apartment to her mother’s home was important because Lucy knew absolutely nothing about cooking. It would be two years before Fred learned that Lucy’s mother was cooking all those delicious Italian dishes every day.

Although it wasn’t a happy marriage, there was plenty of humor to make it bearable. Fred was famous for his practical jokes on both family and friends and Lucy was a hot-headed, independent woman with a bad driving record. They both had severe OCD. And though they definitely didn’t marry for love, there was some good that came from the union. They produced four children: Michael, Lucy, Jane and me.

If you look at the photo of my parents on the cover, it speaks volumes. My siblings and I were not the easiest children to rear, and Fred and Lucy weren’t the easiest parents to love, but GOD does have a sense of humor and, in the long run, growing up in a grocery store with Fred and Lucy provided life lessons that have made me who I am today: a practical joker with OCD.

Lucy and Fred’s Engagement

Fred

Although Fred’s father, Michael Maratea, had opened the grocery store during the mid-depression era, Fred refused to help out in the store. He hated the long hours and the tedious work. Unable to join the armed forces because of a bum leg from a childhood accident, he went to work in the shop where he met my mother. After they married, Fred got a job as a conductor for the Philadelphia Transportation Company. The PTC was in control of the trolley system in Philadelphia.

Traveling on the PTC’s many electrical trolleys was a cheap ride: five cents, but the pay for conductors in 1943 was good, as