Nana Eggs: With Soldiers

By Linda Schiro-Ross

Nana Eggs is a book of short stories written for all ages. They are true stories of life experiences of the author and depict her life from childhood to the golden years.

The author will share with you her uninhibited life as a child as well as her daring hunger as an adult to accomplish her will. She will show you the street where her Italian immigrant grandparents lived when they came to America. She will enter into a world at the time of World War II, oblivious to the fact that anything could possibly harm her. Her fearless adventure and colorful travel to the ends of the earth will amaze you. The frightful events will make you wonder how she could possibly survive, and then something strange would come to her rescue.

You will laugh at the punch lines and cry at the unfairness of life. In Nana Eggs, you will find passion and love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514475904

Linda Schiro-Ross

Linda Schiro-Ross was born in Rockford, Illinois, and moved to Chicago in May 1961. She graduated from Moser Secretarial School and worked for one of the top five law firms in the nation. She and her husband, Larry, resided in Naperville, Illinois, for thirty-two years and have two daughters and four grandchildren. After raising her daughters, Linda went back to work as an administrative secretary for the assistant superintendent at Indian Prairie School District #204 in Naperville/Aurora until she retired. She and her husband now reside in Citrus County, Florida. A second-generation Sicilian/Italian, Linda has preserved her passion for the Sicilian culture in cooking and in the memories that remain of her ancestors, as shown in her first publication of Nana Eggs: With Soldiers, as well as her current publication of May Day: I Could Use Some Help Here. Linda has traveled to the ends of the earth to such places as Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, South America, and the Middle East. Her bucket list has not yet been completed. Don’t expect to see a third book too soon, as Linda has to go back to the drawing board and continue her journey through life.

Book preview

Nana Eggs

With Soldiers

Short Stories of Real Life Experiences

Linda Schiro-Ross

Copyright © 2016 by Linda Schiro-Ross.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-5144-7589-8

                eBook           978-1-5144-7590-4

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.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 03/19/2016

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

738275

Contents

Introduction

The Amazon

Babysitting

Bicycles and Cars

Breakfast With Nonna and Nonno

Chicago

French Braids

From Babe to Bride

Grandma and Grandpa’s House

Groundhog Day

Growing up with Georgie

His First Wife

How to Ride an Ostrich

Italy

Ketchup, The American Sugo (pronounced soo goo)

King Tut

Loyalties

Marriage

Melrose Street

My First Car

My Guardian Angel

Nana Eggs

Our Grocery Store

Passions

Rip Currents

Rozie

She’s A Crazy Woman

Spain

The Judge

The Missing Girdle

The Mouse

The Recital

The Seamstress

The Shoot

The Silver Lining

What’s For Dessert

About the Author

Introduction

Nana Eggs is a compilation of short stories of true events experienced in my lifetime. How I chose the name for this book is revealed in one of the stories.

The stories not only portray my carefree childhood, but also my adventurous nature. They begin as far back as I can remember and up to my present golden years.

Long before I decided to write this book, my husband and I were at a neighborhood party. The guests were telling jokes and having a good time. During the evening I told everyone one of my stories. They laughed and thought it was funny.

As the evening progressed, I admitted that I was not good at telling jokes and always botched up the punch line somehow. Someone responded, Your story was so funny, you don’t need to tell jokes!

That comment spread like wild fire in my brain, and I knew I had to do something with these stories. When I finally began to write, I would remember more and more experiences, until one day I had enough to publish an entire book. Whenever I thought I was finished, I would remember another story.

In the past, I have had recurring dreams of a baby. The interpretation of these dreams could mean the following:

Dreaming of a baby can mean that something new is entering the life of the dreamer. This could be a new idea or a new start.

Dreaming of having a baby can mean that the dreamer is going to create something.

I have known for a long time that these dreams were signs that I had to create a book.

These memories have been retrieved from the cobwebs of my mind, dusted off and gathered in these pages. I hope you enjoy Nana Eggs as much as I have enjoyed writing the book.

The Amazon

A few years back I celebrated my birthday on the Amazon River. Our guide told us we had to fly into Iquitos very early in the morning from Lima, Peru, to avoid the vultures. I thought he was joking. He wasn’t!

Our boat, holding a maximum of 24 passengers with a crew of seven, was called the Esmeralda. It was a step above the African Queen! Each day we would venture out on a 50-foot skiff to experience the region and the people living there. The skiff was towed behind the Esmeralda and used when we would explore the backwaters and sloughs. We fished for piranha, observed pink dolphins surface-diving, bird-watched, spotted wild animals such as giant rats and a sloth hanging from a tree. We walked over swinging bridges and swam in the Amazon River. We even had dinner at a primitive hut of an Amazonian family.

Banana leaves were placed on the crude wooden floor serving as a tablecloth. Fresh fish caught in the Amazon was cooked over hot coals on the grill which was the kitchen stove. It was served with rice and plantains. We ate the food with our fingers from wooden plates. I discovered that licking your fingers was the only option for a napkin. We were fortunate to have