Papa Remembers

By Anthony J. DiFiore

Why am I writing my memoirs?

Several months ago, my Grandson, Steven, said: Papa, you should write all the stories that you have been telling us all these years. Some day you will not be around to tell those wonderful stories anymore. If I had a booklet or some kind of way to tell the stories to my children or hopefully, my grand children, I would be a happy man. So as a result, I decided to write this book.
Normally, people do not look to write a novel at the age of 78. however; I have decided to give it a try. I am a normal man of 78 years of age, in my retirement years and love life. I adore God, love my family and friends and Honor my Country, America.
I guess I should start by letting you know something about me and my family. I am married to my wife, Roseanne, for 53 years and 5 months. Life with Roseanne has been wonderful. We have three children, Graceanne, 51, Steven, 48 and Anthony, 45. Graceanne is married to my son-in-law, Christopher, Steven is married to my daughter-in law, Jennifer and Anthony is married to my daughter-in-law, Theresa. We have 13 grand children and one great grand daughter. The children are Melanie,36, Rachel,34, Steven,26, Nicholas,24, Courtney, 20, Nichole,20, Christopher,17, Melina,13, Samantha,10, Michael,9, Mackenzy,8, Allyson,4, Isabella 1, and Zoe Emma,1. Thank God, they are all in good health and Beautiful and Handsome individuals.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781493150373

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Copyright © 2014 by Anthony J. DiFiore.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2013922087

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-4931-5036-6

             Softcover    978-1-4931-5035-9

             eBook          978-1-4931-5037-3

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Rev. date: 12/09/2013

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WHY AM I WRITING

MY MEMOIRS?

Several months ago, my Grandson, Steven, said: Papa, you should write all the stories that you have been telling us all these years. Some day you will not be around to tell those wonderful stories anymore. If I had a booklet or some kind of way to tell the stories to my children or hopefully, my grand children, I would be a happy man. So as a result, I decided to write this book.

Normally, people do not look to write a novel at the age of 78. however; I have decided to give it a try. I am a normal man of 78 years of age, in my retirement years and love life. I adore God, love my family and friends and Honor my Country, America.

I guess I should start by letting you know something about me and my family. I am married to my wife, Roseanne, for 53 years and 5 months. Life with Roseanne has been wonderful. We have three children, Graceanne, 51, Steven, 48 and Anthony, 45. Graceanne is married to my son-in-law, Christopher, Steven is married to my daughter-in-law, Jennifer and Anthony is married to my daughter-in-law, Theresa. We have 13 grand children and one great grand daughter. The children are Melanie,36, Rachel,34, Steven,26, Nicholas,24, Courtney, 20, Nichole,20, Christopher,17, Melina,13, Samantha,10, Michael,9, Mackenzy,8, Allyson,4, Isabella 1, and Zoe Emma,1. Thank God, they are all in good health and Beautiful and Handsome individuals.

Our children have made their homes in North Carolina and East Meadow, N.Y. Steven and Jen live in Statesville, Anthony and Theresa live in Charlotte, N.C. and Graceanne and Christopher, live in East Meadow, N.Y.

Our family always believed in education. So the Moms and Dads insisted that their children received an education. Melanie graduated from Hofstra University on Long Island and is a school Teacher. Rachel graduated from several trade schools and works in California. I believe she lives in San Diego, Ca. Steven graduated from UNC Charlotte and got his degree in Pre-Law. He works in Charlotte for Tiffany. Nicholas graduated as an Accountant from Johnson and Wales and works for Abbecrombe and Finch, Courtney attends college in Albany, N.Y. She is studying Journalism. Christopher is a Senior at Bishop Kellenberg in Long Island, Melina has just graduated from Maria Regina, Elementary and will start her Freshman year also at Kellenberg in September, Samantha is in 5th grade, Michael is in 4th grade and Allyson is in Kindergarten. Hopefully, all of them will graduate from College and be Professionals like their Moms and Dads. Graceanne and Christopher are Teachers, Jennifer is a Teacher and Roseanne retired from the Brentwood School District as a Teachers Assistant where she taught Reading. I retired from AT&T in December of 1986 and then Retired from New York State Air National Guard in July 24, 1992. I also retired from New York State Technicians, GS-11 at the same time.

All my life I have told stories, some true and others fictional. I love to tell stories. I always told stories to my children when they were young. I used to marvel at their facial expressions when ever I told them a story. As they got older the stories had to be more interesting, inorder to keep their attention. They were always interested in my life as a child. I remember their expression when I told them that when I was young, there was no thing as Television. They had an amazing look on their face. They said in unison, What was there for you to do? I told them, In my younger years we had one of the greatest inventions, called, The Radio. The Radio they shouted and they laughed. What could you do with a radio? We use ours to play music. I told them when I was young we used our imagination listening to stories like, Then Lone Ranger, Bulldog Druman, The Shadow, InnerSanctum, Fibber Magee and Molly, and many others. At night my Dad and my sisters and me would lie down on the living room floor next to our Dad. The stories were so scary that we held on to his arm or leg for protection. The lights were always out so it was a weird and scary feeling listening to those programs. One night I took out a tape that had stories from that era and played it for them. Somehow they were not impressed with the stories and asked if they could watch TV.

As time went on the children seemed very interested in what I did as a child. Did I have many friends? I told them I would tell them stories about our family and the traditions we followed. That seemed to perk them up. So from that time on I told stories of my younger childhood and family traditions. I was the oldest of four children. Sonny, as I was called, grace, my sister was two years younger than me, Anne, my youngest sister, was five years younger and Joseph, the baby, was ten years younger than me. So I was the old man of the family. When Joseph was born my Mom, Elisa, also called, Mother dear, had a rough time with child birth. Thank God the Baby was healthy and fine. Mother dear had to have lots of bed rest. So for the first six months of his life, Joseph got lots of care from me. I loved taking care of him and Mother dear taught me all the things I had to do to care for Joseph. I would take him out after school in the carriage with a plastic bag filled with diapers, wash clothes, formula bottles and anything else I would need for him. Normally, I would walk from our house, which was on Utica Avenue and Avenue M, Brooklyn to my friends house several blocks away. Once we got to Billy’s house I would change Joseph, heat up a bottle for him and feed him. Billy’s grandmother was delighted to see such a young boy care for his baby brother and do all the right things. While Joseph slept Billy and I would play with his trains or build things with his erector set. After about four hours Joseph and I would head home. Mother dear had rested and wanted to take care of Joseph and me. Meanwhile; my two sisters had stayed home with Mother dear and were a help to her too. At that time I was about 10 years of age. I was already getting big.

But let me talk about our family traditions. The most important time of the year to us as an Italian American family was Christmas Eve. I was about six and my sisters were four and one years of age. Mother dear and dad would dress us and we would all drive to Flatbush. It was about six or seven miles from our house in Brooklyn. It felt as though we were driving for hours. Actually, it took us about twenty minutes since there were not that many cars on the road at that time. The first stop was at Grandpa, Antonio and Grandma, maria Gracia’s house. Normally, all of my Dad’s brothers and sisters would come there first. We would sit with our Grandparents, who spoke mostly Italian. At that time I understood and could speak Italian and English. So I felt comfortable among all the grownups. All the Aunts and Uncles would act surprised as to how big I was getting. Before we left they would give a quarter to me and to my sisters for Christmas. Then we would make the rounds to our Aunts and Uncles who lived in the same area. A few lived on the same street, others were only a block or two away. The floor below was Aunt Marie and Uncle Jimmys apartment. We visited them to see their tree and have Christmas cookies and cider with them. Then we could visit and play with their children, our cousins, Genevieve, Grace and Sal.

From there our next stop was Aunt Rosie and Uncle Tony and their son, Cono. They lived only three doors away. The ritual was the same, talk, eat Christmas foods and if they were not at Grandma and Grandpa’s house when the quarters were being handed out, they would give us the quarters then. Next stop was Aunt rosie and uncle Pats house around the corner. We went throught the same ritual there. We would admire the tree and all the decorations and eat more Christmas foods, and usually, collect more quarters. There we played with our cousins, Lulu, Johnny, Ella, Patty and RoeRoe. After about two hours we were off to Aunt Domaine and Uncle Teleo’s house about two blocks way. There we would admire the tree and all the cookies Aunt Domaine baked. She gave us a chance to eat anything we wanted and all we wanted. She was a very generous person. There too, we received the quarters. Our last stop was at Aunt Julia’s and uncle Johns house. That’s where all the sisters and brothers got together for the Christmas Ho-down. Aunt Julia had a huge kitchen. All the appliances were on one side of the room, furniture was moved to the other side of the room so that the center was a big dance floor. We had our own band. My Dad, Steve played the accordion, uncle john played the flute and castanets, Joe trout, also known as Uncle joe, played the Sax, uncle Pat played the concentina, Uncle teleo played the guitar, I don’t remember, but we also had someone playing the violin and mandolin. Before long, everyone was on the dance floor doing the Tarentella. That was a traditional Italian dance. Later on people got up to sing. I was in the St. Matthew’s choir, so I would have to sing Tantum Ergo and the Kyre e eleison for them. I had a soprano voice and I think, I sounded like a girl. Meanwhile, everyone was in good spirits and had plenty of food and drink. After about three hours Mother dear gave me the sign to help dress my sisters, ready for travel. It was a short ride home and before long we were all in our beds.

When I was seven years of age, Aunt Julia asked my Mom and Dad if I could spend a good part of the summer with her and Uncle john. Mother dear asked me if I would like that. I said, Sure. So from that time on, I spent the months of July and August in Flatbush with my Aunt Julia and uncle john. They had a son, Patty, who was about 12 years older than me. They had two married daughters, Grace and Anna. Grace lived in the neighborhood with her husband, Rocco. Rocco was the manager of the Rutland Road Barons, a minor league baseball team. Patty was one of his pitchers and a good one too. A few of my older cousins played on the team. There were many weekends that I watched the Barons play at their home field, Boys High Field on Rutland road and Troy Avenue, Brooklyn. Before game time Rocco would let us shag flys in the outfield. I really was’nt fast enough to catch the fly balls. However; I loved catching grounders on the infield. I think thats why I ended up being a second baseman and pitcher in high school.

Uncle john and Aunt Julia had a grocery store in the front part of their building. As I got older, Uncle John would let me help him in the store waiting on customers. By the time I was ten years old, I could operate the cold cut slicer like a pro. I helped make sandwiches, package the goods people would buy and bring them to their car. I use to make pretty good tips. Have you ever gone Junking? I used to go with my cousins Johnny Scotto, Johnny Missano, and Pattie, little pattie DiFiore. We would borrow a push cart and hit all the neighborhoods nearby. Grandpa Antonio gave each of us a small magnet. He said, if you see metal and it does not stick to the magnet. Put it in your cart because it is worth money in junk. We would come back to his junk yard with a wagon full at times. We would collect brass, copper, zink, aluminum and metal that I did not know what it was, but I know if it did not stick to the magnet it was worth money. There were four of us and at times, we split six and seven dollars. In the late 1930’s that was a lot of money. Once, we went to the ball field and realized that the bolts in the seats were brass. We went back with wrenches and took apart enough seats that when we went to Grandpa he asked where we got such fine looking bolts. We told him we found them somewhere. He made us tell the truth. So he took us to the ball field, presented us to the Field Manager and told him what we did. The Manager said he would not call the police because we came back with the bolts and Grandpa was a friend of his. They both watched us as we replaced the bolts and when all the seats were completed, he told us what could have happened if the police were brought in. At that time a word we understood was ;Reform School. We had seen lots of movies with the Dead End Kids and saw what Reform Schools were like. So from that time on, no one did anything that was wrong, such as stealing. It was a good lesson learned.

Often times we would try to fool grandpa by placing pieces of iron between the pages of paper to help increase the weight of the bundle. But he would always catch us. He would take the iron out and laugh. What do you think I was born yesterday? He would say. After a while, we caught on and did not try to cheat him anymore. He was too wise for little kids.

Gramdpa had a fantastic peach tree in his yard. He allowed us to climb it to get some giant peaches for ourselves. Often, he asked us to get one for him and would invite us to sit with him under the other trees at a picnic table. There he would bring out glasses for all of us, peel the peaches and put pieces into each glass then he would pour homemade wine into each glass. We were all allowed to drink home made wine at relatives homes. Young children of Italian decent were drinking wine at the family table from the age of three. We drank wine with our evening meals. It was no big thing. Grandpa had lots of land. He had a farm with cows, goats, chickens, ducks and horses. We use to help him milk the goats. He would make delicious cheese from the goats milk. Each round cheese was about five pounds and was used for grating into pasta or soup. At times he sold them to the stores and got 7 dollars apiece for them. Like most Italian men, he made homemade wine. They use to call it Dago Red. We helped him at times turning the press to crush the grapes. I noticed as I got older Grandpa use to fill the press with lots more grapes. After a while it got more difficult to turn the press handle. But it was wonderful seeing the red juices coming out of the press and running into the barrel. Usually, the winemaking began during the beginning of September. The Grapes were brought down from upstate New York. They were called Concord Grapes. He would purchase about thirty crates of grapes. Within a week all the grapes were crushed and placed into the wine barrels to ferment. By Christmas time the wine was placed into gallon glass jugs and ready to drink. I learned well from my Grandfather, Antonio. He also made anisette and strega, both alcoholic beverages. We only got a chance to taste either one at Christmas time. If we had a cold, my Aunt Julia would put some into a cup of tea. After you drank the tea, I have to say, you felt a lot better.

Grandpa gave pieces of his land to his son-in-laws and sons so that they could plant vegetable gardens for their families. Uncle Joe Scotto had the best vegetable garden. He had more variety and his produce was larger than the other Uncles. We would arm ourselves with small salt shakers with wax paper over the top and a rubber band to keep it tight. We always carried a small penknife. If we were out playing and we got hungry, we would raid Uncle joes garden. We were able to crawl through the fence and made sure we did not break any of the plants. We would peel a cucmber, put salt on it and eat it all. Next were the plumb tomatoes. You would pick a few, bite the top a little to get rid of the green area, salt it and eat it all. We always had an empty bottle with us to put water from the garden hose. After we nibbled a bit it was time to decide what it was we wanted to do the rest of the day.

With the money we made from Junking, we went to the movies on Saturday. We would carry a folding chair to the movie, The Peoples Cinema in Brownsville, Brooklyn, NY. Having your own chair you only paid three cents admission fee. There would be two feature films, 10 cartoons, the Movietone News and about four shorts. Most shorts were about Flash Gordon, the man that flew to outer space. His rocket ship, at that time, was considered a work of art. I saw some of the old shorts and laughed at the ship. It looked like something a six year old child would make out of cardboard. Yet, we thought it was something terrific, futuristic. Ha ha

Not too far from Aunt Julia’s house was a large tree with thick branches and short grass around the tree. The kids placed apple boxes in this area and used them to sit on when we were hanging out. If it rained, the tree protected us from the rain. So rain was not a cause for us to run home. We would eventually all meet by the tree. There had to be about twelve of us that would meet there and most of us were related to one another. Even the girl cousins would come and that’s when we would play games like Ring a Leave E-Oh or Kick the Can. Hide and seek was another favorite. If it was going to be a dry day, we would bring out our baseball cards. You got them in the chewing gum packages. At the time all the good cards were ball players from the Brooklyn dodgers or the New York Yankees. Even in those times the Boston Red Sox and the new York Giants had terrific players. I think at one time, I had every player that ever wore a Dodger uniform. They left Brooklyn in 1956 and when they left, I hated them. To this day I love seeing them lose. They were the Brooklyn Bums and brooklynites loved them and were true fans. But Branch Ricki left us for money and a new stadium in Los Angles, Ca. Once they left, I decided to root for the