There's a book entitled The Avenue by Andrew Cecere based on his and his brother's upbringing on Larimer Ave in Pittsburgh back in the 30s-40s. That's in East Liberty which used to be the Little Italy of Pittsburgh and where my parents and I grew up. Give it a read.

Hi TIS, Most of the time after a big supper, even now, we'd drink a little anisette and crack open walnuts, peanuts or if it's in the winter time roasted chestnuts. I actually like anisette.


I remember too, all the yummy Italian cookies would be at the weddings and the candy coated almonds. Of course, the busta "boost" was a must and was always HEAVILY GUARDED by all the great aunts if the bride needed to set it down

CB,

Do you know if the Canadian boxer George Chuvalo is ethnically Italian? His family is from Croatia(I think) but I always thought that he was Italian.

Also, the pics that AG put up remind me of a publicity stunt that GC did where he dressed up as a "washer woman" and upstaged Muhammad Ali.

I had no idea about this, but after you posted I checked it out and you're right. Like I said, some parts of Slovenia and Istria still have Italians who keep their culture. Smaller parts, but there's still some.



Chuvalo(or in Croatian Čuvalo) is definitely a name from Balkan. I just read on Wikipedia that both of his parents are from Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is right next to Croatia. His mother's last name is Kordić. Definitely not Italian.

The same way that many Italians changed their first and last names(Francesco became Frank etc), Balkan people changed theirs. So Ivan became John, Jura became George, as well as last names. Čuvalo became Chuvalo(the letter Č in our alphabet is read the same as the mix of CH in English). George is definitely of Balkan descent, not Italian.

CB,

Thanks.

Has anyone ever seen or heard of this band? Ernesto Mancini Quartet. My Dad saw them when he went on a cruise. I used to listen to this record as a kid.

Went to Mt. Carmel feast in east Harlem Sunday normally I would lift the Giglio. I could not do to hot for me. Had a fight with people home about going because of the heat. So I went myself here is a video in the church thats all I have. The few friends I have there did not go heat.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I3xOk4ZaDms

Thank you Foots for sharing a video. Very NICE! I looked up the weather over there, it said 97 that day, that's hot and miserable weather. No wonder people didn't want to go! Hope nobody got heat stroke! Thanks again!

You know you're Italian if your nonno had a plaster flamingo on his lawn.

That's cute Turnbull. I remember my Nonno would have a compass and a couple statues attached to his car dashboard. He'd always get lost driving if he had to leave his 5 mile radius. So the family would give them to him thinking the saints will help him out lol They never did. He'd still get lost.

Giggle. Pat Cooper joke.

We're Italian. Who we got, Papa?

http://youtu.be/hvNHlen6ltg

Hey New Yorkers! Down here in Texas there are any number of Spanish language tv and radio stations. Are there Italian language tv and radio stations in or around NY?

I remember my Grandma and the older aunts listening to a radio program in Italian early in the morning on the weekends. I'm not sure if that channel still plays the Italian music.

I'm sure you got more of Italian radio shows than we did in MI when I was young. I can't say I remember any. My grandmother loved it when any Italian was spoken on tv/movie. My parents took her to see GF/GFII (which had a lot of Italian with subtitles). She was always judgmental and critical as to how good their Italian was.

Speaking of you know if you're Italian, I remember way back when relatives would get engaged, first question asked was, "Is he/she Italian." That was a real plus. Ha ha

TIS

On tv they had Ezio Pinza.

I told this story before my brother picked up a Spanish girl. She asked him for our telephone number they thought Italians gave phoney names. So she calls my mother can tell she is Spanish then asks her who she wants she tells her my brother name. She says their is no one here by that name and not to call again.

We would go to a tenement in Spanish Harlem to get laid it was 10 dollars. Get into the apartment I was 13 the girl was around my age. Her mother was in the room with us.

lol I like how she was so critical of the Italian spoken in the film. That's funny.

My cousin just got engaged to a Sicilian girl from Brooklyn. They're both in their early forties, second marriage for both. She's a REAL Brooklyn girl. Just perfect for him

I just read this post, so I searched for an Italian language radio on the web and found one in Rochester, NY. Mixes with English.
Here's the address:

http://tunein.com/radio/Italian-Talk-g150/

Thanks for posting, Olivant. I was listening to that station last night. Very NICE. Right now, I'm listening to a beautiful Christmas Station called The Standards. It plays all the music I used to hear during the holidays as a kid (in addition to the Italian records.) Thanks so much for telling me about the app. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Buon Natale!

Fun fact. Frankie Avalon and Al Martino



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laFu8PfQsOM&sns=em

They need a station like that on satellite radio. The closest thing is Siriusly Sinatra. Yet there's K-pop (Korean), Bollywood, and many Spanish stations and at least one French-Canadian.

Remember that time Paulie Walnuts says salud to the Italian men in that one episode of The Sopranos and they give him a withering look and ignore him?

He also said commendatore. They probably thought Madonne! Uno Americano.

I thought this was pretty funny. Mickey Rourke was such a gentleman but it was funny when he had enough and was asking how to say shut up in Italian and when he told the guy to shut the #%^* up and relax . See what you think of it.

https://youtu.be/t7tm_UFe_LM



Edit: I didn't realize this is eight years old lol

You're so short that people can elbow you in the face

You bring a tall friend with you to go shopping so that she can reach the items on the top shelf for you.

This is what old school Italians did outside men kiss their male friends, but they never kiss their wives outside. They wait to they get indoors.

Pretty funny I met Mickey Rouke before he got his face messed up. He is a nice guy and introvert. I guess you can see that from the video.

Foots, wasn't that funny?!! It's too bad that Rourke ruined his looks. He was such a good looking guy. Sexy man.

Remember the really fat Italian men and women years ago? Every family had at least one or two of them. I remember being in the city down in Little Italy back in the 80's and we couldn't fit at the table because this YUGE man took up three seats. And he had on the table what looked like half the menu. It was like a family style eatery. And I've seen some heavy Italian ppl in my life but that guy was the biggest I've ever seen.

It was well worth the wait!! Yummy food.

This is totally me. Found these on the internet lmao TIS, you'll like these. Is this you too? Ha ha

Footreads, are you going to the feast? The weather looks cooler this year. Can you record the giglio for me please?