1. There is some sort of religious statue in the hallway, living room, bedroom, front porch and backyard. (A Mary on the half shell).
In my parents room, there was a crucifix, a white statue of the Madonna and child ( it was pretty, very simple elegant lines), and an Infant of Prague statue under a glass dome. There were also 10 pennies, but I don't know the significance of the pennies). Ma also kept a Madonna I got when I graduated 8th grade for having perfect attendance for 8 years. It was a pretty Mary statue, in case you are wondering. The crucifix in my room opened up. It contained two white candles and a bottle of Holy Water just in case someone in the house needed Extreme Unction (Last Rites).
Grandma had two beautiful statues on her dresser. The Virgin Mary and St. Joseph. The statues were big like the kind found at church on the altar. Have no idea where she got them and sadly don't know what happened to them after she passed away. They were beautiful works of art.
2. The outdoor table is linoleum covered with small, chrome metal trim along the edges.
Nope. We had a wrought iron table, six chairs, and two wrought iron end tables. Anyone interested in them? Make me an offer and you pick up.
3. The living room is filled with old wedding favors with bows and stale almonds (they are too pretty to open and eat).
This made me laugh. These are wedding favors. Yes, 5 white Jordan almonds wrapped in tulle, the color of the bride's theme. Five to symbolize wishes for the happy couple: health, wealth, happiness, fertility, and longevity.
4 All lampshades, stuffed chairs and stuffed couches are covered with stiff, clear plastic.
Yup.
5. A portrait of the Pope and Frank Sinatra hang in the dining room..
Nope, not in my house. But Grandma had a picture of Pope John XXIII We used to call him her boyfriend. When she went back to Italy for a visit in the early 60s, she and whoever she traveled with got an audience with him.
6. God forbid if anyone EVER attempted to eat 'Chef Boy-ar-Dee', 'Franco American', 'Ragu', 'Prego', or anything else labeled as Italian in a jar or can.
Ma, Grandma, and all the aunties made gravy every week.
7. Meatballs are made with pork, veal and beef, mixed together.
Ma just used ground beef. Maybe ground pork and veal were too expensive.
8. Turkey is served on Thanksgiving AFTER the manicotti, gnocchi, lasagna, and minestrone or shcarole soup.
True, if we were at Grandma's for Thanksgiving. We never had gnocchi. Wasn't from the region of Italy where Grandma came from.
8. Sunday dinner was at 1:00 PM sharp. The meal went like this... The table was set with everyday dishes. It doesn't matter if they don't match. They're clean; what more do you want?
In my house, Sunday dinner or holy days of obligation dinner started at 2pm.
9.. Wine, homemade, is served up in small water or old, cheese glasses.
Homemade wine was served in crystal wine glasses or juice glasses from the fancy set that had yellow daisies on them.
10. At the table all the utensils go on the right side of the plate and the napkin goes on the left.
Nope. Fork and napkin on the left, knife and spoon on the right.
11. A clean kitchen towel was put at Nonno's & Papa's plates because they won't use napkins.
My mother's mother was called Grandma, not Nonno, Nonna, Nonni. When she became a great-grandmother, she was called Nonna-non. My mother's father and my father's parents were deceased by the time I came along. Don't know what they were called.
Grandma used a napkin. A clean dishcloth, called a mopeen, was kept close by. Usually to wipe the moosh (mouth) of the little ones before they left the table.
12. Homemade wine, a pitcher of water and bottles of 7-UP are on the table.
In my house, wine was reserved for special occasions. Gingerale was the beverage of choice. Grandma had a large tumbler of wine everyday with her evening meal.
13. First course, Antipasto...
For the fancy dinners, first course was soup.. Chicken soup with rice, schcarole (Escarole), and pupetini (small meatballs made with ground beef and grated Parmesan cheese) Then came the Antipasto (before the pasta)
Change plates.
14. Second course, macaroni or ravioli. Ma made home-made ravioli. If she didn't make ravioli, we had Ziti.
All pasta was called macaroni...
You remembered that from last week, right?
We also had an eggplant Parmigiana. Change plates.
15. Third course was usually roast beef, or chicken and potatoes and vegetables...
Change plates.
Yup.
THEN, and only then - NEVER AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MEAL
- would you eat the salad drenched in homemade oil & strong, red wine vinegar dressing..
Change plates.
My mother would put the salad course with the soup. My father would eat his salad after the main meal was over.
16. Next course, fruit & nuts - in the shell - on paper plates because you ran out of the real ones.
We used to ask Uncle Mario to crack the walnuts for us. He could crack four at a time. He had hands the size of hams and was very strong.
17. Last was coffee with anisette, some espresso for Nonno, 'American' coffee for the rest - with hard cookies (biscottis) to dunk in the coffee with more fruit and some cheese.
Rarely was anisette poured into the coffee. One of my uncles liked Sambucca in his coffee. The grown ups just had American coffee. Cookies were usually pizzelle (waffle cookies flavored with anisette) or a cake like cookie also flavored with anisette, frosting and colored confetti.
18;. The kids would go out to play.
19. The men would go lay down. They slept so soundly that you could do brain surgery on them without anesthesia.
20. The women cleaned the kitchen.
21. We got screamed at by Mama or Nonna, and half of the sentences were English, the other half in Italian.
Yup.
22. Italian mothers never threw a baseball in their life, but could nail you in the head or back with their shoe thrown from the kitchen while you were in the living room.
Not Ma, but Grandma. :-D
That's what it was like. Sound familiar?
I dated a guy named Tony in my younger days. I was totally surprised by the first Sunday dinner I was invited to. And blown away by their Christmas dinner! Then I was invited to Christmas (or maybe it was New Years’) dinner at a friend’s house. Her family made my boyfriends’ look like poverty row! There was a sheep’s head on the table! Ummmm……it had its eyes!
ReplyDeleteBut I haven't had a good meatball since then! LOL
This made me hungry!
ReplyDeleteHimself had a similar reaction the first dinner after we were engaged and Ma decided to put on the dog. He was relieved to know we didn't eat like that all the time just for special occasions.
ReplyDelete