Steampunk Granny Reminisces About the Ole Days

                                                                             

I’ve been reminded many times by my grandsons who are better known as the Desperadoes in most of my family blog stories that I’m old. In fact, the youngest once told me that I was probably as old as the dinosaurs. Little smart ass, but maybe they came to that conclusion when I was telling them how different my childhood was from theirs. They could not get over the fact that we did not have cell phones or computers.

“How did you keep in touch with your friends?” Nathan asked.  

“We called them on the phone, or walked over to their house, but if they lived too far away; we wrote letters,” I replied.

“No cell phones?”

 

                                                                    

“You know that heavy old black phone in Grandpop Fred’s house?” I asked and waited for his nod. “Well, it was connected to the wall and that’s where you made your calls.”

                                                                 

My friend Rita sent some photos to me that demonstrates perfectly the immense progress we’ve made since I was a kid, but these pictures also feature a few objects that will be sadly missed.

Nathan, this is for you.

This is what my Grandmother would wash her clothes in and then hang the clothing outside on clotheslines that stretched from one side of the yard to the other. We would play hide and seek between the sheets and if it began to rain, the whole family ran outside to help get the clothing inside before they got wet.

                                                                             

My generation didn't have video games or expensive toys. We played outside for hours and the games we had were passed down to our little brothers and sisters. We were not allowed to break our toys.

                                                                     

 

 

 

We didn't have MP3 Players or I-Pods or Smart phones to listen to music. When the transistor radio came out, my friends and I thought we were super cool to be able to bring our music with us. We only got radio stations. There was no downloading of music. You listened to what you got.

 

                                                           

                                                                  

When we were sick, our parents had their own version of a first aid kit, but if that didn't work then the doctor would make a house call. Yep, our family doctor not only came to the house to take care of us, but he would often stay for dinner

 

                                                                    

 

We girls didn't have the money to get pedicures or manicures or even go to a hairdresser, but we did one hell of a job teasing or hair and then spraying with enough hairspray to repel atomic weapons

 

                                                           

 

Uncle Mike, Aunt Jane and Me.

 

Oh, one more thing. As far as discipline, our parents believed in spanking and so did the Nuns at our Catholic School. When we went home and told our parents that the Nuns had smacked us with a ruler, they would give us another smack for upsetting the teacher.

 

                                                                

 

We didn't have it as easy as the kids today, but we sure as hell knew how to have a good time.

 

                                                             

 

Yes, Nathan, your granny is old, but not as old as the dinosaurs and I will always love you...from here to the moon and back. I hope I live long enough to hear you explain to your grandchildren that things were better when you were a kid.





Steampunk Granny meets Snapchat

                                                                         

 

I have nine grandchildren, who have accepted me one way or another into their inner circle. That is a big deal to me. I feel blessed that my grandchildren trust me enough to make me their confidant when they need to talk or ask for my advice; a big deal!

                                                                                 

My oldest grandson is a marine and now that he is living at Camp Lejeune, I don’t get to talk to him that often and so I value any and all communication from him...that being said let me tell you about the crazy stuff I do receive from #1 grandson.

Just recently, I received a smart phone and I can now do snapchats with it. My twelve year old grandson had to teach me how to use snapchat and after taking pictures of my thumb several times, I think I have it down pat...maybe.

                                                                                

 

Anyway, I would send snapchat pictures to Jimmy just to remind him that granny was still kicking and he would reply with a picture of him. He also added me to his twitter friends and his special circle of Facebook friends, which is such an honor...except when I receive certain messages, like:

You can imagine my surprise when one night a few months ago, I heard my smart phone give a little chirp and when I checked I saw that I had received a snapchat message from Jimmy. It was 1:30 a.m. and I was up because I was writing a recap of “The Walking Dead”, but what was Jimmy sending me at this ungodly hour? I opened the snapchat message to see a photo of some lap dancer apparently performing for my grandson....strange...why would Jimmy send this to me?

                                                                              

   

I messaged him and asked, “Was I supposed to receive this?”

No reply. But, the next day on facebook he did mention to his inner circle that he accidently sent me a certain photo and of course all his friends teased him. I commented, “If this is the only way I can keep contact with the kid, I’ll take what I can get.” 

I’m not kidding about keeping in touch with #1 grandson. This kid hates to write or talk on the phone so since I have an open mind, I overlook a lot of the stuff that seems to filter down to me through Jimmy and his fellow marines. But...and this is a big but, sometimes the stuff that gets to me is a bit weird. I know what you asking yourself. How weird could it be, especially since she kept her cool about the lap dancer?

                                                                             

I’m not sure if this video is a takeoff on the Alien franchise, but there was a man in a pool, an innocent female bystander and a body part that resembled the “Alien” and it was hungry. That's all I'm saying without a lawyer! 

                                                                      

I messaged him, “Was Granny supposed to see this?” His friends were probably afraid that I would come through the phone and kill him, in fact, most of their replies hinted at this possible situation. But, I didn’t say another word about the video.

Jimmy had an emergency leave and was able to come home for his paternal grandmother’s funeral. As soon as he saw me he gave me a big hug and asked, “Granny, are you mad at me? I’ll take you off the inner circle so you don’t get that stuff anymore.”

“Like hell you will. Keep me in the inner circle. It’s my only way of keeping up with you and making sure you’re doing okay.”

                                                                         

Was I wrong? Should I have admonished him? NO!!!! I’m a big girl and I’ve been there and done that and I’m not going to let a silly video fuss up my feathers, especiallly when there are worse things going on in the world and my grandson along with his young friends might be sent to war because the adults in the world can’t sit down and talk without flinging bombs left and right.

                                   Granny with six of the nine desperadoes                                                         

Like I said at the beginning, I have nine grandchildren and I want to be that place that they can come to with all their good, bad and ugly secrets...this is what grandmothers do.

Keep on messaging me Jimmy, granny loves you.

Fred & Lucy Episode 28: Mother's Day

                                                                  

                                                      

       Aunt Ann on (L) Uncle Mario (Center) and Mommy on (R) Naples, Italy

I’ve been writing about the adventures of Fred and Lucy as a memorial to my parents and to share some of the crazy stuff that happened while I and my siblings grew up in South Philadelphia. The stories are also a way for me to remember the good times and not just the sad.

                                                                       

                                                        Aunt Ann, Grandmom, Mom

My mother was born way before her time and her independent and self-absorbed ways often shocked friends and family alike, but it was her children who saw all of Lucy's different identities. My mother would have been happy working for a major movie company as she was very talented and had a great voice. Mom loved to be the center of attention.  In fact, my mom and her sister, Ann, both sang at the Italian Opera House located near the Italian Market when they had first moved here from Naples in the late 30's.

                                                                                           

I don’t think my mother was prepared for marriage and children, and although she did try her best to make things work out, we kids knew that there was something missing, something wrong, and when my mom decided to take off to California; we weren’t surprised.

                                                          

My mother was not able to commit to the struggles of working long hours in a grocery store and raising four very active children. Lucy loved to party and travel and we would have hindered her adventures. Mom had a personality disorder, but this was only diagnosed much later in her life. Did it ease the pain of her leaving us or not being there for the important events in our lives?

No, but at least we had a diagnosis for why we were left behind. She was a product of her genetic history. I’ve always wondered if she got this trait from her father, because Grandmom Chiusolo was a saint and our guardian angel while she lived.
                                                                     

                    Mom and brother Michael                                                

Mother’s Day is coming up and I’ll be spending this holiday with my daughter. My siblings and I often discuss my mother and try to figure out why she could only love us on her conditions and by her rules. My brother has forgiven her, but there are scars that reveal themselves when he speaks about her or Fred. My sisters and I love her, but we are each trying to find ways to forgive her. My Fred and Lucy stories are helping me to forgive and forget, and to love my mom for who she was.
                                                           

None of us are perfect and we should not force perfection on others. And, if my daughter can forgive all the stupid mistakes I’ve made raising her, then I should do the same for Lucy. My mother and my father’s spirits hang out at my house and I’m hoping that Lucy and Fred are enjoying the weekly episodes about them as much as my followers. The picture below is Mom with second husband, Tom.                             

                                              

                                                 Happy Mother’s Day, Mommy
          And a Happy Mother's Day wish for all the mommies out there

Life with Fred & Lucy, Part 26: Grandmom's Exploding Chicken

                                                                        

     Aunt Anna,                                Grandmom Marie                                              Lucy

I loved my maternal grandmother. She was a loving, funny, generous woman who made each of her grandchildren feel special. My mother was not allowed to hit us if Grandmom was around, and when we were very young, Grandmom was at our house a lot.

                                                              

My mom was not your Betty Crocker type of housewife and had no interest in cooking, so while my dad worked at as a conductor on the old Trolleys, Grandmom would come over and help my mother prepare the meals. Sometimes she would bring her dog, Blackie and sometimes she would bring her pet chickens. She traveled by taxi. She was afraid that Grandpop Chiusolo would kill the chickens and eat them while she was away. The chickens had Italian names, but I don’t remember what they were.                                                                            
                                                                   

I’ve always thought it strange how nice the taxi driver was with Grandmom, helping her out of the cab as she clutched both birds in her arms. She paid him from her black change purse. Do you remember those change purses? Every Italian grandmother had one.                                                

Once inside our house, Grandmom put the chickens in our yard and began helping mom with dinner while Jane and I played with the chickens. The chickens were not at all happy with Jane and me dressing them in doll’s clothes. 
                                                                                                                                     
These chicken visits went on for a while, until one of the chickens got hurt in Grandmom’s yard. It became Sunday dinner….well it would have been dinner if it wasn’t for the explosion. Grandmom had an old kitchen. Her stove looked just like the one on the Honeymooners.

                                                                           
 She had to light a match and ignite the oven, which she did after she put the roasting pan and chicken in the oven. Grandmom’s kitchen was small. All the houses on Ellsworth Street in South Philly were small. Grandmom had two windows in her kitchen. The one directly across from the oven faced her neighbor’s kitchen window. The distance between houses maybe six feet, so by now I think you know where this story is going, right?

Somehow, the flame went out in the oven while the chicken was cooking and Grandmom, for some strange reason, took too long striking the match to re-ignite the oven. There was a loud blast and the door of the oven flew open, knocking grandmother to the floor.  The roasting pan with chicken flew through the closed window and continued through the neighbor’s window to land on their table.

 

My mother got the call and packed Jane and I into the car and rushed over to help Grandmom. The Fire Department was there because of the gas explosion, as were all the neighbors. My poor Grandmom was a bit shaken and covered in soot, but otherwise, okay. The neighbors returned the roasting pot with a chicken that was burnt and covered in glass. Later that year, they build a concrete block wall. I wonder why?
                                                                                                                                    
After we helped Grandmom clean up the mess, my mom ordered cheese steaks from the famous Pat’s Steaks on 9^th street and we ate in the yard because the kitchen still smelled like smoke. They had to get a new range.

                                                                 

Grandmom continued to visit with her dog or chicken even after we moved into the grocery store. I still remember the expressions on our customers’ faces whenever Grandmom walked into our store, clutching the chicken tightly in her arm.

Love you, Grandmom.

Life with Fred & Lucy, Part 11: Grandmom

                            Aunt Annie, Grandmom and Mom                                    

                                                                                       

There are people in this world that no matter their age; they are children at heart.  These sensitive people have the ability to connect with a child; to understand what’s going on in a child’s mind and to comfort that child, even when no one else can see that child’s pain. My grandmother, my mother’s mother, was that special type of person. Grandmom Marie was one cool lady who only spoke to us in Italian. Half the time her grandchildren weren’t quite sure what she was saying….except when she was angry, and then...we all recognized the curse words.                                         

Grandmom was born in Naples, but moved here before the start of the Second World War. My grandfather had already been living in the states and worked as a baker making Italian bread; yummy!
                                                                    

 He had a house on Ellsworth Street between 7^th and 8^th and Federal streets in South Philly, not far from the Italian Market. When my grandfather finally convinced my grandmother to move to America, my mother was already 15 years old.

                                Aunt Annie, Uncle Mario and Mom                           

My grandmother had never adjusted to living here in the states. Her family had money and they owned a beautiful home in Benevento, but God was looking out for her because the house she lived in with my mom, aunt and uncle was bombed during the war, killing the cousins living in the house.

                                                                                 

My Grandmother was a strict woman and my mother was the same way, but mom was never allowed to hit us if Grandmom was around. Mom would argue with her mother, saying, “You spanked me.”

Grandmom would throw her hands up in the air and quickly counter, “Stupido.”

I was Grandmom’s favorite, although, my sisters and cousins might argue that point. But I think it was because I was always sick as a child with chronic anemia; she was the only one who could get me to eat the disgusting cooked liver dish that the doctor had recommended my mother make for me every day.

Grandmom was always praying; carried the rosary beads wherever she went. She even did her household choirs while saying the rosary. I asked her one time why she prayed so much. I was 5 years old, but I remember the conversation as if it was yesterday.

                                            Grandmom's actual rosary beads

“I pray for all the stupid people?”                                                                 

“Oh????” I replied. Did she mean me; my sisters, brother, cousins?

“Not you, piccolina?” She replied as she glanced out the door. She was watching my mother park the car. My mother was as bad at parking as she was at driving. The sound of metal scrapping against metal caused my Grandmother to wince and mutter, “Stupido, vaffanculo, and a few other choice word.” Her neighbors were always complaining to poor Grandmom about mom’s driving.
                                                              

         

Grandmom died when I was 13. She had chronic leukemia and had an infection that her body could not fight. Her passing was hard on all her grandchildren; we had lost our protector, our angel, our confidant. We never forgot her and the way she made us all feel special and loved. I’m always telling stories about her to my own grandchildren, and when my friends remark that I’m a great grandmother, I thank them, but then I think of my grandmother. It was really she who taught me how to be a Grandmom.  

                                                             Grazie Nonna

 

 

 

 

 

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Boys, Bugs, and Bug Fest at The Academy of Natural Science

                                                                     

                                    Nathan and Granny getting their spider tattoos

 

On Sunday, 8/11/2013, I headed over to the Academy of Natural Sciences with two of the desperadoes to have fun at the Academy’s yearly big crawling Bug Fest. It was a lot of fun.

                                                                        

We visited the changing exhibit hall where Joshua, Nathan and I made believe we were captured fireflies.

                                                                     

 

Then we spent the day checking out all the amazing insects that the Academy had shipped in for this special day.

                                                                         

The highlight of the boys’ day was the cooking show in the auditorium. There were two featured chefs: Cajun Chef Zack Lemann and Chef Chuck Ziccardi of Drexel University of Culinary Arts. They were doing an on-stage cook-off with yummy bug recipes. They asked for volunteers and Nathan volunteered.

                                                                         

                                          Chef Chuck on the left and Chef Zack on the right

The selected recipes for this contest would include dragonflies, wax worms, and cicadas; yummy right?

                                                                         

                                                                      

Karen Verderame and Michael Kaczmarczik along with Jill Sybesma were busy collecting questions from the audience for the chefs to answer while they prepared the food to be judged.

                                                                

                                                   Karen is on stage and Jill is with Nathan

When the finale moment arrived for Nathan to judge the food, I was a bit worried that he would chicken out,

                                                                                     

                                   Nathan taking the first bite of bug polenta while Michael watches 

but he not only wolfed down every sample, but he wanted more. The other two contestants were just as pleased with the food. Chef Chuck won the cook-off and I might be calling him, soon; very soon. My grandson Nathan liked the bug polenta and the wax worm hushpuppies so much, he wants more! He wants me to learn how to make them.

                                                                               

                                                   Nathan wolfing down the good bug snacks

 

It might not be a bad idea to learn how to cook those tasty bug meals; you know, in case of a zombie apocalypse. We won’t ever need to worry about running out of food, and there are plenty of bugs for everyone! bon appetite

                                                                     

                               

Happy Mother's Day

                                                                   

                                     Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers out there!!



                                                                              

                                                 We know it's not easy being a mom



                                                                         

             Sometimes you wonder if all your energy, guidance and patience is worth it


                                                                     

                      Sometimes you wonder if there's a light at the end of the tunnel


                                                                        

                                                   But then they go away to college


                                                                         

                                        and you have that extra room that you always wanted.


                                                                            

   

                       Love to all the Mommy's out there. Sending you love, kisses and hugs.


Lilith's Escape will not be featured this week. Our immortal goddess is spending Mother's Day with her mom; GOD