First I would like to thank my friend Dr. Ed Iannuccilli for the piece he recently wrote about “What did summer mean?” That gave me the idea to write about some of my memories. I will admit that many of these are nt unique to Italian American’s, but hey you need a good title. That’s me with the house with my brother and my cousins Louise and Larry. I don’t remember too much about the place in Port Washington, but it did seem like it took forever to get there from College Point.
Right around the corner from me was PS 129, which was the center of activity for most of the summer. There was a huge schoolyard with a softball diamond ( albeit concrete ), another area for stickball, a stoop for stoop ball, and a large wall where we would play Ace, King, Queen. Which was handball against the wall. The Ace would serve, and upon losing the serve would move down the line. There was also a version called bottoms up, where he loser had to bend over while others tried to hit him in the butt with the rubber ball. For the adventurous you could scale the wall and get into the locked schoolyard. We also would play box ball, and of course tag and hide and go seek.
I remember looking forward to the Memorial Day parade, the unofficial start of summer, where most of the town turned out. At least us kids.
Another great summer pastime was Adventurers Inn. An amusement park within walking distance. Or waiting for the Bungalow Bar, Good Humor or Mr. Softee truck to come around. Imagine a banana split for 35 cents.
One of the best things we did in the summer was the almost weekly trip to Jones Beach. My mom and my cousins aunt would pack up the ( non air conditioned cars ) with kids, umbrellas blankets and food and head of to the Beach.
Now a bit about Jones Beach. It has some of the biggest parking lots you will ever see and the walk to the beach can take some time if you get there late. And the walk to the water is almost as long. They did have some great ice cream where you unrolled the ice cream and dropped it into the cone.
Now, being Italian, we did not arrive with PBJ and baloney sandwiches. My aunts would whip up eggplant and sausage and peppers to make sandwiches on the beach. One day there was a pop up thunderstorm and we had to run around to save the food!
My best friend on these sojourns was my cousin’s cousin Denise. We always had to ride in the same car, I think as we were the only ones in our age group, but we best friends too. Eventually Denise moved from Corona to right next door to me in College Point. For many years our summers were spent together, usually waiting for the newest Beatles 45 or album.
We were lucky as my dad put in an above ground pool in the early 1960’s. Being a photographer for the NY Daily news we would often have photos like this one in the newspaper.
Another great perk were the free tickets to the Mets and World’s fair. Later on, dad was doing work for 7 up and we got free tickets to concerts in Forest Hills to see the Who, the Rolling Stones, Arlo Gutherie and more.
Corona, Queens Summers in Grandma’s Backyard Some of my fondest memories are the parties in my grandmother’s front yard in Corona, Queens. Ever since I can remember, from about the mid 1950’s until 1971, every Nicoletti summer party was held in that yard. Rain or shine, it did not matter, the 9 sons and daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren would gather. My dad would work on Sunday’s, so if mom was taking too long, I would
Uncle Nick Mina Mina’s Fuel Oil Before talking about my two summers working at Mina’s, a brief history as I know it. I was told that the company was started by my aunt’s father in law, I guess in the 30’s or 40’s. My aunt’s husband ( Nick Mina ) was running the company when I was a boy. Now Uncle Nick was a card. He used to make me laugh all the time,
Click here to join Italian Genealogy Group on Facebook Frank’s Luncheonette Shortly before the NY World’s Fair opened in 1964, my Uncle Frank and Aunt Dolly opened Frank’s Luncheonette on 108th Street in Corona Queens. At the time I was 13 and very excited as they hired me to work there on weekends and the summers while the World’s Fair was open. The Fair ( as we called it ) was only a few blocks
I have seen a lot of people that whose ancestors are from Naples, or Italy in general wondering why they have a percentage of Greek, Spanish, Arabic or other non-Italian segments. DNA segments can potentially go back 10 generations. I’m not a DNA nerd, but I certainly welcome any comments that any one may have to give simple explanations. I have also seen people post that I know where I came from and I’m 100%
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I have been fortunate enough to convince my good friend, since the first grade, Antonia, to become a guest blogger on the site. Antonia recently, ( mid May 2019 to be exact) received her Italian Citizenship. It’s been a long an grueling process from what she tells me. But lucky for us she is going to give us first hand information on the process and her exploits as an American woman that moved to Italy.
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