Ida by Olympia Simonetti Normandy  -5-

I love to tell the story about the first World War. I went tapping on every door and sold the most bonds. They used to call them Liberty Bonds then and I sold  the most bonds and had to go to Carnegie Hall to get my award.  You know, I danced at Carnegie Hall once. I did the Pavlova Gavotte. I'll never forget it. I can almost do it now. We were a group that went, got our awards, and then did the Gavotte. I can't remember how many bonds I sold, but it was in the thousands. Sometimes when I'm alone in the house, I do the dance even now. My father was happy in one way that I used to be more outgoing and tried to do more than my other sisters who were more timid.

There was Batterman's Department Store on Graham Avenue and Broadway where my father would take us to see Santa Claus. We might get a little book from Santa. My father would buy little things for our stocking like maybe a 25-cent or 50-cent toy. Of course, there would always be walnuts, apples and oranges. We did get gifts at Christmas but I don't remember just what they were. We really didn't have toys and games though. Mostly the only time we played was in school. At home we all had work to do and our little jobs to make money. My father went to church, but my mother didn't. She never went out at all, in fact.

One of the stories that my children love to hear me tell is how we learned to make "the sauce." That's the spaghetti sauce, of course. It was really an ordeal. We used to buy 100 to 150 crates of tomatoes and cut them all up and put them in big pans. Some we would bottle and save for the winter. Others we would cook for hours on the stove till they were all cooked down.  Then we would put it out on a board on the fire escape. Each day it would shrink in the sun and get smaller and smaller until it became tomato paste.We would add fresh basil to it for flavor.

Another thing we would buy was pork fat, ten pounds for a dollar. We would cut it up, cook it in a pan until they were just crusty bits. Then you took the fat and put it in a big five gallon tub and put it in a cold room, like the parlor. We didn't say living room then.

After a few days it got hard and that was the fat you used to cook with. When it was time to make the gravy, you would take a spoonful of this fat which had been cooked with bay leaves, add some of the dried up tomato paste we made, garlic, onion, whatever you wanted to put in. Oh, the smell!  It used to go all over the house. Then we added the tomatoes that you had already preserved.

Some people liked it strained and didn't like the pulp in it. Now you might wonder how we kept flies off the tomatoes drying on the fire escape. Well, after the babies got older and didn't need the mosquito netting on their carriages any more, that's what we used the netting for, to cover the tomatoes. We didn't waste anything in those days.

Our beds used to be so high off the floor that you couldn't reach. Poppa had to put a stool by the bed at night, then we would jump in bed.  Margaret and I had to sleep together. It was very cold one night. I had the bad habit of putting my frozen feet on my sister, Margaret. She would scream whenever I touched her with my feet.  So I did it once, twice, and then my father, in the next room heard the noise and said, "What's going on in there?" Margaret said, "Poppa, her feet are so cold and she keeps putting them on me." He said, "Don't let me get up or you'll be sorry."

After a few more minutes I did it again and Margaret screamed for Poppa to tell me to stop. Well, he said, "I've got to go to work in the morning," and he got up and came in my room and said, "I'll make you reach the ceiling." Don't you think I did reach the ceiling? The beds were so high already, so when he hit me, bounced me, as true as God is my witness, I hit the ceiling. Now Margaret was still in the bed during this time and I was crying. "On account of you this is happening, Margaret." He made me see stars. I really got a beating that night. Those beds were so high off the floor that we had to use a long stick to make them in the morning, to pull the sheets back and all because we could never reach that high.

You know, when you are little and you see everybody else get nice things, you want them, too. So one day, all my girlfriends were going out. They used to wear pretty little socks cuffed over their high shoes. We were going on an outing and everybody had pretty new socks to wear so I asked my father if he would buy me some, too. "Socks?" he said, "and what are you going to do with your legs sticking out?"

I cried, "Oh, Daddy, everyone is wearing socks and I'm the only one without them." He said, "Well, it's too bad." So you know what I did? I tried to find some socks for ten cents because that's all I had, but the other girls' socks cost thirty-five cents. I didn't care. All I wanted was socks. But when I came home they didn't fit me, so I did something awful. I got my father's long johns and cut off the cuffs on the bottom that were nice and tight. Now you must remember that I wore high button shoes then. I put the cut off cuffs over my foot and folded them down over the top of my high shoes like a cuff. My girlfriends say, "Oh, so you did get socks after all." "Oh yeah," I lied, "I finally convinced my father."

Now when my father saw his underwear he said to my mother, "Principia, you washed the underwear and look what happened. Maybe you put too much bleach.  There's no more cuffs." Then he realized and said "That lousy Olympia, that's what she did. My God!" When I came home from school he said, "Figlia, did you cut my underwear?" "Me?" I lied. "Oh no." Then he asked Margaret and she said no. Poor Margaret, she was always scared. So he said to me, "Lousy kid, you did it?" Then he slapped me all around while Margaret begged him to stop. I was really bad.

My father used to make us children go to mass. We went to the old Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church at 275 North 8th Street and Union Avenue (Nostra Signora del Monte Carmelo). I was baptized there in 1902 by Father Saponara. We always lived in that parish, around Conselyea Street and that neighborhood. That's where I got confirmed and like I told you, Katie Faggella's mother was my godmother. She had given me a gold bracelet for my confirmation. Who knows what ever happened to it. I don't know how things like that really disappear after all these years. I can just picture my mother making such a nice dinner for my godmother that day. You know, when you went to your godmother and godfather you had to kiss their hands. It was bad enough I had to kiss hers, but I even had to kiss his hand.

[Left to right: Andrew (Dege), Aunt Bobbie, Jimmy, and Mildred (Pye) DeGenova. The rest are family friends.]

If only my sister, Bobbie, was here. You would love the stories she could tell about the family. Her husband, Uncle Benny DeGenova, was such a musician. He played drums and the cornet. Uncle Benny had a dance band and they were hired to play on that boat in the picture. They were going up the Hudson River to Indian Point that day. Uncle Mike DePrisco also played the drums and Uncle Frank Devine played the mandolin.

No one in the family ever wanted to be a nun or a priest. Years back, my father came from a monk family. They were all monks. I'm talking now about way back in the old country. My father was very religious because his whole family was religious. In fact, we even have pictures of some of his family.

My mother's favorite thing was dolls. Margaret would give her a doll on Christmas. She wanted a new doll every Christmas. She loved dolls. She always had a doll on her bed. Oh, Momma was so nice. I never went for dolls. I wasn't that type.  When we were together with friends, though, we would take our little dolls downstairs and pretend they were the babies of the big dolls. There were always dolls in the house because everyone knew Momma loved dolls and brought them to her.

In our family, no one was allowed to go to high school.  Fourteen years old and you got your working papers. Even my brother, Sal. He was the one who really brought the most money into the house. He went to learn how to work on very fine cut glass. His job was to make the rose design on vases. Aunt Margaret used to have them on her mantelpiece all the time. I don't know what happened to all those fine pieces we had. The stuff that we had, beautiful vases and lamps that would be worth so much today.

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Now Playing: "Volare"

Volare
(Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu)

Sometimes the world is a valley of heartaches and tears
And in the hustle and bustle, no sunshine appears
But you and I have our love always there to remind us
There is a way we can leave all the shadows behind us

Volare, oh, oh!
Cantare, oh, oh, oh, oh!
Let's fly way up in the clouds
Away from the maddening crowds

We can sing in the glow of a star that I know of
Where lovers enjoy peace of mind
Let us leave the confusion and all disillusion behind
Just like birds of a feather, a rainbow together we'll find

Volare, oh, oh!
Cantare, oh, oh, oh, oh!
No wonder my happy heart sings
Your love has given me wings
Your love has given me wings
Your love has given me wings

(In Italian)

Penso che un sogno così non ritorni mai più
Mi dipingevo le mani e la faccia di blu
Poi d'improvviso venivo dal vento rapito
E incominciavo a volare nel cielo infinito

Volare, oh, oh!
Cantare, oh, oh, oh, oh!
Nel blu, dipinto di blu
Felice di stare lassù

E volavo, volavo felice più in alto del sole ed ancora più su
Mentre il mondo pian piano spariva lontano laggiù
Una musica dolce suonava soltanto per me

Volare, oh, oh!
Cantare, oh, oh, oh, oh!
Nel blu, dipinto di blu
Felice di stare lassù
Nel biu, dipinto di blu
Felice di stare lassù

   Music by Domenico Modugno, 1958
    English words by Mitchell Parish
    Italian words by Domenico Modugno and F. Migliacci

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Copyright 2009 Priscilla Normandy Greenwood