Goth?

See, Staten Island isn't really part of New York....

As Pat Cooper said : "All dressed in black with A gold tooth here, a knitting needle there......."




My grandfather ( mother's father ) died when I was 4 years old.

My grandmother ( mother's mother ) died when I was 17 years old.

She wore black everyday for 13 years! Madone! Talk about being old fashioned and from "the other side!"

My cousins in Sicily still do that. They were rather shocked that my mother wasn't still wearing black when they saw her 6 years after my dad died.

...but I bet (at least) they knew how to pronounce manicotti!

Well, it's not a Sicilian dish, so I don't think they pronounce it at all!

Not to be too picky, but that pronounciation is a SOuthern Italian dialect, probably Sicilian. In Florence, where they claim they speak the only "real" Italian, you would call it
Mahn eeeee cott eeee.

And what do those northern Italians know?

Actually they are probably right because Southern Italy has been conquered and ruled by so many different ethnic backgrounds throughout history that the real Italian language probably got altered somewhat over time.

If you're older than 21 and your mother still makes you pastina with butter when you're sick, you might be Italian.

Sounds like a all together different dish

You might also be pushing the envelope on living at home too long.

NORTHERN ITALIAN / SOUTHERN ITALIAN
prosciutto / pro joot
fagioli / fazool
capicola / gapee gol
caprese / gabrayz

I still LOVE pastina with butter when I'm sick.

Where I grew up it was common and a subject of good natured kidding in the Italian families, of which there were many, that the sons were pampered while the girls did much of the work. That was the case in my wife's family where as a teenager and young adult, she, her sister and parents worked very hard in the family enterprise while her brother stayed home and watched TV. He's closing in on 40 now and pretty much runs the business. He has a girlfriend, but still lives in his mother's basement where he continues to be pampered.

My mother-in-law takes out the garbage, and when I asked why her son didn't do it, she answered that she never told him what day the trash collection was.

I don't know if this trait is familiar. I'm sure it exists in other groups too.

[quote=klydon1

My mother-in-law takes out the garbage, and when I asked why her son didn't do it, she answered that she never told him what day the trash collection was.

I don't know if this trait is familiar. I'm sure it exists in other groups too. [/quote]

This is pretty much widespread throughout the Mediterranean. Men do no cooking, cleaning, etc., and the women do all the "menial work." My own mohter who is half Spanish is apalled that I will make my own coffee, empty the garbage, pitch in with the dishes, etc. because she thinks men should not do women's work. It is slowly changing everywhere (except perhaps among the Arabs).

Oh, yeah, cuz that's soooo uncommon with Italian-American men.

A good movie to watch is Marty with a young Ernest Borgnine. The movie is from the 50s, and the scenes with his mother and brother-in-law are very good. I really enjoyed this movie.

"So wadda ya wanna do tonight Marty?"

Excellent movie!

"You don't like her. My mother don't like her. She's a dog. And I'm a fat, ugly man. Well, all I know is I had a good time last night. If we have enough good times together, I'm gonna get down on my knees. I'm gonna get that girl to marry me. If we make a party on New Year's, I got a date for that party. You don't like her? That's too bad."

Second and third generation Italians most certainly don't pronounce Italian words the same as the first generation does or as Italians in the old country. My dad used to laugh at my pronounciation of the little Italian I could speak. But I grew up in a mixed Italian neighborhood, so I had exposure to many dialects and pronounciations. Some of you may have had the same experience. Also, I was learning from many people who spoke broken english. One of the things I noticed though was that one might have a lazy mouth and not pronounce the last vowel or consonants of a word like mozarella. I still don't pronounce the "la" on the end of it. But when I was learning it, my ears didn't pick up on those last two characters.

I've been reading everyones replies to this topic and have found so many things in the responses I can relate to.
Both my parents & grandparents were born in Floridia,which is a town in the Sicilian Province of Syracusa,Italy. First my grandfather came to America,then my grandmother. My grandmother owned a rooming house & my grandfather was a bootlegger.Then my mother ran the rooming house & my father worked delivering furnature for G Fox & Company and made homemade wine.
I was pretty much born speaking Italian(Sicilian) because my grandmother did not speak a word of English.In those days people would visit each other & always get together with freinds.
How things have changed.
My parents are gone now and all I think is how my kids will never speak fluent Italian and nowadays people have to find time to visit with freinds and don't even know or speak to their neighbors.
How things have changed.

Sicilian 1,

Things have changed. I too grew up in the true "Italian" (well, Sicilian)atmosphere, with foods, customs, traditions. All my grandparents and my father were born in Sicily (Trapani). I have such wonderful memories of the family sitting at the table, eating good food; my grandmother who only spoke Italian (but she did try to throw English in the mix) talking to me and me trying my hand at Italian (not doing so well), but hey, we connected. I remember so well grandma bringing out her piles of Christmas gifts, how her food tasted just a tad better than the rest and simply how culture was a big part of or lives.

My children will not know what I have experienced. I guess that's a part of life going on, but I sure wish I would have appreciated some of these things more as they were happening. I guess that's part of life too, living, learning and cherishing memories.

TIS