Carmela,

Actually those prices are not too bad.

Both my parents are Sicilian so that's what I was raised hearing as well. My parents never pushed us to learn it although they encouraged it.My grandmothers only spoke Italian and maybe very very broken English. Beside my parents, my older brother is the only one that speaks it well. I have no doubt that many words are probably slang. Sometimes when they are speaking Italian (at least when I'm around my family/relatives in Michigan) I can pick up what a conversation is about but not understand word for word. Yet, those days are rare now with the older Italians in my family gone and the younger ones that never learned it.

TIS