Hey older cousins can you corroberate my memory and fill in what you know. Especially what Grandma was like. If pressed I would say she was gentle and smiled a lot?!
Leonardo Guglielmo was born in Italy on July 22, 1891 and died in N.R. at 48 on April 14, 1940 from a heart attack. His parent’s, our great grandparents, were named Francesco Guglielmo and Catarina Pace. Grandpa was an ice dealer. Grandma was born in Italy on May 30, 1893. Her name was Maria Lucia Pace Telesco. She died in N.R. on July 12, 1970 of a heart attack. Her mother was Vita Pace and her father was Joseph Telesco.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Remembering Grandma's House
What I remember from our family going to Grandma Williams' house on Sunday. I remember a 3 story walk up. Entering through the kitchen where macaroni was on the stove and a big pot of meats in boiling gravy (not sauce). I think her home was like a RR flat. Her bedroom (left of the kitchen) where on her old dresser with white dollies was the glass candy jar of non-pariels. The room to the right of the kitchen was like a parlor...I mostly remember an old rolltop desk that had small white pads of paper I would draw on. The back room I think was another bedroom...I think it had old very floral linoleum floors. We had Sunday dinner around the table in the kitchen. I really don't remember anything of what was talk about or even Grandmas personality or how she sounded. I just remember I liked being there!! Oh..... who can forget the chickens downstairs behind the gate.... I remember thinking ..."who has chickens downstairs???"
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Your memory of the apartment layout is accurate, but we only had to climb the first flight of stairs (grandma's door was at the top of them and Mr. and Mrs. Noto, the landlords, lived next door). Grandma did indeed have a candy jar in her bedroom, usually filled with the nonpareils, m&ms or hersheys kisses. But sometimes it would have (yuk) hard candies instead. On such occasions, Jess and I would empty the offensive candy and hide it, knowing that when the other cousins arrived and grandma found the jar empty, she would go into her draw and fill it with the nonpareils,m&ms or hershey kisses.
ReplyDeleteGrandma was the most gentle person on earth; she never raised her voice (except once when Jess and I put sand in Mr. Noto's milk bottle); and she had a wonderful smile - her entire face would light up whenever she smiled.
On Sunday mornings, grandma would send Jess and I down to the chicken market to buy the chicken for the gravy (that was her "secret" ingredient) and if it happened to be a female, sometimes there would be an egg or two inside (no shell, just yoke) and she would cook the eggs for our breakfast. Sunday dinner and the family gathering afterward was always filled with lots of laughter; all of the Williams aunts and uncles had a sense of humor. How many of us remembers that the Williams boys put creme soda in their wine (apparently that's how grandpa drank it).
Donna
I remember it being such a treat to go to Grandma Williams' house on Sundays. We would have a our dinner at home of macaroni and gravy (I recently bought my North Carolina baby granddaughter Layne a bib that says "IT'S GRAVY not SAUCE" in the colors of the Italian flag!)then go to Union Ave.
ReplyDeleteWhat I remember so clearly was that all of us girl cousins-we were affectionatley called the Dolly Sisters by our many Uncles, does anyone remember that? in our Sunday dresses and patent leather Mary Janes (we would have to wear them ALL DAY!), would sit on the floor in a corner of the kitchen and have little ice cream dixie cups, and some of the cookies and pastries that Uncle Billy would bring up from the downstairs Bakery he worked in when he was done for the afternoon. Also Grandma gets all the credit for my lifelong chocolate addiction from her famous candy jar and dish!
I remember that sometimes our Mothers and Aunts would discuss the children's clothing and dress coats hats they had in various girls' sizes and then plan to do exchanges with each other when we were young. This was before any of the boy cousins were born!
I have warm memories of always feeling very loved and that Grandma knew each one of us although she rarely spoke to us because she didn't speak English well. I felt close to her and she was very gentle and had a beautiful smile and would give us biscottis when it was time to leave. AND you could never leave unless you went around the kitchen table (that table seemed so huge to me as a child) and kissed every Aunt and Uncle good-by and of course Grandma too. How Blessed we truly were! Someday I'll share the story of my trauma about NOT being named Lucille and NOT being born in September!
Rereading our memories and seeing the photo after this year of loss, makes me happy to have lived it, but terribly sad as well. We really were SO LUCKY to have had our parents and our family!
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