52 Ancestors Week 48: Very Funny

From me Week 48: Everyone has a funny story in their family history. Share one that’d be great for opening night at the Apollo theater. Or at least for Comedy Central. What funny stories do you have?

Live from New Hampshire…..

My mother uses the phrase “There’s never a dull moment in this house” whenever something funny or unexpected happens. The truth is we always had a good laugh whenever there was a family gathering of some sort. Someone would always make a comment or something so silly would happen that everyone talks about it for years after the event. I suppose that’s to be expected. When you have a large number of people together, the jokes run wild and believe it or not alcohol usually isn’t involved!

A few years ago I wrote a blog about my grandfather Robert’s epic  birthday party. While that was fun and exciting, I don’t think it holds a candle to the party we held for him just a few days earlier.

Yes, we threw him two parties! This was the one he actually knew about.  My mother and her siblings wanted to have a get together with just family at our house and then have the main event the following Saturday. The trick was keeping it a secret until that day.

The party at our house was held on June 6th, 2013, the day after  my grandfather’s actual birthday. He had just turned ninety and was as sharp ever. When we picked him up at the airport, I asked him how he was doing and he said his usual “ Eh. Not bad for an old man.” Remind me to use that line. It’s pure gold. He always said stuff like that.  Anyway, he stayed at my house for both parties. So, we had to keep the details a state secret and trust me when I say keeping a secret from him was a full time job.

Anyway, the party was a normal family event. Family came from all over and I spent most of my time with my cousins Jen, Kristyn and Ryan.  My uncle Bob flew in from Canada along with his son, Robbie.  Robbie’s sister Katelyn came from Arizona and My uncle Brian flew in from Idaho. The only people missing were my brother and his family and my cousin Brianna.

My brother still sort of took part in the festivities. We had my brother call the house on FaceTime and my grandfather got to see my brother’s kids that way. It’s so cool that he got to see many of his great-grandchildren during the trip!

For dinner we had lobster and that was the first hint of what was to come. Lobsters are a staple cuisine for us hearty New Englanders. We’ll eat them in sauce, in rolls and just plain boiled. We elected to have them boiled because that’s what my grandfather wanted. Grandpa Bob was no stranger to Red Lobster, the famous restaurant chain. Since he lived in Florida at the time it was hard for him to get decent lobsters down there. Lobsters found in New England waters are always going to be fresh.

Watch the old pro.

Freshness doesn’t always mean everything. Lobsters are messy and depending on the age their shells can be either hard or soft. Luckily the lobsters we had that night were on the soft side. I was cracking mine open like a pro. Yeah, right. My lobster had quite a bit of juice and I accidentally got my cousin Kristyn more than once. Whoops.  It wasn’t my fault! All of the grandkids were relegated to the kitchen table while my grandfather and everyone else was in the dining room eating their lobsters.

I apologized to Kristyn and before she could answer we heard a loud “pop” from the dining room followed by a lot of laughter.  We went to the dining room and everyone was laughing and pointing at something on the ceiling. I looked up and saw a lobster juice stain.

The spot will never leave.

Apparently, my uncle Brian was trying to carefully take apart the claw when suddenly juice squirted upwards and got onto the ceiling. That’s not all. My mom, a couple of my aunts and a couple other people got sprayed by the juice.

No one was mad or anything. It was just so random and no one could blame Brian since it had been a long time since he had lobster. The real funny thing is that the stain is still there and nothing we could do clean up te stain. Not even the power of OXY-Clean. 

To this day everyone still talks about the spot on the ceiling…..mainly because it’s still there. Talk about a conversation starter. We’ve had many parties in my house over the years and I don’t think we’ve ever had any reminders lasting as long as the lobster stain from the June of 2013. 

We seriously tried our best to clean it up. But, nothing worked. Even painting it didn’t help. I wonder if even Billy Mayes could have gotten it out. Who knows? At least we have memories that will last a lifetime . That and pictures! 

The party was a success and for the days leading up to the surprise party I was sending messages on Facebook to my cousins as they wanted to know what Papa was up to. He…uhh….was watching golf with the television muted for some reason. Hey. When you turn 90 you can watch television however you want!

Funny moments serve to remind us of the good times we all share together. Sometimes it’s a blink or you’ll miss it moment when lobster juice gets on the ceiling! Sometimes it’s other moments. Regardless of what it is, it’s important to laugh and have a good time with family and friends. You never know what will happen in the years after that moment. So cherish the funny moments and write them down! They will never come again! See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 47: Random Number

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 47

The theme for Week 47 is "Random Number." This is a fun exercise -- pick a random number between 1 and 100. Then, either take a list of everyone in your tree and scroll down to that number or print out an ancestor chart and pick the person in that number slot. (You might need to go to a second chart if you picked a big number!) Then write a little bit about that person.

RNGs are why so many people put in so many hours in
role- playing games.

  Oh, I love random number generators. He said, sarcastically. If you’ve played role-playing games like Pokemon you’ll quickly find that numbers play an important role in stats and power levels. This is why I like to play for fun and why I likely won’t be going to the Nintendo World Championships any time soon. Anyway, I assigned my ancestors a number like Amy suggested and got 15 in the random number generator I found on Google. Lucky number 15 is…          

Marco, Caterina and 
Adriana.

My second great-grandmother, Caterina Coppola! Whew. It’s a good thing the random number generator picked her and not someone I know little about. That could have been awkward and made for a very short blog entry! Anyway, let’s talk about Caterina. The reason why I know so much about her is simply because my cousin, who is also named Caterina, told me all about her.

She was born in San Pietro a Maida in 1870 to Paolo Coppola and Rosa Suverato. Growing up, I knew a little bit about her life. I knew her brother Paolo and sister Concetta had moved to Haverhill, obviously. The families stayed in touch for a number of years thanks to my grandfather, Marco. 

That was just about all I knew about the lady until I started talking to my cousin Caterina. Naturally, my great-aunt Nicolina told me bits and pieces as well. But, it was Caterina whole told me the most stories since they were in close proximity to one another. Makes sense considering Nicolina, like Marco, was living in America.

Right off the bat Caterina told me that her grandmother was a nice lady and was a generous sort. She was kind and was very much a typical Italian grandmother. For this reason alone she reminded me of my grandmother Ollie who was also kind to a fault. Of course she likely had to be firm when she needed to be because she had over a dozen children. Sadly, Caterina only knew of seven  children she had with her husband, Marco.

Caterina’s mom, Concetta

That was a bit surprising to me as I only knew about my great-grandfather Vincenzo and maybe two or three of his siblings.  My great-aunt was actually named after her uncle Nicola who died trying to save the boyfriend of one of his sisters from drowning! I’m sure Caterina appreciated that. 

While she was growing up, Caterina was often at her grandmother’ss house in San Pietro. It was there that she often spoke fondly of her brother Paolo, the detective and her sister Concetta who had all long since moved to Haverhill when Caterina came around and had kept in touch with their sister over the years. Part of me wonders if anyone saved letters or any other correspondence. I would give almost anything to see them! Perhaps someone did. I can only hope.

Caterina also told me about how her grandmother’s cousin Maria often visited.

 I can only imagine the stories being told to Caterina  at such a young age. It must have been a great experience! Maria’s son Lorenzo Astorino married Caterina’s daughter, Caterina and I am sure that the two bonded over the fact that their children lived so far away. The Astorinios moved to Buenos Aires and Caterina herself had family in Haverhill.

Pic taken by Meli Astorino.

In her later years, Caterina developed eye issues and lived with her granddaughter and her family for a number of years. From what I understand she became legally blind and needed help getting around. My cousin naturally helped her grandmother out and took care of her just as her grandmother did when she was little. Talk about going full circle!

Caterina passed away in the December of 1962 and to this day my cousin makes it a point to visit her grave whenever she returns to San Pietro. She often says a prayer and part of me wonders if she mentions me, the great-grandson of Caterina’s son Vincenzo. It might be wishful thinking. You never know!

 I’m sure she watches over her descendants from the great beyond, she likely knows all about me, Melina and her other descendants. It’s nice to think about.

I still have a few unanswered questions about my second great-grandmother. I want to know how we got her birth record. My cousin thinks it might have been for a passport or something. There are a few other odds and ends. I’m just glad Caterina is around to help me learn more about my second great-grandmother and the rest of the Coppolas!

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 46: Cultural Tradition

From Amy Johnson Crow:  Week 46

The theme for Week 46 is "Cultural Tradition." What is a cultural tradition in your family? It could be ethnicity-based, could also be cultural in terms of geography. You could also think of "culture" in terms of the arts. Feel free to be creative!

Oh, hi expensive Christmas tree ornaments! Beware of the cat!

    Where has the time gone? It's already November and the holidays are upon us. They defrosted Mariah Carey and her holiday song is now playing in every Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot and other big box stores all over the United States. That's fine, though. The holidays are a great time to talk about the cultural traditions your family has and as someone with Italian heritage, I have my fair share of traditions. 

    In the blog, I've often talked about the amazing Christmas eve parties my family would host every year for as long as I can remember. But, what you might not know is how the parties all got their start in the first place. Follow along as I tell you all the tale of how the Feast of the Seven Fishes evolved into an annual Christmas event that was not to be missed!

My grandfather Marco and Cammy

    The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian-American celebration of Christmas Eve and as the name implies fish is normally served as the main meal. That's very important. As Catholics, we abstain from eating meat until the feast of Christmas Day.

    In southern Italy, the tradition is called "La Vigila" or "The Vigiil". This celebration commemorates the wait or "the Vigilia di Natale" for the midnight birth of the baby Jesus.  The tradition of eating fish on that day dates from the Roman Catholic tradition of abstaining from meat on the eve of a feast day. As a result, Catholics celebrating this event would eat fish fried in oil.  There wouldn't be any variation of poultry, cow, lamb or pig.

    It's currently unclear where the "seven fishes" part of the tradition came from. However, we normally served haddock, shrimp, mussels, fried clams and of course squid prepared in at least five different ways at our house. At least!! The thing is no one actually adhered to the "seven fish" rule. You can have as much fish as you want. It just had to be on the menu!

    There has been some serious thought about the issue. Many people feel that the "seven fishes" represents the seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church or even the seven hills of Rome. It's hard to say because every Italian family has their own take on why exactly seven fishes are served. There's no real agreement and honestly you're not going to get Catholics to agree on anything....especially the Italians.  I wonder if anyone bothered to tell the cook that shrimp, squid and clams weren't technically fish, either. Uhh....yeah. I wouldn't want to tell the cook, either. I don't want to be hit by a rolling pin.

How it all started.

    When my grandfather Marco came to America, he of course brought the tradition with him. Italians in Haverhill attended midnight mass at Saint Rita's Parish in Haverhill and wouldn't leave until after midnight on Christmas Day. 

I'm not sure if my grandmother attended midnight mass. However, he and grandma Ollie would have the feast at their house with their friends and family before church.

    As you can imagine everyone was over their house for the feast. Ollie's sisters would have parties at their houses as well. I'm not sure what was served at those dinners. My mom remembered one Christmas feast where Marco brought eel to the dinner. As you can imagine, it did not go over very well.

    You know, they could have just served it on rice and wrapped seaweed around it. I'm just putting that out there. There's nothing wrong with a little unagi every now and then. Then again, would you eat the eels that were swimming around the Merrimack river? Ick. Probably not. I've seen them. There's not much meat on those little sea snakes. Though, a little wasabi and soy sauce might make them taste a little better.

    As time went by people in my parents' extended family were also invited to the parties. There was a Christmas Eve party where my great-grandmother Clara Laplante said that she didn't like squid. But, she loved calamari. That just makes me laugh because calamari IS squid! I don't think anyone was upset about the comment. It just made for a funny story and for ages the funniest stories usually happened at one of the Christmas eve parties.

    When grandpa Marco passed away in 1983, my parents took over the hosting duties and had been doing it ever since. We would pick up my grandmother and have her stay at our house over the holiday. The rest as they say is history. Family history!

Nana, my mom, two of her sisters and 
Grandpa Bob.

      So, that's how the Christmas eve parties evolved from the Feast of the Seven fishes. You take one Catholic celebration and it turns into a big dinner where everyone is invited! The tradition still continues to this day even though many people who used to attend the events are either no longer with us or have long since moved away.

    At least the memories of the parties are still there and that's what matters. Well, the memories and the pictures at least. Lord knows we have plenty of both. And that's a good thing. Some cultural traditions like this are worth having because in the end everyone can participate and nothing brings people closer together than food. 

    It just amazes me how a Christmas tradition brought over from Italy became a Christmas party. When you grow up like I did you don't really think about the traditions of your family all that much. You just roll with the punches, get hugs and hopefully get that twenty dollar bill from your grandparents. That's just how it was. I honestly had no idea it had its roots in Catholic beliefs until recently. I knew about the Feast of the Seven Fishes for sure. But, I never understood the implications. Now I do and it doesn't seem too bad now that I think about it. It's just amazing to me how a religious feast can turn into a big party at the end of the night. That's a cool tradition for sure!

See ya next time!

Just tucked into the corner. Send help!

52 Ancestors Week 45: Colorful

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 45

The theme for Week 45 is "Colorful." Colorful as in an artist or colorful as in an interesting personality? You decide!

Taste the fractal rainbow

    In my family tree I have no shortage of people who had interesting personalities. These range from my grandfather Marco Ferraiolo (who also painted by the way) to my second great-grandfather, Joseph Laplante. Just think some of their personality traits were passed down through the generations. I know that's not how DNA works. But, it's fun to think about the reason why you like to write or draw something. Direct ancestors aren't the only colorful people hanging around the tree, though. My grandmother Ollie's sisters were colorful and one great-aunt in particular was like the Energizer Bunny. She just kept going and going and going!

Auntie Louise!

    My great-aunt Louise Carrabs was definitely a colorful person. I hinted at her personality many times before in this blog. I think I've told everyone the story of how we all went to Foxwoods Casino shortly after the death of my grandmother, Ollie. That was a fun trip and it only skimmed the surface of the kind of person she was.

    To recap, we all went to the casino and on the way to the building she noticed that I was feeling a bit down. I mean my grandmother had passed away and my other grandmother Natalie wasn't doing so well at that point herself. The early 2000s are honestly a blur to me.

    Anyway, she told me that if anyone asked any questions about why I was hanging around her at the slot machines she said "Tell them you're my grandson and today's your birthday." I laughed so hard at that the people walking by must have thought we were crazy. Eh....maybe we were! That was when I knew we were going to have an amazing time!

    One of the funniest moments about that trip was when we lost her in Foxwoods for a little bit. I had gone to the restroom and when I came back she was nowhere to be found. I quickly found my parents and we looked all over for her. There were a ton of little old ladies and it was hard to find her in the crowd. Eventually, we did find her playing slots in another part of the casino we hadn't checked. Her reaction was priceless. She said "What? I was here the whole time!". We had a good laugh!

    That was only a little preview of what Aunt Louise was like. Like my grandma Ollie she lived in Haverhill and out of all the five Carrabs sisters she was clearly the funniest. Ollie was the caring hostess. Josie was the cook. Ellie was the smart one. I wish I could remember their oldest sister, Jennie. She was pretty cool from what I've been told! 

The little old Italian ladies!

     We're not here to talk about Jennie, though. No. Auntie Louise was definitely more than just a surrogate grandmother to me after my grandmother passed away. 

    She was a great cook and would often start cooking for get-togethers very early. I remember she used to make these little mini cakes with chocolate frosting on them that was covered with shaved coconuts. She called them "icicles" for some reason and they were just so good. But, I think she trolled me when she said how they were made. After I had one I asked her how they were made and she just smirked at me and said the chocolate frosting was just Hershey's syrup. I laughed so hard.

    I couldn't be upset with her. She was brutally honest about how she made the food she prepared. I kind of suspected the chocolate came from a tube. But, I never wanted to outright ask her "Hey, Auntie Louise. This is just Hershey's syrup isn't it?". Yeah. You don't say that to an Italian woman unless you want to get smacked upside the head or with a rolling pin. Rolling pins were reserved for problematic cases, I'm sure. At least she made original Italian cookies to make up for the times she used Hershey's chocolate syrup. That more than made up for everything!

    

Louise and her son, Joe

    In short, Louise was probably the funniest little old Italian lady you'd ever meet in your life. Sure Ollie had a few zingers in her time. But, Louise always seemed to take it to the next level with her funny remarks. I don't know if that ever got her in trouble with her parents. But, I'm sure they appreciated her sense of humor. It's something that was also passed down to her sons, Joe and Dennis.

    Louise was a fixture at the Christmas eve parties and was always smiling, cracking jokes and telling stories. But, here's the thing. Her jokes were never mean spirited. Like my grandmother, she'd have gladly given you the shirt off of her back....and then tell you how much she paid for it. Kidding! Maybe....

   She was also similar to Ollie in that she'd host parties in her backyard and would often hold court with anyone who wanted to hear her stories. She'd have family from Everett and Melrose over from time to time and it got to the point where even her uncle Rocco's grandchildren would visit her! I think one of them drove around with her more than a few times. They never did say where they went, though. I think she just took her shopping.

    So, while Aunt Louise was very colorful she was also incredibly kind. All of my grandmother's sisters were like that. But, there was just something really special about Louise. It might have just been her sense of humor and her positive outlook on life. Whenever something bad happens, I often think about how she'd react and tell people what to do in those bad times. She'd find a positive spin on things and tell people that tomorrow always had sunny blue skies. I think we need to remember that whenever we face the darkness.

See ya next time!