52 Ancestors Week 50: Chosen Family

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 50

The theme for Week 50 is "Chosen Family." Family isn't just those you are genetically related to. What about the special family friends who become "Aunt" and "Uncle"? Who was chosen to be part of your family?

Italian or Italian by association.

    I can't believe it's been four years since the last time I wrote about a chosen family member or two. Back in 2020, I wrote about the couple who used to take care of my brother and I when we were little. Their names were Peter and Mary Matorian. They were a great Armenian couple who often took my brother and I shopping (Or as Pete called it "The Cleaners". I think you can figure out why.) among other things. Mary was a great cook and it's honestly a wonder we didn't gain weight from eating her cookies that were like 90% lard. They were an amazing couple and I miss them dearly. However, they were far from the only chosen family member we had!

    Longtime readers of the blog will remember me writing about the marina I went to with my family every summer growing up. It was a lot of fun and this week I thought I'd share some memories and stories about some of the people there who definitely made every summer more enjoyable than the last!

Formally known as "Dawn Mari-Na".

        I've already already written about Marina Schell, the woman who got me into writing and helped me sort out the first version of my Starbolts story. She was an avid comic reader like me and we'd spend a while talking about various comic book characters and the latest movie/television show. She was a huge fan of Spider-Man. So, you know I made friends with her very easily!

    Marina and her husband Peter were just two members of the group my parents dubbed "The Ancient Mariners". Though, that title didn't really catch on until maybe the early 2000s for obvious reasons.

  The ancient mariners were a fun group. Everyone was from various towns in and around the Merrimack Valley.  We'd all go fishing together either at the mouth of the Merrimack or we'd take to the high seas. Though, I think we've only ever gone as far east as the Isle of Shoals and maybe Maine if the weather was nice. Sometimes we'd all be in the same boat and sometimes we'd even tie our boats together and make a raft in the middle of the ocean. That was fun to do. Though, I can imagine it was an interesting sight for passing boaters.

    Now, you might be wondering "Chris, didn't you have anyone around your age to hang around with?" I did. There were always children at the marina when I was growing up. These were the sons and daughters of the "ancient mariners". Wow. Way to make it sound epic. My earliest memories were of two kids named Tara and and Eddie whose parents had a boat across the dock from us. They moved away early on so I don't know what happened to them. I don't even know if they continued boating and to date I haven't been able to find them. There were other children, too. But, they were around my brother's age and of course he spent time with them and they had their own adventures cruising around the river and going to the arcade at Salisbury Beach.

What a couple of troublemakers.

    When Tara and Eddie moved away, I wasn't alone for long. I was quickly introduced to my friend Matthew who was the son of my parents' friends Bob and Edie Jones. They had a boat called "Mi Casa" and Matthew and I spent a lot of time there.....mainly because his television was able to pick up the signal better than ours. We often used their set to either play various Sega or Nintendo games or watch a movie. That wasn't our fault. Our boat was docked at the outer docks and the Mi Casa was docked  a little bit closer to land. It was probably for the best because we watched a LOT of  "R" rated movies. 

    Of course that wasn't the only thing we did.

    Matt and I wouldn't laze about the boat all day. This was the late '80s and early to mid 1990s. We were outside a lot and when we were outside we got into plenty of trouble. I remember getting some fish heads from various other boaters to put in Matthew's crab traps. We uhh..."accidentally" left one of the heads out of the traps and left it on the dock once. You can imagine the smell. It stunk from the top of the dock to where my boat was.  At least we got a lot of river crabs? Right? Right?! Don't worry. We released them back into the wild.

    The funny thing is we never really got in trouble for any of the things we did. I guess our parents thought Matthew and I were just being kids and that's a fair point. We were just goofing around and the fish thing was an accident. We still had a great time.

    The two of us also often went across the river to Newburyport to buy comics and explore the flea market. I swear that was our go-to spot for thrift. I found some cool stuff there and came home with various old toys and even some small Lego sets. 

Less obvious troublemakers.

    Accompanying us on our trips every once in a while was the son of Sam and Charlene Fragala. His name was Ryan and he had two older siblings who were more my brothers' friends than mine. So, naturally we hit it off. 

    Ryan is like the polar opposite of Matthew. He didn't get any trouble at all really. In fact, most of our adventures involved fishing and hanging out.  His father Sam on the other hand was the one who'd always pinch my cheeks whenever he saw me. It wasn't all bad. 

    His mom made the best brownies ever. So, sometimes you have to suffer before having a treat. That's life, I guess. Or maybe a little Pavlovian. I don't know. It didn't matter as long as we got some brownies. I just hope Ryan got the recipe written down! 

     Like me Ryan is half-Italian. His mother's side is Irish. So, Ryan and I connected over the usual Italian stuff and how our fathers had the same attitude on life.  The Fragalas came from Sicily and I've yet to figure out where in Sicily they came from. When I asked Sam about it he said he wasn't sure. He thinks his grandfather came from Palermo. More research is clearly needed.

Sam on the far left with Carl, Al and my dad.
The Grumpy Old Italian Men.

   Boating season wasn't the only time we ever saw our ancient mariner friends or their kids. Every once in a while they came over our house during the off season. Usually it was for Christmas Eve or a random gathering. I think we even did New Year's Eve at the Fragalas' house once.

    Sometimes, I even went to Matt's house and watch those "R" rated movies properly without any static and interference. We would also play various video games. The Sega games stayed at my house, though. He and a few other friends had both Sega and Nintendo games. Thanks to him I got to play many of the Nintendo classics like Mario and Zelda.  The console war was no joke. Ironically, now you can play both Sega and classic Nintendo games on current consoles like the Nintendo Switch. I guess Sega lost the war.

    I digress. Matt and Ryan along with their parents were chosen family. They were like cousins to me and their parents were like aunts and uncles. Uncle Sam still punches my cheeks like it was 1993, by the way. He hasn't lost his touch!  I'm just glad he never did it when I had my wisdom teeth removed.

    These days both Matt and Ryan are married with children of their own and every once in a while I get together with both of them every chance I get. Sadly, our adventures aren't nearly as entertaining as they once were.  That doesn't mean we've forgotten how to party. They were and still are good friends. Our lives may have changed and we have grown up. But, we'll always remember the good times we had at the marina under the ever watchful eyes of the ancient mariners. 

See ya next time!