Reminiscences

On this page I want to include stories of your reminiscences of growing up in an Italian family.  Please send them to janet@chieuti-pages.com.  Do you remember traditions, phrases, anything that reminds you of your Italian heritage?  This doesn't have to be literary or profound or long - even a couple of sentences will do.  Many of you have shared some of your memories with me and I enjoy reading them.  I think visitors to Chieuti Pages would enjoy reading them too.  Please send them in!

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When I was a young lad, I remember my father playing his mandolin and my grand father with his guitar making music on the back porch.  And Mr. DeCarlo would come out on his back porch which faced ours, with his guitar and join in.  He would sing all of the Italian melodies, mimicking the voice of Carlo Buti and Caruso.  By this time most of the neighbors would be outside listening and enjoying the music and cheering the players.  This was the way we entertained ourselves, since most families did not have a radio or a wind-up Victrola. Those were the "Good Old Days."

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I remember the first time it occurred to me that Italians were loud.  I had moved away from home to New York City.  It was Christmas, I think, and I was back home in Cleveland.  We were all over Aunt Mary's - lots of food and relatives.  After dinner, the grown-ups were talking, shouting, yelling really.  They weren't angry, just discussing amongst themselves.   And they were so noisy!  "Hmmmm . . . ." I thought, "they're not mad; this is the way they talk.  Wow, most people aren't like this."  It had always seemed so normal to me.  For the first time I recognized an important truth:  my family is loud.

Submitted by:  Janet House
Chieuti ancestors immigrated to:  Cleveland, Ohio
Surnames:  Minelli, Sforza, Petrucci, Ferreri