Eastertime is family time

This year, Easter comes relatively late in the season, giving me more time than usual to savor memories of the holiday. I recall it was always a major event in our household. The reason for this is that my brother Augie and I got to go to Robert Hall to get brand-new suits. The salesmen at Robert Hall really liked the fact that Catholics celebrated Easter by dressing up. They were very eager to see us come in for our annual visit.

My dad worked hard to make his money as a house painter and so we often had to do without. Easter was the one time of the year when my dad broke out the money to buy us new clothes. It wasn’t something he necessarily looked forward to, but it was something he planned for in his budget.

On the other hand, according to my sister Rosie, she had to wear hand-me-downs, or the same dress our mother made that she wore for Communion and Confirmation. I’m sure if my sister’s memory was better, she could probably recall getting at least one new dress somewhere along the way. Then again, coming from a family of eight, four boys and four girls, my sister might be right on the money saying she had to often wear hand-me-downs from her older sisters.

I’d really be making a sin of omission if I didn’t mention Roseland’s Ward family. They gained local fame for a couple of reasons, one of them being that there were 18 kids in the family! The second and more impressive reason was that their mother was the Roseland queen of seamstresses! Each year, the entire family was pictured in the Calumet Index because their mother made each dress and each suit that her family wore. It’s still a great memory of life in Roseland.

Easter Sunday was always a big feast at our house. My older sister Jeanina always seemed to be having babies when I was in grade school. As a matter of fact, my oldest niece Vicky is only 6 years younger than I am.

My sister having kids all the time translated to a full house for the regular Sunday family dinners that our mom always cooked. However, Easter Sunday, Christmas and birthdays were the big holidays that all my sisters and brothers and their families showed up for. That means any relatives that lived too far to come for the usual Sunday dinner showed up. My mom baked some great seasoned chicken in the oven to go along with the platters of vegetables and polenta and whatever else we had in those days. That of course, included ciopette.

Ciopette is the time-honored bread of Italy’s Veneto region, and it’s hard to find these days unless you go to Northern Italy. I have written about ciopette many times over the years.

For a while, I would go to the Piemonte Bakery in Rockford. They had something similar to the ciopette we grew up with, but it could never be exactly the same. One reason was that the Rockford ciope had to have a shelf life of 10 to 12 days.

As anyone familiar with the Kensington Gonnella-Torino ciopette will remember, we picked up ciopette at the bakery on Saturday night or Sunday. If you got your on Sunday, after mass, you would go to Spigalon’s, Italian Cheese, or Panetti’s to buy them. With their particular flavor, ciopette are delicious with salami or with any meal you had that Sunday.

However, come Monday morning, they would turn hard and could only be eaten by dunking in “cafe latte.” After Monday, they were only good for breaking up and feeding the pigeons! The reason for this is that the recipe called for all the air and gases to be kneaded out. Those are the elements that kept the ciope flavor that we all grew up with. The presence of air gave the Rockford ciope a shelf life of 10 to 12 days rather than 24 hours. It also accounts for the difference in taste.

We had a big dining room table that was full of adults and we also had the children’s table which I didn’t have to sit at, thank God. Around the table we had at least three highchairs. It was my sisters fault as, being good Catholics, they were having kids at about the same time. It was a family fun experience and made a great memory.

When my sister’s kids started growing up, Easter always featured an Easter egg hunt. With so many kids and in such a big house the Easter egg hunt was always a fun time for them and the adults.

I remember when my older sister’s kids were old enough and we began coloring eggs. I recall buying Easter egg coloring kits a couple of times, but my mom used food coloring like everyone else did at the time. It was quite the process and really got the little kids engaged.

I can remember one time when we had our Easter egg hunt. We never counted the number of eggs we hid around the house and this led to a very funny experience. One Easter Sunday we thought all the eggs had been found but, unfortunately, a few weeks after Easter we found the last egg!

It turned out that someone had the wise idea to hide an Easter egg in the folds of a baby buggy shade bonnet. The baby buggy was sitting in our living room for when any babies came over for us to babysit. The baby buggy hadn’t been used for quite a while when there was a strange smell in the dining room. It didn’t take long before we finally realized where that smell was coming from. And that, folks, was the last of the Easter egg hunt without counting how many eggs were being hidden!

“Petals from Roseland: Fond Memories of Chicago’s Roseland, Pullman and Kensington Neighborhoods” is available from me for anyone interested in sharing or revisiting their life in Roseland at $20 + $5 s&h. Contact me at petalsfromroseland@gmail.com or 11403 S. St. Lawrence Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60628; 773-710-3559. My book is also available at D & D Foods, 1023 S. Halsted, Chicago Heights, at Bookie’s New and Used Books, 10324 S. Western Ave, Chicago and at Miles Books,2819 Jewett Ave., Highland, Indiana.