Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
It’s that time, once again, to catch up on stories and column suggestions that are too short to merit a column on their own but nonetheless deserve recognition. This edition of the column also serves as proof to those people that I have met at different meetings, dinners, and events and have received mail and e-mails from that I pay attention to the faithful followers of Petals from Roseland.
Earlier in the year, I devoted a column to St. Anthony’s Church and the fact that there are a good number of people from years gone by that still attend Sunday Mass. Since that time, numerous people have asked, “Do you still go to Mass at St. Anthony’s?” Other times, I’ve been asked, “When was the last time you were in Roseland?” Or, “I’ve heard Pullman isn’t doing too good and the neighborhood isn’t safe. Do you ever go down there?”
All of these questions are asked with simple curiosity. I’m so used to being a part of Pullman activities such as the Annual Pullman Family Reunion Picnic, the Labor Day Rock and Roll get together, and the Pullman Factory Ground’s Hobofest that negative comments and questions about the viability or neighborhood safety and liveliness of Pullman seem absurd to me.
As for visiting Roseland, nothing but frosting gets between me and my donuts from the Old Fashioned Donut Shop at 11248 Michigan — next to the building that housed the Calumet Index with the brown marble front. If you look up the donut shop online at YELP, you’ll see it has 74 reviews and a five-star rating. That translates into many visitors to Roseland and they are not necessarily residents of Roseland. Admittedly my visits to the donut shop are a quick stop in the late afternoon, but being city smart goes with living in the city.
St. Anthony’s has become a significant part of my life. I couldn’t get there for three Sundays straight and missed my fellow parishioners. And guess what? I was missed by them. St. Anthony’s is still a family! Its dynamics have changed but it’s still family. The coffee club still meets after 8:30 Mass and usually someone brings or bakes treats to share.
As a matter of fact, St. Anthony’s coffee club has expanded to three tables. One table is populated by Italian-speaking attendees and usually has nine or 10 people seated at it. Recently, the people seated at the table were Adriano and Gina Magnabosco, Rosanna and Giovanni Arrabito, Madeline Wolf, Etta Mancuso, Angelo Frighetto, Anna Zorci and Giulia Savaglio.
The other two tables are often pulled together so we can seat more people as new people join the non-Italian speaking coffee club members. This table was joined by Al Aducci and his mother Lorraine who live in Riverdale. They felt so welcomed after the first Sunday they joined the group, that they’ve become regulars for coffee. Some of the other regulars at the table are Julia Munoz, Gina Frighetto-Sakiewicz, Lou Ann Sola Pretto, Jo Navarette, Beverly and Chuck Carli, and sometimes instead of sitting at the Italian table, when he’s got something to discuss like Tresche Conca, Giovanni and Marie Aver. I’d like to make the point that the majority of these people don’t live near St. Anthony’s. The mass attendees come from various suburbs such as South Holland, Tinley Park, Frankfurt, New Lenox and even from Indiana. I myself come from the north side of the city near Wrigley Field.
Note e Notizie
The Fenger Classes of January and June 1950 are planning a 62nd class reunion for September 2012. To get information on the status of the reunion and to get on the corresponding list, contact Marion DeMaro Podgorski at 708-895-0669 or Bob Stupegia at 708-532-2567.
Jeanne Raffin informed me that Carl Ziller, 73, of Blue Island, passed away this past September. Carl lived in Roseland on 124th Street, just east of Michigan Avenue and was well known in the neighborhood.
For a number of the Petals from Roseland 2012 columns, I would like to write about different families and their stories from their days in the Roseland/Pullman/Kensington area. If you have any memorable stories of family members or neighbors or friends, please contact me to discuss your suggestion.
Also, if there are any businesses that you, or family members, worked at, the stories from those businesses could make a good topic for Petals from Roseland.
Contact CJ Martello at 1501 W. Belmont Ave. #708, Chicago, IL 60657; 773-525-7823; or cjfranoi@yahoo.com; Roseland Roundtable on Facebook.
