Tag Archives: Petals from Roseland

  It’s been more than eight years since I began writing the Fra Noi Petals from Roseland column, but I haven’t been writing it by myself. Those who came before me such as Mario Avignone also write this column with me. You might well ask, “How do they do that?” The simple answer is through the words they left behind in their writings or in the projects they took part in that have benefited posterity. Unfortunately, I never received any of Mario Avignone’s files, records or copies of his columns, however I did receive copies of St. Anthony’s Broadcast, which …

  Italian Americans have many reasons to celebrate the enclaves that nurtured immigrants and changed families: Taylor Street, 24th & Oakley, Little Sicily on the Near North Side and Melrose Park are just a few that come to mind. On the Far South Side, Roseland became a bustling center for Italian life and culture. One man has taken on the laudable task of keeping Roseland’s memories and magnificence alive: C.J. Martello. Arguably, Martello knows Roseland and the adjoining Pullman and Kensington neighborhoods better than anyone. He was married at St. Anthony Italian Catholic Church in 1972, and has steeped himself …

  As I sit at my retiree desk writing this column, summer is still working its way into being a consistent season. My next-door neighbor Al Davis is burning some logs in his fire pit and the smell is wafting up through my barely open second floor window. The scent is playing time machine games with my mind and drawing me back to those days of burning leaves and other smells of the good old days. Those simpler days were full of memorable aromas and some smells that we’d like to forget. (Why is it that we always sniff again …