Ida recently shared some great photos with me; the house on Shelter Street and the MLS card for the house from 1973. She also shared some remembrances of the family's time there! Find her memories below, and feel free to add your own in the comments section.
"The last occupants of the house at the time where my father, and maybe Rosellen, on the first floor where my family grew up (from c.1949-1973.) Joe and I lived on the second floor after we were married in 1970, replacing the former occupants, Roberta & Archie after they were married in 1962. Both Paula (1963) and Dawn (1966) were born there, and lived there until 1970. Previous second floor occupants were Armand, Carmel, John, and your father (Bob). Aunt Rose lived on the third floor, she moved up there after her mother died, and the Scali family of seven moved in! I was about six months old at the time. I believe Aunt Rose lived on the first floor with all of us until the third floor was redone. My brothers, Vinny and George, respectively got to live on the third floor in her second bedroom, quite the deluxe accommodations, having your own private bedroom! Joey never made it up to that status. He was stuck on the first floor and never got the upgrade!" --Ida
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Just one of several postcards Armand collected in his travels. I bet some of us have been to this very site, the bakery in the ancient city of Pompeii. It's possible that we have walked the same ground so many miles away from home, or if you look at it another way - so close to "home". It's only about an hour away from Piedimonte D'Alife!
Click on "comments" above to add your thoughts and/or memories! Armand was born at 123 Greene Street in New Haven. I am assuming this was a home birth. Does anyone know something about the Greene Street house? Who else was born there? I tried to find the exact location on google maps to no avail, so perhaps it's been demolished...
Click on "comments" above to add your thoughts and/or memories!
When Trish showed me Armand's notebook with the list of places he had travelled in Northern Africa during WWII, I thought, "Wouldn't this be cool to see on a map?" I envisioned some fancy animation a la Indiana Jones with a dotted line connecting these foreign towns as we saw a snapshot of what life was like in each of these places. Since my animation skills are not up to Spielbergian standards, I decided to consult Google Maps and make a rough visual of his journey. It turned out to be a bit tougher than I anticipated. In the process, I learned a bit about the recent history of Northern Africa, in particular the French occupation until the 1950s-1960s. The reason this was important to me is that some of the French place names that Armand had written down no longer exist, and are instead called by their true and reclaimed local names.
Through a series of extensive googling, consulting old maps of the region, and some fun work with GPS coordinates, I've developed a rough sketch of Armand's journey through North Africa. You can explore the interactive Google Map, or just take a glimpse at the screen captures of the day-by-day travels of the 16th Armored engineers battalion, 1st Armored Division across Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco from May 23 to June 1, 1943. I plan to delve deeper into this project at a later date, but in honor of Armand's birthday, enjoy a taste of North Africa from a close relative's perspective. Ida shared this wonderful bit of family lore with me a couple of weeks ago. In Giovanni's obituary, he is listed as being "President of the Columbus Committee", which makes this story below very likely true! Hopefully someday we will track down an article to prove it. But even if we never find "proof", there is truth in the words of the great actress Sarah Bernhardt; "Legend remains victorious in spite of history". Also, here is a monument page for the statue if you are interested. Click on "comments" above to add your thoughts and/or memories! COLUMBUS STATUE
Family lore has it that our grandfather (Giovanni) placed the globe of the world in his left hand at the re-dedication of the memorial (year?) after it was reportedly stolen from his hand! Your grandfather (Armand) told me this story and I in turn told it to the second grade teacher at St.Thomas's Day School in New Haven where I taught. Part of the Social Studies curriculum included the founding of our country and the history of New Haven. Every year she would take the class on many field trips around and about New Haven. When they got to the famous Chris statue she would include in the story that Mrs. Ginnetti's grandfather placed the "world" in his hand. Hundreds of second graders were very impressed by this. I have tried over the years to verify the story as fact, however have come up cold! Needless to say, the Santomasso Family lore story has been passed on and told and retold many, many times! |