Page 33 - Dr. Nisha Bunke

When You’re Italian

By Carol Heath

his work; the exhibitors agreed. Those elephants were
displayed on the China cabinet and represented my Papa,
my Nonie, my 3 aunts and my 3 uncles.
The smells from my Nonie’s kitchen were always familiar
and always made me feel safe. Nonie had several strokes
which left her paralyzed on the right side of her body. Most
people would just give up and sit in a chair, but not my
Nonie, she always made the sauce at Sunday dinner. By
the time we arrived for dinner, the sauce had been made
and she was holding court sitting in her special chair in
the front room. Everyone that walked in the door went to
my Nonie first and gave her a kiss and a hug. She had a
wooden cane hanging on her special chair and as a kid
you feared that wooden stick with a curved end. Nothing
went unnoticed by my Nonie and she would use that cane
to grab you in whatever part of your body she managed
to snag. She would reel you in and say “Ragazza cattiva”;
she spoke very little English, but she got her point across.
You were a bad girl and she would say in her very broken
English, “You hurta Nonie when you acta like that”. She
always had a tear in her eye when she gave you the guilt
trip; but I guess that it always worked.

The smells were not the only thing that came out of my
Nonie’s kitchen. While Nonie held court in her special
chair, my aunts and some of my uncles were cooking their San Diego Woman
contribution to the Sunday dinner. Aunt Teti was cooking
eggplant, Aunt Nana was cooking zucchini, my mother was
always responsible for dessert, but she was in the kitchen
talking Italian sometimes and English part of the time. 33
Uncle Dodo was making fresh pasta and Uncle Benny was
helping him.
My sister Bobbie was the first grandchild to be born. So
when she couldn’t say my aunts and uncles given names,
Matilda became Teti, Adrianna became Nana, Armando
became Dodo, just to name a few, as example of where
the unusual names came from.
All the kids, 25 of us, sat around the table and ate first;
then we were shipped off to the movies. Uncle Joe always
drove us in his Chrysler with the jump seats. Those jump
seats were always a bone of contention as we all wanted
to sit in them. The grown-ups had dinner and always
When you’re Italian you learn two words almost before you can waited for us to return from the movies before they had dessert.
walk, family and food – and not necessarily in that order. Italians That was the ‘familia’ time. Papa would sit at the head of the table
usually speak at about a 90 dB level, which for most people is
screaming. We’re not screaming, we are just passionate. drinking his homemade wine and often asked one of his
In my family, every Sunday would be dinner at Nonie’s house. grandchildren “Hey you, whatsa your name and have you been
a good girl or good boy.” Everyone would always laugh at our
Nonie, for those people who aren’t fortunate enough to be Italian responses - and the room got louder.
is grandma. My Nonie’s house was always full of aromas of food, I recently moved back to southern California and drove by the
family talking, and the China cabinet in the entrance. During the
World’s Fair in San Francisco, my grandfather (or Papa) built house on Louisiana Street, which had a smaller house in the
several exhibits. One of the exhibitors talked my Papa into taking back. I remember the little house as my mother, sister and I lived
there after my parents were divorced. I remember the big house
that China cabinet as payment for his work. Papa knew how to the most. It looks different from the outside, but I remember every
negotiate; he learned this living in the Italian section of New York room and wondered who lived there now. I took solace in
after he was released from Ellis Island. So he looked around the
booth and noticed an array of black ebony elephants with real knowing that whoever lives there now can’t cook as well and
ivory tusks. He told the exhibitor that he would take 8 elephants probably speaks in a normal 40 dB tones.
in graduated sizes and the China cabinet as payment in full for