Because I'm near the end of the grandkids I only remember the older skinny version of nonna. She was an incredible 80-something who I'm sure passed down the obsessive compulsive disorder of cleaning the house before the cleaning lady arrived. I don't do it to the degree that nonna did. She would straddle the stairwell (feet on the railings!) to clean the light fixture so her cleaner wouldn't have to do it. I don't think the cleaning lady phase lasted very long since there wasn't much to do. Probably a thoughtful idea from one of her children but not very practical.
After nonno died, we would visit once a week. In winter we would pass the time together watching tv shows: MASH, the short-lived Planet of the Apes, and her favourite, the Lawrence Welk Show. Nonna always laughed along with the MASH laugh track but I'm sure she didn't catch most of its humour. As young kids, I'm sure we didn't either.
Lawrence Welk would have been 106 last week.
4 comments:
Hey Deb--I remember Joanne taking me to Nonna's for dinner just before we got married. Beautiful Italian dinner and a bit of wine. To impress Nonna I insisted on washing the dishes. Later I was advised that she rewashed the dishes and washed the walls in her dining room. She was obviously more concerned about my Irish germs than Joanne was.
I've inherited Nonna's obsession of rewashing dishes but I don't do walls!
My Nonna would be 115 -she was born in Naples, Italy on March 20th- she also loved Lawrence Welk-my sister and I would have a sleepover on Saturday nights when we were young and we would watch Lawrence Welk with her- I don't remember obsessive cleaning but she always had a spotless house-she would re-use bread bags to put her homemade cookies and muffins in and would always want the bags back again-they never wasted anything. They lived through hard times-she was 13 when her mother died so she had to quit school and help her dad with cooking and cleaning. I always loved hearing about the old days-the stories were so interesting.
Nancy, thanks for sharing your Nonna's stories. They were remarkable women.
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