We're flying British Airways to Rome for the family "roots" trip. BA doesn't allow you to pre-book seats until 24 hours before your flight. Last night we had our countdown with two laptops to book 7 seats together as soon as the website would let us. It was more stressful than I imagined.
In a week, on what would have been Nonno Tony's 97th birthday, I arrive in Rome for the start of my "roots" trip. We've been planning this for almost 10 months, not expecting the turbulent year it has turned out to be. I haven't prepared enough for the "roots" part so I am open to more unexpected encounters and adventures. However, until I'm on that first plane, I'll be fretting about mundane things like which foundation garments to pack.
Last week my ear was plugged up, making it difficult to concentrate and walk in a straight line. The only thing I could think to do was go home and sleep. After a day it had passed but it reminded me of Nonna Fausta and her olive oil cures. She was one of the few remaining people who could master the art or science of curing ear aches, sprains, eye problems, and many more ailments with warm olive oil, the right pressure points, and, I'm sure, some special words. No one in the family is left with this special skill.
I went shopping for new eye glass frames this week -- long overdue! I tried on dozens of frames and the more I tried on the more they reminded me of old family photos from the 1960s. The strongest images were of my aunt's glasses and my mom's sunglasses. Of course images of my dad, a la Drew Carey, also weighed in.
Nonna Elvira had a collection of Italian 45s that she bought on her first trip back to Italy in the 1960s. I spent much of my childhood listening to those records. Here's one of those songs, "La rosa nera."
As a kid I liked the tune but when I listen to it now I wonder if Nonna was taken with the lyrics, particularly "stanno cambiando il mondo" -- they are changing the world. For someone who was born in a time and place with no electricity and lived well into the age of the Internet, she experienced an amazing amount of change. Wonder if I will see that much change in my lifetime?
I was sampling a new long-lasting gum today, which reminded me of my Nonno Joe. He used to carry a green box of spearmint chiclets in his shirt pocket until he died in the early 1970s. The gum was for him, not for the grandkids. I loved the box because it had a cellophane pane and when the box was empty we would blow into it and make squaking sounds like a bad kazoo.
I’m not a huge fan of the new long-lasting gum. I like my gum to wear out before I do.
