LITTLE ITALY NEWS MAY 2010

www.littleitalytroy.org troylittleitaly@gmail.com

UPCOMING EVENTS in
MAY

May TNAC 4/14, 5:30 PM,

Location TBD

May 19, South Central

Neighborhood Watch, 6:00 PM,
Troy Little Italy Community 7:00,
233 Fourth Street,(4th and Wash.)

May 20, Weed and Seed, 5:30 PM

Italian Community Center,
1450 Fifth Ave.

volunteers needed for

flag day parade float
Volunteers at the Marketplace in Troys Little Italy.
A record number of people turned out this year for the annual neighborhood clean-up
. Many hands made fr lighter work and a huge thank you to all who helped.

Thank you Earth Day

Volunteers!!

We had a great turnout with a record number of volunteers from the South
Central Troy neighborhood and beyond. Thank you to Target, Circle K (RPI
Students), the United Way and the hard working kids from the DEFY program.
Thank you to the City of Troy for providing bags, t-shirts for the kids and water.
A special thank you to the following residents for contributing their Saturday
morning
to
beautifying
our
neighborhood:including
Colleen
Goldston, Karen Messick, Agnes
Zink, Lynn Kopka, Denise and Larry
St. Onge, Mike and Carol Gerrish,
Jean Krueger, Marion Field, Jim
Martin, Don Windelspecht, Dan
Lennon, Ed and Michelle Mack, Bill
and Andrea Daley, Mickey Farrington,
Joe Popson, Will Gill and Bernice
Bornt Ledeboer and thank you to all
the many of you whose names we
have not mentioned here. Also,thanks
to our Neighborhood Ambassador,
Ron, who routinely patrols the streets
of Troys Little Italy, cleaning and
keeping the neighborhood looking
good. The work he does weekly made
our annual clean-up go a lot faster,
with far less litter to pick up than in
years past.
We had well over 50 people working
in our neighborhood cleaning up
parks, streets and alleys. Don and Jim
Perennial Neighborhood Volunteer.
used their trucks to make numerous
Bernice bornt Ledeboer can always be
trips to the Alamo. The difference is
counted on when it come to helping maintain
Liberty Park at Fourth and Hill Streets.

quite noticeable around the area. Thanks

again to everyone for their hard work.

This year the Flag Day Parade will be

held on Sunday, June 13. Troy Little Italy
has started to plan for our float and your
help is needed. Joe Mancino of Flavour
Cafe is the chairman for the event. We
plan to have a large red, white and blue
star decorated atop a flatbed trailer. Well
need people to cut wood, hammer and
screw boards together as well as help with
finishing the star and decorating. Its a
lot of fun to build. This year will be the
fourth year Troy Little Italy has entered a
float. Work will begin 3 weeks before the
parade and usually takes place in the early
evenings or on weekends. Want to help?
Email us at troylittleitaly@gmail.com or
call and leave a message at 518 272 4972.

little italy farmers

market

The Troy Little Italy Farmers Market

will be open for business Wednesdays
June through October this year. Opening
day is June 2, 3-6pm. Stop by for fresh
spring produce, prepared foods and
mingle with friends and neighborhs. email
troyneighborhoodmkt@gmail.com
for
info.

Help Resources
Emergencies
911
Traffic Safety
270-5157
Non-Emergencies
270-4411
Downtown Station
270-4421
North Station
237-2398
South Station
273-1682
Community Police
270-4689
Special Operations
270-5854
Animal Control
270-4640
Tip Line, Anonymous 270-5004
Detective Unit
270-4426

AT LIBERTY
The Saga of an ItaloAmerican Family in South
Troy
by Frank LaPosta Visco
Book Two, Chapter 7:
Backyard Frolics And Another Farewell

As life returned to normal after the war, and

the abundant American lifestyle returned,
family feuds and grudges were pushed
below the surface at 13 Liberty Street, and
the backyard once again became a joyous
place. For children, adults, and child-like
adults.
Uncle Luigi Ritorno (we were never
allowed to call him Lou, or Louie) was
an interesting case. He had been born in
American, but, like many Italian families
that were split between the new and the old
world, the young were often sent back to
Italy either because there wasnt enough
income to support them here, or because
their labors were needed over there.
The Ritorno family owned a small
olive grove and press somewhere in
Calabria, near the toe of the Italian boot,
and was brought back there when he was
only a couple of years old, presumably to
be brought up to be educated in the family
business. So he grew up learning only
Italian.
Before he was able to put his
knowledge of the olive oil business to
good use, however, the family lost their
land, and he was forced to re-emigrate to
the US, the land of his birth. But, returning
to Troy as a teenager in the 1930s, he was
one of those rare natural-born Americans
who couldnt speak a word of English.
As a result, the little American English
he did learn to speak was fractured almost
beyond recognition, and he wasnt able
to secure employment equal to his Italian
training. He ended up having to settle for
menial jobs, as a janitor in local factories,
and as a busboy in local restaurants to
supplement his meager day job earnings.
And he didnt do much to debunk the
Italian belief that the Calabrese are hardheaded.
Poor Uncle Luigi. Marrying into
the Case family didnt improve his lot in
life. The men in the family, victims of
discrimination themselves outside Little
Italy, now had someone in their own
enclave on Liberty Street to take it all out
on. Luigi became the butt of frequent
practical jokes.
Later in 1948, it would get even worse
for him, when a popular new radio comedy
would debut about Italian immigrants

trying to learn English. It was Life with

Luigi, with an Irish-American actor
named J. Carrol Naish caricaturing Luigi,
and Alan Reed, later the voice of Fred
Flintstone, playing his Italian landlord.
I remember The Case men playing
a game called Boss and Underboss,
and using it as a way to tease our Luigi.
Following a series of bocce or pinochle
games, the captain of whichever team won
would be the Boss, leaving the captain
of the other team as the Underboss.
They would empty a quart of Stantons
lager, from the brewery around the corner,
into as many glasses as it would fill, and
begin. It was over before the heads on the
beer disappeared, but despite its speed,
the game was intricate and entertaining to
a little boy. And as I reflect on it, it was
educational, too.
The Boss would open with a proposal,
directed at the Underboss. A glass
for you and me, and a glass for all the
members of my team, he might say. He
knew this was unacceptable of course,
and the Underboss would make a counterproposal. A glass for you and me, and
a glass for two of my team and two of
yours. A counter-counter proposal from
the Boss would follow, and so on, with
a little give here and a little take there,
until, as I recall, everyone had a glass of
beer in front of him except Uncle Luigi,
who would rant and rave in his broken
English as the rest quenched their thirst.
Alternately, they would cruelly force him
to drink the entire quart himself, and then
tease him for being drunk.
Luigi always got to drink a normal
amount eventually, of course, but he was
singled out because they all knew that his
frustration would always result in some
outburst. When he had gone dry, theyd
open another bottle, he would drink, and
all would be forgiven. Until the next time.
Uncle Luigi loved to dance, especially
the Italian folk dance called the tarantella
supposedly named after the gyrations
that a victim of a spider-bite would be
forced to undergo.
One late spring Saturday in 1948,
when the family was gathered outside,
enjoying a rare day of leisure, Vincenzo,
my fathers bachelor brother, the family
prankster, played a different kind of trick
on Luigi. Using a long extension cord, he
set up a record player on the back porch,
to provide Italian background music for
the family. Luigi began dancing to a
lively tarantella.
People were clapping and cheering,
and Vincenzo took advantage of that to

quickly lift the needle and place it back

near the beginning of the record. He
did this several times, until Uncle Luigi,
gasping and sweating and finally realizing
that this was the longest song in history,
caught Vincenzo in the act.
Wiping his brow and plopping
down on the cobblestones where he
had been prancing furiously, he looked
accusingly at his brother-in-law and
uttered what has become the family
motto: You thinga somebody dont know
somathing?Somebody knows somathing!
The laughter was cut short when the
mailman came through the gangway into
the backyard with a special delivery letter
for my cousin Coke, the jeep driver in
WW II.
He tore open the official looking
envelope and gave us all the news he
was being called up to use his driving
expertise on German runways, to help
support the Berlin airlift.
Copyright 2010 Frank LaPosta Visco
Next: In Book 2, Chapter 8: The new
priest fills the gap.

Become our fan on

facebook
Search

Troy Little
Italy
and sign up
for timely updates.
Send us your
neighborhood news.

District as well as great music including

The Refrigerators.
CYO Person of the Year
The Record, April 23, 2010. Youth
Association to recognize four. The Sixth
Annual William A. Pascarell Person of the
Year Award recognizes three Little Italy
community activists, Rocco DeFazio,
Marion Field, and Michael Esposito for
their individual and group efforts in Little
Italys renaissance. Pat Miele will receive
the Humanitarian Award for his admirable
work with the CYO Center, his leadership
in working with the handicapped and his
efforts in fund raising for the organization.

New Bike Racks for Little Itally

Marketplace

bike rack update

Five new bike racks were picked up

from the CDTA bus terminal in Albany
last month. They will be installed in and
around the Marketplace on Hill Street by
neighborhood volunteers. Each bike rack
will provide hitching space for two bikes
and will come in very handy during the
many events scheduled for this site during
the 2010 summer season. Installation
will take place during May, pending City
approval of the bike racks proposed
locations. The bike racks were obtained
through a CDTA grant offered to civic
organizations such as Troy Little Italy.

Earth Day clean up

The Record, April 23, 2010. Clean up
helps city get progressively better.
Hill Street resident and ten year veteran
of the annual clean up campaign, Agnes
Zink, was interviewed during the Earth
Day event and remarked that each year
the event helps the city get progressively
better. Dozens of neighborhood volunteers
made a difference in the appearance of
South Central with their efforts.
Police memorial to be dedicated.
Among the seven police officers who are
being honored on May 13, 2010 when the
police memorial is dedicated in a ceremony
outside the Troy police station is Officer
Michael J. McMahon who was shot and
killed while investigating a domestic
incident in Little Italy in October 10, 1910,
According to information available on the

website The Officer Down Memorial Page,

Inc., Officer McMahon, 43, served the
Troy police department for seven years.
The suspect was convicted and executed
at Clinton Prison in 1911. At the time of
his death, Officer McMahon was assigned
to the First Precint. His post was on Third
Street. He resided with his wife Catherine
and six children at 330 Fourth Street, just
two blocks south of where the shooting
incident took place. Details of the tragic
incident are reported in articles in the
1910 Troy Times. The site of the shooting
was a boarding house located in the rear
of 262 Fourth Street. Family members of
some of the officers will be present at the
dedication ceremony.
TROY LITTLE ITALY ANNUAL
EVENTS
May 1- StickBall Tournament and Citywide Garage Sale
June- October - Little Italy Farmers
Market, Wed., 3-6pm
June to September - Cinema under the
Stars
June 13 - Flag Day Parade
July -Drop in Center for young adults
August National Night Out
September - Italian Community Center
Shrine Festa
September - International Day in Little
Italy
December - Victorian Stroll and
Christmas in Little Italy

South Central/Little
italy in the News

Congratulations, Heather LaVine

Albany Tines Union, April 22, 2010,
BLOG, The Buzz: Business News
reports that Heather will receive the
Annual Women of Excellence Award
for Emerging Professional from the
Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of
Commerce in June. Heather, a Little Italy
resident-homeowner, is director of fan
development for the Tri City Valley Cats
and is a volunteer for Little Italy.
Stickball returns!
The Record, April 23, 2010. Stickball
tourney helps food pantries by Cecilia
Martinez. We Play for Food stickball
tournament returns to Little Italys
MarketPlace for the third year on the
weekend of May 1st and 2nd attracting
teams from throughout the Capital

West Elevation- Joseph House on 4th St., Troy, NY

Joseph House prepares to commemnce construction

Joseph House began prepaing its site at 202 4th St. for construction of a 3 story building
which will house homeless persons and provide offices for the organization. Tracy
Neitzel, administrator, encourages people with questions regarding the project to
contact her or Charlie DeBrocky directly at 670-0002, M-F, 9am-5pm or email
tneitzel@josephhousetroy.org. Joseph House estimates that construction will take ten
monthes and apologizes in advance for any inconvenience closing of sidewalks or
streets may cause to the Little Itlay Community.

realestate pportunities
in troy little italy

4th MARKET REUNION

FOR SALE
1 FAMILY
191 Second St., $474,900, Karen ,8921326
164 Second St., $249,000, Michael. 8136049
1023 Fifth Ave., $114,900, Cindy, 2698278
56 Havermans Ave., $139,900, Deb, 3838347

Come To Enjoy That Special Time Of The 50S, 60S And 70S
In The Market.
Eat, Drink And Share The Stories Of A Glorious Era That Can Never Be Forgotten.

2 FAMILY
42 Ida St., $45,900, Patricia
885-9121
198 Hill St. , $99,500, James,857-5427
121 Adam St., $99,900, Douglas, 7246871
62 Ida St., $95,000, Kareem, 542-3566
118 Adams St., $87,500, Brian, 253-7094
332 Fourth St., $74,900, John, 577-5144

Tickets can be purchased by mailing a check, made out to

The Market Reunion
and sent to:
Market Reunion, PO Box 16
Troy, New York 12182

SATURDAY JUNE 5, 2010

at the
ITALIAN COMMUNITY CENTER
1450 5Th Avenue, Troy, New York

TICKETS $25.00 PER PERSON

(Must be purchased by May 31, 2010)

For More Info, Contact The ICC At 274-0508 Ext. 17

MULTI UNITS
191-193 Second St., $849,000, Karen,
892-1326
263 Fourth St., $74,500, Douglas, 7246871
80 Havermans Ave., $99,999, Sandra,
858-8083
410 Washington St., $149,900, Al, 4414353
I Irving Place, $215,500, Richard, 8521365
COMMERCIAL
199 Fourth St., $119,900, Jay, 961-3313
314 Fourt St., $92,000, Al, 441-4353
Apartments for Rent
In Little Italy
1BD Crystal, Gilt, Marble Living Rm;
Newly Rehab Kitch; Free Off-Street
Parking. $800/m Security & References.
No Smokers or Section 8. Emily 518207-7285
2 BR Apartment on Hill St. Owner
Occupied. Large, open living room, high
ceilings, clawfoot tub and other charm.
Heat included, tenant pays electric and
gas. Pet Friendly with extra security.
$750.00/mo, 1mo security. Amanda 845494-9983 or ajoymess@yahoo.com.
1 BDR, 850sf, 2nd fl. Little Italy, new
kit appl.,incl dw, balcony, back yard, no
smoking, no pets, no Sec. 8, single adult
or couple only, references rqd. $550. +
util., last mo. rent, $300. security deposit.
Prefer 1 year lease. 518 272 4972.

Spring into Action!

City Wide

Garage Sale
Every Saturday in May
at the Market Place in Troy Little Italy
(Hill St between Washington and Liberty)
May 1st
May 8th
May 15th
May 22nd
May 29th
7 to 11 am
Set up time at
6 am

Clean out your basements, cellars, attics, backyard and

closets. Turn your unused items into
First Come First Served; Claim your Space!

$$$$$$

Only $10.00

Call Andrea 470-7369 or All Blues 272-4972