ALWAYS KEEP GRINNING,By Louise Annarino,June 16,2012
So many memories of Dad crowd in that the doors of my memory cannot close long enough for this train of thought to leave the station. So, I shall eject many in order to move on to a place where I can share a few with you.
My Dad was ornery. This was the first comment made by his childhood friends,his mother, brothers, cousins, aunts or uncles as each described him to me in answer to my request: “Tell me about my Dad when he was young.”
“He could never stop grinning,” said Grandma, “He went to the Bishop’s school in Cincinnati you,know, next to the cathedral? Well, one day the bishop came to class to speak to the children, and as the bishop spoke your dad’s silly grin got bigger and bigger. The bishop thought he was mocking him and said to your dad, ‘Wipe that silly grin off your face!’,which only made your dad grin more. After a couple of reminders to stop grinning the bishop told your dad to go home and ‘Don’t come back until you mother brings you back to school!’ Your dad never said a word to me. So, for the rest of the week, your dad left home every morning for school,but spent the day in the movie theatre. He did this day after day,until the day I got a home visit from Sister wondering why I was keeping Angelo home,and had not returned with him to the school as the bishop directed. When your dad came home that day,as usual grinning like a banshee, I tried to give him a whupping,but I just couldn’t do it. He grinned and laughed the whole time. I just sent him back to school. Nothing and no one can stop Angelo’s grin!”
“Your dad was always getting us into trouble,” said my Uncle Joe, “but, he has a hard head.” We used to have to fight our way to school every day as we left the Italian neighborhood. We carried ball bats to fight our way through the Irish,Polish and Black neighborhoods. Your dad suggested we walk above the streets on construction beams of the many buildings going up on our route to school. He was fooling around as usual,making everyone laugh at his antics,grinning like a fool when he fell off and was knocked out. We wrapped handkerchiefs around his bleeding head,picked him up and carried him home. Grandma,Mom,and Aunt Annie were so mad at us for failing to take care of our sweet baby brother that we all got whuppings.When Ange woke up,he woke up grinning like a fool at all the women in our house making such a big deal out of it. “He could start more trouble! But, that grin always got him out of it.”
My grandfather and his brothers were boot-leggers during the prohibition. Great Uncle Wes told me that one day Dad and his cousin Frank were to transport a case of beer to the secret room at Great Aunt Angie’s house. Dad was only 12 so Frankie drove. Dad was keeping Frankie in stitches,and keeping him from paying attention to the speedometer. Soon, they heard police sirens.Realizing they could not be found with beer in the truck,Frankie told Dad to throw it out the window as he drove around a curve. “Your dad threw the whole d… case out the window, instead of one bottle at a time as he should have,” said Uncle Wes,laughing. “It was so heavy that it stuck right in the berm where the cops cops could see it.” The police took his cousin off to jail and asked Dad if he could drive the truck. He was told to follow them to the police station. He did, for awhile, then fell back bit by bit. He parked the truck in front of the bar of a rival Italian fruit vendor, and went…you can guess by now…to the movies…for the rest of the day. I asked Dad about this story,and he said it was all true and that it would have been fine if he’d thrown out one bottle at a time.But, he was too scared to think straight. The police let Frankie go, found the truck and questioned the bar owners,no one was arrested. I asked “Why not?” It seems that a bottle of whiskey was left in each police call box around town every week. The police were content to look the other way,so long as no other laws,even speed limits,were not broken. Few people agreed with prohibition. People simply worked there way around it,and kept grinning. “The policeman who found his weekly whiskey in his box always had a big grin on his face,”said Dad.”Always keep ’em smilin’.”
These stories became a lesson from Dad – no matter what happens never stop grinning! You might be able to avoid a good whupping.
annarino writes 