| Chapter 2: | Street Life |
Theater on Second Avenue. In 1912 she was shot to death by her competitors in the protection racket. During the forties three of the stables near the East River were occupied by milk-bottling companies.
When I was a child grandma was my companion. And my best teacher. Often she used Sicilian proverbs to teach me lessons she considered important for me to know. On the subject of old age she recited, “Lu pisu di l’anni è lu pisu cchiù granni.” (The weight of advancing years is the heaviest weight.) On God she noted, “Ogni beni di Diu veni.” (Every gift comes from God.) However, she was critical of monks and priests: “Nun aviri cunti cu monaci e parrini.” (Have nothing to do with monks and priests.) And one proverb she recited on numerous occasions to me when I was little: “Cui cerca, trova; cui secuta, vinci.” (One who searches, finds; one that perseveres, wins.)
Sicilian women had a proverb for shopping: “Cu’ accatta abbisogna di cent’occhi; cu’ venni d’un sulu.” (The shopper needs one hundred eyes, the seller needs only one.)7
The young men living on my street were construction workers or merchants. The young women worked in neighborhood factories, many in a shirt-making factory on First Avenue. The grandmothers watched the grandchildren and did the grocery shopping. My great-grandmother shopped with my mother by her side. My grandmother shopped with me by her side.
An American writer, Caroline Singer, shopping on the East Side in 1921 sheds light on the shopping experiences of women like my great-grandmother with my mother at her side. In her Saturday