The Humble and the Heroic: Wartime Italian Americans (Hardcover) ...

I can never forget how vehemently my sister, brother and I opposed my mother’s intention of moving to a flat only a few blocks distant, regarding the suggestion as the equivalent of calling upon us to abandon our ancestral home and village, to move away from everything that held meaning for us. My mother acquiesced to our concern and agreed to move across the street. The mindset was local and provincial, an outlook that could be found in other Italian enclaves as a study of Italian Greenwich Village confirms.

Because of sometimes oppressive summer heat and humidity, much of life in this ethnic venue was lived outdoors where one became accustomed to predictable neighbor scrutiny. Block residents learned to cope with the uncomfortable weather conditions in the pre-air condition era when on those especially hot days and nights landlords hosed down sidewalks in front of their houses to cool the sidewalks—originally slabs of slate or bluestone—and then opened cellar doors to bring out makeshift benches and kitchen chairs, creating one row against the cast iron railings in front of the tenements and another row along the curb. Tenants on the first and second floor would sit at the window facing the street, using bed pillows on the window sill to lean on. Pitchers of ice water would be passed around, and children would play games like ringolevio, punch ball, or searchlight on the street or ride on Chicago roller skates that they got free, thanks to a promotion from a newly opened Miles Shoe Store. This left a narrow path for block residents to pass by and exchange greetings or merely acknowledge each other as they came and went from their houses, thereby providing ample opportunity for sidewalk sitters and window observers to comment about the work habits, clothing, health, love life, idiosyncrasies, etc. of the passers by.