What is a Guilded Ghinni, you ask?

Anyone who has grown up in an Italian household will understand what this is. Does your house have a lot of gold leafed frames? Perhaps a Roman statue or two? Did bringing lunch to school as a child result in a lot of odd looks from the other kids who don't understand what a Broccoli Rabe or Pepper sandwich is? Greens with the beans? Look outside! Is that a statue of the Virgin Mary out in the backyard?  If she's out there, you know what I mean!

 

Looking at family pictures in the Italian household is always fun. It is important though to make a mental count of how many pictures the family donkey is in, back in the old country.

This is a picture from the 1978 visit of my great grandmother, Gilda (2nd, left) and great Aunty Rosie (4th left).

Something that always freaked me out was pictures we had of dead people laid out ON THE BED in their home! Sadly I don't have any to scan, as they got ruined in a basement flood.

Just how Italian are you?

The Ghinni Sister:

Here is a picture of Michelle before she headed out to a Christmas party in 2005. Her attire is very elegant, and yet very Ghinni! Maybe it's the piece? :)
  
Here's a picture of Michelle's bedroom. I don't think I have to say anything... All she is missing is a doll on the bed with a dress made of hundreds of lace ruffles!
 

* I almost forgot to mention.... her most favorite car in the entire world is a Pontiac Firebird!

Ghinni Down! Ghinni Gone?

Growing up, we were surrounded by all kinds of Italian folks. Some right off the boat, some second and third generation. Family occasions were huge events, with loads of people.

Time went on, and this one didn't get along with that one, and basically each of the five siblings of my grandmother's generation had their families separate. In a lot of cases, that wasn't such a bad thing. (ha ha :) It has recently occurred to me that I may be losing my Italian heritage... life has changed over the past decade. It seems as though family has dwindled down, and has become ever increasingly more WASP-like. Here, let me give you an example...

Here's a list of some of the attendees to Michelle's birthday in 1982:

  • Guilio
  • Luigi
  • Gaetano
  • Vicenza
  • Vittorio
  • 2 Salvatores (one Sal The Tailor)
  • Lucia
  • Mary Gilda
  • Rosa
  • Fulvio
  • Orlanda

Here's a list of some of the attendees to summer picnic in 2005:

  • Matt
  • Brian
  • Katie
  • Karen
  • Don
  • Jeanette
  • and that's about it!

 

Outside of my core family group consisting of my parents, sister, grandparents, an myself, that's a literal guest list. Is this a bad thing? Not particularly. Sometimes I greatly appreciate being around people who are fluent in English and are able to conduct an intelligible conversation, and get sarcasm.

The things I miss are:

  • sense of togetherness
  • meaning of what Family is
  • knowing your roots
  • wonderful food
  • people who eat vegetables
  • last names that end with a vowel
  • last names that people can't spell when making reservations

Okay, so what the hell is with the old lady crap in your house?

Believe it or not, it all started with one innocent Steve & Eydie record that my stepbrother got for me on one of his flea market jaunts. That lead to my acquiring a Hi-Fi along the side of the road up in Chicopee on a date I was on, actually. Prior to moving into The Estate, I started going to thrift stores like crazy since I got caught up in vintage style. Piece by vintage piece my house started to take form. Before I knew it I had amassed almost an entire house of furniture and decor from the mid 1960s to the early 1970s and it all snowballed basically into what it is today.

All in all it is very campy, and not meant to be taken all that seriously. I've noticed there are two types of people... those who get my house, and those who don't. One thing to be said though, is that everyone leaves remembering it. Seldom do people leave saying, "He has a nice home." Reactions are much more dramatic. :) I get the biggest kick out of people walking through and remeniscing because they've found something that their mother or grandmother had growing up.

 

And....what the hell is with the bizarre music?

I have always had a very broad range of musical tastes. I am always embarassed when someone picks up my iPod and starts looking through my songs, or artists. It's got everyone in there from 50 Cent to the Beastie Boys to Billy Idol to Bobby Darrin to Britney Spears to Cam'ron to Dean Martin to Dee Snyder to Elvis to Johnny Cash to Michael Bublé to Mr Vegas to Mrs. Miller to Naughty By Nature to Peter Alexander to Yma Sumac.

 

What does "BBCHZ" mean, and who on earth is Jane Wilhite?

Both are names of pets! To start with, many moons ago I was young, and we had this thing called "AOL 1.3" on our family computer. It was a way to this thing called "the internet" that I had heard folks at school talk about, throwing out names like Prodigy and CompuServe.

There was a free trial to this thing called America Online, so I thought we should give it a shot. It asked me for a member name, and since the whole family used the computer, I decided to go with our pet's name, using no vowels.

Now, you may be saying, "Your cat's name was short for Bacon Burger with Cheese?" No. She cried like a baby, so I thought "Babydoll" was cute. My sister thought she looked like some Spanish girl she knew, so we ended up naming her "Babydoll Sanchez."

Someone once screwed up her name and referred to her as "Babychez" and that name stuck with her for a long time. We each had our own names for her -- I called her "Mish (Meesh)," Michelle called her "Babes," and my mom called her "Little One."

She was really something else. All attitude, as most cats are... but hers took the top drawer. Totally a member of the family, she completely knew it and took advantage. During a blizzard a while back she was acting odd, and I could see she wasn't feeling okay. That night she started vomiting brilliant green bile, and we knew this was very bad. We took her to the vet the next morning and were told that she had a problem with her kidneys. As it turned out, one kidney shut down a long time prior, and the other one had been enlarged to overcompensate. At this point in time it too shut down and we were told she had Rhenal kindey failure. She stayed at the vet's overnight, and they ran tests to advise us of the aforementioned.

We were with her when they euthanized her on February 17th, 2003. I think it was the saddest day of my life. The term "crying" can't even describe what Michelle and I were doing. It was out and out wailing. We actually made everyone there cry... the Vet's assistant... the receptionist... the billing coordinator... a random customer there buying pet food... I remember Michelle and I laughing AND crying at the same time when we realized what we had done.

I can speak for both of us when I say that even to this day very little time goes by where neither Michelle nor myself don't find ourselves thinking or missing Mish. I know we made the right decision rather than see her suffer. But fear not my gentle readers! For I am not alone! Oh no.... never alone....

 

That's correct! I have Jane Wilhite ever by my side. No matter what I am doing, I am seldom alone! No matter if I am making dinner, watching TV, using the computer, painting the hallway, taking a nap, in bed for the night, or even defecating, Jane Wilhite is always by my side! Yelling at me... always yelling. Yelling, yelling, yelling. Annoyed, put out, yelling. Yelly McYellsalot.

She really is absolutely adorable though, if not a tad bit over vocal. Mostly she just wants me to sit still somewhere, or lay down, so that she can get comfortable on me, and have some attention paid to her. She is actually very good on the whole though, and listens to me (sometimes) when I yell back at her.

I suppose I haven't answer your question about her name yet. Here's the story, when I first started working at Citigroup in 2004, I was talking to a woman that I had just started to get friendly with - Kelly Elizabeth Lattal. I guess we had talked about pets, and I had told her the story about Mish. She asked if I wanted another cat someday, and I said that indeed I would and had planned on doing so once I was done with my home projects back at The Estate. Well, she told me about a director there who was leaving the company and travelling the USA with his wife for about six months. Because of this, they had made a difficult decision to give up their cats -- Asher Wilhite, Isaac Wilhite, and Jane Wilhite! Asher and Isaac are brothers, and were to not be separated.

Jane on the other hand did/does not like other cats, and she was going alone in the deal. Well I sent Scott Wilhite an e-mail, then he gave me a call, I had directions to his house, then before you know it, I am coming home with a cat!

 

 

 

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