Designer

…………..These are pictures taken in front of my tree at my mom and dad’s house on Long Island. I would guess I was about eight years old so that would make it 1956….My father and my oldest brother would always go and buy the tree, with specific instructions from my mother. She always told them to please pick one with a nice shape, and not too tall so the top would have to be cut off!….She always said, the beautiful tapered top is very important so the Angel could sit properly…..However, I think my dad thought the ceilings in out house were 14 feet tall because he could never stand a tree upright in the house without CUTTING FROM THE BOTTOM AND THE TOP!!! My mother was always annoyed, but all she would say was….”JIM!….that was all she needed to say!! If was also my father and my brother Mauro’s job to put the lights on. Due to my brother, who was always a perfectionist, they were always done well…..Then it was my Mom and my job to decorate it…It seemed my brother John was never around…He was always at his girlfriend’s house…..The metal tinsel was always last, and always took the longest. I recall one time my mother asked my dad to help one time, but when he started to throw it on the tree helter skelter…..she told him to leave! I think he did it on purpose. He had no patience for tree trimming…..My Mom and I put it on one strand at a time to make sure it hung properly. I loved out tree. We had bubble candle lights along with the old fashioned large multi color lights. I have no idea what became of all the decorations???The glass decorations of the 50s, made after the war, were wonderful…….The Christmas that the photos were taken I got a chemistry set and a pool table, and I loved them!….In the pictures from the left are me and my cousin Grace…..We are the same age…She reminded me the other day that this coming year we are going to have milestone birthdays!!! we will be 75!….when I thought we were going to be 74….boo hoo boo hoo!!!..I didn’t get to see her often because she lived in Mass. and she still does, but we were and still are very close……The “gang” are all my first cousins……from the left [back row] my brother John, and my cousin Pete…[front row] my cousins Joey, Sal and Mauro…..The goofy kid up front is me…..I have to say I was a pretty goofy looking kid!!!….We look like we came right out of central casting for “The East Side Kids”, or “Boy’s Town”……These were definitely “THE GOOD OLD DAYS”…………..so different from today!……Merry Christmas cousins in Heaven and here on Earth!

“CHRISTMAS PAST’….not sure of the year, but my guess is about 1974….give or take……The Dell’Olio Clan…from left to right……my middle brother John who pasted away from cancer four years ago, my Dad, my Mom, me and my oldest brother Mauro. I don’t know how my parents had such tall sons. John was 6’2″….Mauro 6’3’….and I was the runt at 5’10” There was a five year age difference between John and me, and seven year age difference between my oldest brother and me. There was another child between John and me. My mom carried HER full term but she was still born…..Then I came along…..If my sister had lived I probably wouldn’t be here…..Funny how fate is….The picture was taken at my brother Mauro’s house…..Merry Christmas Mom, Dad and John in heaven….Merry Christmas Mauro…..and a HEALTHY NEW YEAR!

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…………………………The photos above are of the paintings by John Carroll Doyle that I own…..On one of our trips to Charleston Jac and I stopped by his gallery on Church Street. He was there and we bought his book which he signed. He was a tall, handsome, southern gentleman…We already owned a painting that we bought on a previous trip, and we were about to buy a second. Eventually we bought five of his paintings…..three of egrets in the bayou….a small lily pad painting and a large painting of magnolias laying on a table….that hangs above our bed. I am very sorry that he passed at such an early age, 71. Who knows what other beautiful works of art he would have created.

……………………..In the spirit of the Holidays let’s join together and wish each other a HAPPY HANUKKAH and a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

……………………….In the May 1992 issue of HG Magazine they featured an EIGHT PAGE SPREAD of my home on the Long Island Sound.  Wendy Goodman was the editor, and Oberto Gili, a very dashing Italian , was the photographer……At the time when they contacted me I had very little furniture in the main rooms. Our bedroom was almost finished, and the sunporch was finished, but that was about it. The green room was partly finished, but not enough to have pictures of it taken….That’s when I called John and Burt for help, and in a week the room was done. I’ve told the story in a previous post about the GREEN ROOM…….I had just had all of the columns along the water restored and they looked marvelous…….Later that year we had a horrific hurricane extremely late in the season, and it destroyed the entire wall of columns. I was in Europe at the time. Jac was staying with her Mom in Larchmont. She reported back to me what had happened. When I got home the lawn looked like an Italian ruin. There were broken columns all over the place. I called the man who had restored the columns, and he advised me not to do it again…….he said “it would be a waist of money”, and would probably happen again…..so I had a cement  curb made and had it painted white which is the way it is today. So these HG pictures are the only proof that a wall of columns ever existed……………It surely was pretty!