I Love going through old photos my mother saved……..This one has special meaning as it is a picture of my Mom and Dad and my Mom’s brothers and sister…..The picture was taken at the STATLER HOTEL in Nov. of 1950…..I was two years old……From left to right…..My Aunt Marie and my mother’s brother Tom who was a real scoundrel! He was very handsome in his youth as all of my mother’s brothers were…….He had blue eyes and light wavy hair. My mother adored him, and they would enter many dance contests that were popular at the time. My mom was in her early 20s and my uncle was a little older. My mom told me he was a terrific dancer. They won many contests together. He would give my mother the trophy and he KEPT the money!!!!….As I said a loveable scoundrel……He’s sitting next to my Aunt Marie who I always thought was so beautiful. She always reminded me of Maria Montez, the actress. I always called her Aunt Marie, but it was many years later when I was an adult that my mother told me the true story. They were never married! They just lived together. He was already married to a woman named Yolanda. They never divorced, because she refused to give him one…..I think out of spite. She moved to California and took their only son John. Who I met many many years later……My Uncle Tom suddenly died from a heart attack I think in his early 50s, and my Aunt Marie eventually disappeared from the family…..It was very sad…..Times had changed and it wasn’t such a scandal anymore……Next to them is my Aunt Tessie, and my Uncle Vito, my mother’s brother…..Talk about a RAKE…..he was very charming, and movie star handsome. Honestly, she was the sweetest woman, but I never understood them as a couple. Though it was never ever said, I always suspected when I was older that they had to get married…..She had 20, I repeat 20 PREGENCIES……14 of them were full term. Two died from accidents as infants…..so it was a family of 12. When my parents bought their new home on Long Island when it was still in development. My Uncle Vito bought the house directly in back of us and had an extra bedroom added. There was still three kids to a room. Eventually some went to college and moved on. I was very close to the three youngest girls who were still older than me……Angela, Emelia and Florence. I remember going over to their house to SMOKE! My Aunt smoked like a chimney! They were a terrific loving close family, and the Holidays at their house was wild! Most of them are gone now, but Angela, Emilia, Florence and the oldest living daughter, Rita are still with us. My cousin Sal, who was the spitting image of my Uncle Vito, and a rake like his dad, just died this year of cancer. He was the last of the boys….He was divorced and has four grown children 3 boys and a girl……Next is my Aunt Millie and my Uncle Joe Dell’Olio. My Uncle Joe and my father were cousins hence the same last name. Out of all of my Moms siblings she was closest to my Aunt Millie…..We spent a lot of time together and offend vacation together. They had two children My cousin Mauro [same name as my brother], and his older sister Josephine……My Aunt was a flaming RED HEAD, and had dyed red hair until she died over 100 years old. She and her son, a Vietnam vet, use dot take the bus to Atlantic city to go gambling. The casinos new her so well she used to get things. like her room, for free! There was a falling out between the families that I never understood, and they never spoke again…..I loved them all very much, and this rift made me very sad. My Uncle Joe died early on, so my Aunt Millie was a widow for many many years. They lived in the same house in Brooklyn as long as I can remember. I think my cousin Mauro still lives there. I really would like him to know I love him……..Next to them is my Aunt Marie and my Uncle Paul…..He was an extraordinary, very handsome man, again with blue eyes. In his youth he had a full head of incredible wavy hair, but I only new him as being bald. They had two very good looking sons…..John and Louis…..They both married and moved far from their parents. From what I recall it wasn’t a happy marriage, and i always suspected he had girlfriends on the side, though no one ever told me he did. It was just a feeling I had……He was an officer in the Ladies Garment Union, and whenever there was a problem he was called in to mediate. My mother had shown him my early sketches [maybe 10 or 11 years old], and he told her I was very talented. He got me my very first job as an intern for Norman Norell during the summer after I graduated high school in 1966! I knew NOTHING about the fashion business or the designers. I just remember the house of Norell. I remember how it was decorated, the smell of the place, the models. the assistants, the clients….EVERYTHING! I remember the Metropolitan Opera House across the street, made famous again in the series “The Gilded Age”. It was torn down that fall. I remember one evening I was at work late waiting to deliver one of Mr. Norell’s famous sequined dresses to a client [I think to Lynn Revson]. I was looking out of the show room windows at the limos pulling up in front of the opera house. I later found out there was a benefit to make money for the new opera house at Lincoln Center. I was watching history being made and didn’t know it!…….Next….is my mother and father……They were both wonderful dressers and had beautiful clothes. My father was always a peacock! and my mother had exquisite taste. I guess I inherited it from them!……….My mother also had two other sisters. Marie the oldest, and Angie, the second to the youngest….and two other brothers….Louis and Danny who was the baby. My Uncle Danny had a hush hush job at NASA, and never spoke of his work…..all very mysterious…….They are all gone now with only the memories I have of them, and the many photos my mother saved………They were a beautiful family!
