I've posted this before...I can post this again...because I am Italian-American

[LeftyFingerPop]

Definition of a true Italian-American...

Has $600,000 in his brokerage account and drives a rusted 1976 El Camino because it still "runs good". Lives in an 800 square foot bungalow that has 3 kitchens....one on the main floor, and two in the basement.

[Parche]

1. Spaghetti Pubes

:woohoo: :hi:
:hug:

[LeftyFingerPop]

3. Let your imagination run wild....

[AccessGranted]

46. Imagine This: Italian, African-American, Polish and Puerto Rican

I'm African-American and my neice's husband is Italian and they have friends who are Polish and friends who are Puerto Rican. My significant other is Irish. Just try to picture our family gatherings. They are hysterical. All we do is eat and laugh at each other.

[datasuspect]

2. eh cumpari

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLVuFAypSIo

[LeftyFingerPop]

4. Eh Cumpari!

Eh Compare, ci vo suonare Chi si suona? Un friscaletto.
E come si suona un friscaletto?
(*whistle*) un friscaletto tipiti tipiti tam.

Eh compare, ci vo suonare. Chi si suona? Un sasofona,
E come si suona un sasofona? Tu tu tu tu un sasofona
(*whistle*) un friscalette, tipiti tipiti tam.

Eh compare, ci vo suonare. Chi si suona? Un mandolino.
e come si suona un mandolino? a plig a plin, un mandolino,
tu tu tu tu un sasofona
(*whistle*) un friscalette, tipiti tipiti tam.

E compare, ci vo suonare? Chi si suona? u violino.
E come si suona un violino? A zing a zing, un violino,
a pling a pling, un mandolino
tu tu tu tu un sasofona
(*whistle*) un friscalette, tipiti tipiti tam.

E compare, ci vo suonare? Chi si suona? a la trumbetta.
Ma come si suona a la trombetta? Papapapa a la trumbetta,
A zing a zing, un violino,
a pling a pling, un mandolino
tu tu tu tu un sasofona
(*whistle*) un friscalette, tipiti tipiti tam.

E compare, ci vo suonari? Chi si suona? a la trombona.
Ma come si suona a la trombona. A fumma a fumma a la trombona,
Papapapa a la trumbetta,
A zing a zing, un violino,
a pling a pling, un mandolino,
tu tu tu tu un sasofona
(*whistle*) un friscalette, tipiti tipiti tam.

[AccessGranted]

47. Thank You

That was a happy tune. I have no idea what they were singing about, but they were happy. Haha!

[BeachBaby]

5. Are you sure about that?

I live in the highest-populated region for Italian-Americans, and I can tell you from a lifetime of observation that the vast majority of them live in McMansions, drive spanking-new black sports cars and luxury sedans with tinted windows, wear an Italian horn and cross on a gold chain, and greet everybody they know with a hug, a kiss on both cheeks, and a YO. :P

But that's just my experience.

[LeftyFingerPop]

6. LOL! I'll take them one at a time....

In my area, it is like this for Italian Americans:

McMansions....very rarely

Black sports cars....rarely

Luxury sedans...sometimes

Italian horn...NO! NO! NO!

Cross on a gold chain...sometimes. But I never wear gold, always silver, and a heart, not a cross.

Hug and kiss on both cheeks...Always a hug and kiss on cheek. Almost never both cheeks.

YO...very rarely.

:hi:

[BeachBaby]

7. And you call yourself an Italian-American.

The NERVE! :P

Sometimes I feel like I live on the set of "A Bronx Tale" or "The Godfather". It's that bad.

And then I got my Canadian friends who have changed my state's name from "The Garden State" to "The Soprano State".

Maybe the whole Italian-American persona varies from region to region. ;)

[Reverend_Smitty]

13. I'd like to be able to say that whole "Sopranos lifestyle" thing is just an exaggeration...

but I've been living in Jersey so long that I can attest it's pretty true. I wonder if it's a case of art imitating life or vice versa... I try to stay out of the "trendy" Jersey shore clubs because you run into too many guys who wish they were Tony Soprano Jr, ugh no fun!

[BeachBaby]

19. Yikes! A reply from my NL East arch-nemesis.

:rofl:

Yeah, I don't know what they're trying to prove....but around here, I think they're doing their damnedest to replace Joey Merlino. It's actually kinda creepy.

My best guy friend is an Italian-American....very good-looking and does his own thing. When he sees "those" guys, he just rolls his eyes and tells me how embarrassed he is of his "people". :)

[Reverend_Smitty]

26. lol...look they've made a website

http://njguido.com/index.htm

Now I can schedule my night life knowing what places to avoid :rofl:

[LeftyFingerPop]

40. that looks like a....

JERSEY thing to me, not an ITALIAN thing :rofl:

[LeftyFingerPop]

20. That is so interesting to me....

Where I live, the Italians view the soprano's as a parody, a joke.

They say...."Who acts like that"?

[LeftyFingerPop]

21. Let me add to this....

While many Italians do view the Soprano's as a parody, they also recognize that the lifestyle does indeed exist, just not here.

[LeftyFingerPop]

17. It is probably very regional...

there are a lot of Italian tradesmen where I live, and even though some of them have become very rich, they tend to live modestly. I have no idea why.

The north side of my town is Little Italy. Small brick or stucco homes that are impeccable.

[hedgehog]

28. I bet if we knew where people came from in Italy, we'd have our answer.

Over here, people are all simply Italians, but in the old country they were Romans, Tuscans, Sicilians, Etc.
I worked with Tyroleans and Romans. Talk about two different breeds!

[LeftyFingerPop]

31. My father's side is from "Rionero in Vulture"...

Basilicata region.

Not sure about my mother's side.

[JVS]

42. Imagine how odd it was growing up in a neighborhood where Stallone's Rocky was considered a role...

model.

5,000 dumbasses running around yelling "Yo, Adrian!"

[BeachBaby]

43. Huh. I don't remember that happening here. n/t.

[JVS]

48. We're not from the same place.

[datasuspect]

23. 23rd/oakley, chicago (the "other" little italy)

"what, are you fucking stupid?" - yes

mcmansions - no, inner city neighborhood

"dis fuckin' guy!" - yes

shit that "fell" off the truck - yes

cross and italian horn - yes

cadillacs - yes

louis prima/dean martin/frank sinatra on the jukebox - yes

"goombatz" - yes

making sign of the cross when going past the church - yes

dept. of "tony" (streets and san) jobs - yes

aldermanic padrone - yes, but only when i was very young

nicknames like petey cheese feet, karate joe, vic the bomber, etc. - yes

[LeftyFingerPop]

24. The ones I have not addressed yet, for my area....

"what, are you fucking stupid?" - yes

"dis fuckin' guy!" - yes

shit that "fell" off the truck - no

cadillacs - sometimes

louis prima/dean martin/frank sinatra on the jukebox - yes

"goombatz" - sometimes

making sign of the cross when going past the church - years ago, yes, but not so much now

dept. of "tony" (streets and san) jobs - no

nicknames: john the bull, joe with the crossed eyes, wide patsy

[JVS]

35. Even a McMansion basement can have an extra kitchen

[datasuspect]

8. if you're an italian american,

then tell me where i can buy some banlon shirts.

[LeftyFingerPop]

11. Jesus....I used to wear the black ones...

you would probably have to go to a vintage clothing store now.

[LynneSin]

9. I live in the Little Italy neighborhood in my town

and I'm not seeing that anywhere

[LeftyFingerPop]

14. Are they mostly....

younger "transplants" that live there, or older people who have been there for awhile?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

10. So is it "sauce" or "gravy"?

I've had IA friends who've called it both.

[LeftyFingerPop]

12. Are you talking about....

What you put on spaghetti, or what you put on meat and potatoes?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

16. What you put on your pasta. nt

[LeftyFingerPop]

18. Sauce. n/t

[BeachBaby]

22. SAUCE????

Are you series?

I'd get clocked by every old Italian woman around here for suggesting that their long, tedious, tiring day was spent making anything other than GRAVY. :P

[LeftyFingerPop]

25. LOL...never heard it called gravy in my life.

:rofl:

[Chan790]

27. I have...

If you were to ask for "sauce" in my old Philly neighborhood...you'd probably be handed a bottle of some sort of rotgut. Pasta sauce...red gravy. I even saw it written that way on menus, not crappy restaurants...decent family places.

[LeftyFingerPop]

29. Must be a regional thing....

:shrug:

I was in NYC Little Italy a few months ago and they called it sauce...

[Chan790]

34. It was strange

Where I grew up in CT, it's sauce. In DC, where I went to college, it was sauce. The first time someone asked me if I wanted gravy for my baked ziti I was "um...no?".

[LeftyFingerPop]

38. ....

:rofl: I always think brown gravy when I hear the word....

[Shakespeare]

44. Same here. And DU's Husb2Sparkly--big Italian chef that he is--also calls it gravy.

And all pasta is macaroni. :7

[Eurobabe]

15. gravy

philly checking in here. :hi:

[JVS]

36. I was at a dinner where a father praised his son for calling it gravy instead of sauce.

[JVS]

30. I had some neigbors growing up whose parents had come over.

They had a kitchen in the basement and a ham hanging in the garage.

[LeftyFingerPop]

32. Sounds right...

:rofl:

[JVS]

33. I got to go upstairs once when their basement toilet was broken.

Plastic on the furniture. Everything immaculate. I wasn't impressed though. I knew that they always watched TV, ate, and pretty much lived in the basement. It's not hard to keep a pretty first floor if all you use it for is a hallway between the bedrooms and the basement.

I must give credit though. At least their basement couch had no plastic.

[LeftyFingerPop]

37. I had an aunt and uncle like that...

The kids could not play upstairs because all the furniture had plastic on it and we were not allowed.

Huge family, and they were the only ones like that.

[JVS]

39. I never saw the parents go upstairs either though. The mom was always at the stove or at the...

table, or up at the top of the driveway speaking to her friends in Italian. The dad was always at work, at the kitchen table, or on the sofa in front of the basement TV. The kids and I were always in front of the TV, at the table, or usually outside the basement at the bottom of the driveway playing basketball or if it was hot we chilled in the garage (which was always open) next to the ham.

[LeftyFingerPop]

41. Come to think of it....

some of the best family parties I have been to have been held in their garage.

Kegs, cookies, all kinds of food, and dancing....all in the garage.

[bigwillq]

45. Gotta love those Italian kitchens!

:bounce: