Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

Thanks for joining me! This blog is my journey.

This is where I grew up until I was 12 years old. At the beginning of eighth grade, the family moved to an adjacent neighborhood. I finished grade school in this old neighborhood and returned frequently to visit friends and family.

I thought about a family group or blog (before I knew what a blog was) years ago. I set up a group on Yahoo! long before MySpace and Facebook. I never did anything with it. Here I go again. My purpose is to share family stories, random thoughts, Italian traditions and delicious recipes, just as they would be shared around the Sunday dinner table.

Those were fun times. Most weekends, we were at one grandparent’s home or the other. They were close. Many in the DiSantis family lived in Little Italy in the Bronx. My maternal grandparents lived in Northern New Jersey and so did most of their children.

With each family visit there were plenty of hugs and kisses, delicious food and hours of conversation around the table. We never left the table, except for the hugs and kisses. The conversations ranged from stories to advice, from historical to fanciful. All great and food for thought.

Then, I did a lot of listening to Uncle Angelo, Uncle Ralph and my dad on the DiSantis side. Also Uncle Charlie, Uncle Dominic, Uncle Joey and mostly Uncle Teddy on the Denaro side. I was around conversations with “da boys”. Not much with the women of the family. Gender bias in the ’60s, I guess.

Anyway, my kids missed all that. I moved 2500 miles from the neighborhood above and never had a Sunday dinner with the “whole” family again. At this writing, only my dad’s sister, Yolanda and my mom have survived the two large immigrant Italian families.

My hope is this blog will bring the family together. We may only gather around a table once in a while, but hopefully, we can share stories around this virtual table. I’ll start. And I am calling out my sister, Janet, my 54 first cousins (on both sides), my 5 children (with their spouses) and my 8 (so far) grandchildren to bring stories to share.

The blog menu outlines a few main topics. I’m sure it will expand. Ask me questions. I’ll answer to the best of my recollection. This will be fun for me to write. I hope you will enjoy it, too. Let’s sit and chat. Eating is optional.