One evening, Anthony took out the sanale, or apron.  He stuck his head into the freezer and pulled out the pork chops.  "Anthony, what you are doing?", his mother yelled from the bedroom.  His mother was pregnant and was resting in bed. "I want to get dinner ready for you and Dad."  The scent of pork chops and roasted potatoes filled the house. Although Anthony was about 9 years old, he loved to cook.  Sometimes he would climb up on the wooden stool in the kitchen and would reach into the cabinets for the spices.
 
He placed the jug of Chianti in the middle of the white tablecloth next to the the salad, fresh bread and brocolli rabe. The pork chops were always cooked by the time Anthony's father arrived home from work. "It smells good in here," his mother would yell from the bedroom. The scent of food creeped into the bedroom.
 
Eventually, his father decided to quit his job as a dress pattern cutter and a waiter because he wanted to  buy a restaurant. He always dreamt about owning a restaurant.  Frank Pellicci bought Pellici's restaurant in 1947. "I worked there making meatballs, grating the cheese, and the pizza. We used fresh mozzarella."  Anthony used to place the mozzarella on the perfectly round pizza. The pan seemed as big as a flying saucer. He carefully drizzled the olive oil on top of the pizza.  "We mixed the dough by hand and we did not have refrigerators back then. Instead, we had ice boxes and coal burning ovens,"  Anthony said. His father said, "hey, Joe, get behind the bar, we have some customers."  Anthony explained that his brother bar tended and was a cook at Pellicci's while.  Anthony's mother worked as a seamstress.
 
I noticed the love of Italian traditions running through Anthony's veins when I asked him if he has preserved and carried on some of the original, traditional foods. He smiled and said, "the meat lasagna, veal parmigiana, and the baked, half chicken are the original, traditional recipes." His delicious meatballs consist of pecorino, eggs, salt, black pepper, parsley, garlic, and chopped stale bread. He mentioned that he dips the stale bread in milk first.  Now I understand why they have been in business since 1947 and  the reason they have a large group of loyal, repeat customers.  The meatballs sound delicious!  I looked around Pellicci's and admired the rustic, stone waterfall and tiles on the floor. The spacious yet cozy restaurant made me feel warm especially since I noticed the smiles that the customers were wearing.  I took a moment to admire the sculptures in the restaurant. Anthony told me that he made the sculptures himself, and he pointed to his beautiful watercolor paintings. His love passion for art and artistic talents were evident as I looked at the wall of the restaurant.  "Which deserts are traditional and unchanged?" I asked.  Anthony said, "Michael makes tiramisu and rice pudding with raisins."  Anthony said that he uses his mother's original bread pudding recipe.
 
"What funny things do you remember about your father?,"  I asked. Anthony said he remembers buying a pool and installing it at his parent's house in the 1960's.   Anthony had a great tan, tank top and shorts. He filled up the pool and made sure that the right amount of chlorine was placed into the pool. He always cleaned the pool for his parents. One day, he bought a new bathing suit, fired up the barbecue grill and turned on the radio in his parent's back yard.  The Beach Boys were playing while the yellow and orange beach ball floated in the pool. A convertible pulled into the driveway and 3 beautiful women walked out. There was a platinum blond, and a couple of brunettes.   "Hi Anthony," they yelled, as they carried their large, straw purses and oversized sunglasses with hoop earings.   They dove into the pool and lounged on the inflatable raft . "Ahh, this is the life," Anthony thought.  A few female friends were swimming in the pool,  he had a new barbecue grill with juicy burgers and ribs which were ready to be cooked! One of the women sat on the deck of the pool and soaked up the rays, while the other two chatted and joked with Anthony.   All of a sudden, the window opened and Anthony's father stuck his head out. "Hey, get those pigs out of the pool," his father yelled!  The girls asked, "what is wrong with your father, what did he say?" Well, I am sure we can all remember a time that  our parents yelled something embarassing, but we tried to cover it up for them by picking words that rhymed.  "My dad said that we should get out of the pool because it is too cool out here.  "OOOOhh, we though he said get the pigs out of the pool."
His father was not feeling well and was resting in bed, so the sound of the Beach Boys, the water splashing and the women's laughter disturbed his father. Plus, Anthony's father was not crazy about the platinum blonde hair. Anthony said to one of the women, "Can you do me a favor? Since my father is not feeling well, do you think you can go upstairs and give him a massage? His arthritis is bothering him." The woman said, "that's sweet of you, Anthony. Sure, I will go and give your father a massage. As the  bikini clad woman entered his father's room, Anthony's father yelled, "what are you doing in here?"  The woman said, "your son is worried about you, so he sent me up here to give you a massage."  His father was angry and said, "I don't want you to give me a massage.!" The woman said, "now, just relax. You will feel better Mr. Pellicci", she said.  After a while, Anthony's father relaxed and said, "wow, this massage is pretty good. It is just what the doctor ordered. Aahhhh, this is the life," his father said. After his massage, Anthony's father felt much better.  No one could understand what happened to him. He was a new man after the massage. "It must be that new orange juice that I drank today," Anthony's father said.  "Just keep this between us," he told Anthony.
 

I laughed so hard during my visit with Anthony Pellicci, especially when he told me that his father had his own distinct whistle when he called Anthony. As a matter of fact, Anthony said that all of the fathers in the neighborhood had their own distinct style of whistling when they called their kids or tried to get their attention.  Every kid in the neighborhood was able to identify their father's whistle. How else would a kid be able to identify his father who was calling for him? They all knew the sound of their father's whistle. 
 
One evening Anthony waited patiently at Pellici's for his date, Ann Washburn, to arrive.  He was wearing his Italian aftershave, new sweater and gray pants.  "Hey, where is she? what happened? I thought you were meeting her here tonight,?" his friend said to him as he slapped him on the back.  Anthony picked up the phone and said, "I thought we were supposed to have a date tonight. Did you forget?" Ann hesitated on the phone and said that she had gotten cold feet and decided not to show up.  Later that evening, they ended up meeting for coffee. 
 
"Did you have your wedding here,?" I asked.  Anthony said that he got married on the Monday after Easter. He said they had their gathering at the restaurant in the afternoon, but they actually had their wedding reception that evening at a place called Fieldstone's in Norwalk, CT. I saw the sign of the "Americana Hotel" in my mind as he told me that he went on his honeymoon in New York for three days and they stayed at the Americana Hotel.  Anthony and his wife were relaxing, having a few cocktails and were walking in front of the hotel.  "Hey, Anthony, watch out, that guy is going to bump right into you," his wife said.  Sure enough, Anthony got pushed and shoved.  Anthony and Ann were not sure what was going on, but they were shuffled back and forth and man pushed them into a limousine.   He said it was "mistaken identity."  The limousine was actually for another guy, but they shuffled the wrong guy into the limousine. Anthony figured, "hey, why not enjoy the limousine ride?"  Anthony and Ann climbed into the back of the limousine. Just as they were about to relax, they heard a thumping noise. They had a flat tire, right in the middle of the busy, New York City streets. Just as Anthony was about to tell the driver that they had the wrong guy, he was quickly shuffled into another limousine.  His wife said, "why didn't you say something? we are in someone else's limo! we don't even belong in this thing!"  They got settled in the new limousine and they noticed they were headed towards the docks. "I was wondering, hey, where is this driver taking me? I am not taking a boat? I hope I am not going to get rubbed out or something!" His wife folded her arms, rolled her eyes and said, "I don't understand you. Why are we even in this limousine?  We are not even supposed to be in here.   Finally, the ride was no longer enjoyable as the docks were growing closer.  All Anthony kept thinking is "where are they taking me and what will they do with me when they get me there?" Finally Anthony told   the driver to take him back to the Americana. All of that shuffling back and forth, and the whole time the limousine was not even meant for him in the first place!.
 
Sometimes Anthony enjoyed walking with his 21 year old,Portuguese waterdog, Spot.  One day Anthony was enjoying the dogwood trees which were in bloom in Stamford when all of a sudden he heard, "grrrowwwl, growwwlll." It was the meanest looking Doberman he had ever seen.    The doberman and Anthony's water dog stared at each other and showed their pointy teeth.   Suddenly, the dogs started to fight as their tails stood straight up.   Anthony's dog bit the male Doberman in a very sensitive area of the male doberman's body.  The doberman started to yelp and ran  into the bushes.  "Hey, you can tell that your dog is from the West Side of Stamford," a man yelled from his front lawn.  The man laughed and said, "serves that Doberman right. The doberman should know that he should not mess with a dog from the West Side of Stamford."

Anthony said that he and his friends loved playing jokes on each other. "My sister used to have a large, wooden playhouse," Athony said.  After she outgrew her playhouse, Anthony did not want his family to throw it away. Italians are very creative and they like to reuse some of their household items. He decided to use the large playhouse as a big storage bin for all of the garbage at the restaurant.  "Bring it over here," one of the waiters said, as he pointed to the specific spot in the parking lot where he wanted the playhouse to be used as a storage bin.  

One day, Anthony and his friends played a joke on one of their buddies.  A friend of his had a car which was called a Triumph 7. It was  small, sporty looking car.  Anthony and the guys arranged to hide the guy's Triumph 7 inside of the wooden playhouse with the rest of the garbage.   The guy walked outside and went nuts when he discovered his car was missing. "Where is my car? what bum stole my car!?," the man yelled.  The men bit their own lips to hold in the laughter.  "Call the cops!!!! I want my car!" the man yelled.   "Calm down, come inside and have a shot of Anissette or Cognac. "Are you sure you parked it back here? Maybe you parked it up the street or something!" The man yelled, " I am not crazy! I parked it here!" the man yelled. They managed to walk him to the bar and calm him down.  A few minutes later, when they could no longer hold back the laughter, they took him outside again.  "We found your car. Take a look!," they said.  They pointed to the wooden playhouse which contained bags of garbage. There was the Triumph 7.   The windshield was coated with mascarpone cheese, a few pieces of zucchini were laying under the tire, pieces of ziti were dangling on the windshield wipers, and there was a piece of tiramisu on the hood. "You guys better watch out! I will get you next week!," the guy yelled as his eyes filled up with tears and the vein popped out of his neck.  Suddenly, he started to run after them. "my car is coated with mascarpone cheese and left over pasta and you are all standing there laughing!", he said. Next week, the practical jokes would continue.
 
Anthony recalls a time when he had to knock down a house that they owned behind Pellicci's restaurant because they wanted to expand the parking lot. Although they gave the family who was renting the house plenty of notice about the fact that they needed to leave the house, the family did not want to leave.     Finally, Anthony thought the family had left. "Yeah, I saw them leave this morning," a few neighbors and customers said.   Anthony even thought he saw them leaving earlier that day.   Someone  knocked on the door, but no one answered.   The big, yellow truck was parked next to the house. It was a truck that had a long chain and a big, heavy, metal ball. In just a few moments, that big metal ball would swing high in the air and would knock down the old house.   "Hey, are you SURE that family has moved out?"   The workers said, "yes..we are sure."  No one answered the door and there was not any response when they knocked on the windows.

Now, some families really get attached to homes that they rent. No matter how many times they were told to leave the house, they obviously did not want to move!

All of a sudden, the truck backed up and the metal ball was slowly moving towards the house.  "Here she goes.".......the men yelled, referring to large the metal ball which would demolish the house.  All of a sudden, as that ball moved closer to the house, the entire family ran out in their pajamas, fuzzy slippers, and haircurlers. They ran in circles and one of them was in their boxer shorts! They ran out after seeing that big ball heading towards the house.   It was a funny story, but luckily no one was injured.  That family really did not want to get out of that house, but just think of the money Anthony saved. He did not need an attorney to evict them. That metal ball finally got them out of there. 
 
I enjoyed laughing with Anthony. Also, his friends were very friendly and down to earth. I met a group of Anthony's friends who were eating delicious food and I chatted with them. They are proud Italian Americans with stories to share. I hope I see them again soon. I know I will be back at Pellici's on May 26th. Pellicci's is a friendly, rustic, and down to earth restaurant.  I really could use a good dose of laughter, and Pellicci's is the place for me to go. I am still on my diet though, so I am going to pass up the deserts and pasta. I am sure that the chef will cook me a healthy meal and a huge portion of laughter.