Holding On To What is Ours

Holding On To What is Ours

By

Mike Scinto

            There’s a suspicious looking pickup truck rolling up and down your block. The truck has out-of-state plates and two unsavory characters in the front seat. It’s made several passes.  You head out the door as you watch this mysterious vehicle approach again, slip your door key under the mat for the cleaning lady so that she might herself in and then head off, briefcase in hand, to another day at the office.  You return home that night and find you’ve been cleaned out. And you wonder how that could have happened!

            Well, if you guessed I was headed someplace with that little metaphor, you’re right. The American people are that homeowner and the current elected officials (at least the majority of them) are the guys in the truck.  Now I don’t mean to imply that Obama, Reid and Pelosi are thieves; they’re not. But, in an effort to change what has made America great, they have to “steal” from its citizens.

            Americans seem content to give up on blocking outsiders who would sneak across our borders, take our jobs, use our health care system and run freely through our system. We seem okay with forbidding the “profiling” of those of Islamic backgrounds at airports, even though that is where our biggest terrorist threat seems to be hiding (certainly not with ALL Islamic people). It doesn’t bother us that our government owns our auto manufacturers, banks, mortgage companies and controls their lending policies. Some have been convinced that the government can somehow run our health care system when it can’t even spot a terrorist in its own military ranks (Major Nidal Hassan-Fort Hood) or a one-way ticketed, cash-carrying, no baggage-toting, would-be underwear bomber flying into Detroit from overseas.

            Recent events suggest we may be starting to see the light. Americans have, through tea parties, phone calls and petitions said (in growing numbers) that we don’t want control of our health care system handed over to Washington. In Massachusetts the election of Republican Scott Brown to fill the Senate seat held by the late Ted Kennedy still has the pundits scratching their heads. These are just two of the more pronounced awakenings.

            This is a pivotal year; locally, state-wide and certainly in Congress. We must be vigilant. We can’t be distracted or mislead.  Our focus must be on the goal line. And we can do it! We are, after all, Americans. You might think the guys in the pickup truck are just innocently trying to make your neighborhood a nicer place to live. But their ultimate goal is to own everything they can get their hands on by the time they leave. We can let them clean us out, or we can stand fast and send them packing. The choice is ours!

Grabbing a Slice of Life

Grabbing a Slice of Life

By

Mike Scinto

            My father was born and raised in a house on Park Street in Bridgeport, Connecticut.  He was one of five children in this Italian-American neighborhood near the center of town. Stella, the only female sibling in the family lived in the neighborhood her entire life.  Tony, a right-out-of-“Grease” leather-jacketed tough guy lived in an apartment across the street with his wife and son. Lenny moved to a nice house in the suburbs post-war.  Ernie married young, divorced and lived in a room in the large family home his entire life.

            My father, post World War II, met my mother in Memphis and the rest, as they say, is history. That’s where my brother and I were born and spent our pre-teen years.

            This column isn’t meant to dig into the roots of my family tree but was simply setting up the background of this New England-rooted family and its love for the great American food…..pizza, and the best parlor to ever bake it, Jennie’s Pizzeria (still in business I might add). If I were to be asked for my two favorite foods on the planet, they would be pizza and bar-b-que; the Memphis, Bridgeport influences of course.

            If you Google it, I’m sure you can find millions of anecdotal stories of the origin of tomato pie (pizza). My grandmother’s explanation has always rung true for me.  In the “old country” women would take leftover dough and flatten it out. She would spread some freshly ground tomatoes, oregano, olive oil and a light sprinkling of ground parmesan cheese on top.  Voila! It’s tomato pie.  And I am true to Grandma.

            The thinner the crust is, the better.  You need to take that big old pie shaped slice and fold it in half to take a bite.  But as much as I love this traditional American food, getting a pizza place to make it that way for me is nearly impossible.

                If I say “extra sauce and light cheese please” they act like they can’t believe anybody would really want a “plain” pizza with light cheese and, seemingly to “get my mind right”, they load on the cheese anyway. I had Zak hooked on the correct way to eat pizza until his Mom suggested pepperoni………..and extra cheese.  The interloper won him over. It’s as if he went over to the dark side to join Darth Momma.

                Elvis liked bar-b-que pizza. I’ve eaten margarita pizza, sampled Hawaiian pie and munched on dough with green onions and ham. I felt like I was back in my Catholic childhood when I snuck into a protestant church with a friend.  It was so wrong!

                So you go on ordering your gourmet “pizzas”, cut in squares and baked in a deep dish, and I’ll stay true to my Italian-New England roots and eat tomato pie the way it was meant to be eaten. And you can only dream about how GOOD truly tastes!

“The List”

“The List”

By

Mike Scinto

Are you on “The List”? If you are, you know it by now. If you’re not, you’ll likely be wondering why after reading this. But it is open to additions (and deletions). I’m talking about the Scinto Family Christmas card list.

I’m sure there’s a master list somewhere but all I have is in bits and pieces on this laptop, or that desktop. Some of it is on my external hard drive and some is simply in Kathy’s old handwritten address book.

I’m not even privy to the origins of the list or the criteria for staying on, or being banished from, the list. So, at best, these are guesses since my sole role is creating the annual newsletter/update, printing off the labels and taking them to the post office.

I believe the very first parchment with names of the fortunate ones was penned following our wedding nearly 35 years ago. But that original list is hidden better than the Holy Grail. It somehow comes together (most years anyway) and sneaks into my database.

Once you’re on it, it’s tantamount to a lifetime appointment. I’m sure divorce, prison or death can mean an exit for you. In some cases there seems to be a two year rule; If you don’t reciprocate with a card for 24 months you’re thrown under the bus for good………or until you prove yourself worthy again; that is to the “Keeper of the List”.

I know I saw names on there this year that we haven’t heard from in a couple of decades. When I sheepishly ask her about them, I get “the stare” and go back to printing labels.

Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just delivering the message for Kathy (unofficially). I’m almost afraid to suggest it but if you’d like to make the list, you might discretely ask her. But don’t push it! Be good, try not to cross her this year and you may just have something special in your mailbox about ten months from now……..then again, you may not!