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Famiglia di Benestante

http://home.benstent.com

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Editor: Roy Lipscomb

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July 30, 2012

Second edition
Don't miss--
The Twentieth Annual
Benestante Family Picnic!
Sunday, August 5, 2011
1:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Carol and Al's House
9805 S. Lemont Rd. (Map)
(1/4 mile south of the I-55 Lemont Rd. Exit)
Look for the BALLNS!
Bring * a dish to share * grandchildren * memorabilia * your stories!
To help coordinate menus,
Please RSVP by Wednesday, August 1.
Thank you!
Diane
630/325-3298
Extra: Partake of some of Gramma's favorite foods: figs, dates, prunes, graham crackers, tea, licorice, canned peaches, and lemon drops.

Songs that Gramma
Would Sing
O Sole Mio / Video / Lyrics
Ce La Luna / Video / Lyrics / Full Lyrics
(Too naughty to fully translate!)
Maria Mari / Video / Lyrics
(Another Italian Favorite:)
Nessun Dorma / Video / Lyrics / Setting


Heating with oil

In winter, one source of heat in Gramma's home was the kitchen stove.

The other was an oil stove much like the one at the left.

I recall my father filling our five-gallon kerosine can at the gas station three block away, hauling it home by hand, then pouring the oil into the "backpack" oil tank at the rear of the stove.

A few times, he miscaculated the adjustments, and later scrambled to turn off the stove after the combustion chamber began to turn cherry red.

At night, Gramma heated some house bricks on the stoves, wrap each brick in newspaper, and put them under the blankets at the foot of the beds. After the stoves were turned down or turned off, we'd bundle into bed under several layers of blankets. For good measure, a few overcoats were spread on top.

What year was Gramma born?

Calculations differ, depending on the document:

Document / Gramma / Grampa
Elsie's birth certificate / 1875 / 1870
1910 Census / 1877 / 1868
1920 Census / 1879 / 1872
1930 Census / 1880 / 1863
1940 Census / 1872 / 1866
Grampa's Ellis Island record / 1871

○ Gramma's oldest son, George, served as an extra not only in the silent film, The Sheik, but also in another Rudolph Valento film, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Don heard this from his Uncle George many years ago.

Both of these films premiered in 1921. You can download these and other classic films from http://openculture/freemoviesonline.

○ As a youngster in the 1930's, Ed used to watch Grampa and his friends make wine. They'd bring in crates and crates of grapes, dump them into a mortar-mixing trough, then have the girls and women stomp on them into juice. Grampa sometimes donned boots and joined in. The juice would be stored and aged in five or six 50-gallon barrels in the basement.

○ Ed remembers that Gramma often gave him and his brother Billy a few coins for spending money. But instead of just handing them the loot, she'd make it more exciting by leaving the coins on a window sill for them to discover.

○ As a boy, Gramma's son Jimmy delivered newspapers. One stop on his route was the Cicero headquarters of Al Capone.

Below is part of an old-time cartoon map of Chicago gangland territories in 1920's. The long east-west streets are Roosevelt Road (top) and 22nd Street. The long north-south streets are Cicero (left) and Pulaski. The red circle is the approximate location of Gramma's house.

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/11538.html


○ In 1910, Gramma's house was only two blocks inside the city limits. On the following 1910 map, the orange-tinted line indicates the Chicago city limits. The red circle is the location of Gramma's house. The main east-west streets are Roosevelt Road (top) and 16th Street (bottom). Cicero Avenue is a few blocks to the left of the city limits.

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/10451.html

The "Beltline" railroad ran north-south alongside that boundary. Though their parents forbade them to do so, little Eddie and his brother Billy used to cross over the railroad embankment and its four or five railroad tracks to play in the swamp on the other side. Ed says they had a good many near misses from trains. The catch he and Billy brought home included tadpoles, fish, and crabs-- to their mother's consternation.

○ Why did Grampa choose the house at 1443 S. Kenneth as his new home? Some possible reasons:

¡  With construction ramping up in the area, a hod carrier like Grampa may have been lured by the prospect of steady work nearby.

¡  The house was right next to three empty lots that Grampa saw he could use for gardening. Among his crops were corn, tomatoes, carrots, garlic, onions, and cherries. He also raised pigs and chickens--Elsie used to ride one of the pigs!

Have you visited our Family Website lately?
It's a treasure trove of heirloom photos, earlier newsletters, genealogical data, videos of past reunions, and even some priceless audio recordings. Drop in again soon!