Please sit with us! I know that you will enjoy your visit with Jodi Morelli from Stamford, Connecticut. Jodi is a marketing professional and runs Global Media Marketing, based in Stamford. Also, she has years of experience in marketing in television and held executive positions at Fox Sports, Fox News Channel, MTV, Viacom and PanAmSat. Most importantly, she has a heart of gold and is proud to be an Italian American.
This is a true story about Jodi Morelli of Stamford, CT. She opened her heart to me recently and allowed me to write this story. Also, Jodi has given me permission to place this story on my website along with the photo. I chose this photo of Jodi and her nephew Chris because it capture's Jodi's vibrant personality, passion for Italian food, love of family and preserving the Italian traditions. Her nephew Chris is in the photo. He is in cooking school learning to be an Italian chef at Johnson & Wales in Rhode Island. By the way, Jodi is cooking calamari sauce on the stove!
"Come on Joe! Let's get something to eat!," a group of men yelled. Joe Morelli looked at the dirt on his Boston Braves T-shirt, took off his baseball cap and said, "I am going home. I am tired tonight." The men shook their heads and smiled. "Yeah, right! You're not tired! Hey loverboy, are you going to see Margaret (Mickey) tonight?" they joked. Joe laughed and said, "Ah, mind your own business. I will call you guys tomorrow." The sounds of the men's laughter faded into the parking lot. Joe Morelli looked up at the sky, took out a bottle of Coca Cola, and looked at the bleachers which surrounded the baseball field. He did not want to go out for a hamburger with his friends that night. Instead, he had to make a very important decision. His mind weaved back and forth. One moment, he was thinking of his baseball and the sound of his cleats against the baseball diamond, and the next moment, he remembered his Italian class at Stamford High School, especially feelings of love as he looked into Mickey's beautiful eyes. They fell in love during Italian class. Jodi Morelli said, "My father played in the Double A baseball league in the 1950's. Back then the team was called the Boston Braves, which are now called the Atlanta Braves. My father could have made it to the major leagues, but he decided to marry my mother." The sounds of the cheering crowds who watched him play baseball were replaced by the sounds of the church campanile, or bell tower. As his daughter, Jodi, told me the story, I was able to envision her parents and family members in my mind.
The brilliance of the moon was reflecting on the bleachers. Joe's inner voice was telling him, "It is time to settle down, get married, and raise a family." Although Joe's heart sank as he held his baseball glove, he truly was ready to marry Mickey Colombo.
I did not have my usual Campari on the rocks as I spent time with Jodi Morelli that evening. Instead, I enjoyed a Rossini, which is Prosecco and Strawberry syrup. It went well with the April breezes on Bedford Street in Stamford, CT. Jodi told me that her father was a passionate baseball player. Also, he was a four letter man at Stamford High School. He had earned varsity letters in baseball, football, and a couple of other sports. As a matter of fact, Jodi was named after Joe DiMaggio. "I was supposed to be a boy, but my parents were surprised when I was a girl." I remember that my parents also expected me to be a boy, so they wanted to name me Giovanni. Much to their surprise, I was a girl, so they named me Giovanna. Jodi explained If you drop the "e" in Joe, the letters form Jodi, just like the first few letters of Joe Dimaggio's name.
Jodi and I decided to order. I knew exactly what I wanted. I enjoyed a steak and arugula panini while she enjoyed her pizza and white wine. "My family has lived in Stamford since 1900," she explained. The Morelli, Colombo, Pironto , and Carrano family put on their Sunday best dresses and suits. The women fussed with their hair and shoes, while the men straightened their bottonaires. The entire family wanted to look sharp on Joe and Mickey's wedding day. The Colombo and Piranto family have roots in Naples, while the Morelli family has roots in Bari, beginning with the great grandparents.
I was curious about Jodi's family, so I asked her, "What do you remember about your father?" Jodi smiled and said that, "my father was very personable. He used to own Hobby Deli and a night club called Como's." The sound of the cold cut slicer entered my mind as Jodi told me that she used to work in her father's deli. Her job was to slice to the cold cuts. "Two pounds of mortadella, two pounds of pepperoni, and two pounds of capicolla," a woman yelled to Jodi as she remembers slicing the cold cuts. Jodi recalls how much fun Sundays were each time she worked at her father's deli. "It was a high carb day. I used to eat donuts and rolls from JJ Cassone's bakery, and then I would eat pasta in the afternoon," Jodi laughed. One morning, Joe Morelli woke up early. "Where are you going?" his family asked. "The Clairol factory is moving into Stamford today. I am expecting a huge crowd." The place was packed, Jodi mentioned. Everyone from Clairol used to line up in their uniforms to get a sandwich at that deli. My father loved to sing at his night club, Como's. "Yes there were times, I am sure you knew, when I bit off, more than I could chew..." the words to the Frank Sinatra songs echoed in my mind as Jodi mentioned that he loved singing Sinatra songs. He was passionate about his night club, and Jodi remembers a singer named Louis Prima singing at his club. Sometimes, the songs of Marvin Gaye, Temptations, and R & B music would come out of his living room or out of the doors of his nightclub. One day, Joe went into Jodi's room and surprised her. "Dad, what's in that envelope?" He smiled and said, "I have a surprise for you...take a look..." Jodi took the envelope and gave her father a huge hug. "Wow, we are going to see Gladys Knight at the Oakdale!!" It was back in the mid 1970's and she was thrilled to see Gladys Knight! She remembers the words ..."midnight train to Georgia" filling the Oakdale Theater and she got to bring her cousin Patti-Ann Deleo. They had a blast!
Joe Morelli was a Yankee fan. One night, Jodi was in her room, scribbling on her notebook. Her father came into the room wearing his Bermuda shorts and a Yankee t-shirt. "We are going to the Yankee game, so you do not have to go to school on Friday." Jodi was excited as she thought about spending the day eating hot dogs and watching her dad light up a cigar while he ate a hot grinder. Although Jodi's family did not take alot of family vacations, she remembers that her family went to the World's Fair one year. Jodi walked around and enjoyed candy and all the other treats at the fair. She tugged at her mother's arm and, "let's go this way...or I want to see that...". Suddenly, her father said that they had to leave the World's Fair because he had to play "Fast Pitch Ball". He put the family in the car, and off they went. "Oh, Dad, why are we leaving?" Joe said, "don't worry, we'll come back in a couple of days. I have to play Fast Pitch Ball." Her mother sat in the car with her arms folded. "Can't you miss one game? What would happen if you missed it just this once?" Joe did not intend on missing his game. A couple of days later, they all went back to the World's Fair. Jodi remembered that her family stayed in a modest motel near the World's Fair.
She remembers telling a friend in school that she was going to a Yankee game with her father and would not be in school. She whispered to her friend, "guess what? I don't have to come to school on Friday. Don't tell anyone but I am going to a Yankee game with my father." The girl yelled out, "Jodi's going to a Yankee game on Friday!" The nun turned around, pushed the glasses higher up on her nose and walked over to Jodi. "Oh no!" Jodi thought. Some of the other students said, "oooohhh, your in trouuuubbblle." The nun wore a habit. Jodi referred to it as an "intense habit". She paced back and forth with a ruler in her hand. The classroom got silent and then, "whack!", the nun hit her across the legs. The nun looked at Jodi as she fought to hold back the tears. The red mark on her leg was still fresh while the nun pointed at her and said , "First of all, Jodi is not even a Saint's name," the nun yelled. Second of all, your father is not a practicing Catholic, and third of all, you're Italian." Well, with three strikes against her, Jodi's heart was broken and she felt humiliated by the strict nun. Jodi explained that there was a lot of prejudice and rivalry between certain ethnic groups back then.
Jodi was telling me her story right from her heart. I felt like I was looking at a scrap book of Jodi's life. "What else can you tell me about your father?" I asked. Jodi explained that her father used to wear Bermuda shorts , flip flops and a hat. Sometimes a cigar would dangle from his mouth. Although Joe had a receding hairline, he had alot of hair on top of his head. I asked Jodi, "what image enters your mind when you think about your father?" I asked. Jodi smiled and said, "He reminded me of Elvis, just flamboyant and full of life. My father used to love going to Vegas." I asked Jodi, "if we went back to visit your old house, what memories do you have about your Italian American house? Jodi remembers how small her house was back in the Cove Island neighborhood of Stamford, CT. "Jodi, dinner is ready", her mother would yell up the stairs. "Okay mom, I will be right down" she would yell. Just as she was ready to walk into the kitchen, she stopped in her footsteps and turned around the corner slowly. The doorway to the kitchen was narrow and the tiny hallway had a low ceiling. She did not want to bump into anything on her way into the kitchen, so she tip toed into the kitchen.
We were enjoying our food, but I really was intrigued by Jodi's description of her father. I put down the rest of my panini and asked her to describe the sights and sounds of her house. While Jodi spoke, I was able to envision her living room. "Move out of the way," and "sssh, can't you see we are watching the game over here....where's your mother? go and ask her to take you shopping or something. We need to watch the game..." Jodi explained that her father loved watching the football and baseball games with his friends. They enjoyed their sausage and pepper grinders, and cold beer. It went hand in hand with watching the game. He pulled out his wallet and told his wife, Mickey, "here, do me a favor, take the girls out to Bloomingdale's or something. I can't watch the game with all this noise in here.." Her mother would open up the windows and say, "Joe, why do you have to smoke so many cigars, it smells like a tobacco factory in here..."
Sometimes Jodi's cousins would come over to visit. Jodi remembers asking her grandmother, "hey, can I have a few friends over?" Her grandmother would say, "friends? you don't need to have friends over, you have your cousins." Yes, the Morelli family had 31 cousins. Her maternal grandfather, Nichoolas Columbo, worked for Yale Lock. Her cousin, Rose Carrano (She was always known as "Aunt Rosie") moved to Stamford and was one of the first employees of Yale Lock in Stamford, CT. Jodi described her Aunt Rosie to me. "What's that noise?" Jodi and her grandmother would ask. It was the sound of someone banging on the pipes underneath the sink and the sound of a big, metal tool box. Sometimes the sound of the hammer beating on a nail would echo throughout the house "We nicknamed my Auntie Rose, "Rosie the Riveter." She was very handy and was always walking around our house fixing things." As Rosie had her head underneath the kitchen pipes, she yelled, "Jodi, bring me my tool box and put in near the sink for me." Rosie's legs and feet would be stick out under the sink for hours. No matter how many simple work clothes she wore, her Rolex watch sparkled from the darkness of the basement, closet or kitchen sink. "Rosie did not have a lot of money, but she always wore a Rolex."
There were piles of sheets, jeans, t-shirts and pajamas piled up in the house. Aunt Rosie and Grandmother Carrie used to come over and help with the laundry,while grandmother Carrie did the cooking. Rosie's job was to fix things. If she was not fixing things, her only job was to make tea and bring serve it with the milk and sugar already mixed (you had no choice) . Everyone had a role at Jodi's house.
One day, she remembers sitting in the kitchen with her maternal grandmother, Carrie Pironto-Columbo. They sipped their tea and talked about Mulberry Street. Carrie lived on on Mulberry Street and described how much fun she used to have at the San Gennaro Festival. The women and men walked down Mulberry Street in their ball gowns and suits. Back then, they paraded down Mulberry Street in their sharp, classy clothes before there were cars.
Christmas Eve is engraved in Jodi's mind. "The tables at my Grandmother Carrie's house were lined up from the kitchen into every room in the house. She placed each table right next to each other so it formed a line from the kitchen into my cousin Rosie's bedroom. Jodi remembers sitting at the table in Rosie's bedroom with the statues standing around her. Also, she remembers the clean scent of her Aunt Rosie's room as doilies were neatly placed on the dresser. Her grandmother's house was a railroad apartment. It was very small, long and narrow, yet filled with the love of all 31 cousins. "Pass the Eel," her grandmother said. "I want some more baccola salad" someone yelled across the table, while another said, "where is the fennocio and oranges?" another cousin asked. " It's at the other end of the table....hey, keep room in your stomach for the anisette cookies and canoli later". The scent of the fried schmelts and eel invaded the house.
Sometimes the scent of gravy and anisette cookies was replaced by the scent of clams. One of her aunts always had a clambake. Jodi had fond memories of the clambake and cookouts. I envisioned the pointy, polyester shirts, pompedour hairstyles, cigars and all of the 31 cousins! I can imagine how many clams, burgers, ribs and chicken they ate over at that house!
Since Jodi's parents worked, sometimes her sisters would babysit her. The television was actually her babysitter. She remembers seeing newsflashes about the Vietnam war. "I resented authority because of the Vietnam war. I was rebellious," Jodi added. It was May 4th, 1970 and Jodi remembers watching the news about the Kent State shootings. She heard the newsflash, "4 students were killed, and 9 injured, including one student who has been paralyzed." The news showed students who had protested about the invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War while others just gathered to watch the protest. It was a time of rebellion.
Jodi told me that she remembers that her sisters wanted to go to Woodstock. However, her father yelled, "Don't be hippie! what do you want to go there for???" Also, he added, "and if I ever catch you going to see that nudist camp in that show "Hair", I will throw you out of this house!" Hair was a forbidden broadway show to see in those days."
Jodi remembers the way her grandmother and other family members spoke. She felt that they spoke so much differently than everyone else. Jodi put her feet up on the coffee table while her grandmother combed her hair. She would make up her own phrases like, "Look at him, he sits there like a vegetarian." Really, she meant to say, "Look at him, he sits there like a vegetable and doesn't move," referring to a lazy person. Sometimes there would be commotion in the kitchen and the women gossiped or caught up on the latest news about who was getting divorced. Her grandmother would shake her head and say, "listen, there are only two reasons why a man divorces a woman. Either he has a cumada, (meaning girlfriend) or she is nuts." She truly had those ideas instilled in her head, and never believed that there could be any other reason for divorce. Sometimes she would chat with the relatives and would say, "yea, well, she is nuts, that's why he left her," or "that bum, well, he has a cumad, that's why he took off." Jodi refers to the words in her house as half Italian colloqualisms, such as mozzarell and capicol. They dropped the "a" or the "o" at the end of certain words. Another word they used was, comecoo, which meant, "how cute" as they pinched a child's cheeks. Come means "how" in Italian. Cute was pronounced "coo," but you dropped the "ute" at the end. She then said, "sometimes we used the word cacciarone. Do you know what that means?" I told her we used the word cacciarone. It is meant to describe a person who likes to attention, or who displays affection. Sometimes, they would use another slang word, "cavone" which is another version of cafone. This is the word to describe a person who does not have any class, is usally a show off, or means tacky. The word sauce did not exist in Jodi's house. It was referred to as gravy. Well, we never used the word gravy except in November while a fat, juicy turkey was cooking in the oven. We needed brown gravy to go on top of the turkey and potatoes.
Sometimes, Jodi's grandmother Carrie would buy St. Christoper and St. Anthony medals at a monastery in the Stamford area. She loved giving the medals at gifts, and would always have the medals blessed! She would place the medal in a person's hand and explain that it had the "benadizione," or "blessing"
Jodi remembers her grandmother taking her to a store called King's, which was similar to Woolworth's. Her grandmother was so petite that she could not reach the gas pedals in her car. She had to put wooden bricks on the gas pedals so she could reach the
gas pedal.
I asked Jodi about her father, Joe. "What would you tell your father if he were alive or if you had the chance to spend one more day with him?" She said, with all of her heart, " Dad, I wish I could hang out with you and have a drink. Now that I am grown up, I understand the things that you went through in life, and I know that you and I would have been friends if you were alive today." Jodi said that if she could sketch images of her father, she would sketch a baseball, the New York Yankees emblem, Babe Ruth, and Joe Dimaggio. I kept hearing the lyrics to the Temptations and Marvin Gaye as I remembered Jodi saying that he loved their music!
Jodi's message to her mother is, " I know that life was not easy for you when you grew up on MacGee Avenue. The house was so cold that you had to keep coats on the bed to stay warm. I am glad that we are friends." It was a blessing that Jodi was able to bring her mother to Italy for the first time. The breezes of Amalfi lifted their spirits, they admired the sights of Rome and Naples. Also, they had travelled to Raviello. I envisioned Jodi and her mother enjoying Italian bread, pizza, gnocchi, ravioli,and fresh figs. It was a precious gift from Jodi to her mother as they were able to sightsee in Italy together with Jodi's adorable husband, David.
Jodi is a strong, independent, intelligent, and passionate woman. Although she has a trendy hairstyle and radiates beauty from inside of her heart as well as on the outside, Jodi preserves the Italian traditions. She said that Italian traditions are not dead. As a matter of fact, she carries out many of the same traditional foods during the holidays. If I could sketch Jodi, I would sketch Yankee stadium, next to a profile of Jodi's face, with a tear drop coming out of her eye. This resembles the disappointment and sadness of missing the Yankee game due to the punishment which she endured from the nun at school. Also, I would sketch the television with a soldier from the Vietnam war, as this caused Jodi to resent authority at the time. Additionally, I would sketch all of the long tables in her grandmother's house, with the silhouettes of her cousins and famly members. At the top of the portrait, I would sketch her parents, with the deli and nightclub in the background.
I am glad that I met Jodi, and I look forward to seeing her again soon.
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