After 20 years of living in "cold-water flats" (apartments that did not provide heat or hot water) Mama finally had her own home again and a backyard garden to grow her vegetables…tomatoes, peppers, beans, zucchini, and especially basil. Today I have this special love for basil because of my memories of Mama's garden. I remember Mama's garden as always having a special fragrance. It wasn't until many years later that I realized it was the basil plants, planted between the tomatoes, that I was smelling. I always thought Mama planted the basil plant between the tomato plants to get more use of space. But that wasn't the main reason I now realize. I read an article by some botanist with a long list of college degrees that said planting basil between other plants will keep all kinds of creepy crawling things away from the plants.

Mama stopped working piece-work and did mostly "samples." Mama was the only person her boss would trust in making these garments. Mama "retired" several times, staying home didn't agree with her. Mama worked mostly because she was bored at home and maybe working got to be a way of life for her. She eventually retired.

I finished my senior year at the High School of Aviation in 1956, and that Fall I started at the Academy of Aeronautics. In 1959, I graduated and for about a year I worked at Gruman Aviation in Bethpage, Long Island. Then I got a job in Portsmouth, New Hampshire at the submarine shipyard. It was my first time living away from home.

On the Sunday morning that I moved out Mama of course was up to make breakfast. She also packed enough food for a two-month trip rather than a five-hour drive. The first thing I did when I got into my hotel room was to call home…I had a lump in my throat. Then that following Friday I went home for the weekend. I was dating Anne Marie at that time and I came home every other weekend, or more.

On my return trips to Portsmouth, Mama would always have a "care package" for me. I would discourage Mama from piling all that food in my car, but she insisted. Yes, the food was very appreciated later that week when my roommate, (and later bestman), Ronnie Saccocio and I got hungry. Mama would fill jars with tomato sauce and meat. She would also prepare pork and beef roasts with all kinds of seasonings and then freeze them wrapped in what she called "silver paper," that was her description of aluminum foil. Sometimes I didn't know what it was in her silver paper. That is when we had surprise dinners.

It is funny now to see that my brothers and I do the same thing for our children. When my sons leave after a family dinner, they almost always walk out with a package of food. Or when we visit we will bring "stuff". I think it is an Italian thing.

On February 18, 1961, Tony and Beth got married in Las Vegas and moved into the middle floor, which technically was considered the first floor and the actual first floor was considered the street-level basement of Mama's house.

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