EAST HARLEM FEASTS

At the end of the week it will be the Feast of St. Anthony, June 13th. When I was growing up in East Harlem there would be Italian Festivals throughout the spring and summer. It was either St. Anthony, Giglio, or Mt. Carmel which was the biggest of all.  During the Giglio Feast there would be a Dancing of the Giglio or The Giglio Lift. They constructed a two story tower with a statue of the saint at the top with poles extended at the bottom for the men to lift. They would lift the tower on their shoulders and dance with the Giglio. It was amazing to witness. All of the feasts were absolutely great, particularly Mr. Carmel. It spanned from 106th Street up to 125th Street on First Avenue. On the actual Saints Day of Mt. Carmel, July 15th, there would be a parade. I remember all the old Italian ladies walking barefoot through the streets, some of them dressed in all black because they were in mourning. Back then you had to wear all black for at least a year if you were “in mourning.” Their bare feet with black stockings rolled down because it was so hot.  The photo on the left is a typical parade during the Feast of Mt. Carmel in the 50’s.

All the store merchants would display their wares or cook their products in front of their stores. There were no permits, licenses or any of that garbage back then.  They literally had from soup to nuts on display for those 20 blocks. My mother and father had a butcher shop on the corner of First Avenue and 113th Street, so naturally they made sausage and peppers in front of the butcher shop.  My grandfather Vito had a fish market right next door to the butcher shop, so he had a stand and opened fresh clams on his storefront stand.  Famous for their zeppole at all the feasts would be the Honeyball’s, Mary and Vince Criscuolo. The lived on First Avenue between 114th and 115th Streets.  They had the best zeppole stand. Their zeppoles were light and not greasy. The streets would be closed and the festivities would last for a week or more.  They would build a bandstand on the block where the church was located and play Italian music.  They also had Italian vocalists singing, of course, Italian songs.

My sisters told me when I was a baby in the 40’s, they were responsible for babysitting me. They truly were like mothers to me since they were 11 and 13 years older.  During the feast they were not allowed to join the festivities until I was asleep.  So they rocked me to sleep in my navy blue baby coach carriage and all the guys carried the carriage back to 113th street so I wouldn’t wake up.

Growing up in the 50’s was so different from the world today.  We played on the streets and we knew everyone in the neighborhood.  We didn’t lock our doors at night because there was no need to… In the summertime we would hang out and didn’t need babysitters.  The neighborhood was our babysitter.  We would run under the sprinklers created by a can attached to the “Johnny Pump” also known these days as a fire hydrant.  Don’t know why they called it a Johnny Pump, just know that’s what we called it.  We could play games in the streets… Kick the Can, Ringalevio (sp?), Johnny on the Pony, The Cop and the Mo.  Our mothers calling from the windows that it was time for dinner.  We slept on the fire escapes with blankets and pillows on hot summer nights with our cousins.  We didn’t have air conditioning.  Maybe a fan with a bowl of ice in front of it.  A vendor with a rolling cart selling ices or dipping apples into hot jelly…great jelly apples not the hard crap they make today.  My grandmother selling slices of watermelon from a food cart filled with ice for five cents in front of my Uncle Pete’s candy store.

Thinking back on it now it was a magical time of my life.  The children today don’t know what an experience it was growing up then.  Today instead they sit at a computer playing violent games.  We had all our friends within blocks of each other and went to the same schools.  We hung out at Jefferson Park and went swimming at the pool where we paid 25 cents to get in and stayed there all day long.

If I had my wish, I would go back to living the simple life of the 50’s. It wasn’t so complicated then.  No one was competing with each other and life was easier.