Recollections of Joe Ragucci – Mike should add his recollections to this…
Author Archives: Joe
Ragucci, Richard – “childhood injuries”
Ricky had his share of childhood injuries.
The first was when he decided to drink turpentine. It was scary but no harm done.
Another time, when they were not much older, Mike got angry at Rick and swung the garden hose at him. The nozzle hit Mike on the top and his head and a stream of blood started shooting straight up out of his head. I remember putting pressure on it and it stopped. But it was a strange sight as this fountain of blood shot out of the top of his head.
The third is when he was playing in the playground when they were mowing the “grass” which was more dirt and rock. The mower picked up a rock and it hit Ricky right in the center of the chest and knocked him down. He ended up in the hospital but all was ok.
Ragucci, Richard – “3rd grade drop-out”
When Ricky was in 3rd grade, he decide that he had enough of school and wasn’t going back. The principal of #9 in Port Reading was Mr. Brown. He knew exactly how to “solve” this problem (I guess it wasn’t the first time). So he told Ricky that he could stay home but while school was in session he had to stay in his room with no toys, or books, and no TV. He couldn’t do anything until 3:30pm when school was over. After 2 or 3 days Ricky had enough and wanted to go back to school but Mr. Brown said no, he had to stay a whole week. The following week Ricky was glad to get back to school and never dropped out again!
Ciuffreda, Robert – “Christmas Eve”
(Recollections of Joe Ragucci – recorded 1/10/2005 by Joe Ragucci)
When I was growing up (teenager+) our Christmas eve tradition was that the entire Ragucci family went to Midnight Mass at St. Anthony’s in Port Reading and then walked down the street to Aunt Angelina and Uncle Leo’s house to celebrate. Everyone was there and we ate and talked for hours. The one “tradition” was that at 3am, the original “Christmas Carol” movie would come on TV and the kids would all sit around and watch it. Bobby was amazing in that he had memorized all the lines in the movie. So you heard the movie in stereo – from the TV and from Bob. It was so much fun even though it was so late…..
Ragucci, Joseph – “bicycles”
(Recollections of Joe Ragucci – recorded 1/12/2005 by Joe Ragucci)
Growing up, the bicycle was a big deal because it gave me a great deal of freedom. Over the years I had many bicycles, but ran each one to the ground since they were always in use. I remember constantly repairing bicycles, whether it be fixing flats, or repairing broken chains, or greasing the rear axle gears, or straightening frames. It was a constant job. I remember one bicycle that was in really bad shape so I repainted it florescent orange. It really stood out and glowed in the dark. I felt so cool. Continue reading
Ragucci, Joseph – “out of control VW convertible”
My first car
… and guess who’s stopped at the light – Aunt Mary and Aunt Angelina!
(Recollections of Joe Ragucci – recorded 1/10/2005 by Joe Ragucci)
Joe was the first one to get a car among his friends. So obviously they all jumped in so they could get away. Joe’s first car was a VW Beetle convertible so it common that the roof was down. Continue reading
Ragucci, Joseph – “there goes the wheel”
(Recollections of Joe Ragucci – recorded 1/10/2005 by Joe Ragucci)
On the VW, the wheel was connected to the axle with a geared spline and was held in place with a simple cotter pin. The axle was hard metal but the wheel was soft. So if you didn’t tighten the wheel tight enough – or if the cotter pin broke, the axle would wear away the gears on the wheel. Eventually, the wheel wouldn’t turn because there were no more gears left. This happened several times. However, the worse situation was one day I was driving in Woodbridge down Green Street toward the Rt 35 intersection when all of a sudden I felt a thump and the rear of the car dropped suddenly. I hit the brakes and nothing happened. I was still moving rapidly toward the intersection which was now a red light. I steered the car to the curb and kept driving into the curb to slow down which eventually worked. What had happened was the cotter pin broke, the wheel came off of the axle but was jammed under the large fenders which kept the car upright. What a fright that was!
Ragucci, Joseph – “my first VW bug”
(Recollections of Joe Ragucci – recorded 1/10/2005 by Joe Ragucci)
When Joe turned 16 he started looking for ways to get a car. Dolores had an old 1956 VW convertible that had been sitting in her garage for years. So in the summer of 1964, she gave it to Joe, but unfortunately it was in terrible shape. So Joe and his father worked all summer to restore it to working condition. Continue reading