Ragucci, Rose Nardi – “Never complained”

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Recollections of Dominic Ragucci – recorded by Rosalie Ragucci-Cook

My grandfather always talks of his first wife, Rose. He tells that she was always happy and easy-going and never complained, even when she was dying of cancer. She had surgery to remove the cancer and he says she was cut straight across her stomach all the way around to her back. Despite the pain, she still wanted to go out dancing on New Years Eve. He said that nobody at the party knew that she was sick. He knew because the doctors had told him but nobody else could tell that she was so sick. She died 6 months later.

My grandfather says that he has visited her in the cemetery every Sunday for almost 40 years.

Ragucci, Joseph – “High School Schooling”

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This is a collection of stories related to my school attendance through the years.  This post is on my high school years.

When I started high school, the Township of Woodbridge was undergoing tremendous growth in schools due to the “baby boomers” that came when the families started after World War II.  I was part of that generation.  As a result I moved around a lot from school to school.

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Ragucci, Dominic – “biography”

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Need to write a biography on Dad.  Some things to include:

  1. Remembrance on day his father died (father was 39 but he was only 5 yrs old);  afterwards his mother told him that he, being the oldest son, was now the “man of the house” and had to leave school and support the family at early age  (when the support $$ stopped).
  2. family travels to Elizabeth when father was in hospital – Aunt angelina with mother who could not speak english
  3. family travels to cemetery every week – take bus to Woodbridge proper and then walk over 2 miles to cemetery. Walk from end of Main St in Woodbridge to what is now Rt 9 and then to St. James Cemetery.  Uncle Tony said they would stop for Ice Cream sometimes during this walk.
  4. Various jobs and training – WPA worked on making Inman Avenue, upholstery, machinist, electrican, boiler operator, construction, etc.  (See Barber post)
  5. Marine during WWII (See WWI Marine post)
  6. jolted off the electric pole at work
  7. walk to school with “holes in his shoes”

Ragucci, Joe & Rose – “Christopher Street”

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When our wedding date was approaching, we needed a place to live.  Uncle Tony was working at a 2 family house in Carteret that was being renovated into 2 apartments.  We talked to the landlady and convinced her to let us do the finishing touches (like paint) in exchange for a few months rent.  The rent was also very cheap ($125/month) which was great since we were still going to college.  Thus, the downstairs apartment at 12 Christopher Street became our first home. Continue reading →

Ragucci, Mary – “buy a new bed”

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Aunt Mary has the oldest bed of anyone that I know.  As a teenager my bedroom was directly below her bedroom in our Port Reading home. Many times in the middle of the night I’d hear this CRASH that caused me to jump out of bed.  What happened was the boards that went under the bed frame to hold up the mattress would slide out and fall with a loud noise onto the floor.  Of course, it always happened in the middle of the night.  We continually pleaded with her to “buy a new bed” but it was fruitless.  She could not make up her mind on what to buy so she just kept the same one.  After years of hearing this crash in the middle of the night, my father decided that something had to be done.  So he rigged the bed frame boards so they couldn’t fall off the frame.  To this day, to my understanding, she still is sleeping on the same bed.

Ragucci, Mary – “nose and fingers”

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Mary Ragucci was afflicted with arthritis at a very young age.  As a result, her fingers began to freeze into a bent position.  If you look at old photographs of Mary you will see her with her “old nose” as she would describe it.  That’s because she had a operation that straightened both her nose and her fingers.   Unfortunately, as she got older her fingers began to freeze in a bent position again.  I could never understand how she was able to type or push buttons with those “crooked” fingers.   But it didn’t stop her. All her fingers are crooked as the joints of the knuckles are frozen in a bent position due to arthritis.