(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
Ciaccio, Anthony – “no love lost”
(Recollections of Rose Ragucci – recorded 12/29/2003 by Rosalie Ragucci)
My father (Anthony Ciaccio) and Aunt Lena (Lombardo) “intensely disliked” each other because they saw through each other. They had an argument at my cousin Louie’s (Ceppo) wedding and Lena said to my father “I don’t want to see you again –not even if you’re dead!” From that moment on they avoided each others presence which meant that my grandmother (Rose Ciaccio) could not see her brother (Joe Lombardo). It was so intense that they would even check when they went to visit Aunt Lena (Lombardo) that the other was not going to be there. They didn’t speak for the last 12 years of my father’s life. The family reconciled when my cousin Joe and Lana (Lombardo) had a family picnic after my father died and invited us to come.
Ragucci, Dominic – “strange encounter”
Before Dominic left for the war, he was engaged to a woman named Rose from Elizabeth (not his future wife, Rose Nardi). He did not want to marry this Rose, so he never told her when he returned from the war. She assumed that he had died in the war. About 50 years later, Dominic was having dinner by himself at the Turkey Farm in Chester NJ. As he waited for his table, a woman ran up to him, threw her arms around him, and said “Dominic! I thought you were dead!” It was Rose who recognized him 50 years later! Although Dominic initially swore that it was not the same woman, she knew a great many details about his life 50 years ago.
Ragucci, Anthony Sr – “Halloween Float”
(Recollections of Joe Ragucci – recorded 1/10/2005 by Joe Ragucci)
Uncle Tony and Aunt Priscilla’s cellar was the gathering place for several teenagers. In particular, Tony Jr., Joe, Linda, Frank Cundari, and Billy Capik. Among other things we used to listen to and sing to popular music of the time.
In the summer of 1965, Uncle Tony decided to help us build a float for the Halloween Parade in Woodbridge. Continue reading
Ragucci, Anthony Sr. – “bouncing box ?”
When Tony was young, his brother, Dominic and some others were playing with a big empty box. They decided to put young Tony in the box and bring it up on the porch. They then pushed the box off the porch with Tony inside to see if he would bounce when he hit the grown. Obviously, they were wrong and instead of bouncing, Tony got a broken arm.
Ciaccio, Rose (Lombardo) – cooking
Recollections of Rosalie Ragucci-Cook
My grandmother was always in the kitchen. She made excellent macaroni and gravy with meatballs and sausage. My mother would go food shopping on the weekend and my mother would make a list on the fridge for my grandmother to tell her exactly what she would cook each day of the week. Some of grandma’s other specialties were roast chicken, roast beef, stuffed peppers. She made braciole once or twice. I remember one time when Uncle Joe Ciaccio (her brother in law) came to visit and they made mussells for dinner. She had quite a collection of cook books and her favorite TV shows were cooking shows (that was before Food Network!) Grandma often made escarole for herself and my mother. She loved fish and always made a traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner with no meat.
When I was a child, my grandmother was always afraid I’d be cold. She would always warm up foods for me before serving them to me, even if they were supposed to be served cold. Most notably, she warmed up Jello in a pot on the stove. Needless to say, it melted. She never did that again!
Turco, Ester and Carl – “remembrances”
Aunt Ester and Uncle Yonce (Carl) lived upstairs my grandmother and grandfather in Carteret as I was growing up. Yonce (as everyone called him) was a mason and actually, together with my father Dom, built the brick house on Linden Street in Carteret. I saw Aunt Ester quite often as she would frequently come downstairs when my father and I would visit with my grandparents who lived downstairs. Yonce was a quiet hard working man. The thing I remember vividly is his hands which were hard like sandpaper due to handling bricks and cement his whole life.