Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

When I was growing up a lot of my friends lived in the same house as their grandparents. I always thought how cool it was to have your grandparents living in the same house. My cousin Carol lived with my grandparents and her memories of growing up with their old-style child rearing and idiosyncrasies made for some wonderful stories.

I was so impressed that my cousin Carol could speak Italian to my grandmother and grandfather and grandfather. As a matter of fact, she became our official interpreter. We would ask Carol the question we wanted to ask grandma and Carol would use her grandma voice and ask the question in Italian.

And this is how we went back-and-forth with grandma. You had to use your outside voice because grandma was pretty deaf. I do a good imitation of one of those grandma sessions. Grandma and grandpa’s house was DelPonte central. After all, it was right in the heart of DelPonte Square! (see photo)

The house is smack dab in between Davis Square and Teele Square. You can see the Western Junior High School from in front of my grandpa’s house. Carol’s commute was easy as pie for those years that she was at the school.

My grandfather controlled the television set. He would get the TV guide at the beginning of the week and he would go through each page and check every show that he intended to watch. They were mostly westerns like Rawhide, Gunsmoke and Bonanza. But while my cousin Carol was at school, grandma watched soap operas like One Life to Live and General Hospital. Even though she was half deaf and didn’t understand English, she watched the shows and then explained what happened to Carol when she got home from school.

Today, Carol has tons of memories of growing up with our grandparents. Their home was the happy place we would visit as kids. Even though we lost grandpa in 1964 and grandma in 1975 it was just enough time to grow to love them and cherish the times we shared. Carol broke down the language barrier for us. We also grew up learning that hugs are hugs in any language. We were blessed to get to know our grandparents.