I (Jacquie Guerrieri) called my Gram (in 1999) and asked if I could come over and have her tell me stories about her brothers and sisters and growing up for the cookbook and her response was, "You better hurry and get over here, the Sox start at 7:00!" I started asking her some simple questions and then the stories really started to flow. I was laughing so hard, I was crying... and at times, I was just crying. She's lived through difficult times, fun times... the Stock Market Crash, the Depression, World War I, World War II, The Korean War, Vietnam, the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and now the Y2K! She's a walking history book! Here are some of her stories... I only wish you could hear her telling them first hand, with the inflection and her Louisiana accent that sometimes sneaks in at the high points! She's a stitch at 86!


FROM THE VOICE OF CARRIE GUARISCO-SCIACKITANO

My parents, Anthony Guarisco and Dominica Domino, were born in Italy. I'm not sure if they were married in Italy or here, but if it were here then it was right after they arrived, because my mom was 15 and my dad was 18 when they came over and the same age when they got married. He was a share cropper in Louisiana. They lived in a big 2 story farmhouse with 4 bedrooms, a big dining room, a huge kitchen and great room, all with fire places for heat. It had a tin roof and when it rained, Bill, Josephine, Mary, & I would run upstairs so we could listen to the rain on the roof.

We loved the fire places. My brother John's wife, Annie, told the best stories by the fireplace. As soon as they'd come over, we'd want to hurry with dinner so she could tell us stories all night long! She told great ghost stories, mysteries, whatever she could think of. We loved them!

Let's see... John married Annie and had Mamie, Tony, Mary, and Gen. Kelly married Mary. Gee married Mike Monzella and had Vince and Antoinette. Pete married Angelina and had Anthony & Mamie, but they got divorced. Then he married sweet Ida and had Marlene, Carol, and John. Bill married Bernice and had Sandy and Bill. Jo married Herman Martin and they had Patti and Charolette. Mary married Robert Troupe and had Bobby and Danny and I, of course, married John Sciackitano in July 1934 and had Betty, John, and your mom (Donna).

I got married when I was almost 21. Gen, Jo, me, then Mary got married in that order. Aunt Mary was 25. She was having a ball! No time to settle down. She was a beautiful girl... always with those hats. You remember. (and I do! Carrie (Stromberg) and I used to play with them when we were little).

I met Shack at a softball game. His team was losing horribly 14 - 5 and I said, "I'm not going out to a movie with you. You'd have to win this game first." I went home, because they were losing so bad, I NEVER thought they'd win!!! Later he came over and said they won and so I had to go to the movies with him. We saw "Windsor." Now that's fate! He was so stubborn, but so handsome! The rest is history!

All us girls met our husbands working at Revere Copper & Brass, except Aunt Gee, she met her husband through a neighbor. He played cards downstairs from us and that's how she met him.

My sisters were my best friends. Still are. My mom died in child birth having her 12th child. Four of her 12 children died at birth. I was 7 when she died in 1920, so I took care of Mary, who was only 3. She followed me everywhere! Aunt Gee was 15 and did all the cooking and we just took care of everything and had to rely on each other. That's probably why we're so close. They say I looked like my beloved mother. She was so sweet.

My first trip was after my mother passed away and I went to Texas on a train to stay with John & Annie. They moved to Texas from Louisiana to be close to Annie's sister. I stayed with them about 6 months or so until after Mamie (Guarisco-Donato) was born. Ohh, was that girls' birth a highlight in my life! I just loved my niece. Then I went back to Louisiana after everything settled down.

We had a lot of fun growing up. We played house, me, Jo, & Mary and called each other Miss Lodrey (she laughs) and we call each other that to this day! Aunt Mary gets a big kick out of it when I call her and she picks up the phone and I say, "Well HEELLLOOO MISS LODREY!" We had our moments though. My sister, Jo, would call me cat eyes, because my eyes were green, when she was mad at me. That made me so angry, I'd call her dog eyes!

We didn't have T.V. or radio, just wasn't invented yet! I was born in 1913 you know, so things were very different, as you can imagine! We made dolls out of corn cobs, used broken glass for dishes and tin cans for pots ~ we really had a ball! Every Sunday a black man would come down the river in his boat selling the best ice cream cones for 5 cents. It was luscious!

My sister Jo, my brother Bill, & I would always go crabbing and fishing... we lived right by the river. We used to drive my brother, Kelly, crazy!!! Oh was he a worrier, uhh. He worried whenever we were out of his sight, much less down by the river. As if I'd go in or something! I was so afraid of snakes, Girl! I'd kill before I'd fall in that river!!! I still get the creeps if I see a snake on T.V. ~ I have to turn it or leave the room! Woo! Woo!

All the boys worried about us though. We had to be home at 9:00 sharp ~ Even when we were in our 20's! All the boys would be lined up waiting for us to get home. My God! Kelly was such a sweetheart. He was an angel. John & Pete always fought when we were young. I'd get so upset, I'd get an asthma attack, so they'd have to stop!

We went to school in a 1 room school house with 8 grades in that room. And when WE didn't do our homework, the teachers would whip us with a willow switch! So you can bet I was a great student! I really did get good grades, I loved school. I graduated the 8th grade and my dad sadly told me I couldn't go to high school, because I had to work to help the family. It was the Depression then and times were TOUGH, Girl!!! I cried for 3 months because I wanted to go to high school so bad, but I had to help my family.

I wasn't even old enough to work, so I took Aunt Jo's birth certificate and her high heels and wobbled down to the marshmallow factory and got a job. I couldn't even walk in those damn heels! I absolutely HATED that job!!! I'd come home covered in white powder every day from those damn things. My bosses must've thought I was deaf or dumb or both, because they'd be yelling for me, "JOSEPHINE!!!" and of course I wasn't answerin' since I'd forget that was suppose to be my name! Ha! I'm telling you... I'm 86 and I STILL hate marshmallows!!!!

Thank God things are different today. I'm glad the kids have all they do, but they take it for granted. Their education, piles of toys, computers, all the books they have at school. They don't know what a privilege it is to live in this day... in this country. To work for anything. To want for anything. It builds character to work for what you want, then you have pride once you get it.

At Christmas time we didn't even have a tree. We hung stockings on the fire place. We'd get cookies, candy, fruit and once in a while a small toy. But we didn't care. We didn't know any different, we were so happy with whatever we got in our stockings! We had such a great time at the holidays all being together!

St. Joseph's Day was the best time, though. Making that beautiful table to honor our Lord and ask for different miracles. Everyone's friends and cousins, just about the whole town was invited to come over and eat and drink to their heart's content. It was a great time in my young life.

We all lived through some tough times, too though. My brother, John, was drafted for the first World's War, but he couldn't go because he had that flu that was killing all those people in the south at the time. He was so, so sick, we thought we were going to lose him, but my mother was so happy that at least he was home and didn't have to go to the war. He was her heart beat. The first born boy. But then he got his orders to report. I'll never forget the day he was suppose to leave as long as I live. My mom was baking bread and I thought she was going to die of a broken heart at the thought of him leaving and she got worse as the hour grew nearer. Then all of a sudden all the whistles were going off in the town and we knew the war was over!!! Oh My God!!! My mother was dancing & screaming because he didn't have to go! God was truly with us that day!

The second World War was horrible too. Five of my first cousins, Mamie's husband - Joe (Donato) and lots of other relatives and friends were there. I mean fighting in the trenches, Girl. It was horribly scary. We prayed all the time. My neighbor had 2 sons die. When the war ended my Aunt Josephine had a huge St. Joseph's table in July, because all 5 of her boys came home safely. Those were difficult days.

I'll never forget the day the stock market crashed, either! We were in Chicago then. It was like dooms day! I was walking home from work and people were jumping out of windows, killing themselves... and I don't mean 1 or 2 either. It was a terrible, terrible day. We didn't much know or care about the stock market, because we didn't have any money, but we sure knew what it meant after that day.

We were older when we came to Chicago. John & Annie moved to Chicago after they had a bad flood in Texas. Then grandpa went with Aunt Mary and he and Kelly worked at the railroad. We all stayed behind at first and they'd send us money. It was suppose to be temporary work. They stayed with my Aunt Mary, my mother's sister, in Bradley, IL. Then we all came to Chicago and stayed with Aunt Cora, my mom's other sister till we found a house.

My 3 brothers took me to Sox Park when I was 14 and I've been a Sox fan ever since! You'd think in those 72 years they could win a World Series?!?! Shhhiiit No! I saw all the big guys ~ Babe Ruth, Joe DeMaggio, Lou Gehrig, all the big Yankee players. We'd all meet at Sox Park... Jo & Herman, all of us... sit in the bleachers. And at that time, Girl, you had to be in line at the park by 3:00 to get into a 7:00 game. Kind of like your Bulls... well your previous Bulls! HA!

Chicago's where all we girls got married. My brothers and the brother-in-laws all got along real well. They'd play cards, drink, and get silly. All the girls would come to my house. We all practically lived on the same street for awhile, but Aunt Jo & Uncle Herman lived across the alley from us for a long time.

All the men died so young, except for Grandpa and Uncle Bob, such a shame. It was such a sad thing, because they were great people and great fun. You kids would have just loved them. Woo they were a handsome bunch!

"OK... is that enough for this cook book you're puttin' together, because it's Ball Time! I really learned to cook on my own, much later in life. Gee did all the cookin'. By the time I was 78 or so, I think I was pretty good at it! Ha! Shack loved everything I cooked, that's for sure. Could hardly get the man to take me to a restaurant, cause he didn't like anything I didn't make! And the kids still like to come... Jeff's kids can eat 2 pounds of pasta between the 4 of them! So I guess I do alright!"


Editor's Note: Carrie Sciackitano passed away on November 30, 2005. She got to see her beloved White Sox win the World Series the month before.