Donald Tocci Memorial Video

Donald was the last of my siblings to pass away. Diane died  at 67 in 2008. Doug was 78 when he died in 2011. Donald was just 3 months shy of his 80th in 2014.

Our mother passed away at only 73 in 1988. Our father died in 2000 at 88.

The Christmas video below details their birth and death year. Donald was not featured in that video. As the "baby," of the family this was my first Christmas. Donald was stationed overseas with his Army unit. A separate clip of he & I was added to the video after he passed away. Diane & Doug's memorial videos are also featured:

Donald Tocci Memorial Video 2014

 

Christmas Memories 1956 Updated (Read Description)


 Diane & Doug's Memorial Videos:
 
DianeGeorgeTribute

   
DianeGeorgeTribute Two

   
Doug Tocci 2010 Memorial

   
Traveling Doug

 
 

The End of An Era

Pictured at the top of the photo are Loreto & Maria Cedrone with their seven children. 

A poor blue collar Italian immigrant  family, who like many came off the boat (Loreto, Maria & oldest daughter Annunziata aka Nancy seated to your right, came from the "old country,") to make a better life for themselves.

Clara (in wedding dress), was the last of the Cedrone siblings to pass away. Clara died this afternoon three months shy of her 96th birthday. 
 Her passing also brings to an end many family traditions. 
That generation stood for family. Family values. Family was everything. The good. The bad. The happy. The sad. All of it evolved around family and being Italian...FOOD!

On any given Sunday Clara pictured below was in the kitchen like her mother & sisters before her filled with family & food.  
 








Notice the small photo pulled from a 1960s 8mm movie. I swear it's the same pot she was using some 40 years later.

The links to the videos below will more than wet your appetite.
Beyond tables filled with food, the home was filled with laughter.
Laughing!

Everyone talking if not YELLING all at the same time. Often times they were the same old stories you heard 100 times before but enjoyed hearing once again. Clara loved to cook & we loved eating what she made. Pasta to cookies, string beans to salad,  chicken to rabe'. You couldn't have enough of it & if you were lucky (as I was) you didn't leave without leftovers. 
Clara's Sunday Leftovers 1080p (p for Pasta)

But you also left with memories. Memories of a family that started from nothing. That endured hard ships. A family that stood tall. Proud of who they were & what they became.

The first photo at the top of this post does not exist. There are no photos of the family together. The image was created from several photos to create a family group shot. Today they are once again reunited.

My mother died in 1988 when I was 32. 

Today, November 24th 2013 I am 57. Clara having two daughters often referred to me as the son she never had.You don't often get a chance at a second mother. She was much like one to me & a grandmother to our kids who never really had an (Italian) grandma. 

The memorial video linked below has about 30 seconds of dark screen. There is a dialogue box detailing how she & Dan met.
However, some devices/browsers don't see the dialogue. If you don't, just cue past that to about 7:00.

 Clara (Cedrone) Marini Memorial Video 21:00 Minutes

  
She & Dan also became our youngest child's Godparents seen here the day of his baptism:
Dan Marini
Clara often said she was too old. She said she'd never see him graduate high school. But she did. 

It was this time of year, Thanksgiving 2009 where she & Dan (who passed away 3 years prior) were featured in the local paper after I discovered Dan's local Quincy Christmas Parade footage:
http://marinisofquincy.blogspot.com/2009/11/parade-memories.html

I had 32 years with my mother with almost as many with Aunt Clara who was as close to a second mother as you could be lucky to have. She, my mother & the rest are now reunited. 

 Something tells me there's plenty of sauce on the stove, more meatballs than you can count, with endless bowls of spaghetti. That would truly be heaven.
Clara The Movie 1080p
Clara Marini's Fresh Gnocchi's!
Clara's Sunday Leftovers 1080p (p for Pasta)
Italian Sunday Dinner 1080p (Pasta Vision)
Italian Sunday Dinner HD
Italiano!
Food, Wine, Song. Italian!
Italian Christmas
Italians!
Abudanza Marini Style, 8mm Home Movie
Aunt Clara's
Clara Marini Making Pasta at 93
Clara Marini 8mm Pasta
Clara Marini Cooking Pasta 8/23/09
Clara Marini's Macaroni

Claras stories...live on:
Clara Meets Dan 1080p (Paisan Vision)
Clara's Punch 1080p (Punch Vision)
Aunt Millies 1080p (Pasta Vision)
Dan Burns His Backside (HD)
Clara's Horse Story

I found just weeks after Clara died an early/mid 1980's audio cassette. No one knew they existed. They were never heard by anyone. We assume Clara may have listened to them, but they could've been recorded then stored away & forgotten.
I wish I'd found them before she passed away.
 Enjoy:
Thanksgiving. Listen to all the food coming out of the kitchen & that's just the "little something," to hold you over:
https://app.box.com/s/tuvny9ka2l0etcxxq2gx 
Dan singing the songs he sang to Clara when they were courting:
https://app.box.com/s/ma83g22uub0f9tys8769 
 

How To Use Or Read This Blog

Scroll this page to view posts. 
You can also view older posts by scrolling all the way down the right side to the Blog Archives. Click a month & then any of the posts within that month. 

The slideshows to your right direct you to the web sites where all the photos & mp3's are available to download for FREE.

This one page contains everything:
https://sites.google.com/site/loretosfamily/

For many today, family is only family by name. First cousins don't know one another. Aunts & Uncles are strangers. No one talks anymore. Sorry, posting is not the same as talking & it can not compare to visiting with family.

The further we get away from being with family the more distant we become & the less family becomes "family."
This may or may not be true for you, but it is becoming the norm for most. 

We live in a bubble, wrapped up in our own lives. Everyone's too busy. REALLY? Your grandmother who raised 8 kids, cooked from scratch, cleaned by hand, and probably drove hours one way to see family somehow wasn't too busy.

You're not too busy to talk or visit. It's just a convenient excuse for most to be busy.
 Someday this bubble will burst. How refreshing that will be.

The Real Charlie Browniest!

Was I the inspiration for Charlie Brown's Christmas? How similar good ol' Charlie Brown & I look.
Video 1:
Tell me those aren't the very words that I'm speaking in the (silent) 8mm movie clip.
Video 2:
Same Hat. Same Coat! 
Video 3:
Without question my wife (her mittens whipping around) was the inspiration for the skating scene when they fly into one another...

Happy 90th Birthday Christine (Cedrone) Gentile

Christine (Cedrone) Gentile celebrated her young 90th birthday this weekend. I was thrilled to be invited (along with my wife Mary, Aunt Clara & her daughter Linda). We met so many relatives I'd only heard about and many I never knew.

Christine's father was my grandfather's brother, making her my mother's first cousin. To add more confusion to the family mix, her (late) husband, "Chubby," was my father's first cousin.Chubby's father & my grandmother (my father's mother) were siblings.
Christine Gentile's 90th:
 
Christine Gentile 90th Birthday HD
Watch the 90 second movie:
Christine Gentile Birthday "Movie," 1080p You can also watch or download the full 10:00 video from the Internet Archive:
http://archive.org/details/ChristineGentile
To download it to your PC/Mac or Mobile Device. Right click or save this link to your hard drive: QuickTime 
If anyone has problems downloading it let me know at yourbestdj@aol.com
Here are our two oldest relatives. Cousins Clara (Cedrone) Marini 95 & Christine (Cedrone) Gentile 90:
 
Clara & Chris 90th Birthday Party HD

Mangia!

The same pot! Insert, 8mm still from a 1960's home movie. Larger image is a screen shot from 2009 camcorder video. It's the same pot. It's truly the (golden) fountain of youth.
Color Corrected Pasta? WATCH:

Color Corrected Pasta
2010: With new High Def camera's here is Clara making pasta in HD. Or is that HP? Hot Pasta:Clara Marini Pasta

2009 Videos:
Both are featured below & linked here. These were recorded August 23, 2009. Part two shows Clara in 1959 making home made pasta, & we see her 50 years later still making Sunday dinner:Clara Marini Cooking Pasta 8/23/09
Clara Marini Pasta Part Two

This 8mm was film by Ed Mahoney Looks like
Homemade Gnocchi's are on the menu:
Clara Marini's Fresh Gnocchi's!
8MM & TODAY! Picture in Picture, or is that Pasta in Pasta?!:Aunt Clara's Pasta

Here's the alternate version:Clara's Pot of PastaWhat's new is old. 2011 HD video converted to 8mm!

Clara Marini 8mm Pasta

Enjoy a meatball 'sangwedge:"
LIVE! At Aunt Clara's

Aunt Clara's

Clara will tell you it is HER sauce which was Aunt Millie's (now discontinued). The woman behind Aunt Millie's knew Clara. She tasted Clara's, loved it, then made it slightly different calling it her own!

Clara Marini The REAL Aunt Millie

Recorded June 11th 2011:

Clara Marini Making Pasta at 93

Recorded Holidays 2011. Clara's Stories:

Clara once rented the 2nd floor apt of a Hawthorne (NY) home when she & Dan married.

The landlady's daughter in law asked what Clara was cooking....

Aunt Clara Aunt Millie

Typical Sunday Dinner:

Clara's Pasta

Clara's Pasta Part Two

Clara's Sunday Leftovers 1080p (p for Pasta)

Take a bite out these videos. Clara talks about how Aunt Millie's became a popular spaghetti sauce & then dig in to Sunday dinner.Clara & Aunt Millie HD
Italian Sunday Dinner HD
Italian Sunday Dinner MANGIA! HD

Dan Burns His...Italian Sunday Dinner 1080p (Pasta Vision)
Aunt Millies 1080p (Pasta Vision)

Clara Meets Dan 1080p (Paisan Vision)  
Clara's Punch 1080p (Punch Vision)

Everyone's Pregnant!

When Janet Marini was born my mother sent two cards. One written by her for her parents.
(Click on the images to enlarge them or go to the link at the bottom to view/download them):



The other telling of the women in the family who were also expecting. Their sister Ann would soon give birth to Marie. Niece Fran Camilli to Joyce, & sister in law Edna Cedrone was four months pregnant. Edna? Pregnant?


If you can't read it download the full size image. She says, Edna thought she was "change of life," so she went to Dr. Rogan & he told her she is 4 months pregnant. Harry is so happy. He doesn't make her do anything.

Harry & Edna were unable to have children. Harry was the only Cedrone sibling without children & as you can see in the note, he was so very happy. That child would've been a first cousin & most likely their only child. Edna must've soon miscarried. I never heard my parents or of anyone talking about this. Anyone who knew of, or remembered her pregnancy has since passed away.

They adopted one child, Helen, some twenty years later & because of their age had to fight the system to do so. The courts assumed based on their age they wouldn't be able to raise a child properly or would pass away before being able to do so. Helen was about 13 when Harry died. Edna passed away two years later. Afterward Helen moved in with cousin's Vilma (Tougas) & Virgie (Cantor).

Another piece of unknown family history found...on the back of a greeting card.https://picasaweb.google.com/102260807874318515063/CedroneDocuments#5762020610568682050
On a lighter note, Clara wrote on the inside of the card what she received:
My parents sent a dress. My Grandparents a dress, blanket & $5.00!

Save Your Orignal Video & Film

I cannot tell you how many times I've been told original 8mm Super 8 & 16mm Home Movies
or VHS Home Movies were thrown away.
You had them transferred to DVD so who needs all these old tapes & films taking up space. Besides you don't own a VCR or a projector so why keep them?
NEVER throw away your originals. Even if you have no interest in transferring them someone else may want to archive your family history.

If anything happened to your digital copies, game over, memories lost. Most reading this do not back up or archive their media. If you lost your discs or they become scratched, as long as you have your originals you can have them re-transferred.

If you had film movies transferred to VHS in the 80's or 90's, but you still have the original film have them transferred digitally.
Years ago all they did was project the film onto a white board recording the film with a camcorder.
Your original film looks superior to this transfer.

Unfortunately DVDs are  becoming "Dated Video Discs," just as CDs are like the records they replaced. We are quickly becoming a disc-less society. Within a few years the DVD will be like the VHS tape it replaced.

However, transferring movies/videos to the DVD format is the norm (for now). While the format will soon be antiquated it's the medium available. There should never be more than TWO hours of video on each DVD or you will greatly lose quality.

But you can also stay ahead of the techno curve. It's well worth having them converted to Quicktime/MOV files. You'll be able to play them on your computer, mobile devices & tablets.

You'll have them available anywhere without the need for a DVD player. The images are larger the quality better. You can easily back them up dragging the files to your hard drive.
Stream the content from your mobile devices to your TV.
THINK! 
You can still hold a 100 year old photo. You can watch a film or VHS tape from decades ago, some film dating back to the 1930's, as long as you have the right projector/VCR.
However, there is NO PROOF that all of the digital media you own will continue to play or will open 100 years from now. 
You're probably saying to yourself "SO WHAT? WHO CARES?"You won't be around anyway.
You don't preserve your family history just for you. You do it for future generations.
How much do you have stored on drives be it on your phone or tablet (The worst drives to archive, if only because they're so often lost, destroyed or worse corrupted when updated.)
Maybe your "stuff," is on smaller flash drives, larger back up drives, or possibly on your desktop drive. Drives & files fail all of the time.  
They become corrupt. The "internals," stop working & they are unable to open.
As formats evolve what is playable today may not be playable in the future.
Ahhh! But you're one step ahead. You, like most (today) have everything on facebook, or any one of the online storage services or "clouds." Most are FREE or charge a very reasonable fee.  Personally I do not trust online storage services. One hack attack, one major server issue & your family's history is gone.
What do you do?
Unfortunately we now live in a paperless & film-less society. Every image or video you've taken in the last few years is only a file & for those reading this in the future that will certainly be true. 
There is no paper trace. Back it up well. 
Store your media on as many good quality/secure devices & online sites as possible just expect something to fail.
That's why you NEVER throw away the original image, film or video. NEVER!   
If you still have the original (photo/film/videotape) content you or future generation(s) can create new transfers in whatever format will be the latest & best in the future.
Stacking & packing.
Rewind your videotapes. Store them standing up with the tape on the bottom. Film should be stored stacked but only a few on top of each other. Unless you have shelves devoted to your media don't "preserve," them in plastic bags. A card board box will do. Do not seal the box.
If a film reel smells of vinegar it is starting to disintegrate. The stronger the odor the worse it is. This is irreversible. Do not store it with the others. Store it elsewhere or like the measles it will eventually leach spreading the disease onto the others.
You can deep freeze film too as the National Archives does for film suffering from vinegar syndrome 
(Search for film bags made for this)
Store your media in a room or closet away from sunlight, humidity & extreme temps.
If you have no interest in keeping your home movies contact me @ yourbestdj@aol.com
I may purchase it from you.