Swede vs. the Housewives

In certain ways Swede was ahead of his time. An example: he often did the family food shopping. The local Shop-Rite would be filled with housewives and Swede. I don't think he realized he was out of his league. My poor father thought that shopping should be a science, with a logical, pre-arranged strategy of what food categories, which aisles, coupon usage, etc. Naturally, he was always considerate, making sure not to block an aisle with his cart, moving along quickly, etc. To do it any other way would be illogical, and he wouldn't have that.

He would arrive home appalled at "how inconsiderate some of these women can be...the way they shop!" "They block the aisles, they ram my cart...one women even took one of my items out of MY cart!" We'd be very entertained with Swede's weekly food-shopping adventures. The only negative...he never bought junk food. My sibs and I always preferred Estelle doing the shopping, since we knew she'd come through with some stuff that, though bad for us, satisfied out sweet teeth.

"Quanto sei bella"

My Italian-American grandfather, Anthony Lepore, occasionally spoke a few words in Italian. They were usually swear words. But as kids they went over our heads. He often would pinch (my siblings) Dale, Patty and Doug on the cheek, saying "quanto sei bella" ("you are so beautiful)." Then he'd come over and pinch my cheek and say "quanto sei bruto" ("you are so ugly)." Sheesh.

Anthony liked to tell the story of when he took the family to a local college basketball game...they knew a couple of the players on one of the teams. But their team lost because "some big lug" on the other team totally dominated the game, getting all the rebounds, scoring most of the points, all quite effortlessly. Anthony rooted quite aggressively against this guy, who turned out to be his future son-in-law, Swede Masin, playing for Panzer College.