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• 1 media/IMG_9102.JPG media/IMG_9104.JPG 2018-12-20T22:44:01-08:00 Jim Bregante and growing up in Little Italy 6 image_header 825811 2018-12-20T23:06:30-08:00 We were very fortunate to have Mr. Jim Bregante visit our class on October 31, 2018 to share his experience of growing up in Little Italy in the 1950s, when the Italian neighborhood was not yet branded as a corporate entity. Mr. Bregante told us about his family life and the customs of Italian community. The cottage where his family used to leave is still there and it is one of the few remaining from that era. His grandfather Girolamo Bregante is featured in a banner in front of it. They were fishermen but they also cultivated their backyards to make sure to have fresh fruit and vegetable. Jim told us of wine being made during the fall harvest, of baseball games in a nearby park and of Sundays' strolls along the waterfront with his parents. There were no Italian restaurants at the time, only a Mexican one. People ate at home. Everybody had a nickname and so did Jim, but it took us about 5 tries before we figured it out. Jim still meets once a month with his friends from the neighborhood and they reminisce fondly of their days at Washington Elementary. He also gave us a few insights about the novel we were reading at the time: Lorenzo Madalena's Confetti for Gino.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Here is a video recording of the lecture he gave to the Honors 313 course in 2015