Aside from the great music and story, I think that I really love the play because it is about the culture in which I was raised - that is the New York/New Jersey Italian-American culture. Even though I moved to Maryland when I was 10, my parents brought the culture with us. Plus until a year ago, I had my grandmother to influence me and she definitely was the quintessential little old Italian lady.
On the way home, I started to feel sad. I realized that should I ever have kids, much of that culture will be lost. Most likely, I'll still be in the DC area so that odds of any child of mine visiting the Italian New York neighborhoods are slim to none. He/she will never sit at my grandmother's table in Corona while Lena from next door brings Neapolitan pizza for us to eat with a heavy dose of gossip included. He/she probably will not understand random words in Italian (this knowledge to me was courtesy of my grandmother) since neither my parents nor I speak it. He/she won't be able to enjoy real Italian antipasti complete with capocolla and mortadella - and of course REAL Italian bread not the garbage that they try to pass of as Italian bread south of Jersey.
I guess that's what happens when generations become more and more American. I'm a third generation American, and it would make sense that future generations would become less ethnic. I mean I'm 75% Italian, but unless I were to marry a fellow Italian, my kids will not even be half. That's just so funny to me.
In the area of Jersey where we lived and the areas of New York where my parents grew up, people were pretty much either Italian, Irish, Jewish, or Polish - and everyone knew what they were. Moving to an area with a more blended population, most people did not know their ethnic heritage. This was a huge culture shock to me when I first moved to Maryland since growing up, being Italian was such a part of my identity.
I suppose this identification was helped because I look pretty ethnic. With the exception of my ridiculously pale skin, I'm kind of the poster child for Italian-American women. Plus, my last name is a dead give away. To be honest, I like having those distinguishing factors. It makes me happy to be separate from the pack - I do not like to be just like everyone else.
It will be up to me to try and carry on some of these traditions. For sure, any children of my sister or mine will be told stories about my grandmother growing up in Little Italy. They are going to learn about our connection to John Gotti's incarceration (yes - this is true), and they will be exposed to good Italian food. Any kids related to me will NOT think that the Olive Garden is authentic Italian food. And they will learn how to pronounce Italian names. Nothing annoys me more than when people butcher my name.
So enough venting for today. I'll leave you with the clip for the Jersey Boys' Tony Awards performance.
And yes, I'm already trying to figure out how/when I can see this show again. . .
There are a couple of really great Italian places in the area. You can always get cold cuts, bread, pizza dough from The Italian Store. There is also a place in Fairfax that gets written up a lot as well. I think it depends on what you eat where, but both are good for different reasons. There's also a good Italian place by my apartment - gotta find the tiny holes in the wall, not the chains. I haven't been in years, but we used to go all the time. We go up to Jersey enough to get our fill (and, um, leave). It's easy to be nostalgic when you miss something, but there are benefits for being in an area where there are a lot of different ethnicities, too. :)
ReplyDeleteI know. I know. It's good to be diverse. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm not often nostolgic for heritage, but occassionally it sneaks up on me. Especially when I see a movie or play that hits me over the head with it.
There actually is a decent bakery/bagel place in Germantown. It has the best bagels that I've found south of north Jersey. It makes sense though - the owner is from Long Island.