Lancaster Empty Lot, Community, and Everyday Life

Speaker 1:    

All the Giavedoni’s, they were tremendous athletes,  all the Giavedoni’s. 

Bruno. 

Speaker 2:    

Bruno. 

Speaker 1:    

Danny. Nello. Enzo.  

Speaker 2:    

Enzo, the best pitcher. 

Speaker 1:    

Yeah. 

They’re all from the same group. 

Speaker 2:    

Yeah. 

Speaker 1:    

All in one area. 

Yes. 

Speaker 2:    

Almost, almost 3. Most from Lancaster. 

Speaker 1:    

Our first doctor, Dr. Mielko… 

[chatter] 

Speaker 2:    

Oh, Johnny Mielko’s brother. 

Speaker 2:    

Yeah. 

Speaker 1:    

You’re right! 

Speaker 1:    

I forgot about him. 

Speaker 3:    

He was really a doctor? 

[chatter] 

Speaker 1:    

…and I was playing baseball, you know, on that little sliver of land at Leeds field… 

[chatter] 

…right there, you know.  And one day, I, uh - we didn’t play with gloves until 1953… 

Speaker 2:    

Not required. 

Speaker 1:    

…- and I sprained my finger... 

Jacked my finger. 

… with the ball, you know. 

So, I went home, and I believe it was my mom, says, ‘go and see’ - we never called him doctor – no, Mr. Mielko, because he was recognized as a doctor, for whatever reason… 

Speaker 3:    

We called him Panie. 

Yeah, that was next-door to my mother’s.  

Speaker 2:    

Yeah, next door to Traini’s. 

Speaker 1:    

… so anyway, I go over to see Mr. Mielko, and he says, ‘what, eh, what happened?’  

So, I says, ‘the ball hit me.’ Actually, I got two of them… 

Speaker 3:    

Oh, nice. 

Speaker 1:    

But that was about 20 years later when I was on liver with Nello. 

So, I went in and he says, ‘what you need, let’s see,’ he says, ‘I want you to go home and tell your mother to go by popsicle at Labenski’s.’  

Speaker 4:    

Aww. 

[laughter] 

Speaker 1:    

So, I went there, brought the popsicle back, took the stick out, brought it to Mr. Mielko. 

He put it there, strapped it up, and he says you’re good to go. 

Speaker 4:    

Aww. 

[laughter] 

Speaker 3:    

Popsicle stick. 

Speaker 1:    

A popsicle stick.  

Speaker 2:    

Yeah. A splint.  

Speaker 1:    

He put a splint on it. 

Yeah.  

Speaker 3:    

And you went back to complete the game. 

Speaker 1:    

We used to go out Saturday mornings to pick, get iron and metal, different metals. 

Remember Charlie, who used to come around.  

[chatter] 

we used to go around, and we get a bunch or band together, that’s when we lived on Birmingham Street, we used to put it in the backyard, call Charlie, how much you going to give us, so he goes in the back. 

While me and Quinto hurry back hungry for what were going to get for this tin, meanwhile Lino would be taking metal off his wagon, and bringing it into the Gallo backyard, eh. 

Speaker 2:    

Oh. 

[laughs] 

Speaker 1:    

He would pay us, and the next Saturday we’d be selling, buying back his old metal.  

We used to make 10 cents each, 11 cents.  

To go to the show, eh.  

Speaker 3:    

That’s how we learned our first sin. Of recycling. 

[laughter] 

We watched you guys do that, and when Crow and I, he’d pull up in front of our house; he’s picking up the scrap, in my backyard, and we’d be taking off the other end. 

[laughter] 

And I says to Crow this is wrong.  

[chatter] 

Our Confession okay… 

Speaker 1:    

I just wanted to touch on one thing. 

[chatter] 

Brightside was the home of the International Shotput Championship. 

[laugh] 

Amateur mind you, not professional. 

[laugh] 

It was found on one day. We woke up one morning and there was a ball. A ball… I don’t know where it came from Mars or someplace. 

But it was sitting in the centre of the street. 

And we picked it up, and I says to Crow, ‘what the hell is this thing here.’   

And it was perfectly round. It had a dent in it, it had a dent. 

Speaker 2:    

Like when it was in the mold.   

Speaker 1:    

We weighed it one day; it was 37 pounds! 

And from that day on, and Ernie talks about this because he used to be pretty good. 

He joined us… And we used to have contests every blessed day, for years and years and years, we would come home from dancing with our ladies at two and 3 o’clock in the morning and we would start a damn playoffs right in the centre of the street. 

Speaker 2:    

Underneath the lamppost, a night game. 

Speaker 1:    

We just keep throwing this thing. 

Speaker 3:    

What intersection was this at? 

Speaker 2:    

This was across the road from his house, eh.  

Speaker 1:    

My house at 56 Lancaster.  

Speaker 4:    

Yeah. 

Speaker 1:    

It was an athletic field. 

Speaker 2:    

Now. What street was it? 

Speaker 1:    

Birmingham. And Leeds. They met there. 

Yeah, that’s right. 

[chatter] 

And the Italians used to grow tomatoes there. 

Speaker 1:    

Remember on Leeds Street, when we used to throw the shotput?  

Speaker 2:    

Shotput. 

Speaker 1:    

Yeah. 

Speaker 2:    

This 37 pound ball. 

Speaker 1:    

37 pound shot put. 

Speaker 2:    

We have a basketball net hanging on the Hydro pole. 

Speaker 1:    

Yeah, that’s right. 

Speaker 2:    

Right across the road where those tomatoes were in the tomato field. 

Speaker 1:    

Ernie lived three doors north of us. All the Palango clan. 

How many of there were you? Seven of you guys or nine.  

Speaker 3:    

How about twelve? 

Yeah? 

Speaker 2:    

Nine.  

Speaker 4:    

Nine. 

Speaker 1:    

Right where the baseball field. 

So, we’re all Lancaster chaps. 

Speaker 1:    

Just like, just like my dad used to call his home in the evening when we were playing one street over or were down the street. 

He would whistle and we better get home. 

And this is Mary’s version… 

Speaker 2:    

[whistle]