[mass55th]

We weren't Italian, but my father made sauce from scratch with Italian sausage links and home made meatballs every Saturday. On Sundays, we'd always have a big meal like roast chicken, pot roast, steak and gravy made with round steak, etc. Holidays were always turkey with homemade stuffing, and ham, and he made gravy for all of them. Nothing ever went to waste. He'd make ham and cabbage with the leftover ham, sometimes bean and ham soup, or pea soup. He always bought picnic hams so he'd have the bone to make soup out of.

He used to take me to the meat market on Saturdays every-so-often. We didn't have a car, so we'd walk the mile or so and back to the market. That market was opened in 1946. It's one year old than me, and still survives with two stores in two different suburbs of Rochester. I left Rochester around 1972 or 73. Never get back there anymore as I have no more family there.

[Veto!]

Chicken dinner on Sunday at our house too. And yes, gravy. I remember it well. Dad could make it but I never could learn even though he tried to teach me. Have zero talent in the kitchen, which is why I keep it simple.

However, my dad taught me to read when I was 5, could and did read adult novels before I ever saw the inside of a school. Most kids could probably read that early if they had such a great teacher. I’m 89 abd still miss him every day.