what lovely memories, and they are the same ones that my husband has of his Sicilian born grandparents. I know about the "us" and "them". all 4 of my grandparents came from eastern europe, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine. My Lithuanian grandmother always told me to NEVER marry an Italian, because they are "a different kind of people". She met and liked my husband before she died but didn't live to see me marry an Italian! i also lament the watering down of the culture, and the fact that my kids don't have the same feelings about their heritage that my husband and i each do.
My dads side... was from Poland... but his father fought in the Austrian army during WW1 before coming over. Go figure. I tend to think they moved around alot in that part of Europe... from one shell-crater to another.