BILLS ~ PATRIOTS

SEPTEMBER 8, 2013

Lucky me!   Thanks to a Time Warner Cable promotion, I won four tickets to 

the season opener in Orchard Park…Bills vs. Patriots.  YAY!!!  Well, not so yay…my daughter was less than enthusiastic about going to the game when she "has to work the next day"…is worried about driving her new car there…parking it in the lot with "all those guys throwing footballs"…"Julie (my granddaughter) has school on Monday"….etc., etc., etc.  I volunteered to drive, but I don't think she trusted me, plus my AC and heater aren't exactly working (the blower, or something).  So…I posted a message on Facebook, asking if anyone was going to the game and did they have room for one passenger.  I figured, I'd go to the game alone, since I couldn't think of any Bills fans in my group of friends.  No response.  

Lisa, without my knowledge, tried to pawn me off on her hair stylist and her family.  No deal…they had plans for Sunday.  Eventually, Lisa agreed that she and Julie would go and that she would drive, but under no circumstances would there be food or drink, other than plain water, allowed in her brand new car that she had just picked up on Friday.  Fine with me!

We agreed that we would leave at 7 a.m.  Just so you know, Lisa is rarely on time, usually quite late, and pretty much always blames Julie.  Imagine my surprise when, at 6:30 a.m., I got a text saying they'd be ready to leave in 10 or 15 minutes!  Holy crap!  My hair was still in rollers, I had to put out enough food for the cat to last until late evening and I had to clean out the litter box!   I managed to get all of that done, make a lemon/orangeade in a large thermos and get my butt in the car and head to their house.  As I'm driving, my cell phone starts ringing…"Where are you…we're sitting in the car waiting for you!"  (Really?)  I was on Floral Ave., almost there.  I pulled my car into Lisa's driveway to leave it for the day, grabbed my stuff, loaded it into her trunk and we were "shufflin' off to Buffalo!"

Since none of us had bothered with breakfast or coffee, we stopped at a rest area.  We were all decked out in Bills garb…Lisa in a sweatshirt, Julie in a t-shirt and jacket, and I was wearing my #34 Thurman Thomas jersey, a bills turtleneck, Bills red helmet earrings and Buffalo Bills fanny pack, or "granny pack", as Julie refers to it.   Of course, there were other Bills fans heading to the Ralph…Julie was somewhat surprised.  "I didn't know there were so many Bills fans."  We laughed…"You ain't seen nuthin' yet!"  After a quick bite and a visit to the rest room, we were off again.  Finally made it to our exit, not the one I would have taken, but Lisa decided to follow the crowd.   (Whatever!) 

And now it's really getting exciting!  Bills fans as far as the eye can see…crazy, wacky, die hard Bills fans…GO BILLS!!!  Finally, we got to a parking lot and we were directed to the farthest corner, despite my trying to cajole the attendant into letting us park closer to the port-a-potties!  I pleaded with the dude, "I GOTTA PEE!"  I'm thinking, "I could spring a leak from way over there."  (I didn't, by the way.)  As it turns out, we met some very nice people in the far back corner of the parking lot…a family of die hard fans, from Massachusetts.  The mom was originally from Niagara Falls, her husband from Seneca.  There was also a Canadian couple next to us…he's a Bills fan and she's a Patriots fan.  (Personally, I don't know how they're still married.)  

We brought sandwiches, fruit, snacks, etc., which we ate outside the car.  Some of the fans were tossing a football, but none even came close to the shiny, new candy blue car (thank God!).  Almost game time so we headed to the stadium, filled with excitement and, on a personal note, hoping to get to an indoor bathroom quickly.  Now to find our seats!  We had two pairs of tickets…Lisa and Julie would sit together and I would sit alone.  (However, before the game started, Lisa and the gentleman next to her realized that I was sitting next to his wife and daughter, he and his mother were next to Lisa and Julie…so we switched seats!)   

Here we were…the season opener…"Where would you rather be than right here, right now?"  (We miss you, Marv Levy!)   Nowhere!!!  OMG…someone is parachuting onto the field!  Security is running after him…he's going to be in BIG TROUBLE!  All part of the show!  How exciting…what fun…and the game hasn't even started!  There would be five parachutists, in all, (I think) landing in the middle of the field…what a way to kick off the first game of 2013!

Then, as the game got underway, I realized there were way too many Patriots fans in the area.  And it's very disturbing when they're cheering for the wrong team!  (We're Bills fans through and through…our second favorite team is anyone playing the Patriots!  We don't like them at all!)  I finally realized that if I could make eye contact and glare at them, they toned it down a bit.  Unfortunately, I couldn't make eye contact with all of them.  

Meanwhile, Julie, who is 13, is getting a different type of "education."  A very funny fellow who sat behind us had some "unusual names" for the refs, the Pats players and fans, etc., throughout the game.  She did come away from the game unscathed, however, and with a better understanding of why her mother doesn't let her go to grandma's house during a Bills game.  Need I say more?

We thoroughly enjoyed the game, a little disappointed at the final score, but seeing Brady with his ass planted on the ground a few times made up for any disappointment…totally worth it!   Game over…to the car, an hour or so in traffic…finally heading west, back home to Cortland, NY.  We saw our friends from Massachusetts as we were leaving…we waved to each other, all of us smiling…it was a good day!

We decided to take Route 20 part of the way back so we could stop at a diner for supper.  We chose Tom Wahl's burger joint…we'd been there once before.  Lisa and I each had a Wahlburger, Julie opted for chicken fingers.  A number of the other patrons stopped by to chat about the game, having noticed our Bills attire.  I think Julie enjoyed the attention we were getting, both to and from the game. 

Back on the road again for the journey home.  Julie was sitting in the back, tired and ready to snooze a bit or so we thought.  Suddenly, we heard giggling in the back seat….Lisa and I looked at each other, puzzled.  

"Did you fart in my car?" Lisa asked.  "Don't be messing up my new car smell!"  Julie just laughed harder!  "NO!  I didn't fart!"  

"Then what's so funny?"  

"I'm laughing at Grandma…'I GOTTA PEE!'"

It was like riding home with Tickle Me Elmo in the back seat!

THANK YOU, TIME WARNER CABLE, FOR A WONDERFUL FUN-FILLED DAY!

A New Home...

                                           Number Three

                                                               3 Scammell Street

                    Completed August 1915, "the Family Homestead, Joseph Lisi's house"

When my grandfather's house was put on the market by my cousin, I put in an offer to purchase it.  Actually, it was my third offer that was accepted.  This home has been in our family since its beginning and it didn't seem right that it should leave the family now.

My grandparents, Joseph and Grace, left Naples, Italy on the Nord America.  They arrived at Ellis Island on September 26, 1906, with a young daughter, Antoinette.  Unfortunately, they lost their infant son during the passage...how sad and difficult it must have been for them to have suffered such a loss.  They had less than $50 to begin a new life in a new country.  (On the manifest, my grandpa listed his "calling or occupation" as "peasant.")



Their sponsors lived in Scranton, Pennsylvania, so that would have been their first destination.  At some point after their arrival, they lived in Cortland, then moved to Utica, New York, which is where my father was born on May 21, 1911.  It is my understanding that my grandfather owned a bar in Utica, but after it had been vandalized a couple of times, he closed it and moved his family back to Cortland.  By then, there were three children...Antoinette, Elizabeth and my dad, Leonard Joseph.  My Aunt Josephine was born in 1914.

I'm assuming that Wickwire's was the incentive for moving back to Cortland.  Many Italian (and Irish, I presume) immigrants found employment at this factory that manufactured wire, and my grandfather went there to work.  It is my understanding that they lived on Pine Street for a time, the street that runs parallel to Scammell, but in August 1915, the family moved to their new home at 3 Scammell Street.

My dad and his three sisters grew up in this house.  My grandpa would have had a wonderful garden, since they owned the lot next to the house, as well.  My Aunt Liz married Joe Tinella and they had two daughters, my cousins Grace and Anna (Nan).  Aunt Antoinette married Andrew Prezioso and they had a son, my cousin Joe.  My Aunt Jo married Joe Natale and they were the parents of a son, my cousin, Marino.

My grandmother passed away in 1939, the year before I was born.  I've always regretted not knowing her...I know I would have loved her.  Nan used to talk about her a lot...she had a special bond with our grandmother that I've always envied.

On September 3, 1939, my parents were married at St. Anthony's Church in Cortland.  It was a typical Italian wedding, from what I can see...several attendants including two flower girls, Annie Contento and Mary Rongo.  (It seems Mary was camera shy so she is only in one of the snapshots that I found.)