Wednesday, April 28, 2010

BOBBY CAMARLINGHI - REMEMBERED

IVANO SAYS: The below Remembrance on Bobby was first published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/




Robert "Bobby" Camarlinghi
Santa Cruz will be saying goodbye to the patriarch of the Camarlinghi clan on Thursday April 29, 2010. Robert "Bobby" Arthur Camarlinghi, 78, was born October 21, 1931 and died April 25, 2010, and will be missed by all who knew him. He is affectionately remembered by his children as a man you looked up to, as he personified a true father figure. Best known to the community as owner of Adolph's Italian Family-style Restaurant, a landmark in Santa Cruz for over 50 years.
In the large family of animated and sometimes cantankerous personalities, Bobby was always the calm and gentle soul who warmed your heart and brought a smile to your face. Always a pillar of fashion he was admired and adored by the family and they will all miss his smile, his hugs, and the loving kiss on his shiny head. Everyone enjoyed spending time with Bobby at the family functions.

Part of the Italian heritage spread throughout the heart of Santa Cruz community, Bobby was true to his family, community and church, which he attended regularly. Bobby's copious generosity touched the lives of many whether it was working in a soup kitchen, or volunteering to drive those in need, or simply taking up collections at mass. He enjoyed giving. Truly an exceptional individual Bobby Camarlinghi was a giving soul and he embodied characteristics that are rarely seen in this world.

Bobby took pleasure in family above all, and then golfing, dancing, traveling, and volunteering. He enjoyed his yearly fishing trips with close friends and family. He loved and talked often of his travels across the country with his lifelong friends.

The large and loving Camarlinghi clan extends throughout Santa Cruz and various other locations in California. Bobby is survived by his wife Ardilla and daughter Marina, son Michael, son Mathew and grandson Luke; son Marc and daughter-in-law Diana and two granddaughters Madison and Ashley; nieces Barbara Aluffi and Cindy Famularo and husband Chuck; and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents Adolph and Georgia Camarlinghi; brother Rudolph and wife Norma, brother Gilbert Camarlinghi and nephew Mark Camarlinghi.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, 435 Monterey Ave., Capitola, Ca. on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. Friends are invited to call at Benito and Azzaro Pacific Gardens Chapel, 1050 Cayuga St. Santa Cruz, Ca. on Wednesday evening from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Interment will be private.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Volunteer Center Transportation Department, 1010 Emeline Ave. Santa Cruz, Ca. 95060.

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IVANO SAYS (CONT'D): In "La Nostra Costa" (P.68) I mention Adolph's Restaurant and on page 75 I have two extended end notes about the history of the Restaurant, the Camarlinghi family and also 'Smitty'(Grover Smith) the ever faithful bartender. When I think of Bobby, I always think of 'Smitty' . For a long, long time, the two together made Adolph's the place to be in Santa Cruz. Addio Bobby, and please say hello for me when you meet 'Smitty' "Across IL Ultimo Ponte".

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

ALBANO (AL) DEGANO - FURLAN REMEMBERED





DEGANO, ALBANO (AL)After a long fought battle Albano Degano has crossed over the last bridge. Quietly and peacefully with his loving wife Allegra his sons Doriano, Paul and daughter Joanne by his side. Albano was born in Pasian di Prato, Udine, Friuli-Venezia-Giulia, Italy on January 26th, 1924 amongst a large family of six brothers and five sisters. Predeceased by Enrica(Adelchi), Rosa(Egidio), Pasquale (Augusta), Maria, Natalina, Fortunato, Ugo, Ettore and Giuliano. Albano is survived by his wife of 58 years Allegra (Zuliani) and his sons Doriano (Suzanne) Paul (Tracey), daughter Joanne (Robert) Caruso and sister Rita. Albano is also survived and adored by his grandchildren Celina (Mike), Genna, Olivia, Quentin, Anthony and Elio. Albano will be missed by numerous nieces, nephews and cousins in Canada and Friuli. Albano arrived in Welland from Italy in 1952 as a licensed Auto Body Repairman, applying his trade for 45 years at local businesses such as Storey and Rose, Patterson Motors, Len McGee, Maclean Motors, George's Auto Body. A proud Canadian, Albano loved his new country while retaining his Furlan Heritage, as one of the founding members of the Fogolar Furlan Niagara Club; member of the Club Roma Seniors and a life long Alpino of the 3rd Battalion Artillery Company. Family will receive family and friends at the GEORGE DARTE FUNERAL CHAPEL 585, Carlton St., St. Catharines on Thursday, April 22, 2010 from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Vigil prayers will be recited at 3 p.m. on Thursday afternoon. Funeral Liturgy will be held on Friday, April 23, at 11:00 a.m. at St. Mary's of the Assumption Church, 169 St. Paul Crescent, St. Catharines. Rite of Committal to follow Mass at Pleasantview Memorial Gardens, Fonthill. If desired, donations may be made on behalf of Albano to the Hamilton General Hospital Cardiac Unit or to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
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IVANO SAYS: Doriano our hearts and prayers go out to you and your family.
And yes your father has crossed the last bridge (Il Ultimo Ponte), but as the "Old Rancere"
finds out -- there we will all re-unite, young, strong and without any kind of sickness.

"Oh, my dear, sweet wife! How can this be? I was old and sick, shadowy death constantly by my side. Now by you I stand, young and able, so glad to be alive!"

His young wife smiled and looked up at the rancere.

"O rancere mi," she replied in a soft and gentle voice. "Don't you know? Now you are in Heaven"

-LA NOSTRA COSTA - Il ULTIMO PONTE-
-

Sunday, April 11, 2010

METAL BATS



GUNNER SANDBERG AGE 16


IVANO SAYS: ON MARCH 11, 2010, GUNNER SANDBERG WAS HIT IN THE LEFT TEMPLE AND ALMOST KILLED BY A BATTED BALL OFF A METAL BAT. THE ARTICLE BELOW WRITTEN BY SPORTSWRITER TED SILLANPAA FOR THE NAPAVALLEY REGISTER http://www.napavalleyregister.com/
GIVES GOOD REASONS WHY EVERY PARENT AND EVERY GRANDPARENT SHOULD BE FOR THE BANNING OF METAL BATS.



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Home / Sports / Columnists / Ted-sillanpaa
Wood bats better than helmets for pitchers
StoryDiscussionBy Ted Sillanpaa Posted: Sunday, March 28, 2010 12:00 am (7) Comments

It’s impossible to understand the controversy over the use of metal softball and baseball bats in upper age groups until you have a family member pitching in game where the high-tech hitting sticks are being used.

My youngest son, now 14, pitches for elite-level baseball teams. It became clear from watching him pitch from high school distance (60 feet, 6 inches from home plate) that a well struck ball off a metal bat leaves a pitcher virtually no time to react to a rocket back to the mound.

I knew that metal bats that cost hundreds of dollars enable players to hit the ball harder and further than their respective physical gifts should allow. So, we quietly waited and hoped my son would be an elusive target on the mound. It’s hard to hide a 6-foot-1, 165-pound eighth-grader, you know?

A Marin Catholic High School pitcher remains hospitalized after being hit in the head with a line drive hit with a metal bat. The result is that Marin County Athletic League baseball teams, including Justin-Siena, will use only wood bats for the remainder of this season.

It was only a matter of time before a tragedy forced leagues to really consider the safety of metal bats. Somebody had to suffer a life-threatening injury before everybody paid attention.

Look, I’m an old-school baseball guy. The idea of wearing safety helmets to pitch seems silly. If too much protective gear is required, the game’s just not right. I’m absolutely in favor of using wooden bats.

My kids and their buddies starting using those lightweight metal bats to hit balls to the moon in the 1990s.

My older sons played at the same huge ball park that I played at during my early teen years. It’s 335 feet down the left field line, 345-ish in the gap in left field. The center field fence is 410 feet from the plate. It’s a cavernous yard.

Using wooden bats, I had a reputation as a bit of a power hitter in 1972. I hit four balls off of the green wall in left and hit a one-hopper off the 410-mark in center. Nobody hit balls over those fences with wood bats.

By the time my older sons hit their teens, kids were pounding balls over that wall all the time. When a nondescript 13-year-old hit three home runs in one game — I knew the game was forever changed.

Two springs ago, I saw 12-year-old boys hitting home runs more than 300 feet over softball field fences. The typical 12-year-old plays on a Little League field with fences 200 feet from home plate. Metal bats makes Little League parks nearly too small by half.

And, sure, the metal bats made my sons better hitters. It didn’t matter, though, because they were all pitchers and the risk outweighed the reward. A long home run versus a line drive between the eyes? An easy call for a dad.

Everything changed when the family welcomed the youngest brother to the fraternity of pitchers. His fastball was clocked at over 80 mph — last year at age 13. The taller a pitcher is, the closer he is to home plate when he releases the ball. My youngest appears to be on top of home plate at the point of release.

My kid pitched in a 13-under league with teams from throughout the region. League games were played on high school fields where he pitched from 60 feet, 6 inches. Tournaments were played on softball fields where the pitching distance was 54 feet or so.

One weekend in San Jose, my son struck out the first six hitters he faced. Then, he got a fastball up to a tiny kid at the bottom of the batting order. The kid reached up and hit a line drive off the barrel that smashed off my son’s left kneecap and sent him sprawling into the dirt.

After leaving that game and spending a week watching deep bruise slowly subside, my son pitched again. Three innings into that game, he was decked by another shot up the middle. This one hit just below the right kneecap, at the top of the shin. By the time coaches helped him to a spot behind the dugout, he had a baseball-sized lump and couldn’t put any weight on what we were sure was a seriously damaged leg.

Only blind luck keep those line drives from hitting him in the head. We still made two trips to hospital emergency rooms in successive weeks. It was sobering to know that, even being a fairly gifted pitcher who doesn’t get hit hard often, my son was helpless against a well struck ball off of a metal bat.

We bought a clear, hard plastic mask for my son to try. No kid wants to be riding that first wave of safety-first gear. I almost had him convinced that the bench jockeys who heckled the mask would be quiet after four scoreless innings. Then, maybe, other kids would wear masks.

My son didn’t go for it. Too bad.

There’s no good reason to keep putting kids at risk by allowing bat manufacturers to make a fortune of metal bats that give hitters more pop than they need. Those bats can cost $400 — and kids can buy three, four quality wood bats for less than that.

Those safety tests are meaningless. I saw my kid, a skilled pitcher, hit by line drives in successive weeks. After two trips to the hospital, I promise, the bats aren’t safe enough.

Register Sports Writer Ted Sillanpaa can be reached at 256-2220 or tsillanpaa@napanews.com.

Posted in Ted-sillanpaa on Sunday, March 28, 2010 12:00 am Updated: 10:48 pm.

IVANO SAYS (CONT'D): So why am I posting this on the LNOSTRA-COSTA Blog: It so happens that I have a 12 year old Grandson, who plays in the Morgan Hill Pony Baseball League and who, on occasions, takes the mound and pitches. I worry that what happened to Gunner might happen to Kristian (my grandson). And I'm sure many of you readers of this blog have sons or grandsons (or perhaps even daughters - granddaughters) who pitch for Little League Teams and have the same concerns that I do. If so, I urge you to let your concerns be known to League Administrators, both at the local and the national level. It's only through your vocal efforts that things will change. Remember, our concern must not be how well our sons or grandsons pitch or how hard they hit the ball. As parents and Grandparents it is their safety that must be our primary concern.

Monday, April 05, 2010

'THE LARK' WRITES ABOUT RAMANDOLO AND POLENTA





Posted by PicasaDipping Ramandolo Straws (like biscotti)in Ramandolo Wine
hospitality at the Ramadolo Club. (Ferruccio Dri and wife to the left;
Derrill and Kathy Kerrick to the right - 2008)


Ivano, I must get some words off to you, so many things happening.

We did make the trip to Ramandolo, very successful and very worthwhile. We did not get to visit your family nor a planned luncheon with the Mayor of Tarcento. We did stay at the Ramandolo Club http://www.ramandoloclub.it/ under the care of your cousin Ferruccio Dri, even in January it was truly delightful, we finished our trip early Saturday morning with a visit to the Church of Ramandolo, has a beautiful small Osteria( I had an expresso with 100 ml of grappa, a good way to get started and I was not driving).
Concerning polenta: I am truly shocked that there are people making polenta without stirring, but no more so than being served pollo Visentin with polenta that was bought in the market in a small block, sliced and browned with butter. A beautiful meal served by a favorite niece in Manzano, this is the heart of Furlan, the niece is of the same family of my wife. The Mother of my wife, mio suocera, family name of Visentin, came from a family of Farmers. During the thirties and early forties, they lived in a very large farm house, four families including 4 wives, 3 husbands, perhaps 16-22 children, one kitchen, and other similar singularly facilities, including a polenta making machine. This machine required manpower to rotate same, this came from the kids. My wife has some arm scars to prove that she did her turn and did not live there as a resident. Her Father, mio suocero, had decided long before that he was not going to be a farmer. Polenta was made once each day, in a quantity to meet the needs of this household for 3 meals. My wife remembers this as about a 2 hour project and everybody who has made really good FRESH polenta, knows there is a bubbling, or popping period when hot little balls of polenta pop out and if they land on fresh young skin, they will be remembered. By the time I arrived in 1947 the family had gotten down to 2 wives, one husband, and 4-8 kids. No polenta machine as polenta was being made 4-6 times a week, having been replaced with good white rolls.

I do not remember the Fieste de Patrie dal Furlan, this would be asking a lot, I am sure they celebrate at least 50 holidays each year.

Do any of the Americanized Furlani recall any talk about polenta machines??

Happy Easter e sempre avanti,

Lark