Sunday July 7, 2019
Sunny 90°F/32°C in Roma, Latium, Italia
Buonagiornata,
To most of us Americans, the July
4th holiday is strictly a party that’s thrown for domestic
My son Michael earned his degree
at A.U.R. in 2005, after doing his undergraduate studies at
California State
University – Sacramento. Living in Rome has taught him to maintain those old
school ties. And so, every year he returns with his band – No Funny Stuff! to
provide the music for the celebration. It was a closed affair – reservations
were required. But the American faculty and students invited their Italian
friends and their families, young and old, to join in the festivities. It was an old-fashioned, down-home,
neighborhood, truly AMERICAN celebration where the people of several nations
got together to celebrate an IDEA. But this American picnic definitely
had an Italian accent. As it should. The history of Italians in America
shows that four million Italians immigrated to the United States between
1880 and 1924. New York has the
largest population of Italian Americans followed by New Jersey and California.
Even Texas has more than 360,000 Italians living in the Lone Star State. (That
might account for the fact that my favorite Italian restaurant is Mandola’s in
Cedar Park, near where I live).
 |
| No Funny Stuff! |
Picnickers munched on hot dogs
and hamburgers and drank copious amounts of vino e birra
(soft drinks and juice for the bambini). Even the band showed off its
international composition. No Funny Stuff! is made up of one American (my son
Michael) and three Italian musicians; Giuseppe “Seppe” Cassa, Fabio
Gabbianelli, and Giuseppe Petti. NFS is what most Americans call a Jug Band!
As the band’s Facebook page states,” No Funny Stuff is a poor man’s hokum –
Bluegrass, Ragtime, Blues, Ragtime, Jug Band.” And, I might add, “with a
pronounced Italian accent.” The band played through its jug-band
repertoire right until fireworks time and then had to move away from the area
where the fireworks were to be set off from the rooftop overlooking the
courtyard. The fireworks show was limited to aerial displays. That’s because
the crowded buildings of Rome don’t allow for many wide-open spaces for static
fireworks displays. Limited in scope, perhaps a little. But, overall,
spectacular nonetheless! Bear in mind,
this scene was being played out around the world, as dusk made its appearance
in every time
zone around our troubled globe. Americans celebrating the Fourth
with their friends from all over the international community. As I said
earlier, the celebration of American Independence is more of an Idea
than just a celebration.
 |
| 4th of July Partiers at AUR |
 |
| MikeBo and Ex-pat Friend |
For me, it was a great evening
because I realized just how many friends I have among the ex-pat community in
Rome and how many connections there are to my life back home in the states. I am constantly running into people whose
families emigrated to the U.S. about the same time as my grandparents did,
early in the Twentieth Century, and what we still have in common. Spending a Fourth of July in a foreign
country is an experience that I will treasure forever. The American Dream still
shines brightly abroad, even if it has begun to dim back home.
Next time: On the road again with
my favorite Jug Band!
Ciao,MikeBo
[Mike Botula, the author of LST
920: Charlie Botula’s Long, Slow Target! is a retired broadcast journalist,
government agency spokesperson and media consultant. Mike’s book is available from Amazon Books.
You can read more about Mike Botula at www.mikebotula.com]
© By Mike Botula 2019
No comments:
Post a Comment