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630WPRO news anchor Gene Valicenti - in a mood of utter disgust- gave his listeners a personal vicarious, very unpleasant experience of Providence's famous Federal Hill neighborhood this morning . The old colorful Italian neighborhood is now long gone and blighted. The city government has let it go to hell. Gene suggested that the whole area between Broadway and Atwells Ave. -most of Federal Hill - is a disgrace to Providence, shaming its mayor Elorza.
As a senior citizen Italo-American I remember the Federal Hill my Italian immigrant grandparents , Ludovico and Adrianna Ruggieri raised their three fine boys , Nicholas , Louis , Domenic - all of whom became successful in life.
My grandparents lived for nearly 50 years at 62 Gesler St. My older brother Rick and I stayed with them for days in the summertime ( circa 1957- 1962 ) . In the morning Grandma Ruggieri took us to an early mass at Holy Ghost Church, where I had been baptized , on the way back stopping at an outside FRESH FRUIT stand and another place where they killed rabbits and chickens on the spot . Later Rick and I would go the Angelo Zuccolo Pool . Back then the diving area was more than 10 feet deep and rather bravely I dived off the diving board in to the blue pit below. One night Grandpa took us to see two horror movies at the Columbus Theater on Broadway- " The Amazing Colossal Man "and " The Fly " -which I heard gave Grandpa nightmares.
Then there was that sinister mysterious CLUB down the road near Palmieri's Bakery. Some guy named " Raymond " was undisputed BOSS of Federal Hill there. He kept " peace " in the neighborhood , I learned. " MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS ", we were warned.
On a clear hot summer night the smell of baking bread came through the window screen in the bedroom where Rick and I slept. There was always a lit holy candle. A statue of Saint Anthony in a glass dome. Grandma explained that her Saint Anthony had once worked a miracle saving the second floor apartment from a fire. She showed me a singed cloth with an outline of the statue. She went downstairs to console a man named Amando whose old mother was dying in a hospital bed with her devoted son always by her side.
When Federal began its long decline in the late 1960s Grandma and Grandpa Ruggieri moved in to our house at 315 California Ave. in Washington Park, Providence. I was just 21 when my mother and I went along with Grandma's last ride in an ambulance. She died at age 74 , my age now . Grandpa live on with us for a few more years. He always cried when he heard Puccini 's La Boheme playing on the radio . Nostalgic for the Old Country- glorious , sunny, musical ( Grandpa played the clarinet ) Italy which he knew he would never see again.
As they say : " You can't go home again ".
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