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Interview of Jerry D'Aloia and Barbara D' Aloia Interviewed on October 2, 2002 Interviewed by Benjamin Filene and Ayesha Shariff of the Minnesota Historical Society for the Open House Project Exhibit JerryD'Aloia - JD Barbara D'Aloia - BD House Benjamin Filene - BF Ayesha Shariff - AS Open BF: .. .life in that house was like inside of it but, then, also using it Societyas a way of trying to learn about what people's lives were even outside the house, peopleProject who passed through there, so it's kind of chance just to learn about people. We don't even know yet exactly what we're going to end up with in tenns of [unclear]. It's been interestingSociety to just see what we can learn, who we can [unclear]. I'm Benjamin Filene. Could you say your names, too? HistoryHistorical JD: I'm Jerry D' Aloia. HistoricalOral BD: Barbara D' Aloia. BF: You were born right. .. ? Minnesota JD: I was born on Collins Street, that's now Tedesco [Street], right behind Morelli's Store. Later on, we moved.Minnesota My father bought the place at 470 Hopkins Street and my cousin lived right next door in 472, the duplex. We had some pretty good times there. When I was child, there was a lot ofthe things that did happen. In 1939, 1940, that was probably the best time of my life ... 1941, excuse me. My father was still healthy and, then, from that time on ... In 1942, he got a stroke and, then, my mother came down with cancer and by 1947, they were both dead. I was about sixteen, seventeen years old. Anyway lot of things did happen there. I can remember making wine down there. My dad and his brother-in-law, I think it was, or uncle ... It was my mother's brother, [unclear] Cucchiarella that was there, and they built this winepress down in the basement. I'd still like to see that sometime. It was a pretty big piece of equipment. They made wine back in the 1920s when it was legal to make wine for your own family. BF: How do you do that? Do you remember anything about the process or what it looked like? JD: Oh, yes. I couldn't tell you the times that they put together, in other words the certain period of time. They would buy the grapes by the truckload, you know, because they were making a lot of wine, good enough to last for a whole year for, say, the Cucchiarellas, [unclear] Cucchiarella and those who lived right next door and my family and then T. John Frascone. He just lived down the street. They were cousins. So, they would get together and they would buy the grapes from Damiani, see? They'd come over and then they'd make it. They'd make wine and it was enough for a whole entire year. Well, you have to know that these Italians drank an awful lot of wine. [laughter] So, I mean, they made quite a bit, but it was legal for that time. ThenExhibit after Prohibition, the restrictions were lessened a little bit. Until about, I think it was, 1939, 1940, then they found out we had wine and, then, they decided to tax it. I can remember the tax stamps. They came down and put them on the barrels. House Getting back to the process, the grapes would come in and we'd have full barrels with the heads taken off the barrel. Then, we had a wine crusher that would sit right on top. Back in the old country, they didn't have the wine crushers. They did haveOpen them, but only the very wealthy people could afford one, otherwise, you'd stomp them with your feet. [sound of stomping] They did but Society their feet would be purple for months afterwards. [laughter]Project Then, they had the boots and they would use boots. I can remember that, before we got the wine crusher. It was just a big hopper with a crank on it and it had gears that crushedSociety the grapes. It went into this barrel. It would take, I couldn't tell you, maybe ten days, a week to ten days. It would ferment and give off carbon dioxide. It got to be pretty strong down there. We'd haveHistory to keep the windows open and keep the air fresh or you could become over. .. Well, at that time, it wasn'tHistorical that much, but it would get to you after a while, so we kept the basement windows open to circulate the air. It would work. Actually, it would come to almost like a rolling boil andOral it would just come and these grapes would flow through the top and the juice would getHistorical to the bottom. When the process stopped, when the alcohol reached approximately ten to twelve percent, then the fermenting process would quit. The reason I know this is becauseMinnesota I worked in a brewery most of my life and the process is pretty much the same, except for the amount of alcohol in the beer. They kept the beer cold or cool to a point whereMinnesota the alcohol only goes so far and then it wouldn't ferment anymore and then they would take it out. Getting back to the wine ... Then, they would pull the plug out ofthe bottom ofthe keg and the wine would just come pouring out. You'd have to have another big container to catch it. One would fill and you'd move it to the next one. As that thing would go down, it'd get to the bottom and the wine would just sit there. No more wine would come out of it. Then, we'd have to take the grapes out of that barrel, put them in the winepress and squeeze the rest of the wine out. 2 Jerry and Barbara D' Aloia Interview One thing I can really remember, [sound of smacking lips] that wine was the sweetest thing you ever drank in your life when it came out freshly fermented. [chuckles] You've never tasted anything so sweet. It was almost like a sugary, sweet champagne. IfI remember rightly, I drank enough of it to get me pretty sick after a day or so. [laughter] My father kept saying, "Don't drink so much. Don't drink so much. Just taste. Just taste." He knew what he was doing, you know. Yes, after that episode-I must have been ten or twelve, somewhere in there, years old. I don't think I had another glass of wine ... I must have been thirty years old before I ever even looked at ... [laughter] Well, maybe not that old, but, you know. That was a good experience. He knew what he was doing. He let me get enough of it and I got sick enough and that was it. It was quite a while I didn't drink any wine after that. BF: So, the taxing thing was during Prohibition? No. After Prohibition? Exhibit JD: The stamps was after. This was probably in the late 1930s. BF: What happened? How did they figure out. .. ? House JD: They would come in and check it out, you know, and then they would tax it. It was a way of getting additional revenue-that's what I thought anyway-for the time. We couldn't have enough ... If you had over the amount you could use in aOpen year, then you were doing something illegal. I guess that's probably what it was. Society Project BF: They'd come in with a stamp and they would paste it on each bottle? Society JD: No, not on the bottle, on the kegs. It would be in the kegs till it aged. I don't know how long that took, but it took a while. Then, it wouldHistory transfer [unclear]. We used to have these five-gallon glass acid bottles that they got [unclear]. They we'dHistorical put it in that or bottle it in bottles. At night, every once in a while, one ofthose bottles would explode [speaks in gibberish, implying cursing]. I could hear my dad cursing Historicalin the otherOral bedroom. [laughter] [speaks in gibberish, implying cursing] One of those bottles would blow, you know. Yes, that was funny. BF: We had some things that we've heard about from Michelina [Frascone], [unclear] stories from her. She would tell us things thatMinnesota we thought we should hear from you. We also talked to Nellie [Frascone]. Minnesota JD: Yes. BF: For example, can you tell us about Michelina and Russell's wedding? We heard that you provided the chickens. JD: [chuckles] Oh, that was quite an operation. This was during World War II, you know, and meat was rationed. Most food was rationed. Sugars and meat and poultry was all rationed. I was selling papers downtown and right across from the post office, there was a poultry house there where the farmers would come. Oh, they would hatch chickens out, different kinds of chickens, you know. 3 Jerry and Barbara D'Aloia Interview And, anyway, she was getting married and we were trying to figure out how we were going to feed the people for the wedding, you know. I was thinking about it. I walked by there and I see those chicks. I went in there and checked it out. Uhhhh, I went back. I'd saved my money. I think I bought 150 chickens. A lot of them died. We took the chicks home and we had them in a big old cardboard box.

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