IL POSTINO VOLUME 2, NUMBER5 ~ FEBRUARY 2002 The Village - Little Italy Preston Street 1865-1970 Corso Italia CUSTOMER NUMBER: 04564405 PUBLICATION AGREEMENT NUMBER: 1835041 IL POSTINO • OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA by Oliviana Mingarelli IL POSTINO Page 2 IL POSTINO February 2002 VOLUME 2, NUMBER 5 865 Gladstone Avenue, Suite 101 • Ottawa, Ontario K1R 7T4 (613) 567-4532 • Fax (613)236-6545 [email protected] • www.ilpostinocanada.com Publisher Preston Street Community Foundation Italian Canadian Community Centre Looking for talent of the National Capital Region Inc. The new CHIN Radio Station is looking for talent. year for Canadian talent development. This includes $17,000 to Executive Editor At 97.9fm on the Ottawa dial, Chin Radio Ottawa will be the Canadian Music Week, $10,000 for a Chin Ottawa Multicultural Angelo Filoso first full-service multicultural/multilingual radio station to broad- Music and Song competition and $5,000 in Journalism and Music cast in Ottawa/Hull. Chin is looking to hire associate program Scholarships. Managing Editor producers and announcers to create programming for the station. Chin Radio Ottawa will also provide $2,500 a year to CKCU- Laura D’Amelio Chin is looking for people who are actively involved in local FM and CHUO-FM, local university ethnic radio, to assist in eth- events and have an extensive knowledge and interest in their cul- nic program development and training of ethnic broadcasters. tural community. In Toronto, CHIN Radio/TV International broadcasts on Associate Editors As the programming will be in 20 different languages, serving 37 AM1540 and FM 100.7 to over 30 cultural and linguistic groups. Oliviana Mingarelli and Fiona Story different ethnic groups, Chin hopes to be receiving plenty of appli- Chin also broadcasts 10 hours per week of multicultural televi- cations to fill in their work force. The cultures they are serving sion programming on Citytv serving 12 cultural and linguistic Advertising Director include Italian, Hungarian, Iranian, Cantonese, Somali, Russian, groups. Lillian Franovic Arabic, Polish, and many more. Resumés should be sent to the Chin Radio Head Office, at Programming will encompass talk, news, community events 622 College Street in Toronto. For more information you can Graphic Designer and music. visit their website: www.chinradio.com and click on Vlado Franovic Chin Radio Ottawa plans to spend a minimum of $55,000 a CHINRADIOttawa. Layout & Design Laura D’Amelio Web site Manager Amit Patel Contributors for this issue (in alphabetical order) Franco Caminiti, Domenico Cellucci, Marcus Cibischino, Colin Donelle, Marcus Filoso, Oliviana Mingarelli, Monica Pieri, Luciano Pradal, Fiona Story Special thanks to On the set of Chin’s popular Francesco Lorrigio and Italo Tiezzi Italian TV program Submissions We welcome submissions, letters, articles, story ideas and DIRECTORY / INDIRIZZI E TELEFONI UTILI photos. All materials for editorial consideration must be double Embassy of Italy HOSPITALS / OSPEDALI OTHER IMPORTANT NUMBERS / spaced, include a word count, and your full name, address and Ambasciata d’Italia Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario: ALTRI NUMERI DA RICORDARE phone number. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit all Floor 21- 275 Slater Street 401 Smyth Road • 737- 7600 Italian- Canadian Community Centre of the submissions for length, clarity and style. 232- 2401 • 232- 2403 • Ottawa Hospital - Civic Campus: National Capital Region / Centro Comunitario (fax) 233- 1484 1053 Carling Avenue • 761- 4000 Italiano-Canadese della Capitale Nazionale: Next Deadline Italian Telephone Directory / Ottawa Hospital - General Campus: 865 Gladstone Avenue, Suite 101 Elenco telefonico italiano: 501 Smyth Road • 737- 7777 567- 4532 • (fax) 236- 6545 February 22, 2002 738-0003 Ottawa Hospital - Riverside Campus: Italian Cultural Centre of Eastern Ontario Inc. EMERGENCY CALLS / 1967 Riverside Road • 738-7100 Centro Culturale Italiano dell’Ontario dell’Est: CHIAMATE D’EMERGENZA SCHOOLS / SCUOLE 865 Gladstone Avenue, Suite 101 Il Postino is publication supported by its advertisers and sale of Fire / Fuoco: Scuola Dante Alighieri: 232- 4422 567-4532 the issues. 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There was heavy rain and ing to North America searching for a better life. when they went around a curve, the jeep slid Two of these people, from the Reggio Calabria off a small cliff and rolled over him crushing his in southern Italy were my grandparents; groin area. .Vincenzo Cianci and Catarina Barbaro. They In 1945 when the Second World War ended, ended up in Ottawa to start their new life to- Albert (Chappy) Carmanico was lying in the gether. They had two children, Joe and Mary veterans hospital. He didn’t have much in the (my mom). way of education or marketable skills, but his In a little town in the Abruzzo mountains called wife, Mary (Cianci) Carmanico, liked to cook Repa Teatina, where Rocky Marciano’s father and was good at it. She was now pregnant with was born, a man named Antonio Caramanico their seventh child. and his wife Maria Napolitano decided to take Their family lived in a large building at 438 their six-month-old son and move to the US. In ½ Preston Street, with a large mortgage and a 1905 they settled in Camden, New Jersey and store on the main floor that wasn’t bringing in had more children. Among them was my dad much revenue. They decided to take a chance named Albert (Chappy) Caramanico. After sev- that people would like a place to eat out. eral years, the Caramanico family moved to They knew they would have good food and Ottawa where Chappy, now in his late teens, large portions for a reasonable price. In 1945 partnered up with Harry Menchini to form the eating out was not very fashionable for the av- Chappie’s Lunch circa 1945-1955 Preston Athletic club. Their goal was to train erage person but their location was a good one PHOTO COURTESY OF AL CARMANICO young boys to box and wrestle being close to the various government build- customers. making sauce, rolling meatballs, frying eggs and In 1939 the Second World War broke out ings on Booth, Rochester, Carling Avenue and Tony was in high school and could often be even took time to feed the three young ones, Chappy was now working as a labourer for HMCS Carleton navy barracks. They opened seen at the end of the counter studying between Al (aka Butchie), Joe, and Ann who was the Frank Licari’s plastering company. By 1940 the Chappies Lunch. customers he had to serve. As the oldest son in baby born during the restaurant years. The story war was intensifying and Chappy became a Ca- It was an exciting day in July of 1945 when a family of European descent a lot was expected goes that mom took about 1 ½ to 2 hours off nadian citizen so he could join the army. With the restaurant opened. The Orange Order were of him with not much gratitude or rewards work for the birth. his past experience as a boxer, wrestler and holding their parade and they always gathered shown. It must have been difficult to see his When the restaurant opened they were serv- knowledge of Ju jitsu he was channelled into in their fancy bright outfits close by Commis- friends playing ball or hockey when he had to ing a variety of regular meals that other restau- assisting in the training of new recruits. He was sioners Park to get ready for the march. The stay home to work and study. rants served. eventually transferred to the Provost Corp where Catholics and the Jews were just as excited as Cathleen, or Kay as people call her now, The thing that made Chappies different from he supervised the moving of German prisoners the Protestants to see them marching with their and Theresa seemed to always be together.