leomoon
Well-known member
I use to have a crush (when I was 13 yrs old) on a boy who lived next door on Albermarle Street to Nancy D'Alesandro. I recall his name was Paul and the song by Annette Funicello inspired me to buy the album "Tall Paul" to hear it over and over.
Paul was TALL, compared to my 4 feet 11 inches size, he was perhaps 5 feet 11inches and strange for an Italian, blondish hair.
Annette: Singing "Tall Paul" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQqGMMnGIi4&feature=emb_logo
Here is the modest row home Nancy Pelosi grew up in (she was named after her mother also "Nancy" Senior) Now that I think about it, another Italian family did the same, Nancy Sinatra Senior and Nancy Sinatra Junior named after HERE mother.
The houses would have been more the "red brick" you see in the photo, not the renovated ones you can buy today.
OR, as my house was, the formstone (they called the material) put onto the red brick which was very popular as seen in this photo.
I'm not sure if they date from Civil War years, (although my home did) and the bricks were like "sand" they would crumble when you renovated the walls.
Life was FAR simpler back then, and our lives revolved around Pizza in Little Italy, (the best restaurants, on every street there) and St. Leo's festivals, because each year the festival would advertise whoever was "all the rage". The last one I recall going to was to see the Isley Brothers who sang "SHOUT" (part 1 & 2) Can you imagine our parents listening to this noise in the street with screaming teenagers?
It was beyond ecstatic, even moreso then the Beatles in Baltimore 1964?
The Isley Bros. was around 1960 they appeared at St.Leo's....outdoor Festival. Nancy Pelosi would have had a front row seat as she lived around the corner and would get there first. I bet she'd remember, if I mentioned this to her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEjLFpU2pJ4
Nancy's home would have been just like the red brick one: Nothing exactly "fancy": Perhaps living here near the Projects (a subsidized black housing acreages) spurred on her desire to be rich and leave that all behind. Baltimore was known as a rather poorer lower middle class city then, but big on churches and bars on every corner (each block a bar and a church) it seemed, but in her neighborhood, life centered around the Italian Restaurants which were famous attracting movie stars and (mafia types), as well as St. Leo's.
Nancy D'Alesandro (Pelosi), knew the streets just as I did, and to get to the shopping district from Little Italy, she'd have to walk past the Projects (the subsidized housing area) . Baltimore was a VERY ethnic city with ethnic neighborhoods comprising it. Italians in one section, Polish & Immigrants from the Ukraine in another - mostly all Catholic within so many miles (20 miles or so) at least.
Back then there was not that much crime, (in the 50s, 60s) as there is today. There were however, a few instances of Mafia hits thrown into the Bay nearby (all these streets were next to water) Usually, it was a vehicle with a body inside of it! Usually, the hit came from New York (donald Trump's home town and likely he knew some of these Mafia families)
Most people I knew growing up, stayed in the area, loved it and never would leave. I'm sure that is the same with Little Italy (I knew a few people there still there, one in politics as City Commissioner)
BUT there were the few (perhaps better educated as Nancy was) who wanted out, and big time money. She got her wish, I hope she is happy
226 Albermarle Street in Little Italy, (Baltimore Md) for sale - Zillow
(Photo of Nancy Sr.) in her home.
https://www.shorpy.com/node/10732
Paul was TALL, compared to my 4 feet 11 inches size, he was perhaps 5 feet 11inches and strange for an Italian, blondish hair.
Annette: Singing "Tall Paul" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQqGMMnGIi4&feature=emb_logo
Here is the modest row home Nancy Pelosi grew up in (she was named after her mother also "Nancy" Senior) Now that I think about it, another Italian family did the same, Nancy Sinatra Senior and Nancy Sinatra Junior named after HERE mother.
The houses would have been more the "red brick" you see in the photo, not the renovated ones you can buy today.
OR, as my house was, the formstone (they called the material) put onto the red brick which was very popular as seen in this photo.
I'm not sure if they date from Civil War years, (although my home did) and the bricks were like "sand" they would crumble when you renovated the walls.
Life was FAR simpler back then, and our lives revolved around Pizza in Little Italy, (the best restaurants, on every street there) and St. Leo's festivals, because each year the festival would advertise whoever was "all the rage". The last one I recall going to was to see the Isley Brothers who sang "SHOUT" (part 1 & 2) Can you imagine our parents listening to this noise in the street with screaming teenagers?
It was beyond ecstatic, even moreso then the Beatles in Baltimore 1964?
The Isley Bros. was around 1960 they appeared at St.Leo's....outdoor Festival. Nancy Pelosi would have had a front row seat as she lived around the corner and would get there first. I bet she'd remember, if I mentioned this to her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEjLFpU2pJ4
Nancy's home would have been just like the red brick one: Nothing exactly "fancy": Perhaps living here near the Projects (a subsidized black housing acreages) spurred on her desire to be rich and leave that all behind. Baltimore was known as a rather poorer lower middle class city then, but big on churches and bars on every corner (each block a bar and a church) it seemed, but in her neighborhood, life centered around the Italian Restaurants which were famous attracting movie stars and (mafia types), as well as St. Leo's.
Nancy D'Alesandro (Pelosi), knew the streets just as I did, and to get to the shopping district from Little Italy, she'd have to walk past the Projects (the subsidized housing area) . Baltimore was a VERY ethnic city with ethnic neighborhoods comprising it. Italians in one section, Polish & Immigrants from the Ukraine in another - mostly all Catholic within so many miles (20 miles or so) at least.
Back then there was not that much crime, (in the 50s, 60s) as there is today. There were however, a few instances of Mafia hits thrown into the Bay nearby (all these streets were next to water) Usually, it was a vehicle with a body inside of it! Usually, the hit came from New York (donald Trump's home town and likely he knew some of these Mafia families)
Most people I knew growing up, stayed in the area, loved it and never would leave. I'm sure that is the same with Little Italy (I knew a few people there still there, one in politics as City Commissioner)
BUT there were the few (perhaps better educated as Nancy was) who wanted out, and big time money. She got her wish, I hope she is happy
226 Albermarle Street in Little Italy, (Baltimore Md) for sale - Zillow
Nancy D'Alesandro (lower right) is my Aunt Rose's (2nd from left, top row) Godmother and was next-door-neighbor in Little Italy, Baltimore. This is about 1939 when the D'Alesandro Family (Nancy Pelosi's parents) frequently threw neighborhood wedding and baby showers in their large club basement (a corner row house) on Albermarle St. Tommy D'Alesandro was a congressman and then a well-loved Mayor of Baltimore.
(Photo of Nancy Sr.) in her home.
https://www.shorpy.com/node/10732
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