71 years ago, in 1950 my grandmother started a new address book. I was not born yet and although living alone she was still in her house in Northeast Washington, DC with the very steep concrete stairs that brought you from the sidewalk to her front wooden porch. She lived across the street from an elementary school and watched the parade of children twice a day go to and from the school. She had a full life coming from Italy as a very young child and was widowed young. Her husband Nick worked on the railroads, mined coal, and even dug graves. Eventually he saved enough money to open a corner grocery store. My father always said that if his father, Nick, had lived he would have had a chain of grocery stores in DC. My grandmother worked the counter in the grocery store, keeping the books and adding the customers orders up in her head which always impressed my father.
My grandmother came from a large Italian family with a lot of sisters and one brother. She and her siblings were very close. Her baby brother lived with her in an upstairs bedroom for many years. In 1950 my grandmother had two married sons with small children and although she did not know it at the time there would be more grandchildren, and great grandchildren she would be able to add to her book.
My grandmother who we called Nanny, turned this grey composition notebook into an address book by cutting out slots along the edge of the pages, and printed A through Z letters on the exposed area to access her alphabetized addresses just like a store-bought address book. Maybe this was a common practice at the time but I have never seen another like it.
The relatives and friends in Nanny’s address book certainly moved around a lot and with each move their old address was crossed out and a new one written it. Some entries were crossed out multiple times. Other pages have been cut out, I can only assume that all the addresses had been crossed out and she had to start a new page.
She used a fountain pen. Black ink, blue, and an occasional pencil. Once or twice, she would Americanize a name when she had originally written the name as it would appear in Italian.
One of her nephews was in the Navy and traveled to many countries and posts in the US. His address was in a stack of 3×5 notecards and return addresses in the back of the book creating a history of his travels and career.
There are occasional notes written in the margins, like who to notify in Italy when someone has passed or a date when an entry was added or updated due to a move. Sometimes when a page was full, she attached a loose piece of paper with a straight pin that has now left rust marks on the page.
The address book shows glimpses into my grandmother’s life in the last decades of her life.
In 1950 my grandmother was 54, younger than I am now and still would live another 24 years.
© 2021 Tom Campagnoli
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