by Dolores Alfieri

With Memorial Day having just passed, marking the unofficial start of summer, Anthony and I decided to share an excerpt from my memoir, The Dreams that Break Your Heart. This chapter is about a trip down the Shore in Jersey, which is a summer ritual familiar to countless East-Coast Italian Americans. This is the real Jersey Shore, which has nothing to do with the television show that marred its image. This Jersey Shore is about a break from hard work, loving life, and, of course, above all – la famiglia.

If you're a regular listener of the podcast, you've heard us mention the book and refer to it many times. It starts with my parents' childhoods in Southern Italy, through the volatile early years when they first immigrated to New York, and up through the years until I am born; interspersed throughout that narrative is my own story of growing up a modern, free-spirited girl in an old-fashioned Italian household, with all the blessings and tensions inherent in that experience.

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Source: http://italianamericanpodcast.com/