I consider myself lucky to have grown up on Racine Avenue in the Lincoln Park area of Chicago's near west side. It was the late 1940's, the beginning of an exciting new era and, in my opinion, the perfect place and time to be a kid. More and more families were buying their first TV, their first car and some of the lucky ones even were getting central heating, eliminating the need to pour fuel oil into the stoves used to heat their homes. Like many Italian families, ours was top heavy with aunts, uncles, cousins and close friends we considered as extended family. Whether it was Christmas,...