Scagnetti

Im currently in Scranton, PA. There’s a suspicious amount of Italian restaurants here. Do you have any mob ties here I should look out for?

Find the one who's owner is named Dominic.

Just keep an eye out for Guido the leg breaker.

just put on your zoot suit and act natural, you will fit right in.

Just call out for Dwight...

Eat at Pedro's

You sure do get around youngun

Why would it be suspicious for any number of Italian restaurants in that part of the state?

Find the one where some of the better dressed customers are using the service or delivery door.

That’s the one you want to go to.

Do you fly commercial or private?

Depends on the occasion. A little bit of both.

Go see our fat mustachioed friend at the Sons of Sicily Social Club, get some pasta fazool, and find a nice Italian girl

It’ll make your parents very happy

Anthonys in Old Forge
Arcaro and Genell for piza

I was borned there but grew up about 12 mi. southeast of there in a rural farming community. Big Italian influence in eateries and beer gardens in that area. I had some dinners at several friends homes as a kid that could have been a scene from the Godfather. It was great. My family never had any money to eat out at fancy restaurants though, so I'm no help for recommendations. Left there in 72.

I considered going to the University of Scranton

It’s a well regarded Catholic university

Isn’t that area of PA a big coal mining area?

Pay attention to the old man who parks in the handicap spot directly in front of the door. If his suit has a big collar on it, he is untouchable. If he is in the restaurant that day, you more than likely will not be seated anywhere near him.

Are you a Quaker Bob?

Yes. How do you like my oats? hahahahahahaa

Much further south is Amish country, near Lancaster, Pa. Pennsylvania Dutch, etc.

Yes, big coal mining industry at one time. Anthracite coal. Had a coal furnace and steam radiators for heating in the old house I grew up in. My grandpa on my Mothers side, Czech ancestry was indeed a coal miner that lived in Dunmore. He contracted black lung disease and died of a major heart attack the year before I was born. There is a tourist attraction of an actual mine that is fun to see. I've been down in it twice on a few visits when my kids were small. Interesting part of history. Those miners had some nads for sure, no place for claustrophobia in those crevices where they chiseled out coal. Scranton had some real problems in the 60s related to the coal mining industry. The owners of the mines were unscrupulous rascals. They never shored up the mines as they were supposed to and "forgot" to backfill the mines when finished. So............ Streets and peoples yards in the vicinity of the old mines suddenly sank down 20 or more feet randomly. My grandmothers back yard dropped 15 feet one night. It was amazing to see. So the city of Scranton did a huge "backfill" operation shoving mine rock back down into the mines to shore up the earth above it. Scranton was very segregated by nationality at one time, of course times have changed now. But in the 60s you could still find distinct neighborhoods in the city, Irish, Italian, Polish, Welsh,....etc. Big Welsh faction in that area because of the coal mining opportunities. My Dads side is mostly Welsh (Davis). Wales, was known for its coal mining so when they immigrated to the USA, Ellis Island, NY, and looking for work, a bunch moved to the Scranton area for work in the mines. Yes, the University of Scranton is still operating.

Wasn’t the tv show “the office” set in Scranton?

Interesting stuff

When I was a youngster, we used to do weekend trips to places like Lancaster, Hershey, Lake Wallenpaupack, Stroudsburg, etc., all within easy driving distance of NYC

Great area and very popular with tourists

Any Amish there?

They call it NEPA (northeast Pennsylvania). Real good deer and pheasant hunting in the rural areas (most of remains rural still). The Pocono mountain area still a great resort. You are correct in that it is close to NYC, maybe 1 to 1.5 hour drive I think. Today, there are a lot of folks living near Mt. Pocono that commute.

Funny, but every few years my Dad would take us to NYC to see the "big city". It was an adventure for us living out in the sticks to see the hustle and bustle and the big advertisement signs, like the Camel signs etc. I still have a souvenir "switchblade" pocket knife he bought me at one of the shops in NYC.

Not to my knowledge. You had to drive south to see their horse drawn buggies, around Lancaster, Pa.

The Times Square area was a 25 minute subway ride from where I grew up

Along 42nd St were a lot of souvenir shops that sold tee shirts, statues of the Empire State Building, etc., and for some reason, lots of knives, which were always featured in the windows

That area really went downhill with drugs and prostitution until Giuliani got elected mayor and cleaned it all up. It’s now like Disneyland and family friendly

Talking about Coal made me remember the time I lost my eyebrows. I was maybe 9 or 10 years old. It was fall and getting cold. My Dad told me to go start a fire in the furnace in the cellar. I go down the steps into the dirt floor cellar and to my left was the Coal Bin. This was a room in the basement that had a doorway fitted with 1x6 boards vertically in wooden channels. When full of coal, (after the coal man came and delivered it down a chute into the bin from outside), the boards in the doorway were intact and as you shoveled the coal from the bin into the furnace, the level of coal would drop and eventually you had to remove one board from the doorway to shovel etc. until most of the coal was gone and you removed the last board. Anyway, to get coal burning, you have to have a hot wood fire. Typically you get some twigs and old newspaper and paper shopping bags and get the wood fire burning hot, then shovel on the coal. Eventually the coal burns a bluish flame until it is ash.

I got some paper and twigs and was going to light it with a match, when I thought, "I bet if I put some gas or something in there, it would get going faster." So I looked around and found a can of some kind of solvent that had a skull and crossbones on the label and said "highly flammable"! I thought "good, this ought to do it". So I poured a bunch on the papers inside the chamber of the furnace. Next, I stood back about a foot or so, and remember striking the match. In that instant I remember the distinct "WHOOOOSHHH" from the chamber and for a moment I felt an intense heat on my face and recall breathing in the heat. It was over quickly thankfully as the paper and twigs were engulfed in flames. I did a quick functional check of my arms, legs etc. and everything seemed ok. I put the can of flammable liquid back and went up the stairs. My Dad was in his chair, feet up, reading the newspaper as always. He lowers the newspaper and asks "Did you get it going"? I said yeah, no problem. He stares at me for a minute and then says "come here". So I went closer and he quizically asks me " Where are your eyebrows? I mustered up my 10 years of life experience and said "I don't know". "Geesh.." he said and went back to reading the paper. When I looked in the mirror, sure enough, eyebrows and lashes, gone. Took a while for them to grow back. I added this to my ever growing book of "Things to Never Do Again".

Me too.

I went nights and Summers to the U. Yes it was huge coal mining area.

My grandmother was a Davis from Taylor!

Wow Bob, small world. My wife grew up in the Dunmore and Whitehaven area of PA.

Go to Wawa and get an Italian sub.

Bunch of Yankees

Wow, sure enough. My Mom was from Dunmore, I worked there as a young lad as a gopher for my Uncle who was a Home builder. He built many developments in that area. I learned some things about house construction from him, but I would always seem to do something stupid when he came around. I can still hear him hollerin'. Ran the front end of my 55 chevy into the back end of a 71 Ford Fairlane once there when I was 17 going to work one morning.

We had some n Oklahoma. Mennonites too.

You mean have some. Helena, Fairview area has many

I'm surrounded by Amish, ask Ratz and BC. I may be one of the few people in the world that can make them curse like sailors.

We used to see them around grove taking my sister to camp Scott.

That would be Locust Grove and wow, I'm going to say your sister must have been going there close to the same time all that happened Bob. Scary thinking about that.

Shortly before. Our church camp was close and I was there when he was on the loose. Burn in hell.

You ever go to Angelo’s in Dunmore? That place is pretty good.

Please don't make them curse on Saturday. We need a day filled with good intentions. Are ya'll still planning on being there at 9am?

Scary....I still remember two of those girl's names out of the three. I hate thinking of it.

I went to 3rd grade in manns choice penn. while the father unit was on a well, lived at a summer resort called white sulphur springs. cool place back then, spent about a yr. there.

Never been. I think it was Angelo Bistocchis at one time if the same one I am thinking of. If so, it has been there a while. I left Pa. in late 72 right after high school.

Some rural areas still pretty nice. I have no love lost for Pa., it was the land of taxes then and still is. Cold miserable winters growing up, some summers never got a chance to swim in a pond, water too cold.

Seminole Tx is heavily populated by Mennonites, Hard workers and good people. I go to a fruit market there the Mennonite girl can speak English,Spanish and German or low Dutch as they call it.

I have

And Lackawanna County has always been a political cesspool 😬

She also lived in Fleetville and graduated from Lackawanna HS.

Another PA guy!

We have a plant in danielsville .

Yep. Scranton came close to bankruptcy a few years back. Ran out of money. Typical of leftist leadership and the governor today is not well liked by many. Outside of the city of Scranton, Trump flags and signs galore in most yards. There is a tax for everything in Pa, right to work tax, inheritance tax, city tax, state income tax, and on and on.

Yes and between the two of us I bet we can have him cussing and drinking beer.

Rut Roh!!