ALIQUIPPA NATIVES

Here's a small tale from my early teen years. I remember my new 'italian' friend from junior high - "Vince B." Vince invited me up to his home in the Plan 11 Section of Aliquippa on a Friday nite. So up I went (walking from Linmar Plan) with a box of 45 rpm records.

Vince's dad (Mr. B.) had purchased one of those new console radio and record players, 3 miles wide and just as tall, that was made out of the best of wood. Two big speakers on either side and it had a new technology called "stereophonic sound".

So as Vince and I sat on the floor, in front of this grand music hall and looked thru the records to play, his mother (Mrs. B.) was in the kitchen making spaghetti sauce for sunday's dinner and his dad was in the cellar with wine making interests, probably 'dago red'. Vince and I were well into the 45's, when in the front door came his uncle 'Hank'.

Down on the floor came Hank and into the 45's he went. "Here play this Bo Diddley and this Little Richard and also play Bill Haley and the Comets for me". As Hank picked, we would put the plastic inserts into the 45's and load the floor model stereo record player. Well, as the story pans out, the uncle was 'Henry Mancini' and this was back in the mid 50's.

Henry Mancini was born and raised Enrico Nicola Mancini in the Little Italy neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, and grew up near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the steel town of West Aliquippa, Pennsylvania.

His parents emigrated from the Abruzzo region of Italy. Mancini's father, Quinto, was a steelworker, who made his only child begin piccolo lessons at the age of eight. When Mancini was 12 years old, he began piano lessons. Quinto and Henry played flute together in the Aliquippa Italian immigrant band, "Sons of Italy". After graduating from Aliquippa High School in 1942, Mancini attended the renowned Juilliard School of Music in New York. In 1943, after roughly one year at Juilliard, his studies were interrupted when he was drafted into the United States Army. In 1945, he participated in the liberation of a Concentration Camp in southern Germany.  

Another Aliquippa favorite native and a member of 'our gang' was Mike Ditka. He too, came to the friday nite dances at Linmar Hall. Mike graduated from Aliquippa High School along with myself and a whole bunch of our friends. Mike lived just over the hill from where I lived. Just up from Mike's home was a very small patch of grass. Bobby Joe R., Brian M., Aston D., Billy G., Joe S., Kevin C. and a small army of others would play softball on that small patch of grass, myself included. Even then, the sportsmanship and will to win was there with Mike. He always had an intense drive in whatever he undertook. He has remained a friend to us all and always a gentleman with the greatest of smile.

Michael Keller Ditka, Jr. (born October 18, 1939 in Carnegie, Pennsylvania), also known as "Iron Mike", is a former American Football NFL player, television commentator, and coach. Ditka coached the Chicago Bears for 11 years and New Orleans Saints for 3 years. Ditka and Tom Flores are the only two people to win Super Bowls as a player, an assistant coach and a head coach. Ditka was the only individual to participate in the last two Chicago Bears' championships, as a player in 1963 and as head coach in 1985.

 We have our TV tuned and ready to go. "Iron Mike" is on the TV.