Charmaine Ervin

Char1962

• General Notes
  • D'Anna Christmas up the Hill
    Added by Charmaine on 2 May 2007
    Holidays were the best of all times. Many mornings I awoke to the smells of coffee and bread baking. My Mother would cook for weeks ahead and freeze pizzas, ravioli, desserts and many wonderful things to eat. She was a prolific, creative, hard-working cook and she would exhaust herself cooking because her health wasn’t that good. Arthritis made her arms and legs hurt if she was up too long, and there were some years she couldn’t get out of bed at all. At those times she would direct the baking and cooking from bed, making sure it got done the right way. What little cooking skills I have, I got this way.
    
    Christmas Eve was the biggest party of the year for a family that knew how to party! Around dark we would get all dressed up and walk next door to Uncle Mel’s house. The giant picture window that looked out over the valley below would have a huge Christmas tree decorated with beautiful lights in it. As we walked the short distance I remember smelling the wood smoke from their fireplace, the air brisk and cold with a faint mist in it. Even today the scent of cold air with wood smoke always takes me back to those Christmas Eve nights.
    
    Once inside it we were greeted with hugs and loud greetings, and I would dart quickly to peek under the tree to see if any new presents had arrived. I knew each Aunt and Uncle would come with presents for Andrea, Melody and me. Because most of my Uncles and my Dad worked at night, we had the party on Christmas Eve night because they were used to sleeping in the mornings. It wasn’t until we were in school that we became aware of the Christmas morning tradition at all.
    
    Each Aunt would arrive with a large amount of delicious food in carton boxes, the pots and pans wrapped with dish towels to keep the lids on. They were all fantastic cooks. In would come pizza, spaghetti sauce, fried vegetables, cakes, pies and towers of homemade cookies. The long dining room table and buffet would hold the serving platters with hot dishes coming from the oven as we sat to eat. There were so many of us we would fill the kitchen table as well as the dining room, with shifts of diners arriving throughout the night. In the kitchen there was an island counter top that served as a bar with an assortment of wines and liquors on it. It was a busy and popular spot, but the drinkers had to fill up and get out of the way of the cooks when the meal was being prepared. Many Italian dishes take two to three women to make; one to flour, one to dip in egg, and one to fry and then another to
    drain and place it on a platter. The women would work together side by side, laughing, arguing and sharing secrets. They would shoo us kids out of the kitchen but we’d stand nearby to watch and listen. They would gossip in Italian.
    
    We would usually open our gifts after dinner so the little ones could go to bed early. But after about six years old we were up for the night with the rest of them, hiding out in hallways and behind furniture so they’d forget about us being up after our bedtimes.
    
    At midnight the tradition was to fry Italian sausage, cardoni, and sphinchis. This began way back when my grandmother was still alive. After midnight mass, this delicious meal was prepared for the faithful who had fasted before attending midnight mass. By the time I was old enough to know what was going on, only one family in all of us still attended midnight mass. Uncle Babe and Aunt Cathie and their children. He was lovingly referred to as the white sheep of the family. I went with them to midnight mass one time as a teen and almost passed out from the heat and incense in the packed out church. So basically the church attendance had disappeared but the midnight supper remained. The sphinchis were little fried balls of dough seasoned with cinnamon and sugar and arranged into a Christmas tree shaped tower, drizzled with honey and decorated. Inside one was a cotton ball and whoever got it won a prize and a lot of fanfare.
    
    The Uncles brought their musical instruments: John brought his banjo, Rusty a guitar, Uncle Sam a fabulous mandolin, Mel and Rusty could switch to ukulele, and there was a piano they could all play and a giant organ that Uncle Mel played beautifully. Several of us had theme songs that Uncle Mel would break into on the organ when we walked in, embarrasing the teens but he never cared. Teddie’s song was “Over the Rainbow”, Diane’s was “Diane”, Melody’s was “A pretty Girl is like a Melody”, and mine was  “Charmaine”. Some of the Uncles’ friends from town would stop by with clarinets, horns, and accordions as well.
    
    The sisters sang along and danced as they had as children growing up in the depression era when the D’Anna family was the center of all activity in their Italian neighborhood on Bird Avenue in San Jose, California. The singing, dancing and laughing would last into the wee hours of the morning. We children would fight sleep but eventually would creep off to one of my cousin’s bedrooms and go to sleep.
    
    When we got up we would often find friends and relatives still sleeping on couches and on the floor. The place would be a happy mess of Christmas wrapping, gifts, glasses, plates and musical instruments. Uncle Mel’s wife, my Aunt Donna, would usually be up early with a strong pot of coffee going. On Christmas morning we could have leftover pizza and Christmas cookies for breakfast, get our new toys and play for hours. Some relatives would have coffee and head home, but many stayed for several days. The D’Anna Christmases are the most unforgettable memory of my childhood and no Christmas can really compare to them because of who my Mom, her sister, and her brothers were. There will never be another family just like them.
    
    Diane or Evelina?
    Added by Charmaine on 2 May 2007
    My Mom worked as a telephone operator in the late 1920s. The Americans couldn't say D'Anna (they went by last names) so they called her Diana. That quickly became Diane and she kept it, she never really liked Evelina until she was old. She got the record "Diane" to play and when she turned it over the song "Charmaine" was on the other side. She liked it so much she kept it in mind for a daughter's name. I never cared for this name that much myself, but thats how I got it.