For Thanksgiving, the Digitale clan shows how we prepare a dish that has become as much a mainstay of our annual holiday dinners as the turkey. Robert's grandfather, John Digitale, one of the main characters of this blog's "American Risotto" vignettes, made ravioli. And now, so do his great-grandchildren.
The high school still stands in Sacramento, in dawn's shadow of the Sierras, a valley town that grew up beside two rivers. I attended classes there nearly four decades ago. It was there that the storm clouds were forming above me, and I didn't want to look up. (photo from the C.K. McClatchy yearbook of 1974.)
Franklin Fongson picked his own name and ignored relatives who tried to get to him marry before he was ready. When it was time, he sought a wife in his own way.
All my life I wanted my own horse. I wanted to be a cowboy. But once I bought a small, coal-brown mare for $300, I found myself in trouble fast. What would Grandpa do?
Could "Duck Soup" be the greatest war movie ever made? Consider what Maria Carrillo High's Kenny Kasper has to say. His review was first published in the school's Puma Prensa.
Ng Sau Ping lives near China's gateway to America. So it isn't surprising when men from "Gold Mountain" come to her province seeking wives. But then she is summoned home to meet such a man.
She was the cutest girl in math class. I became a distraction and then tried to date her. But was I ready to meet her mother?
I watched too many men lay away conscience in a napkin once they left behind civilization and entered Gold Rush California.
In 1947 Franklin Fongson set sail from California to find a wife in China. How would he go about the search?
Robert Digitale is a retired staff writer for The Press Democrat and the author of the fantasy novel, Horse Stalker, which the North Bay Bohemian calls “a magical adventure.” Contact him at rdigit9@yahoo.com.
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Photo by Anderson Photography