If someone asks where I’m from, I tell them East Providence. And if they want to know, specifically, where I grew up, I tell them “near Asquino’s restaurant.”
Asquino’s isn’t there anymore. But if you are a longtime Rhode Islander, you probably remember it there on North Broadway. It had a faded yellow façade and the entrance to the main dining room was in the back. You could get traditional Italian dishes and it didn’t cost too much. The atmosphere was always casual. Lots of folks went every Saturday night.
My parents didn’t take us there too often, but when they did it was a real treat. I guess I was slow to develop an appreciation for veal Parmesan because I used to order the fried clams. My wife and I went there on several early dates. I could afford it with the $15 or $20 a week I earned as a paperboy.
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A few years back, Asquino’s closed. The Riviera Inn, a banquet hall, has replaced it. In fact, East Providence in recent years has become a real haven for terrific Portuguese restaurants.
I got to thinking about the businesses that marked my childhood the other day when I stopped by the Clockwork Deli on North Broadway. You see, Clockwork Deli wasn’t a deli at all when I was a kid, it was an Emers & Cohen cleaners.
It was a short walk from my house and an older woman worked there. It’s the basis for a funny story that gets told and retold in my family. My mother gets the biggest laugh out of it.
When I was maybe 9 or 10, my mother would send me there to pick up something. Invariably, I wouldn’t have enough money. The older woman was always sweet about it, but I remember coming home humiliated. My mother would send me right back with the additional dollars.
When I tell that story now – always exaggerating my embarrassment – my mother laughs out loud.
Another business that was a short walk from my house was Treglia’s. It was also on North Broadway, a block away from Asquino’s. Treglia’s was a family-run market. It was one of the first places I was allowed to walk to alone. I would go there mostly for lunch meat and Italian bread.
There are two things I remember about going to Treglia’s. Angelo, a son to the owners, worked in the deli. He knew that my family always had a big dog and so he would often give me a meat bone to take home.
Marya – a German Shepherd, Irish Setter mix – would usually accompany me on my walk to Treglia’s and if I came out with a bone she could smell it right away. The walk home was always twice as fast as the walk there. The bone would occupy her for hours. Sometimes she buried it in the yard and went back for it later.
The other thing I remember about those trips to Treglia’s is that I would always break off a good chunk of that Italian bread and eat it before I got home. My mother never really got mad about that. I’m not sure why.
Another business – or group of businesses – within a mile or so of my house was the Wampanoag Mall off Taunton Avenue. Today, it’s a regular shopping plaza with a Marshall’s, a Payless Shoes, Fashion Bug and a bunch of other stores. But when I was a kid it was a smaller version of Warwick Mall – a much smaller version. But it had its charm, including a couple of tiny wooden bridges that you could walk over. There was a record store, a candy store and a tie shop. There was also a card store where I could buy a gift for my mother like a mug that said ‘World’s Best Mom’ for Mother’s Day.
In that same plaza, on the Pawtucket Avenue side, was an Almacs. It was smaller than today’s Super Stop & Shop and Shaw’s markets, but we did most of our grocery shopping there (and Treglia’s, of course). What I remember most is my mother getting Green Stamps at the register.
Just around the corner from the Wampanoag Mall was a McDonald’s. It was really small and had only a few seats inside. There was some seating outside. It was one of the few McDonald’s that still had the Golden Arches. Maybe you remember those. We didn’t go there too often. Not the way people do today. We went a few Friday nights during Lent. Of course, we ordered fish filets. It was a treat, but not on the same scale as Asquino’s.
One time when I was in second grade at Sacred Heart School we went on a class trip to that McDonald’s. We walked. It was interesting to go behind the counter and see how they cooked everything. I don’t remember if we ate lunch there at the outside tables or if we took our hamburgers back to school. But I am quite sure I went home sick that day. On the walk back I remember seeing a dead bird on the ground and I think it upset my stomach. I went home sick a lot in those days. I had transferred in the middle of the school year from Orlo Avenue School and even though my brother John was at Sacred Heart I guess it took me a while to adjust.
My mother laughs out loud at those stories too – of Sister Mercia calling her to tell her I wasn’t feeling so good.
But that’s for another column.
