Not just the food is Italian

We all know that the food at Clarksburg’s West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival is as Italian as spaghetti and meatballs.

But so is the musical entertainment, for all of the festival’s 39 years.

Only Italians or Italian-Americans are invited to perform.

The guy in charge of entertainment, Steven Pishner, makes sure of that. That’s Pishner as in Diane Pishner Walker, Clarksburg’s author of “Spaghetti and Meatballs,” about growing up in an Italian family.

 

This week the music will be provided by Moreno Fruzzetti at 6:30 p.m. Friday and 6 p.m. Saturday, The Diamonds at 8:15 p.m. Friday (“Little Darlin’” and “The Stroll” and Sal Valentinetti, finalist on “The Voice,” on Saturday.

I scoured The Diamonds’ roster but I didn’t seen an Italian name on it. Gary Owens, Jeff Dolan, Jerry Siggins and Sean Sooter.

But then, I have a Polish name, Olesky, but my mother was born in Pellizzano, Italy so I guess one of those guys has Italian blood, too, if not a name with a lot of vowels, like me.

Jump for joy! It’s Bridge Day into the New River!

Saturday, Oct. 17 is Bridge Day over the New River in Fayetteville.

It began 1980. Three jumpers have died:

In 1983, Michael Glenn Williams from Birmingham, Alabama, drowned when his gear was caught in the current after he made a successful jump and the one rescue boat didn’t reach him in time because it was busy rescuing other jumpers.

In 1987, Steven Gyrsting of Paoli, Pennsylvania, jumped using gear that was not BASE-specific gear and was killed after he was unable to open his reserve chute in time when his main chute failed to deploy.

In 2006, Brian Lee Schubert died when he failed to deploy his parachute in time.  In 1966, he had been one of the first to BASE jump from El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.

The event, on the third Saturday of October, commemorates the 1977 completion of the New River Gorge Bridge. All four lanes of the bridge are closed to automobiles and opened to pedestrians. 100,000 people attend. The first Bridge Day drew 40,000.

After Friday drinking at Whiskey 7 at the Beckley Raleigh County Memorial Airport and food at a taste of Bridge Day at Smokey's on the Gorge, the Saturday schedule:

10-11:30 a.m. & 1:30 p.m.  - South End of Bridge: XPOGO Stunt Show

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. - Car Show, Laurel Creek Road

11 a.m. & 2 p.m. - On the Bridge: whiskey 7 Plane & the All Veterans Parachute Team

2 p.m. to 6 p.m. - Chili Cook-off in Fayetteville

Ready to run the Morgantown Marathon?

You have a year to get ready for the first Morgantown Marathon, subtitled “26.2 Almost Heavenly Miles.” The first Morgantown Marathon will be run in the fall of 2015, but NOT on a WVU football weekend.

You also will be taken on a scenic view of the city while you’re running and panting.

The marathon will start and end at West Virginia University's Coliseum. Runners will pass through all seven of the city's wards, run across the Mileground and finish along Don Knotts Boulevard at the Coliseum.

Jamie Summerlin of Operation Welcome Home was on hand Wednesday evening during Morgantown's Community Leadership Forum to speak about the inaugural event.

"One of the things we wanted to do is showcase the entire city and we took a look at the map and figured out where all the wards were at in the city, and made sure that the route actually features all seven wards. We wanted to showcase each part of it and to make sure we had an opportunity to have visitors that come in for the first time to get a chance to experience it all,” said Summerlin.

Proceeds from the race will support Operation Welcome Home. A date for the Morgantown Marathon will be set as soon as the Big 12 releases its football schedule, as the Marathon will not take place on a WVU Football weekend.

Betty LaRosa (left), Diana Pishner Walker

Mange! Clarksburg’s at it again

Author Diana Pishner Walker (“I Don’t Want to Sit in the Front Row Any More”), a 1977 graduate of Clarksburg Notre Dame High School who works for the Marion County Board of Education, will be riding in Saturday’s (Aug. 30) West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival parade with author Betty Larosa (The “Creighton” family saga novels).

The 36^th Italian festival in the most Italian city in West Virginia runs from Friday (Aug. 29) through Sunday (Aug. 31). It has been labeled among the "Top 100 Events in North America" by the ABA, a "Top 20 Event by the Southeast Tourism Society" & one of the "Top 4 Italian Festivals" in the nation by the National Sons of Italy.

Mama mia, that’s some spicy rankings!

Since its beginning in 1979, the 3-day street festival’s attendance has grown to 100,000 annually.

Regina Maria XXXVI (Regina meaning "Queen" and Maria the name of the first queen of Italy) this year is Kasandra Theresa Ruscitto of Vienna, West Virginia.

In previous years such celebrities as Tony Danza, Kathy Mattea, Jo Dee Messina, Steve Augeri, Joey Dee and the Starliters and Frankie Avalon performed.

Honored this year:

Italian Man of the Year, Anthony Bellotte

Italian Woman of the Year, Angela Bellotte

Honorary Italian Man of the Year, Dr. Joseph Momen

Honorary Italian Woman of the Year, Sarah Carr Parsons

Excellence in Education, Mary Randolph

Mother of the Year, Lucie Romano

Events – with nearly every name participating ending in a vowel – include the Festival Chorus, Authors Forum, 5K Race, golf tournament, pasta cookoff, car and bike show, home-made wine contest and – naturally – a bocce tournament (that brings visions of the voices and laughter under the lights at the bocce court next to Monzo’s Grocery in Monongah, across the street from P.P. Shenasky Grocery).  This brings back memories of my trip to Mione, Italy where my Nona was born and Pellizzano, Italy where my mother, aunt, uncle and grandfather were born. I can still see the Alps in the distance and Lake Cumo in my mind. Italy and West Virginia have been entertwined inextricably since the 1907 Monongah mines explosions when there were more Italians than any other nationality among the 362 (official Consol count) to 500+ (Father Briggs and gravediggers count) dead miners.