Thursday, January 11, 2007

Almost Fully Integrated

Eddie and I were talking at lunch the other day when he mentioned something that my brother said about him at dinner on New Year's Day.

Seems that Eddie was telling Michael how I always give him mal occhio, which loosely means the "evil eye," in Italian. Michael turned to his wife and jokingly said in a loud whisper, "He's trying so hard to fit in." My sister-in-law laughed along with the rest of us, probably more because she was once in the very same position; not because she was making a joke on my Eddie.

What's funny about this is that he's actually using Italian words since he's come into the family. All different kinds of words. And the funny thing about mal occhio is this; Eddie says it like its one word. Malocchio. Just like you would pronounce Pinocchio. Our family says it all smushed together and sort of cut off at the end, with an accent the makes it sound like "malook." That's the way my mother says it.

Eddie has learned so much Italian, mostly in the local dialect of the towns in Italy my ancestors came from. We use many Italian words in place of English words for everything from a soup ladle to a person who is being a pain in the ass. Eddie understands these words and even works them into conversations; whether he's at my Mom's house, brother's house or Aunts and Uncles in New York. We're all very impressed.

He's slowly losing the y'all and fixin' of the South. I think he's becoming a little "Northernized." Don't get me wrong, everyone just LOVES "The Ed" (as my nephews call him) the way he is, except now he's blending in almost seamlessly. It's like he's in the Witness Protection program, only in reverse. He's still got the same name, the same face, even the same job.

Except now, you can barely tell he's from Texas.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

..I just love YOUR Eddie, whether he's being a Texas boy with his southern drawl, or fitting in by speaking Italian and loving everything we feed him..to me...he IS my Ed-Man above all others and I for one am happy that he is part of our loving Italian family...Mommy