At the risk of turning this blog into a Mastandrea Genealogy project, I just have to start figuring out who these people are. That group, posing at the side of the road -- that's some crazy picnic. Perhaps the car broke down and everyone had to psych themselves up for some heavy-duty pushing?

And speaking of the car -- it too fascinated me. There are other shots of it, but I cannot tell the make and model. All in due time.

And the girl: she looks to have been about two or three when this picture was taken in 1968. That would make her about my age. I bet Vinny remembers who she is.

These are some very cool pictures, but alas, many of the originals are not quite as cool -- faded over time, or perhaps underexposed at the time of development, or blurry at the time of exposure. Eh.

We need to do a shout-out to the cuz-brigade in Bari to start piecing all this together (well, at least those parts that have not been retained in the Big Kahuna's steel-trap memory). Maybe we need to start a foreign-language edition of the Macaroni Dish -- kind-of an "Il Progresso" of the blogosphere... except maybe one that doesn't go out of business the way that newspaper did.

I gotta get myself some kind of online photo account. I just don't think I can fit all this stuff on the blog.

Oh, and the photo with the giant wagon wheel -- a striking image. And a revealing one. To this day, Big Vin will not eat wagon-wheel pasta. Now we finally know why: take a good look at what's caked on the sides of those wheel edges. Yech.

See, it's all coming together. Who said history was a futile pursuit?