A Marinara, By Any Other Name, Would Taste As Yummy!

     Although, I am, by ethnicity, !/2 French Canadian, and, 1/2 Italian, my Italian heritage failed to 'educate' me on what it means to be a 'real' Italian. For example, our family, although, as, most, was, ALWAYS, 'Irish' on St. Paddys', never celebrated, let alone, acknowledged, St. Joseph's Day; this, day, today, March 19, the celebration and principal feast day of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I didn't know what a zeppole was, until I learned of the 'St. Joseph Day' festivities, held, annually, on 'The Hill'...Federal Hill, that is. This all came as a 'pleasant-surprise', to me, when I was a teenager. However, the one thing, that, I could NEVER 'wrap my head around' was this...referring to spaghetti-sauce as GRAVY...WHAT WHAT WHAT??? The first time I ever heard someone say, that, they liked their macaroni w/ gravy, well...quite, frankly, I didn't know what to think. All I could envision was a plate, piled-high, with pasta, swimming in brown-gravy...kinda 'threw me', truth be told! No...we were 'Americanized' through and through, even to the point where, as both my grandmothers, spoke their Native-Tongue, to friends, and, other family-members, they only spoke to us in English. Bummer...I struggled through French all during school. I can count to 100, and, recite the alphabet; but, in the 'real-world', this, hasn't helped me much!When I look back, and, realize, that, I might have grown-up, trilingual, well...'c'est la vie', 'che peccato' and 'all that jazz'. Regardless, the import, placed on my heritage, as I was being raised and reared, there was NEVER a shortage of what it meant to be FAMILY, and, LOVE, is the 'Universal-Language, after all. Felice san Giuseppe Day! Just Sayin'...