Book Review: Petals from Roseland

Petals from Roseland. C.J. Martello. Lake Claremont Press, December 13, 2019, Trade Paperback, 239 pages.

Reviewed by Greg Borzo.

For an enjoyable romp through the good old days in the Chicago neighborhoods of Roseland, Kensington, and Pullman, one should read Petals from Roseland, by C.J. Martello. This book is a collection of columns that Martello originally wrote for Fra Noi, Chicagoland’s Italian American magazine published from 2008 to 2018. These columns cover everything from restaurants to churches, expert tailors to historic preservationists, and shop keepers to war heroes.

There are hard-hitting columns about the Vietnam War and sweet stories about picnics and grustoli. If you don’t know that grustoli, aka “crostoli,” is an Italian cookie, you’re not part of the target audience for this book: Italian American Catholics with a streak of nostalgia.

Anyone who was raised in a large ethnic family and attended Catholic schools will find countless nuggets in Petals from Roseland that will spark flashbacks to church and school, parents and priests, and tastes and treats from their childhood. 

I attended Catholic schooling for twelve years and spent countless hours at the church serving mass, singing in the choir, and ushering, and I about fell off my chair when I read these words from Martello’s May 2010 column: “O Mary! We crown thee with blossoms today. Queen to the Angels, Queen of the May!” That certainly brought back memories of a grade school celebration that centered on a festive procession and always struck me as a beauty contest as much as it was a religious ceremony. O Mary! Which of the pretty young school girls will be selected to crown the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the culmination of the procession!

Still, many of the stories have a broader appeal. They harken back to growing up in the 1960s. Record stores. Phonebooks. Foot x-rays. Saving stamps. Remember those? One of my favorite columns tells the story of Roseland’s Operetta Club. This group started as a soccer and social club that raised funds through fests and other events. It went as far back as the 1930s, evolving somewhere along the line into a neighborhood operetta company. How did such an improbable thing happen? Well, after soccer matches, won or lost, the players would gather with their fans, families, and friends to celebrate; these gatherings typically turned into songfests featuring Italian tunes and light opera songs. The informal group had fun—and some talent, too. The singers began practicing in the basement of one of their members and performing at the Venetian Hall on Kensington Avenue. Soon they were able to purchase a building on that street for their performances and to use as a clubhouse. Of course, they equipped it with bocce courts.

Martello has had an interesting life. His parents were born in Italy and raised a big family in Roseland during the 1960s and 1970s. Martello spent a year and a half in the seminary before switching to Roseland’s St. Willibrord Catholic High School. He became an accountant for the Illinois State Forensic Science Center, a job from which he is now retired. Although he lived on the North Side for years, Martello remained active in the Roseland-Kensington-Pullman community. He recently purchased a home in Pullman, perhaps drawn back to his childhood neighborhood by all the contacts he made—and all the people he reconnected with from his youth—thanks to writing the column for Fra Noi. Today he gives tours at the Pullman historic site and even performs a one-person show that he wrote called “George Pullman: The Man and His Model Town.”

Roseland has been predominantly African American since the early 1970s. Through his book and other activities, Martello helps to keep alive the memories of when Roseland was a tight-knit neighborhood of Catholic Italian Americans, when it was the lively center of Italian culture and community on the South Side.

The book would be stronger with an index, which would allow readers to quickly find stories about, and descriptions of, favorite people, places, and things, from Arcade Park to Zordan’s Music House. Everyone has a selective memory, and picking up a book like Petals from Roseland immediately sparks specific memories. Therefore, an index would have allowed readers to zoom in on particular delights that this book recollects.

Also, the eight-pages of photographs enhance the book, but more would have been welcomed. And, unfortunately, the images do not run larger because details of the streets, businesses, and advertisements are quite telling.

Anyone who wants to revel in Roseland’s good old days will greatly enjoy this book. Martello shares an impressive story of two friends who, unbeknownst to the other, gave each other a copy of Petals from Roseland at the same time. Leggere bene!