quote:

In the federal court equivalent of a public smackdown, a judge on Monday greenlighted a lawsuit alleging longtime Melrose Park Mayor Ron Serpico directed a campaign of “state-sanctioned bullying” against a family that culminated with a racist and profanity-laced tirade before a village meeting.

“Even by contemporary standards, such as they are, that outburst was an extraordinary display of profanity and aggression,” U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger wrote about Serpico’s remarks in January 2021. “It suggests a deep level of personal animus. And it shows a willingness to abuse one’s position as a public servant. It was not the finest hour in the annals of public service.”

https://www.chicagotribune.com...nt5vfdgwa-story.html

We moved to Melrose Park in 1957, when I was two. I haven't lived there since college, but for some reason I keep running into Serpicos wherever I go.

"Babe" Serpico, Ron's father, was mayor when I was growing up in Melrose Park. He spent some time in charm school at Joliet.

More on Mayor Ron

I worked for Don (that's "Donald", not "The Don"). As far as I know, he wasn't part of the "family" business. He was in upper level management at the CME.

I bought several cars from Joe, who is Ron's brother and Don's cousin. Pretty sure the car salesman gig was a side job.

Our vet is Chris. The first time I met him, many years ago, I kept thinking he looked familiar. As we talked, we figured out that Chris's dad is Don's cousin. Chris looks a lot like Don and his mannerisms and high energy are identical to Don's. I'm pretty certain that Chris isn't in the family business, either. But he's a great vet!

On the plus side of growing up in a town run by the Mob, the Italian Feast held each summer by Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church was great...Italian sausage, clams, frozen lemonade....

More on my home town...Fred and I must be about the same age (based on college graduation date) but I didn't know him...funny how different our lives were growing up...

quote:

Fred Gardaphé ’76 knew that if he didn’t get out of the Mafia-dominated neighborhood where he grew up, he could wind up dead. UW–Madison provided a way out.

The topic of social class doesn’t come up often in social conversation or in the halls of academia. That’s why journalist and first-generation college graduate Alfred Lubrano decided to address the issue in his book Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams, which looks at upward mobility through vignettes of individuals who have grown up in working-class families and moved on to white-collar jobs. The author focuses on how many of these “straddlers,” as he calls them, confront social mores of a middle-class world that is dramatically different from the one in which they grew up — and how, even after making the transition, they can’t seem to shake a lingering sense of isolation and of not fitting into either world. The following excerpt tells the story of one such straddler, Fred Gardaphé ’76.

https://onwisconsin.uwalumni.c...-the-ties-that-bind/

"charm school"