Giovanni Ciccone

“They don’t make’em like him anymore” was a phrase people often used to describe Giovanni Ciccone.   He was one of those larger than life figures who people seemed to gravitate toward and just wanted to be around.  For most of his life, his home was the social center of the local Italian community and Sundays would find many of them gathered around a table in his large double garage. Perhaps it was because of his generosity with his homemade wine or the taste of his hand cured prosciutto, or maybe it was his strong personality and colorful language that he used liberally, mostly to elicit a smile or outright laughter, but I think it is much more that drew people to Giovanni. Most of all, they were responding to his young-at-heart attitude and zest for life, his can-do spirit, his determination and outright stubbornness that kept him going until age 94, gardening , making wine and prosciutto, canning tomatoes and caring for his large property.