I thank God….

This issue of UNICO taking exception to the depiction of Italian American youths on the upcoming MTV show “Jersey Shore” got me thinking. Just what is a “guido” and what perpetuates the “lifestyle”? If by “guido” you mean a 20-something male of Italian extraction who drives a fancy car, needs to have his hair done up a certain way, visits the gym religiously, brags about his female conquests; and still lives at home with mom who dutifully cooks his meals and washes his clothes…then you’re probably on the money!

I, thank God, never gave myself the luxury. Oh sure, there were always “guidos” around, even though we didn’t call them that….(the term would have been “cuzhine”, which is the Italian term for “cousin”.) And while I lived at home for a short while after I graduated college and may have even contented myself with a civil service job as many of my peers were…..no, I had to aspire to something different….I had to be on the radio! And in order to be on the radio, I had to leave the protective cocoon of my neighborhood, friends, family, and girlfriend…and go off to find myself! In Middle Georgia, of all places! Imagine the culture clash that was! (If you saw the movie “My Cousin Vinny”, you’d be close!)

There are days when I tell myself that perhaps that the path of least resistance path would have been far better. Days when I say that had I taken that job with the New York City Transit Authority back in 1978, I’d probably be retired today. And you’re probably reading this and saying, “….so who’s the dummy?”

But leaving the bubble I’d been living in gave me an education I would never have gotten had I stayed behind.
Things like “how the other half lives”, “self reliance”, “doing what you love”, things like that…and most all, having the kind of support system in a wife and family that saw me through it all!

So as I sit here and write this, I really can’t help but kind of feel sorry for those kids in that show! I’m sure that one or two of them will wake up out of their stupor and realize they’re on a path to nowhere going fast! So do you blame MTV for holding up a mirror to them…albeit somewhat of a trick mirror? They’re merely the conduit for what passes for “entertainment”. Hopefully these kids will see that the joke’s on them.

Happy thanksgiving,

Ray