i recently couldn't sleep. so i woke up and called my grandma on a weekday. mind you it's earrrly over there with the three hour time difference. but i know my grandma is up cause she's gettin' ready for work. i talked to her about my grandpa which prompted suggesting i go to ellisisland.org which i had done but couldn't find him. sure enough i found my grandfather. the reason i couldn't find him there was because i didn't know his name. i thought he was named alfredo. turns out his name was carlo alfredo dilisio. he arrived on february 26th, 1920 in new york. he left on his own from the little town of pacentro, near sulmona, headed for the president wilson out of naples when he was 18 years old. he was passenger 22 and he had thirty dollars to his name. i never met him but he was my dad's dad so i've always found myself understandably affected by him. when he finally arrived in los angeles, i'm told that he changed his name because the stuntman's association didn't hire WOPS. my granddad became alan dale. he worked for awhile without insurance before he decided it was too dangerous and opted out. he decided to open an italian restaurant on the sunset strip in hollywood, ca. our family's restaurant sat in the same building that is now the rainbow room. you may remember the rainbow room as the spot guns n' roses frequented in their hey-day. it's where dean martin flirted with my grandma, joe dimaggio went for a blind date with a woman named marilynn monroe, and w.c. fields notoriously stumbled drunk out the door. in the late 60s, the freaks and hippies rallied and raged up and down sunset and my grandfather decided he'd had enough of these weirdos so packed up the joint and left smoking hot in the heads of l.a. foodies. moving south to set up shop on the coast highway proved to be a lucrative decision for the family. at first. then, tragedy struck our family. my grandfather passed on while my dad was 19 and going to college at ucla. it hurt my dad pretty bad and he never really recovered.

i wish i knew more about him. i know i've heard many stories about the man but i had to get a little background. if you ever get the chance go to the website for ellis island and wax nostalgic. grandma if you read this and have an addendum to make to this story, please do.