South
By John Musico
I immigrated from Italy. I worked in a small grocery store in Brooklyn. The owner was a sullen Jewish man, Steiner, who didn’t talk much. There wasn’t a day that went by without Steiner reminding me of my Sicilian background. The Italians have a gesture for most any word and stomping your right foot meant; “Southerner”. It was an offensive gesture which really meant; “peasant”. Insult to injury, he stomped often.
One day in my broken English I demanded he stop that. He replied; “My leg is always falling asleep and it’s how I put a stop to the tingling”.