About The Author
Michael Anthony Vitale
Michael was born into a large Italian American family. He yearned to be close to his father. Most of his childhood and adolescent days, throughout the 1960s, were spent working at the family's neighborhood restaurant. Located in the heart of bustling North St. Louis, where the integration of the Black community was reshaping neighborhoods among the echoes of historical change.
About The Book
AN UNFORGETTABLE PASTIME
In 1961, Vince Vitale is faced with the daunting task of supporting a family of thirteen. Unable to continue in his current full-time job, he chooses to acquire a barbeque restaurant, inside of a neighborhood in North St. Louis, Mo. The narrator, Michael, is the eighth of ten children in this family. He chooses to spend every weekend, and all his summer months off school, at the restaurant to be near his father. Neighborhood segregation around the restaurant is coming to an end. Integration of the black community has slowly begun moving into the neighborhood. Michael details the difficulties and challenges encountered to keep the restaurant open and profitable.
