BAD HORSE T SHIRT

Luigi (Louis) John Bimbi.
Washington, DC.
Spring 1938.

Written by Alice Ames Bimbi in 1999.

Luigi, fourth son of Giovanni and Ghiozie Bimbi, was born on April 3, 1912. His mother's maiden name was Verdiana, and she was twenty- five years old at the time of his birth. His father was forty-one.
He was christened Louis on April 18, 1912, at St. John the Evangelist--a Roman Catholic Church--in New York City. On his Baptismal certificate, his mother's name is spelled Ghioziti Gini. He was raised in the Catholic religion, and took the name John as his confirmation name.
His older brothers were Peter, Francis (Frank) and Michael, about whom he never knew until later on when his sister-in-law told him after we were married. Michael came between Frank, and Louis.
Giovanni Bimbi came from Florence, Italy to make his way in the new world. At age thirty-five, he sent back to Italy for his bride, as was the custom in those days. She was sixteen years younger than he, and there is no information as to from what part of Italy she came. Lou was only two years old when his mother died, and he had no remembrance of her.
A housekeeper came in during the day to take care of the children. Their father worked as a terrazzo (tile) setter, and it was a hard, intricate trade. Lou used to tell me how his father would come home with cut, bleeding fingers. Many of the New York City hotels and banks have terrazzo floors that he helped to install. During World War I, he was working in a large hotel, and was able to bring extra food home from the kitchen. The war years were hard ones.
The boys were brought up to cook, clean, and mend; and, when older, they would take turns starting dinner before their father returned from work.
When Lou was fourteen and had finished the eighth grade, he quit school and went to work at various jobs. The boys insisted their father retire because of his difficult work. The only other schooling Lou had was a business course at Pace Institute at night.
The family lived in a mixed neighborhood, and had many friends of all ethnic groups. Lou's best friends were Arthur Taylor and Fred Manning, who also lived nearby. They met playing "stickball" in the streets. The game was played using a broom or mop handle for a bat, and the fire hydrants and sewer covers for bases. To this day, a New York City street is closed for a day and the old-timers come back for a game.
I believe the best semblance of a complete family life for Lou was with the Taylors. He always spoke fondly of the mince tarts Mrs. Taylor made during the holidays, and of being served tea in large bone china cups that were almost the size of soup bowls. Also, many fun evenings of playing cards were shared.
At an early age, Lou went to work for the Elizabeth Arden cosmetic firm. The factory was only a half block from his home. He also obtained a chauffeur's license and besides making deliveries to special customers, he was assistant chauffeur. Lou spoke of the many trips to Belmont Park, where Miss Arden kept her horses, and Sarasota for the races. Other trips were to the Maine Chance Farm-- a health spa.
As a young boy, Lou spoke of skinny-dipping in the East River; walking across the 57th Street Bridge to play sandlot baseball on the then open fields of Long Island; jumping on the back of the horse drawn ice wagons for a piece of ice; coal in their stockings at Christmas (I'm not sure if he was kidding); his father making wine in the cellar of their apartment -no, he didn't stomp the grapes with his feet- he had a wine press!
Against his father's wishes, Lou bought a bicycle, and when his father found it, he sawed it in half. He thought the New York streets were too dangerous for the boys to ride.
Lou always wanted a white sweater, and when he bought one, his father made him return it, saying it was impractical.
The boys always got one new suit each Easter, and a new white shirt which they washed and ironed every day to wear to school. they had to keep their shoes shined, and you must all remember Dad polishing his!
Their father was a strict disciplinarian, but was respected and loved by his sons.
Lou spoke with fondness of the Prescott House, named after Prescott Van Wyck, a socialite, who also had a summer home in Butler, New Jersey, where the Boy Scouts, to which Lou belonged, had a camp across the lake from the main house.
The young teenagers enjoyed the facilities of the neighborhood house, playing pool and ping-pong, and putting on fund raising shows. Lou often had the singing lead.
Arthur and Lou played on a Protestant Church basketball league, and Arthur told me that even though he was the tallest, at six feet seven inches, Lou was the better player because he was very fast in covering the court.
As young men, they spent part of their summer vacation at Sackett's Harbor on Lake Ontario. The home was owned by friends of the Taylors, and they enjoyed getting out of the city and being in the clean country air. Lou used to mention the

Colonel Harland Sanders has become a world-known figure by marketing his "finger lickin' good" Kentucky Fried Chicken. His chicken is now served daily across the United States as well as in more than eighty other countries. It is one of the largest fast food corporations in the world.

The spectacled Colonel Sanders could easily be identified by his clean, crsip white suite, black string tie, and walking cane. A statue of this man can be seen as far away as on Nathan Road in Kowloon, Hong Kong, for one place.

What makes Colonel Sanders' story so amazing, you might ask. One of the most amazing aspects of his life is the fact that when he reached the age of sixty-five years old, after running a restaurant for several years, Harland Sanders found himself penniless. He retired and received his first social security check which was for one hundred and five dollars. And that was just the beginning of his international fame and financial success story...

Harland Sanders was born in the month of September in the year of 1890. He was the oldest child in a family of five. His father toiled in the coal mines of Kentucky until his death, which came at a young age. Sanders had just reached the tender age of six years old when he had to take care of his younger brother and sister. With his father gone, that left the responsibilities of working and supoprting the family up to his mother. She began working in a shirt factory. Harland tended to things at home and learned to cook the meals by his mother's teachings. She taught him how to cook many foods, including fried chicken.

Over the next several years, Harland Sanders worked at a variety of jobs. He started out as a farm hand, then moved on to be a streetcar conductor while he was still just a teenager. From there he was a fireman on the railroad and finally ended up running a service station. Once again, he used his cooking skills that were learned from his mother to provide meals for travelers who stopped at his service station. As his cooking became more famous, and his food business grew, he moved into an actual restaurant nearby. His specialty was, of course, fried chicken which was seasoned with his original blend of eleven herbs and spices.

A few years later, in the year of 1935, when Sanders was forty-five years old, then Governor Ruby Laffoon made him a Kentucky Colonel because of his delectable cooking skills.

Progress is not always for the good of everyone, and in the 1950's, Colonel Harland Sanders got the news of the plans for a new highway which was going to be constructed. The highway could divert the majority of the traffic away from the town and, with the beginning of the highway, Colonel Sanders saw his successful business coming to an end. He closed the restaurant and retired to a social security check of one hundred and five dollars a month. When he received his first month's pension, he decided that he wasn't going to sit in a rocking chair and wait for the government checks. So, he convinced others to invest in his delicious fried chicken recipe, and Kentucky Fried Chicken was born.

Colonel Harland Sanders finally retired from the business when he was eighty years old, and stricken with illness.

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