Doug Lia

Spit the Pit: An Italian-American Folktale Doug Lia

"Spit the Pit: An Italian-American Folktale" is the story of two Italians who immigrate to New York, meet, and marry. Together in Little Italy, Peter and Rosa begin a family of three children. As the children grow, Peter and Rosa move further from the Italian neighborhood. As the years pass, the children have children of their own, and soon Peter and Rosa are the grandparents of twelve lively grandchildren.

In an attempt to instill some Italian heritage in his grandchildren, Peter plays a game where the children eat Italian olives and then spit the pit in a contest to see who can get the pit the farthest in the clean driveway. Soon the parents of the grandchildren get involved and introduce a new game--an American tradition. The children find themselves along with their parents enjoying watermelon and spitting seeds in a new contest. The prizes may be different, but everyone enjoys themselves as Grandma Rosa and Grandpa Peter observe. The final pages find Grandma supervising the cleanup of her driveway to the cheers of "Bravo!"