Childhood Memories

A long time customer, Dan Piscitelli, answered our blog asking to get to know you and to share your memories and experiences with us at Termini's. Termini Bros Bakery has been apart of his life since he was a child coming here with his father and now his kids bring there children. Dan lives in North Carolina now, but his kids still live in the area and as he will tell you in the following story, he has trained them to stop by Termini's before they come to see him to pick up his "Termini's Care Box"...here are Dan's memories of the bakery.

Childhood Memories                                       
Dan Piscitelli

I grew up in the small Southern New Jersey town of Winslow, which is about 40 miles from Philadelphia. I'm well over 60 years old, but I still have many fond memories of the bakery. My dad and I frequently went to Philadelphia to shop on 9th Street for the special items we couldn't easily find around our town. I was about 8 years old, but I can remember this well. The cheese shop and the butcher were usually at the top of the list. My favorite part of the trip was after the shopping was done... We would stop by the bakery. I haven't been to the shop in several years, but I can vividly remember the layout: The cash register was at the back right of the shop, and that's where you started... a very friendly girl would pull out a tray and the fun would begin. The cannoli were in the back refrigerated case, the cookies were on the left side, and in the center were the baba rum (in small white cupcake cups dripping with rum), sfogliatelle, and other magnificent treats. We would fill the tray and end up with several boxes of cannoli (my sister's favorite), sfogliatelle (my mother's favorite), baba rum, cookies and other treats for the family at home. You didn't use tape on the boxes at that time... the boxes were secured with white string, which was fed from a large spool mounted on the back wall. Since it was just my father and I making the trip, our tradition was to have a small box just for the trip home. The box always contained the same thing...a few bite size cream puffs, which barely made it across the Walt Whitman Bridge. I do remember coming to the shop before the Walt Whitman was built, but the trip seemed to take much longer. 

I introduced my two daughters to the bakery when they were about 4 years old. Don't tell them I told you, but they are both over 40 now and they both still live in the area and frequent the shop every chance they get. They have happily introduced my grandchildren to the finest bakery in the world. I even have them trained well enough to know that when they are coming to visit me in North Carolina, they must stop by to pick up a "Termini's Care Box" just for me.
The pastries that you make are the finest traditional Italian pastries that I have ever had...
Please don't ever change your methods, recipes or ingredients...and hopefully your vintage showcases will withstand the test of time for another 100 years.