For many, Sundays are the last rest stop before the dreaded Monday morning return to the daily grind.

Some spend the day helping with daily chores or sitting on the sofa watching football with dad, but growing up Italian, Sundays featured a great meal while making memories with the family, according to the leaders of the Italian Society of Butler County.

Butler County Italians can be traced back to the late 19th century. Like so many others, they came to Western Pennsylvania in search of jobs, such as those in coal mining and the railroad. These were people who left their homes in Italy in search of a better, new life in the United States.

New surroundings, however, didn’t mean they lost pride in where they came from.

The president of the Italian Society of Butler County, David “DJ” Trombatt, spoke of his great-grandfather’s emigration to the states in 1891.

“My great-grandfather was born in Naples Italy, after moving to the states he lived in Hilliards, Butler County,” he said.

While growing up in Butler, the longtime resident remembers the level of importance of family being together on special occasions.

Whether it be a christening, wedding or holiday, as a member of the family you were expected to be in attendance — and if you weren’t going to be, you had better have had a good explanation as to why not, Trombatt recalled.

“Everyone kept close. You were expected to be there. Even to this day, I keep in touch with my dad’s cousins. We still do stuff together,” Trombatt said.

In 1909, the Italian Society of Butler County was founded. Starting with only a handful of people, over time it grew to have several hundred members.

Starting on the second floor of a store on Hickory Street, the organization purchased the building shortly after and has continued to run out of that very same building to this day.

“Originally, it was Italians only, but after some time, the club started accepting associate members, now called social members, of any nationality,” Trombatt said.

It was the place where everyone knew your name and, if you were lucky enough, you’d find yourself sitting for several hours listening to the stories of the “old-timers,” as they talked about the happenings of their day.

“It was a big thing. Everyone would talk about knowing this person or I used to play ball with that person. They were proud,” he said.

Members of the society were proud Italians. Everyone knew each other and hung out. The society offered its members another extension of community, the same way church did. Everyone looked out for each other, helping one another when needed.

Jason Delano, vice president of the society, said a lot has changed within the organization over the years.

“It was only 30 years ago that women weren’t allowed to join and you had to be of Italian descent,” Delano said.

Delano, who didn’t join the society until well into adulthood, has strong roots to another Italian organization: the Sons of Italy in Bradys Bend.

“My great-grandfather was a founding member. My father was a member. I’m now a member,” Delano said.

While Delano is not as involved with the Sons of Italy as he is the Italian Society, he continues his membership in honor of his great-grandfather and the work he put into the organization.

According to Delano, family functions were always big events and often would cycle from one person’s house to another.

“As kids we would sit around listening to the adults tell stories and jokes and we’d just laugh because it was special and then, of course, we’d be off playing while the adults would all be sitting around drinking wine,” Delano said.

Those traditional family get-togethers would all have one thing in common: the food.

“It was always Italian dishes, rigatoni, sausages, water chestnuts, smelts. There was more food than you could eat,” Trombatt said.

For Delano, one of the foods he thinks about the most is his Grandma Giunta’s meatballs.

“Those were so good. I could eat them cold of out of fridge,” Delano said.

Sunday feasts were another tradition and something to be looked forward to before returning to the mundane grind of Mondays.

“Our father would take us to church every Sunday and by the time we got home you could smell the spaghetti sauce,” Trombatt said.

The whole family would get together for those dinners, which would typically be held in the early afternoon. For Delano and Trombatt, it wasn’t just about the food, but the company as well.

“My wife likes to joke that Italians holler and we do holler,” Delano said. “It’s not screaming. We just talk loud. We have loud conversations.

“I can just remember when growing up it was just how they communicated.”

Delano also learned one other thing from his childhood: Don’t get between an Italian grandmother and discounted Hallmark Christmas ornaments.

Delano’s Italian heritage comes from his fathers side, but he also had the his stepgreat-grandmother, Grandma Giunta, from whom he experienced so many traditions.

“After the holidays, they would put ornaments on sale,” he said. “I took her over. She told me to wait in the car.”

There were other women waiting outside the store, he recalled, which still had its gate down. As soon as that gate opened up, he remembers Grandma Giunta using her purse to hit and squeeze her way to the front of the line, ensuring she would get her choice of ornaments.

“That’s how they (Italian Grandmothers) were,” Delano said.

Something both Delano and Trombatt can agree on is things are much different now.

“Once all the older members of the family passed away, a lot of the traditions we had growing up went with them,” Delano said.

Family dynamics began to evolve with the times. Families weren’t as large as they used to be and children would move away out of state.

Resultingly, they said, there just wasn’t the same closeness as when they were kids.

“I think that’s one of the reasons the Society opened its membership up to non-Italians. I’m not certain, but I think there just wasn’t the same level of membership as years past,” Trombatt said.

As families lost many of their older members, along with them went their famous recipes.

“Italian mothers and grandmothers weren’t known for writing down how they made certain dishes, and even if they did, they didn’t always follow them,” Delano said.

According to Delano, his wife has attempted to make his Grandma Giunta’s meatballs on several occasions but has been unsuccessful in replicating the recipe.

Butler Italian Days, which features live entertainment, music, food, cooking demonstrations and activities for the whole family, sets out to keep traditions alive.

The festival, which celebrates Italian heritage in Butler County, is also a time for those like Delano to recapture some of the fun, nostalgia and magic of what it was like when he was younger.

For Trombatt, it does exactly that.

“It takes me back to when I was growing up and I get to eat things I have not had in a long time,” he said.

He said he joins his family and friends in trying to determine what tastes the closest to what they would eat when they were young.