60 OMAHA plus
June 2021
Will Lindgren
My first three or four years, I thought it was a big birthday party.
Joe C aniglia
60+ Feature story by Scot t Stewart photography by Bill Sitzmann design by Derek Joy
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‘It’s a Community Effort’ Caniglia’s Roots Run Deep Wit h Santa Lucia Festival omatoes, onions, and garlic are sauteed and reduced to a perfect consistency. The sauce is seasoned, and roasted red peppers are marinated in the mixture. Freshly charred sausage is then covered with the peppers to create the iconic sandwich of Omaha’s Santa Lucia Festival. The process of creating the sausage-and-pepper sandwich reflects the love, dedication, and togetherness that defines Omaha’s annual celebration of Italian heritage. Joe Caniglia has grown up with the Santa Lucia Festival—in fact, he was born during the festivities in 1931. “My first three or four years, I thought it was a big birthday party,” Caniglia said. He’s been involved throughout his life, and at 89, he has seen two granddaughters crowned queen and been named the parade’s honorary president. Caniglia is currently giving back to his community as a trustee of the festival. Omaha’s Santa Lucia Festival was founded by Grazia Bonafede Caniglia in 1925. The mother of six immigrated to Omaha from Carlentini, Sicily, in 1900. She made it her mission to recreate Carlentini’s annual festival honoring St. Lucy. Those early immigrants commissioned a statue of the saint designed in Italy, which now resides in St. Frances Cabrini Church and is brought out for the festival each year. Todd Procopio, president of the festival, said Omaha’s Italian population largely hails from Carlentini—about 70% of Omahans is their best estimate—and the vast majority of committee members and traditional Little Italy neighborhood residents have roots in Sicily. “My grandparents came from Carlentini,” Caniglia said. “When you say Little Italy, you’re talking about a lot of very close people.” At the festival, he said everyone greets each other with “hi, cuz,” since, in all likelihood, there is a family connection, even among strangers. “Everyone is connected some way or another,” Caniglia said. The parade can be heard from blocks away following Mass. People follow the statute of Santa Lucia, escorted by a group of women dressed in green, and they give money. “The march with the saint to the arch is a big event for everybody,” Caniglia said. ► JUNE 2021 • 60 PLUS
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// 60+ Feature // This year marks the 400th anniversary of Carlentini’s Santa Lucia Festival, and a few dozen Omahans are hoping to make the trip this August to be part of that celebration. There’s also a crowning of a queen, which used to be based on raffle ticket sales, but now includes academic and community service components. The festival is usually a weeklong affair, but this year it will be only four days— July 8 through 11. Besides traditional Italian food, the festival embraces the enchanting sound of Italian music. “The music is wonderful,” said Josephine Lohmeier. “I always like to make sure that I get there early.” Lucia Ferraguti St. Cyr, who is Lohmeier’s niece and Caniglia’s cousin, said that two musicians are writing special compositions that will be performed at the 2021 festival, recognizing a major milestone for original festival in Sicily. This year marks the 400th anniversary of Carlentini’s Santa Lucia Festival, and a few dozen Omahans are hoping to make the trip this August to be part of that celebration. “With COVID, we don’t know what’s going to happen with that,” Lohmeier said. There’s also an effort to have Carlentini and Omaha recognize each other as sister cities, and a group from Carlentini are hoping to visit Omaha for its centennial festival in 2025. By then, the festival plans to return to the Lewis & Clark Landing, which will have finished its revitalization as part of the city’s RiverFront park project.
Mary Lou Cappellano Riley said that her fondest memory growing up was spending time with her family around the Santa Lucia Festival. “It was something that brought our family together at my nana’s,” Riley said. “You would see your cousins throughout the year, but you would know for sure that you’d see them for the five days that was the festival. It was just, for us, it was magical.” The festival’s sights, sounds and smells— like the sweetness of roasted red peppers—recalls those beloved memories. “They always had sausage and pepper sandwiches—always,” Caniglia said. The sandwiches have evolved over generations, as several family recipes have influenced the result—even if recipes aren’t exactly followed by the army of volunteers doing the cooking. “We make all of our own food from scratch,” Riley said. “It’s a labor of love.” There’s also, she admits, “a lot of tastetesting to make sure you have it perfect.” The volunteers spend hours cooking sauce, slicing and roasting peppers and preparing a couple dozen 5-gallon buckets of peppers to be served. The peppers also have to cool before storage. On two separate Saturdays, another group assembles with about 20 ice cream makers to make chocolate, lemon and strawberry gelato for the festival.
The construction along Omaha’s riverfront has displaced the festival this year, and last year’s festivities were disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. The 2021 festival will be held at 10th and Williams streets in front of St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church.
“It’s an all-day type of production,” Riley said, estimating about 20 to 30 people volunteer their time at the Santa Lucia Hall. “Nothing that we do that’s food related is just a few people. It takes a village to get it done.”
“We’re coming full circle back to the neighborhood,” Caniglia said.
That’s the point, though. Caniglia said people look forward to sharing that time together.
While this year’s event won’t have the carnival atmosphere, it will still feature a wide array of Italian food, including spaghetti, ravioli, pizza, cannoli and gelato—the Italian frozen dessert with the mouthfeel of dense, rich ice cream. “In the old days, people would vend things off their front porches all along the street,” Caniglia said. // 56 //
60 PLUS • JUNE 2021
“They really look forward to gathering to prepare everything,” he said. It used to be that people just walked down to the hall, but now most travel by car to spend a day cooking, Lohmeier said. Those prep days usually last 6 to 8 hours.
“It’s a community effort,” Caniglia said. “It’s an awful lot of people involved.” Procopio said the organization has about 200 members, and those that live in town will always come help with preparations. Omaha also has two other Italian heritage organizations: the American Italian Heritage Society, which sponsors La Festa Italiana each September, and the Sons of Italy. The dedication shown by the Santa Lucia Festival organizers is obvious in the food they prepare and the care that goes into everything else about the annual event. “In order for a dish to turn out fabulous takes a lot of love,” Riley said. “This organization puts a lot of love into whatever we do.” That love comes from the many people like Caniglia who give time and passion to its success. Procopio said Caniglia’s been a long-time member of the organizing committee. “He steps up to help—whatever’s needed,” Procopio said. “His passion is all about the saint and about the community and the comradery that this whole committee has. Joe’s a staple here.” The festival means a lot to Omaha’s broader Italian community. It’s a place for coming together and for building connections. Many important milestones in life revolve around the festival. “It’s truly centered around our devotion to our saint,” St. Cyr said. “That’s what it’s all about,” Caniglia added. For Riley, the Santa Lucia Festival tradition can be summed up succinctly. “It’s faith, family and fellowship,” Riley said. “And food,” Lohmeier added. “And where there’s food, there’s wine,” Caniglia quipped. More information is available at santaluciafestival.com or @ SantaLuciaFestival Facebook.
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60+ ACTIVE LIVING
FUELING HIS RUNNERS,
HIS LAND,
AND PEOPLE STORY BY DAISY HUTZELL-RODMAN PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL SITZMANN DESIGN BY DEREK JOY
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60 PLUS • JUNE 2021
ill Lindgren is constantly running. He started running at a young age, and by 1983 was running marathons. Lindgren is the executive director at Nebraska Run Guru Elite, Inc. and has run over 80,000 miles in his 63 years. He is also a coach who trained Nebraskan James McGown to run in the Olympic Trials in 2004 and 2008. Lindgren was the head of USA Women’s Track and Field Long Distance Running National Championships Chair from 2002-2009, during which time Team Nebraska was included in the original list of 10 clubs of the USA Track and Field Elite Development Club program. Lindgren still runs 10-15 miles, two to three times per week. As an athlete and coach, he knows that proper nutrition is as important to a runner as the proper pair of shoes. These days, however, Lindgren and his partner, Linda Kunasek, are running terraces more than marathons. In 2013, Lindgren and Kunasek lived on a property in the Twin Rivers area of Waterloo, Nebraska. They wanted to live more of a down-to-earth lifestyle, pickling, canning, and freezing the food they grew. They sold food through their business, Bar None Produce, emphasizing locally grown organic produce, and free-range chicken eggs. They didn’t sell much honey, but they got their own honey from their bees, an important part of the process for the pollination that came from the insects. Much of their clientele was cancer survivors who were concerned about pesticides/herbicides in their already immunocompromised bodies and athletes who wanted to fuel their bodies in the best way possible.
Their location between the Platte and Elkhorn rivers gave them fertile soil, and Lindgren enjoys making his own potting soil. He learned from a noted organic gardener named Eliot Coleman, who creates organic soil from a mix of peat moss; lime; equal parts blood meal, colloidal phosphate, and greens; and other components. They only use organic waste from leaves, grass, or chicken manure to further enrich the soil. They sold at Village Pointe Farmer’s Market for several years. Then Lindgren began to branch out. He had a fantastic crop of tomatoes, and he thought “someone must want these tomatoes, they are perfect.” So he drove down Dodge street, stopping in to every restaurant he could think of to hawk his wares. Although he didn’t have much success on Dodge Street in Omaha at first, he made a friend of René Orduña (across the river) of Dixie Quicks. Lindgren became the main provider of collard greens and green tomatoes for Dixie Quicks until they closed in 2018. He also sold his tomatoes to Brushi—4,000 pounds worth of tomatoes in 2018, and 20-25 dozen eggs to Pitch that same year. Then came the flood of March 2019. Lindgren and Kunasek’s three-acre property was devastated. Although the owners could have returned to their property and continued to work the land, they did not feel right about it. “We received guidance from UNL and Douglas County that we should not sell food produced off the ground,” Lindgren said. “I just lost confidence in being able to produce organic food.” That was an important factor in Lindgren and Kunasek’s lifestyle as athletes and farmers. Without being able to grow organic food, the pair sold their farm and bought a camper. They spent that summer traveling around the country, visiting national parks and living a nomadic lifestyle. Ultimately, the couple wanted someplace to call home where they could again grow organic food, and that led them to Wahoo, Nebraska.
The new property in Wahoo is on a hill, hopefully helping to protect their farm from future flooding. They terraced the hill on which they plant their vegetables. While their neighbors use farm implements such as tractors, Lindgren and Kunasek farm by hand, painstakingly putting seeds in the ground and pulling the weeds that threaten their plants’ survival. “We’re marathoners and we can’t marathon anymore,” Lindgren said. The couple do successional gardening, starting with hardy plants such as carrots, radishes, and beets, planting lots of greens such as parsley and kale, and moving into peppers and tomatoes as the weather warms throughout the summer. Farming has exposed Lindgren to new produce, also. He had never eaten kohlrabi, a Martianesque vegetable in the same species as cabbage and broccoli, before a couple of years ago. The crisp, bulbous vegetable quickly became a favorite to eat and grow, and this year, Lindgren said he planned to devote 1,200 square feet to it. Lindgren’s looking forward to the 2021 gardening season. His favorite part is seeing the tiny seeds he planted germinate. “I love it when I start with something that hasn’t been developed, whether that’s runners or food, and I can give it fuel, water, and education or germination,” Lindgren said. Along with plots dedicated to kohlrabi and other favorites such as several varieties of peppers, the couple are dedicating a 100-square-foot plot of land to the Native American crops known as the three sisters—corn, beans, and squash. The seeds are put into the same mound of earth and allowed to support and feed off of one another. “We are excited to do homage to those who have tended the land long before us,” Lindgren said.
The couple bought their one-acre property in August 2019, in what normally would have been the height of their farming season. They lived in their camper for the next three months while their home was being built, and began thinking about farming again.
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60+ Nostalgia
STORY BY JEFF LACEY • PHOTO PROVIDED • DESIGN BY DEREK JOY
here are few species of eating establishT ments that echo American themes more than diners. Primarily independently
Historian Ryan Roenfeld, author of the book Secret Omaha, explained that “diners are an important but often unremarked-upon facet of our daily culture, and are powerful drivers of a sense of community.”
owned and run restaurants, diners are businesses that offer the huddled masses (whether yearning for a hamburger or a stack of pancakes) a clean booth, a cup of coffee, and an affordable meal. Not only are they encased in the amber of American literature (such as those in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath), they are celebrated in current popular culture, especially through Guy Fieri’s long-running show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
Below is an incomplete list of diners in Omaha: some no longer serve customers, some currently thrive, but all help to weave the cultural fabric of Omaha. Those still in business are marked with an asterisk (*). Big Mama’s Kitchen* In 2007, at age 62, Patricia “Big Mama” Barron opened the doors of her first brick-and-mortar restaurant in the cafeteria of the building on 45th and Bedford streets that was formerly the Nebraska School for the Deaf. She previously ran a popular catering business. The next year, the restaurant was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Big Mama’s specializes in soul food, from the notable sweet potato pie to the more unusual pig’s ear sandwich. In 2020, Big Mama’s moved to 2112 N. 30th St. in the Seventy-Five North Development’s Highlander Accelerator Building. The restaurant has been run by Patricia’s daughter, Gladys Harrison, since Patricia died in 2018. The Calumet Once located on 1411 Douglas St., The Calumet opened in the 1890s, and was open seven days a week, all year long. The name was derived from the highly decorated peace pipes employed by the Illinois Native American tribe. The Calumet changed owners several times, but at one point was run by filmmaker Alexander Payne’s grandfather Nicholas, who changed its name to the Virginia Cafe. The restaurant burned down in November 1969. Carter’s Cafe The current location of Love’s Jazz and Art Center at 24th and Lake streets is the former site of Carter’s Cafe. Run by businesswoman Lucy Carter, Carter’s Cafe was locally renowned for its owner’s good deeds as well as its food. According to northomahahistory.com, Carter was known for her outpouring of generosity to “community-driven campaigns, nonprofits, the church, and the business community of Omaha.” Carter passed away in 1983, but her legacy to the history of Omaha lives on.
The Diner Those who went to the Old Market in the last half of the 20th century (and the early part of the 21st), would have seen The Diner. Built in 1982, this independently run restaurant was located at 12th and Harney streets and was an architectural staple of the Old Market: a brightly colored, stand-alone diner that looked and felt as though it were straight out of an Elvis movie, complete with a red counter, chrome-backed swiveling counter seats, and a black-and-white checkered floor. The building was torn down in 2007, but the memories remain. The Fair Deal Cafe The original Fair Deal Cafe wasn’t just an eating establishment. It was a gathering place for politicians and community leaders in Omaha for decades; so much so that it was occasionally referred to as “Black City Hall.” Opened in 1954 and located at 24th and Burdette streets, The Fair Deal was graced over the years by local figures such as Brenda Council and Ernie Chambers. Those who ate at the original restaurant might have ordered their famous sweet potatoes and a cup of coffee, and admired the art-deco decor. The original Fair Deal closed in 2003, but was so vital to the history of Omaha that the North Omaha Village Revitalization Plan included a major project named after it: The Fair Deal Marketplace, located at 2118 N. 24th St. There one could find a new iteration of the Fair Deal, which was open from 2016 until 2018, with one Yelp reviewer declaring gladly that, at the Fair Deal, they enjoyed classics like, “catfish, spaghetti, baked beans, and peach pie with cinnamon ice cream.” Nite Hawkes Cafe* The Nite Hawkes Cafe has been a staple of Omaha food culture since its establishment in 1942. Located on the corner of 16th Street and Carter Boulevard, it has been operated by the Hawkes family for four generations. Currently run by Tracy Hawkes, Nite Hawkes currently has classic diner fare, including The Stacker—biscuits smothered with hash browns, gravy, and two eggs. One of the highlights of the menu at the Nite Hawkes is the Dan Special, created by founder Dan Hawkes. This is a ⅓ lb. hamburger patty ingeniously inserted into a grilled cheese sandwich, then topped with french dressing and tomatoes. A popular option is to add a side of onion rings.
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60+ PROFILE • STORY BY JEFF LACEY PHOTOGRAPHY BY BILL SITZMANN DESIGN BY DEREK JOY
he history of wine, like a vine’s delicate tendril, wraps around the histories of countless cultures and places. From the earliest known evidence of winemaking (reported to be jars from Georgia 8,000 years ago) to the latest box of Merlot on the local supermarket shelf, wine is a blend of cultures and landscapes that spans centuries.
the wines are fabulous, and the people were incredibly nice. We sat with the winemakers, and they will open up bottle after bottle for you to try.” With every trip, Prestridge and Langwith reap a harvest of understanding, and this is what keeps them wanting more.
This truth is a major element of the appeal for oenophiles John Langwith and Dr. Laurel Prestridge. To these local wine experts, a glass of wine isn’t simply fermented grapes. Langwith and Prestridge have spent over a decade exploring all the dimensions of the vintnerial arts, and the seed for their pursuit was planted in 2008 during a trip to Napa Valley. Not only did Langwith and Prestridge enjoy the flavors of great California wines, they appreciated the social nature of wine culture and the rich cultural history that comes with them as well. The wine that really hooked them, however, was discovered in 2010, on a Labor Day trip to the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Traveling with another couple, they recall a single vineyard pinot noir at Domaine Serene Winery that, by all accounts, nearly stopped time. “Two bars, absolutely poetry in a glass,” Langwith said. “After that, I really started appreciating the differences between red wines,” Prestridge explained. The two then became increasingly involved in learning viniculture, and the journey they have been on since then in pursuit of their passion is as literal as it is figurative. Not only have they been all over the United States, they have taken trips all over the world, often using wine as a lens through which to view cultures. They have been to several wine producing regions of France and Italy, as well as areas of Switzerland, Argentina, and New Zealand. The descriptions they give of their journeys are glimpses into fantastic adventures. Describing a trip to France in fall 2018, Langwith said,“we were on a cruise down the Rhone, and before that we went to Burgundy for five days, and we also spent some time in Beaujolais.” Describing a trip to New Zealand, he explained, “We were on a diving trip in Fiji, and we decided to try the wineries in New Zealand.” One of their favorite
YOU HAD ME AT MERLOT
dg e & Dr. Laurel Prestri xpl ore John Langwith E e th e World of Win
locations is the rolling mountains of the Stellenbosch region of South Africa, which they visited in 2018. According to winefolly.com, Stellenbosch is the South African equivalent of the Napa Valley, and is home to soils three times as old as those farmed in Napa. Dr. Prestridge explained, “The settings are beautiful,
Langwith said that people who develop a passion for wine become students of it. “You have to have a curiosity,” He explained. “You have to have an interest in understanding more about it. What defines an ongoing interest in wine is the drive, the curiosity to learn, and to try additional varietals. You have to be interested in wine as an experience; as experiences go, it is almost unlimited.” Understanding how regions, soils, and climates affect wines grows infinitely when one actually walks the vineyards, and the amount of information is both breathtaking and humbling. Langwith reflected on his wine knowledge using a scale from 1 to 100, saying, “When we started, our wine knowledge was maybe at 18 to 20, and even after seven and a half years of learning, our knowledge has grown substantially...but is still only probably around 40.” In 2013, Langwith and Prestridge decided to further engage their love of wines by investing in Vino Mas, a wine bar located near 144th Street and West Maple Road. The bar isn’t just an investment opportunity for Langwith and Prestridge—it is a means of sharing their passion with others. They love spending time in the store because it brings the friendly couple back to one of the things they love most about wine. “Wine is really all about sharing,” Langwith explained. “It’s a great beverage to bond over.” Deanna Albertson, their business partner at Vino Mas, explained that Langwith and Prestridge bring great enthusiasm to the business. “John and Laurel are adventurous, wine loving, friendly, personable and kind,” she said. “They love to travel and try wines. They want to venture outside the box when it comes to learning about the subject.” Perhaps the best part of the story of these world traveling wine experts is the vintage of their relationship: Langwith, who retired from TD Ameritrade in April 2020, and Prestridge, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Boys Town Hospital, celebrated their 36th anniversary in March. It is safe to say that this year, when they raise glasses of champagne to toast their adventures together, they will be able to tell people all about what’s inside.
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60+ e Prim e T im SCOTT PETERS // 71 STORY BY NICHOLAS MOORE PHOTO BY BILL SITZMANN
Only a handful of guys can pull off wearing a kilt or an ascot. Retired Council Bluffs attorney Scott Peters is one of them. He also understands the difference between dressing seasonally and occasionally, the latter giving him the confidence to wear a kilt for his annual scotch tasting, tweeds for shooting, or a tailored pinstripe suit to court. He didn’t grow up in a fashion-conscious family and found his fashion stride as a young man. Peters fell in love with the “town and country” aesthetic and began amassing a wardrobe replete with the icons of that lifestyle: Hermès ties, Harris tweed, polished oxfords, and field-worn brogues. His parents may not have taught him the appropriate attire for any season or occasion, but he attributes to them learning life’s most important lessons—kindness, compassion, and honesty. Peters described two cases early in his career where he knew he could beat the defense, but the case was wrong. In the first, he fired the client well before the trial; and in the second, he did go to trial and won but regretted it. Peters grew from those early experiences because of those qualities instilled by his parents. He’s certain that if they were alive today, they be prouder of his rectitude as a man than of his lengthy legal career or his wardrobe straight from the pages of GQ or Garden and Gun.
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