Click for bigger picture
	Parsley and her sister's friend jumping rope

My sisters friends were always at the house. They would sit in a circle so they could whisper their little secrets so my mom and pop wouldn't hear them. But since I was the little kid, no one paid attention to me and so I sat in the middle of them, listening to every word they said. I didn't ever tell on them because it wasn't very interesting to a little kid. Mostly about smoking or boyfriends. This is probably where I got most of my early education on subjects that were over my head.

One day, Anna, one of the friends, decreed that they'd start calling me "Parsley" because I was always in the middle of everything. As all Italians know, parsley is put into virtually every recipe in Italian cooking.

Over the years, I had forgotten this phrase and only remembered it years later, when I happened upon Anna at a function. She asked if I still remembered what they called me. She used the Italian word for parsley which is prezzemolo, and it all came back to me in a flash.