When I googled "Peter Ferrone" I got some reference to a guy who has some sort of watercraft registered with the Coast Guard.... also this.....
Ties That Bind: 40 Years of Strikes and Fun
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Del.icio.usDiggFacebookNewsvinePermalinkBy PAULA GANZI LICATA
Published: December 2, 2001
''I got the brunt of it,'' Mr. Bonsignore admitted.
''Well, you sang the loudest,'' his wife said.
Eventually group trips replaced the bowling dinners. ''We'd always have people wanting to go away with us, as many as 17 families,'' Mr. De Turris said. ''All the kids got along whether it was a bungalow at Sound Beach or a resort up in the Catskills.''
Chuck Ferrone of East Meadow recalled the group's first camping expedition. His son Peter, then 16, had some experience and volunteered to set up the tent.
''There were 48 stakes that needed to be spiked into the ground to anchor the tent,'' Peter Ferrone said. ''On the 47th spike, I find this little half-inch water pipe.'' It was the campground's main water line, and everything got soaked.
''I think the most fun was when we had 17 families at Mrs. John's Resort upstate,'' Chuck Ferrone added. Remember 'tight squeeze'?'' He and Mr. De Turris recalled how Tom Egan, who was large in stature, was belted face-to-face with a woman who wasn't Mrs. Egan. The object of the game was to wriggle free -- and then the fun began.
The Bonsignore children, Mario and Theresa, still talk about the trips. There were many: to Montauk, the Catskills, Washington and even Florida.
Some of the friendships in the bowling league predate the couples' marriages. Joe Janisch was one of the ushers at the De Turrises' wedding and offered his new 1949 Chevrolet convertible to the bridegroom for the honeymoon. ''He never forgot that,'' Mr. Janisch said. ''But that's how we are; we're willing to help each other out.''
The caring is obvious between spouses, too, and there hasn't been a single divorce among the core Guys & Dolls group.
The Barberas, both 70, fell ill a few years ago: Mrs. Barbera had a stroke and her husband had a heart attack. ''He's fantastic,'' Mr. Janisch said of Mr. Barbera. ''He nursed his wife back to health after her stroke. Not many men around like him.''
Mr. De Turris, 76, has survived open-heart surgery, colon cancer and a hernia operation. ''Right after I get off the bus at Atlantic City, I put in my six miles,'' he said. He walks 15 miles a week, 30 miles during vacations.
But health concerns have not stopped the Guys & Dolls, and retirement seems only to have enhanced their social lives. Judy Anderson, the general manager of East Meadow Lanes, said: ''They're a large group, and they've been bowling together for years. It's great to see them socialize.''
And socialize they do. Monday nights are reserved for dinner and dominos; there's a weekly card game; and there's always a trip on the horizon. On Dec. 3, a group plans to go off to the Woodlock Pines resort in Hawley, Pa., and two weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Ciaramellas, the De Turrises and the Janisches flew to Las Vegas.
Why have they remained such good friends for so long? ''There was no one-upmanship,'' Peter Ferrone said. ''No one was full of themselves bragging about having a Cadillac.''
Mrs. Bonsignore said: ''We had the same goals, same religious upbringing. We just all got along.''
No one ever had a fight. ''In all the years, I don't think we ever had a bad word about anybody,'' Mrs. Janisch said. ''The guys and the girls, no one ever had an argument.''
And the group had fun. ''We always had a good time,'' Mrs. Barbera said. ''Just put us in a room together.'' Or in a bowling alley.
