Seasons greetings….past is our Christmas not like any other....but did you find yourself happy and content? Somehow being isolated I found a peace in simplicity. Probably you have been reading more books and watching more movies? Hopefully writing letters to family and friends....or perhaps calling on the telephone?

OH! How could I forget to mention, baking!

More loaves of bread have been baked during this time than many years previous.

And such delicious no knead dutch oven sourdough

The Roma Lodge January article for the Il Leone normally would be filled with pictures of our annual Christmas party featuring a delicious ham and yam dinner, talent by our junior members, homemade pies for dessert made by members and a visit from Santa Claus. Each of our junior members would receive a Christmas stocking filled with candy and toys and everyone would have a great time.

Unfortunately, the year of 2020 has been anything but normal. We had a successful drive through polenta/stew dinner for over 125 of our members in November and scheduled a similar event for our annual holiday get-together. Unfortunately, just two days before the event the governor declared a shutdown for Tulare County and we had to notify over 110 members, who had RSVP to attend the event, we were forced to cancel it.

In 2020 we had also scheduled our 90th anniversary celebration for which we had a couple of local carpenters build a display case

Lou Catallo, Historian; (559) 299-2205 lcatallo@aol.com

Seeing the year 2020 in the rearview mirror is now a happy occasion; it was truly an eventful and trying period. Luckily, things are getting brighter for this new year. Our heroes today get their flu and Covid-19 shots and wear masks. For everyone that gets their shots, three to eight other people get protected, depending on where and how you live. As we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, pray with us that it is not an oncoming train; and, remember: we are still in the tunnel; safety precautions are still advised.

Avere una famiglia significa che hai qualcuno da amare (Having family means you have someone to love).

If you are looking for something to do, the Clovis Farmers Market

Greetings from Petaluma!

With all the time we have during this Pandemic, I have had a lot of great things to think about. I think about all our dear members who have passed on, how hard they worked to make the Lodge the success that it has been and is. I think about Leo Lavio, Louis Vicino, John Del Prete, Leonard and Tula Bologna, Vito and Jenny Bologna, the Spagnolas and so many others who helped in so many ways. There are more, but I cannot at this time think of their names. So please forgive me if I left out your names.

I spoke to President Ernie and he said that we have a new location for dinner/ meetings in the future when this stay at home order is ono longer needed. It will be at 5900 Snyder Lane in Rohnert Park. The hall is the club house of the El Rancho Grande Modular Home Park.

There isn’t much more than that at this time except

Into each life a little rain must fall, and in 2020 I think we had a torrential downpour. This year started out as every year, filled with plans and activities for our lodge, such as our Annual Crab Feed (which we were able to do), our Scholarship Dinner, Convention, the Annual Gene Bruno Picnic and so many other projects, but then Covid 19 hit our world with a vengeance and the world came to a screeching halt. It has truly been the year that was bringing on new challenges for not only our lodge, but for all the lodges. We have had to come up with some creative ideas for our activities, a new way of having board meetings, some activities had to be postponed while others had to be temporarily dropped for the time being. So, with that being said, I will attempt to sum up 2020 to the best of my ability.

January started off as usual with our annual Crab Feed, held at the Fairfield Senior Center. We had 250 guests in attendance where we served 48 pounds of pasta, 20 gallons of sauce, bread, salad and 800 pounds of our guest of honor The CRAB. Beautiful gift baskets, good food, good company, I’d say a good time was had by all. In

February we welcomed new members Lauretta Graham,