I am at the stage in my life where many of my friends and acquaintances are dropping over, kicking the bucket left and right, one after another.

Most of the time when I hear of someone passing away, I shrug your shoulders and say well, that’s life. On the other hand, when a good friend goes to the BIG Spaghetti Bowl in the sky, it affects me deeply. Joe Id was one of the deaths that registered with me more than most.

We had a group of kids who grew up together, served mass together, drank some of the holy wine behind the priest’s back, played tackle football on the hard asphalt not wearing any protection (very tough on the knees and elbows), played baseball together, got in trouble together, got into fights with eachother, 90% of the time with people from another neighborhoods and 10% of the time with the guys we grew up with. 110^th and Woodland/Mt. Carmel was a very tight 95% Italian neighborhood.

The funny about kicking each other’s ass; it didn’t matter who won or lost because we were back at it the same thing the next day. That very night, we would be breaking bread at the other pugilist’s dinner table, eating supper with his family.

Still, after so many years (now we are all in our 80s), we get together periodically for lunch and sometimes dinner. The group keeps getting smaller and smaller.  Years back one of the dinners escalate into a huge affair with 750 people attending.

Joy Id was always in the thick of things. Everyone like him. He stood out like a sore thumb being about 6 foot 4 inches tall, good looking guy, had a great sense of humor, was always laughing and breaking balls.

Big Joe will surely be missed. From my own perspective, it was great knowing him and growing up with him.

Picture provided by Russel Davis our honorary Italian

He was a good husband to Barbara, a good father, and a super grandfather.

RIP Big Joe – we are all going in the same direction. Save a little room for the boys on the hot seat. We can put a few steaks on the grill and tell some bullshit stories that we ALL were so notorious for.

MDI