Dolcettis Bring "A Little Bit of Sweetness" to Thanksgiving

A special Christmas gift came early, but in time for Thanksgiving this year for Victor Dolcetti, the patriarch of Darien’s only fifth-generation family.    

The surprise came on the heels of the publication of Kenneth Reiss’ The Story of Darien, Connecticut. The chapter entitled “Converging Paths” is devoted entirely to the Dolcetti family, and to Colonel Howard Stout Neilson, who operated a renowned Arabian horse breeding estate, “Althea Farm,” on Middlesex Road during the Depression.

Pictured on page 266 are Victor, his brother Albert and their father, Daniele, and the family pet, a dog named Gigi.

Earlier in the week, when the page opened to the scene of the three smartly dressed Dolcettis—the boys in knickers, double-breasted jackets and Argyle-patterned long socks—it brought a flush of glee to Victor’s face. And a lingering, cheek-to-cheek smile.

For Victor and his nephews, Daniel and Phillip, it was a magical moment for an uncommonly close and tender-hearted family. Unbeknownst to Victor, Daniel had shared Dolcetti family stories with Reiss for inclusion in the richly anecdotal and deeply researched history of the town. And unbeknownst to Daniel, who had planned to give a copy of the book to his beloved uncle for Christmas, others beat him to the chase.

So a Christmas present became a Thanksgiving gift, a considered and engaging collection of stories about the Dolcetti legacy.
 
First-generation Daniele and his wife Rosa are remembered lovingly by their family members.

Daniele and Rosa both grew up in the boot of Italy. Her father was a prosperous olive grove owner. Rose was the youngest of nine. Daniele, smart and cultivated, came first to America to seek his fortune. Through charm and good luck, he was introduced to Col. Neilson and the two bonded.

For a decade, Daniele served as gardener on the estate earning $25 a week. He considered himself very lucky indeed for a newly-arrived immigrant during those hardscrabble times, financially stable enough to be joined in Darien by Rosa and their firstborn child, Philip.

The kind-hearted Col. Neilson gave the Dolcettis the use of a caretaker cottage on the estate—now gone—where brothers Victor, Phillip and Albert grew up and where Victor and Albert were born.

Daniele Dolcetti died in his nineties some years ago, followed by the death in 2002 of his wife Rosa, known to family members as “Nonni.” She lived to the age of 108 in the second-floor apartment on Post Road where the family had established itself in the 1940s.

Some sixty years later, over waffles and scrambled eggs, Victor’s nephews Daniel and Phillip shared piquant memories of those days: both personal recollections, as well as stories passed along from generation to generation.

“We had great times,” he reminisced. “It was an innocent age and we had fun.”

Victor’s remembrances took him back to World War II, when he would stride to the hilltop on the Neilson estate to look for enemy aircraft as part of Darien’s Civilian Defense. And to an old sporting goods shop in Stamford, where every year, Col. Neilson would take the Dolcetti boys to a to select Christmas presents they would have otherwise gone without.

This year, when the surviving four generations of Darien-based Dolcettis, whose Italisn name means “a little bit of sweetness,” gather for Thanksgiving, it is sure to bring more than a little bit of sweetness (both the emotional and edible variety, Victor assures), as they share in great stories of their "Converging Paths."