"When I die, I don't want people to be sad. What a life!"

November 25, 2020 4:32 PM

WE TRUST YOU. PLEASE TAKE WHAT YOU NEED AND LEAVE THE MONEY ON THE TABLE

For drivers who’d notice the “Pasta King” sign from the rural Sonoma County road and pull into Art Ibleto’s driveway, the door to the kitchen was always unlocked. The fridge was always full of penne, marinara, pesto and lasagna. And when Ibleto wasn’t around to take people’s money, the desk was nearly always covered with folds of cash next to the yellow touch-tone landline phone and old Rolodex, accompanied by notes of appreciation. Ibleto, who died Tuesday morning at the age of 94, was the kind of person for whom this honor system was natural, instead of novel. For all of Ibleto’s philanthropy and civic service to the Sonoma County community he adopted as a young immigrant from Italy, it’s this fact that sticks with many of the Pasta King’s fans most: he trusted you.

As a teenager in Italy drafted into Mussolini’s army, he escaped and joined the resistance forces as an underground freedom fighter, planting explosives on roads and railroads to thwart fascism’s spread across Europe. At 22, he immigrated to the United States and settled in Petaluma, trusting not only the people in his new chosen home, but in hard work, common sense and a we’re-all-in-this-together belief.

posted by Lexica (10 comments total)

Wtf I grew up in Sonoma County and never heard of this guy, what a legend!
posted by supercrayon at 4:45 PM on November 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

.
posted by bgrebs at 4:45 PM on November 25, 2020

.
posted by suelac at 5:13 PM on November 25, 2020

Lexica, this is lovely -- thank you for making this post. As young as about 5, Ibleto was charged with taking the milk cow up into grassland a good climb from his family’s home. He recalled singing for hours for two reasons: It helped to make him less afraid of being up there alone, and it let his mother know he was OK. Well, that makes for one of us.
supercrayon, looks like Art's kid brother is still running his own businesses near Sonoma: Angelo’s Meats in Petaluma and Angelo’s Wine Country Deli

Ibleto, in his book [Freedom Fighter to King]: “I get a charge out of people liking polenta. Because 75 percent of people they got no idea what polenta is. So many time, people look at dish of my polenta and they say, ’I’d like the lasagna.’ I say, ’It’s not lasagna, it’s polenta.’ They say, ’What’s that?’ I say, ’Cornmeal.’ They say, ’I don’t like.’ I say, ’Try.’ If they do, they usually say, ’More, please.’ ”

From the second link, The Press Democrat: In the spring of 2018, friend Mike McGuire, the Democratic state senator from Healdsburg, welcomed him onto the Senate floor and presented him a resolution in honor of “a lifetime of achievements and meritorious service to humanity.” Last night, in a message which begins "Heavy heart tonight," Sen. McGuire posted a picture of the Senate visit (Twitter, via Thread reader) and mentions the polenta.
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:13 PM on November 25, 2020 [3 favorites]

I was thinking about this guy, and talking about him, and then I remembered there were a few Italian pizzerias, when I was a kid, growing up, which had similar policies - if you were a kid who looked a little skinny and hesitant and were staring a little too long at the storefront, you would be invited to come inside and eat. Family-style or single-owner places, about thirty years ago run by men who were in their sixties, who wouldn't let you go actually hungry. Or if you came in, a quarter short, with a crowd of kids, and looked shamed and started to pull back your money, how they would just hand you a piece of pizza anyway.

Thinking about this and thinking about this man, and realizing they all would have been contemporaries, I wonder if there's something in people, especially those who lived through the second world war and the nightmare rising, Italians under Mussolini or really anyone who experienced that, to just not want to see anyone hungry again. To think that the dollar or two was nothing compared to the feeling of 'did I let someone go that I could have helped?'

I'm glad he lived to be 94, to have family and friends and recognition and to be mourned by Senators, but I am still sorry he passed. We are poorer for it.
posted by corb at 6:21 PM on November 25, 2020 [55 favorites]

I asked my family if anyone knew about him and got this from my dad:

“He was on stony point road, I worked on his cars for years, his son mark and I were drinking buddies and avid about cars that went fast”

Now I have something cool to talk with my dad about next time we chat, so doubly thanks for this post Lexica!
posted by supercrayon at 6:46 PM on November 25, 2020 [19 favorites]

I, too, spent formative years in Sonoma County and had not previously heard of Art -- thanks for this!
posted by Slothrup at 7:31 PM on November 25, 2020

This is what I needed today!
posted by dmh at 12:42 AM on November 26, 2020

Iris Gambol: "So many time, people look at dish of my polenta and they say, ’I’d like the lasagna.’ I say, ’It’s not lasagna, it’s polenta.’ They say, ’What’s that?’ I say, ’Cornmeal.’ They say, ’I don’t like.’ I say, ’Try.’ If they do, they usually say, ’More, please.’ ”"

This is polenta, in a nutshell. Everybody hates it until they try it.
posted by chavenet at 6:34 AM on November 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

When I was living in mid-state NY in the early 90s, a lot of small local farms had this sort of thing: they'd leave produce on a table with a box for cash deposits and a price list by the side of the road. Grab a few tomatoes, some carrots or zucchini, leave the cash, grab your change, and go. When I was back in the area in '18 and driving around revisiting old memories, didn't see a one. A friend I had lunch with while I was there explained that there had been, a few years after I left, a spate of thefts: produce, cash, and even the tables sometimes, often accompanied by petty vandalism and graffiti, alternatively blamed on outsiders, teenagers, and the produce mafia.

Now I wonder if it was just an older generation retiring and nobody taking up the practice afterwards.
posted by Blackanvil at 9:25 PM on November 26, 2020 [1 favorite]