As I’ve sat with a number of people over the years, discussions have often turned to who the people of Kensington, Pullman and Roseland are. As a child in St. Anthony’s Parish, the answer was clear: We’re all Italian. Of course, then I became more aware of the world around me. I came to realize that some of the last names called for attendance at school weren’t Italian: Knudson, Ramirez, Mrozowski, Clark, Timmerman, Vanderwahl, and a few more.

Hitting the playground gave further proof of how diverse the entire community of Roseland was. The playgrounds of summer gave us ample time to get acquainted with kids from the surrounding neighborhoods as we all played at Roseland’s parks or Little League fields. We may have gone to different schools, but summers brought us all together, made us aware of each other and allowed us to build lasting friendships.