James thought about being a miner when he arrived in Price, but after one trip down into the mines he never went back. He opened a cobbler shop instead. Dominick started working there when he was 5. As an adult he worked six days a week, never charged nuns, priests or Mormon missionaries, and pretty much never took a vacation, Margaret says. Once he did go on a hunting trip, but it turned out the snow was knee deep so he came home, sold his camping equipment and never gave hunting or camping another thought. He owned the same car for 16 years and put only 57,000 miles on it.

Occasionally someone would suggest a trip to Italy, but Dominick wasn't interested. Margaret has never been to Italy either, but she hopes to go some day. In the meantime she's a member of the Italian-American Civic League, which yesterday celebrated its 70th anniversary, and participates in the Italian Cultural Center and the Italian Center of the West. Next Saturday she'll take part in Ferragosto, an "Italian Cultural Street Fair" at Pioneer Park, featuring bocce, movies, Ferraris and food.

Dominick used to remember everything, Margaret says. When someone from the Oral History project came to interview him several years ago, his stories about Price and the old Italian community there filled up six tapes. But time and geography are fluid these days. He looks out his window at the Albertsons across the parking lot from his room in the nursing home and sees a school instead. His daughter tells him he's 87 and he smiles his sweet smile. "That's what you tell me now, but I'm going to have to check it out and see," he says.

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E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com