At last weekend's Sons of Italy Festival in Glassport, celebrants roamed food and game booths on blocked-off Sixth Street and Allegheny Avenue as Italian music played. Inside the Sons of Italy Lodge 941, ravioli, gnocchi, and spaghetti fed those celebrating the weekend before Monday's Feast of the Assumption.

Capping the festivities Sunday evening was the traditional march to Glassport stadium to the beat of the Italian marches of the Redcoat Band, of New Castle, to watch Zambelli fireworks.

Louis D'Angelo, 66, past lodge president and grandson of lodge charter member Luigi D'Angelo, estimated there were 200 marchers, a number down from the 500 marchers of past years.

"Pride in heritage, that's the concept of the whole thing," he said, lamenting the generational decline.

But the biggest loss, he said, was in the longtime members and festivalgoers who died this year: Anthony "Chuck" D'Angelo, Major Wojciechowski, and Frank Sinatra -- no, not that one -- who served as master of ceremonies at the fireworks for more than 10 years.

To those who grew up in the lodge's tradition of family and community get-togethers, the annual event is equally about celebrating one's Italian heritage and reconnecting with the past.

Frank "Ace" Capuzzi Jr., 55, principal of New England Elementary School in West Mifflin, attends every year "because people come out of the woodwork," referring to friends and neighbors from his youth in Glassport.

Among his friends in attendance were Tom Ogurchak, 55, of Liberty, and Tony Borrelli, 56, of Cleveland.

Ogurchak recalled the festivals' special status as the last celebration of the summer, signalling the start of school in two weeks.

A Slovak, he attended all the lodge events with his neighbors, the Borrellis.

To sustain the festival-going tradition and visit family, Tony Borrelli and his wife drove in from Cleveland, while sons drove in from Dayton, Ohio, and Washington, D.C.

Another former resident, Frank Zupi, 73, of Saline, Mich., plans his vacations around the festivals to see friends and relatives.

For Nick Martino, 88, of Pleasant Hills, son of a former lodge president, Luigi Martino (1939-1943), the music stirs memories of his own 35 years playing clarinet in the lodge band, now disbanded.

Recollections of old times also were sparked in President Joe Borrelli, 85, son of Nicola Borrelli, the first president (1919-1935), whose earliest involvement with the lodge was grinding sausage by hand for the meetings.

"I watched the old Italians argue," he said of his boyhood experience.

The festivals began 49 years ago when "Little Italy" thrived in the 700 to 900 blocks of Monongahela Avenue and "up on the hill" of the prosperous town of iron- and steel-related industries.

But as Glassport's fortunes declined, so did the lodge's, down from roughly 400 regular and 600 social members in the 1950s to about, respectively, 225 and 400 today.

Although a new generation tells Joe Borrelli they "don't have the time" to be members, there's reason to hope that will improve.

Jacquie Hruska, 14, of Elizabeth, who brought friend Sarah Pelco, 13, to enjoy the weekend's food and carnival atmosphere, said she wanted to continue attending the festivals when she grows up.

She might even become a lodge member one day, joining many in her family.

For next year's 50th festival, Tina Farine, 49, of Pleasant Hills, plans to call the younger members from the membership list and encourage them to get involved.