Zipping up and down sidewalks on old-fashioned roller skates that fit over shoes and come with a key. Loafing on Main Street. Having neighbors with unusual nicknames. Sitting down to huge Italian family dinners.

Those are some of the memories that Marcia Pugliese Russotto has of growing up in Sharpsburg in the 1950s and '60s.

When she put those memories -- and some recipes -- into a paperback book, it sold like hotcakes in Sharpsburg and neighboring communities.

"Always on Sunday: Memories of an Italian Childhood," Mrs. Russotto's self-published book, has sold about 1,500 copies since July and is in its third printing. It has a waiting list at the library.

Jackie Lugara, president of the Sharpsburg Guyasuta Committee Inc., said the book has created quite a stir in the town.

"They're thrilled to death," Mrs. Lugara said of Sharpsburg residents. "It brought a lot of memories back. Even though she was writing about her family, it brought back our family, our friends, our relatives, all the stores we used to have in the town."

Mrs. Russotto said she kept the book short -- 71 pages of text and 41 pages of recipes -- because she didn't think there was much interest in the topic. She discovered she was wrong after she set up a booth to sell the book at Sharpsburg's Guyasuta Days festival in August.

"People were coming up to me and saying, 'Why didn't you write about this? We wanted to read more about our little town,' " she said. "Maybe I should write a sequel. I didn't even touch upon the schools and churches."

The book is especially popular in Allegheny County's northern suburbs -- Mrs. Russotto said the Hallmark store in Hampton Plaza sold 300 copies -- because so many residents have ties to the small borough.

"No matter where I am, if the book's subject comes up, people will say they know someone from Sharpsburg," said Mrs. Russotto, who now lives Hampton. "There is a large contingent of Sharpsburg people in the North Hills."

Mrs. Russotto was born in Sharpsburg in 1951. Her parents were Frank and Mary Jane Cerchiaro Pugliese. Until she was 10, the family lived in a second-floor apartment above the home of her paternal grandparents. Like many others in Sharpsburg, her family originated from San Pietro in Calabria in southern Italy.

The book grew from an article that Mrs. Russotto wrote four years ago for Primo, a magazine that bills itself as "for and about Italian Americans." The magazine had asked readers to submit stories of their Italian heritage, and Mrs. Russotto wrote about "how we always hated our names and we got to choose a new name at Confirmation."

"When it was published, I thought, 'Wow, I have so much more to say and write about.' "

She started writing notes and stories, then turned it into a book. Chapters include memories of her grandmother's kitchen, Italian-style holidays and why Italians never went to the doctor, and includes all sort of homemade remedies for a variety of ailments. The title stemmed from an old joke that makes its rounds on the Internet: You know you're Italian if your family has pasta three times a week "and always on Sunday."

The recipes were added in the back of the book for her two daughters, she said, and include the Pugliese/Cerchiaro family recipes for cakes, soups, pasta, bread and cookies. "All our family recipes are in one place," she said.

"This is a very unusual book because it is part memoir, part cookbook," Mrs. Russotto said. "A lot of people are interested in the Italian recipes."

Mrs. Russotto, a substitute nurse in the Hampton School District, said a book like hers is needed during these difficult times.

"Right now, we need this more than ever. We need to be able to go back to our childhood, to our safe time, to our family-centered lives," she said. "I hope the book will bring that sense of family and community back. When I think about my childhood, this sounds corny, but I have such warm and fuzzy feelings."