Thanksgiving dinner costs are on dropping for second year in a row
For the second year in a row, the cost of buying Thanksgiving dinner has decreased, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
PROVIDENCE – I drive to South Providence where the names of shops are in different languages, parking at Broad and Pennsylvania. It is there that I find Ramon Morales at the longtime diner he owns.
It’s an anchored food truck called Johnny’s Chimi Place, a now-beloved neighborhood fixture.
More important, since this is a story about gratitude on Thanksgiving, it is the American dream of a typical immigrant.
Johnny’s is counter-service only, but there are casual tables in a space next to it, and that’s where I sit with Ramon and his wife, Rosa. It is a second marriage and between them they have eight kids, mostly young adults, four of whom work at the business.
Ramon, who is 59 and from the Dominican Republic, tells me how proud he is that Johnny’s has so far supported two generations.
I begin by asking him what America means to him.
Everything, says Ramon, and that is what he’ll be celebrating on Thanksgiving with his family, at the home he owns on Chalkstone Avenue.
When I ask if he had to work hard to afford it, Ramon laughs. Of course, but that, he adds, is the real gift of this country – not a handout, but the right to achieve through sacrifice.
Ramon was only 18 when he left the Dominican Republic because there wasn’t enough work.
“The situation wasn’t so good,” Ramon explains. “We were so poor. I got five sisters, and my mom needed help.”
He first went to Puerto Rico, finding a job harvesting coffee with his hands. He sent back part of every paycheck, which is the culture – leaving the Dominican to support family at home.
After two years, Ramon made what he said is the ultimate pilgrimage for many in his country – to America.
“It’s the Dominican dream,” he says.
He first went to New York City, working 12 hours a day in a grocery, which still wasn’t enough for rent so he slept in a friend’s van.
Eventually, because other family was here, he decided to try Providence.
Early on, it was no easier for him. But that, he tells me, is part of the journey; you have to be willing to struggle. For the first years, Ramon did day labor – factories and construction.
“I was the rust man,” he says of one gig, “cleaning metal.”
The money wasn’t enough, but at least, he tells me, because this is America, there is always more you can do.
He and his sister got the idea of spending weekends selling food to crowds at city parks. They’d bring two coolers, one with soda, the other with puff-pastry meat sandwiches called pastelitos.
It opened a door to a business idea.
“I tell my sister,” he says, “one day, we make a chimi truck.”
A chimi is a signature Latin American sandwich, and such a staple that food trucks featuring them have the same nickname.
It was a lot of work. They’d start prep mid-morning, then drive to various spots at night, parking outside clubs until as late as 3 a.m. It made for 17-hour days.
For a period, there was so much stress Ramon tells me he drank too much and almost lost everything. Then he found a north star that rescued him.
“I came to the lord 23 years ago,” says Ramon.
Eventually, he decided to anchor the truck to make it predictable, renting the spot on Broad Street where Johnny’s Chimi Place still sits today.
As we chat, two regulars approach the order window – Abby Deaza, 30, business manager at the Providence YMCA, and Leomary Toribio, 29, who directs after-school programs at nearby Baily Elementary.
Both say they’ve been coming here forever.
“Johnny’s is just the spot,” says Leomary.
“It doesn’t matter what your nationality is,” says Abby. Or your profession, whether lawyer or fireman. “Everybody knows Johnny’s. They have the best pastiletos, the best everything.”
Today, Ramon’s business gives livelihoods to 11 staffers. And of course, to himself and his family.
Then he says he has a question for me.
“Have you ever been hungry?”
No.
“You ever been without shoes?”
No again.
I turn the question around: “But you have?”
Ramon nods.
“Before America,” he says, “I had nothing. Everything changed when I came here.”
He was proud to become a citizen 16 years ago.
“It’s the best place,” says Ramon. “If you do the right thing and work hard, it’s where your dream, it comes true. I never want to go any other place.”
But he says he feels a debt for what he’s been given.
“I always think, what else can I do to help the people. If we’ve received, we must give too, for grace.”
So Ramon and his wife often bring food to the needy, and will do so again on Thanksgiving.
What, I ask, has enabled him to be able to do that?
America, he says.
“I pray in Jesus’s name the country keeps going forward.”
I have one last question.
What is he thankful for this Thanksgiving?
“Everything,” says Ramon Morales of Johnny’s Chimi Place.
And then he says it again.
mpatinki@providencejournal.com
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Publish date : 2024-11-27 21:44:00
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