'Sam Alascio, call extension ...'

Jack of all trades, master of more than one – that’s maintenance mechanic Sam Alascio.

You might find him replacing ceiling tiles in McCready Memorial Hospital, renovating a new employee’s office or crawling through the vents in the Tawes Nursing Home to replace filters that block airborne viruses like H1N1.

The latter activity is not among his favorite tasks. “I’m claustrophobic,” he says, “but the nursing home residents are my friends. I want them safe and comfortable.”

Sam contemplated quitting his job at McCready when he first encountered nursing home residents dealing with serious health challenges. But he persevered and found a way to overcome feelings of despair by befriending them.

That’s how he met Elaine Hoffman, whose sister resides in the nursing home. The two hit it off and now he edits Hoffman’s weekly columns that appear in the Crisfield Times. He also digitalizes the old photos that appear with them.

Often seen around McCready sporting his “Pop-Pop” hat, Sam is among the hospital’s biggest cheerleaders when the topic is the new nursing home He’s penned five letters in the past year to the local paper urging people to support the building campaign.

He’s looking forward to seeing residents in the new building … where the grandfather of three says “they’ll be more comfortable and safer.” (He’s compiling a digital photo history of the construction project, too.)

Sam believes “charity begins at home.” With so many of us “getting up in age,” the nursing home deserves the community’s support.

His original trade was auto mechanics. A Ford man, he insists less-than-flattering acronyms such as Fix Or Repair Daily, “are baloney.”

He also worked on heavy equipment for the City of Baltimore, a job that occasionally took him to landfills to repair bulldozers. Understandably, he eventually moved on to less malodorous ways of earning a living.

Among them was owning a trucking company and earning certification as an auto inspector.

Sam dropped out of school as a youth growing up in Baltimore to support his family, but never stopped learning – or looking for new challenges. When he grew “tired of getting my hands dirty,” he earned his G.E.D. – remarkably without taking a class.

At home, he repairs and custom-builds computers for friends – a self-taught skill that pre-dates PCs and the Internet.

The former Baltimorean dozen’t care much for fishing because “throwing out a line and waiting for a fish gets on the line is boring.”

He quit watching football when Johnny Unitas - “best quarterback that ever lived” - left the Baltimore Colts, a sentiment a lot of fans his vintage shares. He’s head-over-heels crazy about his wife of nearly 40 years, Patricia Ann.

They attended school together in Baltimore … (and) he sheepishly says he used to tease the heck out of her.

Sam grew weary of living in metropolitan areas, so he convinced his wife to move to the Eastern Shore. Sam insists she’d follow him almost anywhere … “but not to China.”

As a young man, he had spent part of his summers in Crisfield, biking all over with his friends and shooting billiards at a now-defunct downtown pool hall. So, the couple settled in the bayside community.

Sam and his wife relax by attending concerts -- especially those featuring “Doo-Wop” acts. Buddy Holly was his favorite ‘50s singer.

Born into an Italian family, he's no big fan of the distinctive ethnic food. His only concession to that cuisine is his mother’s home-made Italian bread.

But he does like to cook, including Thanksgiving dinner, from scratch. A typical holiday menu includes: turkey (“I don’t believe in ham on Thanksgiving”), fresh cranberries, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (not yams) with NO marshmallows or raisins, dressing with lots of celery, onions, sage, butter and bread, gravy, with carrots and celery in it, broccoli, limas, apple pie, pies made from fresh, not canned pumpkin.

Baking casseroles is his specialty the rest of the year.

Photos by Patty Hancock