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Most Super Party Was Baby And Mary's

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By STEVE OTTO

sotto@tampatrib.com

Published: February 4, 2009

It's been a few days now, but I wanted to tell you about the hottest Super Bowl party of them all: Baby's party.

This one was Saturday night before the game. It was so exclusive the media - except for me - did not even know about it.
Puff Daddy didn't make it. Neither did Paris or Neon Deion, but that's all right. Everyone who counted was there, and that seemed to include most of West Tampa.

The thing that separated this one from all those other affairs was that it was for real people. There weren't any bouncers or valet types, and you didn't have to stand in some roped-off area waiting for celebrities you barely heard of, if at all, to show up. They didn't hold this one at some club where they jammed you into a room where you were packed in like a sardine with people you didn't know and the disco music broke every noise ordinance in Hillsborough County.

Hugger Supreme

This one was at American Legion Post 248 in West Tampa near McFarlane Park. The closest thing to a celebrity was Elvin Martinez Sr., and the former legislator must have known every one of the nearly 300 people in the place.

I mean this is West Tampa, so there naturally was a lot of hugging and kissing around the room, but not many could keep up with Elvin, who is a master hugger.

The occasion was the 60th wedding anniversary of Adrian and Mary Castro. You might not recognize Adrian by that name. Everyone has been calling him "Baby" for the past 70 or so years. "My mom had 10 brothers, and they were living at our house," he remembers. At one time there would be 27 people eating. Adrian, being the youngest, was "Baby."

Baby Love

It's been a love story since Baby saw Mary Tagliarino walking down the street to the movie matinee at the Centro Espanol in Ybor City with her mother. Of course in those days you didn't date a girl without a chaperon, and "she had all sorts of people keeping an eye on her," says Baby. "There was always some relative looking over our shoulders."

Despite all that, the two were married 60 years ago at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ybor. They were a good-looking couple, although I don't know that Baby was such a catch for the beautiful Mary, who can still melt you with her smile.

He had lots of odd jobs. He would shine shoes, and he had a paper route. He had a job with Mad Man Morris selling really used cars, He shoveled manure at Busch Gardens. It was when he went to work at his father's garage at Main Street and Armenia Avenue that he discovered his talent, which was not car repair.

The garage was only loosely about fixing cars. It was better known as the place to stand around and talk politics only as it is done in West Tampa.

Pasta Politics

Baby's forte was politics - more specifically cooking spaghetti at political rallies. He did all sorts of stuff as a Democratic worker, but it was the spaghetti that became legend. I once ate his spaghetti at a rally for Hubert Humphrey in Lowry Park where Baby must have fed 2,000 people.

There was none of that at the party Saturday night. Oh, there was food - tons of it. But Roger, one of Baby and Mary's three sons, was in charge of the food. The other two sons did the other work while Baby and Mary tried to keep up with Elvin Martinez, hugging and kissing their way around the room, celebrating 60 years and giving us a truly super party, even without Puff Daddy.

Keyword, Otto Graphs, for more of Steve Otto's musings.

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