NIFTY NONAGENARIAN

Ever met Italian-born Lidia Lattanzi Ragusi, the 90-year-old woman who started volunteering at the Winnetka Thrift Shop around the time the movie Rocky hit the theaters in the mid-1970s?

You should.

The longtime Winnetkan is part treasure, part comedian, part storyteller extraordinaire, and all kinds of fun. She’s not as sharp as a tack; she’s sharper. She’d turn your rough day into your Best Day Ever, in a nanosecond. And her delightful, quick-witted personality could disarm the pants—and maybe even the shirt or a shoe or two—off anybody.

“My secret to living as long as I have?” Ragusi, her eyes affixed in full-twinkle mode, says before the start of another shift at the thrift shop on Green Bay Road. “Oh, that’s easy. Just act stupid.”

Born in Nerito, a small mountain town in Italy in 1933, Ragusi—one of two smart daughters of father Battista and mother Elettra—arrived in the United States in She and her older sister, Ida, along with Elettra, spent nine seasick-ailing days on a ship with American soldiers and other post-World War II civilian passengers before reuniting with Battista in New York.

Battista had been living in California for 10 years, but he also spent time with a brother at a residence on Oak Street in Winnetka.

Battista, Elettra, and their daughters traveled via train from New York to Winnetka.

“My father wanted to return to California, but he never did after my mother insisted that we all stay in Winnetka,” recalls Ragusi, who, as a 13-year-old, started her education stateside in the sixth grade at The Skokie School in Winnetka.

“The school system here was wonderful,” Ragusi says. “It set me up to learn to speak English with a private teacher one hour a day. I remember questioning the word ‘house.’ It confused me, because it had a similar meaning to the word ‘home.’ It was okay to say, ‘I want to go home,’ but it wasn’t OK to say, ‘I want to go house.’”

Ragusi was a seventh grader for only a few months. She then got to attend classes with students closer to her age at New Trier Township High School, not far from where she eyed her future husband, Lou Ragusi, for the first time.

It wasn’t exactly a meet-cute moment.

“He was outside, across the street from New Trier, talking with a bunch of bums,” Ragusi says. “I remember thinking, ‘What’s that Italian boy doing with people like that?’ I was determined to straighten him out. I was going to fix him.”

Lou’s mother sent him to drop off sugar at Lidia’s house one day. The kids talked. Lidia found out Lou worked part-time as a mailman. The mailman later attended culinary school, married Lidia in 1954, and opened Capt’n Nemo’s first sub sandwich shop in Chicago (Clark Street, in 1971) before expanding to other locations, including the one in Winnetka (38 Green Bay Road). The couple raised four children— Sandra, Michael, Steven, and Marc.

Lou died in 2019 at age 88.

“Lou,” Lidia says, “worked hard and was good with people. Customers loved him. He’d offer everybody who entered the shop a taste of soup. I worked with him at times and got to see how much he enjoyed talking with customers and how much they enjoyed being around him.”

The safe at a Capt’n Nemo’s served, at least once, as a makeshift crib for one of the couple’s children during business hours.

“The door to the safe,” a grinning Ragusi says, “stayed open.”

Ragusi wasn’t wild about thrift shops in general when she and her husband walked by the entrance of The Winnetka Thrift Shop for the first time.

“I don’t like (secondhand) clothes,” says the serial volunteer who had donated her time and energy to “get rid of the weeds” at Saints Faith, Hope & Charity Church in Winnetka and deliver flowers to the parishioners, as well as drive seniors to doctor appointments. “But I gave the Winnetka Thrift Shop a second look and I’m so glad I did. It’s a special place, I found out right away. Just like this country is, like Winnetka is. I love all of the people I get to be with at the thrift shop each week, from the volunteers to the staff. We help customers find whatever they need at a good price,

“Volunteering has always been one of my big deals, probably because of my Italian upbringing. Italians … we’re into helping others.”

Revenue at the Winnetka Thrift Shop, which was established in 1912 by Mary Garretson as the Clothing Sales Committee of the Relief & Aid Society and is now managed by Jenifer Hoffman, supports the mission of the Counseling Center of the North Shore (CCNS), located right next to the shop. The Counseling Center of the North Shore— formerly known as Family Service of Winnetka-Northfield—exists primarily to provide quality mental healthcare to those who otherwise would not have access to treatment. In 2023 CCNS subsidized more than $330,000 in care for its clients.

The Winnetka Thrift Shop—“We’re Not Your Ordinary Thrift Shop,” it bills itself—helps make such subsidized care possible. Last year, 28 percent of CCNS’s revenue came from the Winnetka Thrift Shop, notes the center’s executive director, Bob Sanfilippo.

There might not be a bigger Lidia Ragusi fan than Sanfilippo.

“Lidia,” he says, “is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. So delightful. She’s very friendly, has a great smile, and she tells the best stories, all while showing her great smile. She absolutely loves being at the thrift shop.

“Lidia once told me, ‘I should be paying you for the opportunity to volunteer here.’”

The Winnetka Thrift Shop is located at 992 Green Bay Road in Winnetka. For more information, call 847-446-7787 or visit winnetkathriftshop.org. The Counseling Center of the North Shore is located at 992-½ Green Bay Road in Winnetka For more information, call 847-446-8060 or visit ccns.org.