Uncle Antonio Was The Local Conan The Barbarian

      Uncle Antonio was the local, legendary superman, possessing a physique almost identical to a Fazzeta painting of Conan the barbarian. The only differences in physical appearance between my uncle and that of Fazzetta’s Conan, was that Uncle Antonio had short hair and did a comb-back (as opposed to a comb-over) to cover a noticeable bald spot and, instead of a flat stomach, he had a massive, protruding, medicine-ball stomach that was equally as hard as Conan’s. He loved to have men, women, and children hit him as hard as they could in his stomach.

      He would laugh heartily, "Huh, huh, huh," and his entire belly would shake while he was being hit. Most people, even grown men would end up hurting their wrists and their pride. He possessed the same square jaw, large broken nose, and scowling brows as Fazzetta's Conan, and his forearms looked the same, only bigger. His wrists were almost the size of soup cans, and his forearms were the size of bowling pins when he flexed his muscles. Fatty tumors stood out here and there. At the end of his wrist were ham-hock hands that had the strength of vise grips.

      At some point in time after the war, he built a tavern in Trooper, PA, which he owned and operated. He and my aunt Angie lived above the tavern, and he kept it open both days and evenings. It became a favorite hang out of the outlaw biker club, the Warlocks.

      The Warlocks were known for their proclivity for trouble. However, they kept their troubling tendencies to a minimum while they drank at his place. The few times that they got out of line, not only was he able to handle the situation, it was said that he actually enjoyed those confrontations.