Marc Zangari's Story (My Dad) by Riley Zangari

College

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I took a gap year after high school, but then decided to go to school to study business. I started at Lehigh Carbon Community College, then I ended up moving down to Tampa and studied at Hillsborough Community College, where I got my associate's degree, then University of South Florida, Broward College, and finally graduated from Florida Atlantic University with my bachelor's. My favorite was the University of South Florida; that’s where I met my future wife and joined a fraternity, Sigma Nu, where I met some of my best friends and made some of my best memories. When I was at South Florida, I started off at an apartment with three of my friends. I had so many amazing memories, but we could hardly ever pay the electricity bill. First semester, all of my roommates got all F’s, I was the best of them, two C’s and two withdrawals! After that, we moved into the Sigma Nu house and two other apartments that year. The final apartment was where I met Erin, my wife.

Erin (my wife)

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I met my wife, Erin, when I was at the University of South Florida. She had the apartment right above mine with her best friend, who I had met in passing many times, and I thought she was absolutely beautiful. One day, her best friend's long-term boyfriend was in town. All three of them were going out together, and I decided I was going too. Was I invited? No, and apparently at first she thought I was too “loud and aggressive” for her, but I guess she learned to love it because she kept going out with me. After Erin graduated, she decided to move back to Miami because her sister was about to give birth, while I finished off another semester at South Florida. I visited Miami every single weekend. It was a lot of gas money and a lot of hours in the car, but I didn’t care; I knew that I was going to marry her.

My Old Weekly Drive From USF to Miami

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Zangari Seafood

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After the great recession, moving up to Pennsylvania, bouncing between a few very random jobs, and finally quitting my job as a day trader because I just couldn’t stand wearing a tie every day, I decided I wanted to open a seafood shop. It was an endless amount of work. I had to find a place to open a shop, find suppliers, buy cases, figure out marketing, and countless other tasks. It was an uphill battle, but one of my proudest and most nerve-racking moments of my life was the day Zangari Seafood opened. During the first sale, my friend Craig had to help the customer while I was in the back, crying because my dream that I had worked for so many months to accomplish was finally coming to fruition. The shop has now been open for over a decade. It’s my dream job, and each and every week, I am thankful and excited to go and work at a career that I worked so hard for.

Childhood

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I was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, my parents' first kid, but not even 10 months later, my sister Karen was born. In my early childhood, we moved around in the area quite a few times; starting in Allentown, we moved to my dad’s hometown, Girardville, then to Allentown, and then to the house where I would one day raise my own kids. Because my sister and I were so close in age, we were in the same grade. Although we definitely ran in our own circles, it was nice to know I always had a friend. In our neighborhood, everyone knew everyone. I was hardly ever in my house, really, there were always soccer or street hockey games going on. During one very intense street hockey game, I got in a fight with someone on the other team. Not even a minute later, a car came and ran over my foot. These two events were probably not related, but I took it as karma, and I was unwillingly forced to sit out the street hockey games for a while.

Max's (my oldest son) Wrestling Story

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"Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious... and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths" -Walt Disney

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My Sons and Wrestling

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I wrestled all through high school, and since then, my dream has been to have sons and teach them how to wrestle. When I had my two boys, Max and Major, it wasn’t long until they were on the mat and I was their coach. Max was an excellent wrestler, truly; he never really lost. There was a tournament he was in, and he was doing spectacularly, crushing all his opponents, and he finally reached the final. He was up 5-0. We all thought it was going to be an easy match, and all of a sudden, Max starts crying. It went downhill fast after that. He kept walking off the mat, and he was crying through the whole rest of the match. He lost and quit the sport altogether. I kept coaching, and finally, it was the last tournament of the year. I thought for sure he wouldn’t compete, but I asked Max, and to my surprise, he said he would compete. He ended up winning the whole thing. It was one of the best days of my entire life, but then he quit the next day and hasn’t wrestled since. Major shared the same lack of passion for the sport, unfortunately. I once asked him what his favorite part of wrestling was, and he said leaving. I am hoping for some more passion in my grandchildren.

Raising the Kids

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During the time before opening the seafood shop, I was a stay-at-home dad. My wonderful wife provided for our family as I tried to find my passion. During these years, I got to make the most amazing memories with my kids. Just as I grew up, we were never inside. We played street hockey on the same roads I did, soccer games in any patches of grass we could find, went on "mystery trip Mondays", we hiked just about every trail in eastern Pennsylvania, visited the farmers market weekly, rescued groundhogs, hatched chicks, anything and everything. I just wanted to make their childhoods full and filled with the happiest memories, and those days ended up being some of the happiest of my life.

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Tell me about a passion or interest you have. When did you become interested in this? What should we know about it?

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One day at the seafood shop, a customer gave me a quarter with a slight bit of red paint on it. I love coins and looked into it. It turns out these red coins were used for jukeboxes. Owners would put the quarter in to test the jukebox and get the music started for the night. I loved this. There was something about the coin that made me so happy. One day, I bought a bottle of red nail polish to paint quarters red. Of course, they're not real jukebox quarters, but they turned into a symbol of good luck for me. I had all of my family carry them as a good luck charm and started leaving them around places I would visit for others to find. They make me really happy, and I truly hope it makes those who find them happy, too.

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