The year is 1999. My sister and I are sitting with my nonna at the upstairs kitchen table, the espresso humming and whistling in excitement on the stove. It is morning but still dark outside, and my mom has just dropped us off on her way to work. When I think of my mornings that year, what comes to mind is my nonna’s dark green robe; a bowl of hard-boiled eggs in the middle of the kitchen table; my nonno’s morning grapefruit slices, which he doled out generously; and the TV show I would watch every day before we headed over to our elementary school down the street. With the light cascading through the window as I lay on the long couch, I gleefully change the channel—no more boring Italian news. Real Kids, Real Adventures is about to begin. 

Real Kids was a Daytime Emmy-nominated anthology series ...