By ANDREW SKERRITT
Published April 6, 2007 in the St. Petersburg Times
As he stood watching the birds, his eye sported a boyish gleam. It's as if it was still 1929 and Tony Moretti was standing on the roof of his father's horse stable in Glasgow, Scotland, peeking through the mesh wire and looking at his pigeons.
But Moretti, 86, was visiting a renovated shed in Land O'Lakes where he houses his beloved pigeons - eight proud, cooing thief pouter pigeons and more than two dozen homing pigeons.
"Most pigeon fanciers have been doing it since they were kids," he said. "They never give it up until they have to."
Some of us spend our entire lives trying to forget the things we enjoyed as children. Moretti is one of those people who understand what it's like to never lose your boyhood passion.
He grew up in a household where two of his older brothers kept pigeons. He got his first thief pouter pigeon when he was 9.
Thief pouter pigeons are strange to those who aren't pigeon hobbyists. The owner releases a male or female to entice the opposite sex back to its coop. Some of your pigeons will be captured by other pigeons; others will return with new mates. For pigeon owners, you win some, you lose some.
"It's a game," Moretti said with a wry smile.
Moretti's east Glasgow neighborhood was pretty tough, especially for a Scottish kid with an Italian last name. His grandfather, a supporter of the Italian revolutionary Giuseppi Garibaldi, settled in Scotland in 1850 and married an Irish girl. Other Italians took Scottish names but not the Morettis. As a kid, Tony Moretti got into a lot of fights over his surname.
But nothing came between him and his pigeons until he left Glasgow to join the British military during World War II.
He met Betty, his wife of 61 years, when they were both working in a Rolls-Royce factory during the war. Later they formed a butler/housekeeper duo, working for wealthy families in Scotland. In 1963, he saw a help wanted ad in the Times of London. A Boston family was looking for a couple to work for them in the States. They were hired on the spot.
"We made a good decision when we decided to go into private service together," he said with classic Scot understatement.
The Morettis lived in Massachusetts and later New Hampshire working for wealthy families. Wherever they went, Moretti kept thief pouter and racing pigeons.
However, after he moved to Florida in 1991, the Clearwater mobile home park where he lived allowed cats and dogs, no pigeons. Plus, he was getting too old for pigeon racing, he thought.
So for a while it was just Tony, Betty, and his Scottish dance classes - another passion he indulges in Dunedin on weekends.
After Moretti moved to Land O'Lakes more than four years ago, his older son, Freddie, built a small coop for the birds. His pigeon racing days were over; he showed off his birds at events in Orlando, Inverness and other places in Central Florida.
About three months ago, Freddie helped him renovate an old shed in a friend's yard. Now with a new home for his growing flock, Moretti is in his element again. Birds, eggs, baby pigeons. Soon his thief pouters will be luring in new mates.
It's a long way off from that Glasgow pigeon loft, but the bond between man and bird is still unshakable.
"You can take the man out of the pigeon, but you can never take the pigeon out of the man," he said mischievously. "It's a fascinating hobby."