When the Willow Glen resident was 22 years old he decided to start a club with six of his closest friends from school, work and his neighborhood. The young men, who grew up in downtown San Jose, were tired of hanging out in pool halls and wanted to form a club to force them to meet weekly.

"One of the guys was going with a girl and we weren't seeing him enough," says a founding member, Bud Mancuso, 86.

So the group held their first meeting in Lacitignola's basement. They decided to hold meetings every Monday at 7:30 p.m.—and the "Seven Thirty Club" was born.

Two of the original members were brothers, and since then many new members, including relatives and close friends, have joined. While the membership grew, the club outgrew several meeting places, until they eventually settled in their current location at the old San Jose Fire Station on N. Eighth Street, and membership is now limited to 50 members.

In 1947 the club bought the property from the city for $4,750 and remodeled it. The top floor is rented out as an apartment, and the club uses the bottom floor for meetings.

In order to raise money during the early years, the club sold raffle tickets for items such as radios and whiskey. And to celebrate their first-year anniversary, club members held their first annual dinner at a club in San Francisco. The club also put on dinner dances.

A moment of silence is observed at the beginning of each meeting to remember members who have died. The elected president addresses old and new business, allows discussion, reports on members or wives who are ill, and, finally, a joke is told.

The meetings are preceded by hors d'oeuvres of olives and bruschetta and end with dessert. Before the meeting, members socialize and play card games.

"The meetings are usually kept to around 20 minutes, especially when there's a Monday night football game on that everyone wants to watch," says Art O'Neil, who is Lacitignola's son-in-law and a member for 24 years.

The club also has an annual "installation" dinner to honor members stepping into new positions, such as president and secretary. Members' wives attend for an evening of dinner and dancing at Three Flames Restaurant in Willow Glen.

The club's main source of revenue comes from its barbecues, which are held on the first Monday of the month in the summer—usually 200 people attend.

During the winter months, a club room dinner is prepared by a preselected committee on the first Monday of each month.

The club also does community outreach, such as buying and serving Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners at various shelters, donating to the American Cancer Society and community colleges and sponsoring Little League teams.

During World War II, 28 members of the club went to war and everyone returned safely, which is "amazing," Mancuso says, and the club resumed.

With each new generation joining, the club may survive another 60 years.

"The camaraderie is so tight that if anything happened to a member we'd be there in a second," says Gary O'Neil, who has only missed five meetings because he was on vacation. "We helped out Jimmy [Lacitignola] when he needed to get a wheelchair."

The youngest member, Marty Oliveri Jr., 35, says he enjoys spending time with his father and grandfather at the club meetings. Once his 11-year-old son turns 21, the minimum age to join, he expects he'll become a member, too.

"We're a male social family," Mancuso says. "We talk about our wives and kids, and they all know each other, too."