|
Click for a 19 page sample from The
Gucci Family History
Excerpt from a 81 year old man.
Excerpt from a 70 year old mother of three
and grandmother of four.
Excerpt from a 64-year-old mother of six and
grandmother of 10
Excerpt from a 75 year old Father of three
and grandfather of four
From an 81 Year old man, Appetites Are Made, Not Born
When my family came over to the United States and arrived at
Ellis Island, we were detained for two weeks because my sister
had the measles. We were living in another area and, believe me,
we learned a lot of things during those two weeks.
That was the first time, for instance, I ever saw white bread
and the first time I experienced walking away with food still
left on the table. Back home, all the food was gone before
anybody left. But here, there would be leftover white bread, and
jam and jellies. I remember writing home to a friend about how
amazed I was. Even now, as you can see by my physique, it’s hard
for me to leave a table with food remaining.
We didn’t speak much English and so we were vulnerable to the
hucksters who gathered in for the kill. My mother had managed to
bring a little money with her and one day I got hold of a $5
gold piece, I think it was, and purchased a box of marshmallows
from this huckster. I had never seen a marshmallow before. Well,
I went off to a corner and ate this whole box of marshmallows by
myself. Boy, did I get sick. And ever since, I can’t stand the
thought of eating marshmallows. You can toast ‘em or roast ‘em,
I want nothing to do with marshmallows.
I still couldn’t speak much English when my family arrived in
New York. I was in the first grade and was 11 years old but
there wasn’t much to be done about it until I learned the
language. My dad could speak some English and worked hard to
impress on us the importance of learning the language. Every
night, he would point to whatever we were eating and say “pork
chop” or “chicken” and the next time that food was served if we
didn’t call it by its English name we didn’t eat. We learned to
speak English rapidly.
We arrived here in December and I remember well the first
Fourth of July holiday. Going to school was a real struggle
because the kids made so much fun of me for being a foreigner.
Well, there was a July 4th celebration in town, with fireworks
and all. I walked up town with my new pair of breeches, new
shoes and cap. The town bully walked up to me (and I won’t tell
you who he was because his family’s still in town), pulled off
my cap, stuck a three-inch firecracker in it, and blew it apart.
I was so infuriated, I hit him, wrestled him to the ground, and
gave him a thorough beating.
The next day my father found out about it and gave me the
only licken’ I ever received in my life because I disgraced the
family by fighting in public. But the kids at school were
excited because I took care of the town bully and from that time
on I had a lot of friends. So that took care of my problems at
school and I had friends from then on.
But that taught me to have respect for people who are
different. Kids aren’t much different today, you know. They
still make fun of children who talk differently or come from a
different background. Or they’ll make fun of kids who are
handicapped. That’s always bothered me and it’s not right, but
kids will probably always be that way as long as parents don’t
teach them otherwise.
This excerpt is from a 70 year old mother of three and
grandmother of four.
"Growing up I was raised on Italian food -- every day of the
week. You know as kids we walked everywhere; that's why we were
all so extra thin. And when you walked down the long blocks of
row houses, you could smell what everyone was cooking. There
were Irish and Italian families and you could smell supper
cooking by just walking by. Each day of the week the Italian
families cooked the same thing. Monday was soup night and if you
were lucky you had meat in your soup. If not, it was pepper and
eggs. Tuesday you had spaghetti and meatballs. Mondays,
Thursdays and Sundays were spaghetti days. Wednesdays you had
some kind of greens. Saturday was Hoagie day. Everyone in the
neighborhood had the same thing to eat each night.”
"This was a great time to be kids. We didn't have much but it
was a great life, and we were happy with what we had. Our
playground was the city street and we were not allowed out of
the neighborhood. I was in my teens when I was first allowed out
of the neighborhood and that was to go to work. We walked to
work and back home again, in all kinds of weather. When we
started dating the boy had to be somebody from the
neighborhood.”
"As kids we'd be out in the streets all the time -- playing
marbles, hop scotch, jump rope. We'd have to be called in for
dinner; otherwise we'd stay out and play all night. I never rode
a bike for years because most of us didn't have a bike. Some kid
up the block whose family had a little money would have a bike
and we'd take turns riding that bike. It was the same with
skates; nobody had skates. We had to borrow them when we went
skating. I never knew what a swimming pool was either.”
"I went to high school but had to quit so I never graduated.
I had to go to work when I was16. All my brothers did, too. I
got a job as a waitress, at the B&O Railroad where the army and
navy guys stopped in for a cup of coffee. I'd get a 10-cent tip
for each cup of coffee and made a lot of tips. That was a lot of
money then.”
"One thing I remember my dad saying often was, "Rich people
may have lots of money and be millionaires but they don't have
common sense and they don't have any manners." He had come
across a lot of big shots at RCA and that's the opinion he
formed of them all.”
When asked who was her hero - whom did she most admire and
why, Marie thought for a bit and then answered:
"There's quite a few people I admire a lot. I admire my
parents, first of all, because coming to new a new country was
so hard in those days, and they provided very well for us. I
also admired Pope John very much. I liked a number of
Presidents. Mostly my family was Democrat and we admired FDR the
most. FDR was all we heard about growing up and we thought he
was the greatest president of all."
Marie then talked about what she was most proud of in life
and what she would do differently if given the chance.
“My kids are my pride. I stayed home and raised then and they
are what I am most proud of. I did the best I could for all of
them and am proud of each one of them. And I have three great
daughters. The girls are all pretty close.”
"If I had to do it all over again, and if I wasn't married, I
would pick a career for myself. We didn’t' have the chances like
the kids do today. If I had any talent, I'd prefer doing
something in the music or entertainment field. I'd be a singer
and make people happy. I admire good singers and dancers. If
wish I had some of their talent when I was young. I would have
put it to good use.”
Marie leaves this advice for her children and
grandchildren.
“Just be yourself. Don't be a bully, but you do have to
protect yourself. Be honest, healthy and happy, and be nice to
others.”
Excerpt from a 64-year-old mother of six and grandmother of
10.
"I was the youngest child in my family, the fourth and last
child of Miller Clyde and Mabel Donalds. My mother died from the
complications of my birth five days later. I was raised for most
of my childhood by Mary Johnson whom we all called Aunti, along
with my sister Martha and brothers Richard and John in the town
of Dundee, Michigan. Aunti also had her own family - daughter
Edith and twin sisters Ethel and Edna. Aunti was age 75 when
Martha, Richard, John and I went to live with her.
"Aunti wanted to make sure we girls were raised as young
ladies and so Edith, Ethel, Edna, Martha and I each were given
piano lessons which we had regularly for nine years. She even
purchased a piano. Martha became an accomplished pianist but I
just played for fun. Aunti also taught us manners and how to be
civil to others, especially to never gossip about anyone. Later
my father remarried and we kids returned to my father's new home
to live, which I recall as being in Caledonia, Ohio. But I am
still indebted to Aunti for the great influence she had on my
life.
"Scarlet fever was spreading widely through the Dundee area
during my childhood and the best thing to do was fumigate every
room in the house, which was what Aunti did. Among the items put
away because they might have been laden with germs was my rag
doll which my half-sister Edith also played with all the time.
Well, Edith found out where Aunti had hidden the rag doll,
played with it, was stricken with Scarlet Fever and died. In a
way, it wasn't fair that Edith should die just from playing with
a rag doll but things like this we eventually have to accept and
get on with our lives.”
"Aunti had told us how she had met her husband, who was a
Civil War Veteran, on a blind date. By pre-arrangement, each
wore a white carnation and met in a hotel in Toledo. Aunti, not
wanting to take any chances, kept her carnation hidden away in
her purse until she could get a good look at this young man. She
liked what she saw and put her carnation on her lapel. She later
married Richard Johnson a marriage that lasted 10 years until he
died of pneumonia.”
"My Uncle Richard was a gentleman farmer and a member of the
Grange. Aunti supported her husband's interested and became
active in community life in Dundee, including becoming very
active in the Grange Auxiliary. That made quite an impression on
me and was an example I would follow later in life.”
"My sister and cousins each had her own set of friends, and
so I was never allowed to be a tag-a-long sister. I learned
early on to be independent and self-reliant. I learned about
finances from Aunti. When I was 10, the wife of the town banker
who lived across the street asked me to help her with her
banking. She paid me a nickel for going to the bank, cashing
checks, and depositing money.”
“I attended Michigan Normal College, which we now know as
Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. At first I was on a
study program to become a teacher but I really wanted to be a
journalist like Martha or interior decorator. When Ralph and I
got married, though, I decided I would finish up as a teacher.
After being interviewed by the Battle Creek School district I
was offered $1,250 per year to teach sixth grade. Ralph and I
were married right after school was out in August.”
"One of the teachers in Battle Creek, who became a close
friend, advised me not to tell anyone I was married until after
school had started. I continued living in Battle Creek during
the week and went home to Ann Arbor on weekends. That was pretty
good advice because at that time school boards wanted single
women for teachers and frowned on instructors getting married.”
"The next year I got a job in Ann Arbor as a substitute
teacher, working for 40 cents an hour, and so I ended my weekend
commuting and stayed home for good. One of my fondest memories
from these years is getting a new dress after our first year of
marriage."
"Ralph and I may have never met if it wasn’t for the Great
Depression which is why he ended up attending Eastern. In high
school, Ralph was working at a clothing store in Plymouth owned
by John Hayward. He became a valuable salesman and may have made
a career as a retailer except that the Depression and payment in
script persuaded Ralph his best interests lay in attending
college. So he enrolled in Eastern Michigan University in 1934.”
"Mr. Hayward had opened a second store in Ypsilanti and so at
first Ralph attended Eastern as a part-time student while still
selling men’s clothing. Before long, though, Ralph got a job at
the Student Union Center, working the counter, dining hall,
banquets weekly social dances, and other social affairs. He soon
became manager of the men’s union building and joined the golf
team.”
"Ralph left college one term short of graduating to go into
business with his uncle. At the end of the term, after a
two-year romance, Ralph and I were married on August 10, 1937.
We spent our honeymoon at the Windermere House in the Muskoka
Lakes in Canada. For the next 30 years we would spend every
anniversary back at the Windermere House.”
This excerpt is from a 75 year old Father of three and
grandfather of four.
"Both of my parents were born in Italy -- my mother in a
small town called Abruzzi, my father in Campo Basso, a town near
Naples and Rome. Both came over to the U.S. through Ellis Island
with their parents."
"Both came here in the early 1900s and married at a young
age. They got married in the U.S. in their teen years. They came
here, like everyone else, because the U.S. was paved with
streets of gold. Where my mother lived in Italy they used to go
up to the mountain to get drinking water and bring it back to
the house. And there were no bath facilities. My father was a
little better off in Italy."
"My mother came with her father, Joseph DeAngelo (whom I was
named after), and her brother, Costantino DeAngelo. My mother
lived with her brother, with whom she was very close, until she
married my father. My dad came with both parents, two brothers
and a sister. My dad arrived earlier than my mother did but both
came in the 1900s."
"My father was a jack-of-all-trades and picked up a number of
new jobs over here. He drove the PRT trolley cars for a while
and then went into street paving which was probably his biggest
job. He made and sold socks at one time, and had a farm in New
Jersey."
"My mother and father were living in Philadelphia when they
married. In those days the man was the supreme commander. My dad
was living with his mother at the time so they moved into his
mother's house. He would get his paycheck and turn his pay over
to his mother. That's what they did in Italy and its what they
continued to do over here."
"We used to play games in the streets as kids. We'd take a
bunch of string or rags and wrap them with tape for a ball. And
we'd use a broomstick for a bat. We had a rule that if you hit
the ball hard enough that it went up on a roof the batter would
have to go get it. So when you 'roofed a ball' you'd go climb up
on top of the roof to retrieve the ball so the game could
continue.
"I attended Benson Junior High and from there went to South
Philly High. I spent a couple years in high school but never
graduated. I had to go to work at age 16. Everybody in the
family had to do their share to keep things going. My first job
that meant something was at a leather factory making handbags
for $19 a week. The one before that I was a huckster, selling
fruits and vegetables."
"Hucksters would go through the city with a horse and buggy
or an old truck and would carry whatever we were selling in a
basket. We'd walk down the street and yell out whatever we were
selling, "Tomatoes, Five Cents a basket! Potatoes, Ten Cents a
basket! We'd go through all the bad neighborhoods but it didn't
make any difference. They were tough guys but we were tough,
too. Most of time kids had to be tough growing up in South
Philly. “
“I met my wife through my sister. Marie worked with my sister
and when we were first introduced I think she hated me. But I
called her again and again and we dated for about a year and
half before we took the plunge. That was 52 years ago. Our first
date was a New Year's Eve Dance when my buddies and I had a
party and invited girls to the party.”
“World War II, of course, started in December 1941 and I
enlisted in March 1942. My mother was against me joining the
Army. I was working at the time. My parents had to sign for me
because I was 19 years old and still a minor. At first they
wouldn't sign. I became a miserable person. I wouldn’t eat or
talk to anyone so they finally decided they might as well go
ahead and sign for me.”
"I took basic training at Camp Lee, Va. and from there went
to Camp Wallace in Texas. Then I was sent to the state of
Washington and lived in a big park there. I took the test for a
radio operator and did well with the Morse code so I became a
radio operator. Then I was sent to Seattle and from there to
Puget Sound.”
"When I went overseas, I was put on a boat called the SS
McHale, which was an old German mule boat that took war mules to
Germany. By July 1942 I was overseas. I first landed in Dutch
Harbor and at that time the Japanese were attacking Midway and
the Aleutian Islands. I was on one of the Aleutian Islands and
boy that was no vacation. There were no trees, just tundra or
wild grass, and it was damp and foggy all the time. I was
assigned to headquarters battery of an anti-aircraft outfit.”
"I had never been anywhere in my life and so there were lots
of things to see and places to go. That's why I never minded the
Army; it was like an education to me, I was on this one island
four or five months and then was shipped to Adak, another island
on the Aleutian chain. There were no people on Adak when we
arrived. Whoever was living there (they called the natives the
"Aleuts") were evacuated when the war broke out.”
"Dutch Harbor had been attacked and bombed before we got
there. It was bombed pretty good; they sunk a couple ships still
in the harbor. The Marines were there at the time we arrived.
Because of the Aurora (or Northern Lights) it didn't get dark
until 10 or 11 at night.”
"After serving in the Aleutians, I was sent back to the
states for almost a year. I wound up in Boston, then went to
Europe at the time when the Germans broke the line and things
didn't look real good for us at the time. I landed in Glasgow,
Scotland, and then went across the channel to Marcie, France.
The camps were named after cigarettes and we landed in Camp
Lucky Strike. I was always freezing, no matter how many clothes
I had on. Then we went to Holland and then into Germany.”
"Before I was sent to Germany I was in a replacement outfit,
called the Repo Depot. I was a radio operator and they were
going to put me in the infantry as a forward observer. I asked
what a forward observer was and they told me that job put you
between the U.S. and the Germans and that I'd be directing the
bombing traffic. Fortunately, they needed a radio operator so I
went into Central Germany as a radio operator and spent the rest
of my time there. The group that went into the area they were
going to send me as a forward observer was a bunch of guys from
California. Those poor guys could never get used to the weather
and they were given the wrong kind of clothing to wear. They
ended up getting massacred. I would have been part of that fight
if they didn't need me elsewhere.”
|
