| Chapter 1: | The Family |
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stores. Unlike Alfio Cassara, Salvatore Mondello had friends. He had a drinking buddy, a plumber, and he liked to go to a local bar where he drank and talked with a female companion. His mother, Pauline, lived for more than one hundred years and was cared for by Salvatore’s sister Angelina and her husband Rosario who owned a brownstone property in Brooklyn.
Salvatore Mondello outlived all of his partners and by the 1950’s was the sole owner of the Stockertown Cheese Company, which included the creamery and the only remaining store on Arthur Avenue. Now in his seventies a woman from his village of San Fratello asked him to marry her. Salvatore rejected her offer of marriage believing that marriage was a once in a lifetime affair. Salvatore eventually brought all of his sons into the thriving business. My brother Alfred worked for Salvatore, too. Alfred noted that Salvatore respected his customers and made superior Italian cheeses. His customers came from all parts of the country and racketeers from East Harlem liked to shop there. My paternal grandfather rose from humble beginnings to become a successful businessman in the Italian American community. The success of the early Italian immigrants in East Harlem is the main theme in Garibaldi M. Lapolla’s 1935 novel The Grand Gennaro, the protagonist using whatever means are necessary to get to the top of the rags and metals businesses in Italian East Harlem.
Sammy Rinaldi, a former resident of One Hundred and Seventh Street, bought his cheeses at the Arthur Avenue store. He shopped for Frank Sinatra and sent the singer his favorite Mondello cheeses by plane. Following Salvatore’s death, his sons increased their