| Chapter 1: | The Family |
Palisades Park. We enjoyed the World’s Fair of 1939 where I got my first glimpse of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia on the shoulders of my grandfather. On occasion grandpa would take me to the New York Aquarium. On one of those trips he bought me a book on the subject of changing colors among fish. It was published in 1930. It was a book I liked to look at. I still have it in my private library. (The first book that I bought from an elementary school classmate was titled A Child’s Book of Wild Animals.) Grandma stayed home and prepared meals for us when we returned from our outings. Grandpa promised to take me to Italy when he retired from work, telling me how beautiful Sicily was for those with money. He bought two houses in San Fratello in 1924 and allowed his brother Giuseppe and Giuseppe’s son Luigi to live in these properties rent-free.Years later, Alfio managed to sell the house in which Luigi had lived. However, Giuseppe sold Alfio’s house to his daughter Carmelina Cassara who later sold it to Sarafina LaMarca for eight million lire. Grandpa never became an American citizen and never returned to Italy but he and I had enchanting moments imagining what it would be like to live in such an earthly paradise.
I got my education in practicality and moral values from my grandmother. Rosalia was frugal in money matters and conservative in her moral teachings. Every Easter period we went to Grossman’s clothing store to buy my Easter suits. She would bargain fiercely with Mr. Grossman.
“Come on, Sammy,” she would say to me pulling me closer to the door until Mr. Grossman lowered the price to grandma’s satisfaction. She made sure that most of my allowance was saved in