A Sicilian in East Harlem By Salvatore Mondello

I grew up I would want to marry a woman with shapely legs. I did.

One of the first comic books I bought for ten cents printed in 1942 was titled “Remember Pearl Harbor.” The cover shows a giant Uncle Sam rolling up the left sleeve of his shirt as he walks over a flaming Pearl Harbor chasing Japanese planes returning to their bases. Inside the comic book there is a picture of a green serpent with the head of Tojo assisting Japanese dive-bombers in their attack on Pearl Harbor. I related to the last story titled “Johnny Remembers Pearl Harbor!” Mr. O’Ryan runs a grocery store and asks Johnny, a blond teenager, if he would like to work after school delivering groceries to his customers. Johnny turns down the offer claiming he has too much homework. Johnny says to himself: “I had to use that homework excuse. I don’t want to work after school. Shucks, it’s no fun.” When he arrives home, he learns that his older brother Tom has volunteered to join the army. Johnny wants to do his part to help his country after Pearl Harbor. He takes the job at O’Ryan’s grocery store and with the money he earns he buys a five-dollar defense saving stamp. He is a member of a stamp collectors’ club and he convinces his friends that the best stamps to buy are defense stamps. Like Johnny, I bought defense stamps in my school and believed I was making a contribution toward winning the war. The stamps I bought were quarter stamps.

I enjoyed comic books featuring western heroes. Lone Ranger titles were among my favorites. In the May 1948 comic titled “The Lone Ranger” the legendary Masked Man and his faithful Indian companion Tonto defeat a gang of cattle rustlers in the