| Chapter 1: | The Family |
of the Colonial Sand and Stone Company. By 1918 he and Lawrence Rukeyser bought Colonial from the original owners and by 1926 they controlled most of the sand dealerships in the city. In the following year Pope forced Rukeyser out of all their businesses. Active in politics and the unions, Pope supplied the sand and concrete for the new airports, Radio City, Rockefeller Center, and municipal housing projects. By 1932 Pope owned three Italian-language newspapers in New York City, including Il Progresso and an Italian daily in Philadelphia. He remained, like my grandfather and other Italian immigrants, a staunch supporter of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini until the Fascist dictator joined forces with Germany and Japan in World War II. Pope rehabilitated himself with President Roosevelt by his active participation in the war effort. My grandfather’s news came from Il Progresso and he reported the news to my grandmother and me when I was a child. During the war grandpa lost all of the savings he had deposited in Italian banks. He cursed Mussolini “for stealing my money.”6
My mother had men who dated her. She didn’t like any of them including a gangster, finding them “too good.” Apparently, they were gentlemen. She preferred a suitor with rough edges and fell in love with her distant cousin Benedict Mondello. He was a more “demanding” man than her other dates. Benedict and Rosalie were married in 1930 against the wishes of her parents. Benedict was the second child of Paula and Salvatore Mondello. Benedict had four brothers and an older sister, Rose, who was married to a notorious gangster. Paula died early in life. She was rushed to the hospital