Early Years

I was born in a house on Main Street, Madison, New Jersey on October 9, 1905. When I was one, my parents bought a house on North Street in an Italian neighborhood. My mother was married twice. By the first marriage, to a man named Varro, she had five children: three sons and two daughters. By the second marriage, to a man named Zaccagnio, she had me and my two brothers, so we were eight children in the family. It was my father's first marriage. He was 42 and my mother 38 when they married. My mother was a very fine person. She worked hard. She and I were very good friends, also. At the end of the day she loved to sit with me and talk of the happenings of the day. My father was an easy-going man. He worked very hard and provided a good living for us. His name was Frank. My mother's name was Carmela. My father always said to be proud you are an American but don't forget you are from Italian extraction.

In our neighborhood the people all had large families so there was never a lack of friends. Most of the people were not wealthy, but quite happy. I was well liked by all my friends. My oldest sister Cora worked for very wealthy people. They gave her their discarded clothes and she would salvage as many as she could for me. She could sew and did the clothes over to fit me. She loved me very much. She is 11 years older than I. She managed to make me look well dressed. I am light-skinned and easy-going. She is sort of dark-skinned, so she was proud to have me say I was her sister. My older sister was 26 when she got married to a fellow named Virgil a few years younger than herself; they had a good marriage. They have two daughters who graduated from The College of Saint Elizabeth.

My other sister, Louise, is three years older than myself. She married when she was 17. She had a hard life with her husband. He used to hit her for the least little thing, so she left him. A few years later she remarried and went to live in California. While there, she had an accident and has not been the same since.

My youngest half-brother, Frank, was a very good friend of mine. He was in the Army during World War I. When he came home, he came to get me from school and took me to Newark, N.J. He bought me a pair of high top shoes. They were beautiful. He lived with an uncle in Newark for quite a while. My oldest half-brother, Sardi, married a Hungarian girl and they had 11 children: three boys and eight girls. My half-brother Mike also was in World War I. He drove trucks and ambulances. Mother was always praying for God to watch over them. When he came back from the war, he met a Jewish girl, fell in love with her and married her. They had one son named Albert. When it was a Jewish holiday, Albert would stay out of school and say he was Jewish. When it was a Catholic holiday, he would stay home and say he was Catholic. Albert ended up marrying a Catholic girl and he became Catholic. He had two children, a son and a daughter. My three half-brothers have all passed away; two sisters-in-law have also passed away, as well as two nephews and one niece.

When I was about six years old, my mother told me to push the baby carriage back and forth and put the baby to sleep. I did. When the baby went to sleep, I went outside and joined a few of my friends who were making mud pies. I made mine and put them in my clean dress. When the baby cried, my mother came out to find me, and she was very angry to find that I had soiled the clean dress. I never did that again.

As children we did not have many toys. Every family had a little red wagon. We gathered stones from the garden with it, sticks to start our kitchen stove, and also played with it. If there was a baby in the family we would pull the baby in it. We had old pots and pans to play with. We had chickens for fresh eggs, rabbits, and a pig. We killed the pig in the fall. Then we had fresh pork, cured pork, sausage, lard, ham, and bacon.

We also had fruit trees: apples, pears and plums. We would jar some and dry some. We would all go out and get blackberries and my mother would make pies and jellies. Our cellars were always full. We always had plenty to eat. When we picked too many blackberries, we would sell the surplus. Our friends were glad to buy them since they were reasonable and fresh. We always had fun going berry picking with three or four girls and an adult.

I went to grammar school in Madison. We used to walk one mile to go to school. We came home for lunch. They always had two first grades, two second grades and so on. I was always in the brighter grade with friends from a different part of town. I used to love to do the flag pole dance. We would have a boy and a girl, and weave in and out. The Christmas plays were great. I usually had some part in the Christmas play.

One day I was playing on the swings. Another girl wanted my swing. Without warning, she grabbed my swing and stopped it. I was taken by surprise. I fell and the swing hit the bridge of my nose. My nose was bleeding something awful. The school nurse took me to the doctor. Somehow he stopped the blood and bandaged me up. The nurse took me home. My mother was frantic when she saw me. The nurse had to tell her all about the accident. I was in the fifth grade when that happened.

I was pretty bright in school. My friends all admired me. When we graduated from eighth grade, we dressed in white, got a diploma and that was it. There was no ceremony. Our parents didn't even come. In those days, the Italians did not believe in sending their daughters to work young. They stayed home and helped their mothers with housework and cooking. The parents figured also that if the girls went away to work they could get into trouble. I went to school until I was a junior in high school. Then my father decided, “No more school. Girls should learn to keep house and get married.” By then I was allowed to go to work. I cried. I loved school very much. I kept in touch with some of the teachers for a good many years. I went to work in a dress factory in Summit, N.J. I had wanted to be a teacher, so I was quite unhappy about it.

It was the same with the boys as the girls. Just a handful went beyond the eighth grade. Their parents figured that if they went to work they could earn money and help with the bills. My two younger brothers did graduate from high school. They worked for Otis Elevator Company in Harrison, N.J., in an office. They are now retired. Tony is 70 years old and Nick is 67. We are three years apart.

As we were growing up Tony and I were very close. We picked blackberries together and played together. One day my father was upset that no one took care of our dog, so he called me and my brother and told us to take him to the dog pound. We went half way, then we stopped and had a little conference. We decided to take the dog back home. We would promise to take care of him and share our meals with the dog. My father was not sold on the idea, but he gave in. We kept our dog until he got old and died.

My brother Tony has one son named Frank and my other brother Nick has one daughter named Irene. One lives in Arizona and the other in North Carolina. [I have two sons and three daughters, named John, Tony, Carmela, Philomena, and Ann.]

I was 17 when I had to quit school. We did not start school until we were seven in those days. The children of today start at five and are much brighter than in our days. At five we were still very attached to our mothers. Today the young ones have more of a chance to express themselves and tell us what they think, which I think is progress. Today many of my grandchildren have graduated from college and some are still in college. I am happy for them. When I grew up, college was almost unheard of in our Italian section of town. Our parents did the best they could. They impressed on us not to lie, to be good religious people, and to work hard for whatever we wanted. If we did that, we would go far into this world.

My oldest sister got married when I was 15 years old. She had a large wedding. I was a bridesmaid for her. She had four bridesmaids and one maid of honor, four ushers and a best man. My husband-to-be was about 18 at that time. He was dancing with me and he said, “I don't think I stand a chance with you. I hear you are going to be a teacher.” He never gave up the thought, so eventually when I was 18 and he 22 we got engaged to each other.