Hard Lessons

All the children were taking some kind of lessons except John. Our son John worked as a caddy at the Braiburn Country Club in Florham Park on weekends. He earned his pin money and put a few dollars in the bank. Every time he earned $18.75 he would buy a bond. He felt he was helping the country fight the war. That was World War II. John is still a very patriotic and religious fellow.

My son Tony worked in one of the large grocery stores after school. The food there was more reasonable than the small grocery store I shopped at so we stopped going there and shopped in the store my son worked at. That way we even saved a little money.

One day a few ladies were parked in the school's parking lot, to pick up the children to take them to C.C.D. at Saint Vincent's in Madison, N.J.

I heard the mayor's wife say to some ladies, “I don't want to give that group of children a ride; they are Italians.”

I didn't say a word. I just filled my car up with that group and one of my children. I drove them to Saint Vincent's for their C.C.D. lessons. While the children were at class I would do my food shopping.

The next day the mayor's wife stopped me in the school hall. She said that she wanted to apologize to me.

I said, “For what?”

She said, “I'm sorry for how I spoke yesterday. I didn't know you were Italian.”

I told her someone had to give them a ride. They couldn't help what nationality they were. So you see, there were still anti-Italian groups in this country at that time. Since I was so light skinned and kept myself and the children well dressed, they would forget that we were Italians. We had to work hard and prove ourselves to overcome prejudice.

The time for graduation had come again. Carmela was going to graduate from the eighth grade. She had many friends -- boys and girls. She was a good girl, loved by all. One and a half months before graduation, we were at a P.T.A. meeting. The teachers were asking us what awards we thought our children were going to receive, on graduation day. They asked me about my daughter Carmela.

I said, “As long as she passes with good grades, I don't expect her to get any awards.” The teachers looked at each other; they thought I was pretty naive.

On graduation day Carmela received awards in Math, English and the American Legion award. Everyone just roared. My husband and I were shaken with joy. We always knew that Carmela was bright, but we never realized she was that smart. She enjoyed going to school. She stayed home only when she was sick.

In September we would have three in high school and two in grammar school. The ones in high school took a bus to go to school. John was a senior. He was not the best in his class but he held his own. He was taking Physics, English, Math and History. He had taken Science and Spanish in his first two years of high school. He was very good in all his math courses. Tony was a sophomore, and Carmela a freshman. Phyl was in the seventh grade and Ann in the fourth grade. They walked to school. They were two smart girls. They received all A's and B's with a C once in a while. They studied hard, on their own. I hardly had to help them in their school work. They would ask me to go to the P.T.A. meetings and when I came home at night, they would both sit up in bed and ask me what I found out in school about them.

My sister-in-law's children were quite grown up by now. They came to visit us and stay for a few days' vacation. I loved children. I always had a nephew or a niece over to stay a few days. Some were from the city; they loved coming to the country and running around freely. They all loved Uncle Tony very much.

Our niece Dolores got married and had six children of her own, but she never forgot how much she enjoyed herself at our home. She had a sister named Roseann; she didn't spend much time at our place. Roseann was born ten years after Dolores. There were three weeks difference between Roseann and Phyl, my fourth child. They went to the same high school and college. She became a science teacher and my daughter a chemist.