DEPARTED FROM
Naples, Italy
ARRIVED IN
Manhattan, New York
YEAR
1955
AGE
9
NOW LIVES IN
Flint, Michigan
TRANSCRIPT
– there, but we came basically through the, you know, the New York harbor or whatever without stopping at Ellis Island, we just went right into the city. And I do remember, we only had…between, there were five of us, two girls and me and my mom and dad. I remember that he had maybe one, two…three, maybe, three suitcases of different sizes. They were all hard-sided but then they were like, covered in leather, you know, typical –
Between the five of you, only three suitcases?
Yeah, we sold everything that we had, all the dressers, armoires, all the furniture. Yeah, couldn’t bring that stuff. So all we had was some clothes changes, some stuff that we treasured and stuff like that. And my dad did bring some liqueur – [laughs]
[Laughs] Can’t get any of that in America.
– and some gold. Yeah, he brought some gifts for my aunt, my mother’s brothers’ wives. Got them a gold bracelet and got them some gold-covered espresso cups.
Oh, that’s nice.
He probably spent more money on that than he did on our voyage.
[Laughs] Where was your family staying?
There we saw my uncles, my dad’s uncles. I think that my youngest uncle, my mom’s younger brother, came to pick us up from Flint. We came right here because that’s where everybody was living.
How did you guys get from New York to Flint, like from the port to Flint?
My uncle picked us up. I don’t know if he had one of those big Mercurys, you know, like the B-52s says, “Big as a whale,” you know, those big cars with the fins and all that. Yeah. So you know, of course, we were in awe of everything. You know, the building, of height, and New York. We didn’t do much traveling around there. I do remember that we spent some time with my dad’s uncles in Hoboken, and got to meet them, because I never really met them before. They were always over here, and when they’d come back to Italy, they would spend time with their family, and they lived in a little different city anyway.
And you said you were like nine or ten around this time, right?
I was nine.
Yeah, pretty young.
So that’s why I remember that kind of stuff. And I do remember living with my grandmother for, I don’t know, four years, from ’55 to maybe to ’59?
In Flint?
On Cornelia Street, which was… The home’s all gone now. It basically borders the south end of University Park, which is a new housing development they have there, and it’s maybe a block or so north of Doyle Ryder. And that’s a school I attended my first year later that Fall when I came in ’55.
So why did why did your family choose Flint out of all the places – because of the GM plants, would you say?
Not necessarily the GM plants. We came here because my mother, remember, wanted to be with her family. And her family –
They were already in Flint?
They lived here. Yeah, they were already here. See, my grandfather initially went to Chicago. Her dad initially went to Chicago. From Chicago, he worked on a railroad and he worked with his cousin, de Niccolo. His name was John de Niccolo. And they built the railroad coming over here. From Chicago, coming here, to Flint. And the Clio, which was – actually, it’s not Clio, it’s CL10. That’s what the railroad people called it. That’s how it got its name, Clio. CL10 is Clio.
So when they got to Flint, that’s when they stopped. My grandfather’s cousin went to live in Mt. Morris/Clio area, had an apple farm, and my grandfather stayed here. And that’s where his sons came, and his wife ultimately came. So they lived in a house on Cornelia, and then when we came, that’s why we came to Flint, we lived –
