Seventeen years old.

I was in boys trade school.

Worcester Boys Trade School.

The country being bombed and the Japs bombing of Pearl Harbor everyone wanted to leave school and enlist. All my buddies were going in so I wanted to also. I couldn’t enlist though because I was only seventeen so I needed my parents to sign for me, which they did eventually, because I drove them crazy. All my pals were going so I wanted to do my part.

All my buddies were joining so I wanted to join and do my part. This is my country and I wanted to do something.

Oh sure I remember those. Don’t forget we were the most industrial city in the world at one time, we had more industry than any other place in the world. So we were thought to be a target.

No most guys when we were younger wanted to be out at night and see what was going on, something happens you can’t do anything being inside and sheltered. We volunteered for different things, law enforcement or fire department if they needed help.

I was the youngest of four brothers and I had three sisters, one was younger than me.

My father and mother both came from Italy. My mother was always at home, she worked at home. My father worked for a railroad company and owned his own business on the side doing different jobs.

The Boston Railroad or Worcester Railroad. It was in Worcester anyway.

In those days a lot of people owned their owned team of horses. We did different jobs. We used to pick up stuff that needed to be moved. I would help him out driving the horses. My father and brothers would load the cart. We’d take it away. We all worked hard.

Oh yeah we owned our own horses.

Shrewsbury Street. It was the Italian district. There were different nationalities but people got along great, people got along great.

All I know is that it wasn’t in my family, it must have been somewhere else. Not in my family and not the people I know. We were all neighbors. We had to live and let live. We all live in the same country. This is all our country. (Pounding the table with fist). USA number one.

I know some nationalities didn’t feel that way because of the fact that Italy was an ally of Hitler so naturally Italians were watched here in this country. But in the meantime everyday our boys were going in, Italian guys I know, so we told them to get off our back. This is our country and we will fight for this country (Hand on chest gesturing a salute). We don’t need anyone on our back. This is my country. I was born in this country. I feel proud for it and I am proud of it. I have two sons and a girl. My oldest son spent two years in Vietnam, he was in the Marines. My other daughter is married with two children. My other son was in the army, he served overseas, and now he is working in the Worcester Fire Department. He is carrying on the tradition of his grandfather and father.

For over twenty years I served.

Family comes first, yes. The war was something you never expect. Oh sure it came as a shock to everyone. Although some people with more knowledge had to know something was going to happen. Everything going on in Europe other people knew something was going to happen. They knew we would be bombed. I couldn’t understand how we could not know and I couldn’t understand how we didn’t see it coming. If we knew something was coming, why weren’t we prepared for it. We lost a lot at Pearl Harbor. I lost one of my good friends, the first Worcester boy to be killed in WWII and he was my friend.

So people talked about the war before it started, kind of knew it would happen?

Not everyone talked about it, it was in the newspaper. If you didn’t worry it meant you had no faith, or nothing.

Well my family was always close. Big family. It didn’t take the war to do that. My mother had sons overseas. I told my mom to let me go, to sign for me because they would come for me anyway. I thought if they took me they would spare my brother who was her main supporter at but he got drafted a year later. Oh well we had a duty to do.

I can say that for all the friends who went with me. They all felt the same way. We gotta go, if we don’t, what, would they be coming over here.

Well, I don’t know. Sometimes it doesn’t effect people. Well they don’t think about it as much. Unless they watch television and put the news channel on or whatever. It is not around so much. They probably do but its hard to express themselves.

Oh yeah, meat and butter, a bunch of things. My mother would write to me and ask how I was doing. She was worried. I’d ask her how she was doing. I had everything I needed, food everyday and got paid every two weeks. My allotment wasn’t much but I sent home what I could. My mother never complained, they never wanted for anything. They ate good.

No my father died before the war. No no I was in the service when my father passed away. He had a stroke. I was in training in Pensacola, Florida. I was fortunate through the help of the Red Cross I was able to come back to Worcester to see my family. I came back for fifteen days.

Oh yeah, just about everyone went. That’s why we used to say, hey, the Italian boy can serve his country, no reason to be looking down our backs. We know what we have to do, so get off our backs.

Oh yeah as soon as they could enlist. I left after my third year and missed my last year.

Well not everyone was old enough to get drafted or called up. A lot stayed who weren’t old enough yet.

Oh yeah I worked for a tannery. One of the largest leather concerns in the world. Greton and Knight. They were the biggest leather concern in the world. Of course I had odd jobs as well. We handled leather. They used to strip the leather off the cows and we used to cure them. The nice leather they finished to be.

I enjoyed it. I worked in a yard gang. It was a bunch of my buddies. I worked with my friends. We always worked together so the work wasn’t so bad. Sometimes you worked with guys and they wouldn’t say nothing to you but the guys I was with were mostly Italian kids like me. There were some other nationalities. The hill where the shop was on Franklin Street was mostly Italian but there were some Irish and others.

I worked at the tannery. I had nothing to come back to. While I worked there I was married to my first wife Christine, I lost her eleven years ago.

No I got right back into the swing of things. I got my old job back. Then other opportunities came my way, law enforcement or fire department. I always worked. I got married had a family. The war didn’t affect me. Some guys stayed in and collected their twenty-twenties. The biggest change on my life was when I came down with scarlet fever before I was shipped off. My brother went to get the doctor and he took one look at me and wanted me in the hospital right away. I was given six shots of sulphur and I got better. The shots were developed for the war effort so I was saved by the war in a way.

What about the city, did you notice any changes in Worcester?

Some changes. There’s got to be some changes. There were some cutbacks at first. Things were moving along though. Then again things started building up again. Before the war you could work a steady forty hours a week. Sometimes you worked overtime. We were happy. Things were good. I was working good, Greton and Knight. I was going out steady with my first wife and my family was happy. Things were pretty good.

I say.

I was friends with blacks. I ate with blacks. I lived with blacks. I went to boys club with blacks (Pounding fist on table). So help me God. Take people for what they are. God didn’t make one better than the other. I wasn’t raised in this world by my parents to say you hate blacks or you hate this Irish guy. I went and made my own friends. Growing up that’s what happens.

It was my pleasure.