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Page 104: Recollections of John A. Paterno [Taped at the age of eighty-five]
In the year 1909, Uncle Joseph and his wife Jule came to Castelmezzano and made a proposition to my parents. He would assume total responsibility for me if they permitted me to go to the United States. Uncle Joseph said he would provide me with an education and start me off in the business world. The burden of providing the necessities for a large family was indeed a great one, so my parents consented to my going to America escorted by a family friend.
We left the port of Naples, December 3, 1910, and arrived in New York Harbor on December 23, aboard the Cincinnati, a small ship in the 10,000-ton class. I remember that seeing the Statue of Liberty was a thrilling experience. The boat docked and I joined a group taken to Ellis Island. I was a frightened youngster who was away from home and in a strange country where all the officials spoke a language foreign to me. When my name was called, I went trembling to the counter, where a man introduced himself as Uncle Charles. I remember Mama telling me about Uncle Charles and that it was he who had bought the black wood burning stove we used. Uncle Charles told me that Uncle Joseph and Jule were in Egypt on a cruise and he had been asked by Grandma [Carolina Trivigno Paterno] to bring me to her house where I was to stay until Uncle Joseph and Aunt Jule returned.
What a lasting impression that automobile made! It was indeed a luxurious limousine and was chauffeur driven. The speed was exhilarating! When I left Castelmezzano for the railroad station, I rode on a donkey. Now, here I was in this grand large horseless carriage. The ride seemed much too brief. We arrived at grandma’s house in early afternoon. My grandmother seemed to have an instant dislike for me. My aunts, who were still not married, seemed much friendlier and more pleasant. My aunts, Rose (17), Theresa (15) and Christina (12) seemed to be as curious about me as I was about them. They brought me to a room called a parlor, equivalent to our living room, where a large Christmas tree was already adorned with silver tinsel and beautiful colored balls. There were candlestick holders and candles tied on the tree. Naturally, I was overwhelmed since I had not seem a Christmas tree before. Grandma, who had followed us to the parlor stood by and I thought she seemed amused at my surprise. I said to her, “Nana, I feel cold.” She told me to put my hands over and not on what appeared to be a large peculiar shaped object, I later learned it was a radiator. I felt the heat warm my hands; I said, “This is the devil.” Actually, my aunts laughed almost in unison, which embarrassed me. I tried to explain that we did not have such things in Castelmezzano.
Uncle Charles, I learned, lived not too far away in a beautiful palace with his wife Minnie and a two-year-old son, Carlo. I was also informed that Uncle Charles was already a very rich man. This I readily believed, as we had ridden in his elegant auto, which was chauffeur driven. Later that day, my two, as yet, unmarried uncles returned home from work. Uncle Michael and Uncle Anthony, who was just twenty years old, ten years older than I. Celestina, the eldest of grandma’s children, two years older than my father, lived in the house next door with her jolly husband Victor and two daughter, Caroline, who was six month older than I, and Rose Adelaide, about six months younger than I. These two cousins would become good friends of mine.
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