Interview Transcript:

D            Qual e stata la ragione perche hai l’immigrazione in Canada dal Italia

R             When we came to Canada?

D            The reason why

R             The reason why? Poverty.. In Italy

D            Okay

R             There was no work, no way of making a living although... it could have been however, due to the family tree and family events we ahh… we decided to emigrate and so my father emigrated to Canada as a herdsman.

D            Ahh

R             He looked after cows and milked them, that was the way it was. And when we first came here we were on a farm. We were there for a while. Farmer wasn’t happy with the kids performance, we were five kids, he didn’t like kids. So we had to move. We moved location... and my dad went to work in construction, that was his field anyways. So we went to school.

D            Ah, who was your sponsor when you came?

R             The ah farmer, Skally, was the sponsor, along with my grandfather, from um Utica, New york, United States. They were the sponsors.

D            Okay. Ah, where did you first come?

R             Say again honey?

D            Where did you first come to… where did, where did you land when you came to Canada?

R             We ah came by ship.

D            Mhm.

R             Went to Nova Scotia, to Halifax and then from there trained to Montreal and we got met in Montreal train station by my grandfather and some of his friends and my aunt Carmella and we drove to Brockville, to Prescott by car the next day.

D            Do you know why you moved to Canada instead of moving to ah, the United States where you already had family?

R             Immigration ah, abilities. The United States had a closed border at that time. Nobody emigrated to the United states at that time unless you were familiar or  had family, which, my mother and the kids could have located to the United States through the fact that her mother and father and sister was already there and then ah, and then she could have applied and made papers for my father to come. But my mother wouldn't hear of that. She wouldn’t separate, not happening. We’d have to find another way and that’s the reason that we emigrated to Canada.

D            Huh. What was life like when you first got here?

R             Ahhm, about three feet of snow.

D            *Giggling*

R             Cold and miserable.

D            How old were you?

R             How was it for me?

D            How old were you?

R             How old was I? Thirteen.

D            Okay.

R             This is ah, March 1952.

D            Crazy… umm. Did you leave much family behind in Italy?

R             Well we left some ah cousins. Second cousins, third cousins. Not the whole, not the whole family perse because all my fathers’ brothers had all emigrated earlier to Australia.

D            Had your mother considered going to Australia at all?

R             No. Nope, I was the only one who was going to go there, to  emigrate to Australia.

D            Oh. What was the reason?

R             Well my uncle wanted me there. And um, my father wouldn’t have minded me going but my ah grandfather didn’t like the idea, no uncertain term.

D            Ohh… What was growing up in Italy like?

R             Ahh it was okay, we were kids. We had ah, we had ah neighbours to play with and we had no money to spend perse. Ahhm… (lag in connection)

D            Oh hang on… what, sorry can you repeat whatever you just said?

R             Okay, so growing up in Italy, it was okay, it was okay perse. We didn’t have a lot of food to eat, we didn’t have but we made do. We didn’t have everything we wanted but we made do. Shortly after the war ahhm, but my grandfather had a bit of a farm and he had growth so we didn’t go hungry by, by any means.

D            Mhm

R             We used to… (lag in connection)

D            Sorry you said you had plums?

R             Yeah (unintelligible)

D            Aha.

R             And he’d give us animals and an IIU an, an, IOU.

D            Umm. Okay ah, is there any other stories or anything like that that you recall from Italy?

R             Ahh, lots of stories. But ah, but then I was ya know, thirteen or fourteen years old, young… (Unintelligible)

R             Anyway, there was the one story where we would grow wheat and turn it into flour and the police would come and confiscate a certain amount of it. And they would give us, give my grandfather and an IOU.

S             Was that scary for you?

R             It was scary for me, yeah.

S             Did it like, was it for the other kids? Do you recall that being like frightening to you as a child? Were they ever mean? Or were they decent?

R             No they weren’t mean, perse. But ah, it was scary all the same. At a young age, somebody would have to say the cops are coming and I would be shaky in my boots, I would run into my mother... for protection or my grandfather, whoever was in there. That was the way it was.

D            Do you remember what Italy was like during the war?

R             Well the part of Italy that I did see, I remember it, and it was nice, and it’s beautiful to look at. Italy is a beautiful country. And now you can visualize it for what it is, back then it was a little tougher.

D            Mhm.

R             We didn’t ah, we didn’t have a lot of money to go travelling. So there were little villages and towns nearby that we did get to see. There was nice stuff there, it was nice to see, nice to look at. I remember that part. But ahm, life was hard, life was hard. You had to work, you had to do things to make a living. You did many different things. Ah, my parents wore different hats. My mother did a lot of sewing. My father worked construction, worked as a delivery person, and worked the farm with his father. So it was, it was hard... It was hard, wasn’t an easy life. And there wasn’t much money being made, that’s the way it was. I’m not, I’m not… (unintelligible) anything about it to change it, that was life in, in the fast lane as it was back in the day. I’m sure it’s not the way it is today and I don’t know the Italian laws these days. I know the government is kind of muddled up over there, they changed the government, they changed the act. But ah, that was the way it was.

D            Right. Was it better once you moved to Canada?

R             Ahh, eventually it did get better. We grew up here, were growin up here. We went to school, tried to go to school. Me I fell through the cracks. But then I, I persevered. I worked, worked construction, I worked many jobs. I learned, I learned about hard work, I learned the meaning of it. I worked on the seaway, pouring concrete, at the locks for two years, worked on the 401 for three and a half.

S             Domenica, grandpa was on the construction crew that put the 401 through to Windsor, he was part of that. So there was no 401 out to Windsor until your grandfather was on the, on construction and he was on the crew that worked on the 401 out all the way to Windsor.

D            Ohh.

R             Yeah, worked on that section. Worked on the Prescott section. So that, was ah, done and we went to (unintelligible) and came home and stayed. And I was home for the winter, not for too long, until January tenth or twelth I got another job. That’s the way it was. When I got the next job I worked in, for a Mr Ragutto doin’ tile work. And then I went to work for Floor and Wall. In the meantime I met your grandmother, was takin her out. I promised her a brick house…

S             Oh knock it off.

R             We managed to build one. That’s life today... We got a nice home.

S             Ohh knock it off!

R             Okay, Okayy.

S             Che cazzo fai?!

R             So, eventually I started my own business after workin’ for Floor and Wall for seven years. And I, I  started on my own business, worked outta the backyard garage for three and half, four years. Then there was a piece of property on highway 29. 3039, highway 29, I bought that property, put a building up, somebody wanted to rent it out. (unintelligible)... Supplies rented that building and I built another building for myself, Maggio Flooring. And from then, business flourished, I hired men because prior to that I was workin’ all alone pretty much except for my kid brother Jimmy who worked with me on, on ah Sunday, on weekends and ah Summer, after summer school was over, school was over and summer was on, he worked for the summer.

D            That’s good.

R             Eventually, I put another addition, and another addition, and another addition… and another addition to which became a store from four thousand square foot to twenty thousand square feet and we occupied the whole thing. And we built on that. Started doin’ jobs across Eastern Ontario, from Bellville to Cornwall, Ottawa, Pembroke, and surrounding area, we worked anywhere we, we could get a job. And we’d estimate the work and send men to do the job and I would go and I would go and work with them, alongside from time to time. But ah, that’s the way it was. And we managed to flourish and have a good company, worked honestly, and we were trustworthy. People would give us keys and they’d go away for the winter and I still have many of those keys in my trust. And people would go away and leave us the keys to do the work during the wintertime while they were away, that’s how much trust we have, which I find very, very rare. Very rare to have that kind of integrity and trust like that, I find that to be next to none… Pretty proud of that.

D            You should be… Umm… your siblings stayed in school though right?

R             That’s right.

D            Ahh, did Uncle Carmen?

R             Go to school?

D            Yeah.

R             Oh yes, he went to school. Along with me and Mimi, Concetta. They were younger, they did better in school than, than Carmen and I did and Gino even. Because they were younger, and they did better. We had a hard time learning English. I took classes, grade, grade nine and ten, and high school, night class just to pronounce the language and be better at pronouncing the language. Pronounce it so that you could understand it better which would help me, y’know.

D            Well that’s good.

R             Yeah… I think on the whole the whole family did okay. We did well.

D            Mhm.

R             Um, your uncle Carmen got a job at R.C. Victor he worked there for four years... I wasn’t indoor, an indoor worker, I had to work construction, I wanted work, to be outside. I liked it, I liked that best and I, and I did okay. And I got married, to your, to your grandmother. And along came your mother and your auntie.

D            Mhm.

R             Which I’m pretty proud of that… Very proud of that. And then you grandchildren came along and I’m pretty proud of that too... That’s life in the fast lane. And now I’m old, grey and sick and senile... I still like to go to work, I enjoy work very much, I’m 80 years old and I still love to go to work. I worked all my life.

D            How did you meet Nana?

R             I walked into a bookstore, and she was workin’ behind the counter and I asked her out for a coffee. I picked her up that night, a Saturday night, and we went out for a coffee. And after a couple of hours I took her home and asked her for another date and we went out again and again and again and the rest is history.

D            How old were you?

R             I think I was twenty years old, she was sixteen… I didn’t know that.

D            *Giggling*

S             Can you imagine that being okay with your mother?

D            Noo.

S             If Isabella came home with a twenty-year-old? Hah! Think about that.

R             Your Nana was mature for her age.

S             Yeah, so’s Isabella, you’d still have a freak out if she came home with a twenty-year-old.

R             Yes, that’s right.

S             *Giggling*

R             That is right, however, it is what it is.

D            And your family liked her, when you brought her home?

R             Yes. Oh yes, my mother… my mother thought I better be, be behaving and treat her right because she’s for me. My mother thought she was gold. Yeah… my father liked her too.

D            That’s good.

R             My brothers and sisters liked her.

D            The pictured that I have, you can tell.

R             Oh yeah.

D            There’s pictures of Nana with the girls with dolls she had given them for Christmas. And the little Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

R             I don’t remember that picture.

D            It’s in the box Nana got out for me.

R             Okay. What else you need?

D            No, I think this is good.

R             Okayy. Glad you called. Talk to you later.

D            Love you.

R             Love you too sweetheart.