Educators 1-6 Transcription

In: CIC Educators 1-6 - Final.pdf

Abstract

Part six of an interview with educators in the Leominster, Massachusetts area. Topics include: How family time and family activities have changed over time. How families stressed and supported education. ; 1 SPEAKER 1: … was a decision that had to be made. And I'm glad that my mother – my father too, but my mother especially – was so determined that I was going to have an education regardless of where we were, that no obstacle would be insurmountable. And it was decided that, yes, I would not work. I would go to school. And only after I had become settled, I would have a part-time job, which I did working at [unintelligible - 00:00:39] markets after school. But the idea was that education was paramount. I know that one of my sisters started higher education in Italy. She went to… at that time, the school was run by sisters in a town called Alba in Piedmont. And the time came when the sisters, the good sisters said, "The situation here in Italy is such that we cannot guarantee her safety, so we're sending her home." And that was the end of her education. But, my sister too did well. She was able to continue on her own. And, she got to be a chemist to a major paint manufacturer in Europe. And right now, we envy her for her pension. She has one of the best pensions of anybody. And that kind of money she can keep for her son, who is about 45 now, in some luxuries which many Italians cannot afford. But education has always been the kind of thing to strive for, even if it means that you have to… going to debt for, and, if you have to forgo immediate gains for long-term results. In a way, I'm glad that my family decided to do that, that kind of thing for me. And in another way, would I be happier to sit down and not have all these talks about world concerns in my mind? Would I be happier if I would sit in front of a television, sit and relax, have a beer? SPEAKER 2: [Laughter]. SPEAKER 1: I don't know. I don't know. I think once you open the door and see what's there, it's very difficult to shut and say, "Wow, I'm going to be 2 oblivious to this, oblivious to that. Let them solve their own problems. I got mine. That's enough to keep me thinking." But… SPEAKER 3: [Unintelligible - 00:02:59]. SPEAKER 4: He makes a very good point. Today, over and over and over, we keep hearing about wars and stuff. Remember when we were kids you had one radio and once a day, everybody sat down and listened to what's happening in [unintelligible - 00:03:17] or what was happening in [unintelligible -- 00:03:19], and… SPEAKER 2: And no pictures. SPEAKER 4: No pictures. Once a day… and you listen to the results of the election at 1 o'clock in the morning. You're sitting next to the radio, but that was family. Something that you did together, everybody did together. Everybody sat around and listened. Not anymore. SPEAKER 2: Nope. We used to have all the… like [unintelligible - 00:03:39] radio theater was one. And it would literally be a movie that they were speaking of… SPEAKER 4: Oh, sure. SPEAKER 2: … through on the radio. And then, the others were all comedy programs. SPEAKER 4: Do you remember Sunday nights? SPEAKER 2: Boy, I'm hoping all the rest of the… SPEAKER 4: [Unintelligible - 00:04:01] baby sitcoms and "The Shadow"? SPEAKER 1: The Shadow. SPEAKER 2: I remember being in a class at Fitchburg State. I've forgotten what. Just some psychology class. And I was the only one in the room, including the instructor that know what life was like without TV. [Laughs] And so, you know, you are ancient in a lot of ways. They couldn't believe that you could live without TV. SPEAKER 4: [Joe Serafini] was the first Italian family in our neighborhood to have a TV. We would go watch wrestling and Howdy Doody. SPEAKER 2: Howdy Doody. [Laughs]3 SPEAKER 3: How big a screen? SPEAKER 1: Probably 8 inches. [Laughs] Probably 8 inches. SPEAKER 4: Oh, yeah. And his father owned a business so they were big time. SPEAKER 3: Can others of you give me examples how your family stressed education? Stressed that you should go on to school and not quit and get a job? SPEAKER 4: Oh, mine you know, is similar to Vincent's experience. My mother and father, as was very common at that time… whatever education my mother got, she got when she was here in Everett. When she went to Italy, I don't believe that she ended up in school. And my father would've probably gone to third grade. That was very common. The elementary schools that you know, Vinnie referred to, which they call [unintelligible - 00:05:47] I'm sure was pretty much the same throughout Italy because they were all government run, provided education through grade 5 although a lot of people did not make it through grade 5. After that, if you should get to secondary school, you have to show that you have some intellectual talents or your parents had money. There were examinations depending on the kind of school that you were going to. So universal education, as we think of it, was available through grade 5. That's if your parents wanted you to attend, because there were a lot of kids who did not, because their parents wanted them to tend the sheep in the fields or you know, help out at home. I don't recall… I was young, but I don't recall you know, children [unintelligible - 00:06:40] where anybody would come in to the house and say, "How come, you know, Pelino is not in school today? We know he's 6 years old. How come he's not registered for school?" There just wasn't that kind of follow through that, you know, that I could see. So you went to school because your parents wanted you to go to school. 4 And, you know, Vinnie is correct. Times were difficult. My father did not serve in the army. He was not physically able to, but he did end up in a German work camp. After Italy changed sides and joined the allies in 1943, then all of a sudden all the German troops that were in Italy were now in occupied territory. They were no longer in the territory of an ally. So a lot of the able bodied men were taken you know, to help with the German war effort. Then he mentioned Albania. That's where my father was taken to work camp. He escaped you know, came home. I had an uncle who was in the military. My father had served in the military in the 1930s, but then when he wanted to join back up you know, for the Second World War, he was not physically able to. But my uncle served in a British prisoner-of-war camp in Africa. He was captured at the very outset of the war and spent the whole time there. So, his family, my aunt and her two kids, you know, who lived in the same house with us, were very dependent as Joe said on you know, family, you know, helping each other. I mean, that's what you needed to do to you know, to survive. But from the time that the war ended, I was in school. My parents demanded that I go to school. After school, I did what everybody else did. We had a dozen sheep or so. And one of my older cousins who was out of school, you know, he's completed the fifth grade and was…/AT/mb