LEVINE:

Today is [clears throat] February 15 th , the year 2001 and I'm here in Orlando, Florida with Enza Aquino Cassidy, who came with her family through Ellis Island in 1924 when she was about three and a half years of age on the Conte Rosa. And this is Janet Levine for the National Park Service. If we could start, and if you would say for your — for the tape your — your name as it would have appeared on the ship's manifest when you came through Ellis Island.

CASSIDY:

Reginca [PH] — Reginca Aquino.

LEVINE:

Okay. And your birth date again for the tape.

CASSIDY:

June 29 th , 1921.

LEVINE:

Okay. And you were born in Italy. Where in Italy were you born?

CASSIDY:

Naples, Italy.

LEVINE:

Okay. And [clears throat] why don't you tell a little bit about the background of your family? About your mother and your father and what — how — where they were coming from and where they were born.

CASSIDY:

My mother was born in this country. Daddy was born in Italy. My father's family had vineyards in Italy. They had a winery in New York. My mother's family had an import/export grocery store similar to S.S. Pierce's in New England. And Grandpa Sorge was the sole distributor and importer of Progresso products.

LEVINE:

Oh.

CASSIDY:

And our winery was at 389 Broom Street. And I recall going down there and smelling the grapes and — and — and watching the wine being bottled in the winery. My mother and father were married in this country. Do you want me to tell the history?

LEVINE:

Sure.

CASSIDY:

Okay. Mother and Daddy were married in this country and at that time there was a law stipulating — Hi, T.C. [cat meowing] — that if a natural born citizen married a non-citizen the natural born citizen would automatically lose her citizenship.

LEVINE:

If it was a woman, right?

CASSIDY:

I don't know if they stipulated that. In any case, Mother and Daddy were married and they went to Europe on their honeymoon. They stayed there for four years. They were accompanied by my paternal grandmother, who on the advice of her physicians was to go to the spas in Italy. They —

LEVINE:

Because she had been in the United States.

CASSIDY:

Gr —

LEVINE:

Your grandmother?

CASSIDY:

Oh, yeah. But she was born in Italy. So Mother and Daddy stayed there for four years and, of course, my father looked after the vineyards that belonged to them, which were later destroyed in the Second World War. And upon their return to the States, my mother, my sister and I were detained on Ellis Island. Daddy was allowed to come through because he was in the process of becoming a citizen. Mother had lost her citizenship when she married Daddy. And they were told that Mother could come into the country but that my sister and I would have to go back to Italy and come in on a quota.

LEVINE:

A quota. Now, your grandmother stayed in Italy.

CASSIDY:

No, she came back to America.

LEVINE:

She was with you when — when it was determined that you couldn't enter?

CASSIDY:

I believe she came back with us. What is it, Darling? It's T.C. Yeah, she was with us. Yeah, she — I — I don't know whether she was a citizen or not. But in any case — oh, here's my br — here's my son. Grandpa Sorge, my maternal grandfather, was furious. And he wanted to know why the United States allowed well-known criminals into the country, and at the same time, demanded that two little children had to go back to Italy without their parents because of this stupid law.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm. Okay, let's pause here. [tape off/on] Okay. We're continuing here and Mrs. Cassidy's son, Bruce, has just arrived.

CASSIDY:

Uh-hmm.

LEVINE:

Okay. What — just — just to fill in a little bit, your mother's name and her maiden name?

CASSIDY:

Okay. He main — her name is Pasqul Mina [PH] Sorge. S-O-R-G-E.

LEVINE:

Okay. And your father's name?

CASSIDY:

Thomas Aquino.

LEVINE:

Okay.

CASSIDY:

[coughs]

LEVINE:

And your grandfather had come this country sometime before or your fa — with your father? How was it —

CASSIDY:

Wait a minute.

LEVINE:

— when — that your —

CASSIDY:

My paternal grandfather, yes, had come to this country sometime before.

LEVINE:

Right.

CASSIDY:

In the early 1900s, I would say. And — yeah.

LEVINE:

Okay. And — and how about your father's side?

CASSIDY:

That's my father's side. My —

LEVINE:

Okay. And then —

CASSIDY:

My mother's —

LEVINE:

— your mother's side.

CASSIDY:

My maternal grandparents came to this coun — Mother was born in this country and she was born in 1896, so they came in the 1800s sometime.

LEVINE:

Okay.

CASSIDY:

And I guess my paternal grandparents came then also because my father was born in 1886 but he was born, Italy.

LEVINE:

Uh-huh.

CASSIDY:

Okay. And he came here when he was 16 years old.

LEVINE:

Do you know anything about the circumstances under which your father came and who he came here with?

CASSIDY:

No, I know very little about that.

LEVINE:

Okay.

CASSIDY:

In fact, I don't really know anything about that. I just know they did come to this country and Grandpa Aquino founded the winery on Broom Street. And my father and his two brothers operated the winery. And perhaps twice a year my father would go to Italy to look after the vineyards.

LEVINE:

I see. Do you know the circumstances under which your mother and father met?

CASSIDY:

No, I don't. I'm sure Mother told me but I can't remember. I don't remember what — no, I don't know.

LEVINE:

Well, it's — everything's fine if you don't know but I just —

CASSIDY:

Yeah.

LEVINE:

— figure if you do —

CASSIDY:

Yeah, but — but I don't know why I never asked Mother. I'm sure I asked her. I don't know whether she said that they met at a social function because were both very social families, you know. But —

LEVINE:

Were they from the same general area in Italy, the families?

CASSIDY:

It Italy, yes. Uh-huh. They were all from Naples and Recina [PH]. Uh-hmm.

LEVINE:

Okay. Okay, so — so you — do you have any memories of Italy before you came to this country?

CASSIDY:

No, I don't really. I don't. I think the memories I have are — are mixed with what Mother might have told me.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

You know, but I don't — I don't really remember. I know she told me we had a nanny. She told me that when I was a little girl I wouldn't let anybody walk on the grass. I would cry if people walked on the grass. No, I don't. I don't remember anything. I'm so sorry.

LEVINE:

That's okay.

CASSIDY:

And I have a good memory. Don't I, Bruce?

BRUCE:

Very.

LEVINE:

[chuckles] So let's see. So why was it that your mother and father came to this country at the time that they did?

CASSIDY:

No, my mother was here. My mother was born here.

LEVINE:

No, but I mean wh — after they went to Italy and you and your sister were born —

CASSIDY:

Oh, they returned.

LEVINE:

And then when [unclear] come —

CASSIDY:

Mother wanted to come back to America to raise her children in America. Yes, that's why.

LEVINE:

Okay.

BRUCE:

Something to do with the war, too.

CASSIDY:

N — no, they came back in 19 —

BRUCE:

Oh, okay.

CASSIDY:

— 24 so, no.

LEVINE:

Okay. So — so did your grandmother come back with you then?

CASSIDY:

I don't remember but she must have.

LEVINE:

Okay.

CASSIDY:

She must have, you know. Yeah, because I know she was here.

LEVINE:

Okay. Okay, so let's see. Ellis Island, is there anything else that you either remember your — yourself, which is not too probable but — or that you were told about the Ellis Island experience?

CASSIDY:

The only thing [chuckles] I remember that Mother told me very often was that there was a Russian countess there. And all the other immigrants were very angry with this lady who thought she was better than anyone else. She washed her feet in their sink and they were all very annoyed [chuckles] with her. Now, I don't remember that. I do remember Mother telling me that.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

I don't remember anything else.

LEVINE:

Do you know, just from your mother telling you that — how long you were there?

CASSIDY:

Eleven days. Eleven days, we were there.

LEVINE:

Okay. So you — you mentioned that your — your grandfather was furious about —

CASSIDY:

Oh —

LEVINE:

— the situation.

CASSIDY:

That was —

LEVINE:

So what happened? How did — how did LaGuardia get involved and —

CASSIDY:

Okay.

LEVINE:

And you might give a little background about LaGuardia just for the tape.

CASSIDY:

Oh. Well, when my maternal grandfather, Grandpa Sorge — you know, when he was apprised of the situation where his granddaughters would have to go back to Italy [unclear] a quota, he was very angry. And he retained counsel. There was a young lawyer living in his district and he talked to the young lawyer. Now, from what I have been told, this young lawyer went to Washington and went before Congress and presented his case. And by a special act of Congress, my sister and I were allowed to come into the country and not have to wait for the quota. And Mayor LaGuardia was a young immigration clerk at one time and he was also upset at the way the immigrations were being treated. They were not treated very nicely. So he determined that he would go back to school. He went back to Cornell University and took a course in immigration law. And as I said, he lived in the same district that Grandpa Sorge lived in. And Grandpa retained his services. And Mayor LaGuardia — of course, Fiorello LaGuardia went to Washington, DC. Eventually, that law was rescinded. It was declared null and void. It no longer is in existence.

LEVINE:

Wait. Which law?

CASSIDY:

The law which stated that if a natural born citizen married a non-citizen the natural born citizen would automatically lose her citizenship. Okay. Now, the strange part is, whether it — I don't remember whether the law was declared void at the time that my mother sought readmission into the country, since she was allowed back in. I don't know.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

But it sounds plausible to me. Doesn't it to you?

LEVINE:

That that was the case that —

CASSIDY:

Uh-hmm.

LEVINE:

— re — redefined the law.

CASSIDY:

Yeah, uh-hmm.

LEVINE:

Possibly, yeah?

CASSIDY:

Yeah. So he was a — he pled our case and it was written up in all the newspapers in New York and I don't know where else. And Mother's photograph was in the paper and beside it was LaGuardia's and he was — it was entitled "Her Champion. Mrs. Aquino and her champion."

LEVINE:

Uh-huh.

CASSIDY:

So that's the story —

LEVINE:

Uh-huh.

CASSIDY:

— of our readmission into the United States.

LEVINE:

Now, when you were staying at Ellis Island for those 11 days was your mother with you?

CASSIDY:

Yes, Mother was with us all the time.

LEVINE:

Uh-huh.

CASSIDY:

Yes.

LEVINE:

But your father was able to go into the city.

CASSIDY:

He was able to come and go as he pleased.

LEVINE:

Uh-huh.

CASSIDY:

Isn't that ironic? Isn't that strange? Now, I don't — yeah, and Marie didn't have to go through this. We were told that we would not have to seek citizenship papers, that all we needed was a certificate of citizenship. I never did get a certificate of citizenship. Several years ago, when they had that great big thing about immigrants registering, I received a notice from Social Security tell me that I would lose my benefits if I did not register.

LEVINE:

Oh.

CASSIDY:

First of all, let me tell you that during the Second World War I was working on Wall Street, but I decided that I would leave Wall Street and work in a defense plant for the war effort. Without thinking of it, here I was, an enemy alien, applying for a defense job. I was —

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

— an Italian.

LEVINE:

Right.

CASSIDY:

I got the job. I got the job and I worked till the end of the war. I was investigated. My fingerprints were on record in Washington. I was investigated by the FBI. But I got the job. I worked as a metallurgical lab technician until the end of the war.

LEVINE:

Oh. Well, why don't you say a little bit about that work dur — your — during — for the war effort? Wh — what exactly were you doing and where were you doing it?

CASSIDY:

I worked in the metallurgical lab for Wright [PH] Aeronautical Corporation in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. And I tested the parts that went into the cyclone engines for the B-24s and the B-29s. I checked. I did tensile strength. I did salt spray tests. I did acid tests. I did hardness tests, every kind of test imaginable on the parts that went in it, minute washers and nuts and bolts. Fascinating work and I feared — you know, I feared, 'Oh, my goodness. I can't make a mistake because I'll lose the war.'

LEVINE:

Uh-huh.

CASSIDY:

You know. And it was — it was a case of being — being very conscientious about the whole thing.

LEVINE:

Wow.

CASSIDY:

Yes.

LEVINE:

Can you remember — well, maybe you could just say how you were affected, besides the work that you were doing — but by World War II? The effect on your family, the effect on — or anything about it?

CASSIDY:

Well, I had two brothers who were in the Marine Corps.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

And I had — the man who later became my husband was in the Army. But prior to — the man who became my husband enlisted on January 7 th , 1942, just a month after the war started. I was young. I didn't — I don't think I realized the enormity of the thing for a while.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

And it wasn't until I started looking at the casualty list, which they published in the papers every day, that — and — and then seeing — then seeing photographs of the victims in Auschwitz and — and the other horrible camps, that I — I hated that little man with the toothbrush moustache. I hated him. And I had a recurring dream for years, and I must have seen something in a movie or read something. But this recurring dream is Hitler was in a — a touring car with SS troops.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

And they were in a big empty space and they were coming to get somebody. And I would wake up, thank God. But I feared him and I would wonder — I would wonder, 'What will happen if he wins? What will happen? We have to win this thing.' And I will say this, that in the Second World War we all worked together. We worked as a team. And anybody who didn't was ostracized. If — we were on rations. We had no soap. We had no coffee. We had no tea. We had no sugar. We had no butter. We had no meat. We had no shoes. I had to get a letter from my supervisor at the defense plant stating that, since I walked seven miles a day, I needed a pair of shoes that were made with something besides cardboard.

LEVINE:

Oh.

CASSIDY:

Uh-hmm.

LEVINE:

You walked — on your job, you were walking?

CASSIDY:

Uh-hmm.

LEVINE:

Uh-huh.

CASSIDY:

Yeah, yeah. Because we had to walk to the chemical lab and I had to do this. And I had to walk here and I had to walk here. Oh, yeah. So it was — it was a long war and it was a horrible war.

LEVINE:

Hmm.

CASSIDY:

It was a very horrible war. My husband was badly affected by it. And I would never want it to happen again. Never, never. I know Vietnam was bad. I know the Korean War was bad. But somehow, this Second World War just — if we hadn't stuck together, I don't know what would have happened. If we hadn't worked together and stuck together the way we did, I don't know what would have happened.

LEVINE:

Hmm.

CASSIDY:

Just thinking about it, you know, and just — if we — [chuckles] if we found out that one of our neighbors was hoarding (it was called hoarding) — we had ration stamps — we didn't turn her in but we shunned her.

LEVINE:

Hmm.

CASSIDY:

We shunned her. And it was an honor thing. You just didn't do things like that. You got your ration stamps. You used what they gave you. You made do with what they gave you.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

And I remember — I remember we would get packages of margarine. [electronic ringing sound]

BRUCE:

[unclear]

LEVINE:

Oh. [chuckles]

CASSIDY:

That wasn't colored. There'd be an orange pellet and you'd have to squish the orange pellet and keep squishing in this plastic bag until all the margarine that was like lard became yellow.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm, uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

I remember Thanksgiving Day [clears throat] a butcher shop about eight miles away. And this lady came and told me that there was a butcher shop that was offering turkeys. So she and I took the trolley. There were still trolleys. We took the trolley. And of course, the first ones, the butcher would call out, "Okay, the first ones to get served are parents of servicemen." And then, "Okay, the next ones who get served are the people who work in defense plants." So I was able to get a turkey and bring it home. My father, a wonderful man, went to heaven on December 8 th , 1942. And I think it was a little bit because his heart was broken about Italy. While he owed his allegiance to the United States, he loved Italy, his homeland. And my mother was left, at the age of 46, with seven children. Very wonderful — I had very wonderful parents. They were wonderful, marvelous people. And he was spared. He was spared a lot and I'm glad of that. And Mother had a lot of grit. Mother had a lot of grit. She saw her two sons off to the service and her third son went to the Air Force, you know, and my one brother was wounded on Saipan, the invasion of Saipan, Tinian and Guam. And I remember — I remember VJ Day and Dick Clark getting on the radio and saying, "It is 7 p.m. peacetime." Because prior to that it was 7 p.m. wartime.

LEVINE:

Wow.

CASSIDY:

And I took our telephone book and went up on the roof of the building and the trolley cars were pulling their bells. And the railway train, which ran right beside us, was tooting its — its — whatever it is [chuckles] it toots. And I took my phone book and tore the pages and flooded them down. And then I went to church. And since it was essentially an Irish neighborhood, pretty soon there was — everybody was in church. And —

LEVINE:

What was the neighborhood? Where were you?

CASSIDY:

It was in west — in the West Bronx, on 238 th Street. And Father Stanford came out and, of course, he said benediction, you know. [clears throat] And then our thoughts turned to the boys coming home. That's what was — and then — then we got the horrible pictures again from Auschwitz and all the prisoners, you know. Oh, when I think of it — even now, when I think of it — and — and stories of our men being tortured by the Japanese. And I think — I don't know. Can I forgive them? I've put it in the back of my mind somewhere. You know, I don't know if I've forgiven them. But then again, I don't know if I've forgiven us for using the bomb either.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

You know, but I can't say it's tit for tat. I can't.

LEVINE:

Right.

CASSIDY:

I can't. I can't do it. No. Not —

LEVINE:

How — how were the other people, either in your family or maybe your community, who were Italian during World War II? W — was there — was there a lot of — was there — was it an issue that, you know, it was your h — it was the homeland of many of the people —

CASSIDY:

I never — no. No, it wasn't an issue. You mean because of Italy being in the —

LEVINE:

Yeah.

CASSIDY:

You know, I — I think it broke their hearts. That was — that was the biggest emotion, I think, the strongest emotion that — that Italy had gone with Hitler, you know, and —

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

Yeah, I think that was the strongest. By that time, my beloved grandparents had gone to heaven also so, thank God, they were spared that. But — and of course, Daddy had gone to heaven. But I think most of — just shook their heads, you know, and just couldn't believe it. Just couldn't believe it that —

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

— this was happening.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm. Were you aware of — because there were some Italians interned at Ellis Island as enemy aliens, as were Japanese and Germans —

CASSIDY:

I wasn't aware of that.

LEVINE:

— during World War II.

CASSIDY:

Oh, really?

LEVINE:

Yeah. Now, I sus — I — I would assume that that they were suspect for some reason.

CASSIDY:

I would think so, yeah. Uh-hmm. But I — no, I don —

LEVINE:

But it wasn't something that, like, you were aware of at the time?

CASSIDY:

No, no. I wasn't —

LEVINE:

Yeah.

CASSIDY:

— made aware of that in any way. No.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

Hmm, that's interesting. Hmm. I suppose there were some. Yeah, I suppose. Why not? Why — you know, there were some who would go along with Mussolini and consider that what he was doing was great.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm, uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

I don't know. I just —

LEVINE:

Right.

CASSIDY:

I don't think anyone in my family did. I think they were — I don't ever remember any of my — we were much closer to my mother's family than we were to my father's.

LEVINE:

Uh-huh.

CASSIDY:

And I don't remember any of my aunts or my great aunts ever saying, you know, unkind things. They just — they were very sad about the whole thing. Very sad.

LEVINE:

Uh-huh. How about — this is sort of going backwards but how about the Depression? Do you remember the effect of the Depression on your family?

CASSIDY:

[sniffs, clears throat]

LEVINE:

And let's see. How ol — you would have been —

CASSIDY:

Seven or eight, you know. Yeah, we had a beautiful home. My sister and I went away to boarding school. My father speculated on the stock market and, unfortunately, lost everything. [sniffs] So we were taken out of boarding school. We went to a regular Catholic school. As I said, we lost our home.

LEVINE:

This was in the Bronx?

CASSIDY:

Uh-huh.

LEVINE:

Uh-huh.

CASSIDY:

[sniffs] And Depression was very bad. We never wanted. We were never hungry or homeless but there were lots of things that we didn't have that we had had before. And I remember seeing people sitting around a bonfire and wondering what they were doing, you know, or selling apples. But you know, the Neapolitans — we're from Naples — Neapolitans are a happy people.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

And they can cope with almost anything.

LEVINE:

How did your mother and father cope?

CASSIDY:

It made — to be truthful, not too well, I don't think. Not too well. It made for a lot of stress and tension between the two of them. And Mother was a — Mother was a wonderful person but she was the kind of person who would hold a grudge. My father was the kind of person who would blow up and then forget about it. And of course, that [chuckles] didn't make for — you know, and so they didn't do too well. They didn't do too well on that score at all. But they came through it. They came through it. They came through. They stuck together. We were all together. We didn't have any money. Somehow, it didn't seem to matter. We had had it and we enjoyed it when we had it. Just one of those things, you know.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

And that was it. And —

LEVINE:

So did the Italian connection with the — with the winery, with the imported Italian food — that — that stopped at that time?

CASSIDY:

Grandpa gave up the grocery store, the grocery business many years before. And after the vineyards were destroyed in the Second World War, my father and my two brother — my two uncles, his two brothers, bought vineyards, I believe, in California. And I really don't know what happened. I don't know. I do know that they — they — they — they told my father that he had no more money left in the company, and my father, again, retained legal counsel and discovered that my uncles had been keeping two sets of books — [END OF TAPE 1, SIDE A] [BEGIN TAPE 1, SIDE B]

CASSIDY:

So he sued them and it was in probate for so many years you couldn't — even after he died. And I don't know how much money Mother got when it was finally settled.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

But it was nothing near what she should have gotten. And my Grandpa Aquino is in the Italian "Who's Who" as a millionaire.

LEVINE:

Hmm.

CASSIDY:

So, you know?

LEVINE:

Hmm.

CASSIDY:

So —

LEVINE:

Hmm.

CASSIDY:

I don't know. They — I don't think they suffered as — as we did, as much as we did — we did. So — but that's okay. [chuckles] That's okay.

LEVINE:

So your — your mother managed — after your father's death she —

CASSIDY:

After my fa —

LEVINE:

— still had seven children to —

CASSIDY:

Well, my sister had married and she was living in Louisiana. My brother had gone off a week after my father went to heaven. He had joined the Marine Corps. So I was left with the other, one, two, three, four children and mother. And I was the only one working. And —

LEVINE:

And you were working in the defense plant?

CASSIDY:

I — well, I had been working at the — on Wall Street. Incidentally, I was one of the first 13 girl runners ever to be hired by a bank on Wall Street. My — it was my first —

LEVINE:

Wow.

CASSIDY:

— nontraditional job.

LEVINE:

Wonderful.

CASSIDY:

And because all the young men were being drafted or were enlisting, they had to resort to hiring young ladies to do all the running for them.

LEVINE:

Huh.

CASSIDY:

So again, my picture was in the "New York Times." [laughs]

LEVINE:

Great.

CASSIDY:

And that was my first nontraditional job. And then, of course, the second one was working in a defense plant. And —

LEVINE:

How did you meet your husband?

CASSIDY:

Oh, [chuckles] you don't really want to know that. [laughs]

LEVINE:

Not — not if you — no. No, if you don't want to.

CASSIDY:

Oh, that's okay. At — I had gone — this girl was going with one of the fellows who was on the football team at Manhattan College. And she said to me one evening, "Come on with me. I'll introduce you to" — you know, because I was shy. And we — we were in an ice cream parlor where all the young folks hung out then. We didn't hang out in bars then. An ice cream parlor. And this young man came in. But when he came in it was so funny because his feet were on the feet of another young man, you know, and they were walking in like th — and I — I cracked up. And that was Bill. [laughter]

LEVINE:

And what was Bill — oh, so it's Bill Cassidy?

CASSIDY:

Yeah.

LEVINE:

Uh-huh.

CASSIDY:

That was Bill Cassidy, Bruce's father.

LEVINE:

Uh-huh.

CASSIDY:

Yeah.

LEVINE:

And then how many children did you have?

CASSIDY:

Just Bruce and his sister, Erin.

LEVINE:

Uh-huh.

CASSIDY:

Yeah, just the two of them.

LEVINE:

Uh-huh. Well, were — actually, we've got five minutes more of the tape. Tell me your greatest satisfactions. And when you look back on — on your life, what — what things make you feel —

CASSIDY:

I think —

LEVINE:

— satisfied?

CASSIDY:

— having a pair of the most wonderful parents in the world, having those wonderful parents and, at the same time, sadness that I never realized it, you know. And we don't. That's typical.

LEVINE:

Mmm.

CASSIDY:

But they were intelligent and caring and cultured and had a sense of humor. My father was very sensitive. I enjoyed seeing him dress up to go to the opera.

LEVINE:

Hmm.

CASSIDY:

And of course, my next greatest satisfaction is the — the two children that I have, my son and my daughter. My son is my shining hour and my daughter is the icing on my cake, and they're great kids. You know, great, wonderful people.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

Just wonderful people, just wonderful. Yeah.

LEVINE:

Do you think the fact of immigrating, either on you or any member of your family, your father, perhaps — do you think it made a difference in — somehow, in — in their — in their character, in their personality? The — just the fact of changing cultures. Do you think it — it manifested itself some way that you can think of?

CASSIDY:

I think that, as far as my father was concerned, he did very well. He really did very well. He — he was able to adjust, I think, beautifully. You know, of course I knew him years after he'd come, you know. I — but Daddy was just a marvelous man. I mean, he just — you know, he just — he was a wonderfully intelligent person who could make the adjustment very easily. I don't think that he would have come to this country if he thought he couldn't. I really don't think so. Yeah. He was — and then, of course, my grandparents, my mother's parents, they were both born in Italy. But their children — they had five daughters and one son — they were all born in America. And Grandpa Sorge loved Italy but he loved America. He loved America. I don't think there was much of an adjustment there.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

I — when they came here they were with their own people.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

You see? So their culture, their — their ethic —

LEVINE:

— ity.

CASSIDY:

— ity was there.

LEVINE:

Uh-hmm, uh-hmm.

CASSIDY:

Okay. And they brought it with them and they lived with it and there was no shame attached to that. And I'm very proud of that.

LEVINE:

Yeah. How do you feel about your Italian heritage and your American life and —

CASSIDY:

Oh, I'm very proud of my Italian heritage. I'm very proud of my Italian heritage and, of course, I'm very proud of my — oh, I didn't tell you the most important thing.

LEVINE:

Oh.

CASSIDY:

When they had this thing about aliens several years ago — do you remember?

LEVINE:

Yeah.

CASSIDY:

Do — I told you I received a letter from Social Security telling me — did I tell you I have a green card? I do. [laughter] I have a green card. And it cost $75. [laughs]

LEVINE:

Wow. Oh.

CASSIDY:

And it's good to 2008 and that — I tell you what, the United States government made an awful lot of money on that deal.

LEVINE:

Hmm.

CASSIDY:

Yeah.

LEVINE:

Wow.

CASSIDY:

Isn't that something?

LEVINE:

Yeah. Well, we h — we're just about finished here. Is there anything you want to say in closing?

CASSIDY:

I — I can't think of anything. I just — I'm glad I'm here, [chuckles] despite the fact that we had to spend 11 days on Ellis Island, which might not have — because I was so young I didn't realize the enormity of it, you know. But I'm sure it didn't leave a scar. It didn't leave a mark. And I surely hol — hold no bitter feelings about it. And I'm sure Mother and Daddy didn't either. You know, they just weren't that kind of people. No, I just — Ellis Island, a beautiful place to visit but, no, not a place to live. [laughter]

LEVINE:

Okay. That's a great place to end. [laughs] I want to thank you for a lovely interview.

CASSIDY:

Oh, you're welcome, dear. I hope it helped.

LEVINE:

It did. And I've been speaking with Enza — but you call yourself Pat?

CASSIDY:

Patricia. It's my —

LEVINE:

Patricia.

CASSIDY:

— confirmation name, yeah. Would you like something else to drink?

LEVINE:

Okay. Well, let me just close off. I've been speaking with Patricia Aquino Cassidy, came in 1924 at three and a half years of age. And it's February 15 th , the year 2001 and I'm signing off. [END OF INTERVIEW]