LEVINE:

Ok, this is Janet Levine with The National Park Service. And if we could start please, say your birth date and where you were born.

BRESCIA:

December 8, 1917. I was born in Mont Vernon, New York

LEVINE:

And do you have any memories before the family went back?

BRESCIA:

No.

LEVINE:

No? Ok. Now why don't you say your father's name.

BRESCIA:

Salvator D'Aliso.

LEVINE:

How do you spell your maiden name?

BRESCIA:

D-capital A-L-I-S-O.

LEVINE:

Ok, D'Aliso. And your mother?

BRESCIA:

Her name was Marie Comforto. C-O-M-F-O-R-T-O.

LEVINE:

And did you have grandparents in this country or over —

BRESCIA:

In Italy

LEVINE:

In Italy, ok. And did you have any other relatives over here before you went back?

BRESCIA:

Yes, my father had sisters here.

LEVINE:

Now was your father the first one to come to this country or his sisters?

BRESCIA:

No his sisters came first.

LEVINE:

His sisters came and then he came. Now had he been back and forth a number of times?

BRESCIA:

Yes, times, yes. He was here the – he came here the first time and he left my mother and a son there. Then my mother came here again and she wasn't feeling great so she went to, back to Italy and she had twins, she had a boy and a girl. And then we're there awhile, and then my father came and pick us up again and we came here. Then I was born and my brother Ralph was born. Then after that we went back to Italy again.

LEVINE:

The whole family?

BRESCIA:

The whole family back to Italy again. And my mother was pregnant again and she – she was pregnant with this little boy Louis. And he was only two and a half years old and he contacted measles. And back and forth to the doctor in Naples we used to bring him, but he never made it. And my father never saw his son. And then he came back, we had just buried the baby because, you know, it was about three days after he came, after he arrived. So we stayed there and then he came back, we stayed there awhile and then we came back. We had to get used to it again, to the American ways and the Italian ways. We used to get the milk right in front of the house. Here we had to go downstairs and milk the nanny goat. So it was something, it was very hard for us to go back and forth you know.

LEVINE:

Yeah.

BRESCIA:

But my mother's parents were there and my father's parents were there.

LEVINE:

And what was the town in Italy?

BRESCIA:

Where my mother – Licignano. L-I-C-I-G — L-I-C-I-G-N-A-N-O.

LEVINE:

And the province?

BRESCIA:

Naples.

LEVINE:

Ok. And now did you personally go back and forth a few times?

BRESCIA:

Yes.

LEVINE:

So you went —

BRESCIA:

Back when I was two years old and then I went back and that was it.

LEVINE:

And then you went back -- wait. When you were three years old you were born here, you went back when you were three. Then you stayed there about three years and you came back here then you stayed here. [interposed BRESCIA:] Back when I was three. Three years, right. They we stayed here, yeah. Then we stayed here.

LEVINE:

Yeah, ok. Ok. And always to Mount Vernon?

BRESCIA:

Yes to Mount Vernon, yes.

LEVINE:

So it was always Licignano to Mount Vernon?

BRESCIA:

Yeah Licignano to Mount Vernon. Yeah, yeah.

LEVINE:

Ok. Ok. So let's see. [pause] Do you, let's see, where do your memories start?

BRESCIA:

Well I mean, in Italy?

LEVINE:

Yeah.

BRESCIA:

Well in Italy, first of all, I always remember I used to go Sunday afternoon to the church. We used to have instructions. And I couldn't receive Communion because I was too young. I had to be seven years old so that was disappointing. And I – my mother had a lady -- she used to teach us embroidery. So we used to go there and do embroidery. And then we used to go visit the grandparents back and forth. And then we used to watch my mother make, they used to have like a big courtyard and they used to go there and bake bread. Everybody used to come certain days and bake their bread. And then I lived upstairs. We lived upstairs; we all lived in one room in Italy. And we had two beds. But the funny part of it is when my father came from Italy after my brother died, my little brother Ralph didn't know who he was. He was anxious to see his father but once my father got in bed my mother had to chase him out because he kept saying, "Chase this man out of bed, I don't know who he is! Chase this man out of bed."

LEVINE:

Oh.

BRESCIA:

So he didn't know who he was. So he had to go sleep with his, my brothers. And we had a cousin living with us, my mother's nephew was living with us, you know. And it was pretty nice. My mother was a very clean woman, you know. And she, everything was just up to date you know, so she was – she worked hard. She worked hard to be away from her husband you know.

LEVINE:

Right, right. So were you religious? Was the family very religious?

BRESCIA:

Yes, yes. Yeah. The church was right across the street and the nuns used to make the communion and what was left over she used to give us pieces of it, you know. And we had nuns, and in fact when back in 1960 the same priest was still there. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe the same priest was there.

LEVINE:

Wow.

BRESCIA:

That was the first trip I made back in 1960 with my daughter.

LEVINE:

Oh, yeah. So do you remember anything about the town?

BRESCIA:

Oh yes. We had, we used to sit outside and my mother used to play the tambourine and just sit outside and enjoy, you know. Everybody used to love to sing and dance, you know. And we used to, you know, we used to have a night everybody would sit outside, you know, and all the women sat there too, you know, and we chatted, you know. Then we used to go to the cemetery to see my little brother all the time, you know [not understood]. And we had aunts and uncles there, they were all very good to me. I had a cousin I used to play with all the time. You know, I had a lot of cousins there because my mother's family, most of them stayed there. Yeah, so that's —

LEVINE:

Do you remember your little brother's death? The funeral?

BRESCIA:

Yes.

LEVINE:

What was the funeral like?

BRESCIA:

Well the first thing, they had like a little white car, a casket. A, what do you call it, the cart. They had, they put the little coffin in there and everybody walks with them like a parade –

LEVINE:

Behind the casket?

BRESCIA:

Behind the casket and we all walked to the cemetery because it wasn't that far, you know, it was to the next town and then we buried him there, you know. And he was just a doll he was just a – he had the measles, I think he had them inside and then they never, you know, came out. But he was -- my mother went to the best doctors back and forth to Naples and I used to go with her all the time. They just didn't help her. God just took him away.

LEVINE:

Yeah, yeah. So let's see, can you remember, like, were there, was it a big town or little —

BRESCIA:

No, two little towns is what – See my father my mother's town was here, the next town was my father's town.

LEVINE:

I see.

BRESCIA:

That was Cosnonowa [ph]

LEVINE:

How do you spell that one?

BRESCIA:

C-A-S-N-O [pause] C-O-S-N-O-N Cosnonowa N-O-W. Yeah that's the best I can spell it, alright.

LEVINE:

Yeah ok.

BRESCIA:

and the town was, so we used to walk to town back and forth to town. My mother lived here and my father lived in the next town [not understood]. Then we used to have a train we used to go, it used to take us to Naples. So we used to hop on that train there and we used to go to Naples and it wasn't too far from there.

LEVINE:

: I see.

BRESCIA:

And we used to spend the day there in Naples and then of course the stores were closed at a certain time. One o'clock you couldn't – the stores were all closed, everybody took a nap. You know, and that's how that was.

LEVINE:

Uh-huh. Do you remember Naples as a little girl?

BRESCIA:

Yes, yeah. Beautiful, beautiful. You see the mountains and all the restaurants and the beaches and stuff like that, yeah.

LEVINE:

Yeah, so was Licignano an agricultural town?

BRESCIA:

Well they did, they had their own, they did, they had their own farmers. The farmers used to come out -- my cousin had a beauty shop -- and they used to come out in the middle of the night to get their hair done because they used to work all day. So at night they used to finish their job, they used to go and have their hair done. They worked in the fields and they used to have the grapevines. And I remember the grapevines they -- the grapes were delicious you could go there and help yourself. It was -- all the farmers came out.

LEVINE:

So they must have made wine.

BRESCIA:

Yes they made wine too. They made their own wine, yeah. Yeah.

LEVINE:

And do you remember anything like the people, well I guess the priest was pretty prominent person in town.

BRESCIA:

Yeah, yeah.

LEVINE:

And were there like police or –

BRESCIA:

Yeah we met with one -- he was in army service in the United States and he was telling us different stories about different things, you know. He lived across the street from my cousin, he was telling us all different things about his trips and stuff that he had.

LEVINE:

Who was this, a policeman?

BRESCIA:

No he was a, what they call, in the service.

LEVINE:

Oh a military man.

BRESCIA:

My cousin was a policeman. My cousin's husband was a policeman. You know, and he was a [Italian]. And that's about it, you know.

LEVINE:

So what were you speaking for a language?

BRESCIA:

Italian and then I came to the United States, I didn't know how to say yes or no. So you know, yeah. But then the worst part of it is when I came here into the United States, we were on this boat, it was like a cattle boat. My mother was killing all bed bugs all night long. She was up all night watching us kids making sure we didn't get bit. And then we had just black coffee and nothing -- very very little to eat. It was very -- we didn't have that much to eat on the boat.

LEVINE:

Now were you in steerage? Were you sort of in the bottom of the boat with –

BRESCIA:

Yeah, we yeah, a lot of people yeah. And no – just plain mattresses there. And I remember. And I remember coming into the United States and when I came into the United States they injected me. They had like a pen and they just [not understood]. Then they told me I have a fever. So I could not go home. My uncle came to pick us up. My whole family went home but I didn't. And they drag me down a hall and I cried all the way down to the hall. And I was there about eight, nine days. And they put me in this hospital. They were very good to me, you know. And then the day I had to leave they gave me a duffel bag of stuff, they gave me a doll and stuff, you know. They were very good to me. That I remember. And then--

LEVINE:

Did you know what was going to happen, I mean did they —

BRESCIA:

No.

LEVINE:

Well, that must have been frightening.

BRESCIA:

Very frightening in a strange place, you know, they just take you, just take you away, you know?

LEVINE:

Yeah, so —

BRESCIA:

I'll never forget that day. Never, never.

LEVINE:

Can you describe Ellis Island what you remember about –

BRESCIA:

Well first we went to this big room, you know they was checking everybody out and everything else you know and then they, then they – when they got to me they put me down this hallway and we went to this hospital and then one day I got up a little bit, they took me around to walking around the kitchen and stuff like that, they took me around there to see, you know -- and that's about all I can remember.

LEVINE:

Were there other children in the hospital?

BRESCIA:

Yes there was other people in there. It was like a ward, like a ward, yeah. So of course I was so terrified that, you know, I was so timid. I mean, you know, come to a strange country and all of the sudden they just take you away from your mother, your parents, you know?

LEVINE:

Did you get visitors?

BRESCIA:

No.

LEVINE:

Oh my goodness. So the family went to Mount Vernon but you were left there.

BRESCIA:

I left there for eight or nine days. I was there until they, you know, because I had a fever. My mother says, "No, she was asleep," which I was, you know, maybe I felt hot, maybe I did have a fever. I don't remember. But I remember them giving me the injection.

LEVINE:

Well maybe you got the fever from the injection.

BRESCIA:

Maybe, who knows what it was from. I really don't know what it was from.

LEVINE:

Oh my gosh. Well what a beginning, huh?

BRESCIA:

Yeah, beginning, oh God. I'll never forget that. I'll never forget that. It's something that just stays in my mind, you know?

LEVINE:

Yeah. So did your father keep going back and forth after you came at six and stayed here?

BRESCIA:

No, no.

LEVINE:

No, that was the last time?

BRESCIA:

No because she had more children, my mother had four more kids after that.

LEVINE:

Here?

BRESCIA:

Yeah.

LEVINE:

So what did your father do for work?

BRESCIA:

He would drive in horses, team horses. He worked for a contractor.

LEVINE:

So, like –

BRESCIA:

He used to board here and then make enough money and then come back and take us and bring us back here. And then he sent us back again and he stayed here and then made more money, because there was nothing, you know. Because he had just come out of the service, my father.

LEVINE:

He was in the service over there?

BRESCIA:

Over there, yeah. But he never, you know, he was always in the hospital he wasn't, you know, no active duty, but he was —

LEVINE:

I see.

BRESCIA:

So then when my brother was born – my mother was a hair dresser –

LEVINE:

Oh.

BRESCIA:

And she used to make beautiful hair, she used to make – you know when she came from Italy all the brides used to come and she used to fix their hair, you know, with all the artificial and the beautiful combs and everything else, you know.

LEVINE:

Over there?

BRESCIA:

Over here.

LEVINE:

Over here. Oh.

BRESCIA:

Yeah she used to do that over there. And then he, because he wasn't working, my father, when he got out of the service. My mother was working and she didn't like the idea of, you know, working because he didn't. He wasn't working. So then that's how it became, came to the United States to work. Because my mother's brother was here.

LEVINE:

Oh. So when you say your father worked for a contractor you mean like construction?

BRESCIA:

Yeah like, you know, the wagons used to have the horse and the wagons and stuff.

LEVINE:

So he like delivered the materials, something like that?

BRESCIA:

Something like that it was [not understood], whatever they did, yeah.

LEVINE:

Whatever they did.

BRESCIA:

Whatever they did yeah.

LEVINE:

Ok. And did your mother keep, I mean she had all this children, but she still dressed hair? Over here?

BRESCIA:

Yeah but she didn't seem to [not understood]. She used to once in awhile she used to take, well when we come here before I was born, one of the twins, the girl twin passed away. Before I was born. She had that Spanish Influenza.

LEVINE:

Ohh.

BRESCIA:

And she passed away and then —

LEVINE:

In 19 — in about what? 190 —

BRESCIA:

!90 —

LEVINE:

19 or 18 —

BRESCIA:

No it had to be before me. She died before me because she was a, my brother was born in 1913, the twin. So she must have been about like, maybe a year or something or two years something like that she passed away.

LEVINE:

Was she here then?

BRESCIA:

She was here.

LEVINE:

And did anybody ever tell you about that? The whole story?

BRESCIA:

My mother told me that she had, they both had Spanish Influenza as twins. My mother says, she says, she prayed to Saint Anthony all the time. And he was saved but she wasn't saved. And then I was born, and I lived here for a few years. And then my other brother was born, and then went to Europe and lived there.

LEVINE:

Was your name always Lucy?

BRESCIA:

Lucia.

LEVINE:

How do you spell it?

BRESCIA:

L-U-C-I-A.

LEVINE:

Oh that's easy.

BRESCIA:

Yeah.

LEVINE:

Ok and E. What does the E stand for?

BRESCIA:

Emmaculate.

LEVINE:

Oh.

BRESCIA:

I was born on that day, the December 8, so my mother named me Emmaculate.

LEVINE:

Mmhm. Do you remember any saints days over in Italy?

BRESCIA:

Oh yes. Oh yes.

LEVINE:

And how they were observed?

BRESCIA:

Oh yeah, observed. Everytime they had parades and they carried a saint. And we'd do that, we went to, you know, they used to dress the kids in whatever. Like Saint Anthony they used to dress the kids in the brown thing and they used to parade.

LEVINE:

Oh like a monk's--?

BRESCIA:

Yeah, like a monk's thing, yeah. And every saint, they celebrated mostly all the saints, they did. And they used to walk from one town to the other, back and forth, you know.

LEVINE:

So there must have been a lot of celebrations?

BRESCIA:

Oh lots of celebrations, a lot of saints days and a lot of activities, you know, as much as I can remember. There was always something going on, you know. They also, they're very active people, the Italians. They always like good times and stuff like that. They used to, they don't celebrate birthdays, they celebrate name days.

LEVINE:

Oh, so tell about that. What would that be?

BRESCIA:

Well that would be like the same thing when they had the, when anybody had a name day, Saint Joseph, whatever the name. They had a little feast and stuff like that and that's how they celebrated.

LEVINE:

So when it was saint's day, that would be the name day that you'd celebrate, whoever had that name?

BRESCIA:

Celebrate, yeah.

LEVINE:

So did Lucia have a name day?

BRESCIA:

I don't remember that. I don't remember, you know. But they all had names. They don't celebrate birthdays like they do here. You only celebrate names.

LEVINE:

So what would happen on, say somebody was named Joseph on that day, what would --?

BRESCIA:

They'd have a feast. And they'd have a, you know, all the entertainment, they'd have. And then of course they'd have the streets. They have everything in the streets, you know. It's not like over here you got to have a room to go. So that's what they had, you know. It was always always happy people. Very, dancing around and everything. Italian people are very happy, very, how do I say, appreciative, you know? Very kind hearted.

LEVINE:

Mmhm.

BRESCIA:

Very kind hearted. You know and they're always ready to help you all the time, yeah.

LEVINE:

Yeah.

BRESCIA:

I find that all the time even as many times as I went to Italy now. Few times I went they're always the same way.

LEVINE:

And how about the Italian people who came here? Do you find it's the same way?

BRESCIA:

Not — some of them. Some of them, not all of them. Not all of them. Because they come here they think that the, how do you say, the money grows on trees over here. And some of them come here just to get married and then they leave their spouses and then they go on their way just to get into the United States.

LEVINE:

Oh.

BRESCIA:

Because it almost happened to me. Not to me, to my father, when my mother passed away.

LEVINE:

Oh when did your mother pass away?

BRESCIA:

She passed away in '65. 1965. And they kept calling my father up because they wanted to match him up with somebody there. And I never knew this. One day I came from work because I worked right near there and I see this letter from Itally. And I say, "What's this from?" So I could read a little bit, not much. So I took it to work and this friend of mine read it. This woman here wanted to come to the United States and marry my father. Well I blew my stack. I says, "You don't need anybody. " And to find out she was much younger than we were. So that's nice, I wrote this nice letter, me and this friend of mine write this nice letter in Italian and tell them, "Please we don't need my father to have to get married, he's got daughters here, a family here, please don't bother us anymore," you know.

LEVINE:

But do you think that was pretty wide-spread? That people were finding people that were here?

BRESCIA:

Yeah, that was. Because it happened to a friend of his, the same thing, my father's friend. We would tell him, "Pop it's going to be just like Jack. She'll come here, she'll want new furniture, she'll want this and that. And then take your money – " which is what the woman did, she bought property in Italy all over the place when her husband died. And they found this out afterwards so, you know. And she was very young, she was, "Oh, a friend of your mother's." Then he had a picture in his pocket of her. Then what happened, my father always had a lousy habit, that when they used to call up and he'd say, "Nobody here," and he'd hang up. But this time he'd never hang up when they call from Italy. He gets a bill of $160 something like that. Well that's when he got smart, my sister says.

LEVINE:

Oh, ok.

BRESCIA:

Because they were using him. And you know, he says, "Well it's [not understood] dying right next to you," he says. She had a stroke. He says, "Oh you know, somebody, you know, to take care of me." We're taking care of you, you don't need nobody. So that's what they were doing.

LEVINE:

Hm. I never heard that before.

BRESCIA:

` Yeah, you know that's true.

LEVINE:

That's interesting. So the women had a little scam going, the young women, to get over here?

BRESCIA:

To get over here, yeah.

LEVINE:

Yeah. Let's see, So, when you were six years old when you got back here, did you start school?

BRESCIA:

We started school. My brother, my two brothers and I, all went to school. They put us all in the same class. So then a couple days later they take me out of there and I go home and say, "Ma I got promoted!" I didn't get promoted, they put me in the kindergarten. So we had a fine time, a rough time to get adjusted. And my cousins were sick, and my cousins lived where we were living, Mount Vernon. And they lived half a block away. And they say to them, "Will you please speak?" I couldn't understand English or Italian. I didn't know whether I could, you know, so it was a hard time for us to start picking it up again after being there now three years, first we had to get accustomed to getting to speak Italian, then we had to come back here, you know, and speak English again. It took us quite awhile to get back. So, but we made it though, we made it. So, you know. And my brothers, they went to school in Italy, you know.

LEVINE:

Oh.

BRESCIA:

Yeah, my oldest brother had a tutor. You know, he used to come to school, he used to come to the house, you know. He used to give that tutor a hard time.

LEVINE:

In Italian you mean?

BRESCIA:

In Italian, yeah. And the other one, they used to go to school, and he never made it. He end up at my grandfather's house with the sheep and the nanny goats. So, he had to wear a smock. And he never used to take the smock off because it was, you know, he says, "I look like a girl" this was, everybody had to wear smocks when they went to school for the boys, you know.

LEVINE:

Oh.

BRESCIA:

It was like their uniform, you know. So, you know, all that stuff there. So it was really amazing and we had a cousin there had a pastry shop so she used to give us all the things that, you know, the candies and the cookies that they didn't –

LEVINE:

That broke?

BRESCIA:

That broke or something like that. And you know, so you know, and we used to always go for the [not understood]. The ice was delicious.

LEVINE:

What do you call it?

BRESCIA:

[not understood]

LEVINE:

Oh, uh huh.

BRESCIA:

And we used to go there so just hanged around all those places. We're kids, you know.

LEVINE:

Yeah.

BRESCIA:

So we used to have a lot of fun, though, once you get used to it, you know.

LEVINE:

Right

BRESCIA:

But we jumped one place to another.

LEVINE:

Can you think of, like, the different games or the things that you played as a little girl in Italy and over here?

BRESCIA:

Well over here, entirely different. Over there we just entertain ourselves. Here you have things to entertain yourself with, toys and stuff. We didn't have no toys. We didn't have no toys. We didn't have toys. We just played hide and seek and we played different games in the courtyard – we had a courtyard there, you know. And we used to go in the courtyard with my cousins and we used to play. And that's about it. We didn't have no games or nothing.

LEVINE:

Uh huh.

BRESCIA:

We entertained ourselves, you know. Then we used to have another cousin downstairs, my mother's cousin, and she had a store so, you know the chestnuts? They used to boil the chestnuts. We were upstairs, we used to send the basket down and she used to put the chestnuts cooked and bring them upstairs, you know. So little things like that, that's how we entertained, not like today you need a, you know, but that's, yeah.

LEVINE:

Yeah. You mentioned the women would bake their bread in the courtyard?

BRESCIA:

Yeah, yeah. We had a big courtyard, big oven there. And they had to, they took turns. Today – they made, they started the oven each day everybody went in, you went today, I went tomorrow, the next day, everybody. They used to make the bread for the, you know.

LEVINE:

Oh, and what was, like, with wood? Is that what fired the oven?

BRESCIA:

Yep, with wood. Yeah, somebody used to start it in the big — and all the people that lived in the courtyard, my grandmother lived in that courtyard, we lived outside of it. And my grandmother had a fireplace, you know, and my grandfather, and he had, he used to cook in the open fire. Because we had no fire. We used to have a thing in the, like a charcoal thing, and we'd sit around. My mother used to tell us all different stories.

LEVINE:

Oh

BRESCIA:

Religious stories, tell us all that. And some funny stories. And it was called "the jokes" today, but we didn't, you know. So that's how we entertain ourselves. My mother used to tell us different things, and you know. That's how we entertained ourselves.

LEVINE:

Yeah, yeah, so let's see. [pause] Oh, I forget what I was going to ask you. Now your grandparents —

BRESCIA:

Yeah

LEVINE:

What do you remember about them?

BRESCIA:

Oh I remember my grandmother, my grandfather was a very tall man and my grandmother was a little one. She used to always come to my house all the time and she loved my mother's cooking. So my other brother say to her, "She's always coming here, can you tell her to go home?" He used to say, you know. But anyway, she was very nice. My father's — [pause] my father's, his mother and his father were still living there, living in the next town. And we used to go there all the time too, you know. And he used to love us, my father's father. He used to always, "Make sure you come to see me," he used to say to us, you know. And they used to treat us good when we were there. And they had, they're the ones that had funeral, to this day, my cousin still has it. You know, the horses and stuff. You know, he was, like a funeral parlor.

LEVINE:

Oh.

BRESCIA:

Yeah, and they, that's what they had. They still have, today my cousin still runs it.

LEVINE:

Really?

BRESCIA:

Yeah he still has it. He still has a couple horses.

LEVINE:

They still do it with the horses and the cart?

BRESCIA:

Yeah, if they want to, but yeah. They say, "We'll do that, yeah." He has that, he still has that. That was in '84 I was there last time? '86 I think it was. Yeah he still has, he still does that. And they used to have the horses in the back there and there the ones that take the, you know. Of course they couldn't embalm you, years ago. The same day they had to bury you. That's why, you know, you couldn't hang around. But, you know, they didn't, so.

LEVINE:

Is there anything else, like customs over there? Like did you ever see a marriage over there and what were they like?

BRESCIA:

Oh yes, well the same thing. In fact, the preist, you know, just ordinary in church. Married the same way, you know. Same way. We seen one of them, we used to go, because we were kids, you know, we used to all sneak in when somebody got married, you know, we'd sit there. But of course, you know, they had only chairs, they had no kneelers stuff like that. And when you went to confession, the priest, you're facing the priest, you know, you weren't like a cover today. You were face to face there.

LEVINE:

Oh.

BRESCIA:

Yeah, in confession.

LEVINE:

You mean there's no little booth.

BRESCIA:

No booth, just face to face. Chair by the, you sit one chair like you and I are talking, that's where that was all the time. And, you know.

LEVINE:

Did it seem scarier to face the priest?

BRESCIA:

Yeah, yeah. Well I had to, I don't know what I went to, but I went to confession but I couldn't, I was too young to receive communion so they, you know, but it was funny though.

LEVINE:

So did you receive your communion once you got back here?

BRESCIA:

I had to wait awhile until I went to, I had to wait awhile. Because years ago you used to have a godmother, stuff like that, you know. And like today you don't have to have any. You know, so I had, you know, so I had to receive my communion and confirmation in Mount Vernon.

LEVINE:

I see.

BRESCIA:

Yeah.

LEVINE:

Now was there a big Italian community in Mount Vernon?

BRESCIA:

Oh yes. Where I lived there, and that's where St. Anthony had a little church next to us. St. Anthony Church. And we used to have the feast there, you know. St. Anthony. Oh!

LEVINE:

Could you describe those feasts?

BRESCIA:

Oh, those were fantastic. All kinds of booths and stuff. Of course we used to sit right there, you know, we were, it was right in front of our house, the parade, you know. And St. Anthony would come out, everybody would put money on it, you know. And then he used to go back into the church there and that's where we used to go to church, to St. Anthony right next to us, you know. And they used to, you know. And then years ago when we moved away from there, we bought our own house, they used to come down into our yard all the time. And rest there. They used to come from street to street years ago. They started from one end of the town to the next town. And they used to be tired carrying that thing on there. So they used to always rest in our house. My mother said that the house had to be clean. And she had a bunch of roses, she made [not understood]., and she served, you know. They all went to the bathroom and she served them whatever she had there, drinks and stuff like that. Yeah, and they were so happy to, you know.

LEVINE:

Yeah.

BRESCIA:

We had to behave, if not, you know.

LEVINE:

Mhmm. END SIDE A, TAPE ONE. BEGIN SIDE B, TAPE ONE.

LEVINE:

So where did you move when you left Mount Vernon?

BRESCIA:

I, Mount Vernon, well, when I got —

LEVINE:

When you bought the house?

BRESCIA:

We stayed in Mount Vernon there, and then we, then I got married.

LEVINE:

Oh you got married from Mount Vernon?

BRESCIA:

In Mount Vernon. Yeah I got married from Mount Carmel Church, yeah, and I got married in 1940, I got married.

LEVINE:

And how did you meet your husband?

BRESCIA:

On a date, you know, in fact I wasn't even -- he had a date with somebody else and then him and I just clicked together and that's how we, you know. And I married him in 1940.

LEVINE:

Now was he also from Italy or he was born here?

BRESCIA:

No he was born here. His family's from, oh his family's from, I have their history there too, his family's from (pause) [not understood] something like that, something like that. And his parents, his father's born in Italy but not his mother. So you know and his grandmother came here with the four boys. His grandfather, I don't know how he came here but according to them, you know how they, you know, cause, he was a [not understood] grandfather. And he used to, so she came here with the four kids and finally then he came. Must have been all around somehow, and then he came to the United States. You know, so yeah.

LEVINE:

Uh huh, yeah. So you, when you got married is that when you moved away from Mount Vernon?

BRESCIA:

No I still lived in, yeah I lived, yeah I lived in the Bronx. I lived in the Bronx and my mother-in-law's house for awhile then I moved back to Mount Vernon. And once I moved to Mount Vernon then I moved up to upstate, Carmel, New York.

LEVINE:

Where was that?

BRESCIA:

Carmel, New York.

LEVINE:

Oh Carmel. Uh huh and that was pretty typical wasn't it, to move in with the mother-in-law?

BRESCIA:

No, I move in with her at my own apartment.

LEVINE:

Oh your own apartment.

BRESCIA:

No I would never move in anybody. To even this day, I never like to move in with anybody.

LEVINE:

Uh huh, yeah.

BRESCIA:

You know, so then I moved away from there, I went I bought a house, my brother and I and we moved in together. And then I already had two children, I had two boys, then. And my daughter was born over there, my house, I had three children, two boy and a girl, I had.

LEVINE:

Uh huh. What was your husband's name?

BRESCIA:

Vito.

LEVINE:

Vito. And your children?

BRESCIA:

Victor, Daniel, and Lucille. Yeah. So there they are, yeah.

LEVINE:

So did you ever work?

BRESCIA:

Yes. I worked, well, I worked in a tailor shop. In fact I worked everyplace because when I used to go for unemployment whatever they put me up, I put. I was a waitress. I worked in a clothing place, you know, dress place. I worked in a restaurant. I was a baby sitter. I was everything. As long as I worked, I didn't care.

LEVINE:

Now did you go through school or did you drop out?

BRESCIA:

No, I had to drop out. My mother says, "You're 16 years old, go to work!" So I wish -- the teachers were very annoyed with me because they wanted me to be a designer, dress designer, because I was doing a lot of sewing, you know. That's what I do, a lot of sewing. So anyway, but anyway, I ended up in, working in a cleaner's store in Bronxville, New York. And then from there I got married and then my, and then I had the, I became pregnant. And my husband had to go to the service but they never took him. So meanwhile I had the two children and they still didn't take him because he was rejected. So before he was rejected I opened up a tailor shop.

LEVINE:

Oh.

BRESCIA:

Yeah, so I did tailoring and cleaning and stuff like that so I had my own little shop.

LEVINE:

Oh. Did you like doing that?

BRESCIA:

Oh yes. Yeah, yeah it was very good.

LEVINE:

How long did you do it?

BRESCIA:

I did it for two years until, you know, because I says, "Well I can't, I can't live on this salary. " If he goes to the service I couldn't live on that salary. So of course I had my kid sisters and brothers, they helped me a little bit. They watched the store; I went home to feed the kids, because I lived right near there. A friend of mine came and begged me, said, "Lucy please take the store." So my husband fixed it all up for me and everything else, and I did tailor. And then meanwhile there was a cleaners across the street -- a factory I used to work in too. And they didn't take no more work, they gave it all to me. So yeah, so you know.

LEVINE:

So then when your husband didn't go in the service —

BRESCIA:

Well then I sold, after awhile I waited awhile and then I sold it because you know, then I used to do homework.

LEVINE:

Oh, tell me about that.

BRESCIA:

Well I used to make these, you know these fancy earrings you got now, those big, big earrings? I said, who the hell wears these things, you know? I see them today. I worked on that, yeah I worked on that and then for a long time I worked with that. And then I made, you know, I used to make money. Because the kids were small, I couldn't go no place, you know. Then when my daughter --

LEVINE:

Tell me what you would do. You would go someplace, pick up the materials? And then you'd just take them home –

BRESCIA:

Take them home and do them home. And, you know, and use the pliers and put them all together and make them, set the earrings together.

LEVINE:

Would they have, like, beads in them? Is that what you would –

BRESCIA:

Well they had, sometimes they had the little metal things, you know. Beads, whatever they was, you know. Whatever it was, whatever type, whatever they gave me I did, you know. Then he got – then I used to go to the house and pick up the stuff. But then, we couldn't have it in the house anymore. We had a store. So I used to meet him outside the store and he used to give me the bag, you know, you know. Then I also made, before my daughter was born, I had, my mother-in-law had a sweater shop down the street and I used to make, put sweaters together. So I always worked, all the time.

LEVINE:

Oh.

BRESCIA:

My hands were always, even now today, I'm still crocheting and doing stuff. I can't, I have to be very active.

LEVINE:

When you say you put sweaters together, you mean you sewed – the pieces?

BRESCIA:

Yeah, well like, you know, some put collars on and put some together. Some put button holes on, stuff like that, you know. Then when I moved up to, then I worked of course, then I got a job. I worked in Commercial Decal, it's a lithographic place. All these, see, these dishes I made. These old dishes I made, yeah.

LEVINE:

Oh.

BRESCIA:

I made dishes for, of Lyndon Johnson, I made all that. I made her dinner — I made my daughter [not understood] dish set, we worked there. And –

LEVINE:

And they had these lithographs on them?

BRESCIA:

No, we put them on. We put them on, the dishes were plain.

LEVINE:

Oh, uh huh.

BRESCIA:

Yeah, I have some in the China closet, too, yeah. And we had the –

LEVINE:

So, what, what –

BRESCIA:

I used to, we used to, I used to work making decals. We made the samples, you know. It's so much to it, there's, you know, plate makers and then they go to the artists and the artists go to the plate makers then it comes to us and we pick colors out. And, and it ended up the last time, when we left, four colors only on the job. Before we used to put seven, eight colors in, finally they eliminated on that, you know. And we did a lot for Tiffany, also. They made, we made them for Lenux, you know, and all that stuff there. We made – and I worked twenty nine years there.

LEVINE:

So you, were you, would you say you were a decal maker? Is that what your role –

BRESCIA:

No, we, we used to make the decal, they made the, I powdered the decals. You see, each color, each plate had a different color. And each day, you had to put different color on. And I powdered them to make sure the coat was right and the register was right and all that stuff, make sure the color was right. Then it used to go into the machine, into the alkalizer, to make sure the color would not come off, you know. So there's a lot to it, it was very interesting, very interesting.

LEVINE:

So you liked doing that?

BRESCIA:

I liked to do that.

LEVINE:

So this was now, your children were already older when you started doing that?

BRESCIA:

Yes, oh yeah, you know, and I did that when my, you know, my kids. Then I had good, I had good bosses, because they liked me. And of course I got the work out for them and they liked me too, you know. And even the top boss, you know, he was Jewish and he was, he's crazy for me! Even though, everybody was afraid of talking. Not me, I talk to anybody. What do you got to be afraid of? You're doing your work, you know. And so that's what, it was very, very interesting you know.

LEVINE:

Yeah, it sounds like it yeah. So –

BRESCIA:

Then once a year we used to have a show. And we used to go down and get costumes and do all different shows.

LEVINE:

You mean the Fourth of July?

BRESCIA:

Christmas show. At Christmas time, we used to have a Christmas party.

LEVINE:

Like what kind of a show might you have?

BRESCIA:

Well we did, you know, we did a can-can dance and we did all those different dances, tap dancing and stuff like that, you know.

LEVINE:

So would there be a lot of people working at --?

BRESCIA:

Oh yeah, the big plant. The big plant, it was a big plant.

LEVINE:

Where was the plant?

BRESCIA:

In Mount Vernon.

LEVINE:

And what was its name?

BRESCIA:

Commercial Decal. Yeah, they were very, and then they went into, what do you call it -- the other one there now, I forgot the name of it now. But anyway, they had big machines. You see, we used to do the proofs then they used to go on – somedays, ok, the job is to put it on the big machine. We used to get a lot from overseas, too, but then things got slowed down, you know.

LEVINE:

Uh huh. Wow.

BRESCIA:

They didn't want me to retire, but you know. Because I used to travel one hundred miles a day -- from Carmel to Mount Vernon after moving to up to [not understood] County. You know and it was, people moving up there, traffic was getting very heavy. So I retired in 1982.

LEVINE:

I see. Well do you remember the Depression and how it affected you and your family?

BRESCIA:

Well it didn't affect us. The Depression was very good for us. My father had a job. He worked for the city.

LEVINE:

Oh.

BRESCIA:

You know, and of course it was eight of us, eight children my father had at the time. But we didn't go on relief at all. We managed. My mother, we had a garden. My mother grew stuff, we could preserve stuff. And she also had chickens and rabbits and all that stuff there. And we never starved. You know, of course my mother was very – she used to make homemade bread, you know. And when she used to buy stuff she used to buy sacks at a time, like sugar and stuff before they started rationing it off. And so beans and stuff like that, and little macaronis and stuff like that. We used to have macaroni factories that go and get all the [not understood] when it's all cut up to make pasta fazol and stuff like that. She managed, you know.

LEVINE:

Yeah. When you say your father worked for the city, was it like the construction?

BRESCIA:

No, he was a garbage man.

LEVINE:

Oh.

BRESCIA:

G-man, we used to call him. Yeah, yeah

LEVINE:

G-man [laughing]

BRESCIA:

And he worked hard, he worked hard because those days you had to lift up the, all those barrels off the ashes. And he was on top of the truck.

LEVINE:

Oh because people were burning coal?

BRESCIA:

Coal those days, but he worked hard, my father. He's a working man, you know, he worked very hard. My mother worked hard too. She got up early in the morning, baked bread and go out into the garden and you know, can tomatoes, can everything, can beer, can what do you call it, root beer, stuff like that. Yeah. She did everything.

LEVINE:

Oh.

BRESCIA:

Then she used to preserve in the wintertime. She used to go and all the vegetables and stuff, she used to dig a hole outside and bury it.

LEVINE:

Oh.

BRESCIA:

Yeah, and like, we had no freezer in those days, you know. And we used to go to the, to get apples, we used to cut up the apples and dry them up, you know? And hang them up in the, in our cellar. My father used to make his own wine. So, you know, everything was —

LEVINE:

So in other words when you buried things in the backyard, like say carrots, potatoes –

BRESCIA:

Yeah, we did, what she'd do, she dig a hole, and they used to bury them and they used to cover them with leaves and then they put boards on top of it, celery and stuff. And that would last us almost all winter. Cabbage and stuff like that. Because if that's grown, what are you going to do with all that? You know what I mean, you can't eat it all. So we always had plenty of vegetables. My mother used to make a big pot of vegetables all the time and you know. Yeah, so.

LEVINE:

So were there any attitudes or values that your mother or father had that they tried to instill in you? Can you remember maybe that had some sayings or things they tried to, so that you would live by them?

BRESCIA:

Not really because my mother didn't have time to do that, any of that stuff. But we all did our chores, and we used to have nice set of marbles at Christmas time we used to roll nuts down and you know, and cousins come over, we used to play cards, stuff like that, you know. Play different games, you know, outside and stuff like that, you know. And because they lived in the city so they used to live, and where we lived, and they used to come down, it was like the country where we are. And they used to love it there! You know, and they used to eat everything, my aunts say, "How come they eat better over here than at my house?" They says, "I have this chicken and stuff. " They says, "Well, it's the air there. " They used to love to come down there, they used to come down and play with us, all the time. And at night the kids, we used to play hide and seek. We used to play on each other's porch, and stuff like that, you know. And then we had a big porch and when it would rain, everybody would stay under there, you know, and play games and stuff. So that's the activity we had, we were kids, you know.

LEVINE:

Yeah.

BRESCIA:

You know, kick the can and stuff like that. You know.

LEVINE:

Right, right.

BRESCIA:

And that's what, you know.

LEVINE:

Yeah.

BRESCIA:

So that's what – when the vegetable man came around my mother was, you know, always made a bargain with him, she was always bargaining with him, you know (laughing). Bananas and stuff, you know (laughing). She's too much. But she kept us going, you know. So you know. She was a great woman. So.

LEVINE:

What do you feel very proud of that you've done in your life? What makes you feel really satisfied?

BRESCIA:

Well the upbringing, the upbringing that I had, you know. And the things that I'm doing like now. I know people that don't do anything that I do now.

LEVINE:

You mean with the crocheting and –

BRESCIA:

The crocheting and the, whatever I do, I'm a very active person. I still go bowling, I still go bowling and very, you know, different, different things, you know. In fact I do some songs here for the people if they wanted to, if they want to do for them. You know, I give them a break, you know. I like to do that, sometimes I don't even charge them but I just like to do that. You know, and I love to cook. And in fact, I'm alone, I still cook, you know. So, you know. They can't understand why I still cook, I'm not going to go to the restaurant everyday, you know.

LEVINE:

Yeah.

BRESCIA:

I cook, I cook for maybe, if I make for something, I cook for twice, you know, and I wait a few days, you know. I have to buy vegetable. Last night I had green beans and [not understood]. And then I had salad. So what else? What could you get, you know? Oh but you know.

LEVINE:

So you still, your mother kept cooking in the Italian way?

BRESCIA:

Yeah, because, my father didn't know how to do nothing. When I was seven years old, my mother says, when we came from Italy, when we came a little older, my mother had the baby, my father cooked the macaronis and it was all sorts of gooey, she says, "This is it, I got to teach my daughter. " So that's how she taught me. You know, and I also taught my children. My children know how to cook, they know how to clean, they know how to do everything.

LEVINE:

Uh huh.

BRESCIA:

So now they, they, even my granddaughter, my daughter, her kids too. They all, you know, all know how to cook. All good cooks.

LEVINE:

Yeah.

BRESCIA:

And we don't mind doing. Like Christmas Eve I was up here we all did all kinds of fishes, seven fishes we made.

LEVINE:

That's for Christmas Eve.

BRESCIA:

Christmas Eve, yeah we made that. We made that, you know.

LEVINE:

Was that something you did in Italy? Or were you near it?

BRESCIA:

I don't remember that too much. I don't remember too much as far as, you know, because we were alone most of the time. We ate what my mother cooked for us, you know. And I don't remember that.

LEVINE:

But that's an Italian tradition.

BRESCIA:

Italian tradition, as later on my mother served that, you know, we were kids and she used to do that for us. And that's how we learned how to do that, you know. At Christmas Eve, you know we had all kinds of fish that she had. Used to go down to the Bronx, big 8 th avenue, imagine her going with the train down back and carrying all the, I mean you think of it —

LEVINE:

With all the raw fish [laughing]!

BRESCIA:

With the raw fish (laughing)! I wouldn't want to be on a train with her (laughing)! But anyway, that's, you know, she was very, she was great. She taught me how to sew, you know. And I had an iron, we used to iron even the socks and underwear, we used to iron. And if I had, if I ironed the napkins differently -- "No! You got to do it this way. " With the point, you know. And my brother's too. They all know how to do stuff like that too, you know.

LEVINE:

Really? Iron and everything?

BRESCIA:

Yeah. Do everything.

LEVINE:

Well, do you think, well wait. World War II. Do you remember the build-up for World War II or do you remember anything about those war years?

BRESCIA:

That's very sad for us. I lost a cousin and three days later I lost a brother. And some friends of ours, yeah, very sad. My mother changed then. My mother was an active person, she used to take trips, go to different busses and stuff. After that my mother became, like that, very sad.

LEVINE:

Oh.

BRESCIA:

Nineteen years old! He came home, he came home and he says to my husband and I, he says, "I don't know if I should go back with the same group or go with another group. " He says, "I miss my family," you know. So anyway, so he didn't go back to the same group.

LEVINE:

Hm.

BRESCIA:

So my brother, my cousin died. And so I went to my mother and I said, "You know, Mom, I dreamed about Lulu and he was in the coffin today. " She said, "You're dreaming about, you're thinking about your cousin. " Guess what? We got the telegram. That changed my mother's life.

LEVINE:

Wow. Did you ever have those kinds of sort of psychic —

BRESCIA:

Yes, I still have them today.

LEVINE:

Really.

BRESCIA:

Yes, I still have them today. The day that I buried, the day my husband past away my son and I came home and I went to sleep. And I went to sleep and all of the sudden the room was litted up like flakes. And I was leaning like this and a light shined on me. So I says, so I woke up, you know, and there's nothing there. My daughter says, "Well, he probably wanted to make sure you got home safe. "

LEVINE:

Aw.

BRESCIA:

So I do have them, like last time.

LEVINE:

Yeah, yeah.

BRESCIA:

If I do, I know something happens afterwards. I have a lot of premonition. Only my daughter-in-law thinks about it when I tell her, she believes me. Not everybody believes you.

LEVINE:

Oh I know. I feel some people have that sensibility.

BRESCIA:

I know when I dream about, like now I dream about my husband, right? Never go away with him, he always leaves me alone. He's in my company, he stays with me, and then he disappears. He, never, you know, it's funny. I know why. But I do have a lot of that.

LEVINE:

Yeah. Is there anything else about coming here? Do you think the fact that you were in Italy, you came here, and your family immigrated here, do you think that made a difference in you, your personality? Do you think it, I don't know, had some kind of an effect, the fact that you immigrated?

BRESCIA:

Not really

LEVINE:

No, you were young

BRESCIA:

I was young anyway but I still love Italy. I still love to be Italian.

LEVINE:

How do you think about that, your Italian side, your American side? Do you –

BRESCIA:

I feel like my Italian side. I still like it because I had a lot of upbringing, you know. The Americans had different ideas which I go along with them, but as far as that, they don't. Because the way they bring up some of these kids today, you know, I'm not too happy about it. You know.

LEVINE:

Yeah.

BRESCIA:

You know, the way we were brought up, the hard way! And we were taught the hard way. And we did things when our parents told us, "Do this!" You do it. Today, they, I'm not ready for it. They're nasty to their parents, we never! We couldn't. We sat at the table to eat, we waited for each dish my mother put around us. Then if we wanted more then she give us more, we never helped ourselves. Because that's the way we were brought up. We never did, I would never go, even I would never go in my mother's Frigidaire.

LEVINE:

Really?

BRESCIA:

Never. I'd never go in. Because I felt that, if she wants me to go in, I go in. Today the kids open and close the Frigidaire like nobody's business. I respected them. As hard times I had with them sometimes you had good times sometimes bad times, you know. Because I was the oldest one and we always get the brunt of it. You know, so.

LEVINE:

What were their personalities like? Your mother and father?

BRESCIA:

My mother was a very good person. Now my father was, you know, a little different. My mother she was a very, she liked to entertain, she was a funny person. One time I gave her a cigarette to smoke, my father almost killed us! [laughing] She was choking on it, you know. But, you know, if you play cards with friends, my father was, you know, a sore loser. My mother used to give it to him, you know.

LEVINE:

So who was the strict one? Was one of them strict?

BRESCIA:

My mother was the strict one. If you didn't do what she told you, you used to get it. Sometimes we used to sit outside there was a well outside, we used to sit on the well and if anybody came in and see the four of us sitting there they say, "Uh oh, you did something wrong?" [laughing]. Yeah she was very strict with us. You know, we had to do what she told us, you know. And we obeyed her, you know. We had to do our chores before we went to school.

LEVINE:

Like what would you have to do?

BRESCIA:

Well like if I had to make, make sure that I had my bed made, I had the dishes done and everything else. When I come home from school I had lunch, made sure lunch was there and she would never let me go until the last minute because school was up the street and people couldn't understand why that, and she said, "No, I don't want you hanging around. "

LEVINE:

Oh and then were they strict when you started getting interested in boys?

BRESCIA:

Oh, yes. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, very strict. My brother had to come out with me sometimes they want, you know, to go someplace and they used to pick us up, you know, I think the fact that when I was keeping company and when we had friends, my mother used to, my father would make my mother sit in the kitchen and he'd go to sleep. So then after awhile she'd say, "Hey, this is for the birds, I'm not doing that anymore. " She'd say, "He can go to sleep. " Because we used to stay awake, you know, they used to go to bed around seven o'clock. So we used to have like, the parlor, they called it, you know. And we used to sit there my brothers and friends around the neighborhood and start talking and play games and stuff like that, you know. That's what we used to do, you know. But then, yeah. My husband used to tease my husband — my father when I was doing dishes he used to hook his arms around me, my father used to give him a dirty look [laughing]. Because, you know, that was their way of thinking, what are you going to do. Yeah, so.

LEVINE:

Well, were there things that your mother and father taught you, well you did say that, that you passed on to your own children?

BRESCIA:

Yes I did. Yes I did.

LEVINE:

Yep, yep.

BRESCIA:

Yes I did.

LEVINE:

Ok well I think we've covered everything, is there anything else you can think of that you'd like to say before we close?

BRESCIA:

No there's nothing much. I did a lot of traveling.

LEVINE:

Oh?

BRESCIA:

When I was young I did a lot of traveling. Very, no place we didn't go to.

LEVINE:

Really? Outside the country? And inside the country?

BRESCIA:

Yeah, I went to Italy, went to, what do you call it, Paris, England, stuff like that. And we went on a lot of cruises, we went on a lot of cruises, we went to Hawaii, we did a lot of stuff.

LEVINE:

Uh huh. What are you looking forward to now?

BRESCIA:

Can't do too much without a partner. You know, it's different. That's why I go gambling — Biloxi, I go gambling with my friends, I go there. We used to go there too a lot. You know, but you can't do too much. I went on a cruise with my daughter, we went to Las Vegas with my daughter last year and my husband and I used to go to Vegas at least twice a year. So we did a lot of things so I hadn't got no regrets. No regrets.

LEVINE:

Yeah so you got a good –

BRESCIA:

I had, I had a good life and I was almost married sixty years. Four more days I would have been sixty years married to him.

LEVINE:

Wow

BRESCIA:

And anyway, so I lived a long, you know. One man is a long time [laughing], you know?

LEVINE:

Yeah

BRESCIA:

But I tell you we had our ins and outs, you know, we all have that, you know. No body is perfect but anyway, that's my life. Somehow that's, I still keep up.

LEVINE:

Well how did you feel when you visited Ellis Island? Did that, was that like a special —

BRESCIA:

Yes, we did! We went into the kitchen, especially, we had to, you know, peek in through the window to go there, you know. And I took pictures of it, the whole thing, I took pictures of it. I went with my daughter, my son — my grandson took us down there.

LEVINE:

You were peeking in the window of what? Where the hospital was?

BRESCIA:

No where the kitchen.

LEVINE:

Oh the kitchen.

BRESCIA:

Because you couldn't go in there, you could see the pots the pans and stuff. But the hospital you couldn't get to it because it was across the way but we went to all the other rooms we took pictures of most of the place. And you know what attracted me most there? When you come from the boat, the packages, the trucks and stuff like that, that. And also the shoes I used to wear were the shoes you know the –

LEVINE:

Yeah.

BRESCIA:

And I got pictures of that too. And the shoes, especially, I says, "That's the shoes we used to wear. " And also the, and some of those pictures, I said, "I wonder if my mother was in it. " You know? When we came off the boat, I says, "I wonder if she was in that. "

LEVINE:

It'd be nice if you recognized her in there.

BRESCIA:

Yeah I know but it's hard to recognize, you know, I was only little. But that attracted me the most there.

LEVINE:

Those little shoes are adorable.

BRESCIA:

Yeah, yeah. And the trunks and the way people traveled and stuff like that. And the way they dressed and stuff like that, yeah. That's what attracted me. Of course now they got a lot of stuff there. They also had some people from Mount Vernon there so, pictures of them. Yeah I didn't recognize that. I think, I tried to find out but, you know.

LEVINE:

Hm. Ok well I think we've covered everything and I thank you for a very interesting interview.

BRESCIA:

Yeah, yeah. Ok and I'll get some pictures together and send them to you.

LEVINE:

That would be wonderful, put them in your file.

BRESCIA:

Yeah

LEVINE:

And that will be great. Ok, I've been speaking with Lucy Bres —

BRESCIA:

Brescia.

LEVINE:

Brescia. Brescia. And this is Janet Levine for the National Park Service and I'm signing off. END INTERVIEW