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My Back Pages: Memories - Part I : First Memories Me, Age 2 My earliest memory is of my Great Uncle Giuseppe dying. I was about three years old... maybe a little younger,...

First Memories Me, Age 2 My earliest memory is of my Great Uncle Giuseppe dying. I was about three years old... maybe a little younger, and I remember my Aunt Anne saying that Zi Peppine had died. He was my Grandfather Angelo's brother. I remember everyone being very hushed, and the crying that came from Uncle Joe's house. Many memories from this time are hazy, but I remember being treated as something special by my aunts and uncles because I was my father's first born.  My father worked for General Motors in Tarrytown, NY at the time. He worked on the assembly line. We lived in my Grandmother's house on Everett Street at the time, and I remember waking up very early in the morning as my father showered and shaved and went about his morning business. I could smell the heady aroma of the coffee percolating in the pot downstairs, and the sound coming from the kitchen as my mother and grandmother prepared breakfast. I would sit in my grandfather's lap as...

First Memories Me, Age 2 My earliest memory is of my Great Uncle Giuseppe dying. I was about three years old... maybe a little younger, and I remember my Aunt Anne saying that Zi Peppine had died. He was my Grandfather Angelo's brother. I remember everyone being very hushed, and the crying that came from Uncle Joe's house. Many memories from this time are hazy, but I remember being treated as something special by my aunts and uncles because I was my father's first born.  My father worked for General Motors in Tarrytown, NY at the time. He worked on the assembly line. We lived in my Grandmother's house on Everett Street at the time, and I remember waking up very early in the morning as my father showered and shaved and went about his morning business. I could smell the heady aroma of the coffee percolating in the pot downstairs, and the sound coming from the kitchen as my mother and grandmother prepared breakfast. I would sit in my grandfather's lap as...

My Back Pages: Thoughts On Father's Day : Father's come in all shapes and sizes... short, tall, slim, heavy. They are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist... all religions,...

Father's come in all shapes and sizes... short, tall, slim, heavy. They are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist... all religions, and no religion.They are Black, Brown, White... all of the colors in the human spectrum. There are good fathers, and bad fathers. I wish to salute the good fathers.  They dedicate their lives to working hard to provide for their families. Fathers, like mine, who work their whole lives to make life good for their families. They do all that they can to give their children what they need. Working long hours, many times into the night, many weekends lost to work. They spend almost every waking hour thinking of how they can improve the lives of their children, working unrelentingly as the best  years of their lives speed by. They work without complaint, without asking for recognition of what they do, because this is simply what they know that they must do.   It does not matter if these fathers were born here, or born somewhere els...