HEID:

This is Debra Heid for the National Park Service. Today is Tuesday, May 26, 1992, and I'm in the home of Ross Scarantino, speaking to Ettore Lorenzini, who came from Italy in 1930. Good afternoon, Mr. Lorenzini.

LORENZINI:

Good afternoon.

HEID:

Could you please state your full name for me, and could you spell your last name again?

LORENZINI:

Ettore Lorenzini. L-O-R-E-N-Z-I-N-I.

HEID:

And what is your date of birth?

LORENZINI:

March 20, 1913.

HEID:

And what town in Italy did you come from?

LORENZINI:

I come from the northern part, north of Venice. It's a small little town. The name of the town is Anduins.

HEID:

How do you . . .

LORENZINI:

The provence of Udine.

HEID:

Do you know how to, do you remember how to . . .

LORENZINI:

Anduins? A-N-D-U-I-N-S. Will you know, the spelling I remember. ( he laughs )

HEID:

And what was life like in Italy at that time?

LORENZINI:

Well, in Italy, I went to school, mostly, up till that time that I come over, you know. And we lived in a small little town, and we only lived in one town, and all the things like that, you know. And my dad was here. He was here since 1922.

HEID:

Okay. But going back to life in Italy, though, you were a boy growing up on a farm, and that's how your father made a living at that time? He was a farmer?

LORENZINI:

Well, no. Actually my father was a stone mason.

HEID:

Oh, a stone mason.

LORENZINI:

Yeah. Well, the farm wasn't a big farm, you know. The women used to work the farm. The men, they'd go out and work. The men usually go out in the spring and come back in the fall and do the chores in the winter, because a stone mason was outside work. My dad used to emigrate maybe to Germany from Italy or France or something like that, and then come home. So this time he had a brother here, and Jim told (?). And his brother called for him, because his brother was also a stone mason. He was a contractor. So my father come over in 1922. And then he was here for four years without coming home. He didn't come home till 1926. My poor mother had to raise the kids, five kids, by herself. And then . . .

HEID:

Well, let's talk about that. First of all, what was your father's name?

LORENZINI:

Angelo.

HEID:

And your mother's name?

LORENZINI:

Julia.

HEID:

Now, you had brothers and sisters over in Italy. What were their names?

LORENZINI:

Well, I had my older brother was Sylvio, Assunta, Justina and Felicia. Now, when my father got the citizen papers, all the minor children was included, but not my older brother. He was over twenty-one. I was the first one. In other words, I was only seventeen, I was on the paper. And . . .

HEID:

Now, how did your mother make ends meet? If her husband was traveling around into different countries trying to make a living as a stone mason, what did your mother do?

LORENZINI:

Well, she had this little farm, cows and things to take care of. You know, a lot. I don't know how she did it. She had a lot of work to do. And of course, before we come over here it was in a war. First he was in Germany working, then he come back to Italy before the war, the first war started. Then he, after a while he was in a war, till 1918, 1918. Then he come home and work a couple of years around home, and then he came in America. So while he was able to send some money over there to live, you know. Then he wanted to bring the whole family over. But my mother, she was educated, to come over here and bring the whole family. She was afraid that the climate here wouldn't agree with her, because a lot of people in my town used to go to South America and they had to come back because the climate didn't agree with them. Well, South America is a lot different climate than we have over here. Here is more like my area that I lived. So she didn't want to come over. And then my father come back in 1926 for a visit, he had to come back, and I come in 1930. So actually I didn't see my father in my life very much.

HEID:

Well, it sounds like it.

LORENZINI:

I come over here, it was the Depression just started in 1930. Then my father didn't have any work. He went back to Italy, and I was left here alone, seventeen years old.

HEID:

Now, you mentioned before, when you were in Italy you were able to go to school.

LORENZINI:

I went to school. I went to, well, over there I went to the grade school as far as fifth grade. The grade was fifth grade. Then I went to an art school, design and art school, and then I went to another school as a mosaic. Mosaic school, you learn mosaic. And really that's what helped me in this country, the mosaic part of the thing. Because if I didn't have that, I wouldn't have been there.

HEID:

Now, for you to go to art school, did that cost money at that time?

LORENZINI:

Uh, it wasn't really that much, it didn't cost that much. It was an art and trade school. You know, I was, what happened is I was going to be probably a stone mason like my father and my brother, but probably wouldn't be able to read the blueprints and run a job and something like that. That's what my brother did. He went four years for a course. And then, but then I had an automobile accident and I broke my arm, and my brother thought that would have been too hard of a work for me to go stone mason, so he sent me to mosaic school, which is a little lighter work. Mosaic, you do pictures in mosaic and all that kind of stuff. So then I was seventeen, I had to come over.

HEID:

You said your brother sent you to school. Was he like in charge of the family because your father wasn't there?

LORENZINI:

Well, I had my older brother. He was, like, practically my father himself. He was six years, seven years older than me. So I always looked up to him, and he was the one that really directed, he was there. But he was working, too, away, in and out, you know. But . . .

HEID:

Did you like going to art school?

LORENZINI:

What's that?

HEID:

Did you like going to art school?

LORENZINI:

Oh, yeah, I loved it. I loved it. I liked it very much, yeah. And, as I say, if I didn't have my mosaic ability I wouldn't be here, because that's the only reason I got employed here, because of my mosaic ability.

HEID:

Okay. Well, before we get to that, now what about, what type of house did you live in in Italy?

LORENZINI:

What's that?

HEID:

What type of house did you live in in Italy?

LORENZINI:

Our house?

HEID:

Was it a large one, little one?

LORENZINI:

Well, I'll tell you what. We had a very small house first. But then in 1926 my father come over here, he had some money saved, we built a new house. And there was about a twelve room house, you know, about four stories, three rooms each story. But . . .

HEID:

That was big.

LORENZINI:

Beautiful rooms.

HEID:

A big house. He must have did very well.

LORENZINI:

Well, you know what, I'll tell you. In our town out there was a town, tourism. We had special waters, sulphurs waters, and in the summertime we lent the rooms out. They come to drink this water, the people. Cures and things like that, you know, it's a special water, sulphur water. There were special baths, these sulphur baths. And so in the summertime we used to, we made extra rooms and extra floors in the rooms and rent them out.

HEID:

So I guess that's what supplemented your family's income, you were able to rent out these rooms and get money to help things . . .

LORENZINI:

That's right. We made a little money. Everybody in the town did that. They come from all over for this cure, this water. It seems it was like a medicinal, a water, like this sulphur water. People got up four o'clock in the morning, drinking water all day, you know, that water. And of course the reason I had to leave when I was seventeen because if I stayed until I was eighteen Mussolini won't let me leave until I serve in the army. And then after I served in the army I'd be over twenty-one, I can't come in.

HEID:

Now, in the meantime, your father already came to America.

LORENZINI:

He was here.

HEID:

Okay, so he's writing back, he's writing home.

LORENZINI:

Yeah, right.

HEID:

And he's telling you that it's a wonderful life, or what is he saying to you?

LORENZINI:

Uh, well . . .

HEID:

Do you remember?

LORENZINI:

I didn't have too much, you know, correspondence with him, you know. I know my mother had to take a picture of us every year to send him to see how we're growing, you know. ( he laughs ) In our town there used to be a photographer in the summer to take pictures of these tourists, you know. So he takes a picture, she sends to my father to see the way we're growing, you know. We go four years at a time without seeing him, you know, and I really don't know what he comes from. I tell you. It was hard for him and hard for us, you know.

HEID:

So what made him come to America at first?

LORENZINI:

Well, as I said, his brother was here, he was a stone mason, and he was in the contracting business. My father was a stone mason, so he could use him to work. So that's how, probably those days, he come in 1922, it was a little easier to come over than it was later on, you know, like myself. I was, of course, I was up for the quota. They call outside the quota, but it was a little harder to come over, you know.

HEID:

Did your mother come over with you?

LORENZINI:

She never wanted to come over.

HEID:

So she never came over?

LORENZINI:

She was afraid, my oldest brother was twenty-one, over twenty-one, and she was afraid they won't let him come over, but I didn't think that they would separate a family. She was afraid that they wouldn't let him come over.

HEID:

So you decided to come because you didn't want to go into the service with Mussolini. Was that why?

LORENZINI:

No, no. That wasn't why I did it. I decided to come because, well, I was coming to my father, you know, mostly, I think. You know, I didn't know what to expect, really. I think I was happy that I was coming to see my father. A youngster interested in traveling by myself. And, uh . . .

HEID:

So now how did you get from your little town, and where did you leave from?

LORENZINI:

There was a little station about five, four miles away from my town, a railroad station.

HEID:

A railroad station, okay.

LORENZINI:

We had to walk there. Right away, half of the town see me off. The thing that was left with me the most is that when the train was leaving my mother was hanging on, she won't let the train go. And that stays with me, because she had a feeling that maybe she'd never see me again, which she never did. She'd never did.

HEID:

How did you feel?

LORENZINI:

I felt foolish. The thing is, we was in the station, in the waiting room, and everybody talking and things like that. So the train was coming around the curve. The minute they blow the whistle, it choked me up, I couldn't say another word. Why, I don't know, but that's what happened. I just, I couldn't say nothing else. And good thing I had a friend of mine, he was traveling to Italy, part of Italy, over to Verona, and he kept me company, my best friend, same age and everything, you know. So when we got to Milan, I met a cousin of mine in Milan, you know, there, I traveled during the night. Then we went to Genoa. I had to spend three days in Genoa. I had to go through a physical examination with the American consul. The first time I had to sign my name backwards. In Italy you always sign "Lorenzini, Ettore." Over here it was "Ettore Lorenzini." You know, you have to sign the last name first. But I never understood why in this country they call it "last name." See, in other words, when you're born, you're Lorenzini, not Ettore. So supposed to be second name. I don't know. But over there you would go with Lorenzini first.

HEID:

So when you left your little town, did you take anything with you special from that town to remember it by?

LORENZINI:

Enough clothes to make a couple changes, that's about it, that's it, you know. My poor mother, she made labels on all the shirts and things like that, you know. I had one suit I wear, one in the suitcase, and things like that, you know. But I didn't take too much, one suitcase really. But it was quite adventurous.

HEID:

Now, you took the train to, what port did you leave from?

LORENZINI:

Genoa.

HEID:

So how long of a train ride was it?

LORENZINI:

Huh?

HEID:

How long was the train ride?

LORENZINI:

Well, I'll tell you, I left maybe about five, six o'clock in the evening in my town, and we got in Milan at six o'clock in the morning. And my cousin meet me there, we spent most of the day there. And then in the afternoon he put me on the train to go to Genoa. When I got to Genoa, they already had reservation for me to stay at the hotel. Actually, the taxi at that time was a horse and buggy, took me to the hotel, you know. No cars, you know. But that's what happened. It was all included in the ticket.

HEID:

How did you pay for the ticket? Did your father send you money, or did you . . .

LORENZINI:

He probably did send, I didn't pay, my mother got the ticket, made all the arrangements, and just had to follow that. Now, the best thing is, this fellow that accompanied me was leaving from Naples. He went over to visit his parents in Naples. And I was leaving in Genoa, from Genoa. So when I was boarding in Genoa, the guy, the sailor was there asking, he says, "Who's accompanying you?" Was a guy in front of me said that was him. It wasn't him. They let me on the boat. My dad wrote me, said, "Now, this fellow . . ." Peter Leonardis, his name was, he says, " . . . is a little short guy, no moustache." So the next morning, we left at noon in Genoa, the next morning about, oh, eight o'clock, nine o'clock, they start boarding in Naples. And I stay right where the gangplank, and I watch everybody coming on. I see a little short guy with no moustache. I say, "Are you Peter Leonardis?" I didn't find him. Everybody was on, I couldn't find him. He didn't get on. So I looked for him. The people was boarding in Genoa, they eat the first, they had two sessions of seating on the boat. So I asked one of the waiters to announce his name in the second session. I couldn't find him. That was Saturday. I couldn't find him Sunday. I'm looking all over. I even asked the guy in charge of the cabins. I couldn't find him. Monday I was on top of the deck. Because in the Mediterranean was like we're standing away, it was nice. And a guy told me, "You have to go downstairs and declare what you're bringing. If you're bringing cheese, or whatever you're bringing, you've got to declare it." I go downstairs, there's a big line there. I don't want to stay in line. I went up in front of the line, and there was a guy there I met on the boat, he let me in front of him. And in front of me was Peter Leonardis. It just happened like that.

HEID:

So you found him after all.

LORENZINI:

Like that, yeah. When he put this paper down, on the paper it said "Peter Leonardis." I said, "Do you know my father?" He says, "Who's your father?" I says, "Angelo Lorenzini." "Oh, I've been looking all over for you." ( he laughs )

HEID:

So what was the boat like? Did you come over in steerage, or did you come in second class?

LORENZINI:

Third class.

HEID:

Third class.

LORENZINI:

But they had cabins, you know.

HEID:

And what were the cabins like?

LORENZINI:

They had running water. The cabin was, I think, two bunks, one up, one down. I think four bunks in them, or something like that, you know. I don't know whether, probably I was sick seven days out of ten that I come over, you know. ( he laughs ) But the first few days I was good. In the Mediterranean all like in here. We got out in the Atlantic, then it started jumping up and down, you know.

HEID:

Did you get sick?

LORENZINI:

Oh, I had to stay in bed. I couldn't eat nothing. Only orange juice or something like that. I couldn't eat nothing. It wouldn't stay down. I said, I wrote on the wall. I said, "I'll never go back by boat." ( Ms. Heid laughs ) I'll go back by plane. I never did, you know. I went back by plane in 1954. And, uh, my dad, my mother passed away after the war. I never saw my mother. My dad wasn't too well also, I went over to see him in 1954. Of course, I had my dad here for a year in 1951, they come over here with me, visit me. But it's quite a, when I come over, I landed in, well, in watching. Because from Ellis Island, see, then, I didn't complete the story before . . .

HEID:

Well, tell me about that again. What happened when you got . . .

LORENZINI:

What happened is when they took me to Ellis Island I get in this big room, and then they . . .

HEID:

Why did you have to go to Ellis Island, though?

LORENZINI:

That's the reason, because I was separated from the guy who was accompanying me.

HEID:

Oh, was that, the Peter?

LORENZINI:

Peter Leonardis. I was separated from him. He was down, I was up.

HEID:

How did you get separated? You have to tell me.

LORENZINI:

He was on, like I told you before, he was an American citizen, and American citizen get off first. And he told me, "I'll wait for you downstairs, below, on the dock." When they come to me, I was the first one, alien, standing up with the immigration, first one. He asked me, he says, "Who's accompanying?" He saw I was seventeen years old. I said, "Peter Leonardis." "Where is he?" I says, "Waiting for me down there." "Go and get him." I couldn't get him. So before you know, they closed the boat, I was left on the boat, he was left outside. See what happened? So the next morning when I went back to the boat we were gone, so he come over in the afternoon. He go home that night. He says, "I can't go. What I'm going to tell your father? I don't know what happened. We were separated."

HEID:

So he left you on the boat, so you couldn't get off, so that's why they took you to Ellis Island?

LORENZINI:

Yeah, that's why. No other reason. Because they was afraid to leave me off. I was a youngster, no money, no language, and they was afraid to leave me off by myself in New York, the immigration. Today it's different. Today a little niece of mine come over on the plane, fourteen years old, they let her off in New York by herself. If I'm not there I don't know, you know.

HEID:

There's one question I forgot to ask you. When you were coming over on the boat and you came into New York Harbor, do you remember seeing the Statue of Liberty?

LORENZINI:

I couldn't say exactly if I did or not. I probably did. Everybody was on board, and I probably did. But I couldn't say exactly that I admired the Statue of Liberty or not, I don't remember exactly. That's one thing. But when I got to watching where my dad lives . . .

HEID:

Before you get there, what happened? Now, you went to Ellis Island. How long did you have to stay on Ellis Island?

LORENZINI:

Just the one day, one night I think I spend there.

HEID:

So you had to sleep there?

LORENZINI:

See, Peter Leonardis come over to Ellis Island, but they won't let me go home with him.

HEID:

Why not?

LORENZINI:

Because they was waiting for the affidavit from my father. They sent a telegram to my father, they want an affidavit. So they said, "You go home, we'll send him home." Then he know what happened, you know.

HEID:

What was Ellis Island like? Was it a lot of people there?

LORENZINI:

Oh, a lot of people. People crying, people, you know, it's a lot of people that it was, some people probably they were afraid that they were going to go back or something like that. I wasn't worried because I know, I know the reason I was there.

HEID:

So where did you sleep on Ellis Island?

LORENZINI:

That I couldn't tell you. I must have slept on a bench. I don't know. I don't remember where I slept. I don't know why. If there are bunks or if I had bed, if I slept on a couch or on a chair, I don't know. I know I spent the night there.

HEID:

Did you eat there? Do you remember eating there?

LORENZINI:

Well, probably I ate. That's another thing I don't remember. Probably I ate. I don't remember. It was, I guess the excitement and everything, I don't know what it is, you know.

HEID:

So how did you get off Ellis Island?

LORENZINI:

Well, then they assigned a guard to me. They put a tag on me. I ripped it right off. I don't want to go around with a tag. ( he laughs ) I don't want to look like a package. I don't know why. I took the tag right off. And we got off Ellis Island on this, it probably was a ferry. I didn't know. We sit down there on the ferry, and fifteen, twenty minutes, whatever, they said, "Get up." I get up. I thought I was in a waiting room some place. Then I got to New York, they took me to New York. Then when, I don't know if it was another station, we sit down there, we had to go back to New Jersey, another ferry. And I thought it was, so then they, this guard took me on the train, like Mr. Scarantino said, and they told the conductor where I'm supposed to get off, because I didn't talk English or nothing, you know. And so . . .

HEID:

What were you thinking at this time? Were you afraid, or . . .

LORENZINI:

Really, I wasn't afraid, but . . .

HEID:

Did you know what was going on?

LORENZINI:

I wasn't letting anybody know that I don't know how to talk English neither. You know, everybody would buy you a pack of gum, and they told me five cents. Well, I don't know what five cents was, so I gave him a dollar, I got ninety-five cents change. I put it in my pocket, I don't say nothing, you know. I bought an apple for five cents, the same thing. Because I don't know what five cents was, you know. Because if I give him less than that, maybe this guy don't know what the value of money is, you know. I don't know. I come home with a pocket full of change. But when I got off, I got on the train, and I was supposed to go to Watchung they used to call it at that time (?). It's right down fifty miles. And, but when I got in Allentown I had to change trains. I didn't know that. I looked around, I thought I was in Watchung. I couldn't find my father, I couldn't find nobody. So a guy grabbed me. He told me, I have to wait a certain time to get another train. So another train came from Philadelphia. When I got on the train, there was a couple in front of me sitting down, and this conductor told him that I was supposed to get off at Watchung. Like Mr. Scarantino, they somebody to said, make sure this gets off. So I got to Watchung between stops. When I stopped, my father was right outside the train. ( he laughs ) You know. I get off the train. When he left me I was thirteen years old. I was seventeen. I got off, and he was standing right behind me still looking on the train. Still looking on the train, you know. Because I left a little boy. I was a man already, you know.

HEID:

So he didn't recognize you.

LORENZINI:

No, he didn't. But I could recognize him right away. Yeah.

HEID:

So how did it feel seeing your father after four years?

LORENZINI:

Oh, beautiful, beautiful. It was something you never forget. But when I tell you about, if you ever see that town, they call it the Switzerland of America, right in a hole with the mountains around, I want to go back to Italy. So my father said, "Well, I'll send you back providing you tell me you're going to be a priest." I says, "No." He says, "You better stay here." That's what happened. But gradually, I worked for my father from April. Actually I arrived in New York the 31st of March. But my papers indicate the second of April because that's the time I got out of Ellis Island.

HEID:

What was the name of the boat that you came over on? Do you remember?

LORENZINI:

Conte Bianco Mano.

HEID:

Conte Bianco Mano?

LORENZINI:

White Hand. Con, con is the count, White Hand. Conte Bianco Mano.

HEID:

So now what did you do with your father? You said you worked with your father?

LORENZINI:

I worked with my father as a stone mason, stone worker, you know. As a helper and things like that, you know. I worked there till, in the meantime, see, my father was involved in November or December, in November they close the works down. They didn't work whole winter till maybe next April because it's outside work. Well, I was young, I don't want to stay home, so I started looking for work in my line. I wrote to a lot of companies all over the state and in New York and Pennsylvania. And there's a company right here in Pittston that responded to me and they hired me. So that's the reason . . .

HEID:

What did you do for them?

LORENZINI:

Well, they hired me because I told you, of my mosaic ability. By then I started working on terrazzo, most of the time on terrazzo work. That's what I did most of my life. I did some mosaic work, but not that much, you know. And I've been there ever since. 1930, I've been still there.

HEID:

That's wonderful. Now, you said, you told me before that your father went back.

LORENZINI:

He went back in 1931, in September.

HEID:

So you were only over here a little while before you went back.

LORENZINI:

Yeah, well, see, I came up to work here, and he was still in Watchung. I used to go down and see him maybe every two or three weeks or something like that, you know. But I was working up here. My work carried me all over the state. I worked more in New York State than in Pennsylvania. Every town from here to Buffalo, I worked in every town. You know, churches, schools, banks, things like that. They all kind of want like that, terrazzo. But then he went back in September in 1931, and he was promised a nice, big job, and then he come back in the spring of 1932. Well, that didn't develop because the Depression got a little stronger.

HEID:

So did he come back, or no, he didn't?

LORENZINI:

He came back.

HEID:

He came back, okay. And then what happened?

LORENZINI:

Then he went back in the fall of 1932 because here he had to pay board in a hotel. Over there, four or five, it doesn't make much different, so he went back to it. Then he wanted to come back, but his passport expired. The third time, the passport was only good for two years. Now it's ten years, it was five years once, you know. So he went to the consulate in Trieste to renew the passport. They won't renew it unless he leave with the whole family, see. So what, they don't want you, like, to earn the money here and send it all over there. They want you to keep the family here. Well, he couldn't bring the family down there because of the Depression and he didn't have the money, you know. He wanted to come back for at least nothing else, to keep his citizenship alive, you know, and probably would have been good because after that Roosevelt went in and the WPA started where I got a job. He was a good stone mason, he could have got a good job on it. One of those things. And then he got stuck and he couldn't come in. They wouldn't renew his passport.

HEID:

So he never came back after that?

LORENZINI:

No, I brought him back in 1951.

HEID:

But you brought him back to visit.

LORENZINI:

To visit, yeah. But he never come back. After that the war came, I didn't have enough contact with him, you know.

HEID:

What about your other brothers and sisters? Did they ever come here?

LORENZINI:

Nobody.

HEID:

So you're the only one of your family that really came and stayed.

LORENZINI:

That's all, the only one. They are all over there. I lost the two brothers now. I have two sisters over there, and once in a while my sister comes over, you know. As a matter of fact, I go back to Italy now every two years for a visit.

HEID:

Oh, that's wonderful.

LORENZINI:

I have a son in California. He's an architect. I go there every year. This last October I was in Italy. This October I go to California. Unfortunately I lost my dear wife, and that was the worst part of it, you know. I have four beautiful children that are all educated. I have one son that graduated from the Air Force academy and has got a PhD from MIT.

HEID:

That's wonderful. And what about your other ones?

LORENZINI:

One is an architect. He went to Pennsylvania University. My daughter is a schoolteacher. She went to college. She's a mathematic teacher. Fortunately she lives close to me, not too far away. We're together every night, you know. And the other son is in New York. He works for a big company in New York. But this telecom machines and things like that. He went to Pennsylvania, Temple University, on a full scholarship. They're all educated. I'm the only one that did the hard work, you know.

HEID:

Well, it made it possible for them to go to school, thank God.

LORENZINI:

They was all good. They all helped themselves. Like David, he got a scholarship to Pennsylvania University. In those days, if I had today, I wouldn't have been able to send him to college. The tuition when he went in 1956 was eight hundred and fifty dollars at the University of Pennsylvania, you know. Today I make about twenty thousand dollars. How am I going to send him to school?

HEID:

It's a big difference nowadays. I guess one more last question for you. Do you ever, have you ever had any regrets about coming to America?

LORENZINI:

I'll tell you one thing I always tell. I argue with a lot of people that this is the best country in the world, and nobody can change my mind, I'll tell you that. I love to go back and see my family and everything else, but not to stay there. I would never stay there. Sometimes I argue with my son-in-law. He thinks there are a lot of countries better than this one. I say, "If you do find it, go ahead to it." I said, "To me this is the best country in the world," I says, "regardless." When you go back, when you go for a trip you feel like kissing the ground, I said, because, you know, to me it's been good. I was in Italy, it was hard work. I said probably too many people thing they get a thing for nothing. But I worked hard in the United States. I worked through the Depression, seventeen years old, alone, it wasn't easy.

HEID:

Sounds like it.

LORENZINI:

But I'm glad I never did go back in the first place, you know. Who knows, I would have gone through the world wars over there, you know.

HEID:

That's very true. Well, I would like to thank you very much for sharing your story with me.

LORENZINI:

Thank you, too.

HEID:

This is Debra Heid for the National Park Service signing off. And I'm speaking with Mr. Ettore Lorenzini, who came from Italy in 1930. And I'm here in the home of Ross Scarantino in Pittston, Pennsylvania. Thank you.

LORENZINI:

Thank you. ( he laughs )