Myelin Shackles and the Iron Horse

By D. M. Sommo

Myelin Shackles and the Iron Horse is a real-life story about my mother, Josephine, fondly known to those who loved her as Babe. To some, she might have been considered to be just an invisible person. She never held a title, and she didnt have a fancy education. She never worked in a high-paying job. She surpassed that mundane stuff early in her life. She held heaven in her hands and was glad to give it out to anyone who wanted a piece of it.

Read about this incredible human being and the victories that she won. Babe made so many lives a whole lot better. She mended the spiritually broken and healed so many deep emotional scarstoo many to count. No two people on earth share the same story, but in this story, there is something for everyone to share, no matter who you are or where you fall in the scheme of things. It doesnt matter what religion you follow or what you choose to believe. Babe respected the choices and differences of all people.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503536692

D. M. Sommo

D. M. Sommo is a former interior designer, wife, and mother of three. She lives in Western Connecticut. Ms. Sommo has been writing stories since she was in grade school. At the urging of her now deceased mother, D. M. Sommo wrote her first novel, Myelin Shackles and the Iron Horse. She is also the author of Uncensored Memoirs of a Doctor’s Wife and The Couture Canines of Fairfield County.

Book preview

Chapter 1

On a gray November day in 1930, when American families in the past had celebrated the abundance and bounty of Thanksgiving in a small brick house in New Rochelle, New York, Guiseppina Maria Grazia Picchione made her way into the world. She was the third live birth for Assunta Picchione and Faustino Picchione. They were Italian immigrants who came to America for a better life. Their first child was a stillborn. Two live births followed after the first baby had died. Guiseppina was born in the small bedroom at the top of the stairs in a simple iron bed in a white-walled room with Tiffany lamps that rested on small cherry wood nightstands. She was delivered by a midwife who knew that she could not collect her fee. Her services were an act of kindness.

The Great Depression had taken its hold on America, and this family was about to lose their modest home. Faustino was a bricklayer who worked day and night to build his own business. He lost that business when the bank that he trusted closed their doors on him.

Assunta Picchione was a seamstress by trade but could not find anyone to sew for. She desperately wanted to help her husband so that they might care for their three children and keep their home. The Depression did not discriminate, and they were in a bad position just like everyone else. Assunta was a wonderful cook who could stretch meals so that the bellies of her two older children could be filled. Faustino ate just enough to sustain his strength. Guiseppina was able to suckle her mother’s warm breast milk and was a quiet and contented baby. The furnishings in the home were modest but nice for the times. There was a little sweetheart sofa in the living room with lace curtains on the two windows that looked out on the front yard. There were two wing-backed chairs opposite the sofa with lace arm covers. The dining room had a Chippendale table with carved legs and square, scrolled back chairs. There were six chairs in all and a lovely server across from the table that displayed Assunta’s modest white china. There were three bedrooms upstairs, including the master, and they were all off a narrow hallway. There was one bathroom in the home with a big claw tub, toilet, and sink. Assunta was proud of her home and kept it neat and tidy. It was a home that felt loved. It represented their success in America and was a big step forward from their humble backgrounds in Italy.

A vegetable garden with tomatoes, zucchini, and green beans took up most of the yard, along with a wonderful spice garden. Assunta worked in her garden every day, tending her vegetables and spice plants. Life in America had been kind to this family until the Depression took hold. Most of their friends had already lost their homes and moved to the Bronx for cheaper apartment dwellings.

Faustino and Assunta faced the inevitable and knew that their time in their home was limited. They were three months behind in their mortgage payments, and it was not long before the bank would seize their property. The foreclosure marshal came on one fateful day and posted a big white sign on the white door of Faustino and Assunta’s home. Neither one could read English well, but they knew what the large sign meant. They had to leave the family home behind, as did many of their close friends and neighbors.

The family prepared to move to the Bronx where Faustino had secured a walk-up apartment with three small bedrooms, a little bathroom, a small kitchen, and a living room. Assunta and Faustino took Adelaide, Antonio, and wee Guiseppina to their new apartment in the South Bronx.

A friend with a provisions truck gracefully volunteered to carry their belongings and help them make the move from country to urban living. When the truck turned onto the block called Lafontaine Avenue, there were people sitting on cement stoops up and down the entire street. Children were playing on the sidewalks, and it seemed so busy and congested. The air did not smell the same as New Rochelle air. It was thick and musty and offensive to the senses. Assunta stood in front of the dark brown brick building, and tears streamed down her face. It was ugly and dismal, and there were glass doors going into the building that were smudged with fingerprints. Everything around her looked dirty. There were what seemed to be an endless list of names and little buttons on the inside vestibule of the building. Beyond the vestibule were flights and flights of stairs. They would need to carry their belongings and children up six whole flights of these steps.

Faustino and his friends began to carry furniture and boxes up those long flights of steps, while Assunta walked up to her apartment with the children. The apartment was small and dingy. The walls needed fresh paint, and the radiators were hissing. The windows were dirty, and the kitchen was small. It had white metal cabinets, an icebox, and a dirty stove. Assunta looked out one of the windows to see lines of clothes hanging from her building to the next apartment complex. There were big metal stairs outside one of the windows, and the back lot of the building had no patch of earth to place a garden. It was littered with broken beer bottles and other debris. The floors of the apartment were worn-out parquet with scratches and gouges. The closets were small. The bathroom had a small tub with white subway tile and a mineral-stained sink with a leaky faucet. The toilet had a funny pull chain. The floor tiles were small octagons with black borders. The bedrooms were dark and dingy with one small window in each room. Assunta had never seen such a dwelling. Even poor people in Italy lived better than this.

Adelaide and Tony were running through the apartment, and their little footsteps echoed against the walls. Little Guiseppina was placed in her Moses basket and was sleeping soundly. There would be much scrubbing and cleaning to do to make the apartment habitable. Assunta grabbed her big metal bucket and scrub brush that Faustino had placed in the kitchen specifically for the task at hand. She rolled up her sleeves and put on her apron and began the long chore of cleaning this hovel of a home. While she cleaned, Assunta thought of her garden and her beautiful front yard. The reality of the depression had really hit home. Faustino continued to bring their belongings up and down those six flights of stairs.

While Assunta was cleaning, there was a knock on her apartment door. She opened the door to find her next-door neighbor standing there with a pot of vegetable soup in her hand. The woman introduced herself to Assunta as Rebecca Zinkowitz. Assunta’s English was limited, but she managed a thank you. Assunta thought the gesture to be so kind and generous. There would be a meal for the children and her husband in the middle of all this chaos. Assunta realized that everyone in this big dark building was in the same position but willing to lend a hand when possible. The heaviness in her heart lifted. She told Faustino about their kind neighbor, and he nodded and smiled. He went down the block to buy a loaf of bread at the bakery. This would complete the meal. The family gave thanks to God for the kindness of a stranger.

Faustino and his brother painted the apartment a crisp shade of white but the kitchen a bright yellow. The place was starting to look a little better. The apartment was certainly cleaner than when the family had first entered. Faustino secured work on the docks that would provide an income for the family so that they would have food on the table and money for rent. Assunta sewed buttons and clasps in her home for a Manhattan distributor that provided a little bit of extra money. She walked to the market every day and bought fresh vegetables and meats. Life was becoming a little more bearable, and there were others in much worse positions. There were breadlines all over the city and makeshift shelters for the homeless. Times were very difficult, but they were surviving, and the children were growing.

Assunta no longer had just Italian friends because the neighborhood was a melting pot. Everyone helped one another in order to survive. Assunta and Faustino did not despair as they had before the move. They made the very best of a horrible situation and placed their faith in God. God would most certainly see them through these challenging times. They had come to America to pursue the dream of prosperity and had sampled a much better way, but the Great Depression had changed all that for people who had much more than them. Life was about accepting life on life’s terms. It was important to focus on what you did have instead of what you did not.

Addy and Tony went to Bronx public schools and taught their parents English. Addy was adamant about English being spoken in their home. Baby Guiseppina learned English before Italian because Addy and Tony would only speak to her in English. Faustino and Assunta spoke broken English and Italian to Guiseppina who was nicknamed Babe because she was the youngest.

Chapter 2

Babe was a special child. She had strange perceptual abilities from the time she was very young. One day, Assunta and Babe were walking to the market to buy some groceries. Assunta pushed her portable shopping cart, while Babe held her mamma’s