The Wandering Sibling

By William Giambattista

The author discusses the trials and tribulations of his years while growing up in a very tight Italian family. The author discusses the tragedies that fell upon his family, the joys of sharing with siblings, and his decision to pursue another life away from the Niagara Falls area to pursue his military enlistment and further education halfway across the country. After completing his undergraduate degrees, the author shares his experiences as he traveled coast to coast in the working world, from California to Florida. As years passed, the sad loss of yet another family member brought him back to the family in Niagara Falls.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543440348

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Copyright © 2017 by By: William (Billy) Giambattista.

Library of Congress Control Number:     2017911728

ISBN:           Hardcover             978-1-5434-4036-2

                      Softcover               978-1-5434-4035-5

                     eBook                     978-1-5434-4034-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

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Rev. date: 12/15/2017

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

Prologue

Foreword

Early Life and the Great Depression

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In memory of my Ma, called Momma Vincenza by all of her grandchildren, not a Momma Dearest as described by the sibling offspring of a famous motion picture actress, but The Dearest of Moms.

I must thank my niece Marilyn Jean Manuse Claydon and nephew, Kenneth Peter Giambattista, Sr., who assisted me in completing my autobiography. After my typewriter gave out, being computer illiterate, they assisted me in telling my story. Hopefully, some youngsters may benefit in reading it; thus, not be discouraged in fulfilling their dream or goals in life by others, human or inanimate.

PROLOGUE

It seemed as though I have been interested in writing for most of my life; however, it was in my freshman year of school at Bradley University in September 1949 when I really became interested at about the age of twenty-two. In registering for an English class there I was asked to write a term paper on a topic of my choice and chose to write about the pros and cons of developing the St. Lawrence Seaway Project; thus linking the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. In doing so, I received a fairly good grade for my effort; thinking then that I had missed my calling. However, athletically inclined from an early age, I became more interested in becoming a physical education teacher and possibly even a basketball coach. I was in love with that sport ever since junior high school when I made the All-Star Basketball Team and played before the whole student body during a General Assembly period while in the 9th grade.

In any event, denied the opportunity to play high school ball and later play basketball at Bradley University in my freshman year, I intended to transfer to a small school where several of my high school friends were given athletic scholarships. Thus, I attended Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado after completing my freshman year at Bradley. Nevertheless, that in itself is a long story, suffice it say I was about to be drafted into the U. S. Army while at home the following Summer. Thus, I began serving in the U. S. Navy during World War II. I was drafted into the service on August 14, 1945 and discharged on August 1, 1946. When I was about to be drafted for a second time during the Korean War, being in the U. S. Navy Reserve, I asked for active duty serving from March 1953 to January 1955, my education was disrupted during that conflict. However, I finally was able to return to school and complete my education at Adams State College on May 31, 1959. Making the Dean’s List on several occasions, I received my Bachelor’s degree and graduated 26th in a class of 102 seniors.

Though I was offered a teaching position there in Colorado right after graduating; I headed West, having worked in Santa Monica, California, during the summer after my junior year of school, I was influenced by the mild and temperate climate of Southern California. After arriving in Los Angeles in early August, I wandered around the greater Los Angeles region for seven years in search of my Shangri-La. I sold cars, worked as a boy’s counselor, a substitute teacher/taxi-cab driver, and substitute mail carrier, as well as several other jobs during the time. While working at the Optimist Home for Boys for one year, I wrote to a good many cities and school districts throughout the State, having no positive responses from any but one. Oddly enough, I would finally find a full time teaching position some fifteen minutes from the family homestead, returning home after a family tragedy took me back to my roots and hometown on January 1967.

family%20photo.jpg

(The author was two and a half years old when this photo was taken by a professional photographer and shortly thereafter on January 22, 1930, his father was killed in a tragic construction accident at his workplace at the Union Carbide Plant in Niagara Falls, NY)

FOREWORD

I was born the last of five surviving siblings to Vincenza and Serafino Giambattista, Italian immigrants who settled down in the City of Niagara Falls, New York, sometime in March 1920. After marrying in Ma’s native village of Ofena, Italy on December 10, 1910, hoping to improve their life, they traveled first to Canada and later to the United States. Enduring an odyssey of their own, they ventured to Sault Saint Marie, Canada in 1911, living with my Ma’s younger brother and his family for several years. Like her brother, my Pa had hoped to find work in the steel mills of that city and during that time, my Ma gave birth to a son named Antonio. She named him after her brother whose hospitality they had accepted. Sadly, my Ma lost Antonio in his first year of life. A short time later, my Ma gave birth to a daughter on September 24, 1913, giving her the name of Antoinette.

Unable to find full time work there in Sault Saint Marie, in 1914 my Ma and Pa decided to separate for a time with my Ma returning to Italy with Antoinette and lived with her parents during their separation. On March 15, 1915, My Ma gave birth to my brother, Nicholas in Ofena, Italy. Leaving Sault Saint Marie, my Pa travelled to Niagara Falls, New York and lived for a time with his sister and her family who settled down there earlier. In looking for work there, my Pa found work as a laborer in the construction industry and a short time later he was able to purchase his first home and sent for my Ma to come live with him, reuniting the family sometime in March 1920. A year later, my Ma gave birth to my sister Cecilia, on June 17, 1921. Sometime in March 1923, my Ma gave birth to twin sons, whom she named Bruno and Sam; however, they too passed away in their first year of life. Still later, my Ma gave birth to another son September 29, 1924 giving him the name of our Pa, Serafino.

Working as a construction laborer and progressing towards the goals and dreams he had for himself and the family, my Pa purchased what was to become the family homestead sometime in 1926 and there in the home situated at 1513 Ashland Avenue, I arrived in the family on June 3, 1927, the last of five surviving siblings. I was born in a two-story frame house that was more centrally located within the city and I was able to walk to all of the public schools that I attended at that time.

As fate would have it, my Pa found full time work in Niagara Falls. Thus, he adopted the community and was well on the way to realizing his dreams there; purchasing the family homestead, a small commercial lot on Pine Avenue in the business area now known as Little Italy. He also bought a new car, a Model T Ford, which I recall seeing in the front of our home; but oddly enough, I don’t remember ever riding in it. Ironically, after finding work in Niagara Falls, then known as the Power Capitol of the World, we lost our Pa on January 22, 1930, just before the Great Depression in a tragic construction accident at his work. I was just two and one-half years of age when the tragedy occurred, and I remember my Pa as a very hardworking individual and a devoted family man. Though I wasn’t given an opportunity to walk beside him for long, my Pa was