The Life of a Greek American

By John Antonakos

This biography is more about the people who have surrounded me than about myself. With this biography, I intend to show all the following: How my environment affected me as a Greek American; the interplay I had with my parents who had come from Greece; my parents’ faith and how it influenced me; the difficulties Greek immigrants had and how they overcame them; the strong belief a Greek immigrant had for education and how it impelled him to drive his children to get a good education; the way immigrants entertained themselves with home celebrations, dances, and picnics; and the relationship Greek Americans had with one another. In summary, the purpose of this biography is to show how Greek culture was established within American culture and was impressed upon me.

This book is built around a thread that traces the development of the life of the immigrants in America. Do not look in it for the development of my life, but rather look in it to see the development of the Antonakos family in America. Look at the life of the Antonakoses in Mani, their immigration to America, and their progress in America. Look at their material development and how they used it to obtain higher education for their children. Then note how, through the use of this education, they obtained good positions in the professional world.

It is fervently hoped that all immigrants in America from all nations of the world will establish their culture in America as the ones who had come here earlier. The greatness of America will continue to remain as long as this peaceful blending of cultures continues to occur.

This biography is written purely chronologically. The persons, places, and events are recorded chronologically in my story as they actually occurred in my life. Accept them as they are recorded, and don’t attempt to group different parts of my story together in any unique way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: May 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728309972

John Antonakos

John Antonakos is a retired electrical engineer who holds degrees in physics and electrical engineering. He was employed as an electrical engineer for over forty years, thirty-two of which were with the United States Army at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. He has always been interested in history, biography, language and philosophy, and has read widely in these fields. Being of Greek background, he is especially interested in exploring his roots. Because of these interests he has written the following books: Noted Greeks of Antiquity, Noted Greeks of the Middle Ages, The Greek American Community of Essex County, N.J., The Maniates of Newark, N.J., The Greek Handbook, A Compendium of World Classical Literature, A Proposed International Alphabet, English Spelling and Pronunciation Guide, and Life’s Objective.

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THE LIFE OF A

GREEK

AMERICAN

JOHN ANTONAKOS

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© 2019 John Antonakos. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  05/07/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-0998-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-0997-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019906722

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Introduction

CHAPTER I   OUR FAMILY BACKGROUND

My Maniati Roots

The Kelefa and Oitilon Clans

The Beyship of Mani

The Antonakos Families

The Characteristics of the Antonakos Brothers

Work in America

The Antonakos Brothers in Newark

Newark

New York City

A Great Immigration Problem

The Spirithon Antonakos Family

Uncle Yianni

Work in Newark

Greek Identity

CHAPTER II   MY AMERICAN RELATIVES

The Ioanni Petrakakos Family

The Spirithon Bavaveas Families

The Patrinelis Families

Salem Vacations

Uncle Vaso

Family Health

1 Morris Avenue

CHAPTER III   MY FAITH

The Greek Orthodox Church

Orthodox Church Services

Church Music

Easter

Christmas

Rev. George Spyridakis

Adam Adamopoulos

Rev. George Mamangakis

Nicholas Sumas

Our Church Festival

CHAPTER IV   GREEK CULTURAL PROPAGATION

Greek Letters

Greek Radio

Greek Expressions

Greek Americans’ Love For Greece

Greek independence Day

World War Ii Years

CHAPTER V   ELEMENTARY SCHOOL YEARS

34 Bedford Street

Newton Street School

183 Howard Street

Food and Variety Store Shopping

Greek School

Greek School Teachers

The Parent Teacher Organization

Home Lessons

Home Entertainment

Greek American Social Affairs

Compatriot Neighbors

Our Summer Entertainment

Our Cultural Background

Dn. theodore Kokkinakis

The Death of My Godfather

Our Medical Greek Americans

CHAPTER VI   JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL YEARS

318 Bergen Street

My integration into Society

The Death of Father and Uncle Yianni

Mother’s Matchmakers

Mother’s Guidance

Matina and I Always Together

Thanksgiving Day

My First Job

Greek American Get-Togethers

Newark’s Greek Neighborhood

Rev. Peter Kostakos

The W. Market Street Gang

My interest in Radio

My interest in Social Sciences

Aunt Thrakoulena

My Teenage Health

Faith Examination and Practice

CHAPTER VII   HIGH SCHOOL YEARS

Central High School

Elevation of the Holy Cross

Newark’s Worse Winter

Panayioti Antonakos

My Career Decision

Archbishop Michael

CHAPTER VIII   COLLEGE

My Philosophy of Life

Our First Television Set

The Newark College of Engineering

The Greek Student Society

Armed Forces Philosophy

CHAPTER IX   MILITARY SERVICE

Fort Dix

United States Army Europe

The Usareur Signal School

My First Trip To Greece

My Visits To Laconia and Messinia

My Second Trip To Greece

CHAPTER X   BACK TO CIVILIAN LIFE

Marriage

The Athanasios Boutsikaris Family

My Societies

James Gevas

I Reenter College

The F.d.u. Physics Curriculum

George Xenofanes

Wedding Usher

Western Electric Co.

630 So. 19Th Street

Bogue Electric Manufacturing Co.

Bendix Corp.

Archbishop Iakovos

Konstantino Antonakos

CHAPTER XI   EVA AND I

I Meet Eva

Dating Eva

Greek Wedding Customs

My Bachelor Party

A Home For Three Families

Eva and I Marry

International Telephone & Telegraph Co.

We Join Sts. Constantine and Helen Church

Sunday School

CHAPTER XII   TROUBLED TIMES

Eva’s Time of Trouble

Apartment House Business

Heyer industries

I Join Eva in Greece

Eva and I Tour Greece

The Patrinelises.

I Sell Our Home

Picatinny Arsenal

My Work Carpool

CHAPTER XIII   MARRIED LIFE

Eva Returns From Greece

The Antonakos-Larres Home

Mother’s Life

Our Greek American Neighbors

An Artist in Our Community

Godmother Eva

Home Societies

Eva’s Relatives

Eva’s Philanthropies

CHAPTER XIV   THE RAISING OF OUR FAMILY

The Births of Our Children

The Daughters of Oitilon

Spiro’s Cure

Eva Becomes A Registered Nurse

The Schooling of Our Children

The Activities of Our Children

Seashore Vacations

Vacation in Florida

Our Children Attend Ionian Village

The T.o.k.y. Clan

A Sick Veteran

The Family Tree

Our Catskills Property

CHAPTER XV   OUR CHILDREN AS TEENAGERS

Our Children in G.o.y.a.

The Boy Scouts

Our Children in High School

The 1980 A.h.e.p.a. Supreme Convention

Death By Automobile

CHAPTER XVI   OUR CHILDREN IN COLLEGE

I Guide Spiro Concerning College

Second Parish Council Term

Spiro Becomes an Optometrist

Laura Becomes an Architect

My Pilgrimage To the Holy Land

Patriarch Nikolaos

CHAPTER XVII   RETIREMENT

Retirement Schedule

Writing Books

The Poconos Apartment House

We Strengthen Our Greek Bonds

CHAPTER XVIII   THE BERWINDS

Joseph and Laura Marry

Granddaughter Katherine

Granddaughter Elizabeth

The Joys of Grandparenthood

Laura’s Life

CHAPTER XIX   ELDERLY ACTIVITIES

We Visit Tinos Island

Volunteer Work

Sts. Nicholas, Constantine and Helen Church

Faith, Hope, and Love

INTRODUCTION

A biography typically presents the activities that a person was involved in throughout his life. The personality whose biography is being related was involved in some field or fields and his biography elucidates on these activities. It shows the strong points and weak points of the person’s personality, concentrating on his strong points and playing down his weak points. It may also point out undesired personalities and events that affected the person adversely.

This book, though, attempts to show the life of an American who is greatly influenced by his Greek heritage. It points out how this heritage influences him throughout all the phases of his life.

America has been called a melting pot, but, rather, it is a mixing pot. Many cultures distinctly stand out in America, and this combination of cultures is what makes America great. There is one country - America. But in reality there are many Americas. There is the America that everyone knows and has intercourse with, but there are also the many Americas of those people that maintain a heritage from another country. The people whose ancestors came here many generations ago live in everyday America. But the ones that are removed from another country by a few generations or less might still practice those especial things that their forbearers brought with them when they came to this country

These things of their inherited culture might include some or all of the following: art, customs, dance, dress, family relations, food, language, holidays, music, occupation, pastimes, and religion. Outside of the home these people look and act just like all other Americans, but in their home they are different.

Of all the aforementioned cultural factors, language is the characteristic of the newly arrived that stands out more than all the others. Most newly arrived immigrants do not know any English. At home they speak their native tongue and continue to do so after they have children.

Whenever these people have a social function they have food and music that is from their native country. In addition to the holidays celebrated in America, they also celebrate holidays that are peculiar to the place they came from. The greatness of America is that all of these cultures live side by side and at the same time are compatible with American culture.

This biography is more about the people that have surrounded me than about myself. With this biography I intend to show all of the following: How my environment affected me as a Greek American. The interplay I had with my parents who had come from Greece. My parents’ faith and how it influenced me. The difficulties Greek immigrants had and how they overcame them. The strong belief the Greek immigrant had for education and how it impelled him to drive his children to get a good education. The way immigrants entertained themselves with home celebrations, dances, and picnics. The relations Greek Americans had with one another. In summary, the purpose of this biography is to show how Greek culture was established within American culture and was impressed upon me.

This book is built around a thread that traces the development of the life of the immigrant in America. Do not look in it for the development of my life. But rather look in it to see the development of the Antonakos family on America. Look at the life of the Antonakoses in Mani, their immigration to America, and their progress in America. Look at their material development and how they used it to obtain higher education for their children. And then note how through the use of this education they obtained good positions in the professional world.

It is fervently hoped that all immigrants to America from all nations of the world will establish their culture in America as the ones who had come here earlier. The greatness of America will continue to remain as long as this peaceful blending of cultures continues to occur.

This biography is written purely chronologically. The persons, places, and events are recorded chronologically in my story as they actually occurred in my life. Accept them as they are recorded and don’t attempt to group different parts of my story together in any unique way.

CHAPTER I

OUR FAMILY BACKGROUND

MY MANIATI ROOTS

My parents were born and raised in the district of Mani, Laconia, Greece. The state of Laconia is composed of four counties: Oitilon, Yitheion, Lakethemon, and Epithavros Limera. The first two make up the district of Mani. Mani is at the very southern edge of mainland Greece. If one looks at a map of Greece, Mani is the middle peninsula of the three that stick out into the Mediterranean Sea.

Mani is approximately sixty miles long and twenty miles wide. Yitheion County is called Sunnyside Mani and Oitilon County is called Shadyside Mani, based on the sun’s movement. The county seats of Oitilon and Yitheion Counties are Acropolis and Yitheion respectively. A road runs between these two towns. This road divides Mani into Inner Mani and Outer Mani.

Mani was distinguished as the Commonwealth of the Free Laconians, which Augustus Caesar established because she helped him in his victorious sea battle against Mark Antony at Actium.

After Greece fell to the Turks, Mani was one of three small regions that remained relatively independent of the Turks during their four hundred year domination of Greece. The other two regions were Ayrafa and Souli. These three regions had the advantage being very rugged mountainous regions. Because of this isolation, the Maniates were a law unto themselves. They were obliged to evolve unwritten laws so that they might lead some sort of sensible life among themselves.

THE KELEFA AND OITILON CLANS

My father Spirithon Antonakos was from the village of Kelefa, located atop a hill three miles from the coast. Kelefa is a village in the center of Mani, located on the road that divides Inner Mani and Outer Mani. It is a semi-mountainous village located five miles east of Oitilon.

Kelefa was founded by the brothers Vasileios and Yioryios who had come from elsewhere. From these brothers two clans arose, the Vasileianos and the Yioryiakianos. All persons of Kelefa and neighboring Yerma belong to one or the other of these two clans. The Antonakos family belongs to the Vasileianos Clan.

My mother, Flora Patrinelis was from the neighboring village of Tsipa, located on the coast below Kelefa and Oitilon. Her parents were from Oitilon. This town is a very ancient place, since Homer in his Iliad states that it sent troops to fight in Troy. The people of Oitilon are composed of ten family clans: Kakosatsianos, Novakianos, Razelos, Stefanianos, Stefanopoulos, Tzachoutianos, Trivanitis, Vasileianos, Yiatrakos, and Yioryikianos.

Mother belonged to the Yiatrakos Clan. This clan originated as follows. In 1204 some of the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade conquered and divided Greece among themselves. The Florentines took Nafplion. And the De’ Medicis became the governors of Nafplion. Two hundred years later, as the Turks started to conquer Greece, the various rulers of Greece began fleeing to Mani to remain free. Pierre De’ Medici, the governor of Nafplion, fled to Mani when the Turks approached. There he met and married the local constable’s daughter, Anthi Kontostavlou. They had eight children and this was the beginning of the Yiatrakos Clan of Oitilon.

The name Medici was first hellenized to Methikos. Eventually, it was completely maniatized. Since medici means doctor in Italian, it was translated to yiatros, Greek for doctor. The Maniates use -eas and -akos as endings of their names. The name then became yiatros + akos = Yiatrakos.

Another important clan was the Stefanopoulos. The clan was founded by a Byzantine prince. At one time a Comnenos prince from Trebizond fled to Mani. When he was asked who he was he said that he was Stefanos from the City (Constantinople), and thus the name Stefanos + city = Stefanopolis came into being. Because this name is somewhat difficult to say, with the passage of time it became Stefanopoulos. A recent president of Greece was from this family.

Oitilon was the meeting place of the Maniati chieftains. Because of this and because it is in a highly strategic location, in 1670 the Turks built the fortress of Kelefa overlooking Oitilon, in an effort to control the Maniates. The Venetians had been losing Mediterranean trade because of the Turks. They allied themselves with the Maniates in an effort to oppose the Turks. They trained the Maniates as sailors and gave them ships to fight the Turks. This Venetian-Maniati alliance drove the Turks completely out of the Peloponnisos for thirty years (1685-1715).

THE BEYSHIP OF MANI

From 1780-1821Mani was a Turkish beyship. The Turks selected this method as a means of dominating the Maniates since they were not able to dominate them physically. They picked persons who were from noted Maniati clans and made them beys of Mani. Their duty was to collect taxes from the Maniates. There were six beys and the last one appointed was Petro Mavromichalis from Limeni. He secretly was a member of the Filiki Etaireia (Friendly Society) whose object was to obtain the independence of Greece.

On March 17, 1821, on word from the Friendly Society, Petro Mavromichalis and his soldiers marched from Limeni to the plaza of Areopolis and declared the independence of Greece. These forces then marched to Kalamata, and on March 23th took the city. This, then, was the first victory for Greek independence, and the Kalamatans observe March 23th to the present day.

In Kalamata he established the Messinian Senate. In this body he made a speech appealing to America to help Greece to obtain her freedom. America responded with enthusiasm sending Greece men and money, and our two nations have been great allies ever since.

THE ANTONAKOS FAMILIES

The particular story of my family starts from my grandparents. Grandfather Tzaneto married Grandmother Stamatoula Bavaveas from neighboring Oitilon and they had one son Panayioti (Peter). On the passing of grandfather’s wife, he married Iota Konomakos. They had three sons, Ioanni (John), Spirithon (Spiro), and Antonios. Antonios died at a young age. Panayioti, Ioanni, and Spirthon married and their families are as follows.

Panayioti married Anastasia Strobolakos and they had two children, Stamatoula and Nikolaos. On the passing of Panayioti’s wife he married Theodora Tzenakos. They had four children Tzaneto, Antonia, Thimitra, and Yioryios.

Ioanni married Stavroula Tzanetoulakos and they had six children, Tzaneto, Spirithon, Stamatoula, Panayioti, Thomas, and Konstantino.

Spirithon married Flora Patrinelis and they had two children Tzaneto (John) and Stamatoula (Matina).

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ANTONAKOS BROTHERS

The three brothers were physically and emotionally different from each other. Uncle Panayioti was a thin, wiry, person whose speech was always polite and proper. He was very active in his farm work in the village. He was a very dynamic person who when he had finished with his own work, would go and help whatever other villager needed help with his work. Uncle Panayioti died at the ripe old age of ninety-six, being physically active until the end.

Uncle Yianni was a dynamically expressive person. He would get angry easily, but forget what had bothered him just as easily. He showed great love for his nephew John and niece Matina, treating them more like they were his grandchildren than nephew and niece. He would continuously give them coins and brought them sweets from the Greek coffeehouses.

Uncle Yianni, even though ten years younger than Uncle Panayioti, was completely illiterate. It seems that back then school attendance was not at all enforced. When it was time to go to school he preferred to tend the animals or to do other farm work. When he finally realized he had to know how to read, it was too late. He started studying on his own. Unfortunately, some townsman saw him studying and told him: Now in your old age, can you learn old man? This infuriated Uncle Yianni so much that he threw his books in the air, and that was the end of his education. But