CASA EMIGRANTI ITALIANI: PART 2



THIS IS HOW FRONT STREET IS DESCRIBED IN THE WORDS OF JACK ZAIMAN, HARTFORD COURANT COLUMNIST IN 1960:


"A FEW DAYS AGO I TOOK A WALK THRU THE EAST SIDE, THE OLDESTA PART OF THE TOWN........I GREW UP IN THE EAST SIDE.....FRONT STREET WAS THE CENTER OF ACTIVITY....PUSHCARTS PEDDLERS BY THE HUNDREDS HAD THEIR CARTS STACKED ON THE GUTTERS. ....STREETS USED TO BE JAMMED: THOSE WHO LIVED THERE WOULD SIT ON THEIR STEPS HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN PLAYED ON THE SIDEWALKS. ADD THE THOUSANDS OF SHOPPERS AND SOMETHING CLOSER TO BEDLAM WAS ACHIEVED"



NUMEROUS GROUPS OF IMMIGRANTS FROM DIFFERENT NATIONALITIES HAVE PROVEN THAT WHILE IMMIGRATION CREATES SOME SHORT TERM DISLOCATIONS, IN THE LONG TERM IMMIGRATION IS GOOD FOR AMERICA.






ARMANDO PERRETTA , AUTHOR OF THE 1957 MOSTLY AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL BOOK "TAKE A NUMBER" GREW UP ON FRONT STREET. IN 1964 HE PUBLISHED AN ARTICLE IN BEE-HIVE, A NEWSLETTER FROM UNITED AIRCRAFT IN WHICH HE RECALLS THE EAST SIDE HE GREW UP IN:

"PUSHCARTS HAD LINED ITS GUTTERS AND AROUND THEM VENDORS, CUSTOMERS AND PILFERERS HAD VIED LOUDLY WITH EACH OTHER .

....THE STORE WINDOWS WERE ALWAYS FILLED WITH HANGING PROVOLONE CHESSES, CLUSTERS OF PEPERONI SAUSAGES, PROSCIUTTO, GENOA SALAMI......

KIDS DASHED ABOUT THEIR GAMES, ON EVERY CORNER THERE WERE A GROUP OF MEN ARGUING THE TOPICS OF THE DAY.....

THE AROMATIC ODORS OF FRYING GARLIC, FRYING PEPPERS, SIMMERING TOMATO SAUCE, BREAD BAKING IN THE COAL OVENS, AND THE SMELL OF MASHED GRAPES FERMENTING INTO WINE!"





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CASA EMIGRANTI ITALIANI


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