Finding something to be thankful for - It is easy | Eastern North Carolina Now

    As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, there are many things to be thankful for and I am sure there will be many posts that highlight them. This year, I will be gathering with my family as usual and we will welcome the addition of my first Grandchild. At seventy years old, I was not sure I would live long enough to see this.

    However, this year, I will focus on the family history that I am trying to chronicle for my descendants. We are currently involved in a worldwide environment of religious fanatics that are intent on the destruction of us and our way of life.

    It is easy to come up with glib statements and solutions to the current problems this country faces, but I have put some thought into how my family arrived at this point in time.

    My father's family had been in America for generations and his mother's family date back to England circa 1450's. His father's family is somewhat of a mystery to me. Dad's father abandoned his family when my dad was 9 or 10, and he never spoke of him except to say he was a "piss poor father and not much of a man".

    My mother's family however has held a mystery for me for most of my life. Even though both my maternal grandparents died before I was born, I was fortunate enough to hear the history of their journey from Itrangna, Italy to the United States and the initial Naturalization of my Grandmother as a United States Citizen.

    I never had any interest in history during my school years but I was an avid audience for the family history and stories. I spent hours listening to my Uncle Aldo telling of his experience in Patton's Army in North Africa and later Sicily and Italy campaigns. Perhaps the secret is in the storyteller and not the actual history.

    He use to laughingly tell the story of how he personally liberated his ancestral home of Intragna, Italy. Intragna is a village in the northern most part of Italy that had a population then and now of less few thousand people. Sometime after the liberation of Italy, my uncle and his driver made their way to the small town in the Piedmont Region of northern Italy. He joked that when he arrived in the town to liberate them, they were unaware that a war was going on. Even though it was untrue, it illustrated the point that people in this town were just trying to live their life and geopolitics were of less importance.

    I was later to experience the same thing some twenty-five years after World War II on the other side of the world. Today some seventy plus year after the WW II we are still in a battle of liberation from oppression, genocide and terror that the Bible foretold over two thousand years ago.

    With all this as a background, I began to focus on the chain of events that eventually ended up in my ability to sit at my kitchen table and write this account.

    For this edition, I will focus on my maternal grandmother. Maria Theresa was born in 1880 in Intragna. Her future husband immigrated to the United States in the late 1890's. After he established himself in the new world, he went back to Italy and brought his bride to be to America. I am told that they did not marry in the old country but waited until the she was on US soil to be married.

    My grandfather George Emilio was a terrazzo stonemason. : "Terrazzo is a composite material, poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of marble, quartz, granite, glass, or other suitable chips, sprinkled or unsprinkled, and poured with a binder that is cementitious (for chemical binding), polymeric (for physical binding), or a combination of both. Terrazzo is cured and then ground and polished to a smooth surface or otherwise finished to produce a uniformly textured surface". Click here for additional information about terrazzo.

    Here is a video on the installation of Terrazzo floors



    Terrazzo is used in many commercial buildings because of its permanence and it is almost impenetrable to moisture and very durable, but their construction involved a high degree of initial labor. If done correctly it will become a work of art.

    My Uncle Jimmie who followed his father into the terrazzo trade made the table. I ate breakfast on that terrazzo table for most of my youth. It had the initials of my mother, father and two uncles. E, L, A, and J were inlaid indicating the sitting arrangement. The table is now sitting in my Lanai awaiting the next generation taking possession. Uncle Jimmie did most of the Terrazzo work on government buildings and Emory University. Every time I walk on a terrazzo floor, I am reminded of the opportunity that this country provided my family.

    Grandpa Emilio died in a construction accident in Alabama in 1919. He left his wife Maria and five children. The oldest child, William, quit school and went to work, the middle three including my mother Eda and her brother Jimmie and sister Katherine, were taken into the Masonic Home in Macon, Ga. The youngest, Aldo stayed at home with his mom as he was only two years old at the time of his father's death.

    Now, with that background as a family history lesson, I will try to illustrate why I am thankful this year for the opportunity that was afforded my family in the early 20th century.

    In 1925, my grandmother applied for Naturalization to become a citizen of the United States. She had lived in the country for twenty years and had learned to speak English. Her love of this country was borne of a wish to have a better life. I think it can be said that things did not go as planned. The death of a husband and the disruption of a family were not in the original plans. But her faith in the Catholic Church and the generosity of the Mason's only served to imbue her with a profound sense of devotion to her adopted country.

    The process of Naturalization in 1925 is illustrated in the pictures shown here.

    First is the Petition for Naturalization with the family data and history. It includes statements of intention, which I have extracted, and present in a more readable text.

Petition for Naturalization Extract for easier reading below.
    Seventh: I am not a disbeliever in or opposed to organized government or a member of afflicted with any organization or body of persons teaching disbelief in or opposed to organized government. I am not a polygamist nor a believer in the practice of polygamy. I am attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and it is my intention to become a citizen of the United States and to renounce absolutely and forever all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, or sovereignty and particularly to _________________ of whom at this time I am a subject and it my intention to reside permanently in the United States.
    Eight: I am able to speak the English language.

Declaration of Intention Notice the phrase above the seal    "SO HELP ME GOD"
    After completing an instructional course in civics and American constitution she was sworn in as a Citizen of the United States of America. My mother told me that Maria recited parts of the constitution over the dinner table in preparation for her citizenship application. She learned the three branches of our government and the Bill of Rights as amended.

    That is the story. She died in 1935 in the country of her choice, as a citizen of that country and in a reunited family that had endured some of the same hardships that were common to that generation.

    Of all the things that I can be thankful for this year, I am most thankful that this country was in need of foreign immigrants to help build what we enjoy today. Times have changed and we are no longer able to accept all the applicants to this country that want to immigrate. We can however apply some measure of the same principles for those that we do want to accept into our society. I would caution against the "STEREOTYPING" of all potential immigrants and make an effort to "PROFILING" those that would pose a threat to us. Click to see my take on profiling vs stereotyping

    Here is the link to a video, which describes the immigration dilemma and why America cannot solve it by allowing unlimited immigration. (6:00)

    My retirement community provides landscaping maintenance of our yards as part of the amenities included in our monthly association dues. Most of the workers are Mexican. During the hot summer months, they show up early and work late. They often will sit under the shade of a tree in my yard eating lunch. Sometimes I will take out a big chilled jug of lemonade or ice tea and just sit and talk with them. Their dream is somewhat different from my grandmothers. Many of them are here just to earn money to send back home to their families. However, others have the same dream of finding a home to raise their families and becoming a part of the fabric of this country.

   I am thankful that the dream is still alive for them even if we sometimes take it for granted.