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| Louisa and Innocenzo |
L I F E A T H O M E
Three years later, Papa returned from Europe with his new wife and our new stepmother, Louisa Palumbo. Life became very different for us again. Papa returned to America before Louisa. I remember the day Louisa was to arrive. Papa had to work, so he sent Jane and me to claim her. When I look back on it, I can’t believe he sent two small girls to do this. We were so amazed with all the activities at the port that when they announced Louisa's name, we didn't hear them and Louisa had to spend another two nights on the ship. So you can just imagine that our first encounter with our new stepmother did not go very well.
My father was quite happy to have his three little girls together again and a new wife to cater to his every whim. Unkie never married, so he came to live with us again, making life much easier and brighter! Our new stepmother neither spoke nor understood English, so we had to learn to speak Italian in order to communicate with her. Every evening after supper we sat with our notebooks at the kitchen table and studied until my father felt we had studied enough.
Louisa didn't like Jane or me very much, but she did like Esther, probably because Esther was still only a baby. She was just 3 at the time, Jane was 9, and I was just shy of 11. Still, because of my mother’s last words to me, I always felt responsible for my little sisters and tried to protect them as much as an 11-year-old could. I remember taking Esther for many walks. In order to get her to sit in her carriage I would say, “Okay, your royal highness, get in.” She always misunderstood me and thought I called her “your royal hiney”! Even now, as women in our 60s, we laugh about this still!
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| Innocenzo, Esther, Louisa, Rose, Jane, and "Unkie" Sven |
These were simple times but happy times! After we did our homework, the family would go to the parlor where our radio was and we would listen to the shows. Our favorite show was “The Shadow.” Or we would sit around the stove and read, and our father would burn orange skins on the stovetop, making the most delicious smell in the house. In the evenings my father would play the mandolin and my stepmother would sew.
Even though our stepmother was not very loving or affectionate, she tried hard to teach us everything she knew. She taught us to sew, crochet, knit, and cook, all of which I still do today. She also taught us the importance of saving money and using our time wisely. All of this would come in handy when I was a young bride and money was scarce.
When I was 14 and Jane was 12, we worked in a bridal shop sewing appliqués and buttons onto the wedding dresses. This gave us our own spending money so that we could do the things we enjoyed. I remember we bought our stepmother a beautiful set of pink glass dishes. They are now considered “depression glass” and are collector items. Jane kept the dishes as she was the last to leave the house. She had an apartment of her own after our father and mother left for Italy.
Back then, we did not have televisions or refrigerators. Instead of a refrigerator we had an icebox. This big box would contain ice in one compartment and food in another. It was my job to empty the pan. If I forgot, it would run all over and wet the floor, and then I would have to mop it up. I was so glad when we bought our first refrigerator.
As I mentioned, money was always tight during those days, so Louisa would lock up the food. She put a big padlock on the cabinets. Well, whenever she and Papa would go out for an evening, I would get Jane and Esther and we would break open the lock and eat as much food as we could. Of course, when they returned we would be in big trouble, especially me because I was the oldest and was supposed to be responsible for us when they were out.
Life during the 1930s and ‘40s was much different than it is today. In addition to not having televisions or refrigerators, we did not have big supermarkets either. The markets were owned by local families and the fathers, mothers, and older children all worked in them. I remember I loved going to the market with my mother (Amanda). Actually, we did not get our vegetables at the market but rather from a horse-drawn buggy that would come through the neighborhood. Our milk and butter were delivered right to the front door of our house. If you wanted cream or extra milk you would have to leave a message for the milkman in the milk bottle and he would deliver it.
We did not have big yards in the city. We had small courtyards where we could sit and play. The only place for kids to roller skate was in the street. Sometimes the streets were so filled with boys and girls roller skating that the cars could barely get by. Luckily for us there weren't many cars at that time. Some of the games that we played were Hide and Seek, Hopscotch, and Kick the Can. The boys would play stickball with the handle of an old mop.
In the winter there wasn't much to do, so we would spend a lot of time in the family room. It was really our dining room. It had a large dining table and chairs, a sideboard, and a china cabinet that proudly displayed all our best china. In the middle of the room was the big coal stove. This is where we would sit and do our homework or read a good book or sing songs while my father and dear uncle would play the mandolin and guitar.
The part of the house that was most interesting is the basement. In September my father would have crates of grapes delivered. We would help him open the boxes, eating the grapes as we went along. It was like another holiday for us. Then Papa would put the grapes in the huge wine barrels where they would ferment. Because the basement had such a low ceiling it was hard for Papa to go down there, so he would send us girls down to turn the wine. This was called “pressing” the wine. When the wine was fermented we would help Papa put it into the big gallon bottles. I don't drink much wine today, perhaps because the smell of the grapes fermenting made me sick. But Esther loved her wine! Back then, because refrigeration was so bad, she would actually have a small bottle of wine in her lunch box that she took to school.
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| The Cambriello sisters glamour posing: Jane, Rose, and Esther |