My Dad is the first generation of Sicilian immigrants born in the United States. His father and grandparent's family came from Messina, Sicily in the year 1900. He was the second youngest of ten children born to Rossairo and Flavia Marino. Living in the Italian section of East Boston in the 1930's and 40's was tough enough for a young boy, but by the age of ten he had lost his father to throat cancer.
This major event changed the course of his life forever and he had to go to work and help with the family income. During this time he was interested in photography, drawing, carving, writing and building things with his hands.
As a young boy in one of the toughest sections of East Boston, he was known as "Romolo" on the streets.It was during this time he dreamed of going to school and becoming an artist, designer or even an engineer. All he wanted to do was to escape from the life some of his boyhood pals seemed to be heading towards.
Around the time he was sixteen, he would go dancing at the famous OceanView Dance Hall on Revere Beach, where some of the biggest bands of the day would play. One night, as the war raged around the world, he met an Irish girl named Claire and fell madly in love. By Feb. of 1945 he joined the United States Navy and he served on the U.S.S Platte AO-24 tanker. While in the Navy he was all over the pacific ocean with the fleet, refueling destroyers, and other naval vessels. His ship would sail across the Indian Ocean to the oil fields in the Persian Gulf. They would sail back to the pacific to refuel the 7th Fleet.
The Navy was a major turning point in his life and when his enlistment was up, he came home and married Claire, his Irish sweetheart. They bought their home and today that house is full of carvings, paintings, pictures of my lovely wife Louise, his two grandchildren Kathleen, John III and a very dear friend, my baby sister Joan!
My Dad spent 37 years working at Monsanto Chemical Company in the Everett plant, he retired there in 1988 as a electrician. During his retirement he pursued his life's ambition to carve, paint, write, and finished the house he has rebuild from the bottom up. The interior of the house itself is one giant work of art. My Dad's life is a study of one man's determination to have his dream come true. Both Ma and Dad provided a great home life for my sister Joan and I, which we are eternally grateful.
