Gennaro Cambardella and Michael Cambardella

00:07 Hello. My name is Gennaro. Cambardella. I'm 79 years old.

00:15 And today's date is June, 19th 2021. Where in Atlanta?

00:22 And my partner is my son, Michael cambardella.

00:30 John, Michael cambardella on 37, it's June. 19th, 2021. We are located at my parents house in Benton Woods, Sandy Springs, Georgia. My interview partner is my dad Gennaro cambardella.

00:46 So what brought you to storycorps?

00:51 Well at upon approaching my 80th birthday. I thought it beneficial to have an oral history of my own family, to provide some insight to my children and my grandchildren as to the nature of our being.

01:07 Also, Michael was the one who inspired me to place these remembrances on record.

01:16 And so, what will be the oral? What will be the basis of this world history? Well, within the timeframe constraints, I thought it would be wise to speak about my grandfather who, who was, who had a profound effect on me and my siblings.

01:33 Most of it will entail him his life experiences, even though, my mother was just as colorful. I'm going to limited to my father or your grandfather Rafael gambardella.

01:48 And what years were your grandparents born and died? And what was their early history and education? My father was born in 1895 and died in 1972. My mother was born in 1903 and died in 1988 mom-and-pop were both born in chantilla Italy, a small, Hilltop town, south of Naples in the region of Campania. The southern part of the Amalfi Coast as far as I know, pop had no formal education and his family consisted of farmers.

02:25 Mom didn't have a first and second grade education, but unfortunately her grandmother burn her books in the fireplace saying that girls

02:43 Girls did not need schooling.

02:47 They only had to work on the farm. Mom's mother died, when she was only three and it left her with her grandmother as the main child care for her and her her sisters. And also brother. What kind of farmers were your father's family?

03:07 They mainly were well, working in the fields for these large Barons or men of wealth. You might say they were sharecroppers. That tended the olive fields and the produce fields.

03:22 My father, my father's father's name was Nicola and he also was a farmer.

03:32 At wear it as his mother, Antonio cocozello. She bore the family crest, which was interesting to me.

03:42 She came from some sort of back, lineage that had some tinge of nobility.

03:50 Pop's. Last name was camardella spell camardella, whereas his birth certificate. Excuse me. That's what was on his birth certificate yet. Somehow. The name changed. He signed on his discharge papers. Cambardella camardella also on his naturalization papers, in 1927. He signed cambardella. So, there was a slight letter change in the name. Why do you think he changed it? I really do not know why or how I try to explore it. And the only thing I could come up with was the fact that

04:39 That he had very little formal education and he could not read or write and perhaps it just turned into that changeable letter, but you always grew up selling it with Abby. I always and my brothers and sisters always went with kembar Dillard cambar.

05:03 Tell me about pops. Wartime experiences unusual. Wartime experience during the first world war. He was drafted in 1915 at the age of 20. Served in the Infantry, fighting the austrians in the mountains, of Northern Italy. He survived many engagements, especially the famous battles of the end song in Northern Italy in the mountains with thousands and thousands of troops died due to incompetence generals.

05:38 He made some reference to desertion and captured by the austrians. He also said he escaped. The can the, the detention can do to starvation and also.

05:54 And also he escaped, he said, by bribing the guards.

06:00 War time, shell shock was evident throughout his life. He also experienced cruelty in the camps with things Etc, punishments.

06:12 And he was discharged in 1918 honorably. Was he able to talk about his experiences or was it hard for him? He never talked about these experiences. Although I

06:27 He had the terrific nightmares concerning the whippings, when someone escaped from the camp, everyone got a whipping.

06:37 What did he do after the war? And before he came to us after the war, he he joined the band and he was some sort of a musician. He said he played the French and the flute and traveled throughout Italy for a few years. And he also indicated that that was the most enjoyable time of his life.

07:02 I thought he also played the mandolin, right? Yes. He also played the mandolin. He would often gather, some of his friends. Will Paisans in a home in New York and would entertain everyone with his mandolin and singing operatic songs.

07:22 He said he tried to be a singer.

07:26 He didn't know, he didn't own Verde and and the famous composers and their works.

07:34 Where did he get his musical ability from? I really don't know. Probably with the band. He started with and just progressed for a few years.

07:47 Did you get his musical daily? No, unfortunately, I got nothing of his musical ability, but I might children have, I think I inherited some of his talents,, some of them, some more than others. So, why did he decide to come to the u.s.

08:09 It came to the US, most people think because of the enhancement of the streets were paved with gold. But the main reason he told me he was there was extreme poverty in the southern part of Italy and to get away from that, what they call it. And what we call now, a feudal system where we had, they had to just really work the farms for someone else. Also. He indicated that there was some sort of climate change even at that time where there was a tremendous drought and the produce and the olive would not produce as they once had. So most of the single men in the old Town's would leave.

08:55 And go to either South America, or the states of the floodgates of immigration were opened there for it. It was convenient for them to leave, go to the various places, make some money, and come back and marry, and perhaps return again, which he did.

09:17 Where did he settle in the US and what was his first job?

09:23 Well, first of all, he first came to this country in 1921 as a single man, with his cousin who was of the same age. They both have had a job in the coal. Mining of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. There. There he told me that he disliked Coal Mine very much. And as to how long he was a coal miner, I do not know, but he did indicate that he did find employment. You might say, bootlegging at that time. It was the era of the prohibition and he didn't indicate that he made some considerable money as a as a stevedore. That is someone who would transport the illegal liquor.

10:16 Even indicated that one time he was on a truck or Caravan of trucks that we're going over a bridge and Al Capone and his henchmen came by and congratulated and shook the hands of all the workers and gave them each a cigar and had them on the back and said good work. My father was not a true monster of gangster. He was merely a worker. It was a distinguished between the different sects of sect of Italians. The neapolitans were the workers and the Sicilians world where usually the gangsters with Mobsters, but he did emphasize that he was just at work.

11:04 But he said he met Al Capone. They didn't met Al Capone and he didn't brag about it. He just said I met him in there. He was a very good-looking, but he didn't. He catch you guys watching The Untouchables. Oh, that's how we came to find the fact that he met Al Capone. We watched it that black and white series as youngsters on TV, The Untouchables. And that there was a story about Al Capone and he disliked us watching TV, but he did zoom in on watching that episode and he said,

11:44 Al Capone and don't look alike that he was a much better looking.

11:49 Anyway, that's the story and Willa and what happens if I owe my brother asked him what happens if the his henchmen found something ask you with what the illegal drug illegal liquor? He said they would have go over the bridge.

12:10 Another words, they throw him over the bridge. If there was something arrived.

12:15 Alright, let's talk about. So at this time, was he still dating grandmother? Or he was a single man in in a few years and in Pennsylvania, and then he, he told one of my brothers, that, that he had to leave in right after he became a citizen. He had to leave in 1927 because someone threatened, his life and said, if you don't leave, you won't be around tomorrow, so he left and went back to Italy married. His, you might say his

12:52 His neighbor, my mother, your grandmother, he met her in, even though he knew her as a child. He met her in. The olive, feels while he was riding his donkey. That was their means of transportation at that time and the asked to have her hand in marriage. She said she would, he would have to speak to her. Father, who did consent only? If the Dowry was was appropriate, such as various animals at that time and my father, at that time was a good-looking man, and she had been engaged to someone. And he had been engaged to someone. They broke both broke off their engagement and successfully married in 1928.

13:50 In the old town Church subsequently, they they they immigrated to the states. What year was that? That was 19 early 1929.

14:05 And what was their experience coming into Ellis Island?

14:09 Well, first of all, the journey was horrific for my mother. She said she was. She was sick. Most of the time seasick. She said also won one experience on the boat. Was they were invited to the Captain's Table for dinner and the captain suggested that she father as many male children as possible for the glory and greater good of Italy's. Mussolini, at the time, the dictator at that time. She was taken aback by that statement by the captain.

14:48 Flirted with her. She said

14:55 When they arrived and in the states, they had friends who came from the old town, who set them up in a rented apartment, in a neighborhood in Brooklyn.

15:08 As to what he did to make a living, he did various various odd jobs. He was a longshoreman. He was a transporter holding things. He he was, he at one time. He said he dug Tunnels for the City of New York.

15:28 Heaven knows what what that entailed but it was during the Depression. And who is gravy great difficult to find work, especially for immigrants without any education or language. And there was also a language barrier and they had young children at the end. Of course, they started my family, my family, my older sisters to sisters.

15:52 And we came later. The boys came later in the forties. Tell me about his first house. His first house was a neighborhood in Brooklyn where many of the townspeople from the old country settled in.

16:09 It was a lovely small, but lovely brick, 3/4 home, where, which was attached. But yet, it was a neighborhood that was mostly filled with Italians and some Jewish. It was a great neighborhood to grow up with. Even though we lived in the first floor with which only was three rooms that were five of us children and with one bath and a small backyard where he he relished in and growing these beautiful fig trees. That was his passion vegetables, and especially his trees is fig trees. That you would know that all over Brooklyn for his outstanding qualities of fig trees, which was difficult to raise in a cold climate like, New York City.

17:05 In fact, he enlisted us as children's to cover the trees every year which was a chore, but I'm an expert on covering trees that would suffer damage in the cold. Would he give away the food or was it just for you guys? He would borrow the food with the Shoemaker with the baker with the grocery local grocery clerk. It was a bartering system that work real well because he had outstanding fruits and vegetables and the many of my shoes was sold by by by fruits that you might say.

17:44 And how about the second home?

17:48 After a few years they are, we moved three blocks away to a large Victorian, clapboard dilapidated home, which my mother, your grandmother disliked intently because of all the work that needed to be done in that home, but we kept the old home as a rental home and this large Victorian home, which was built in the 1850s had no heat for say. It had just fireplaces and it had, you might say, an outdoor.

18:28 Bathroom facility, but through years of renovation, mostly done, by my father, it became one of the nicer buildings home residences in that tree line neighborhood. It was a wonderful house to you, might say grow up in

18:49 And his pride and joy was his vegetable garden. And again, his trees, especially his Berry trees. Now. We had a neighbor neighbor, who was a big strapping German, who raised homing pigeons and my father. This like, these homing pigeons because they would eat his berries, his favorite berries. So, he devised a trap to catch any of the Homing pigeons, that would eat his berries. And of course, these were Prime homing pigeons that the German relished and he asked my father, Raphael. Have you seen some of my pigeons and my father with a toothpick in his mouth? He says, no and no, confine mean, while they were feathers scattered all over the properties his property.

19:44 That was sent to me an interesting story.

19:48 And he never got caught. He never got caught but it was one of them interesting stories. And but he was also a gourmet. My mother dislikes. You like little birds. He would, he would cook these little birds just as a gourmet would. But my mother would would complain to him that you cannot cook these in our kitchen. So he devised a little kitchen in the basement for his Savory talents.

20:18 That was likely picked up from more time. When they did say he was telling they, oftentimes they would eat the dead horses.

20:32 What is the neighborhood think of Pop the neighborhood, pretty much like my father, he was well-liked because of he was a gregarious type of person. He would love to to chat and talk with the many of the Italian Paisans friends and he would often too famous for them, especially in the garden area.

21:04 I got another question. What was he like as a father?

21:10 He was he was he was, you might say the stereotypical Italian from the

21:20 From the 19th century. He could not shake the, The Stereotype image of the of the hard-working Italian who had difficulty assimilating to to the ways of the American culture. In fact,

21:36 He did not have a a vehicle. The only vehicle he had was his bicycle. His bicycle was the main mode of transportation in our household. He would carry us as children. One on one set of hand wheels and one on the back wheel frame and transport us to various places in the neighborhood.

22:02 I couldn't, I couldn't understand why other Italian immigrants did manage to filter through the American Ways by having a vehicle by dressing like the American style. That was my big objection when I was young concerning my father. But although, he was extremely hard-working and he cared for his children. Greatly. He worked in a loving way. He showed his love by working as hard as he could, and providing us with whatever meager means we needed. We will never wanting of of anything in the way of clothing food. Some of the simple things of life.

22:53 We were, we were content as children. Although he had this disorder Craddock way about him. He was a strict disciplinarian. He would manage to a at the table at dinner time. We could not speak as children. We were only allowed to speak if we were spoken to

23:18 He wouldn't Force us as even young children to drink his homemade wine, which was so powerful. Even the older when would kick get us a little bit inebriated, but we try to laugh off and pour the wine into the plant that was behind us.

23:39 Why do you think he had trouble assimilating?

23:44 Well, it was so ingrained, especially with his experiences, not only with being brought up in a poverish land. But also, his wartime experience, his experience in America during the Depression, the Dave discriminate, the Discrimination that he witnessed where I know dogs are Italians allowed and in any sort of working area, but he managed to survive.

24:21 Did your parents encourage education?

24:25 Yes, my parents did Foster, any sort of Education that we could muster. He in fact, was very proud of the fact that most of his children did receive a college education and also compared to some of his friends who had delinquent children who wound up in in and out of you might say reform school or tails. He was very proud of the fact that his children did excel in school.

25:04 And he he didn't express it very well to us. But he did, he did enjoy the fact that we were successful, especially if it's in school today and courage English in the house.

25:23 My mother did encourage English, but he did not, he wanted us, of course to 2.

25:31 Well, he wanted us to be bilingual in the house. He would only speak Italian and we would try to speak Italian back to him. But he he, of course. I did not get to speak English fluently. He he did manage in his job. He did manage to have a successful adaptation job. He was a garbage man for many years, and he did enjoy. That fact that he was a garbage man and did it. You might say to the point of excellence. In fact, he was one of the last garbage meant to be retired from his job. In fact, the mayor at the time, sent a personal letter to him to actually retire and it would be beneficial for him to retire rather than to continue when he was eligible for retirement.

26:28 But he enjoyed the comradeship amongst his fellow Americans who enjoyed him. I don't know if they they enjoyed his his mannerisms or his personality, but they he would often bring them home. Late at night. He work the midnight shift. He would bring them home, a whole group of men up to the surprise of my mother who would have to provide breakfast and they obviously were so enthralled with the his beautiful house. The hell could a garbage man have such a wonderful large home and such a beautiful, loving wife, but my mother was extremely patient with the with your grandfather and indulging his idiosyncrasies.

27:25 And you have a memory of him as a garbage man. That's young boy.

27:33 One profound memory I had of his hard-working. This was when I was a boy of about for perhaps, five years old, walking, the neighborhood with my mother and twin brother, we noticed

27:49 My father, in an open garage, in an open garbage truck in the middle of it. At that time. They didn't have the type of garbage trucks that we've had at this time. This was back in the early forties and he was in the middle of the garbage in high rubber boots 3ft into garbage where they would lift these metal cans over into The Well of the garbage truck and he would empty the garbage truck. You might say all over him all over his feet especially and then return it to the street. And here was I seeing this, it left, a it left a profound effect on me.

28:35 How was his life? How has his life affected yours in your siblings?

28:43 It affected us in many ways in a, in a, in a deep way, in the sense that he he was the most hard-working man I've ever known. He would work from night till day until evening late in the evening. And I remember him often coming home.

29:03 Well past midnight working from his garbage route. And it would we have a terrible New York rain, and he would be soaking, wet soaking wet.

29:20 End.

29:23 He would always manage to tuck us in.

29:31 He he, he

29:34 He made us into.

29:37 My siblings. And I, I have two brothers and two sisters where we had a great respect for working hard. Doing our best in everything we did.

29:50 And also,

29:53 Being able to learn to adapt to every circumstance. That confronted us both my brothers and I and sisters have been very successful in a vocation. And you might say we share the American dream that they had hoped for.

30:15 For the children.

30:23 It's hard to be not to be for meeting personally, not to be emotional about.

30:30 The way they came over.

30:33 The way they struggle.

30:36 And provided for us.

30:40 I'm hoping it gets translated to my grandchildren that in order to survive and be successful in this world. You have to be honest with yourself. You have to be knowledgeable that we're only here for a short time and we have to make the best of it.

31:03 He instilled in us, a love of nature. I love of things, organic growing. He appreciated the Finer Things in life, even though he didn't have the means to pursue them as much as possible.

31:23 His old ways were difficult for us as young children to a.

31:30 To manage to understand.

31:33 I remember many a time where he would be he would be packaging, you would be packaged in cardboard and newspapers to sell to the local drug dealer on a homemade wagon that that we had to push my brothers and I have to push and struggle to push it, to the junk. Dealer only to manage to, to get two or three dollars in the proceeds. But it, it gave us the The Inspirations who to work very hard at difficult tasks and do it as best as possible. Even though they weren't quite embarrassing for us as youngsters. We will always fearful that our friends that are young young classmates would see us in this. What

32:29 Nowadays would be a degrading position.

32:37 What would pop think of his grandchildren and his great-grandchildren? I'm sure he would be very proud to see the Legacy that he produced along with.

32:52 With this is beautiful wife, my mother.

32:57 Someday, I hope to do a

33:02 Legacy of my mother, who was just as colourful in is, as bright it with admit. What amazes me is without any formal education, you might say both my mother and father, they were outstanding in.

33:20 In the way, they were handled things. They were in the community. They were deemed extremely bright, extremely knowledgeable.

33:31 Whatever test. They would be confronted with many of their neighbors would come to them and ask for advice and hear. They never had any real formal education.

33:47 They were able, they were able to succumb those obstacles.

33:55 However, means they had and they think it was inherited from their own ancestors.

34:01 What's a, what's an embarrassing story about pop?

34:09 Concerning him or us children embarrassing. Well, I did indicate that we were embarrassed that we had to pull carts of newspapers and rags and cardboard to the junk dealer. That was extremely embarrassing to us. And also, once in the playground about elementary school, we will allowed recess and we play in the streets with my classmates. And Along Came my father on his bicycle, and his work, closes his garbage, close the garbage sanitation clothes, and he would bring us

34:54 Rubber boots that because of the predicted rain, he wanted to make sure that

35:02 That we had.

35:04 A boots covering up shoes in the pending rain and one of my classmates said, who was that, who was that? That came on a bicycle to bring you rubber boots? And I said, I couldn't stay.

35:21 That was my father. I had to say he was a relative.

35:26 I always.

35:28 Regret.

35:30 Saying that.

35:38 How would you like pop to be remembered?

35:42 I'd like him to be remembered for the.

35:48 For the First Legacy for what? He has produced in the way of Offspring, in the way of grandchildren possible, great-grandchildren how successful. They've been both in in economics and also and family structure. He would have

36:10 The wonderfully impressed with my brother's May in you as a as a grandchild and the other grandchildren how successful. They've been. He wouldn't, he would love the fact that one of my children picked up the mandolin without me, ever telling him that his father picked or his grandfather picked up the mandolin. Also, one of my children becoming an expert. A landscape architect who involve themselves with Horticulture. He would have been greatly impressed with that.

36:54 He would have been impressed at how.

36:57 How wonderfully the children, present themselves, not only in appearance, but also in demeanor and character.

37:13 It should be noted pop was how old when he had you.

37:17 He was in his he was in his late forties went. Since I was the last with along with my twin brother, the last of his five children.

37:30 He was he was proud of the fact that this was the twin boys. In fact, back in the early forties. He was dancing in the street.

37:46 What he heard that he had twin boys.

37:51 He was real proud of his boys. Although he didn't show it to us. Personally. We knew that that secretly. He was, he was real proud one time. Nick had enough.

38:09 My aunt, my older brother the first boy, born, you might say suffering the most, in the way of the authoritarian. Traits, of my father, the expected, my older brother to to, to be a man, even when he was a Youngster and that was difficult for my older brother to succumb to his ways, but yet,

38:40 My older brother, who's retired? Now still at Meijer.

38:46 What what our father did for us?

38:52 He had you at 40 late forties 47. You had me at 42 when I tell people, my grandfather was born in. 1895. They, they don't believe me. Well, he lived and interesting. I think of extremely interesting and colourful life, and I wish,

39:13 Most people could have had the experience that we had his children.

39:22 It's a I'm sorry to have been a little emotional, but it's hard not to be.

39:34 Thank you. Sorry, for allowing us to present a picture of my, my father.

39:52 Yes.

40:00 You would see a man at his age and specially when he was in his late seventies when he passed away as a rugged individual real confident of himself, his his body structure. He was a relatively 5ft 5 140 lb, but muscular to the point where he is energy is physical energy was amazing to this day. I consider him a little Superman. He would do Feats of Strength that were unbelievable.

40:38 He also was had a ruddy complexion because of being out in the sun, most of the day in his garden and various other landscape Pursuits. He, he was physically fit up until the time. He died of a stroke. He rode his bicycle throughout his life. He, he had, you might take quite a bit of character lines in his face. And of course, it's them from his life experiences, but he wasn't considered a very attractive young man.

41:21 In fact, he broke two women's hearts and engagements before he married my mother.

41:28 And even when he died, they were still back in Italy lamenting over his passing that eyewitness myself. He was also a very giving man bow to his own family, especially add to his family in Italy, his cousins and his is aging sister and and her children.

42:01 Well, he would he would love to play these old albums of Caruso and

42:10 O solo Mio was one of his favorites. I would wake up on Saturday mornings as a single man hearing not only the music of these famous opera opera stars, but also the delightful smells of my mother's

42:31 Cooking.

42:33 The tomato soup Aroma would filter through my room. Of course, at that time. As a young man. I never really did appreciate that setting as I do now.