Lola DeAscentiis and Rocco Cerretto

[00:00] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Okay, go ahead. So say your name.

[00:04] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Okay.

[00:05] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Yeah.

[00:05] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: My name is Rocco Anthony Cerello.

[00:08] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: And how old you are?

[00:09] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I was born in July 13, 1922. I am 99 years old.

[00:14] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: And the date today is Saturday, July 24. Yo, where are we? What city are.

[00:22] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I'm at my daughter's house in Rochester, New York. Rochester, New York.

[00:27] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: And who am I? Am I? I'm interviewing you. Who am I? Yeah. So who am I? How are we relating?

[00:35] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: She's my great.

[00:39] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So my name is Lola dioscentis. I am 17 years old. Today is Saturday, July 24, 2021. We are in Rochester, New York. I'm interviewing my great grandfather, Rocco Cerreto. Okay, so we're gonna get started now.

[00:55] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah.

[00:56] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So you are 99 years old. Pretty incredible. So you were born in 1922.

[01:02] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Right.

[01:02] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So growing up in Rochester in the 1920s, do you have a favorite memory?

[01:08] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I've got a good memory, but not from 22, but maybe 24, 25. It was depression and my father was out of work and he got a job in St. Louis, Missouri. My father was a glassblower and he would send money home and he would visit us once a month. And I remember very well a lot of people were on welfare and we weren't. My father never made much money in those days, but we survived. But the hardest part was the people on welfare were living better than us. Wintertime especially was bad. We had holes in our shoes. We had to put cardboard in them to start from the weather. But they got new shoes. Welfare people got more stuff than we did. We stand in line to get shovels in the winter's time and we shoveled the street in front of the office buildings. And it was kind of tough in those days. Eye shine shoes and sold newspapers and that's the size of it. And I'm furious about it. Because of the Depression. I quit school in the 10th grade to make money. President Roosevelt come up with an NRA and he had did CC camps, Soil Conservation Corps. So at 16, 17 years old, I joined the Conversation Corps. And I was away for about a year. I was son and I got a dollar a day and we chopped down trees and planted trees and I sent $17 home and kept 13.

[03:10] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: What did you do with the $13?

[03:13] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I smoked cigarettes and stuff like that. But I'm sure I regret it so much because of the education that made my life different completely. I was a success. I did. I retired at 54 years old. But I could have done a lot better if I had an Education. And I'm so bitter about that because of the Depression. It wasn't fair to the people that were working. The people on welfare got more. And that's it. What else?

[03:46] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So after the Depression ended and you were done, after you came home after the year, then what did you do?

[03:53] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Well, I got a glass factory opened up in Rochester, and I got a job in the glass factory. And then the war came. In January 43, I had to go report to the army and they drafted me into the army and I got home in 46. And when I got home, I opened up a business. My Milkman loaned me $2,500 to go in business. And I was in business for 35 years. I made a good living, but I would have done a hell of a lot better if I had an education.

[04:36] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So what was it like when you were drafted into the army? Was that really scary?

[04:41] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Well, January 43rd, New Year's Day, I had to go to the railroad station and they took us to Niagara Falls. And from there two days, they gave us the shots and everything and we went on a troop train to Mississippi. It took us three days to get to Mississippi. And within six months I went home for furlough and I got married. And then they shipped us out to New York and we went overseas.

[05:23] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So what was that like? Where did you go when you went overseas? Where did you originally go first?

[05:28] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Pardon me?

[05:29] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So where did you first go when you went overseas?

[05:32] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah. Well, we landed in England. In England, we caught rough seas. We had an Irish crew and they had to put the boat in dry dock as soon as we get got to Westminster because the storm destroyed all the lifeboats and they had to repair the ship. It was a brand new ship, a Liberty ship, and we were a special crew. It took us 12 days across. The Queen Mary passed us up three times because we were a special crew with communications and we zigzag it all the way across the ocean. That's why the Queen Mary passed us up three times.

[06:21] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Wow. So what was going on when you landed? What were you coming into?

[06:27] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I was going into a war and we repaired all the telephone lines in England and the German planes used to come over every other day and drop bombs and strafe and stuff like that. And on January 7th, I think it was RH we got on a big cargo ship and being invaded. We had to climb down a rope ladder and get on a barge where our jeep was at and drive on the shore. We went in on Jan. We went in January, but the high tide we couldn't go on with the landing craft, so we had to back up and tied up to a sunken ship, and we had to wait for low tide to come in.

[07:24] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: And that was on D Day?

[07:26] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: No, it was the day after.

[07:27] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: The day after D Day.

[07:29] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: There were bodies floating all over the place. And we got in, and that was it. But it was bad. It was bad.

[07:42] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So once you got to Germany, what was the first thing that you did?

[07:46] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Oh, I was. I got to France, and we went through France first, and I. We went to. We were at Dachau after. Well, this was when the war was about ended. We went to Da Cow and we see their prisoners, and it was a shame because I started giving them candy, and they stopped me because he says I give them too much and they would get sick because they were just skin and bones. And I was there when they closed. Dacao.

[08:25] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Yeah, we have some pictures of that right here, actually. So this is your photo album that Grandma Josie put together.

[08:32] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah, these are.

[08:33] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: These are the pictures from Dachau.

[08:35] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Well, we see. Well, what was.

[08:40] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: What was it like seeing that in real life?

[08:42] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: This is a prisoner of war camp, you know. Oh, they were. They had big. Big ditches, and they threw the bodies in ditches, big dishes, and the gas chambers were terrible. And what they did to the Jewish people to. Sickening. Sickening. And that's all about.

[09:05] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So was that. That must have been really scary, witnessing the Holocaust, because I learned about that today in school. I learned about this today in school. So that must have been really scary being there.

[09:15] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah.

[09:16] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Wow. So, yeah, what you lived through, I learned about. Wow. So when you first got to Dachau in Germany, were there Nazis there or had they all left by that?

[09:29] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: No, they were just prisoners. We destroyed all the workers and took people out of the gas chamber and stuff like that. And like I said, then the military came in, military police, and they started to take care of them all. Well, it was terrible. And the people taking care of the dead bodies from the American side had to be drunk all day long to do their job.

[10:06] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, wow.

[10:07] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: It was just disgusting. They were supplied with whiskey because of the horrible job they had.

[10:15] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Yeah.

[10:16] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah.

[10:17] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So I remember when you were in Germany, you also went. I think it was in an opera house that you had to stay in when you were in Germany. Was it an opera house that you were staying in?

[10:27] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah, we lived in an opera house in Germany.

[10:30] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, my goodness.

[10:31] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I had the kitchen because we were. We followed the infantry with communications and, you know, we stayed in the opera house. In Germany. Germany was a nice, clean town.

[10:48] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Was it Munich that you were in? What town in Germany Was it Munich?

[10:53] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Munich, yeah. That was in the eyebrows in Munich. Very clean people.

[11:02] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Wow.

[11:02] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: And they were constantly swimming, but they were great. The citizens of Germany were great.

[11:10] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Yeah. So how long were you in Germany in total?

[11:16] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I would say about a month and a half, two months.

[11:18] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, wow.

[11:19] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah, we traveled constantly.

[11:21] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So where else did you travel during the war? So you were in England, France and Germany. Were you anywhere else?

[11:27] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Well, we traveled through a million towns. I don't know. But I would sometimes stay overnight in the break free.

[11:36] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, wow.

[11:37] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Because we were constantly traveling. But once or 20th, I went back to a rest camp for a couple of days and I didn't like France. France was very dirty.

[11:54] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So Germany was better. Yeah. Do you have a favorite memory from being over in the war in Europe?

[12:02] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Pardon me?

[12:02] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Do you have a favorite memory from being in Europe during the war?

[12:06] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Of what?

[12:07] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Do you have a favorite memory from the war?

[12:09] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I got a good memory of the war, but it's not favorite. We slept on the ground and tents and everything, but when we were stationed for a few weeks, we would take over a house or something, and that was that. But I didn't like France too much.

[12:32] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Yeah. So before you went and fought in the war, you got married to Grandma Josie right before the war?

[12:40] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah.

[12:41] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So what was it like having to get married and then go off to war? Was that really?

[12:45] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Well, when I got married, Josephine came back with me to the army, and we no sooner got in Mississippi, we got orders to leave for New York and she had to come back home. And her stepfather says when she gets married, she had to get out of the house.

[13:04] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, no.

[13:05] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: So I called my mother, she says, I'll take her. So my mother took her.

[13:10] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So Grandma Josie lived with your mom while you were in the war?

[13:13] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: While I was in the army.

[13:14] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Wow. So I think we have some notes that you actually sent her. Some. Look at this army postcard that you sent her.

[13:22] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: These are my friends. I was squeezed. I was skinned in Switzerland when a war did also.

[13:29] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Those are friends you met during the war, too. So you met friends during the war too?

[13:33] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah.

[13:34] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So when you came back, when you came back after the war was over, did you stay in touch with these friends that you met?

[13:40] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I stayed in touch with a lot of them.

[13:42] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, wow.

[13:43] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah.

[13:44] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Wow. And is this used. Where is this?

[13:46] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I was skiing in Switzerland. Yeah.

[13:49] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So you got to ski in Switzerland. Wow.

[13:51] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah.

[13:53] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So when the war ended, you came home and you came Back. Did you first come back to Rochester?

[13:58] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah.

[13:59] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So you came back to Rochester and you got to see Grandma Josie again.

[14:03] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Pardon me?

[14:04] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So you saw Grandma Josie when you came back from the war? Oh, yeah. And where did you. Where did you end up living after that?

[14:10] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Where did I end up?

[14:12] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Yeah. Where did you. Where did you live after the war was over?

[14:14] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Okay. I got an apartment. And Josephine rented an apartment before I got home. Was beautiful two bedroom. And I bought a house after I was in business for a couple years.

[14:31] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: In Rochester? Yeah, in Rochester. Cool.

[14:33] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: And then Josephine's family moves up. Her sister came up. So instead of moving into the house, I let her live there. And she was complaining that I was taking too long to pay for it. And I got tired of listening to complaints, so I give her the house.

[14:53] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, wow.

[14:54] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I said I wanted.

[14:56] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, my goodness.

[14:56] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I give her the house. And after I give her the house, my house I was living in was sold. So I had to get out. So my sister says, come over here. So I moved in with my sister, and my uncle had a beautiful apartment where Prince Furniture Company lived.

[15:21] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, wow.

[15:22] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: And his son was building a new house. So I took over that apartment. Beautiful apartment. And then in a couple years, I.

[15:32] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Built a home still in Rochester.

[15:34] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Oh, still in Rochester. Yeah. I built a nice home. And Josephine kept getting sick. She had pneumonia ten times one year. So I says, you know, if you get sick one month, we'll move to Florida. So the doctor advised I get her out of the country, out of the States. So I moved to Florida.

[15:59] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, wow.

[16:00] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I. I sold my house and I bought a new car for her. And her and her brother and my two kids drove to Florida. And as soon as I settled my property, I'll join you. So about two weeks, I sold my property and I joined them in. I drove to Florida, and I stayed in Florida about three years. But I didn't like it because the summertimes were deserted. All the people left Florida in the summer. And you get flat tires just running over land crabs. So I said. I got disgusted, but I had a good job in the post office. You know, the first job I got, I was making a dollar an hour.

[16:51] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, my gosh.

[16:52] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: And my wife see me working. She said, rocky, quit. You can't do this. So I said, okay. So I went to the post office and applied for a job. And they said, you get a recommendation from Rochester and we'll hire you. Well, a friend of mine was a manager of the post office garage. So I.

[18:07] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Okay, so, yeah, so keep on going. So. So you're back in Rochester now and pick up where you.

[18:12] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I came back to Rochester. I went to work in a gas station. And after a couple of weeks, I got a phone call from an oil company, and they heard I was back, and they wanted to give me a gas station. I said, okay, and they gave me my old gas station. And I stayed there up until 1977. That's when I was 54 years old. I retired.

[18:45] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Wow.

[18:45] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Well, I was having trouble hearing, and I was making too many mistakes, so I had to get out of the business.

[18:53] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So why were you having trouble hearing?

[18:56] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I lost my hearing in the army.

[18:58] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Do you remember how that happened?

[19:01] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I don't know. When I got discharged, they told me, you can't hear. And I says, look, I'm going home. Leave me alone. And they gave me $10. When I got home a couple months, they gave me $10 a month. Anyhow, they couldn't do nothing with my hearing because it's only going to get worse. It's gotten worse. Now I got two hearing aids. They can hardly hear, but I'm happy to be alive.

[19:31] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Yeah.

[19:32] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: And I had my ups and downs, but they were great.

[19:36] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Yeah. So you had. After the war, you had two kids, right?

[19:41] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah.

[19:42] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: And one of those kids is my grandma, Mary Jo. So do you have a favorite memory from when your two daughters, Mary Jo and Kathy, were growing up?

[19:53] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: No. I gave. I spoiled something terrible. Everything they wanted. They got married. Joe was 16. I bought a brand new carbon K, beautiful yellow one. And I said, no one drives it by you. She went out, her boyfriend drove and destroyed it.

[20:15] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, my goodness.

[20:16] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: And they sued me for $5,000.

[20:19] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, my.

[20:20] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: John's mother.

[20:21] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, wow.

[20:22] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah. So I bought your mother. Your grandmother won four cars.

[20:30] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Four cars.

[20:32] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: The last one I bought her, I said, she was working. Then I smurger, I'll put the down payment. You got to pay for it. And that's what I did. And when she got married, I walked her down the aisle. I said, are you sure you want to do this? He says, yes, you guys, we could turn around and walk away. She says, no. Okay, fine. And she got married.

[20:59] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Wow. So when I was younger, Mimi, my grandma, used to always tell me the story of when you lived in the house with the spiral staircase and Grandma Josie threw the Christmas tree down the stairs.

[21:12] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Watch that.

[21:13] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So can you tell that story? Because that's one of my favorites.

[21:16] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I remember it well. We got this beautiful apartment, and I brought home a Christmas tree, and she threw it down the steps. I love the apartment. Beautiful. Mary Jo and Kathy had a big room. We had a big room. Mirrors on all walls. It was just great. Prince Furniture Company owned a place, and my uncle, solid. And the people that sold it says that we threw her down the steps and heard her. And she's suing us because she wanted us out. She wanted to move into the department.

[21:56] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh.

[21:57] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: So they took me to court.

[21:59] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: But that wasn't even true. So you didn't tell anyone?

[22:02] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah. No, it wasn't true. Anyhow, they took me to court and we wanted the negatives to the picture. My lawyer insists on them saying. And they didn't have him. So their lawyer says. Insists we take the pictures as evidence. So my lawyers will take his pictures as evidence. So they took the pictures as evidence. It's in the records. The pictures are part of the evidence. So immediately my lawyer says, your Honor, we gotta throw this case out of court. And the judge says, why? He says, the picture shows the left leg. She's complaining about her right. So they showed. Out of courts.

[22:48] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So she was lying. Oh, my goodness. And was that someone that you. Who was that again? Who is that that took you to court?

[22:56] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Pardon me?

[22:56] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Who took you to court?

[22:57] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: That was the guy that bought the property.

[23:01] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, my goodness.

[23:02] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: He says, I was in the cellar hiding you. And I pushed his wife down the.

[23:06] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Steps, even though you didn't. Wow.

[23:09] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Wow.

[23:10] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So you were mentioning in 1977. What, you retired, is that right?

[23:17] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Retired? I. I financed the business with a guy working for me. And I took so much money a month.

[23:24] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, wow.

[23:25] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah.

[23:26] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: And by 1977. Did you. You had four grandkids, right?

[23:30] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah, four grand. When I first retired, we went to Florida for a couple of winters. And Josephine didn't like it too much, but I used to go golfing every day. I don't care. And then one year, a guy says, why don't you follow me to Las Vegas? So we went to Las Vegas, we drove and we got to Vegas. We went to a place where we rented and we went to sleep. I woke up in the morning and Joseph still got our clothes on. I show you. What are you doing with your clothes on? She's Rocky. I didn't go to sleep. This place is loaded with cockroaches. We're getting out of here.

[24:16] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, my gosh.

[24:17] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: So I loaded everything on the car and we went out and stayed in the motel. So after a week, Josephine says, do we have to go to Florida? Why don't we stay here? I said, okay, let's look for a good Place. So we went to the convention center, and it was a nice little motel. So I walked in and I said, I'd like to see the apartment. And he says, can I see the manager? And when the manager come out, I was shocked. I knew him well from Rochester.

[24:55] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, my God.

[24:56] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: And he was a double for one of the stars in Washington, Hollywood. And his name was John. I said, jesus, John, I'm looking for a place. Can you. He's rock. I'll give you a good price. 1,25 a week.

[25:11] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Wow.

[25:12] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Wow. So I took it, and we moved in there. And I called up my friend in Florida, sell my furniture. I rented the place by the year in Florida. I sell my furniture, everything, send me the check, sell my lease. And he did, in a week's time, emailed me his check, and we stayed there for about three, four years. We stayed at the best places in Las Vegas for 18 years. Then Josephine got a slight stroke and she got into an accident. And then we stopped going to Vegas.

[25:51] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, so then you came back to Rochester and you stayed here?

[25:54] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Oh, yeah. I built a new home on History Road. I had a nice home.

[25:57] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, nice.

[25:58] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah.

[25:59] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: And. Yeah. And you had four grandkids then, Barbie, do you have four grandkids then?

[26:03] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Ah, Earth, I. Wow.

[26:05] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: How many grandkids did you have when you came back? Four. Wow. So do you have a favorite memory from being a grandfather right now?

[26:12] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I got. I had four grandkids. Yo. Two and two. And I went to see them all in college. And when they got out of college, I gave them 5,000 apiece.

[26:28] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, wow.

[26:29] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: And I got lovely great grandsons. And right now I give my great kids a hundred dollars at their birthday. But I had a good life. But it would have been a lot better if I had a better education.

[26:43] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So if you had to give advice to someone today, would it be to stay in school?

[26:47] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Pardon me?

[26:48] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So if you had to give advice to one of your grandkids today, would it just be to stay in school, get education? Yeah.

[26:55] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Make life a lot easier.

[26:58] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Yeah. So here you are at 99 years old. That's pretty incredible. So it's been almost 100 years.

[27:05] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I have two brothers. They were cops. Oh, my brother. My funny thing is, all my brothers went to the 10th grade and quit.

[27:17] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, my gosh.

[27:18] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: And they had to go take an equivalency test to get a job. My brother was chief of detectives. He became a judge. And my other brother was in a randy Czech squad for the Rochester Police Department. He's the only one. Life is My kid brother. He's 82. You're 83 years old.

[27:40] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So you still have one brother?

[27:42] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: That's it, yeah.

[27:43] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: What's his name?

[27:44] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Tony.

[27:45] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So Tony, still.

[27:46] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I take all my nephews out to breakfast.

[27:48] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: You do?

[27:49] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Every Saturday.

[27:50] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, wow.

[27:51] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I didn't take them today because I got an interview. Yeah, that's it.

[27:57] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So from 1922, when you were born, until 2021, how much has changed in the world?

[28:03] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Oh, considerably, considerably. Horse and buckets were around when I was young, and we're digging up all over the place, putting the stores in and stuff. Big change. We used to sell newspapers. For 5 cents, I'll make a penny. And I shine shoes. A lot of times I got a kick instead of money because I try. If the guy was drunk, I shine the tips, not the back. But that was life in those days.

[28:35] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So, yeah, so much has changed. So today you handed out newspapers. Today I read my newspaper on my phone.

[28:44] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I used to help the Baker deliver bread. 5 cents a loaf.

[28:48] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: 5 cents?

[28:49] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: 5 cents a loaf.

[28:50] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, my goodness.

[28:52] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I can't believe the prices right now. Bread is almost $4 a loaf.

[28:59] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Wow. Wow.

[29:02] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: And we used to charge them 5 cents. And once a week we collect the money.

[29:08] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Wow.

[29:08] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Once a week. They wouldn't pay money for scarce.

[29:13] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Wow.

[29:14] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: And I made a couple of dollars signing shoes, selling newspapers. But it's amazing, because when I got in business, the Boston selling newspapers became a customer of mine.

[29:30] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, wow.

[29:31] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Because I happened to be in his neighborhood.

[29:34] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Wow.

[29:35] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: They were the Silvers. That was their last name.

[29:38] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: That's so funny.

[29:39] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: And it was just great. It could have been a lot better if I had an education.

[29:45] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Yeah.

[29:46] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: But I can't complain. I'm still here.

[29:49] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Yeah. And you have a lot of great grandkids now, too. Right. So how many. How many great grandkids do you have in total?

[29:57] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I got three. Two and three. Eight.

[30:01] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Eight great grandkids. Wow. So that's got to be pretty amazing to be able to meet all of your great grandkids.

[30:08] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Right?

[30:09] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Wow. So another thing I know is that years later, just recently, I think you got an award for being in the Army. Right. What award was that?

[30:20] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: World War II.

[30:22] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Yes. So did you get. Was it a bronze star that you got?

[30:26] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah, I got a bronze star.

[30:27] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So do you know what. What was the story behind that? How did you end up getting that? Because that was really.

[30:31] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: We burned telephone lines, and they were strafing us with airplanes, and we just kept working and we got through it and they gave. They gave everybody up on the Poles, a brown star. But I was a truck driver. They didn't give me nothing.

[30:51] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, my God.

[30:51] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: So when I heard that there were points involved with upon Bronze Star to come home, I went to the captain. I says, I want a bronze star. He's rock, we can't do. You can't do it. I said, I'm going to go to higher authorities. I was with you guys when they were straight. I was being straight also. You got the bronze Star for being straight. So they had a special ceremony for the two truck drivers. And we got both.

[31:24] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, wow.

[31:25] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: And the best part is the captain I was working with, he was transferred to Japan.

[31:36] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, wow.

[31:37] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: So I took him. He says, you gotta drive me to Paris. I drove to Paris and we got there too late, and now I gotta come home. But in black market, I sold everything. And I end up staying with him for nine days.

[31:58] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Nine. Wow.

[31:59] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I didn't have any clothes. I wore clothes and everything. So one day when I went out, I see this guy from my company. I said, what are you doing here? He says, rock, the company's breaking up. Everybody's going home. What? I says, so the captain, he says, I gotta wait for my orders. Okay. I got up in the middle of the night and went back to my camp in Munich. And they had my bag all packed. They were, where's the captain? I see where he told me to bring him. He's where he's supposed to come back with you. I said, I don't know. So anyhow, I know. Soon I got back, I took my bag and jumped on the back end of the truck and I went to Camp Lucky Strike.

[32:46] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Wow.

[32:47] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I'm in France on the way to Camp Lucky Strike. Every railroad stop, we sold stuff. I almost sold everything. Had a lot of. Okay, now the best part I got on about, well, it took us 12 days to go over. Your Queen Mary passes up three times. We come back in two days. Three days. I slept on the deck because I was sick for 12 days. Going over. I was seasick. And anyhow, I got discharged. I got home, wow. Five in the 50s. And the 50s. There's a knock on my door on a Sunday morning. Mary Jo remembers, it's still the captain that I left for prayers.

[34:23] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, wow.

[34:24] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: And I hope, what the hell are you doing here? He said, I come to see you. You left me in prayers. Oh. And then they came to see me once a year. Wow. Until he died.

[34:37] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: So have you ever had the chance to go back to Europe since the war? Did you ever go back?

[34:42] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I went back to Paris once. Oh, yeah? My lady friend, her son took us to Paris for 10 days.

[34:49] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, wow.

[34:50] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: But I wanted to go to Normandy and see all the grace, but it was too far away.

[34:55] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Too far. Yeah. So. Yeah. Yeah. So. Wow. So 99 years old. You're 99. That's just. That's incredible.

[35:06] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: 99.

[35:06] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Do you have. What is. Nowadays, now that you're 99, what do you like to do every day?

[35:14] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I guess it's gamble.

[35:18] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Wow.

[35:20] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Well, I can't drive. You can't drive, So I gotta wait for someone to take me. Yeah, my brother. My brother's friend takes me when he goes.

[35:31] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Nice.

[35:31] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: That's it. Yeah.

[35:33] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Wow. So is there anything else about. Is there anything else that you want to share? Do you have any? Growing up, I guess. Okay. So. Yeah.

[35:44] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: I don't know. Sometimes I wish I was dedicated. So aggravated. You know, all I do is get dressed in the morning, eat and stay, and I think it's time to go.

[35:57] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Oh, no.

[35:58] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah.

[35:59] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Yeah. You've been around for almost a century. That's incredible.

[36:02] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah.

[36:04] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Okay. So I think.

[36:07] LOLA DEASCENTIIS: Yeah.

[36:08] ROCCO ANTHONY CERRETTO: Think we're good.