StoryCorps: Nicholas Petron

From: StoryCorps
Series: StoryCorps
Length: 02:33

Nicholas Petron (PEA-tron) remembers his grandfather, who came to the U.S. from Italy as a young man. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: StoryCorps: Nicholas Petron
From: StoryCorps

Petron_small Nicholas Petron grew up in New York city in a building owned by his grandfather, Rocco Galasso. Rocco immigrated to the U.S. from Italy as a young man and worked for years as a building superintendent. He eventually bought the building and made it the center of his large, close-knit family.

In this story, Nicholas talked with StoryCorps about his grandfather, Sunday dinners with the family and the eventual loss of the building he once called home.

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Piece Description

Nicholas Petron grew up in New York city in a building owned by his grandfather, Rocco Galasso. Rocco immigrated to the U.S. from Italy as a young man and worked for years as a building superintendent. He eventually bought the building and made it the center of his large, close-knit family.

In this story, Nicholas talked with StoryCorps about his grandfather, Sunday dinners with the family and the eventual loss of the building he once called home.

Broadcast History

NPR's Morning Edition 12/18/09

Transcript

NP: My maternal grandfather, Rocco Galasso, was a superintendent in an apartment building for probably 18 years of his life. And at some point he bought the building and so we grew up there.

He would say to me, ‘Nichole, we’re going for a walk.’ And I always wanted to go with grandpa. And he would get a pastrami sandwich the size of my head. And he would buy me a hotdog and he would say, ‘Don’t you tell anybody…we just go for a good walk, right? You want another hot dog?

And in this building, every apartment was filled with an aunt or an uncle and every Sunday, Rocco cooked. So, all of his family would show up for dinner, all 30, 40 of us. And, one Sunday at dinner, Rocco made it clear to us that we were all going to have to move. That the city had condemned all of these buildings to build these brand new apartments. And so we had I think eight months to a year to relocate.

And then...
Read the full transcript