66 Years Ago Today, My Dad Emigrated From Italy To The US On A Pretty Cool Ship.

My dad and I were talking earlier, and he reminded me that 66 years ago today in 1958, along with my grandmother, he sailed from Italy to New York on the SS Cristoforo Colombo. My dad was 8 years old at the time. 



While talking to him, he told me a few interesting facts about the ship and the voyage:

-I didn't realize that this ship was an Italian luxury liner, first of all. This was actually then the flagship of the Italian Line, and the SS Andrea Doria which sank two years before was its sister ship. Interestingly enough, my grandfather came to the US before my dad, grandmother, and other siblings did on the Andrea Doria two weeks before it sank! 

-They couldn't afford one of the fancy suites, so they stayed in a cabin with multiple bunks with another lady that had 3 kids with her. Still, that afforded them to dine in luxury, and he recalled that they got three "fancy" meals a day. He also got into a fight with one of the other kids in the cabin - a teenager that wanted to use the bathroom sink shoved my dad who was using it, and my 8 year old dad decided to punch him in the face. The moms had to separate everyone and read them the riot act. The older kid didn't mess with my dad again. 

-They did meet a really nice American lady on the ship that would check in on my dad from time to time during the eight day voyage. There's a picture somewhere of my grandmother and my dad on the deck that she took of them. He always wanted to find her later on and thank her for her kindness, but he didn't know her name. 

-Neither my dad or my grandmother spoke any English. They were excited, but scared. What would living in the US be like? They had no idea, but my grandfather was convinced it was a better deal than war-torn Europe was. Even though their little village was home, the ghosts of WWII must have haunted the place. I know my grandmother used to tell stories of hiding from the Germans in nearby caves, and I bet those memories haunted her every day she was there. My grandfather, on the other hand, fought in the Italian army after being conscripted for the invasion force for the invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930's, and he didn't make it back home until around 1948 after being imprisoned by the Allies in North Africa. Making it home wasn't a guarantee, but he persevered and eventually made his way back. And I think by that time, he was sick and tired of that part of the world and wanted a new start for the family. He came here in '56, opened up a cobbler shop in a suburb of Boston, and saved enough to buy a small home and send for the family. And he enjoyed his passage on the Andrea Doria, so it made total sense he got them tickets for the next best thing.

-My older aunt and uncle also came to America on this ship a few years later. I believe my aunt was in her mid-20's and my uncle was 30 when they came a few years later in 1961. 

But back to that ship... I had no clue it was what it was. I always thought they took some sort of cheap transport ship here, but to my surprise, it was anything but that. I mean, check this out:







And to my surprise, A LOT of Italians made their way to the States on this ship over the years. It served from 1954 up until the late 70's, where it was sold to Venezuela, and eventually scrapped in 1982, coincidentally the year I was born. I can only imagine how an 8 year old kid would feel going on the adventure of a lifetime on THIS ship. It must have been something! 

Damn, that ship is a beauty. The golden era of ocean liners produced some of the prettiest moving things ever made by man.

Cool story!

We need to remember that all of us,  (aside from a select few indigenous peoples) are all products of immigrants. It's easy to forget when it was so long ago.

Cool story, thanks for sharing. 
 

Where in Italy were they from?

In reply to mtn :

My dad's family is from a small mountain village called Palermiti in Calabria. I actually got to go there as a kid, when I was almost the age he left there (I was 7). It's a cool area and really beautiful. I need to make it back over there!

Appleseed said:

We need to remember that all of us,  (aside from a select few indigenous peoples) are all products of immigrants. It's easy to forget when it was so long ago.

Agreed, although for some of us 1958 doesn't seem that long ago...

The thought of getting on a ship with your family and sailing off to a new country with no idea what will happen there seems terrifying to me, your dad was a brave man.

Tony Sestito said:

In reply to mtn :

My dad's family is from a small mountain village called Palermiti in Calabria. I actually got to go there as a kid, when I was almost the age he left there (I was 7). It's a cool area and really beautiful. I need to make it back over there!

I'm imagining that part of the movie The Godfather where Michael Corleone goes back to his ancestral village.  Hopefully you won't run into any old Mafia dons when you go.  

That is some great family history. So cool!!!  

stuart in mn said:

Tony Sestito said:

In reply to mtn :

My dad's family is from a small mountain village called Palermiti in Calabria. I actually got to go there as a kid, when I was almost the age he left there (I was 7). It's a cool area and really beautiful. I need to make it back over there!

I'm imagining that part of the movie The Godfather where Michael Corleone goes back to his ancestral village.  Hopefully you won't run into any old Mafia dons when you go.  

So, funny thing about this... 

My aunt's house that we stayed in while we were there in 1989 was right next to the church. We were there for basically a month, and it seemed like every other day there was a funeral. And over there, when there's a funeral, basically the whole town shuts down, everyone closes their shutters on their houses, and you are supposed to stay very quiet while they parade the casket through the town with the grieving family and into the church, and then after the services, they then parade the casket back through town to the cemetery on the edge of town. I overheard my dad saying that a lot of these people "jumped in front of the train". Sure, dad. Even at 7 years old, I knew that wasn't normal. 

I also remember right before one of the funerals, there were some teenagers waiting by the church down on the street swearing in English very loudly. They were making a ruckus, and my aunt told them to be quiet. They swore at her in English, and that made her mad. My older sister and cousin were cooking something in the kitchen and decided to shut them up by making it rain potatoes on them. That did the trick, until they started playing hacky sack with the potatoes. 

In reply to Appleseed :

upvote for truth.

I'm just as "guilty" of it as anybody else, but I think part of the reason we (Americans) have such a short institutional memory for stuff like that (I mean WW2 was just a grandparent ago for a lot of people) is that our entire country is so young compared to others. I will occasionally watch real estate shows in England somewhere and hear them say that some building was originally built in 943 AD or something and just be flabbergasted

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Internet high five to your family for making that trip. Without them, there would be no Tales Of The Silverfleet!

It's definitely easy to forget for many that we are largely a nation of immigrants. For many, it happened so long ago that it's removed from memory and all that's left are the family stories. For me, I am able to talk to my dad about this whenever I want, and we often talk about it. I feel lucky in that respect. 

In this divisive environment we currently live in, more people should take a moment and remember this before demonizing others who are just doing what their own ancestors did before them. I know there's a "right" way to do it, and my dad's family had to have sponsors and put up serious money in collateral to even be considered, and I also know things are much different now and it has become much harder, leading to the issues we have now.  Not trying to "patio" this thread in any way, so please don't go down that path. 

Just some simple self-reflection and remembering where you came from would do a lot of good in today's world. 

In reply to budget_bandit :

Very cool. I was intrigued by your mention of your family hiding in caves; I just visited Matera this summer for a wedding and got to tour a couple of Sassi. My wife and I loved the entire trip and are trying to figure out how to best visit the country again, numerous 1-2 week trips when we are able, or save up for a 1-2 month long trip sometime in the distant future. Just an absolutely gorgeous place, everywhere we went was breathtaking for a couple of midwestern kids. 
 

In reply to Appleseed :

Also to remember a lot of us have ancestors who came here against their own free will. One of mine was sentenced to "transportation" by His Majesty King Charles II. and wound up not far from the Sestito's 250 years earlier. 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Too bad you didn't get to inspect the cargo holds. Those liners had a deck of new cars on them. The Andrea Doria had 200 Lancia Aurelia Spider Americas on board. Half of total production, as well as Chrysler Ghia concept cars and production Alfas. 

In reply to TurnerX19 :

I'll have to tell that to my dad. He would have gone nuts if he saw that as a kid! 

stuart in mn said:

Tony Sestito said:

In reply to mtn :

My dad's family is from a small mountain village called Palermiti in Calabria. I actually got to go there as a kid, when I was almost the age he left there (I was 7). It's a cool area and really beautiful. I need to make it back over there!

I'm imagining that part of the movie The Godfather where Michael Corleone goes back to his ancestral village.  Hopefully you won't run into any old Mafia dons when you go.  

Great ship and accompanying story. My wife is 1/4 Sicilian. The Mafia's influence is greatly diminished, and Sicily is a very hot tourist destination now. We went to visit her families historical village, and it was an interesting time capsule, but most of her relatives moved away and are succesful professionals now.

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks! 

And yeah, things are a lot different now than when my dad left there, or even when I visited in 1989. It really felt like a different world back then, but the modern world has arrived to his old town. Today, like a lot of other small towns and villages, the population is dwindling and there are only about 1000 people that live there. A lot of our family friends and relatives from the old country use it as a "summer vacation" area and keep a house there. My cousins inherited my uncle's house, and I know we have some shared land there that was a working farm at one point in time. There's been talk of us going there in the next few years to check it all out as adults. 

And there are a lot less people "jumping in front of trains" these days. 

Great story...it mirrors my mother's family  history of leaving war-torn Italy. I was told her ship was the "sister ship" of the Andrea Doria, for what that's worth. They entered Canada through Nova Scotia.

It's a good reminder for us to remember what it's like to leave a bad situation for a better life. For all our faults, we have it pretty good here.

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Wonderful story, Tony, thanks for sharing... :)

That is a really cool ship, and an even better story! Thanks for sharing!

I went down the genealogy rabbit hole a few years ago, and found out many of my ancestors arrived here (current USA) in the mid-1600's to early 1700's. I know a few of the ships and ports. At least 1 GGGGGGGGrandfather died months after arrival. He already had children, who came over later.

Tony Sestito said:

In reply to Kreb (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks! 

And yeah, things are a lot different now than when my dad left there, or even when I visited in 1989. It really felt like a different world back then, but the modern world has arrived to his old town. Today, like a lot of other small towns and villages, the population is dwindling and there are only about 1000 people that live there. A lot of our family friends and relatives from the old country use it as a "summer vacation" area and keep a house there. My cousins inherited my uncle's house, and I know we have some shared land there that was a working farm at one point in time. There's been talk of us going there in the next few years to check it all out as adults. 

And there are a lot less people "jumping in front of trains" these days. 

Honestly, I love that side of my wife's family. Such a tight community. Very compassionate and fun. There was a member who had been relocated from New Jersey to Los Angeles under "suspicious" circumstances, but that's probably just storytelling. As for Italy, I went there in 1980 and not again till 2022 and it was a very different place. I remember sitting at the Brindisi railway station in 1980 watching a bunch of guys do railroad track maintenance by hand! It may as well have been 1880. Now it's a proper modern country. They still have this amazing ability to throw together a banquet in about 20 minutes after the arrival of unexpected guests...Magic!

Enough about us. Thanks for sharing your story. There's the stereotype that immigrants are always the poor, huddled masses, or fleeing persecution. But often they are the best and the brightest looking for opportunity.     

My wife's grandmother came over from Italy in ~1964.  We were talking about taking her out on our boat on a local lake and she said no way, "I was on a boat once crossing the Atlantic and I'm never going on one again."  Aparently her journey wasn't as much fun due sea sickness pretty much the whole time.

Her story is similar to many, coming over speaking no English but joining some of the family already in the US for a better life.  She told me she learned English from soap operas and co-workers at the glove factory she sewed at.  She continued to work there until about 3 years ago, later on just for the social aspect. 

When I get down about something annoying in my life her story helps to ground me about how well we have it today. 

That is a beautiful ship.  But then again the Italians have always made beautiful ships.  Even their warships are pretty.  Along with their airplanes, cars and womens.