Chipelo: Murtosa, Portugal, July 23, 1922.

PR: 1922. Um and how long were you there? How long did you grow up there?

FC: Sixteen years.

PR: Sixteen years. So approximately what year did you move away?

FC: 1938.

PR: 1938 you moved to the United States.

FC: No.

PR: Oh, you did not come straight to the United States.

FC: No, I was in Brazil.

PR: Oh, you went to Brazil first. And when did you move from Brazil to the United States?

FC: I went from Murtosa to Lisbon, Portugal. I stayed in Lisbon until 1940, March 1940. Then from there I went to Brazil and I stayed in Brazil until May 1941. Then I come to the United States.

PR: Ok. Um, how was life like growing up in Murtosa?

FC: Very tuff. We were poor. We did not have to much. We worked but it was not to much anyway. We did not have to much.

PR: What was work? What job did your parents do or you?

FC: We were in business. We were in buying and selling, pigs. My mother she was, uh, selling, buying and selling chickens. That was our life, my life for sixteen years.

PR: For sixteen years. Did you have any brothers and sisters when you were growing up?

FC: Four brothers and one sister.

PR: Four brothers. All younger?

FC: All younger I am the oldest.

PR: You are the oldest one?

FC: Yeah.

PR: Did you kind of take care of them?

FC: No my sister took care of us. She was next to me. She was the one that took care of the house. She had to leave school when she was ten years old. Because my mother could not afford a maid. So my sister had to come home to take care of us when she was ten years old.

PR: How far in school did you go to?

FC: What you call, uh, grammar school.

PR: Grammar school, so it was like fifth grade?

FC: Over there it was four grades.

PR: Four grades?

FC: Four grades. Seven to eleven.

PR: Seven to eleven?

FC: Yeah, that's it.

PR: Uh, and when you moved to the other places your whole family moved with you?

FC: No just me.

PR: Oh, it was just you. So at sixteen you said

FC: Sixteen.

PR: You moved to Lisbon?

FC: I moved to Lisbon, I stayed in Lisbon, well I moved to Lisbon in October, 1938. Then I stayed in Lisbon until 1940. Then from there I went to Brazil and I stayed in Brazil until 1941.

PR: What was the reason for you moving to Lisbon?

FC: To get a job.

PR: To get a job? Did you, did you find one there?

FC: Yeah I found one. I was a working as a stevedore.

PR: Stevedore? What is that, a stevedore?

FC: It's a, what do they call them here, a long shore man.

PR: A long shore man?

FC: Worked on ships. Unload and load the ships.

PR: Oh, ok. So you worked in the harbor. You were not actually on the ship?

FC: Right. We were in the small boats. We used to take the cargo, from the factories or from the pier. Mostly from the factories, and bring it aboard the ships and unload it.

PR: Uh-hm. Ok, um. Then how did you make it to Brazil? Or what brought you to Brazil?

FC: Brazil, my uncle was there.

PR: Your uncle was over there?

FC: So, my uncle had a business and then so I went to live with him over there.

PR: And where in Brazil was this?

FC: Belem, Para. Belem is the city, Para is the state

PR: The state that it is in.

FC: Not a city, I mean Brazil.

PR: Where is that? Like next to the

FC: It is north, north of Brazil, next to the Amazons.

PR: So, like on the equator.

FC: Yeah, close to the equator. Temperature is about 90 everyday.

PR: Everyday?

FC: Summer, winter, spring, everyday. In the summer it rains like hell.

PR: Was the climate the only difference that you saw between Brazil and Portugal?

FC: Totally different.

PR: Totally different?

FC: All together different. The climate and theits a big country. Just that Amazons alone you could put about ten or twenty Portugals inside.

PR: Oh, really?

FC: Oh, it's so big it's enormous. And the people are different. Everything was different. It was an all together different. Just as it was different when I came from Brazil to this country too. It was the same different too. Except the language. In Brazil they speak Portuguese too.

PR: They speak Portuguese there too, What kind of business did your uncle own in Brazil?

FC: I worked in four restaurants.

PR: Four restaurants, So what were you a manager?

FC: Not manage, I work in there. I only stayed there thirteen months.

PR: That's it?

FC: I worked in there. I do not manage, he had the manage people, older.

PR: So what were you like, a cook, bust boy?

FC: No, no. Server. Server

PR: Oh, server, so waiter.?

FC: Yeah.

PR: Now in the mean time when you were in Portugal and Brazil were you strictly speaking Portuguese or were you learning English also.

FC: No, no. Just Portuguese.

PR: Just Portuguese?

FC: Just Portuguese.

PR: So you left Brazil in what year?

FC: 1941.

PR: And you came to the United States?

FC: Right.

PR: Now what brought you there?

FC: Here.

PR: Yes.

FC: For a better life.

PR: How did you know about that?

FC: My father was here before.

PR: Oh, he was already here.

FC: Oh, my god, I had all my family. Uncles, Aunts, and they were all in this country before I come to this country. We go back Maybe 1910. My father was here in the 20's.

PR: In the 20's?

FC: Yeah, 1922. Then my brother my brother, that I don't remember, if he was here. Or if he came in right after I was born.

PR: So he was living here?

FC: No, no my father was here, that's right. My father was here because when I was one year old I come to this country. But then my mother, my brought me into this country. My father was here already. And, uh, we uh, we come to Naugatuck (Connecticut). And my mother was here and after she was here for about a year, or something, my sister was born. And then my brother was born, three kids in about three years. So my mother didn't like that so she went back to the old country.

PR: And your father went with her?

FC: No, my father stayed.

PR: Oh your father stayed here?

FC: My father stayed here.

PR: So your mother raised you guys?

FC: Oh yeah, oh yeah. While we were young, yeah. While we were kids. My mother went in business in the old country. I was about seven or eight years old. That's when we got the maid to take care of us. Because my sister was only five then. Because you see, she is almost two years younger than me.

PR: And what was your father doing while he lived here?

FC: He was in the business. Selling and buying pigs.

PR: Oh, it was the same type?

FC: Same thing, all his life, that is all that he did over there and my mother, the same thing. She was always buying and selling the chickens. The same thing. All different kinds. All there lives.

PR: So he sold pigs in Naugatuck?

FC: Not in Naugatuck, I am talking Portugal.

PR: But what did he do when he was here?

FC: This country?

PR: Yes.

FC: Well as far as I know, he worked in Naugatuck Chemical, we now call it Uniroyal, but it used to be Naugatuck Chemical. As far as I know that is the only job that he did.

PR: So in '41 you moved from Brazil to the United States and you came to live with your father and your brothers and sisters?

FC: My father wasn't here at that time.

PR: Oh, he wasn't here?

FC: My father went back in 19 (To aside) What's the matter? Oh your back When did my father go back, 1932. I went back, I came here, let's see I was born 1922, (talking from the background) I'm talking about my mother, when she told me, I was a baby when she brought me to this country so she must have come in 1923. Then she had Deolinda in 1924, and then she had John 1924-25. Then she went back. Now if she went back right after John was born I don't know. But she went back after. I know in 19 lets see, twenty two twenty I know in 1928-29 I knew I was in the old country already. Because I remember, now today I don't remember, I don't remember being in the Unites States. The heck I was not even a year old when I came here. And I was only three, as far as I know, when we left. My sister says she remembers but I don't remember nothing. She says, I don't think she remembers. (light laughter)

PR: Ok, so when you moved up in '41 who did you stay with or who did you live with.?

FC: My uncle.

PR: Your uncle, and what were you doing then when you moved up?

FC: Well I got a job on the Foundery, I worked in the Foundery in Union City.

PR: In Union City?

FC: You know Foundery, steel, iron work.

PR: And what did you do there?

FC: I was a, oh what do they call it? Castcastbreaker, I think that's what it was. It used, they used to make the cast, you know, it was in molds, sand molds. That was not like ones today. These had to be made in molds at that time. And they used to put the iron in it, there then we had to let that cool off then break it. Because you gotta like sit one piece like this then little pieces. And this was scrap and this the good pieces. We had to separate it. Everyday that was our job, everyday.

PR: How long did you do that for?

FC: I was there for a little over a year I think. Then I went to Naugatuck, I worked in Naugatuck Chemical.

PR: Uh-hm.

FC: For another year or so.

PR: Which did you like better?

PR: Oh you were drafted?

FC: Yeah. I was drafted in October 201943.

PR: Now you were a citizen by then right?

FC: No.

PR: You weren't?

FC: Oh they would take anybody. If you didn't go, if you didn't go. Well see, they had a lot of people that were here illegal. And those people, if they refused, they could send them back to the old country. But I was legal but they could not send me back. But I went anyway. I didn't refuse.

PR: See I was under the impression that they only drafted people that were citizens. I didn't think that they could draft 

FC: No, no. They drafted everybody.

PR: Really? How did you feel about getting drafted?

FC: It didn't bother me.

PR: Really.

FC: I was a young blooded kid. (laughter)

PR: So in 43

FC: How old was I? I was 21.

PR: 21?

FC: Yeah, twenty-one years old.

PR: Did you have a choice of what branch of the military that you could go to?

FC: Yeah, they asked us.

PR: And what did you choose?

FC: The navy.

PR: They Navy?

FC: But they did not give me the regular Navy. They put me in what they call the "CB's"(Construction Battalion). It is a branch of the Navy but we are not aboard the ships. We did a lot of construction, like Some battalion, was a division of the Navy. And they had what they used to call Construction Battalions. And what they did was, they some of the battalions went, when they went on the invasion with the Marines. Went to invade an island. The Marines would be the first ones because they would be fighting there, units. And they would be the first ones to go in and as soon as they hold the beach, you know they grab a hold of the beach, then the CB's would go in there and start building different things. Roads, airports, Quonset huts.

PR: What kind of huts?

FC: Quonset, we used to call Quonset huts.

PR: Like a regular hut?

FC: It is not like a regular hut. It was made out of, aluminum I think it was. Some of them were made out of wood to. But most were made out of the round ones. Made out of steal, steal or aluminum. I think it was aluminum. Then we went there and we used to have I had different jobs. I was what they call in "KP".

PR: KP?
FC: Yes, that is work the mess hall. You know what the mess hall?

PR: That's were you eat right?

FC: Where you eat. Well I worked in there. I worked in the rock crusher, you know like they got over there. Breaks the rocks. So they could use to make the roads and all that. And I worked in the laundry. That's all in the Hawaiian islands.

PR: That's all in Hawaii that you are doing this?

FC: This ya. All in the Hawaiian islands.

PR: Is that the only island that you were in?

FC: No, then from there I went to the Philippines. In the Philippines I was doing the same thing. I did some KP. KP there they used to give us like a month then they would change, you know, so it won't be so, you won't be doing the same thing all the time so that we I as in KP then I went into construction again. Then in the end I was helping in the truck. You know they have a truck driver.

PR: Uh-hm.

FC: I was the help. You know in case go pick up something to heavy. I had to be there for that. We only stayed there I don't know let's see, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, four of five months.

PR: In the

FC: Philippines. From there I went to China.

PR: You went to China?

FC: I went to China, I don't remember the name of it. It was a small town. I don't remember it. I know the big city that was about fifty miles from there, from the town. That was Tientsin.

PR: Tientsin?

FC: Tientsin. They changed all those names now you know.

PR: They are different now? Do you know what the name of it is now?

FC: They don't call it the same thing.

PR: No?

FC: No.

PR: Do you know what the name of it is?

FC: No. I don't know. The only way you can find out is with the new maps. With the new maps you can find now. So I stayed there from October until December, then I come back home.

PR: This is in 44 or 45?

FC: 45.

PR: 45?

FC: Mostly in the end of 45 when I came back. I passed my Christmas in California.

PR: How come?

FC: I was waiting, you know, to be processed, processed you know. So I was over there and mean while I got sick in there too.

PR: You got sick in California?

FC: Yeah in California. I was the hospital for like three or four days. I had like a flue. I had a fever of 103.

PR: Oh, really.

FC: I went to the nurse, the nurse put the thing into my mouth and after she looked at me I says well I am going to go back, I'm going to go back to my barracks. She says no you not going no place. You go right to bed over there. So I stayed there about three or four days. I don't remember exactly. Then she, then they gave me, they told me I could go back to the barracks. Then a few days after I come home. And I was discharged in Lido Beach, in Long Island New York, January 6th. (To his wife Rosie) Ro, was it January 6th or 7th? That I was discharged. (Voice from background that can not be understood). 6th, January 6th. I come home.

PR: In 46?

FC: Ya, 46. The war was over for six months.

PR: So even though the war was over you were still in China?

FC: Oh yeah. I had to stay because we had a lot of things that we had to do. We went to China because the Communists at that time were trying to get in there. And finally they ran off. But they want United States in there. The Marines were there already when I went there. And the Marines had a camp and the reason why we went there. The Marines had a camp, but they didn't have nothing. No, they just used tents to sleep. So we went there so we could, we went in construction. We built a couple of huts, we built a mess hall, and a few more things in there. And meanwhile they started discharging the people right after the war anyway, but mean while my turn came in because I was married then. So I had a few points in my side. So I was one of the first in my battalion, as a matter of fact I think I was the first one in my battalion to came from China back into the United States. To be discharged.

PR: Where you married before the war or ?

FC: I was made during the war.

PR: During the war you got married. How did you do that?

FC: Well, she got me. (laughter), she can't hear me I know that. No I was in California, waiting to be shipped overseas, this is in 1944.

PR: 44?

FC: 44, 1944 I was over there and I came and I wrote a letter saying that I wanted to get married, I wanted her to come down. She didn't want her father didn't want her. But she finally come. So we finally got married, May 13th. Hey, no it's not. I was going to say that today was the anniversary. Today is what PR: November 13th.

FC: November 13th, that's fifty-five years and about six months, seven months.

PR: Uh-hm. So you knew her from back here? So she came out to California.

FC: Yeah she stayed there for a little while. Then when, oh she still there when I was still there. Then I one day she came to see me on the camp, you know the base and they would not let her get in.

PR: Why was that?

FC: Cause at that time, it was not like now. Service now is like a picnic. It is like how do you call it, a country club. That time you didn't know nothing that was going on. One day I was in the camp, we were in the base, they come, the captain send the, the other officer like a lieutenant and they say everyone out, outside the barracks, so we all come out. They come over there and they say, ok we are going to move. So they moved us, to a place, I don't know exactly, it wasn't to far. Maybe like five mile from where we were. And then we moved and then that day she went there, she wanted to see me and they say, he's not here. She says what do you mean he's not here. He was here yesterday. He's not here lady that's all, he's not here. They wouldn't tell her where we were. Because they were afraid. Spying. Know one knew nothing then. You don't know where you are going to go today, you don't know where you were going to be tomorrow or even tonight, or even tonight. As a matter of fact when we moved we moved at night from one place to another.

PR: They didn't let you move during the day?

FC: No they didn't let us move. Because they were afraid You see at that time you didn't espionage it was not as advanced as it is now. You know it was more contacting people. It was not those things that they got now that they can spy on you a thousand miles away or something. Now at that time it was a lot of contact with people. So they were afraid, so no one knew nothing.

PR: So how did she find you?

FC: She never, she didn't.

PR: Oh she never found you?

FC: No when she found out that I was gone she come back home. She never find me. We never say good-bye.

PR: But you were already married at this time?

FC: Yeah, I was married.

PR: Ok, is there a reason why you wanted to get married before you got shipped off or?

FC: I don't know I was crazy anyway. (Laughter) I don't know. Maybe I thought that I wasn't going to come back anyway. You never know.

PR: Yeah, now when you went to Hawaii were you still reconstructing from when they bombed Pearl Harbor or?

FC: I was not in that islands.

PR: You were in a different islands?

FC: I was in Maui.

PR: Maui.

FC: Today it is one of the best islands. I was in Maui. Beautiful island, beautiful place. I went back, we went back.

PR: Oh, you've been back since then?

FC: Yeah we went back the two of us.

PR: Has it changed a lot?

FC: Oh you gotta be kidding me. It is just like water and wine. So, so commercial, so big. They got all kinds of hotels, and everything, everything. It is so big, oh so big. The same size island but so much commercial business. Nothing like it was in my time, nothing. In my time they had a little town outside the base that we were, and then they had that was the biggest town on the island. Then they had a couple small towns maybe 500 people, 600 people. It was nothing at that time. Now when we went there, and I showed her the place that were I was, I say Jesus, nothing of this was here, because there wasn't. There was no hotel over there. Nothing. Nothing what so ever. It was just a plain island, couple dozen people in the whole island. Very small. Now when we went back, oh boy. There were so many people in there. So much business. Even what's his name, Dole pineapple, he even got a business over there. We went through the plantations and everything.

PR: They say he owns like 90% of the island.

FC: Oh yeah, he owns you go through the island all you see is his name all over the place. The pineapples you know pineapples grow about this big, and you go through and both side pineapple fields and they got the bananas. Everything that happened with the island are theirs.

PR: When you left Hawaii, you went straight to the Philippines or did you stop in other places first?

FC: No straight.

PR: Was there still fighting going on in other parts of the Philippines?

FC: Yep, still part of the Philippines they still had. As a matter of fact when we were in Philippines they were having fights in island right next to us. Some Japanese that could not get away or something and they were in the island, the island was even worse than Hawaii I think. They were not populated in a lot of places. All you had was bushes and trees and palm plants and things like that and some of them they just stayed there and then the people used to find them and they used to kill them right then and there. So once in awhile they still had fights, fights over there in the Philippines. But when I got to the Philippines they were already, over where, I think Okanawa. I think they were in the island of Okanawa. They made that we were again already to go. Because they were thinking already about invading Japan. And they were talking about it and I was not doing anything yet. They were talking about that pretty soon they were going to invade Japan. And then President Truman did the best thing that he could do for us. He dropped the first atomic bomb. Then a couple of days after he dropped the second one or a week after, I don't know I don't remember. Then a few days after the Japanese surrendered.

PR: Did you hear about all of this, right after, like a day or so after it happened?

FC: Yeah we heard it right there, we heard it right there. At the time we were in the Philippines that's right we were in the Philippines. Then after that I stayed there, this was in August, August 15th I think they surrendered. Then after that I stayed there until October and that's when I went to China.

PR: Do you remember what you did when you found out they surrendered?

FC: Oh yeah, I know one thing that I did. Boy do I remember that. I got so drunk, oh my god. I was sick for a whole week. I never drank like that. Do you know what we would drink? As a matter of fact I went to go get it with the truck driver. The truck driver knew a place, you know like I says it was a place with all woods and bushes and all that, but some family had a little hut in there some place, and he knew where it was so we went there and we got a gallon of rice whiskey.

PR: Rice Whiskey?

FC: Oh that was good. That was great, I never drank, I never drank whiskey in my life until I went there. So I drank that, I was sick for whole week. I couldn't eat, I couldn't get up. And I was working KP then. I was working KP because we only got there not only a couple of months before. We went there in June. But it took us a long time to get there, because you know they had to go slow and they had the destroyers and all the worships. Because when we went there was like maybe fifty, seventy, one hundred ships. It was not just one or two ships, and they had all the submarines and the destroyers and the other warships. And it took us along time, I think it took us about three weeks to get from Hawaii to the Philippines.

PR: Oh, really. So you were pretty well protected when you went there?

FC: Oh yeah, oh yeah. They still had trouble then. Not in my group. When we went they had no trouble, no problems. We were lucky both times. Even when we went from the United States we already had a convoy.

PR: A big escort from California to Hawaii?

FC: A big escort from California to Hawaii. Oh yeah. They never send. Once the war broke they never send one ship alone, they always send a convoy. They had all the war ships, cruisers, submarines, frigates. How you say that?

PR: Frigates.

FC: They had everything to try to you know, keep the Japanese away from us.

PR: What kind of ships were you specifically on?

FC: We were, I can't remember the name for it. We had a name for it. It was a troop carrier. They used to carry two three thousand people. The bunks where we slept, five high.

PR: Five high?

FC: One, one, two, three, four, five. Five high.

PR: Did you get to choose which one you had?

FC: Well hey, the first one that you got, you got it, you got it. I remember we from here to the Philippines I remember, but I remember going from here, I mean the United States to Hawaii I don't remember, but from Hawaii to the Philippines I think I was in the second one. But it was no good. The best one was up there. So you know, a lot of guys got sick and they start throwing up. If you were down on the bottom you catch everything. (laughter)

PR: Did you have a lot of that, did you like riding on the boats or no?

FC: Oh yeah, boats don't bother me.

PR: Oh, they don't.

FC: I never got see sick. And we had another thing too. Over there they call it a cyclone here it's a hurricane.

PR: Hurricane.

FC: We had that, as a matter fact we were crossing the Yellow Sea. First time I ever saw yellow water. It wasn't yellow exactly, it was like a light brown. It was dirty but I never saw a thing like that in my life. You hear talk about a Red Sea, Yellow Sea but you think it is just a name. But it wasn't.

PR: Where was this?

FC: This was between Philippines and China.

PR: Ok.

FC: Yep, in between Philippines and China. And we had such a bad storm. Such a bad storm. Everybody was sick. They had to tie all the mess hall. They had to tie all the pans, all the chairs, everything. Because it was so, so bad and more than half of the guys got sick never a problem. Even today I went on five cruise here in the United States, never bothered me. She got sick. She got sick every time she went. (laughter) But she liked it so she went. But after the first one she just took it to the doctor after she got in the ship, give her an injection, she good all week. As far as I am concerned, I was in the service, but as I told you I didn't see any action. So it wasn't to I didn't mind. The service, as far as I'm concerned, to me, I knew a lot of guys, as a matter of fact I had a good friend of mine. We were together for about thirty-five years and he was never over seas and he was born in this country. He got a job almost like a clerk or something, but he was I think his job was when you when you used to go to the camps, you know the first time, to go to the base, they used to measure you up, and then give you the size of the clothes and that's what he used to do. Give you the clothes. So like myself at that time, I was maybe 32 or 34 waist and the shirt 13, 14 something like that, and that's what he used to do. Give you all the clothes, all the underwear, all the shoes. Everything, and that is the job he have. All the time he was here, he never went over seas. He was lucky. He was lucky because that did not happen to many people. I went over seas, I went in the service November something, first I went to October to inspection then ten days after, I don't remember exactly what the date, that is one thing that I don't remember, but I remember it was in the end of October and the beginning of November. The end of October we went for the inspection and then ten days after we went to the camps. For boot training.

PR: How did you like that, how was boot camp, it didn't bother you at all?

FC: No, it didn't bother me at all. Hey I had a rough life in the old country. Nothing that they could do there to me could bother me. I was young to and I was full of pep. That was a picnic.

PR: Where was the boot camp at?

FC: Mine was in Camp Perry, Virginia.

PR: Virginia?

FC: Virginia, right outside, right outside of a Williamsburg. Know that famous town, Williamsburg. I've been there too. I went there, a couple of times already, since we've been here. It's a but I never went to the camp. I couldn't find the camp. I looked for signs, I know that camp is close because we used take the bus about ten minutes from the base to the town. That's all it is. The first time I went there I was young, I met a young girl, I couldn't speak English at that time, almost nothing. I don't speak to much now but at that time, nothing. They were, we went to a place, it was not a, they used to have those places for the servicemen, U.S.O., halls, we used to go there. But I don't think that this was it, I think this was more a private place. I think. There were doing the square dance. This girl wanted me to do the square dance. I didn't you know, when you do a square dance they tell you what to do, right. The guy was telling me what to do. What the hell did I know. I didn't know what the hell he was telling me what to do. So I didn't do it. I say, no, no, no dance, no dance. So I didn't dance. It was only one time that time and another time, at that time I went, I didn't go to Williamsburg, I went to Richmond, Virginia. Over there they had a big U.S.O.. A big, big building. So I stayed there, we had a few beers. Coming home we used to go about 5 or 6 o'clock we used to go out, then we would be back at like ten o'clock. Then after that we got through boot camp. Then we come home for ten days. Then we went back in there for what they call basic training. That was a little tougher. But you just do what you had to do and that's all. Because when it is basic training you are trained by the Marines. In the Navy you are trained by the Marines. They were tough. They were tough, they still are today. But if you do what they tell you, they didn't bother you. But they had some people over there that were pretty old, you know. Old as far as that time. Like in there forties, we had a man in there our battalion, he must have been sixty years old.

PR: That old, really?

FC: You know what his job was, post office. He was the took care of the mail. That's all his job was all the time. For all the time that he was in the service, I mean when he was with us, that's all he did. He must have did that, he must have worked for the post office and he volunteered. I don't know why they took him. Unless, unless he was making a career. Maybe that's what it was. But that's all he did. But we had guys that were forty something years old and everything because they had to have, in the CB's they had to have crane operators, bull doze operators, scrape operators, truck drivers, a lot of those, and things like that. All because it was all construction and they had to have those guys because they knew how to do it because that's what they did in civilian life. And that's why they put it in the CB's. Me and guys like me that didn't know how to do nothing, that's why we had to do KP and work in the construction and do all the dirty work.

PR: The manual labor?

FC: The manual labor, right that's the way it was, that's what we had to do. It was mules, thousands of millions like that. That's why my rank only went up one time. I went from second seaman to first seaman. Second seaman had only one stripe, first class seaman, had two stripes, but no ranks or nothing. Just two little white stripes. That's all. Nothing else.

PR: Did you ever want to go further or were you happy with where you stayed?

FC: No, eh I was married I wanted to come home. But I wouldn't minded, if I was educated I think I would have stayed. I didn't mind it. I think it was a good life. And like it is now, like I told you. It is a picnic now. Some people they go over there at eight o'clock they come home at five. It's like you got o job on the outside someplace. The only problem is that the pay. They don't pay enough. You see guys in the service now who has a wife and two kids, they got to be on food stamps. That's a shame. Soldiers, working for the United States and they got to be using stamps. Food stamps. I never heard of a thing like that in my life. The thing with this country now is that they spend $350 million dollars to build a ship that some jerk I don't know the politicians, the senator from Mississippi, he's the speaker of the house, so he wanted to get jobs in the state, so he passed that bill, to pass it anyway to $350 million and the navy don't want it.

PR: To build a ship that the Navy doesn't even want?

FC: The Navy don't want it. The Navy say we don't need it. But they says, oh yes you need it. And those people in the service using food stamps. And this guy is throwing money away. That's only one example. They got a hundred things like that. Things that they build in the Navy, and Army and the Marines and they don't want it because they don't need it. They got enough. It one thing they need is people. They don't have enough people. Because you see, there is no draft now. So all they got is volunteers. And the American people, they don't want to volunteer to go into the service. They want a good life. You know who you get for volunteer. Black people, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, how many Portuguese do you see in the service in here.

PR: Not many, only a couple.

FC: That's all. So that, the guy over there, his mother has the agency.

PR: Yeah, he just go married.

FC: Neugera, him, he got married. That was his brother. The other one got married in Japan. He married a girl in Japan. And how many more, not to many, very, very few. People don't want to join now. And that's not bad. The worst thing that I would say was training. When you go there in the beginning. They cut you hair, they do this, they do that. Hey, you sacrifice, it is only a couple of months.

PR: How much did you make when you were in the Navy?

FC: Oh, brother I don't even remember, ( to his wife) Ro, You remember how much I made when I was in the service. How much it was like $45 or something like that and she used to get half of that. You were getting fifty. It was twenty-five from my money and twenty-five from this right. Yeah. That's all it was right.

PR: It was $25 a month?

FC: No 45. But she used to get half of that. And the government used to put another half. So she used to get fifty I used to get 25-30. Enough for cigarettes. But we didn't spend any money anyway. What are you going to spend money on. You had everything you wanted.

PR: So she was getting paid just for being married to you? (sarcastic smile)

FC: yeah.

PR: She didn't even have to work?

FC: Hey, they were trying to help them. You were getting paid for doing nothing.

PR: You were getting paid to just to marry him.

FC: Sure just to be married to me. (laughing)

PR: You had mentioned before that you did not know that much English. Do you think hurt you at all.

FC: Oh sure it did, oh sure it did.

PR: How were you affected by that?

FC: I'll tell you one case that had happened to me. We, they give us the arms, you know guns, like any kind of rifle and they had a rifle one of the newest rifles they had and we used to go to those big meetings and they talked on the microphone. You had like(side talking) And they liked all the time like 1200 people, so you got 1200 people in the hall. So then they used to talk about and the guy used to talk about the rifle there. That is one thing that I don't forget. It was a good rifle. And he used to say, this is an automatic rifle and me (end of tape side.)

(New side of tape)

PR: The tape ran out on side one so we are in the middle of, we were talking about um on occurrence that he felt that he was hurt by not being able to speak fluent English so Franky is going to continue the story.

RC: So I was there I used to go to those big meetings and one night I was there and the guy, the officer come up to the stage, he comes up with a rifle and he was saying, this rifle is an automatic rifle, but in my mind at that time I thought he was saying this rifle is an all American rifle. And you know I got out of the service I still did not know what he was talking about. (laughter) I only learned after when I was home what they were talking about. That it was an automatic rifle. And it was an M-1 I think they were talking about. It was a good rifle. You had to have two people to operate that. One to hole it because you had a thing like this and you put the rifle in the top and then you lay down. Then you had a guy that was shooting and the other one to hold the frame so that the rifle would not fall off. That was one case, lot of things, lot of things. Lot of things happened to me that in the end it started to get a little better but it was to late anyway.

PR: How did you try to compensate for it, was there anyone else in your battalion that could help you?

FC: There was a dummy, over there with us, a Portuguese fella from a outside of Boston, Somerville, but the dummy did not speak no Portuguese at all. Chaves was his last name. Chaves. That's why he was right next to me. Because you go by alphabetic, so in the barracks he was here and I was here. So Chaves then a few other names then Chipelo. So he didn't know how to speak so he didn't do me no good. Nothing. He didn't help me at all because he didn't speak Portuguese at all. PR: So how did they communicate to you?

FC: Hey the best way we could, that's all. They used to tell the other guys and the other guys used to say, come on, come on Frank lets go. I used to go. Work, hey, work you just started working and that's all. That's why I never had a good job in there. Because I couldn't have a good job.

PR: You think that is why they used you for more manual labor?

FC: Oh sure, that is sure. But I know a lot of guys born in this country doing the same thing that I was doing. It wasn't just me. A lot of guys.

PR: Now, um when you were on the boats going over the Hawaii and the Philippines, and that type of thing what did you do while you were on the boat? Cause you said that your job was mostly on construction on the land and things like that.

FC: We didn't do nothing except exercise.

PR: Just exercise.

FC: Exercise. Everyday we did exercise on the top of the ship. They go like in groups, you know like, different companies. So we just went up do a half hour or so exercise in the morning, then in the afternoon the same thing. That's about all we did. That's about all.

PR: You didn't have games or anything like that you played?

FC: No, no games. You didn't have no room to play games on the ship. The only room you had was to put maybe fifty people in the top, fifty or a hundred people, just to do the exercise. Down in the bottom you didn't have nothing. No room for nothing. No, that was really crowded.

PR: So what did you do to entertain yourself? Did you just talk to everyone?

FC: Oh, I'll tell you one thing. I didn't know how to speak English, but I sure knew how to read even though I didn't understand. I read a lot of Westerns and I read a lot of those Perry Mason.

PR: Perry Mason books?

FC: I read, I think I read all of them. That's why when they first came with that Perry Mason show.

PR: TV show?

FC: Yeah, I knew a lot of the stories that they were doing. After awhile they got through so they didn't have no more but at the beginning some of them I read them. And the cowboy pictures, O.K. Corale and this and that I used to read. (side talk). The bad things that I speak. I speak because I was used to it, for over two years. Over two years. I went over seas I went over seas over in May or in June, in the end of May or the beginning of June (Speaking to his wife). Overseas. Of the six of June? And I come out in the sixth of January. That's right. It was a year and a half. June, July, August, September, October, November, December, January. I was over seas 19 months. Exactly 19 months.

PR: When you were over seas how, were you able to communicate with back home or?

FC: Are you kidding? Once I left the United States she never knew where I was. Oh, yeah you knew if I was on the island. Or they use toYou know what they did to our letters? They used to cut it, like they do now with a machine. They used to, not of the whole thing, but anything they didn't want. And I used to right in Portuguese.

PR: And they were still able to censor it?

FC: Sure, they had the Portuguese interpreters. In the service. You never knew where I was did you? (speaking to his wife) No, no. I couldn't tell her. If I put down the island, they would cut that right off.

PR: But you were still able to right letters to each other?

FC: Oh write yeah, sure. I was in love then. Really in love. (laughing)

PR: How good was the communications? If you were to send a letter out to a boat how long would it take to get there?

FC: Sometimes you get like what Ro five or six at a time or more. The same thing with me. I used to write everyday.

PR: So they would come in bunches?

FC: Yeah.

PR: You used to write everyday?

FC: Everyday.

PR: Oh, really. Did you used to write everyday? (to his wife laughing)

FC: You used to write. She was working. Hey, I was working too. But I didn't have nothing to do after I come home. Oh I used to another thing. I used to go to the movies everyday too.

PR: You used to go to the movies?

FC: Oh, yeah.

PR: On the boat?

FC: Outside, no, in the camp.

PR: Oh, in the camp.

FC: I used to go to the movies, I was right next to the ocean.

PR: Oh, really.

FC: Yeah, the ocean was like, well as a matter of fact, the screen, this is outside. The screen, the things to hold the screen, they were right in the water. And then the beach goes like this. We were all in there sitting in facing the rough bench, you know one board and that is all.

PR: This was in Hawaii and the Philippines?

FC: Hawaii and the Philippines. In China is the only place that I didn't see any movies because it was cold in there. You could not see a movie outside. It was cold like hell over there.

PR: They didn't have any problems with having the light on at night like that?

FC: To tell you the truth, I don't remember what they did. If they covered the lighting. That's right too. I don't know, I don't know but we did. We saw a lot of movies that we saw.

PR: Because I remember hearing back here at home, that night they used to, the cities that were on the coast line, they used to make it mandatory that you turned the lights off.

FC: Yeah, yeah.

PR: So I would think that. If you were on the front line like that that they would have the same thing?

FC: No, no. Because I remember, we saw the movies. I saw the movies unless they covered the lights and it was outside. The only thing that we had were the palm tree over, that's all. But nothing else. But we saw though. Let's see that's what I mean, I know why we saw it. Because we were the action was maybe more than a thousand miles away from us. See like when I was in Hawaii, they were still fighting in the Philippines. They were still fighting in the Philippines. From Hawaii to the Philippines it's like three thousand miles or maybe more. And then when we were in the Philippines that's when the United States was already thinking about invading Japan. Because they already had some Japanese islands like Okanawa and things like that. So we were in no danger then, already of the oh what do you call it, uh, airforce from Japan. We didn't have no danger at that time. But in the beginning, in the beginning yeah. In the beginning they used to have oh like the ships, when we went over seas. There was no lights outside of the ships. None of the ships. Like a hundred ships, none of them had lights.

PR: The ships never ran into each other?

FC: Oh, no, you can still see. But they had no lights.

PR: Were you able to keep up with any news or anything like that from either back home or the fighting?

FC: Oh, they had like a little paper every single day. Like a bulletin. It was a bulletin, that's what they called it. Say a little bigger than this. Maybe one or two pages. Everyday. Everyday they used to have that. They used to tell us that the United States did this and they did that.

PR: Oh, so it was like propaganda?

FC: Yeah, well, but it was mostly true anyway because the United States once they started they went through all the islands. A lot of people die, a lot, thousands and thousands of people die and that's it. But still they kept advancing. Once they went they never came back, they never come back you know? They always went forward. Island by island, one by one, but they always went forward. You can thank the Marines for that.

PR: You had said that before that you were thankful that Truman had dropped the atomic bomb, so you didn't want us to attack Japan?

FC: I didn't care about attacking Japan, I just didn't want to go in there. (laughing) That's why the reason that we didn't want it. We, we, most of the service men, in the U.S., any service man in the United States, everybody was glad, especially the ones in the Pacific. Everybody was glad because who the heck wants to go on an invasion. You know what they figured, they figured maybe about a million people between the two sides would die, just to invade Japan. Just to invade Japan. That's about as many men Harry S. Truman saved. So who cared if they bombed Japan or not. They are the ones that started the war, the United States did not start it.

PR: The big debate that goes on now is uh, for the atomic bomb was that it was dropped on civilians instead of being dropped on military people. Do you think that was still ok?

FC: Well hey All I know is that they stopped the war and the only thing that interested us at that time, stop the war. That's all. Maybe we should have, maybe if they put it some place else they be still fighting. And the United States would have to go over there and invade the damn place. So like they say, they are the ones that started the war. They kill a lot of people in, snakey jack ass, in Pearl Harbor. They went there nobody knew nothing. They killed a lot of people. In one ship alone, they have over there, the Arizona, almost two thousand people in there, one thousand something. That are in there. Still in there, they do not want to bring them out. We saw that.

PR: When you were over there, did you hear about when Germany surrendered over in Europe?

FC: We were, we were going from Hawaii to the Philippines.

PR: Oh, so you were on the boat when you heard it.

FC: Oh sure, they had all this telegraph, you know things like that. It is not like now, now they got even faster but they, the ships always had good communications. They always had a radio, you know, telegraph, things like that. Oh yeah, as soon as that happened we heard it in the ship.

PR: Did you guys celebrate that too?

FC: Oh, yeah, but not like the other one. No way. That one we were in the ship. We could not do to much. We were some place, some place near the equator. I don't know if it were just before or just right after because you know you lose a day when you go over. But I don't know if it were just before or just after when we got the news. That was May something wasn't. The war in Europe, (Speaking in Portuguese to his wife) When did the war end in Europe, yeah, April. (English) President Roosevelt didn't see it end. I think he died in April and the thing was in May I think, that the war ended in Europe. Yeah I think it was in May in Europe, then in August in the Pacific.

PR: One of the things that I forgot to ask you from before, when you, you said you were still in Portugal in 38, right, Hitler had already started to build up his forces back then and also started to invade other countries. Were you aware of that while you were in Portugal?

FC: I'll tell you another story about that. You see when you ask I I went, when I went from Lisbon to Brazil, there was a whole bunch of us, as a matter of fact about eight or ten of us from my hometown. And we went in an English ship, a regular ship. No lights on the ship, no lights what so ever already.

PR: They were already afraid?

FC: Because we were in an English ship, and they were already at war with Germany and France. The United States wasn't, but England was, and we crossed, all Atlantic, from Lisbon to Para, without ever seeing the lights. As a matter of fact they had, like you got the door to come out from the inside of the ship, they have like a double door. You open this door, you come, and there is a little room, and then you opened the other door. So they never saw light from cause inside the ship it was all lit but outside there was, outside it was completely dark.

PR: Could you tell, like in 36 and 37 that it was leading to war?

FC: No, I was to young to think about war. I mean I used to read about it, but I didn't bother Portugal, then what. But we find out later that Portugal in one way was involved.

PR: How was that?

FC: Because we, from were we heard, Salazar, the one that was the Prime Minister in Portugal at that time, he was another dictator, I hear he was on the German side. But then he saw that the things were not going his way, so then he changed. That's when he gave the United States the islands, Azores, he didn't give the island, he let them build a base. He had to let them, if he didn't let them the United States would go there and build it and that is it. But he give them permission to build the island in the Azores, to build a base, that base helped the United States quite a bit. Because of the a lot of the Airforce stop in there, refuel, it was a refuel. They still there today.

PR: They still use it today?

RC: They still there today. Not like it was that time, but they still got the base today. They still got American soldiers in there.

PR: Oh really.

RC: Oh, yeah, they still got the Airforce and fuel. Like I say, it's not like it was in the but they still got, a lot of them marry Portuguese girls over there.

PR: So Portugal was officially neutral?

FC: Actually it was supposed to be neutral.

PR: But they were still helping the United States.

FC: Spain was the same thing. Spain was supposed to be neutral, but in the beginning they were helping the Germany to.

Portuguese and Spain, they were doing the same thing, but how much could Portugal help. They were on their side anyway, lets put it that way, but then they changed. Then they give the United States the place to build a base. They even let them build things in Portugal, like up in the mountains. Uh, what do you call it, not satellites.

PR: Radar?

FC: Radar, no there was no radar, but telegraph or something technical. So they could have communications of different parts of the world.

PR: Now, when you were in Brazil, was Brazil involved in the war at all or no?

FC: Brazil was not involved, the United States was not involved, but they were helping. I mean Germany known that United States and Brazil were already helping the Allies, like Germany... I mean Germany England, France, Italy, no not Italy, Italy was another jerk. But uh, what do you call it, England and France, all the small countries, what ever you call it. Italy was of all the big countries, Italy and Germany were the two biggest countries over there. They were in the other side. All the big other countries, were on the American side the Allied side you know.

PR: And Russia.

FC: Russia wasn't on the Allied side. They were almost with Germany but then they went over there and started invading over there. Germans went over there, they started fooling around so they turned. That's another one that turned too. That helped the Allies quite a bit, when the Russians got involved in that fight, in that war.

PR: Yeah, I have a professor that says that the two biggest mistakes that Germany did during the war was

FC: Was invading Russia.

PR: the first thing was invading Russia and the second thing was and the second thing was declaring war on the United States. Because the United States, when they declare war, they only declared it on Japan. They never declared it on Germany. Germany was the one that declared it on the United States.

FC: The United States, I remember, you see it sometimes on television, the President Roosevelt, when he declared war, that was, that was something. I'll never forget that day.

PR: You remember that?

FC: Oh yeah.

PR: You were in the United States when that happened.

FC: Oh, sure. I was here six months. I come in May 1941. And they declared war in December, 1941.

PR: How do you remember that, like what do you remember from that, like what do you remember, Pearl Harbor being bombed?

FC: Yeah, yeah. We had a good friend, or he was not a good friend, I didn't even know the guy. But I was living next door to a Portuguese family, and one son of the family, he was in Pearl Harbor, but he escaped. He was one of the lucky ones. He is dead already. Yeah, he was from Naugatuck.

PR: Do you remember like a news thing on the radio?

FC: Yeah, radio, all day, the radio wouldn't stop talking about it, the radio won't stop talking about that. Everybody was listening to the radio. That's the only news that you could get. Every night, do you know the special station that everybody used to use to see, to hear I mean. BBC.

PR: The BBC?

FC: From England. That was because they would give more news than anyone else. It would give like one hour news, then every once and a while they would give more news. Everybody used to listed to that. I listened to that when I was in Brazil.

PR: To the BBC. Even though you couldn't understand English that well?

FC: No that was Portuguese, oh yeah. I used to listen to that every night in Brazil. We all did the whole family, me, my uncle, my cousins, we all listen to it. At the time it was the only thing that you could know anything. It was listen to that or read the newspaper. That was the only two ways of communications.

PR: So when he declared war, do you think it is something that he should have done right then and there or do you think he should have done it before?

FC: There is a lot of people that have all types of opinions. But I think he did right by not going into the war because everyone say, they didn't bother us. Lot of people say, why should I go to war, just like they did in Vietnam. See they didn't want, the people didn't want to go to Vietnam. So if he did the same thing, declare war, the people in the United States say, why the heck did he go over there and got into involved in that war. We didn't have any business to go in there. We killed quite a few people but that is war, that is war. I don't, hey, we all have opinions anyway but I think he did the right thing not to go over there. The only thing is that all those ships and all those airplanes and the United States was right over there, all those ships in Hawaii, how could they sneak through and the United States not see them. I still don't understand today. See, look at all the ships that are at Pearl Harbor. You got I don't know how many under the water there. Some that still got away from there. And the Japanese came over there, and they air raid in the morning, when a lot of people still asleep yet.

PR: So do you think that there might be a little bit of funny business with that. A little conspiracy?

FC: I don't think so. Do you think a president will do a thing like that. I don't know, I wouldn't. A lot of people think that. I don't, I don't. I don't a person could do a think like that. Politicians they do funny things but i don't think so. Kill all these people like that.

PR: Is there anything else during the war, any comments about Roosevelt that he did. Any of his policies or anything that he should have done different or anything that he did real well?

FC: He did real well I think. I was, like I was in the service, and the other, we never needed. We always had everything we wanted. We were treated good in the service. Real good. I mean the guys that were fighting, they were not treated as good as I was. You could not have a mess hall right were you were fighting. They had to eat rations and things like that. I can't explain, but once they took over the island, what ever island they invaded, and they took over, they treated us real good, real good. People up there didn't have a lot of things. But we did. We had everything.

PR: Did you ever have a need to go into combat? Did you ever have the urge to want to go out and actually be on the front lines?

FC: No, no. I was no hero. I didn't have no way. If they took me well I couldn't do nothing about it. Hey I lost quite a few friends in there. I lost a friend of ours. This one that we had a bunch of boys, we had about six or seven boys, we were all friends. And they had about six or seven girls in here in Waterbury. The same way, we were all good friends. And we all used to get together and go to the dances in Naugatuck, Waterbury, Danbury things like that. And this friend of ours he went after me. He went in the service on the first invasion. He went on the first invasion of I think, Europe. The mainland. And then he stayed there then he went to that, no he got hurt, and he came out of there, and they put him in the hospital, they fix him up, like I say, it wasn't to bad I guess, and then he went into that Battle of the Bulge, and he got killed. I think that his body is back in Portugal. It was in France. And his brother went there from the United States, him and his wife, went there and they got, they took the body and they took it to Portugal. I mean they had to get permission. They had to go through the government and go through all that bologna, you know but they got it. I lost another friend. This fellow was from my home town too. From the old country. Both come from Portugal. Then there was another one too come from. We were not as friend as I was with this one but we still friends. It was, they got there name over there, in downtown Waterbury Naugatuck, except my name. You see I went from there and my name is not even from there.

PR: Why not?

FC: Because when I came out I came to Waterbury and Waterbury does not have my name either. So I wasn't even in the service. If I wanted them I could have them put it. I could go to Naugatuck and tell them. I was in the war.

PR: Were you a little bit religious or a lot religious back then, or I know a lot of people that grew up in Portugal were very religious?

FC: Not very religious. You know when you are twenty something years old you don't find that many kids that are. I used to go to church in the service every Sunday.

PR: That is what I was going to ask was if the service provided it?

FC: I used to go to Hawaii at the church, but in the other place, like I say, where we saw the movies, that was our church. Yeah that's where it was. Just in the front of the stage, a little bit, the screen, where the water wasn't that's where the priest used to have the alter.

PR: Was there anything else that might be a little strange that the military provided that people might not think you had over there. Like you had said movies and a church, do you think there was anything else?

FC: We had, we always had a library. Oh yeah we had a library. That is wear I used to always get the books that I used to read. That's wear I used to get the books. And some, I used to buy, some magazines like the westerns, that I used to get in the PX, the store. I used to get that at the store. At the time they used to cost ten or fifteen cents. That's all they cost. They gave us enough. It just to cover some expense or something like that. Just like the cigarettes. Cigarettes outside were fifteen, twenty cents a pack, we used to get them for five cents. First place, they didn't have no taxes, because it was in the service. That is one thing in the service. You didn't pay taxes. No matter what you bought. That is where I bought her engagement ring and her wedding ring. In the service in California. She still got. She fixed it a little bit. It was to small.

PR: Now when you came home how were you received when you came home? Where you a hero or what?

FC: No, there had to many heroes. There are a lot of people that really fought the war, not me. I was honored but like I says I didn't fight any wars. I was just there to help, that's all, that's all. But I am still entitled to everything like everyone.

PR: Do you still participate even now when they have Veteran's Day like parades or anything like that?

FC: No, no. We used to have the Portuguese group, they had it for a few years. Then everyone started dieing. There is only a few of us left. Portuguese Vets. And the only ones that I know is me, my brother, my brother-in-law, there's a guy in Florida now, Peter, one just died. I guess that there is not even ten Portuguese veterans in Waterbury now. I don't think so. I know all, almost all the Portuguese in here. I don't think. Maybe five or six. I think that's about all. They have a thing, were there is about thirty Portuguese from Waterbury. It was nothing, maybe only like hundred families. Now you got more Portuguese that you can shake a broom at. The club was not the way it is now. We had a little thing for the drinks in one corner, and the rest five or six tables. That's it, we had a dance that's it. But it was ok. We didn't have that many people. We didn't need anything big. Until we built the one on Pempermond Street. That was a nice one. At that time it was a nice one.

PR: Do you think the war prepared you for anything afterward in you career? Did it help you out?

FC: Well, it was my fault. I didn't take advantage of it. Like a lot of fools. They told us they would help us, as a matter of fact the first thing they wanted before I left was enlist,

PR: To reenlist?

FC: Yeah, and they had a program with insurance, we drop it. I drop it, I know a lot of people drop it. Other people drop it, but I know people that make a lot of money out if it. Because we used pay so much, once in awhile, it was like a bond. And then in the end, they gave out a lump sum of money. See I didn't take advantage. When I got out of the service I didn't care about nothing no more. That's the way we were at that time.

PR: You just wanted to go home?

FC: I could have gone to, any veterans that wanted to go to school could go. No matter if you were born in Africa no matter where you were born. As long as you were in the service, as long as you wanted to go to school they would pay for it. They would pay for it. And they even adjusted it. When you were liking working in the factory, sometime you work days, at that time it was all types of shifts. It was almost 90% of people work days anyway. But at that time half of the people worked nights and half of the people worked days. And they would even adjust the things so that you could go to school and work. They would have you make up the time. If you went school in the morning, I mean if you went to work in the morning you would have class like at night. And if you went to work at night you would have class in the morning. A lot of people took advantage of that. A lot of American people because I didn't know the language so. I wasn't that stupid, I should have known the language that's all. That's what hold the people back a lot. Not knowing the language.

PR: I see it though my whole family. My father, my aunts, my uncles.

FC: Sure. But you have uncles now that have a nice job. You have three in the telephone.

PR: Cousins.

FC: What is the oldest one

PR: Valmad, Val.

FC: What's his name?

PR: Valmad.

FC: That's right, Valmad. And then you got how many more, just one.

PR: Dino.

FC: Adlino?

PR: Dino.

FC: Oh, Dino. The two of them. See the jobs that they do. But those kids. Those kids got high school. See because they come in over here when they were small. See they have there parents over here. I come over here, I have no body. I have an uncle. When I come over here it was to go into shop. That's what I come for at that time. There was a few people, at that time, that were a little smart. Those people, the people that already had some schooling in the old country, like high school, they had in the old country what they used to call liceau, it mean you going to high school. And they come over here, they look at working in the factory and they say I don't want this kind of life. So they went to night school, they learned English, and when you got school from the old country at least you know a little about language. Because one of the first things that they teach you over there at that time was French. Because a lot of this guys when they come over here could speak a little French. So they went into the school and learned. I had a friend of mine that was working for Frigidayre, he was in New Jersey, then they sent him to Brazil, he went to Brazil for awhile, he worked for the company, then he came back, then he went to Ford, Ford sent him to Brazil too. And they came over here just like us. They already had a little schooling there and he was smart. Smarter than he knew he didn't just want to work in the shop. He wanted to do something with himself.

PR: Because he was bilingual it helped him out.

FC: But that was on lucky in a thousand like that. Not to many like that.

PR: I pretty all set for my questions. If you have any last comments about your own experience in the war or the war in general like that?

FC: I told you all about it. What else can I tell you? There is not to much I can tell you about it. I don't know how much you are going to use of that. You try any way.