52 Ancestors Week 35: Off to Work

From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 35:

The theme for Week 35 is “Off to Work.” Who had an unusual occupation? Do you have memories of a parent going off to work every morning? What about someone whose occupation today would be obsolete, like telephone operators?

I'll have that Starbolts comic on your desk by five.

    Jobs that don't exist any more, huh? Well, we don't see many fix-it shops like the one my great-grandfather Alfred Hamel owned around here these days. I think those went out of style along with the Maytag repairman. Thankfully, those jobs sort of evolved into different specialty shops like a computer repair shop. Side note: It was actually pretty fun going to my local computer repair shop. I mean it was named after the villainous leader of the Decepticons, Megatron. How could you not like that shop? I miss Megatron Computers.

    All kidding and Transformers references aside, there is another person in my family tree who had a job that really, really doesn't exist in today's world. My grandmother Olympia Carrabs worked as a wire winder at Western Electric.

I think hers was black and gold.

 When I was a kid, my grandmother had a phone similar to the telephone in the picture in her living room.  It was pretty neat and she let me play with it all the time. It wasn't like it was connected to anything. She also wasn't an antique phone collector. Unlike my other grandmother, she didn't really collect anything. My great-aunt Nickie on the other hand....

When I was older where she got the phone from and what the story was behind it. My grandmother, if you recall, was always up for a story. If you pointed something in her house out, she will tell you all about it. Even if it was just  a knick-knack from like Pier 1 Imports.

    She told me that the phone was a memento of a very interesting time in her life. A time when she put her housework duties aside and went to work while my father was in grammar school. I'm not going to say she was a trailblazer or anything as plenty of  other women were entering the workforce during that time. What's interesting is that she first entered the workforce in while she was in her forties.

    While it was true that my grandma Ollie was a housewife for a number of years, she joined the workforce in the  early 1960s and became a wire winder. A wire winder was someone who operates machinery to wind wire, such as copper, onto bobbins, coils, or armatures for electrical components like transformers, motors, and generators. In Ollie's case, she worked on transistors for telephones.

    I can only imagine how rough that job was because back in the early 1960s, telephones didn't have
apps where you could play a game or look at the weather. Phones back then were very different. They were even different from the touchtone phones I remember from when I was a kid in the '80s and '90s! They greatly resembled the phone in her living room.

    While wire winding still technically exists as a profession, telephones haven't used transistors and tubes in a very, very long time. 

    The story of how Ollie landed the job was really quite simple. In the post World War II era, many women were going to work after the men returned home from overseas. 

    In Haverhill, Western Electric took over an old shoe factory then eventually, a large manufacturing plant opened in North Andover, Massachusetts in 1956. It became a significant employer as over 12,000 people worked at the plant at its peak. The Merrimack Valley was already known as a major player in textile production thanks in parts to the mills that dotted the valley since the early 20th century. The plant itself served as an attempt to move on from textiles to advanced technology.

    Western Electric focused on telecommunications, innovation developed products like the aforementioned transistors and fiber optics. Everything ran smoothly until 1984 when Bell Systems was dismantled. The plant itself continued working under the AT&T banner and later Lucent Technologies. The plant became an industrial park by 2021 when Bell Systems eventually removed all of their manufacturing capabilities out.

    Ollie worked at Western Electric for a number of years before finally retiring in her sixties and she always said she had a pleasant experience working there. She took great pride in her work and that was no doubt passed down by her father who was a janitor at Pentucket Bank. 

    Any line of work would be a good job for her as far as she was concerned. In her own way she helped to make peoples' lives better by working on telephones. By the time she passed away in 2002, telephones were a lot different as we were seeing more mobile phones in the hands of consumers. 

    In the end, grandma Ollie was more than just a housewife as I said earlier. She worked hard and helped while her husband Marco did his own thing.  Around the time she was working at Western Electric, he and his sister-in-law's husband Arnold Villanucci had that motel in Salisbury. To say that both of my Italian grandparents were busy in the 1960s is a bit of an understatement.

   Anyway, it was very cool that Ollie took part in a growing field that helped to bolster the economy here in the Merrimack Valley. Again, I wouldn't say she was a trailblazer by any means. She still had a great job and she took a lot of pride in her work. In the end, that's what it's all about. If you're good at something, you should show pride in it even if it's something small because you never know what kind of an impact you might have on someone's life.

See ya next time!

52 Ancestors Week 34: Play Time

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 34:

The theme for Week 34 is “Play Time.” (This should be fun!) Who in your family tree had a playful demeanor? Anyone play a sport or an instrument? How about someone who was in a school play?

Be careful with that Wii Remote!

   I was initially going to write a blog this week about family game night and how we have a wide variety of board games in our house. Seriously. We have everything from "Monopoly" to "Trivial Pursuit". You name it, we likely have it. There's not really much to write about as my brother and I typically just played with our parents on rainy days like most other kids our age. Even then, our attention on those games didn't last very long.

    Instead of writing about how I trounced my brother in "Monopoly" by buying the orange properties, I'll be diving into the world of Candlepin bowling and how my parents ruled the lanes from the late 1970s to the early 2000s. Ironically enough, it was through bowling that I became interested in video games. Shocking, right? I'm such a '90s kid. 

    Before we get started, let me explain what Candlepin bowling is and how it differs from the more widely known sport. In New England and in the Canadian maritime provinces, we have a variation of bowling where we use smaller bowling balls without any holes. The pins are also taller, narrower and you guessed it are shaped like candles. Hence the name.  Apart from that, the rules are pretty much the same. We still have to wear other peoples' clown shoes. Gross.

    My father, James Ferraiolo, was always interested in hitting the lanes. He had joined various leagues in his hometown of Haverhill and when he and my mom returned to New England in the mid 1970s to raise a family, they joined the league at Park Place Lanes in Windham, New Hampshire.

    There they would bowl in either the Women's League, the Men's League or the Couple's League.  If they were really, really good they would even have a chance to be on WNDS, the local television station that aired bowling tournaments every Sunday at noon. "Candlepin Stars and Strikes" was the name of the show and thankfully you can find the action on YouTube! Check the channel out here! 

    It was fun watching my parents bowl every Monday night while I was growing up and I loved every minute of it. They did exceptionally well and eventually my brother and I were taught how to bowl. I can't say how good or bad I was. However, I could tell you that I had heart. And that would be lying. I did the best I could even though I had the coordination of a wounded gazelle. Chris was out of his element for sure.

    At least Park Place Lanes had something else for the kids to do. While our parents bowled, we had four options for fun activities. We could watch the action on the lanes. We could get laughed at mercilessly by other kids as we attempted to bowl ourselves. We could eat burgers, pizza, grilled cheese and other goodies at the restaurant called "The Alley Cat Diner". And lastly we could spend our parents' hard earned cash at the state-of-the-art arcade. 

My kingdom for a working X-Men cabinet.

    The arcade was the best option for us by far because they had the best games and while we obviously went to other arcades around the Merrimack valley, it was at Park Place Lanes that I was introduced to the likes of "Mario", "Pac-Man", "Donkey Kong" and other gaming icons.

    My brother and I would play the games and just before we went home my parents would come over and see what we were up to. I can safely say I did better at games like "X-Men" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". I preferred games where you could work with someone. Plus beat 'em up games are great for stress relief if you had a really rough day at school.

    As the '80s continued, my brother and I were introduced to home consoles like the Atari 2600 and the Nintendo Entertainment System. Friends of ours had the NES and it was through that console that I grew to love not the just Mario games but the "Legend of Zelda" series as well. My parents knew that eventually we had to bring the arcade action home from the bowling alley. 

Begun, the "Console Wars" have.

In 1989, my parents bought my brother and I a Sega Genesis and we played that thing nonstop throughout the '90s. Don't worry. We let our parents play, too. Our father enjoyed playing games like "Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf" and a few other launch titles. It was fun and we played with him all the time. We also enjoyed several other titles like "Sonic the Hedgehog", "Toejam and Earl" "Ecco the Dolphin" and many, many NBA, NFL or NHL related games. In our house, the Genesis ruled over Nintendo even though we definitely liked several Nintendo games our friends were playing.

    The funniest thing in the world was showing the games and everything to Grandma Ollie whenever she came over to the house.  For the longest time Ollie was the only grandparent who was within driving distance. I don't remember if we showed the games to my dad's cousins or our great-aunts, Louise and Ellie. We might have. 

    When we got the Genesis, my brother and I were excited to show grandma the ins and outs of the system. My brother talked about the technical aspects, of course. Me? My contribution was "Look at how fast Sonic the Hedgehog goes!" Hey. Not all of us are interested in how things worked. I was just glad it did.....once I blew into the cartridge.

    In all honesty, I think she was more interested in the toys my brother and I were playing with at the time. Like the board games, we had pretty much every major toy line of the '80s and '90s represented in our rooms. We had everything from "Legos" and "Transformers" to "Masters of the Universe". I'm not sure why. I think she liked seeing us play with the toys more as we were very creative. She definitely liked the weird and not quite aerodynamic Lego spaceships I created back in the day!  

    The introduction of video games didn't end our trips to the bowling alley by any means. No, we still went there every once in a while. After a certain point we got older and my brother wanted to stay home. Jim would make dinner we dined on those lovely microwaved dinner kits from Budget Gourmet. It was never anything elaborate. Trust me. 

Wii would like to play.

    Eventually, my parents stopped bowling and by that time my brother and I created our own arcade of Genesis, Nintendo Game Cube, Wii, Game Gear, Game Boy and PC games. Those games became the highlight of every Christmas eve party as my cousins and I would play those games for hours on end. To list every game we ever had would take quite some time.

    Grandma Ollie still never quite figured the games out despite sleeping in our game den whenever she stayed over.  However, she was glad we enjoyed them.  In the end, that was all that mattered to her. She was a kind person and just enjoyed seeing her grandkids happy. Thankfully, we always finished our game before she had to go to bed!

    As for bowling? Well, even though "Wii Sports" had a bowling minigame, my father never really played it. We did play the then newest edition of "Punch Out". I just don't think the Wii was ever his thing and those motion control games really give someone a workout. Don't get me wrong. Both of my parents have tried using the Wii and everything. I think they were content to do other things. It's not like I never asked them if they wanted to play!

    Once my nephews were old enough, we went back to where the gaming adventure began. We went back to Park Place Lanes and sure enough the arcade was still there even though the roster of games changed many times. It's a lot of work maintaining thirty to forty year old arcade cabinets.

     It was amazing to me because by the 2010s arcades became a rare commodity through no fault of their own. Home video game consoles just took over the market. At least they banked on nostalgia and that kept them afloat for quite some time. We even took the kids to an actual arcade that was still operating. It was nostalgic for us and a blast for the kids! We introduced the kids to the classics and they loved every minute of it. Some things never change!

    Park Place Lanes eventually closed for good a few years ago and the memories are still fresh in my mind. My parents weren't the only ones in the family to bowl, by the way! My Aunt Linda joined in on the fun on more than a few occasions when she wasn't busy showing dogs. The alley may be gone. However, I have to give it credit for getting me excited for the gaming hobby I now enjoy and watching my parents bowl was always fun. And we did bowl together every once in a while, too. Those were good times and good memories!

See ya next time!

P.S. It's also interesting to note that after the so-called "Console Wars", Nintendo ended up publishing Sega games in various collections. Mario and Sonic have crossed paths many times. Many classic video games are also now available on various consoles and Steam. You can now have an arcade in the palms of your hand.

The image of Park Place Lanes is property of Google Earth.

52 Ancestors Week 33: Legal Troubles

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 33:

The theme for Week 33 is "Legal Troubles."There’s at least one in every family – that relative who seems to be in trouble more often than not. (Hey, at least they usually leave good records!) Who in your family tree had brushes with the legal system?

The law offices of Murdock and Walters are here to help.

    If only the law offices of Murdock and Walters were real. If only. We could see some heads bonked in and out of court. See the Disney + shows "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" and "Daredevil: Born Again" for details. Good shows in my not so humble opinion. Who needs "Ally McBeal" when you've got superhero lawyers representing you? 

    Anyway, I'm pretty sure several people in my family tree have needed a very good lawyer at one point in their lives. There have been custody battles and messy divorces all around my family tree.  It's honestly hard to keep track of all the chaos. I've even had one guy who was sent back to San Pietro a Maida because of a still unrevealed reason. It's 2025 and I'm still wondering why Francesco Papatolo was sent back to Italy! Here's hoping I have the answer to that question some day. For those of you keeping score, Francesco was the son of Vincenzo Papatolo and Concetta Coppola. Concetta was the sister of my 2nd great-grandmother, Caterina.

    Francesco wasn't the only Papatolo who had legal troubles, of course. A while back I found that Francesco's sister Angelina had her very own day in court. Angelina's life was very different from her older brother's. She was born in Haverhill, Mass on November 4th, 1911. She married a Greek man named Arthur Soterakopoulos some time before 1928 when their son Dino was born. 

    Arthur and Angelina lived in Haverhill in a house that wasn't too far away from her mother's house. To say that the family was close was a bit of an understatement. Her father Vincenzo passed away in 1933 and so the family stayed relatively close by. 

    Everything was going well for the Soterakopoulos family until a car crashed through their house injuring Angie on October 20th, 1936. Thankfully, she survived and honestly things could have been a lot worse for her.

    According to an article I found, a man named Francis J. Foley drove his car into her house on Hilldale Avenue while she and her family slept. After the accident, Angie filed what the article called "an unusual civil suit". It must have been unusual for the time because these days people STILL drive cars into buildings.

Boston Globe, 4 Feb 1937
pg. 7.

    On February 4th, 1937 a civil suit was filed by Angelina. In the lawsuit, she explained the situation and was suing Foley for three thousand dollars. There's no doubt she needed the money to repair the house. A shadier lawyer might have gotten three times that out of Foley. I digress.

    Angelina was suing him over the injuries she received in the crash. She was frightened, jumped out of bed and fell to the floor. In the suit, she explained how she received serious injuries from that fall. 

    To make matters worse, Foley had another suit filed against him by Angie's husband Arthur! Arthur wanted another thousand dollars as he "temporarily lost her comfort and assistance as a result of the accident".

    I'm not sure what that meant. I'm guessing it had to do with psychological trauma and PTSD. That's probably the most logical way to explain it. She was rightfully scared and injured thanks to the incident. The thousand dollars was likely going to go for Angelina's medical bills. In total, Foley had to pay the Soterakopoulos family (The family was also called Siros. Long story.) four thousand dollars. Yikes. And keep in mind that this was at the height of the Great Depression! Double Yikes! Someone was seriously going to be living in a van down by the river after this case and it wasn't going to be Angie.

    I'm not sure what the outcome of the case was as I found this article a few months ago. I sent it to my cousin Karen and she never heard of the incident. In fact, her father James was around three years old when the accident happened.  I think I will have to e-mail the Essex county courthouse and see what records they have on the case. They helped me out with Felker v. Stevens case when I asked for their divorce records. I see no harm in asking them for help once again and I'm sure Karen would love to see the records.

    I'm pretty sure I can figure out the outcome of the case just by looking at the facts. Angelina likely won because Foley lost control of his car and struck the house, causing injury to the people inside. And it wasn't a light tap, either. He drove through the house!

    The circumstances of the accident weren't clear in the article. Was Foley drunk? What time was the accident? Were there streetlights? There are so many questions. I suppose it doesn't matter. Foley was clearly at fault as it was his car that struck Angie's home and he was behind the wheel.

    It's hard to say what the outcome of the case is as I don't have the actual documents with me. I can say that it seems very likely that Foley is at fault here. This isn't me trying to side with anyone. The guy drove into a house and there are still questions that need to be answered. Was he drunk? Did he have malicious intent? What was going on here?

    Until I email the courthouse, I won't have any conclusion to what is obviously a cliffhanger. Obviously Angie went on to have a great life and I'm sure she talked about the incident until her dying day. Then again her own granddaughter Karen had no idea this incident happened! She might have blocked it from her mind because it was so traumatic for her. Who can say? None of us were there. So, at best I can say I'm sorry the incident happened and that Foley likely went bankrupt at the worst possible time.

    In any event, the scales of justice once again appeared in my family tree. The winner of the case remains unknown until I fill out a form. I might do that after I publish this blog post. I really want to know what happened and I haven't been able to find a follow-up in the Boston Globe archive. Time to start digging!

See ya next time!

Update on August 25th, 2025: I just received documents from the Essex County Superior Court. The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, Arthur and Angelina Siros. Mr. Foley was then ordered to pay the Plaintiffs the money.

52 Ancestors Week 32: Wide Open Spaces

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 32:

The theme for Week 32 is "Wide Open Spaces." Who in your family tree makes you think of the great outdoors? Who took advantage of homesteading? Who kept moving when the neighbors felt a little too close?

So, how far are we from the nearest Target?

    Since the Merrimack Valley doesn't have much in the way of wide open spaces (unless you count the Atlantic ocean and the mountains up in the north country), there's not much for me to talk about in that regard. No one ever went west in order to take advantage of the Homestead act or anything.  Everyone tended to stay in either Haverhill or Newburyport. Sure some people left New England in search of other opportunities. However, I don't really know their full story about why they left and all of that stuff. So, that just leaves me with one option to talk about. There is one man in my family tree who kept moving at least every ten years. In every census in Haverhill from 1930 to 1950 (so far) he has been in a different house in the Queen Slipper city. I am of course talking about my great-grandfather, Vincenzo Ferraiolo. 

    Vincenzo was never a man who'd like to stay put, it seems. I say this because my other Italian great-grandparents moved into a house on Bartlett Street in Haverhill and it remained in the family for almost a century! Vincenzo on the other hand kept moving and to this day no one knows why. I do, however, have some theories. Join me as I track Vincenzo's movements through Haverhill like a certain dark knight.

La famiglia di Ferraiolo

    The first census Vincenzo appears in is the 1930 census and he's seen living with his wife Maria Tedesco and their two children Nicolina and Marco in a house on Pilling Street.  Today, the house is right around the corner from Benedetti's Deli and it was one of the many houses my father pointed out to me whenever we'd go pick up sandwiches there. He also rented the home.

    Sadly, the house is blurred out on Google Earth. So, I don't have a clear picture of it. I'm not sure why that is since you can clearly see the other houses on the street. There must be a privacy issue or something.

    Anyway, it's a nice house and it's right around the corner from a deli that's been in operation for ages. You can't really beat that. The neighborhood even looks nice. I wonder why the Ferraiolos would move. Vincenzo was working as a laborer at the time. Perhaps he made enough money to get another place to live? That's the only thing I can think of! 

    

     Haverhill in 1930 must have been a very different place. At the time of this blog's posting, it's been almost a century since my grandfather and his family lived there. It wasn't long before they moved to their next house and I swear the contrast with this next house is like night and day. It was also two miles away from their previous house.

    This house you won't find on any census. In fact, I almost missed it! I went through the city directory and found that the Ferraiolos were living on Marshall Street in 1936. How long were they living there? Not long, apparently. 

    Marshall Street isn't far from the Ferraiolos' first house. I get the feeling it was only a temporary home for them. It was close to the shops and everything.  This house was likely where grandpa Marco had his communion picture taken as some of the scenery looks the same.

    I could be wrong, though. It was this house or the one on Pilling Street. Only Aunt Nickie would know for sure.

    From the directories, I found that they were living on Marshall Street throughout the mid 1930s and at this point the Great Depression was in full swing. It wasn't long before the Ferraiolos had to move again. This time it could have been for economic reasons or perhaps Vincenzo got a better deal because by 1939 they had moved again!

Hmm. Quaint.

    At the time of the 1940 census, the Ferraiolos now lived on Irving Avenue in Haverhill. This house is clearly in the suburban area of the city and is about two miles from their first home. The neighborhood looks peaceful enough. Then again looks can always be deceiving.  Who knows if the neighbors were jerks or not.  He owned this home.

    According to Zillow, the house is pretty small. It has two bedrooms and one bathroom. It was also built around 1900. So, that house has a lot of history behind it.

    My father never pointed this house out to me in our travels through Haverhill and that was mostly because we never ventured to this part of town. We usually stayed on Washington Street where my grandma Ollie lived and in that general area. More on that in a bit.

    In the March of 1943, tragedy struck. My great-grandmother passed away and the Ferraiolos went their separate ways due to the war and other reasons. Nicolina moved to Tennessee and Marco was in the service. Vincenzo met and married a woman named Fortuna Grasso in the August of 1944 and remained with her until his passing in 1970. He didn't stay in that house long after Maria's passing as he moved once again. I'm not sure if he wanted to move because of memories of Maria in that house or not. I'd like to think that perhaps there was too much associated with that house. So, he had to move. 

    By the time of the 1950 census, Vincenzo and his wife Fortuna were living in a multi-family house on Shepherd Street. According to the city directory, he was living there as early as late 1944. Once again I can't get a good picture of it as Google Street view won't allow me to get a good look at the joint. 

    That's okay. We can at least talk about the area, right? Right. In 1950, Vincenzo was once again living around the corner from Benedetti's Deli. At this point you might be wondering if he really liked their subs. Well, the truth is that he knew the family. Their patriarch, Nazareno Benedetti, was actually at Maria's funeral in 1943. They were friends and I guess a house opened up and Vincenzo took it over with his new bride.

    I'm pretty sure the house was one of the other houses my father pointed out to me in our travels. It's relatively close to Vincenzo's first house and very close to Ollie's house. Alas, Vincenzo and Fortuna were not content to simply stay on Shepherd Street for the rest of their days. They soon moved to a place I would later know as "grandma's house".

    Keeping track of all these houses in Haverhill is no easy task. How did he afford to move to all these places around town? Well, the world was a different place back then. He worked as a laborer and he had some friends who more than likely helped him out. That's my theory and I'm sticking with it!  Throughout the 1950s, they lived on Shepherd Street until 1959.

Over the river and through the woods....

    Built by Vincenzo himself in 1959, this small house on Washington Street eventually became my grandma Ollie's house. Before that, it was the home of Vincenzo and Fortuna. My grandparents lived just down the street from them if I recall.

    Thankfully, Vincenzo stayed in that house until his passing.  I say "thankfully" because this trip around Haverhill has been a bit of a whirlwind. The funny thing is he didn't really live far away from his previous house. When he died in 1970, he left the house to my grandparents and the rest is history. Family history. =D

    Of all the places in this list of houses, I remember Ollie's the most for obvious reasons. I remember being in that house very frequently. After all, Salem isn't that far from Haverhill and we would visit her every chance we had. To this day I have many great memories of being in that house. It was where I first learned about the Italian side of my family tree. 

    Ollie lived there until she passed away in 2002. The house was sold and all of Vincenzo's possessions there ended up being stored at our house. Vincenzo's story of moving from house to house may have ended in 1970. At least his last house had a lasting impact on me. It was a great place full of love and great memories.

    I might never know the real reason why he moved around so much. I can only think that he might have had offers from various friends or saw an opportunity. He might have moved in the 1940s because of memories of Maria. I have no clue. At least his last house was a good one!

See ya next time!

You know I could probably jog this route. It's only five miles.

All maps and house pictures are courtesy of Google Earth.