I often sit and wonder where time went for a matter of days or months, but today I am wondering where time for a different reason and person my grandfather. Today is a hundred years that he left behind his family, friends, native homeland and all that he knew and loved to dare live his dream, the American Dream. Annibale Giovanni was only nineteen years old when he left Camigliano, Caserta all of those years ago with just the clothes on his back ten dollars in his pocket and a steam truck that contained a few personal items and two of those being the pictures of his parents that still hangs in the living room of his only living daughter. Today I remember my grandfather with all of the love and respect and that I can ever give him. As I amazed that it is a hundred years that have gone by for his passage as an Italian Immigrant into in a new country I can’t help but wonder just what had gone through his mind when he made his final destination. What was he really expecting upon his arrival in his new land away from all that he was familiar with? I remember the long talks we had and one in particular that had always remained in the back of my mind. The story he had relayed to me was when he arrived he was asked at Ellis Island if he wanted to change his Italian surname to make it more Americanized, something that he refused do. I asked him why and he told me that would be that he would have turned his back on who and what he was. My grandfather went on to say that they explained to him he would find it hard to find a job with his long Italian surname but this still didn’t change his mind. Yes, he did have a difficult time finding a stable job at the start so he would work odd jobs until he found the job at the Steel Mill in Pittsburgh until he landed his job with the P&LE Railroad in Hillsville, Pennsylvania where he met and married my grandmother Antonette and they raised their large family together and lived out his life.
Annibale Giovanni was a proud hard working loving family man who was a friend to all that knew him. I asked him once growing up to teach me Italian maybe it was somewhere back in my mind even at that age I would find him and where he was from, but he did turn down my request; saying that I was American and needed to speak English as he didn’t want me to be made fun of or given a hard time as he was upon arriving in his new country. It is hard to believe that all of the immigrants coming into America that they were given such a hard time, but they were. I thought of him on this special day with pride and love in my heart wondering how he would feel today to see how things have changed in the world today, and wondered if he would still want to come if he knew how things would be now. I think he would knowing the person he was. At the time I started my search for all that the left behind I could have never known that our dreams would have been the same, but I would be blessed twice to live it and be hopeful that I will get to live in his village that I call home in heart.
In closing I thank my loving strong grandfather for all of the hard discussions that he made that cost him a lot in his life. I thank him for the life and chances that my family and I were given by the choices that he made. I thank him for all of the memories, the beautiful memories that I have of him and still carry with me today and for always. I especially thank him for the chance to find Camigliano that is home in both of our hearts. Thank-you Giovanni Annibale for the journey that you made a hundred years ago today so that I can live my dream.
