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Baccelli: It is Sunday, September 12th, 1976. And I will be interviewing
Mr. A R Bartolomucci. Okay. Can you give us, first of all, some basic
information about yourself, your name, your age and your place of birth?
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Bartolomucci: Uh, my name is A. R. Bartolomucci. I was born in Universal,
Pennsylvania, the year 1910, April 24th.
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Baccelli: Okay. And would you spell your last name for me?
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Bartolomucci: B A R T O L O M U C C I
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Baccelli: When you were young and growing up, what group, what ethnic
group did you identify with? Bartolomucci: Italian. Baccelli: And do you
speak another language besides English? Bartolomucci: No, Italian and
English. Baccelli: What is your occupation?
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Bartolomucci: President of Arbco Industry. A R B C O. Industries, Inc..
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Baccelli: And where is that located?
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Bartolomucci: Export Pennsylvania.
Bartolomucci: Catholic.
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Baccelli: And can you tell me your religion?
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Baccelli: Do you belong to a parish here in the area?
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Bartolomucci: Saint Barbara. Saint Barbara's church.
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Baccelli: Do you have or do you have a specific duties in the parish or
are you just.
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Bartolomucci: No, I'm an usher and I am a member of the National
Stewardship Council. National Catholic Stewardship Council.
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Baccelli: Oh, what's that? What is that?
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Bartolomucci: You want to cut that off?
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Baccelli: Yeah, well. You don't want to put it in. Uh, Mr. Bartolomucci,
do you want to tell me something about that organization?
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Bartolomucci: The national. The National Catholic Stewardship Council is
an organization that you give your time, your talent and your treasure. And
what you do with this is that you try to set up, in each parish, a method
of collecting funds in order to pay off their debts or to maintain that
parish or with the diocese of Greensburg. Now, I was the lay director of
the diocese of Greensburg last year, and I was a late director of 11
parishes this year for collecting funds for the diocesan expansion day.
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Baccelli: Did we get the name of the church that you belong to?
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Bartolomucci: Saint Barbara's church. Baccelli: Barbara? Bartolomucci:
Barbara, yes. B A R B A R A.
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Baccelli: Okay. Well you were really involved in with your parish
activities. Do you have any political feelings? Bartolomucci: No. Baccelli:
You can go, you vote for the man or you.
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Bartolomucci: I vote for who I think is the best. I mean, I am a
registered Republican all my life, and I vote as I see fit.
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Baccelli: Okay. How long have you lived in the Pittsburgh-Erwin area?
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Bartolomucci: In this area. I've lived here since 1941, so that makes me
25, 35 years.
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Baccelli: 35 years in this area. Do you belong to any ethnic
organizations? Bartolomucci: No. Baccelli: Now I need to know a little bit
about your family history. But first, we're going to turn this off to make
sure this is coming along okay.
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Baccelli: Okay. Now we're back with the family history questions. Can you
tell me the birthplace of your parents? I need to know the country, the
region and the village.
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Bartolomucci: The country is Italy and the province of L'Aquila and town
is Barisciano.
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Baccelli: Okay. That's in the Abruzzi Right. Okay. And would you spell the
name of that town?
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Bartolomucci: B A R S A R I N O. Oh, I'm pretty. I'm pretty close to it.
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Baccelli: And. When your parents came to this country, did they come
through New York, through Ellis Island?
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Bartolomucci: They came from New York via Ellis Island.
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Baccelli: Okay. Do you do you remember the dates, the date your father
came?
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Bartolomucci: My father came in 1888, and my mother came in 1904.
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Baccelli: Now, can you tell me something about the village they came from?
For instance, what sort of work was most prevalent in the village? Do you
remember? Bartolomucci: Farming. Farming. Baccelli: It was an agricultural
community. And can you remember the reason why your father came to this
country?
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Bartolomucci: He came to this country. Prior to him coming, his brother
came to this country first and he was here for about a year. And then he in
turn had sent sufficient funds over to have him, my father brought over. My
father came over here and he worked at the Universal Cement and or I mean
in Universal. And he earned enough money and he brought my mother and her
daughter over.
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Baccelli: And you were also telling me something about the the migration
patterns in that little village that your father used to leave the village
and go to various different places in Europe. Can you expand on that a
little bit?
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Bartolomucci: My father left Barisciano when he was eight years old and he
went to work in Germany. And--
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Baccelli: What did he do?
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Bartolomucci: Mason. And from Germany. He had gone to Hungary. He had
worked there. And up until he was 14 years old, he had gone to Saint
Peter's and worked there at the church at Saint Peter's.
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Baccelli: That Building right on, in Saint Peter's Church? Bartolomucci:
He worked with a contractor. Baccelli: Did he tell you what he did there
specifically?
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Bartolomucci: The only time he ever talks about and it makes him mad is
because he was laying gold bricks. He always talked about the gold bricks.
I mean, everything he ever put down was gold. And, uh, after that, why then
he stayed and worked in Rome until he was about 18 years old. And then he.
He had gotten married at that time. And he came to this country. He had
gotten married two weeks later he came to this country.
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Baccelli: And then your mother came from the same village. Bartolomucci:
Same village Baccelli: That your father-- Bartolomucci: They were
neighbors. Baccelli: They were neighbors.
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Baccelli: Okay. Can you tell me something about the type of home that your
that your parents lived in in Abruzzo? Your mother and your father. What?
First of all, did they have their own home?
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Bartolomucci: Yes. My father had his own home and my mother had their own
home. And it's nothing but stone. That goes back 3 to 400 years and build
on the side of a mountain. They're nothing but ground floors. Furniture
consists of a bench and a table and no lights of any kind except candles.
We always heard that and no other facilities available to them except the
running water, spring water from the mounds which they would go down the
plaza and carry it to their homes.
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Baccelli: Can you tell me did your parents make trips back and forth to
Italy?
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Bartolomucci: From America? No. Baccelli They didn't. Did they ever intend
to? Bartolomucci: At one time, right before the Ethiopian war.
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Baccelli: When they came here, did they intend to live here? Bartolomucci:
Yes. Baccelli: To stay here I mean. Do you remember them talking at all
about life in the old country? When you think about when they used to
reminisce, what did they mainly talk about?
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Bartolomucci: They would talk about that every weekend they would get
together with their bottle of the wine and play cards and so on and so
forth. And just a family get together, it was always a close family. They
would all get together in this small community.
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Baccelli: Would you classify your parents as being religious, religiously
oriented people?
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Bartolomucci: They were religious as far as they were concerned in Europe,
but not in this country. Not, in this country all the children were born,
they were baptized, and they would go to church because the church in
Universal, there wasn't one there. They had to go too far and they had no
means of getting to them. But they made sure that children were baptized
and they were always baptized from Universal in the Saint Mary's Church in
Braddock.
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Baccelli: Okay. When you're when your parents came here, they settled in
Universal. Can you tell me something about the neighborhood you lived in?
First of all, were there only Italians in the area?
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Bartolomucci: There were a mix. There were Italians. There was Poles.
There were Slovenians. They were just a mixed community.
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Baccelli: Okay. Did you have any difficulty with any other ethnic groups?
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Bartolomucci: No, not there.
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Baccelli: If you could choose an ethnic group that was most like your own,
most like Italians, which one would you choose? Bartolomucci: Slovenian.
Baccelli: Slovenian. I wonder why?
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Bartolomucci: Because I've been there. And the way they have treated us
and what Slovenians we know in this country. As a matter of fact, we are
members of the Harmony Slovenian. Not the lodge, but the the club.
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Baccelli: Okay. And then if you were to choose a group that was most
unlike Italians, could you choose one? Say one that seemed very different
in their customs and in their perhaps their attitude than Italians.
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Bartolomucci: I can't think of any that I would affiliate myself with. And
except I would say this at Westinghouse. I was at the group that I always
admired with the Germans. Because we had German tool makers down here, dye
makers and so on, and I learned an awful lot from them. And that's how I, I
would classify myself more with the Germans than I would.
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Baccelli: Okay. Do you remember your father talking about making
preparations to come to this country? Did he ever discuss anything about.
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Bartolomucci: Yes. He had gone to Rome because he had to get on a boat in
Rome. And it took him three weeks before he was able to get on the boat.
And it's taken him six weeks to get to this country. And he spent two weeks
in New York.
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Baccelli: Well, then he came. He must have come on one of the tall ships
then, on a. Bartolomucci: I don't know he never discussed it. Baccelli: On
a clipper type.
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Bartolomucci: I do know this, that they had this different classes on the
ship and he was on the bottom of the class.
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Baccelli: He was in steerage.
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Bartolomucci: Even my mother.
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Baccelli: Did they ever talk about their experiences on the boat coming
over?
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Bartolomucci: Yes. My mother used to talk about how rough the sea was. She
got so sick that she couldn't stand it and she was glad to get off the
boat.
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Baccelli: Did they ever talk about what their first impressions were of
this country?
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Bartolomucci: They never saw so much water in their life.
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Baccelli: Water? The sea voyage was really impressive?
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Baccelli: Okay. You said that your father was a mason in Italy, When he
came to this country did he remain in that occupation. Or did that change?
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Bartolomucci: No, that changed. He became he had gone with my brother and
worked in the mines. Coal mining. I mean, when I said my brother, I mean
his brother, my uncle.
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Baccelli: When you were growing up, did you have your own home? When--
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Bartolomucci: Yes, we did.
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Baccelli: It didn't take long then for your dad to acquire a home of his
own here.
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Bartolomucci: No, it did not. But we lost the home, put a railroad through
the area and they had taken the house over. And then from that time on,
they lived in what we call a mining community.
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Bartolomucci: No, and that was not here. At Downingtown, Pennsylvania.
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Baccelli: Did you ever have any borders in your home from Italy?
Bartolomucci: My mother did. Baccelli: She did, is that right?
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Bartolomucci: She had four of them.
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Baccelli: Four borders.
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Bartolomucci: There were four borders but they were all related.
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Baccelli: I see. So they were all Italian. Do you remember what it was
like then having--
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Bartolomucci: I don't, because I wasn't too I wasn't too old then. I don't
remember those, but I do remember them talking about it. She had to have
four borders. One of them was her brother. Another one was my I mean,
they're both uncles and the other two were relatives. Close relatives
from.
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Baccelli: And where was that in Universal?
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Baccelli: Do you recall if your father ever sent money to bring another
person over? Bartolomucci: Yes. Baccelli: He did? Do you remember who it
was? Was it a relative or--
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Bartolomucci: Relative. Uh, Albert DiNardo.
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Baccelli: Now, can you tell me how many brothers and sisters you have.
Bartolomucci: Living?
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Baccelli: No well, no more brothers and sisters that were born. Total
born.
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Bartolomucci: Total born was eight brothers and six sisters.
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Baccelli: How many children do you have? Bartolomucci: Three. Baccelli:
And can you tell me how old they are?
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Bartolomucci: Yes. I have a son that's 37. I have a daughter that's 30.
30. She's 34. 34. And Iven is 25. 26.
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Baccelli: Okay now I'd like to know something about your education. But
before we get into that, you mentioned that neither your mother or father
could read or write, but you did say they were particularly strong about a
few things. What was that?
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Bartolomucci: They weren't able to write or read. They would sign next to
their name if I sign it. But money. They could always keep track of money.
If you bought groceries and you brought the slip back to them and they knew
what that cost and they gave you $20 for it, they knew they had to get so
much change back and you had to have that much back.
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Baccelli: Do you remember that when they came over? When your dad came
over, your mother came over? Do you remember them saying, Did they come
with a group of other people from their village, or did they come by
themselves? Bartolomucci: No, they came with other people. Baccelli: They
came with other people from--
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Bartolomucci: Other, other. With a group of people of the same area. And
not [inaudible].
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Baccelli: No, I'd like to talk a little bit about your education. Can you
tell me how long you went to school and what kind of special schooling you
may have had?
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Bartolomucci: I went to a regular school and then I went to Westinghouse
and I graduated from the Westinghouse Technical Night School. And I spent
six years with Carnegie Mellon, which was Carnegie Tech then.
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Baccelli: You went to night school? Bartolomucci: Thats all night school.
Baccelli: Okay. What was your first job and how old were you?
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Bartolomucci: My first job is what you call a water boy. And I was 14
years old. On the highway they were building. I carried water for the
workers for them to drink. And how old were you.
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Baccelli: And how old were you when you when you first started supporting
others? That is when you acquired a family. Or perhaps when you began to
support other members of your family other than those.
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Bartolomucci: 14 because the dollar I got a day went directly to my
parents. Baccelli: Is that right? Bartolomucci: I hadn't I had no way of
spending the money. There was no things. It wasn't anything I could do.
Because we had a large family.
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Baccelli: Okay. Do you remember you said you were making a dollar a day.
What are some of the jobs that you remember best? Good and bad. And also,
what was your highest paying job?
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Bartolomucci: The highest paying job would be my own right now and the
lowest paying job was that $1 a day. And then when I went to Westinghouse,
I got $0.28 in ah there in 1925. And then I ended up at Westinghouse. I
became a laboratory assistant. I got 20, $47 every two weeks. I became an
engineer and then I ended up with $114 every two weeks. And when I left
Westinghouse, I was making $820 a month. Now, don't ask me what I'm
making.
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Baccelli: No, I won't ask you that. I wouldn't ask you that. You did
mention something that's very interesting to me about discrimination that
you felt went on at Westinghouse against Italians. Can you expand on that?
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Bartolomucci: Yes, at Westinghouse at that time, if you try to get ahead
and you were an Italian or anything like that or even a Catholic, why you
could never move ahead. In other words, I could only go so far at
Westinghouse. I could go up with me. I was a general foreman, but I could
never be the superintendent or I could never be a manager because they
wanted me to change. I was to change my religion and join the Masons which
is Scotch.
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Baccelli: How was that communicated to you?
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Bartolomucci: By the higher ups, come right down and told me.
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Baccelli: Your supervisors literally came down and discussed it with you?
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Bartolomucci: Their managers would actually come down and tell me your, I
was so good. I knew plastic so well that they wanted to upgrade me, but I
had to change. In other words, I could not be a Catholic because to be a
Catholic you can't join the Masons. And you had to join the Masons which I
wasn't able to do.
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Baccelli: And do you know of other Italian Americans that were
discriminated against as well?
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Bartolomucci: Yes. They they went up as high as to be a general foreman
thats its. No higher. Speaekr1: That was in the 20s,30s? Bartolomucci:
That's in the 30s, right before World War Two.
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Baccelli: Um, I don't know whether we discussed this or not, but do you
remember the reason why your dad came to Pittsburgh? Why did he come to the
Pittsburgh area?
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Bartolomucci: Great opportunities in this country.
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Baccelli: And why, particularly Irwin or Pittsburgh?
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Bartolomucci: Because we had an uncle here before that.
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Baccelli: Um, can you tell me something about that neighborhood in
Universal that that you grew up in? What was it like?
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Bartolomucci: It's a small neighborhood. There weren't very many homes,
and it was very quiet, what you call a close knitted neighborhood. In other
words, the families would always get together, you know, on the weekends
and so on. Other than that, it was just a beautiful thing that these people
would get together.
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Baccelli: Uh, what did you what did you do most as a young boy before you
became a water boy to pass the time away?
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Bartolomucci: Oh, we used to get together. The family always get together
at night and, uh, play cards. And I our dinner consisted of a glass of wine
and never consisted of any coffee or anything. We drink wine like water,
but other than that, that's the only thing we did. In other words, I never
went to say I was going to a movie or anything like that. We did not have
the money to do those things because with a family is as large as ours you
weren't able to do it. As a matter of fact, my relatives all have large
families.
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Baccelli: So the income that your parents, your dad was a minor then,
right? He had the income from the mining and then you had the four
boarders. And then if any of the children went out to work, they were
expected to provide whatever they-- Bartolomucci: We had to turn all our
money over. Baccelli: Do you remember what your mom used to make for dinner
at those times? What kind?
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Bartolomucci: All Italian dinners, you name them. I mean, it was
spaghetti. And it was.
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Baccelli: Did you have meat every night?
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Bartolomucci: No. No. We used to raise our own chickens and so on. We'd
have eggs. In other words, you would make, for example,on a Saturday or a
Friday, we'd never have meat. In other words, my parents stuck with their
religion. I mean, they fasted when it was a holiday and so on and so forth.
They did that. However, they never went to church because the church wasn't
available to them at the time. And we would have all, all, every night a
soup of some kind and what little little bit of meat you could buy to make
a beef soup or something like that. They would buy it. But mostly we had
always soup and pasta. You just name it, always the same. And then we would
raise our own gardens with all our vegetables and so on, and we had fruit
trees and so on. We had grapevines. We made our own wine. And that's what
it consists of.
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Baccelli: How long did it take for your dad to acquire that home?
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Bartolomucci: Mhm. You mean in age?
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Baccelli: Well, how many years in this country before he got the house, do
you know?
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Bartolomucci: He must have been about 60, 60 years old.
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Baccelli: When he got the house.
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Bartolomucci: No. Before that he he was in this country about 12 years and
we had gotten a house and that he had bought. And later on, about six years
later, railroad went through and they took the house over. And then he
lived in the mining community from then on. And then about 30 years ago,
why, we bought a farm, a 30 acre farm, and we raised our own chickens, our
own vegetables, our own fruit. We had our own grapevine. Baccelli: Was this
in Universal? Bartolomucci: No thats here now. I'm way back here now.
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Baccelli: This is Irwin now? Bartolomucci: Right. Baccelli: Irwin Area.
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Bartolomucci: Because I came here in 1941. I moved in in 1941. And I had
bought this place. The parents had died. I mean, yes, her father died over
here. And I bought the farm for $6,000 with six acres, 14 rooms in a house.
And then he went into farming communal.
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Baccelli: So you purchased that for them? And were their brothers and
sisters left at home still at that time?
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Bartolomucci: Oh, yes, they were all at home. They only one that was away
is one older sister which came from Europe. She was married and I had
another brother who was married and the rest of them were all at home.
00:23:47.000 --> 00:23:50.000
Baccelli: And did your father continue to mine until he retired?
00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:56.000
Bartolomucci: Oh, no, no, no. He had been out of the mine since the 29,
1929.
00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:03.000
Baccelli: Okay well why was he, why did he need the mines? Bartolomucci:
They closed it. Bartolomucci: Okay. What mine was that? Bartolomucci:
Pittsburgh Coal company.
00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:09.000
Baccelli: Okay. And then what? How did he survive then from that time on?
I mean, economically, how did he do?
00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:23.000
Bartolomucci: I worked I was the only one that kept the family going
because I was at Westinghouse and during the Depression years, I was never
laid off. I didn't make much money. But I kept the family.
00:24:23.000 --> 00:24:26.000
Baccelli: Okay. And when did you marry and what year did you marry?
00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:34.000
Bartolomucci: 34.
00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:57.000
Baccelli: Did you ever have any problems in this little neighborhood?
Bartolomucci: This neighborhood here? Baccelli: In the neighborhood you
were you grew up in, in Universal. Did you ever have any problems with any
with Croatians or with any. No bad feelings at all. Do you ever have any
problems finding housing because you were Italian? Bartolomucci: No.
Speaekr1: How about finding Work?
00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:03.000
Bartolomucci: No, I was fortunate all my life.
00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:18.000
Baccelli: Um, do you remember any organizations? I mean, formal
organizations, perhaps fraternal groups? Italian or Slovenian or whatever
when you were growing up?
00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:23.000
Bartolomucci: No, I don't remember any of them until I suppose in the 30s
I put--
00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:26.000
Baccelli: What was the first one you encountered?
00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:31.000
Bartolomucci: We had an Italian organization my father belonged to.
00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:36.000
Baccelli: Do you remember the name of it?
00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:41.000
Bartolomucci: It was an Italian lodge.
00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:44.000
Baccelli: Where was it located?
00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:53.000
Bartolomucci: It, uh in Widen valleys where they used to meet. Which was
near the community they lived in. I can't think of the name of it.
00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:56.000
Baccelli: Did you ever go there?
00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:11.000
Bartolomucci: Oh, yes. They have meetings and they had. Uh, a wine that
they would drink and play cards and stuff like that. Just it was a
community affair, you know. All the Italians would get together.
00:26:11.000 --> 00:26:13.000
Baccelli: You formally joined the organization?
00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:15.000
Bartolomucci: I didnt no, my dad did.
00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:22.000
Baccelli: Did any of your brothers or sisters join it? No. No. Is that the
only Italian organization you can remember?
00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:34.000
Bartolomucci: Of course. Now we have the Italian organizations, which all
of us are all of the Italians that came from Barisciano or L'aquila. We
have a yearly picnic every year the month of July.
00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:41.000
Baccelli: Is that right? You mean there's actually a group of people in
this area who came from the same little village?
00:26:41.000 --> 00:27:20.000
Bartolomucci: Oh my yes, we have them in, from the West Coast. Michigan,
Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania. And once a year, we have what we call the
Italian picnic. We call it the Barisciano's picnic. It's all these people
get together. And my parents would go, I would take them and all these
people would come in from different parts of the country. We had up at uh,
we met at Kennywood Park. We met at Swans Lake. And this year it was in
Washington, Pennsylvania, to park their whole Ogledi Park in West Virginia
and a park in Detroit.
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:21.000
Baccelli: And you go?
00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:26.000
Bartolomucci: And one in what we call Bellaire, Ohio. Oh, my. They all get
together.
00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:28.000
Baccelli: So once a year without fail.
00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:39.000
Bartolomucci: Without fail. And then we used to give prizes. The one that
came the longest distance and the oldest one that was there living, we gave
prizes out for that.
00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:43.000
Baccelli: So that still goes on. Who organizes it?
00:27:43.000 --> 00:28:04.000
Bartolomucci: It's been organized for, oh, quite a number of years. I
imagine way before my time, I guess because I remember it for a long, long
time and it was always new people get interested and it's not a profit
making thing. It's all by people getting together and having their making a
small contribution and so on just to keep it alive.
00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:08.000
Baccelli: All right. How do they notify you about the picnic? By mail.
00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:15.000
Bartolomucci: By mail. They have a book that has all the addresses in it.
I mean, of all the people in different areas.
00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:18.000
Baccelli: Have you ever participated on that level getting the people
together or.
00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:25.000
Bartolomucci: Oh, yes. I haven't done it for the last four years. Five
years now. But before that I was always involved.
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.000
Baccelli: Did they have a formal policy on how they appoint these people?
00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:30.000
Bartolomucci: Oh yes we would have an election.
00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:33.000
Baccelli: You do? Oh, yes. That's really interesting.
00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:41.000
Bartolomucci: We have an election. We appointed a chairman, you know, and
the vice chairman, the treasurer and so on.
00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:44.000
Baccelli: Well, does it have an official name?
00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:46.000
Bartolomucci: No, just call it the Barisciano's picnic.
00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:53.000
Baccelli: Barisciano's picnic. That's all. That's amazing. Do you bring.
You bring your family? Of course. You bring anyone you wish.
00:28:53.000 --> 00:28:54.000
Bartolomucci: Oh, yes.
00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:55.000
Baccelli: Is it a basket picnic?
00:28:55.000 --> 00:29:07.000
Bartolomucci: Basket Picnic. Everybody would bring their own wine and say,
Taste my wine. This is what I made. I mean, it was on and on and on and it
would run till the wee hours at night.
00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:09.000
Baccelli: When did they have it this year. Did they had it this year?
00:29:09.000 --> 00:29:11.000
Bartolomucci: Last Saturday. Last Sunday.
00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:13.000
Baccelli: Last Sunday. And where was it?
00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:30.000
Bartolomucci: Western Pennsylvania. You attend that one? No. The only
reason I don't is just as I mentioned before, is that my brother is
involved with it. And. Well, they happen to be a type that has to be a type
that they get a few drinks. There'll be an argument.
00:29:30.000 --> 00:30:30.000
Baccelli: I see. All right. We'll turn the tape now because it's getting
kind of low and I don't want to run out here.
