REMEMBERING MY FATHER: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANGELO SPEZIALE

REMEMBERING MY FATHER: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ANGELO SPEZIALEThis is the story of my father, Angelo Speziale, a very ordinary and unremarkable man. Born into poverty in Sicily; transported across the Atlantic as a young boy in the steerage of a freighter; raised in childhood and youth as a coal miner in central Pennsylvania's impoverished Appalachia; never reaching beyond 4th grade in formal schooling; resettling in small town Rochester, NY in a modest, crowded household; working on his feet as an hourly wage

This is the story of my father, Angelo Speziale, a very ordinary and unremarkable man. Born into poverty in Sicily; transported across the Atlantic as a young boy in the steerage of a freighter; raised in childhood and youth as a coal miner in central Pennsylvania's impoverished Appalachia; never reaching beyond 4th grade in formal schooling; resettling in small-town Rochester, NY in a modest, crowded household; working on his feet as an hourly wage-earner for the same company for 46 years; never taking home more than $6000 a year; passing away at the early age of 66 just a year after his retirement, without ever fully enjoying the frits of his labor. Such was the life of Angelo Speziale, a very ordinary and unremarkable man. And yet, in his very unremarkability, he was truly remarkable. He never enjoyed much luxury but led a frugal, thrifty existence. Instead, he managed to save what he could, paying off the mortgage on his modest home and giving his children an education and lifestyle he never had.