Chapter 13: November Surprises

Anna Caserta, matriarch of the Case family, was dead. Her youngest son, Eddie (Egidio) had committed adultery, and was found out. His strong-willed wife Esther, about to give birth, considered moving back with the Campobasso clan, but was rebuffed by her equally stubborn father.

So she locked the door on Eddie and forced him to find solace elsewhere. Fortunately for me, he moved in with his widowed oldest sister, Aunt Giovi (Giovanna), who lived upstairs with her 3 sons and one daughter, and not with Yolanda, the town “flirt” (to use a gentle euphemism), who it was said had seduced him. To tell the truth, my father was easily seduced.

It's time I introduced myself, because this is just before I appear in the saga of the Cases and the Campobassos. I'm Eddie Case Junior, or “Little Eddie” as I was called as soon as I was born to Esther and Eddie, on the last day of December, 1939. I'm the one who's been telling the story, and you'll learn more about me later.

But right now it's late November of 1939, Europe's in a mess, America's having a very slow recovery from the Great Depression, and things aren't much better at 13 Liberty Street, home of the Caserta/Case clan.

Eddie slept uncomfortably upstairs on his sister Aunt Giovi's living room sofa. She already had three mischievous teenage sons, her lovely introspective daughter Michelina and the lifelong bachelor brother Vincenzo living with her, and Aunt Giovi tried in her quiet way to effect a reconciliation between her youngest brother and his very pregnant wife downstairs. Esther's sister Rose and her husband, Eddie's brother Joe, who lived next door, downstairs, tried to help the estranged couple, as did Michele, the head of the fourth Case family in the other upstairs flat, next to Aunt Giovi's clan.

Esther, the wronged wife, visited St. Joseph's Convent House and had a serious discussion with her piano teacher, the wise Sister Mary Magdalene. A very talented musician who was born Margaret Mary Bonaccio, she had left Little Italy after high school for New York City, studied with world class musicians, sampled the favors of rich and powerful men and women, then renounced it all and returned to take her vows and devote her talents to her religious community.

She and Esther had a rapport, and while they had chosen different paths, were more spiritually attuned than Esther had ever been with her quiet, reclusive sister Rose.

The beautiful nun, the daughter of an Italian fruit peddler and a South Troy girl of Irish descent, advised Esther to let Eddie back in, make him promise to atone for his faithlessness, and rebuild their marriage. “Deal with the devil you know – it's better than with the devil you don't know,” Sister Maggie said, as a look of wistfulness appeared in her blue eyes.

Although all the relatives took credit for facilitating the reunion, it was really the nun who convinced Esther to forgive. But, ingrained in the steel-spined daughter of a long line of blacksmiths and forgers of scissors and revenge daggers was a reluctance to bend and forget.

Although Esther took the nun's advice, she would never completely trust her husband again. Eddie moved back in from his sofa upstairs, and life resumed, with more of an edge to it. Esther continued to take solace in playing Chopin's etudes on the piano next door, waiting for me to leave the comfort of the womb.

But my scheduled appearance was still a month away. Whenever Maria Campobasso, Esther's mother, could leave the confectionery store, my tiny and spry maternal grandmother would walk the few blocks to Liberty Street and visit her two daughters who were now part of the Case family. But never on weekends when the men of the family were there – only during the week when the husbands were at work. Perhaps that was because the same characteristic unwillingness to forget was engrained in her, too, having been so long a part of the Campobasso tradition.

She was generous with food from the store, even if it was day old bread and produce, or a dented can of imported plum tomatoes that wouldn't sell. But Maria Campobasso never told her husband Francesco, because he refused to forget the sins of his daughters, Esther and Rose. One had defied him and kept him from her wedding, the other was complicit in a secret that no one dared to discuss aloud.

Of course, later in life, when the old ones would be only faded photos and half-remembered stories, I would discover the family secrets, and, as writers do, use them to tell my stories. And use them I will, when the time is right in the saga I'm relating to you.

Meanwhile, I hope you'll continue to follow the ups, downs, laughter and tears of what may or may not be a typical family with its roots in Troy's Little Italy.

©Copyright 2009 Frank LaPosta Visco

Next: In Book 2, Chapter 2: A child is born.

Chapter 12: Dark October

Esther Campobasso was Esther Case now, but she found it difficult to adjust to her new role. You'd think that moving closer to her sister, Rose, who had married Eddie's older brother Joe, would have eased the transition to life as a stay-at-home housewife on Liberty Street, but it didn't.

Moving up Tory Hill to Liberty Street, literally on the other side of the railroad tracks, and across the street from “The Dumps,” seemed to Esther more like moving down. Here was a young woman who had enjoyed a taste of freedom, earning her way, rebelling against the oppressive rules of la via vecchio – the old way – finally succumbing to a traditional role, and about to become a mother.

Eddie Case had won one prize and forfeited another. His childhood sweetheart was his wife, but his dream of national and international fame was gone. He still performed in local plays and musicals with his brothers, raising money for St. Anthony's, and reveled in the attention of the community.

With the imminent arrival of a new baby, Eddie and Esther faced their growing family's budget with some trepidation. In order to supplement his wages as a pressman at the Cluett, Peabody shirt factory, Eddie and three of his friends from the neighborhood formed a band, the Music Men, and picked up some extra cash performing popular music and Italian tunes on weekends at some of the roadhouses on the outskirts of Troy.

The Music Men consisted of Eddie on fiddle, Johnnie “Helmet Head” Marano on saxophone, Rocky Agnone on drums and Lefty Bernous on piano. The sound they developed was vaguely reminiscent of the Jean Goldkette band that Eddie admired.

Besides the few extra dollars the extra-curricular activity added to the family budget, Eddie also enjoyed the attention of the crowd and the escape from the drudgery of factory work. If he were completely honest, he would have admitted that he didn't mind escaping the uneventful home life he shared with Esther, either.

Esther was seven months pregnant and “eating for two” had resulted in her gaining close to fifty pounds. The stress of daily housekeeping wore her down, although she did have whatever help her sister Rose could offer. It wasn't much, because Rose had two children to tend to.

Whenever she could find the time, Esther found solace in reading and playing pieces by her favorite composer, Chopin, on Rose and Joe's old upright piano. Occasionally, on a brisk, sunny October day, Esther would wrap herself in her cloth coat and trudge uptown to the elegant Troy Public Library, with it's glorious Tiffany windows, and return home with one of its collection of romantic novels.

As Esther lost herself in her reading and her classical music, Eddie, who craved attention, felt increasingly ignored, and on weeknights spent his evenings after supper by his mother's side. Anna was now bedridden, unable to eat, and seemed to be losing weight as fast as Esther was gaining it.

The Music Men found themselves a regular gig, out at the Country Grove in East Greenbush, and it was there that Yolanda Caputo took an interest in the handsome fiddle player. As they used to say in the 1930's, Yolanda had a reputation. Today, we might call her liberated, but her overt sexuality and obvious interest in “playing the field” back then marked her as a loose woman.

She took an active interest in Eddie, exhibiting her voluptuousness close to the bandstand during practically every up-tempo number, and stalking Eddie during the band's breaks, offering him sips from her flask, cigarettes from her case, and carnal promises from her libido.

Eddie was needy, lonely and vulnerable. Yolanda was giving, willing, and predatory. On Friday night, October 29, 1939, Eddie did not go home to Esther.

Esther would have stayed up worrying all night, but this night, she and the Case clan that Esther and her sister Rose had married into had another reason to be awake. Father Sebastiano from St. Anthony's was administering the Last Sacrament to the matriarch, Anna Caserta, who was breathing her last breaths. And with every one, she demanded to see her baby, Egidio.

But Egidio – Eddie – was in the arms of Yolanda Caputo, and they were in the middle of violating a totally different commandment.

©Copyright 2009 Frank LaPosta Visco

Next: In Chapter 13, the 1940's begin with separation, reconciliation and revelation.

Chapter 11: A Wedding & A Birth

It was almost the witching hour on a moonless April night in 1935 when the ostetrica (midwife) Viorica DiPaolo, was summoned to the home of Francesco and Rose Campobasso to receive her instructions. The last time she had attended their daughter Rose, at the birth of Joseph Anthony Case, complications required a trip to the hospital. The Campobassos wanted to emphasize that that option was to be avoided.

The old woman made her assurances, gathered her bundles and proceeded the few blocks to the Liberty Street flat of Joe and Rose Case.

The next morning, it was announced that the newest Case had arrived -- a healthy 9-pound boy, and that he would be christened Joseph Anthony, the same two names of his older brother, but reversed.

Esther, now released from her confinement, and pale from not being allowed in the sun since the previous summer, was eager to help her older sister with the care of the infant.

House calls were common then, and Dr. Positano, the physician who had attended Rose after the complications of her first difficult delivery, called frequently at the Case household to check up on Rose and the infant. The fact that Esther was there every time he visited was far from a coincidence, for the good doctor had been enamored of Esther for as long as he could remember. A shy man, he barely managed to speak to Esther, experiencing that all-too-common male fear of rejection when faced with the object of his affection.

One day, though, he spoke more than the usual banal pleasantries, and berated himself for it afterwards

After examining Rose and the baby, the doctor was offered the usual hospitality of sharing coffee and biscotti at the kitchen table, and he accepted.

Esther, aware of his interest in her, tried to keep the conversation limited to the most banal of topics, the weather, but she sensed an undercurrent of seriousness about the physician, as he nervously stirred his expresso. What she couldn't know was that he was trying to tell her something he had rehearsed over and over, phrasing and rephrasing it, never quite satisfied that he had the right words, and worried that he would be betraying a confidence and his Hippocratic oath if he revealed the reason for his speech.

Being lost in these thoughts caused an embarrassing silence that he suddenly became aware of, when he was asked the same question twice.

“What's that? Oh, yes, I'll be back again on Tuesday,” he stammered out as he stood up from the table and prepared to leave.

“Esther, could I speak with you, please?” The doctor gestured toward the door, hoping Esther would escort him to it for a private word. She went with him, a concerned look clouding her face.

When they reached the front door, the doctor said, “Esther, I've known you and your family for a long time. I wouldn't do anything to hurt you in any way. I – I just want you to know that if there's anything I can do to, um, help in the, you know, situation, I'd be honored.”

Despite her smile, Esther's eyes turned cold. “Thank you, doctor. I think we'll be all right,” was all she said.

As the doctor had feared, getting out of the Campobasso house and into the Case compound was an opportunity for Esther to reestablish her relationship with Eddie, despite the strong objections of the parents. Obviously, when Esther was with Rose and the baby, everyone concerned made sure that the two were never alone.

In spite of the obstacles that the families put in their way, courtship resumed, and two months later the strong-willed Esther had her way; another Case male would wed another Campobasso female, although as far as the couple was concerned, it was their second wedding to each other.

These days, when the modern-day descendants of the Campobasso and Caserta/Case families look at the June 1935 wedding pictures of Esther and Eddie, they see something unique. Actually, it's who they don't see that makes it so – Francesco Campobasso isn't there.

It's not that he was deceased in 1935; he would live another ten years, passing on just as the second world war ended. No, he's not there because Esther refused to allow him any part in it.

Esther blamed her father for her imprisonment. True, he was the enforcer of the strict rule, but it was the women of the family, led by Esther's mother Rose, who decreed the punishment, in order to clear the family name of any taint that could result from the elopement of Esther and Eddie the previous July.

Francesco had made no exceptions – Esther had had no contact with the outside world since her return from the civil ceremony in Vermont – a non-wedding in the eyes of Troy's Italo-American community.

And although he didn't say it to Esther, Dr. Positano understood what that would mean if everyone knew what he knew.

©Copyright 2009 Frank LaPosta Visco

Next: In Chapter Twelve, Double Trouble.

Chapter 10: The Punishment

Italian tempers flared. Curses and damnation spewed forth in a raging torrent of biblical proportions.

The hot July Saturday that Esther and Eddie returned from their civil wedding ceremony in Vermont, neighbors of both families, from Ferry Street to the Canal, and from Havermans Avenue to the River, closed their windows -- more to shut out the mournful wailing than the burning rays of the sun.

The shame of an unconsecrated union was almost too much to bear for the Campobasso family. While Francesco fumed and railed, the women of the clan met in what can best be described as a council of elders. In Italian families, the decisions in cases like this would come from the woman, who was the heart of la famiglia; the enforcement would come from the man, who was merely the family's figurehead.

The ruling came down. Esther was forbidden to leave the Campobasso house – for any reason – for nine months. And, obviously, she was to have no outside male visitors.

Anna Caserta was summoned to the Campobasso household to confer. Her indignation at the elopement of her son and this strong-willed young woman didn't rise to the same level of contempt as in Maria Campobasso's family, but her resentment exceeded theirs. Actually, Anna was more upset over the threat of losing her youngest son's contributions to the Caserta/Case coffers – already two sons had married, and while their brides had joined them in the Liberty Street house, more of their income was diverted away from Anna.

Eddie Case had no recourse but to follow the dictates handed to him by the Campobasso family – he would have no contact with Esther until the end of April of the following year. If he wrote letters, they would be destroyed. The Campobasso phone was in the store, so a call would be futile. No matter how anxious he was to see Esther, Eddie would simply have to go on with his life without her until the matter was resolved. He would go to work, perform in plays with his brothers to benefit St. Anthony's Church and School, but he wouldn't date and he wouldn't “go out with the boys” on weekends. But, if Esther's keepers thought that Eddie's passion would die, they were wrong.

As for Esther, Eddie was the only man in her life. Now that she had known him intimately, she knew that he would wait, and be faithful. She, on the other had, had no choice. Esther was now the princess locked in the tower, and the drama of that reinforced her determination. She understood the reason for the imprisonment – the stain of carnal knowledge must be erased in the only way it could be – by time. If at the end of nine months she were still childless, then it could be argued that the family honor had not been besmirched.

Such was the strict code of the old way. For centuries, the key to the survival of the contadini of Italy was neither the state nor the church. The rulers of the fractured Italian provinces were feudal lords; even when the country was finally united in the late 1800's, the rulers were from the north and actually increased the repression of the southerners. Although individual priests might side with the peasants, church leaders made their deal with whomever was in power.

So la famiglia was all you could count on. And if the family was dishonored in anyway, extraordinary means were necessary to restore it. Esther had committed one of the worst transgressions of the old way – she had completely ignored a basic tradition, in which the family arranges the union of its children.

As so often happens in large families, there was other news that year, and not all of it was bad. Just weeks after the shame that Esther and Eddie had brought on their families, the Campobassos and Cases had a reason to smile: it was announced that Esther's older sister Rose and her husband, Eddie's older brother Joe, were finally going to have their second child.

©Copyright 2009 Frank LaPosta Visco

Next: In Chapter Eleven, a wedding, a birth, and a break with tradition.

Chapter 9: The Elopement

Eddie Case had saved enough money from his job at Cluett, Peabody and Company. He bought his first car, an overused Ford Model A, and had enough left over for the trip he had secretly planned with Esther. Ironically, she had saved the same amount from her job at Frear's, so that when they met that warm Friday evening in July of 1934, and pooled their money, it was as if they were fulfilling the ancient, equalizing Italian dowry custom called venti e venti (twenty and twenty) that their older siblings couldn't manage when they were married.

The plan was simple. Now that they were both of legal age, they could get a marriage license without parental consent. Since they couldn't risk discovery, they decided to meet in the Williams Street Alley, where Eddie had left the car earlier that day.

After dinner, Esther excused herself and announced that she was going to meet some girlfriends for their Friday night social. At the same time, a few blocks away, Eddie kissed his mother and told her he was going to work on the car.

The conspirators, unseen by their neighbors, met in the alley, and after a furtive glance or two, embraced and kissed. As fear, passion and anticipation mingled, they reassured each other, and, after a few hard turns on the old Ford's crank, the jalopy chugged to life.

The drive east was mostly accomplished in silence, with a few nervous attempts at small talk. Eddie almost missed the Justice of the Peace sign in front of the neat white clapboard home after they crossed the state border into Vermont. Esther spied it first and announced it excitedly.

They rang the bell and waited nervously. Finally, the porch light went on and Norman Rockwell's idea of a Vermont Justice of the Peace came to the door, complete with pipe, evening newspaper and slippers. One look at the eager couple and he knew what was up.

He ushered them in to the parlor, sat them down and began the interrogation. When the JP was satisfied that all was in order, he called for his wife, who had been in the kitchen, cleaning up after dinner and pouring lemonade for the lovebirds.

They stood and repeated the words, Eddie slipped the thin, plain gold ring on Esther's finger, and the JP pronounced them man and wife.

The JP and his wife witnessed the first kiss, the license was signed, and as Eddie and the JP concluded the monetary transaction, the matronly woman of the house whispered in Esther's ear. Esther nodded.

As they left the home, beaming, the newly married couple barely heard the directions to the nearest roadside inn.

The innkeeper, having been forewarned of the newlyweds' imminent appearance by a phone call from his cousin, the Justice of the Peace, made up the bed in the bridal suite and hung fresh towels in the private bath.

Ten minutes later, when the Model A sputtered to a stop in the courtyard of the inn, the young couple found a host with an understanding smirk waiting for them. Even so, he dryly inquired as to their wishes.

“Two single rooms for the night, I presume?”

“Um, well, no,” Eddie said. “We just.. we're...”

“Do you have a bridal suite?” Esther interrupted.

“Oh, yes, of course,” said the innkeeper. “Congratulations. Here's the key – and pleasant dreams.”

“Thank you.”

“One more thing,” said the innkeeper mysteriously, stopping them in their tracks. With his wry smile slowly warming his lined face, he inquired, “Will you be wanting a wake-up call?”

They giggled no and tried to appear as if they weren't rushing to the room. They entered a plain room filled with soft light from a kerosene lamp, and furnished with old but comfortable rustic furniture, dominated by a handsome four-poster bed with a plush feather mattress.

Esther took her cardboard valise into the bathroom, and in a few moments emerged, wearing a nightgown that was just like the one that her famous customer, Mame Fay, had especially liked.

Esther blew out the light, joined Eddie under the covers, and they celebrated their union as man and wife.

The next afternoon, when they returned home, hoping for the congratulations of their families and friends, what they found instead was a bitter, cold reception in the middle of a summer heat wave.

©Copyright 2009 Frank LaPosta Visco

Next: In Part Ten, the punishment.

Chapter 8: Call Her Madam

On a bright Sunday afternoon in June of 1932, 237 seniors of Catholic Central High School and their families gathered at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall for their graduation ceremonies.

As the Principal, Father Burns, read each name, the student would come forward and receive a blue square with a document inside that they thought prepared them for life. It was all going as smoothly as the rehearsal, until the priest read the name, “Modesta Campobasso.”

No one moved.

Father Burns glared at her. She glared back. Someone in the audience coughed. From another part of the resonating chamber came a giggle. The restlessness was spreading. Finally, Sister Anna Joseph approached the Principal and whispered something in his ear. He spoke again. “Esther Campobasso.”

As she finally rose from her chair, Esther smiled at the nun, her homeroom teacher, and accepted her diploma from Father Burns. When Esther's smile finally broke through, the applause from audience was a thunderous release.

Things were back under control as the roll call continued through the “C's,” and when Eddie Case's name was called, he and Esther exchanged knowing glances. It was not missed by their parents.

The next day, Esther announced to her her mother that she would not be working in the Campobasso Confectionery store, but would be taking a job as a sales clerk at Frear's Bazaar, one of uptown Troy's finest and most complete department stores. As usual, there was a lot of arguing, none of it productive. Esther would have her way. On the employment plan, yes. But her living plan? That was different.

There was no way that Maria and Francesco would allow Esther to leave the homestead and live independently in an apartment with some of Esther's former classmates. On this matter, Esther had no choice but to give in, because the same conversations were being conducted at the same time with the other girls by their parents. They wouldn't be allowed to leave the nest until their wedding day.

Eddie went to work, too, at Cluett's, and he willingly stayed at home, because he planned to save as much money as he could, to pay for the future that he and Esther had devised.

It was a testament to their commitment and passion that they never revealed their plans to anyone else, and went to their respective jobs happily, in a time when demands were rigorous and amenities like air conditioning, coffee breaks and overtime pay didn't exist.

Working conditions were better for Esther than for Eddie. She got to dress up every day and chat with the fashionable uptown women who shopped at Frear's. Esther found she enjoyed meeting people and had a natural talent for selling. After several months on the job, she prided herself on being able to “read” the customer and anticipate each woman's needs.

Until one brisk winter day that year, that is. An elegantly dressed woman sashayed up to Esther's counter in the sleepwear department. Practically dripping in expensive fur, which covered the latest New York style dress, the woman asked to see nightgowns for her girls.

It being the dead of winter, Esther dutifully gathered a selection of flannel wear. The woman chuckled, “No dear. Something a little more – diaphanous? Alluring? You know – enticing.” For one of the few times in her life, Esther was speechless. Then, in a conspiratorial stage whisper, the woman leaned toward her and said, “Sexy.”

Confused but compliant, Esther produced the desired styles, and the woman selected several, in different sizes. While thrilled to be making such a big sale, the naïve salesgirl was still in the dark, until one of her co-workers took Esther aside while the sales slip and cash were wending their way through the pneumatic tube system to the cashier.

“Esther,” she whispered. “Don't you know who that is? It's Mame Faye!”

Esther's face turned almost as red as the Chinese silk nightgowns with the long, promiscuous slit up the side. When Esther handed Troy's most famous madam the receipt and the change, Mame looked her over and told her, quite sincerely, “You know, honey, with your looks, you could make a lot more money working for me than for old Mr. Frear.” And with a wink, she was gone.

It was a story Esther would take pride in telling – but not until many, many years later. At the time, she was too embarrassed, and concentrating on her secret plan with Eddie, which was about to shock everyone.

©Copyright 2009 Frank LaPosta Visco

Next: In Part Nine, there they go.

Chapter 7: Curfew for Esther.

It didn't take long for Francesco and Maria Campobasso to hear of their youngest daughter's offstage antics with Eddie Case. La via vecchio – the old way -- would never allow Esther to be in the company of a young man without a chaperon. And even with a chaperon, there would be no hand holding, no kissing, no contact of any kind.

But specifically, they didn't want this daughter anywhere near that young man. They had seen how Eddie's older brother Joe treated their older daughter Rose, and they didn't like it. They rarely visited the Campobassos, even though they lived only a few blocks away, on Liberty Street. Consequently, four-year-old Anthony Joseph Case, the Campobassos' first grandson, was practically a stranger to Francesco and Maria.

But if they had looked closer, they might have seen that their resentment against Joe wasn't justified. The problem was with their daughter Rose, although they were unable or unwilling to see it. Always a private person, Rose now rarely left her home, even to visit her mother-in-law Anna Caserta, who lived in one of the downstairs flats at the Liberty Street home.

It's strange how the same environment can affect siblings so differently. When Rose and Esther were babies, Maria and Francesco worked so hard to scrape together enough to start their business that it left them little time for their daughters. The effect on Rose was to make her more withdrawn, and so she grew up looking for a reclusive life without challenges. The effect on Esther was just the opposite – she became stronger, more independent and daring.

Even so, she had no choice but to accept the new, strict rules that her parents imposed on their errant daughter. With another year of high school ahead of her, Esther was now forbidden to engage in any after-school activities. When the last school bell rang, she was not allowed to linger and engage in the banter that sustains schoolgirls and helps them formulate a picture of the grown-up world and a way to enter it.

She was to be home immediately, with no side trips. Homework first, household chores second, and then helping out with the thousand and one details it takes to run a retail store.

The new curfew didn't sit well with a young woman as feisty as Esther. But it did give her time to plan her future. If she had anything to say about it, she would be out of the house the day after graduation.

Meanwhile, Eddie, spending his second year as a high school senior, was trying to plan his future. He knew he had the looks and the talent to entertain, but his requests to leave the nest after graduation and seek his fortune in Manhattan were vehemently opposed by his mother Anna.

In her limited command of English, she adamantly refused to consider anything but his “obligation” to work and contribute financial support to the family. There weren't many jobs available in the early thirties, and the few that were demanded long hours over a six-day week for very little money.

Eddie's sister Josie worked as a collar-attacher at the Cluett Peabody shirt factory uptown on River Street, and since the balding foreman was smitten with her, Josie turned on the Case charm and made the clownish married man promise to find her brother a job when Eddie received his CCHS diploma.

Between classes, Eddie would console himself by tracking down Esther. He knew her daily school routine better than his own, and whenever he could he used his wiles to escape from the confines of his classes and appear in Esther's.

Despite her parents' warnings not to see him, Esther cherished the rebellious rush every time Eddie appeared. Even though her lunch time preceded his, they often managed to share a few intimate conversations in the cafeteria, when she would volunteer to stay later for extra clean-up, and he would arrive early.

They even managed to sit together during an afternoon production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, presented by a touring group of actors. Although the message of the play was lost on Eddie and Esther, the passion underscored their own.

As in the play, neither parents would have condoned the plans that the twentieth-century star-crossed lovers were hatching.

©Copyright 2009 Frank LaPosta Visco

Next: In part 8, prosperity isn't the only thing around the corner.