Raffaele Albi

Mr. and Mrs.
Enrico Butti

Mr. & Mrs.
Domenico Chiarello
(Nella Anselmo)

Gus & Assunta Dotto
(Emilia Raffin)

 Attilio & Stella Gatto

Gus Lavorato

Giovanni Paron

Mr. & Mrs. Sartor

Sam Scrivano

Silvio Tona

Paolo Veltri

Mr. P:

Oh, yeh, sure.

Ms. M:

You think so.

Mr. P:

Yeh but one thing, the Italians here, they don't got a bad name.

Ms. M:

They don't.

Mr. P:

They never, you never here fight. No fight. Now Italians here they got the police. My nephew he a policeman for about ten years and he says Italians they never give me no troubles, absolutely nothing.

Ms. B:

What is your nephew's name?

Mr. P:

Carlo Pese.

Ms. B:

And, he is still a policeman?

Mr. P:

He's a sergeant.

Ms. B:

Oh, a sergeant. For the City of Edmonton.

Mr. P:

Yeh, right there. His office is right there. You go there and ask for Carlo, he tell you lots of things.

Ms. M:

Do you have any pictures of your machine that you invented?

Mr. P:

No, I haven't got it. I had it, blueprints but I give it to them. Cost me $500.00 to build it in those days. If you build it today, only $3,000.00. And, that same machine, in Leduc they use it yet. But, I tell you one thing, the Jews they try to beat me. And I stopped to build it, I stop because they break the contract you see and when I went to the lawyer, I stop and never build.

Ms. M:

Oh, so they wanted to make your machine.

Mr. P:

The same Jews, they die now.

Ms. B:

So, they were Jews in Edmonton, a long time ago.

Mr. P:

Yeh.

Ms. M:

Well, so what did we miss?

Ms. B:

I wanted to ask you a question. Do you think the church plays an important role in you life.

Mr. P:

Very much. Oh, one thing else. Here, I got a letter, I got it yet and they try to, they got the church and we got a hall there and somebody there they want to build a dancing hall. I wrote back,...I wrote a letter to the priest. I say, be shamed of yourselves. I say, why you want to build a hall for dance when you go a hall, we build a hall, you got it and you get some money, have to take some young peoples'. They want to put money in something like that.

Ms. M:

You don't think they should have a new hall.

Mr. P:

No, no. I am against it. I won't give them one cent.

Ms. M:

What about when they built this hall the first time, you helped though. Right now there's a hall.

Mr. P:

Oh yeh. We build the hall at the same time we build the church.

Ms. M:

The hall is twenty-five years old. You helped to build the hall.

Mr. P:

Oh, yes.

Ms. M:

But, now you don't think that they should fix it. They don't need a new one.

Mr. P:

I tell you, the hall is, I forget now the size, it is just as big as the church and they build a kitchen in there. What they want, they got a stage. What they want anymore.

Ms. M:

You don't think it's in bad shape?

Mr. P:

Oh, I don't know, I didn't see it for a long time.

Ms. M:

Yeh, it's in bad shape.

Mr. P:

I don't know what it is. But anyway, but what's the idea is this. They want to build a hall there, a dancing hall, they got to move the priest's house to a different place, oh gee. I think it's better to fix the old hall.

Ms. M:

Fix the old one.

Mr. P:

Sure and give a school to the kids.

Ms. B:

Help the young kids. Give the money for the kids who need the money.

Mr. P:

Yeh. Oh, I'm against the hall.

Ms. M:

Well, that's about it. I think we've talked about everything.... You know, when you came to Edmonton with your wife and your son, you said your boy went to McCauley School. Was there not a Catholic school?

Mr. P:

No, no.

Ms. B:

Do you have Canadian citizenship?

Mr. P:

Who me? I got Canadian citizen back in 1913.

Ms. M:

We didn't talk about the war. Do you remember anything that happened in Canada during the war?

Mr. P:

Oh, well I tell you, we were all praying to stop the war.

Ms. M:

You prayed. So then, nothing happened here during the war.

Mr. P:

No, no. No difference, none.

Ms. M:

Nothing happened here. You didn't have to go to Italy to fight in the war.

Mr. P:

I tell you, I was supposed to go to the war. And, this brother here, he say Giovanni, I go in your place. I supposed to go and he take my place and I take over his farm. I run his farm and mine both. So he went and he went and he was in the war two years, that's all. He got hurt one time, he got shot in the arm.

Ms. B:

You were very energetic. When you were young, you did lots.

Mr. P:

Oh yeh.

Ms. B:

You kept active.

Ms. M:

You were very smart, you were an inventor.

Mr. P:

Oh yeh, oh yeh. Oh, I tell you I learned everything by myself and I know, I don't like to say it myself, but, I know how to do everything.

Ms. M:

You know how to do everything, you even delivered your son.

Mr. P:

I do everything.

Ms. M:

That's good. Well, I guess that's it. Do we need anything else?

Mr. P:

I tell you one thing, I got a book, I got a book about 700 pages and I wish I had the book here, I send it to one of my nephew and a month ago I tell him to send me that book back. It cost me $5.00 to send it to him so he can read it. Oh, that book, it's a good thing to read.

Ms. M:

What kind of a book, a diary?

Mr. P:

All the things what we went through, homesteading.

Ms. M:

Who wrote it, did you write it?

Mr. P:

No, everybody. That book ,like me I put what I done, another fellow he put what he done. Very interesting book. So, I don't know if he gonna send me that book or not but I like to get that book back.

Ms. B:

Do you have his address? Your nephew's address in Minneapolis. Maybe you can write to him and ask him to send that book back. And then maybe we can look at it.

Mr. P:

I can give you the address.

Ms. B:

Yeh, maybe we could even write.

Ms. M:

No, I don't think that would go over very well.

Ms. B:

No. Maybe your son can write him.

Mr. P:

Oh, I told him, I gonna phone him one of these days.

Ms. M:

Do you have any pictures that you took that first year in Edmonton.

Mr. P:

The pictures are all in that book.

Ms. M:

They're all in the book.

Mr. P:

Yeh.