He was a precious stone setter. When we came to
this country, my father came right up to the ship to
pick us up and he took us out for supper. They asked
me if I was hungry, so on the way to our new home
we stopped at a restaurant and they gave me a big
plate of spaghetti. I ate the whole thing.
I used to walk from Dora Street to Laurel Avenue
and to Laurel Hill Elementary School, then to Oliver
Hazard Perry School, more than a mile away. Times
were simpler. The roads are too complicated now, so
we take the back roads home through Olneyville.
Then, when I was eighteen, I was drafted into the
army out of Mount Pleasant High School. They sent
me to Florida for basic training and after three or
fourth months they shipped me up north again to
Fort Devens then on a ship convoy to France. As we
were marching in, somebody said, “The war is over!”
There was no danger. Nobody was going to shoot
me, and I didn’t have to shoot anybody. It was great.
So, I was stationed in Nuremberg where the war
trials were being held. Whenever I could go, I went
to see the trials myself. I was also a sentry where the
trials were held. Someone told me if I asked for compassionate
leave, I could go see my relatives in Italy.
So, they gave me fifteen days plus travel time. I
thought, ‘I have to make the travel time work for
me.’ I went all over the place.
I saw this girl in Italy once when I was young, but
never talked to her. She and her sister went to a school
close to where I was going to school. Her family eventually
immigrated to Canada after World War II. Her
mother wrote a letter to my father with only three
words, ‘Antonio Caramadre, Providence.’ She dropped
it in the mail in Montreal and it made it all the way
over here to Providence. She wanted to know if my
father and mother knew of their relatives who were
living in Cranston. They did know them. So, her
family came down over here and that was the first
time that I talked to Teresa. Happy times. We courted
long distance. Then we got married in Montreal and
she moved here.
When I was younger I used to dance at the Rhodes
on the Pawtuxet. People told me I was a very good
dancer. For a long time, I was a door-to-door salesman.
Frank Caramadre,
I remember Benjamin Fairless, who was the president of US
Steel, was the main speaker at the Bryant University graduation.
ninety-three, Cranston
I went to school and got a degree in business administration in
AS TOLD TO SAMANTHA LABRECQUE
only two years. He said, “Everybody’s got a job, but a lot of you
don’t have one. Get a job doing anything, even going door to door.
I
arrived in Providence by ship from Pontecorvo, Italy, Make a living any way you can.” So, I started to do it myself. To
the night before Christmas Eve, in 1939. I was thirteen my surprise, I did well.
years old. I loved Italy, of course. I moved to Rhode Island A few years later, I got a wholesale job selling Rawleigh Products.
I didn’t get rich on it, but I pulled a living off of it. Years
with my mother and three siblings to be with my father,
Angelo Francesco Caramadre. He was successful in convincing later, my friend, Bill Favicchio, who I knew from high school,
the authorities that he could support his family here. was appointed banking commissioner. | | CONTINUED ON PAGE 130
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l MAY/JUNE 2020 71