Alfred Capuzzo

Tell me about your memories as a child

That’s been a long time ago and I can’t remember a whole lot of the details, but I had a pretty good childhood all in all. My father was in Italy when the first World War broke out and for his service was given a pass to come to America after the war. I was very young when my family came over, but my name is at Ellis Island.  I grew up in a kind of rough neighborhood. Nothing too terrible, but I remember when we were kids there was this one boy who was going around robbing houses carrying a gun in his pocket.  One day the word got out to the police and a cop went up to a house that he was in to get him out of it. Somehow or another he ended up shooting that cop and wound up in prison. I’m not sure what happened to him after that. So it was a pretty rough neighborhood, but it wasn’t all bad though. I remember we had a great boys club.  It was 25 cents to join for the year and if you wanted to use the pool or the gym it cost a penny. I remember we spent a lot of time there, especially during the summers.