Tonia Grassi

Cungie of 33rd and First: a Child of Italian Immigrants ~ 1904 Manhattan Tonia Grassi

A story about the early years of my Mother's life on 33rd Street and First Avenue in New York. The child of Italian Immigrants, it is filled with warm, wholesome, colorful, sensitive, honest, funny and joyous memories of the Immigrant Experience and Americana. It covers her marriage to my Father, also from Italy, and the planting of his American roots in the Jewish garment center of Manhattan where he learned English with a Yiddish accent that remained in the household. You will experience her loving and gentle Mother, caring and temperamental Father, siblings, playmates, street peddlers, sadness, tragedy, laughter, heartache. All of it is true; from Mom's heart and memory to these pages. It has been a labor of love.