This donation consists of 2 oral histories. The first is an oral history interview done by LHC volunteer Christine Lewis. Christine interviewed Salvatore (Sam) Coco about the following topics:
-ethnic diversity around E. Haverhill Street growing up / Italians,
Poles, Germans,Chinese etc (he has many funny stories, and remembers
many personalities from the old neighborhood around 110 E. Haverhill
Street
-schools: Prospect Street School, Hood School, Lawrence High School
-family life / father and mother were born in Trecastagni, father
started out in the mills as a minor, learned English and transitioned to
salesman for Singer during WW1, mother arrived in Lawrence in 1920,
stayed at home (later worked at Grieco Brothers), Uncle Tony with
disability (died at Burke Hospital), Grandmother Agata Coco and
Grandmother Carmela DiFrancesco from the old country. Houses on 93
Newbury Street, Vinestreet, Prospect Street and E. Haverhill Street.
Salisbury Beach, the Depression
-work: the mills, his father at Singer Sewing Machine, mother at Grieco
brothers, my Dad also had many after school jobs as a kid in Lawrence
(the mill, drug store, chemical factory, fish shop -- lot's of good
stories)
-the War: his enlistment in April 1943. His father bringing him to the
bus station. Ft. Deavons, Atlantic City
-Music in Lawrence: the big band era, the night he went to here Glenn
Miller's band in the snow, his playing with bands in Lawrence and
Hampton Beach after the war
-After the war: family, studies at Boston University and commuting,
travels to Maine with a road band, etc
The second oral history is an interview with Phyllis Tyler, long time Lawrencian. A summary of the interview will be posted soon.