2016.101.001

Interviewed by Christine Lewis on March 15, 2016 at Mr. Coco's home in Brewer, Maine.

-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, 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