Interview with Nick K.
Introduction:
For hundreds of years, individuals have immigrated from all over the world. Immigration has shaped our world in numerous ways, through the integration of culture, traditions, and more in society. Individuals have varying reasons for immigrating, such as searching for new opportunities, differing climates, looking for adventures, and jobs, escaping war or conflict, as well as other factors. Individuals may be pulled or pushed to leave their home or current place of residence and travel to a new area. Push and pull factors include aspects such as war, politics, freedoms, and economics. Each process is unique as one person may have a completely different experience than another. These experiences are a reflection of both the individual themselves and well as the current state of the world at that point in history. While immigration brings opportunities and many positives for one, there are many challenges when traveling to new areas, for example, racism, stigma, new climate, language and cultural barriers, and legislation in place. It is important to understand, emphasize, and learn from the experiences of these persons. As we listen, read, or speak about these stories and experiences we can learn so much more about both the individual and our world. It allows us to receive insight as to what this process was like, the obstacles faced, and the legislation around immigration at those moments in time. There is vast importance in understanding the experiences of these individuals as it highlights the personal stories and experiences, historical changes and challenges faced, and even how immigration has shaped the world we live in today. This interview explored the personal experience of a man named Nick, whose life was changed when he immigrated from Greece to the United States. I conducted this interview with Nick, at his daughter’s home in Pennsylvania. I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon with him and while sitting around the kitchen table, we did the interview. Nick’s daughter and my mother were also present during the interview (and can be heard in the background of the interview recording as well), as Nick’s family are close family friends of mine. The interview process was both enjoyable and informative, I had a great time both interviewing and spending the afternoon with Nick getting to hear about his life and immigrant experience. Nick’s story offers a first-hand glimpse into his journey of immigration as well as the challenges, experiences, memories, and cultural aspects.
Where the Journey Began
The journey of Nick’s immigration begins in a town called Kardamyla, which is located in Chios, Greece. Nick was born in Kardamyla in the year of 1933, his parents were also born in Chios. The island of Chios is located in the northern Aegean Sea and is the 5th largest Greek island. The island itself is separated from Turkey by what is known as the Chios straight. Chios is surrounded by gorgeous blue water and on the island, many Medieval Villages remain for historical viewing. The nickname of this island is “The Mastic Island”, due to the tree located there, the Mastic tree. The Mastic tree is only grown on the island, it does not grow or survive anywhere else. The natural resin from the tree is used to make various foods, gum, and even alcohol. It is a unique and historical aspect of this Greek island. Furthermore, as a Greek citizen, he worked as a driver for taxis and buses. Later, he left Chios to work on a ship as he was a member of the merchant marines, which is the merchant navy of Greece. During his time as a marine, he traveled to many parts of the world such as Japan and other places located in Europe. He became a Marine as a way to earn a living and was working to save up to purchase and own his taxi. Additionally, his father and all of his brothers also worked on the ship as merchant marines. This aspect of his history illuminates the cultural aspects unique to Greece, many individuals were involved in the military in Greece, such as his family. This connects to what we have learned about immigration in the ways that learning about an individual’s personal life and past in their country of origin provides for a better understanding of culture, life, and the “norms” of those who live there. Overall, the beginning of Nick’s journey in Chios, Greece, and his path to becoming a merchant marine relate to the heritage, goods, and personal histories of Greek residents and further deepen the understanding of both the immigrant experience and migration.
Arrival in Pittsburgh
After traveling to Japan and other places in Europe, he found himself in the state of California due to the ship’s path. Nick had a friend in the United States who asked him if he would be interested in returning or living here. He spoke of a cousin who lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This led to an event that would change his life, as he traveled to Pittsburgh. Upon traveling to Pittsburgh, Nick tells the story of how he was married, but that it was an arranged marriage. He spoke of how his wife’s father was also from Greece, working on a military ship, and their family traveled to the United States as well. His father-in-law opened up a restaurant in the south side of Pittsburgh, called “Gus’s Lunch”. After opening up this restaurant and traveling from Greece, his father-in-law then brought the rest of his family over, including his future wife when she was around the age of 20 years old Nick speaks of the story and retails how his father-in-law traveled to the United States and opened a restaurant that served authentic Greek food, it made me think of the ways that immigration allows for the deeper integration of culture traditions into new areas. This restaurant located in the south side of Pittsburgh introduces an authentic restaurant with Greek foods, traditions, and other cultural aspects that are unique to the country of Greece. Immigration allows for both the introduction and expansion of customs in new areas and creates diversity. This is important because it enables areas such as Pittsburgh to become more diverse, cultural, and welcoming to individuals from all regions of the world. Nick’s journey to the United States beginning with his father-in-law and the establishment of their family in Pittsburgh as well as their Greek restaurant allows for illumination on how immigration works to enrich communities through the integration of customs, traditions, foods, and other cultural aspects to create a more inclusive and expansive community.
An Arranged Marriage to a Lifetime of Love
Furthermore, Nick’s marriage being arranged also played a pivotal role in his immigration experience and personal life. Nick was introduced to his wife through his future father-in-law, Gus. Nick was married to him thirteen days later, less than two weeks of knowing each other. Although it is no longer as practiced as in the past, arranged marriages were commonly seen in Greece. In Greece, arranged marriages were known as “synikesion,” or “proxenio”. Despite the fact that Nick and his wife were in an arranged marriage, after only knowing each other for less than two weeks, their marriage was beautiful and they were incredibly in love. Through the retelling of his life story and immigrant experience, he spoke of his way in such elegant ways, that one would never know they were an arranged marriage, but two individuals who loved each other wholeheartedly. Nick’s arranged marriage played a strong role in his experience of immigration as it was a clear example of how traditions and cultural practices are often brought to new areas when individuals migrate. Additionally, his marriage was also a symbol of how Nick’s Greek heritage and cultural processes were implemented in the United States despite it not being a common practice here. The story of his marriage is a great way of illustrating how immigration creates relationships, traditions, cultural ties, and dynamics even in foreign or new areas. In closing, Nick’s marriage, being an arranged marriage, provides a strong example of how immigration plays a key role in new countries. This key role is shown through the ways that cultural traditions are implemented and adapted. As well as how the influence of heritage in daily life, relationships, and practices is a way in which new areas become more diverse and hospitable to individuals from all over the world.
Becoming a Citizen
As the world was changing, the laws and policies in place regarding immigration to the United States were also changing. Through Nick’s recount of his experience, he speaks on how the chief of immigration in Pittsburgh lived next door to his wife and her family. The immigration officer knew that he was not a legal citizen and had spoken to him a few times reminding him that he only had a specific number of days until he would be asked to leave and return to Greece. He and his newly wedded wife traveled to New York to attain citizenship through naturalization, Nick doesn’t recall the exact year this was but it was in the late 1950s or early 1960s. At this time in history, the current and main legislation on immigration laws was the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (The McCarran-Walter Act), which acted as a reform for discriminatory aspects of legislation, provided quotes for nations, ended racial restrictions and expanded enforcement on enforcement. This would’ve been one of the main forms of legislation in place during the time that Nick was seeking naturalization in the United States. As Nick and his wife ventured to New York, they began the process for citizenship. Nick recalls how they were split into two separate rooms and the immigration workers asked them questions about one another to determine if they knew each other. Additionally, he also completed a citizenship test when at the immigration office in New York. This process was a tad bit extensive and difficult due to the language barrier. Both Nick and his wife spoke Greek and understood very little English, his wife understanding a little more as he had only been in the US for a few days. Nick’s story offers a view into what the experience of an immigrant in the United States would’ve been like at this point. It also allows for an understanding of how immigration was enforced and a focus on the US, such as the immigration officer next door, and the questioning and testing that was done in New York when applying for citizenship. His personal experience shows insight into challenges that may be encountered such as language barriers, citizenship testing, a limited timeline to achieve legal citizenship, and more. Furthermore, his story also allows for a greater understanding of how the process of receiving legal status in the United States was complex and not a one-step process. Overall, Nick’s story provides a personal perspective and overall knowledge of the immigration process, its challenges, and its impacts on experiences by individuals. It also exemplifies the courage and determination of him and many others through this process despite being in a new environment and encountering language barriers.
To conclude, throughout history, there have been many individuals who have immigrated to the United States. Every individual has their own stories and experiences that include many positives and negatives but ultimately are specific to the person. Listening to and understanding Nick’s story illustrates how many individuals who immigrated to the United States faced challenges, such as a language barrier and unfamiliarity with the area. Additionally, his story allowed for an in-depth perspective of how one may experience the legal process on a personal level. Nick’s journey from Greece to the United States is both personal and important but also allows for a greater understanding of how immigration has affected our world. It shows how immigration leads to cultural practices, traditions, her tailgate, and language being integrated into new areas thus making them more diverse. This interview was a phenomenal experience, I enjoyed taking the time to get to know Nick and his life experiences, it gave me such great insight. Nick’s story provided perception into the legal process, personal experiences as well as changes that he faced as an individual immigrating and obtaining citizenship in the United States.
References:
- Sociology 318 In-class lecture notes, professor Trouielle
- An in-person interview conducted on November 26th, 2024 with Nick Kartofilis
- https://immigrationhistory.org/timeline/
- https://www.visitgreece.gr/islands/north-aegean-islands/chios/
Interview Transcript
Lydia Molinero (Myself): [00:00:00] Okay,so I started our recording. Um, where and when were you born?
Nick (Interviewee): Chios, Greece. Oh! Yeah. Very cool. Chios, by Kardamila , Kardamila. Half an hour difference. I was born in Kardamila.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah, so what he’s saying is his island is here and he was born in his little town called Kardamila.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Is that on the water?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, that sounds beautiful.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah
Lydia Molinero (Myself): that sounds really cool. And then what year were you born? What year?
Nick (Interviewee): Ninety thirty three.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Ah, awesome.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): So he’s ninety-one.
Nick (Interviewee): Ninety-one.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): You don’t look nninety-one You look twenty one.
Nick (Interviewee): No, I don’t. I’m sixty-five.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Were your parents born in the same place?
Nick (Interviewee): No, I [00:01:00] come over here.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): No. Your parents, your mom and dad. They were born in Greece.
Nick (Interviewee): In Greece too.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): The same place? S Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, okay.
Nick (Interviewee): Not same place. I think it is the, I think it’s born the Salonica some place.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Salonica.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh!
Nick (Interviewee): I forgot the place.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Is that close to like….
Nick (Interviewee): My father-in-law.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Mm-hmm .
Nick (Interviewee):From my island, Kardamyla, from the Kardamyla.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Oh yeah. Yeah. My mom’s dad is from there.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, okay.
Nick (Interviewee): My wife’s mother is living there, Salonica and uh, uh, I remember her name. Forgot . That’s okay.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): They weren’t organized enough.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): When did, did your parents come to. The U. S. after you were born or did you come to the U. S. without your parents?
Nick (Interviewee): After. Oh, okay. I’m working. Mm hmm. I finish [00:02:00] school. I’m working, uh, kardamyla, right here.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Nick (Interviewee): I’m working here. And I drive a taxi or a bus.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Nick (Interviewee): And then I leave to go to work for the ship. Go to Japan all over.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, wow.
Nick (Interviewee): Go to Europe.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
Nick (Interviewee): And then I come to California and Japan. And Japan, the California, I see the friend of mine.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Mm-hmm.
Nick (Interviewee): Now I meet a cousin, but before he’s friend from my area.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Mm-hmm.
Nick (Interviewee): All the mother, father, everybody.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Mm-hmm.
Nick (Interviewee): And I know. And I come first time, the guys come to inside the ship because the captain is relay.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Mm
Nick (Interviewee): Her name, Mark.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Mm hmm.
Nick (Interviewee): He looked at me and said, Nick, what happened to you? I said, I decided to work for the ship. Yeah. And I go [00:03:00] back to buy a taxi for myself.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, so you came over and then worked different jobs and then bought the taxi.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, that’s really cool.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): But he worked there too. He was in Greece. In Greece. And he worked on a taxi and then they put him on a ship. He was like in the merchant marines. Oh. And that’s when he said he traveled to Japan and stuff. That’s when my dad and
Nick (Interviewee): Everybody go to work for the ship to make a living.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): So, all his brothers were captains on ships too. My father too.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh. Is that like similar to, like, the Greek military then, or is that through the U. S.?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): No, it is. It’s the Greek. It’s like the Greek Navy.
Nick (Interviewee): I will go to military. Army.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, okay.
Nick (Interviewee): After two years, I’m done.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, only two? Only two years, oh!
Nick (Interviewee): That’s the difference.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Cause I feel like here, it’s like four.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Four. So yeah, so then he came here to, that’s what he’s saying, he went to California, and then, then he came here, and they, I find a guy, [00:04:00] a friend of mine, I say,
Nick (Interviewee): You like to stay over here, Nick? I say, if I find a good girl, maybe I’ll do it.
And the, the second or third time I come back to him, he say, if you only like to stay, I have my cousin, he lives in Pittsburgh.
But same time, I know my wife, he lives in Pittsburgh. 1945, something like that. He’s young. He’s come to my yard.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, so cute. Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): Because he called him, the father.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Mm-hmm.
From my town. You don’t
Nick (Interviewee): know, my wife never thought, and I see. But I’m working in the town, everybody knows me.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): And I know the relatives you have, yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh. Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. Every day. They baptize the woman. It’s called Nona. It’s work over here. Yeah, and I know close 10 [00:05:00] minutes from my house. Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): So they met here.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): They brought him here.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): So your wife’s family brought you to the United States?
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah, my my wife’s. The father’s come over here. Oh. He’s going to stay.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah, so my grandfather, my mom’s dad came here from Greece and he had a restaurant.
Nick (Interviewee): He was working in a ship.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Oh. He was also in a ship, but then he came here and had a restaurant at Southside.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, wow.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah. It was called, what was his restaurant called?
Nick (Interviewee): Guss’s lunch.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Guss’s Lunch.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Oh. How long ago has it been going?
Nick (Interviewee): Ten streets. Ten streets.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): 10th street
Nick (Interviewee): On side of the school.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Yeah. Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): The next one now that is the gas station?
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Yes. Yeah. Yes. Oh yeah, right there on
Nick (Interviewee): That place you have three houses. That’s the barber shop, beer joint, and my father-in-law Guss’s lunch.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Oh, wow.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): I don’t, I don’t think I know where that is.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Yeah, you do. [00:06:00] Like,
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): It’s on Carson Street there, the cars.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Oh, heading towards Station Square. Yeah.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): The guy’s going to sell it, the property. It gets everybody out. Yeah.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): So anyway, yeah, so my mom’s dad was here. He had his restaurant. Yeah, so then they brought my mom from Greece. She was like 20
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Ohhh!
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): they brought him and they got married 13 days later
Nick (Interviewee): I left, I left for California
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Short, oh two weeks
Nick (Interviewee): I come over here like a special delivery
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah Special delivery And my mom was like, no thanks No
Lydia Molinero (Myself): How does that work? So did your mom’s parents Meet him, and then they were just like, that’s it.
Nick (Interviewee): Mm-hmm.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, wow.
Nick (Interviewee): That time is the, you go to airport, the people go close to close. Not the same. Like now you stay far away.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Hmm. Yeah,
Nick (Interviewee): And, [00:07:00] and I decide to come over here. They come in north, I’m going to stay and they call the immigration. The immigration come up. He said, Nick, you want to stay over here? I said, no, no, I’m going to Greece. He said, the captain said, you’re going to stay over here? I said, no. He give me this deal, deal one for 15 days. I’m going to stay over here 15 days. And, uh, uh, the immigration say, you use the flight to go to Greece, right? I said, no. I afraid , they say, I, you go to New York, I say, I’m gonna use it for train. I told the cops, they say, I can’t force, you know, like to go to. I can’t force. And I come, but same time I have the number four from , my [00:08:00] younger, my father’s brother and my cousin from California. I have a number and I left.
And I called the California. Mark, I say, I’m leaving right now, but the immigration next to me. He said, okay, any place you stop, Chicago, any place, call back. And I called, he said, I come to Chicago. He said, all right, you go out, take another plane, not for train, take another plane to go to Pittsburgh. I said, okay.
Anyway, I was taking everything out with me, and I would go to the office, and same time my uncle would say, you go to airport, put somebody to tell me the way to come to Pittsburgh, this and that. And I would go over there to buy the ticket. I say, can [00:09:00] you call this gun number? He’s going to call over here.
He started to talk. He said that, yeah, tell me the number for airplane, what time to come to Pittsburgh, this and that. That’s crazy. And Nick is gonna pay you, give me the ticket, and I come to Pittsburgh.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh my gosh.
Nick (Interviewee): My young, my uncle, he’s come out the side, he’s waiting for me, but before he said to me, how can I know?
I said, how can I know you? He said, I have a newspaper in my hand. Yes, a lot of people cross the airport to help me out with it. And say, I’m, I’m tall. The time I started to take a magic test, when I was working, I see the guy had a newspaper, he’s not tall, he’s short.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Could you imagine no cell phones either?
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Yeah, that’s what I keep thinking. Running, having to call.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): You show up at an airport and you don’t know anybody. What? [00:10:00]
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): My parents had that. Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): And, uh, I tried to walk, the time I would go close and say, How do you know me? You have the paper to read it. They say, Okay. I take all the kids inside the car, we’re going to drive to Pittsburgh here, yeah, and live in Cascasiana Boulevard. My uncle.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah, so that’s where he, yeah. Yeah,
Nick (Interviewee): I go over there. Yeah. And I say all my life. Oh.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Yeah, yeah, they are right by Mimi and Pappy.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): What?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Their, their house was like four houses up from, um, Carbonara, or, do you know where?
Nick (Interviewee): No, past that store.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): No, I was there. Oh, you mean this was a different house?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah. Oh, yes, like, um, McDonald’s.
Nick (Interviewee): You know where is it? Mount Lebanon, Boulevard, by the PPG?
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Yeah, yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): Alright. Cross, cross, you have the place restaurant.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Yes.
Nick (Interviewee): The next one.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Yes. The red brick?
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Yeah, [00:11:00] totally. We drive past it all the time.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): I’ll have to look at it next time I drive by.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): So that was your first home?
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): And then the one now?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): On Killarney.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah, on Killarney. I would go there and I stay over here.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): The next day, they said to me, let’s go to see my brother. And I got to Killarney. And I see my wife, my mother, and everybody. Aww. And I was just so happy. I don’t say nothing, and then, uh, I go back to stay with my uncle George. And then, after a couple of days, go back to eat, stuff like that. And, uh, everybody asked, they asked my wife, they said, how do you like him?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): How do you like him?
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): She didn’t have a choice.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): She didn’t have a choice. That was it.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Obviously a lot. In the end. It worked out.
Nick (Interviewee): He said, if you asked him before, he said, no, I don’t know, I don’t like him. [00:12:00]
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): It’s so crazy.
Nick (Interviewee): And then I stay over here, but same time. Next to my house, Killarney, lived the chief of the immigration. Nobody knows.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): The chief of the immigration?
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Oh.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Lived next door?
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah, before Billy’s father to buy the house. And, uh, my father in law he worked at a restaurant for a long time. But it come from streetcar, you know, driving. It stop over there. And I was, me and my wife, I’m not yet, I’m not married.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): I use the car on block down to wait to come get father. But same time I was talking to my wife, I said, two people over there, they work at downtown, dress them [00:13:00] up. I told my wife, before you come to pick you up, your father, did you see the people? She said, no. I figured, right away, something happened. Anyway, my father always come from the streetcar, open the door, and I move, sit over here, my wife is driving, drive up on Killarney. That I’m going to turn left, the driveway. The car is in the behind, he’s gonna stop in the back, he’s leaving the door open. The time my wife go inside the garage, my father was opening the door, somebody push the door, he said, Gus, forget it. My father said, what happened? He said, no, no, I’m gonna stay, my father, he knows the immigration.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh. Oh. Oh.
Nick (Interviewee): And they said, what, what happened? They say, gus, yeah. They say, Gus, [00:14:00] they’re gonna come, they’re gonna come to catch the guy. My father in law would say, you’re not catching the guy. Anyway, I was go out, my wife go out. My father would always say, oh, the immigration say, maybe not use the phone. My father in law would say, yeah, you gonna come up? I go up. Use the phone, he give you coffee, start to talk, this and that, and called, and called the chief, and, uh, the chief he say, yeah, I see that guy couple of times outside the house.
He say, why you catch him? He say somebody gonna spy. Because before, I will go downtown, and I register. I don’t, I forgot the place. And I registered. Yeah. And I registered.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): He has to register.
Nick (Interviewee): [00:15:00] Yeah. And I registered for marriage.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): You see? That’s the reason somebody’s going to call the Immigration because they have to catch him. The guy, the time he told the chief, the chief said, no, no, you’re not a bother. You’re not bothering on me. You’re not bothered. You have a 15 days, you’re not allowed to do nothing. Mm-hmm. After 15 days you just told me.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): Anyway.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Lots of excitement.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): So, so Chief of immigration was, knew that your father was an immigrant or knew that
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): No. Yeah. They were checking him.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. I checked for me
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): he wasn’t allowed to be here, I guess.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. Because that time of year, yeah, it come lot of people out and lot of people. You spy, you say, this guy is not legal. Yeah. Immigration will give you 30 bucks. They are going to spy, they’re going to spy on you.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah, because he wasn’t, yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): [00:16:00] He wasn’t married or anything yet.
Nick (Interviewee): Anyway.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): What year would that have been, do you know?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): What year was that?
Nick (Interviewee): Oh, what year.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): So wait a minute…
Nick (Interviewee): that those, I know, I can’t remember the next
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Well it had be the same year they got married.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): That’s what I’m trying to think. So Teddy was born before,
Nick (Interviewee): before and I married and I would go downtown.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): It was like 61 ish, 1861 ish…
Nick (Interviewee): because I, I’m, I’m going marry. Yeah. Alright. And, uh,
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Teddy’s 62.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Wow.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): so Teddy’s 62 and he was born in 1962.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Mm.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): So this must have been 1961.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): So you were married around like age
Nick (Interviewee): 60, 61.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): 20, like early 20s?
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. I thought between 60, 61 and
I Yeah. Because I left after, alright?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah, so he got married, they got married November 14th of 1961.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. [00:17:00] Yeah. after there like go downtown. He come to catch me. But same time, same time the, you know the 88, to 51?
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yes.
Nick (Interviewee): Alright.
Exactly. we have, that’s the big traffic light, it’s come up from the Beech View down, go across the street, go to 51, 88. The corner, the 88. they have three houses, now he don’t have nothing. they have three houses, one house they sell a lot of tools. The next house, that is the one lawyer, my father in law, he knows.
Alright?
Lydia Molinero (Myself): No, it’s, I love this story. His English is good too.
Nick (Interviewee): My father in law is come to house, he say, Um, Let’s go. He said, where you go? He said, let’s go down to the lawyer. [00:18:00]
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, to get married.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. And I was over there. My father in law told you, he knows the lawyer. He said, listen, that’s my daughter. That’s my other son’s gonna marry.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): So you had only known each other how many days?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Thirteen. Mommy told me thirteen days. Oh. Mommy.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): She forgot one.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah. Thirteen or fourteen days. Something like that. I think they had to go to New york to get the marriage.
Nick (Interviewee): I hadn’t gotten married already. From America. The time when I got down to Immigration, Immigration called, he told the chief. He tell that the two of them. Are married now. He said, tell Nick. To come down.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): So was your wife a citizen already and then you got married ?
Nick (Interviewee): Married, I married America.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): She was born in the US?
Nick (Interviewee): No.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): No. She was born in Greece.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): And then she came over here got citizenship and then they were married.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): But in america, we had to go see [00:19:00] the judge.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yes.
Nick (Interviewee): And I married.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): And then the Migration, he called me and I go down to talk to him.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): So then, did you get citizenship through the marriage or did you have to apply to be a citizen too? Like, how does that work? You have to do both?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): So you see, before, after, I told the Migration, he say, yeah, I married, but I’m going to marry a Greek. Go to church. He say, when you go? I say, Saturday. He say, don’t forget, Saturday night, you’re not allowed to stay in United States.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Like he knew what day you were had to leave.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Ohhh okay.
Nick (Interviewee): Anyway, I married. The next day, I go to New York. Me, my wife, my father, and my uncle, we go to New York. And, uh, I was, I called the owner, the chief. The sister said to me, Nick [00:20:00] Sunday’s they close the office, but Johnny is gonna come down and I come, the owners come down, they look me, say start to talk, and they say, let’s go up to the office.
The time we go up the office. The owner is living close to my younger Howard, my father-in-law. Oh, close.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): The started to talk because the uncle. He’s come when was he was 15 years old.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): Started to talk. He said, yeah, Nick is taking to my brother’s daughter, this and that. The owner said, Nick, why you not told me? You come over here and you stay the way to, where some ship is going to come.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): Then you go in. He said, well, Captain John, that is a big story. So I’m going to how do you say.[00:21:00]
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): So he got married and then he went to New York and they did have to take a citizenship test.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, I didn’t know that that existed in the 60s. I thought that was like a much later test.
Nick (Interviewee): After they, uh, the time they got Monday morning to go to the immigration, New York.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yes. Yes.
Nick (Interviewee): I’m not allowed, but 12 o’clock, after.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, that was like the cutoff.
Nick (Interviewee): And I was going to immigration, me and my wife, and started to talk. That time we don’t have all this stuff. My wife is go one room, me, another room, and I was talk somebody, my wife talk somebody, then she gonna try to find out, if I know this or that.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah, to see if you actually knew each other.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. And then I stay all day. The last one, the immigration said to me, Nick, now I give you ten days, [00:22:00] the time you go back to Pittsburgh, you have a honeymoon in New York for ten days, and you go back to Pittsburgh, I give you another thirty days, or four days, and then try to go to Greece. You know, I used to go to different place because you spent money for nothing.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): You, you, you’re a good man, you have a good record. Go back to Greece, you see your family, mother, brother.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): And then the wife gonna bring over here.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, so you were the only one from your family in the United States at that time.
Nick (Interviewee): I stayed a couple of months and then I go back to Greece.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Do you still visit a lot?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Well, he just went back this summer.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, really?
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. The same time, my Uncle George, he knows some senator. He’s very friend. Mm. He [00:23:00] live across, across to my church now. He live across. Mm hmm. And, uh, he go to the office. He say, listen, . My brother. Yes. I hear your daughter is gonna marry Nick.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): Nick is going to live.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): His brother is like 82 .
Nick (Interviewee): Greece.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): Supposed to go back, but try to get faster way over here.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah. A faster way to get you legal. Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. Sarah, call me, then. This, that
Lydia Molinero (Myself): mm-hmm . Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): The time I was going to Greece after a one two weeks.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): And, uh, my mother, I’m staying in Paros my mother’s.
He called me and said, hey, I’m crazy to look for you. I said, it’s alright.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah. You figured it out. That would have been, like, nerve wracking knowing that they were, like, looking for you, but you were, like, actually
Nick (Interviewee): They were looking for me to come back. Yeah. That’s because that time, years back, we had a lot of problems for tourists to come [00:24:00] here.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Oh. But now we’re just letting them in, right?
Nick (Interviewee): The only thing I have a good record, that’s a little I come faster way, because before is different, very different.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): So he did come in here legally.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah. Yeah. That’s super cool. We were just learning in class about like, When they did all, like, the naturalization laws, and how, like, only some countries were allowed to come to the United States, and all that, and that was crazy for me to think about, like, Imagine you wanted to come here, and if you weren’t from a specific country, they were like, no.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): I think that’s why he had to have the ship, like, the captain of the ship say that he was from Greece, and they had to, you know, everybody.
Nick (Interviewee): Before that, I know, my father had an accident, a ship.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.,
Nick (Interviewee): And they come over here to stay.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): So your father-in-law worked on the same ship as you and that’s how you met him?
Nick (Interviewee): No, not my father-in-law . My father did work same ship.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh your father did but not your father-in-law.
Nick (Interviewee): No, not my father-in-law.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Okay.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. [00:25:00] Oh. Now I was go for different ship couple of time and I left for one and take another one.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): I’m very happy because, and I know the owner and everything.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah, he gave me a good job and everything.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Uh, what was your job when you came over to the U. S.? Over here I started
Nick (Interviewee): For painting.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, painting. Oh, did you do that in Greece too or only here?
Nick (Interviewee): No, I do a painting inside the ship.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh! Okay.
Nick (Interviewee): I do everything in the ship. Yeah. I have a good, good job in the ship.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah, almost like a mechanic.
Nick (Interviewee): Mm hmm. That time I’m young and I learn everything.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Nick (Interviewee): Same time the owner, he told the, he told the captain and the engineer, he said, Nick is going to work like a just engineer, he’s going to pay. Yeah. I don’t have a license, but I say he knows the job.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah. Did your wife and her whole family speak English or Greek as well, or both?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Greek. [00:26:00]
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Nick (Interviewee): My wife, she learned a lot of Greek because English. Because she like to read.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Nick (Interviewee): At the same time, same. Like same time my Uncle George, he told my wife.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Mm-hmm.
Nick (Interviewee): The first day to come over here.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): And not talk. Not talk.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): Look, he say, listen, from now on started to read a lot to learn English.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Mm-hmm .
Nick (Interviewee): My wife. it thing to do it. Yeah. She, because she learned one time she go from visit my Uncle, say, turned at the light. You don’t know.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah. So she was fluent in both?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah. She could do both. She learned ’cause my, her dad had a restaurant. And she learned because she helped him in his restaurant. Oh. And she would read, and she loved watching TV.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Ohhhh!
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): And she just learned how to speak English.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): That’s impressive.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): One, one, one thing I forgot. My parents in law. No, my father in law, he [00:27:00] had a, he had a, he had a phone. You don’t, you don’t know. My father will have a big restaurant in Georgetown.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, in Washington.
Nick (Interviewee): Georgetown. What is it?
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, Johnstown. I thought you said Georgetown at first.
Nick (Interviewee): He have a big restaurant.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Nick (Interviewee): He have a room upstairs to rent. That’s, you know, have a lot in it. Really? You know, it’s come like, like, It come, you part with coming through . Yeah, the rest of it have it Johnstown.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yes.
Nick (Interviewee): Big roads, it have it two television, that time you don’t have a television. Then it’s television. Yeah. That time you gonna start to print. And then.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): That probably helped a lot for her to read it and then see it and then working in the restaurant, interacting with everybody too.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): I mean she was really, for not, like they both went to like sixth grade.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, what was it? That was one of my [00:28:00] next questions was did you go to school at all here? Or only greece.
Nick (Interviewee): I go to school in, uh, fifth Avenue in the evening.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): So yeah, when he came here, he went a little bit of English school down, um, like near North Side. Mm. But it’s not you.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. Yeah. Then, uh, after Johnstown, my father was come to buy the restaurant, castle Street.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, in the south side?
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. Yeah. Same time. Johnstown is a small place, he knows everybody, all the police, he go over there, everybody, have a big place, have a big place, like a room in the freezer, freezer, they have a lot of things inside.
The police or something like that, you go inside, drink coffee, my father, you know, charge nothing, you need the meat, take your meat, go home. Everybody knows it.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): After a year. And I started to work a couple of years, [00:29:00] and I was working at Johnstown, and a lot of people, my boss, my cousin, he hired people from Johnstown.
One police, he’s a friend, he’s come to work, and most of the time the friend and most of the police.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): He started to talk to me, I said, you know the Guss? Yeah. He said, that’s my father in law.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): That’s funny. They had no idea.
Nick (Interviewee): They go together every day. Yeah. All the time.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): He does have a good memory. You can remember a lot.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): You can remember all these details.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. I know. You didn’t
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): I can’t even remember yesterday.
Nick (Interviewee): No I, remember from 1994, the Germans come to my country, kill people, hungry, and I know all this.
And then a little bit of English school here.
But not really. At that [00:30:00] time, any place, Yeah. Yeah. At that time, any place that I would go, I learned languages.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): Stay two, three weeks, and go out and talk, and then I have to, I forgot everything. Yeah.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): There was war. I don’t know what war was in Greece.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): In the 60s. Would that have been in the 60s?
Nick (Interviewee): No. 40.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): When was the war in Greece?
Nick (Interviewee): 40, 45. Oh my God. That is going to come in Italy.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): The Greek Civil War?
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. Maybe that was it. Revolution. Come to Italy, and then After Italy, the Germans gonna come.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): So does that make sense? If he was born in 1933, if that was a civil war, because I think they went to like 5th or 6th grade. And then? And then, I thought there was a war with Turkey, right?
Nick (Interviewee): No, Turkey before.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Oh.
Nick (Interviewee): A year back.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Nick (Interviewee): My mother is come from Turkey.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Nick (Interviewee): My mother is born 1903. 1903.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): So she was born in Turkey and then [00:31:00] came to Greece.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Was she born in Turkey?
Nick (Interviewee): My mother.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Oh, so we are Turkish?
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Oh my gosh. Turkey better be better.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): We’re learning so much.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): I know. I didn’t know she was born in Turkey.
Nick (Interviewee): My mother.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): And your dad was born in Greece.
Nick (Interviewee): In Greece. It had a revolution.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh. Oh. The revolution.
Nick (Interviewee): And then Turkey and then Greece. Everywhere we went. It was same like you know, the Pakistan too.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yes, yes.
Nick (Interviewee): Same thing, the fighting of people.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Nick (Interviewee): And a lot of people. Yeah, a lot of people just come to my island, different people go different island.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): My father, he have a maybe one dozen brother and sister, and I don’t know nobody.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah. Was it, when you and your wife got married, was it like strange that you didn’t know each other? Or [00:32:00] like, how was that?
Nick (Interviewee): It wasn’t for my mother, but for my wife.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): For mommy? Yeah. You didn’t know each other? Was it weird? Or was it normal?
Nick (Interviewee): No. I told you before. I see. The time we have a revolution in Greece, come from the mother’s place to visit the father. For the father, because the father is living half an hour place from my house. Alright?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): So he had seen her. Yeah. He had saw my mom, so he thought she was okay.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh!
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Because she was so cute.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah, the hair all the way down. Brooklyn or something like that. Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): She had long hair?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): She had long hair.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Aww.
Nick (Interviewee): And I see. I’m young and, and I, see I’m not giving attention, but
Lydia Molinero (Myself): You thought she was cute!
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Oh my gosh!
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Here’s what she looked like when she was young. Well this was after she cut her hair.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): She has really nice like, lips, they look perfect.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Let me see.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Look, don’t her lips [00:33:00] look perfect?
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Oh wow, they do. Mmm. Long hair.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): But she had long hair. Really? And then she got in trouble. When she was little she cut her hair. She had really long braids and She took her braids home to her mom and she got in so much trouble. I think they beat her. She had lice.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): That’s why you won’t do short hair.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): She had lice. And her mom, so mean, they like scraped her scalp.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): No!
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): That’s why my mom never wanted to go back to Greece. She hated her life there.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Really?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): She wasn’t allowed to have friends.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): What time did, or what age did she come to here?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): When she was like 20.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, okay. So they were around the same age when they both came to the U.S.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah. So he was born in 33. She was born in 34.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Okay. So very close in age.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Wow! But he didn’t hate it over there.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): No, she hated it. That’s why, he would go back every, until his mother died, he would go back almost [00:34:00] yearly. Um, she never wanted to go back. She always told us she wouldn’t.
Nick (Interviewee): Tell me, told you, say, tell your mother, say, I don’t like to compare to you. She hated it. You don’t go…
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Like, yeah. She didn’t like it.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah, I never told her to me.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah, she didn’t tell him.
Nick (Interviewee): One time I gave her.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): What was her name again?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Helen. Well, her name’s Eleni.
Nick (Interviewee): Eleni. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. That time, first time, at dinner, I said, Mom, I have a ticket, boat to go to Greece.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): I said, come on. I have a ticket.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah. Come with me.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. She didn’t like to go.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): And she didn’t like to.
Nick (Interviewee): But he didn’t tell me nothing. But Tammy, my daughter, said, she told me one time, it’s the, 1944 have a lot of problem. People is hungry. People is killing. She didn’t like it. She didn’t like to come back. Uh huh. But I never told her, she never said that to me. Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Was there something, like, anything really weird about the U. S.? Like, when you came here, was there anything that was super weird compared [00:35:00] to, like, what, like, Greek life was like, I guess?
Nick (Interviewee): No, I cannot understand.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Was it different living here than in Greece? Like big differences?
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah, yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Difference. Just, like, cultural stuff, or?
Nick (Interviewee): No, it’s different. That time is different.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah. Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. I see people. All people, I, I like to go all the time for all people, and I love a lot of things, all stuff, and all I, I know this, all the truth, anything gonna say before, all the truth.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): Everybody’s got to catch up, all people. One day you talk, then another day, uh, die, no eat, no nothing.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): In Greece.
Nick (Interviewee): In Greece.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Oh. Like there, you know, the life there wasn’t great.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): It wasn’t.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): No, like.
Nick (Interviewee): That’s, yeah.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Not a lot of money. Not a lot of, you know, that kind of stuff.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Life expectancy was just a little different.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Like, and they didn’t have, yeah, and they didn’t have, like, running water like we do.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh. Um. So all of that was new.
Nick (Interviewee): You buy one cabbage, you’re gonna pay one buck. [00:36:00] Morning.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Cabbage?
Nick (Interviewee): Cabbage. That time.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): And like, when we, even now, when we went to where his island is, like you can’t flush toilet paper.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): You can’t, yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Do they have like the same toilets as we do, or are they like the ones in the ground?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): There’s a hole.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Some of the places just have a hole.
Nick (Interviewee): Ah. I work out all day.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Pardon?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): He’s out working all day.
Nick (Interviewee): I’ve worked all day.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): A tension march.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): She wasn’t listening.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): I thought he asked me if I was working.
Nick (Interviewee): My neighbor, he have the chief of the German.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yes.
Nick (Interviewee): Like a friend. Boyfriend, something like that. He knows me. And, uh, and I was working all day. In the house. Cleaning up, this and that. He give me slice of bread.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh yeah, was he a baker?
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Nick (Interviewee): In Germany. He gave me sliced bread. And I [00:37:00] take and I go home, I give you one piece for my mother, for my father, for my brother, and I take another piece. For that time.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh,
Nick (Interviewee): That time people is happy, you know, not doing nothing. You see, you don’t have nothing.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah. So that was in Greece.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh. I see. That’s really cool.
Nick (Interviewee): How can I, how can I forget? Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Well, I probably have time to ask you like one more question. Oh, your house is still in Greece?
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): The same house you grew up in?
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, that’s awesome.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): He has a picture. That’s where he went.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Aww!
Nick (Interviewee): And we saw it too. And like I said, if, well, he’ll tell you.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): So does anyone from your family still live in that house?
Nick (Interviewee): My son in-law, he’s going to buy the house.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Me and, me and Ernie are trying to buy that house.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): That would be really cool.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): My brother’s trying to figure out, um, how we can get [00:38:00] it cause it’s hard to buy.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Like, country to country?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): And my aunt who owns it now.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Which would be his sister.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): No, he had a brother that came here at one time. So he was our only uncle we knew. My Uncle Jim. And then he went back to Greece and he worked on a ship. His ship came to New Orleans. And it exploded.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh my gosh. Was it a military ship too?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): It wasn’t. No, it was a grain. Like they carried grain, like corn. And he flipped a switch. And the whole boat exploded.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): You think it was like accidental?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Oh.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): And so my older brother had to fly to New Orleans. He identified the body and flew back to Greece with it.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): So anyway, and then my uncle’s wife came here and there was this big thing because it happened in the U. S. They like sued the boat, whatever.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): So that aunt, which is my, his sister-in-law, ended up with the [00:39:00] house.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): Ah! How long ago did that happen?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): So, right when me and Arnie started dating, because when the lawyers came here and she came here so that house right now is for sale, but she owns it.
And she doesn’t talk to anybody. So my brother, when he was over there this summer, he got in contact with her. So we’re trying to figure out how to buy it.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): That’d be awesome.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): But nobody lives in it now.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): So you can make it your own.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah, I think it, it definitely, like, he went in it for, and he took a video, everything, like, there’s pictures of him and my mom’s wedding.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): No way! Still up in the house.
Nick (Interviewee): I have, I’m going to show you a video. That house, have two room.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): It’s little.
Nick (Interviewee): Because the time my mother’s gone for the Turkish.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): That’s incredible.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): And it’s still like completely standing too. That’s awesome.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): I mean how old would you say that house is?
Nick (Interviewee): Pardon me?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): How old is the house? The house? Your house in Greece, how old is it? Do you know?
Nick (Interviewee): Well, the time my mother’s [00:40:00] come over here, she’s living all year some place, then she ran from there. She’s now there anyway. And then the, the government probably. Fix all these houses. All the houses. And, uh, the neighbor, he knows my wife, my mother. He says, name is Tamatiya. I says, tell me, Tamatiya. Maybe this week, he’s going to try to open all these houses. You better go to buy one house.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): To live over here. That’s the reason we buy the house. Oh. But next to me, all my cousins. next to me, my mother’s brother,
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Your whole family lived next to you?
Nick (Interviewee): Exactly where I was born.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Just like Mimi and Pappy did. That’s awesome.
Marsha Molinero (My Mother): I’m sure they know each other’s house.
Nick (Interviewee): The back of the house, the back of the house, the room, it have a property, it have a tree, that time I was working there. Bus, and in the summer, I [00:41:00] have a bed outside, and I sleep outside. I hang my clothes in a tree, and I sleep get up at around 5 o’clock in the morning.
And then, after I leave all this property, I call my mother and say, I called this guy, this guy to make another two rooms.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, two rooms in the house.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah, make another two rooms in the house.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Just make it a little bit bigger.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Nick (Interviewee): Because nobody give it attention.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): I bring my, my father’s come same ship to me.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Mm-hmm.
Nick (Interviewee): I said, listen, I’m going to tell it to captain, I’m going to send the money.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, and then you can buy it.
Nick (Interviewee): To, to build them up another two room.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Yeah.
Nick (Interviewee): They are going to do it.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh.
Nick (Interviewee): And I told my mother.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): So they did some renovations to it once they bought it.
Nick (Interviewee): I did two rooms, put a concrete, later on if I go back, then I put another two rooms in the dump. Because in the front you have a ceramic. All the houses, [00:42:00] the roof is, is not a roof like that. Ceramic. So I’m like, I’m like a stone, a little stone, so I’m like that.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): They’re like stucco, their roofs aren’t the same as we have here.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, like how we have like, all the roofing and the whole process?
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): Yeah, they don’t have that. So, yeah, this is me in front of that house.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Aw!!
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): And that’s how we knew it was for sale.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh, how cool.
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): But, and he, there wasn’t a shower, so when he would go, he rigged up this hose.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh!
Mrs. Shopes (Nick’s daughter): And made a shower downstairs for me to shower. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’m trying to see if there’s, I don’t know if there’s a date on it.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): I can end our, uh, recording and then we can keep going.
Nick (Interviewee): That house is the next.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh next door.
Nick (Interviewee): Next. Yeah. And I know the people, most, this one, the mother, the father, and mother, Turkish.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Oh they’re Turkish.
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. The daughter and the mother.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): Your neighbors were Turkish?
Nick (Interviewee): Yeah. His brother’s from Turkey. Yeah. I met him.
Lydia Molinero (Myself): [00:43:00] That is so cool.
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