My father
was born in Europe. He was the oldest of
nine brothers and sisters. He had a
scholarship to go to a major university. His parents told him to go to America to earn money to bring the rest
of the family to America.
During the
1930’s, my father worked in an iron smelter in Tormey, CA. It was a company town. The family was allowed to live on the right
side of the tracks because my mother looked Italian. In fact, she was Mexican. I was born in the mid 30’s. My father had already started a nursery in
Berkeley, CA. Talk about guts.
My mother
ran the Berkeley place until she could not handle everything – two little
children, answering customer’s questions, and stocking new plants. She had dropped out of school at thirteen and
started working. The money was needed to
support her father and his large family.
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