Growing Up Italian in God's Country [Paperback]

Patricia Costa Viglucci (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2001

Growing Up Italian in God's Country: Stories From the Wilds of Pennsylvania details the struggles and triumphs of four generations of the author's family from 1891 when her great-grandfather Giuseppe Policastro emigrated from the middle Apennines east of Salerno to the virgin forests of North Central Pennsylvania to find work on the legendary logging railroad, the Buffalo and Susquehanna. Her great-grandmother Vittoria followed in 1895, walking 35 miles with four small children to get to the steamship in Naples. Interviews with family members including two great-aunts in their late nineties give this story an on-the-scene quality. Other family members tell their stories in their own words including the author's father, Sam Costa Sr., who relates how he was pulled from the raging waters of the 1911 Austin, PA. paper mill dam break which claimed 78 lives. There are also first hand accounts from other relatives and neighbors, some now in their eighties, who talk about growing up in the Twenties and Thirties during the Depression. The author concludes with her own memories of schooldays in the Forties, of the impact of World War II on their mountain towns, and the idyllic holidays and vacations at her maternal grandparents' home deep in the Susquehannock Forest alongside the Sinnemahoning Creek. Kerosene lamps, patchwork quilts and homemade noodles against a backdrop of dirt roads, mountain streams and a one-room schoolhouse figure in the telling as do a mangy bobcat, rattlesnakes and a railroad that wound around the mountain in what was once a booming logging town. Despite the hardships recorded, the book is laced with humor.

Editorial Reviews

Review

" Despite the fictional media image, the real story of the Italian immigrants,is one of courage amidst hardship and prejudice." -- The Rochester Golden Times,September 5, 2001

"Growing Up Italian" is heavily illustrated with 80 family and archival pictures from the logging era, railroad memorabilia and maps. -- The Bradford(Pa.)Era, September 7, 20001

"Riveting immigrant stories,e.g., Sam Costa relates being pulled from the raging waters of the 1911 Austin dam break." -- Potter Leader-Enterprise,September 5, 2001

From the Publisher

Growing up Italian in God's Country, memoirs covering four generations of Italian-Americans, is distinctive for reflecting the rural experience contrasting with the urban life often chronicled by second, third and fourth generation Italian-Americans.

Viglucci uncovered distressing, sometimes tragic, accounts as she interviewed family members to learn what life had been like for the early arrivals. Her great-grandparents arrived in the 1890's followed by her grandfathers Patsy Borelli and Thomas Costa who came at the beginning of the twentieth century to work on the logging railroads, the tannery which made use of the hemlock bark and the mill which ground pulp into paper. Perhaps the most unsettling of the experiences is the story the author's maternal grandmother Anna Borelli handed down about her oldest sibling who died in 1913 after weeks of agony. "When it came time to sprinkle holy water on the wooden box, the priest picked up his buggy whip and whipped poor Mary's coffin." Mary's sin is not revealed but most likely it was bearing a child out of wedlock.

Despite such stories, the author also discovered playfulness and an indestructibe spirit that helped the family triumph over poverty, prejudice, and fateful twists.

Her search for family roots became so irresistible that Viglucci went to Italy. Instead of heading north to Tuscany and Venice as on previous trips she went south to visit three ancestral towns: A village outside Rome on the old Appian Way; the magnificent Apennine peaks east of Salerno and to Cantanzaro where the boot dances in the Ionian Sea. These visits to her ancestral land are intertwined with stories of how her family fared in the wilderness of Potter County, Pennsylvania.Others with immigrant forebears, especially those who settled in rural areas,whatever their ethnic background, will identify with her family's history

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Product Details

• Paperback: 251 pages
• Publisher: Stone Pine Books (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964591480
• ISBN-13: 978-0964591486
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,073,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HOLLYWOOD, TAKE A LOOK, December 14, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Growing Up Italian in God's Country (Paperback)

I wish the movers and shakers in the film world, e.g. Coppola, DeNiro, Scorcese would read GROWING UP ITALIAN IN GOD'S COUNTRY and find out what life for the Italian immigrant was really like at the turn of the last century.The stories within would make a riveting movie. There's the great-grandfather dropping dead face down on the railroad tracks his mouth full of cinders; a great-aunt dying in agony for lack of medicine only to have her coffin whipped by the Irish priest who was exorcising her "sins"; the author's father, age 4, pulled from the Austin mill flood which took 78 lives;the author's mother hiding in the pantry from the Indian who came to breakfast. Often tragic, frequently humorous, always engrossing. Highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ethnic history lover, November 8, 2001

By 

mary k (Suffern, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Growing Up Italian in God's Country (Paperback)

I enjoyed this book so much. The writing style and subject matter are reminiscent of Bailey White's fact-based fiction. The descriptions of life in the Pennsylvania mountains are vivid and I felt as if I knew the characters. It is clearly written with love and enthusiasm for the subject matter. It made me long for the people and places of my own childhood and to know more about my ancestors. The old photos are so wonderful too. Thanks for a great escape.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars VIVA ITALIA !, October 28, 2001

By 

Pamela Kunkle (Rural Valley, Pa. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Growing Up Italian in God's Country (Paperback)

The stories Patricia weaves in this lovely collection of insights is a treasure for her family as well as her faithful readers.

This book will be the spark that ignites every reader to embrace and explore their own family's history.

Patricia's enthusiasm is contagious, and her book "Growing Up Italian In God's Country" has renewed my interest and pride in my own family, as I too, grew up in God's country.

Thank you for writing this special gift, Patricia.