Chapter Two(My Family)

My father, Rocco, was born on March 28, 1936 in Manhattan. His parents, Giuseppe (Joseph) Battaglia and Frances Bonnano were both Sicilian immigrants who came from Palermo in each of their childhoods, around 1920 and met here. My father has an older sister, my aunt Beatrice (who was called Bee-Bee), a younger sister, my aunt Marie, and a younger brother, my uncle Paul. They all grew up in a railroad room apartment on St. Mark’s Place (coincidentally, across the street from St. Stan’s, where I went to school). My father was an average student in school but my grandfather, who ran a fruit and vegetable stand on the upper west side, needed help to keep the business going. My father dropped out of high school after 9th grade to help him. It may have been a disadvantage to not have completed high school, but the experience of working for his father must have been a help later on, as he went to work in the supermarket business.
My mother, Mary, was born on April 21, 1937, also in Manhattan. Her father, Robert Tissier immigrated from Marseille, France in his youth and her mother, Thelma Leslie was half Scottish and half Irish. She has an older brother, my uncle Robert Jr. and three step-sisters, my aunts Jeannie, Jo Ann and Theresa. My mother’s childhood was fairly difficult with her parents divorcing and having to move around several times in her youth, including Brooklyn, on 4th St, 6th St and Charles St. in Manhattan. The constant distractions from her home life affected her ability to focus on studying and she dropped out in 10th grade in high school. She did land a job with New York Telephone as a switchboard operator and stayed there for several years, until she had her first child.
My parents met through my uncle Robert, who friended my father because of their hanging with the same friends at a malt shop on East 5th St. My parents started dating in 1953 and didn’t have an easy time of it, through no fault of their own. My father’s parents, both from a very traditional Italian background, had a hard time accepting my mother, who was not Italian. They stood firm and continued to date. They decided to get married at City Hall in 1957 and saved up for a church ceremony and reception a year later. My father was 21 and my mother was 20. Despite some ups and downs, they have made it work out, for all these years.
My brother, Joseph Paul Battaglia was born in 1961 and was and still is a charismatic, friendly and caring guy that has always been very supportive of me. He was always popular among his friends, classmates and relatives. He was always very active in sports, whether it was playing stickball on 7th Street, basketball in school or in the Village View playground, softball in leagues for many years or probably his best sport, bowling, where he was always among the best in his leagues. He did relatively well in school and graduated from Immaculata HS in 1979. Career-wise, he bounced around a bit, but has been successful in retail sales for a long time. He always liked to be where the action was, which made life fun for him, but probably caused him some problems as well. He met the lady who would become his wife, Rosalie, at a house party in the Mill Basin section of Brooklyn. They hit it off very well, and after a few years, ended up marrying in 1990. They now live in Jamesburg, NJ and have two sons, Anthony and Michael.
My other brother, Rocco Joseph Battaglia Jr. was born in 1965 and has many of the same qualities as Joe and myself, but his focus was always on two things that neither of us really focused on, women and cars. While Joe and I were always perfectly happy with hanging out with the fellas, or watching or playing sports or listening to music, Rocco would always be out chasing the women or driving or working on his car. Those were his passions. Now, don’t get me wrong, I would have been perfectly happy with dating or driving a car, if I could afford either, during my teenage and twenty-something years, but Rocco made it happen, on both accounts. He did settle down with his wife Maria and married in City Hall, but he went through cars like I would go through sneakers. At one point, he owned 10 different cars, over a seven year period. He did drop out of high school in 10th grade, but he pretty much knew exactly what he wanted to do for a career. He wanted to be a tow-truck driver. He always loved cars and saw this as an opportunity to make a good living, despite the stress of driving in New York City. It is what he has done since the age of 17 and I must say that career-wise, he has done the best of the three of us. He has my father’s work ethic and I have to say that I’m proud of him, though I was always closer to Joe than him.