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Audio Recording Growing up on State Street

[Growing up on State Street]

About this Item

Title

  • Growing up on State Street

Names

  • Buonforte, Al (Narrator)
  • McCarl, Robert (Interviewer)

Created / Published

  • 1994-08-10

Headings

  • -  Interviews
  • -  Italian Americans
  • -  Games
  • -  Oral history
  • -  Sound recordings
  • -  Neighborhood
  • -  Watson Machine International
  • -  Machinery industry
  • -  School Number 15 (Paterson, N.J.)
  • -  Ethnography
  • -  United States -- New Jersey -- Paterson

Genre

  • Ethnography
  • Interviews

Notes

  • -  Interview with Al Buonforte in his office at Watson Machine International.
  • -  Summary of audio segment: Grew up on State Street. Then folks moved to 481 Summer Street and he lived there until he got married. Moved from State Street when he was six years old. It was a great place to grow up. You had all of the advantages of the city, but you didn't have the crime and all that. And we were fortunate because we had the school -- School #15 -- was only a block away. But basically we played in the street -- stickball, handball -- whatever was predominant. But of course traffic wasn't like it is today either. The area was pretty secure and safe. That area was Italian. This area where we are here (right around Watson and closer to downtown) were Irish; and you went further into South Paterson, that was Italian. Each section had its own group of people. We respected authority -- what you might call original family values. Al says that he had a great childhood, he came out of the inner city and then moved to a more rural area. His children, however, were cheated out of that, they only know the rural area. They are not street-wise and they never lived in the inner city. "We used to walk all over Paterson here, go into South Paterson. 'Cause I say at the time, no cars. You didn't get a car until you were able to work for it and earn it. It was not given to you. Today you graduate high school and they give you a car."

Medium

  • Analog Audio Cassette

Call Number/Physical Location

  • AFC 1995/028: WIP-RM-A004

Source Collection

  • Working in Paterson Project Collection (AFC 1995/028)

Repository

  • American Folklife Center

Digital Id

Online Format

  • audio

Rights & Access

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Credit line

Working in Paterson Project collection, 1993-2002 (AFC 1995/028), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Buonforte, Al, and Robert McCarl. Growing up on State Street. -08-10, 1994. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/afcwip003191/.

APA citation style:

Buonforte, A. & McCarl, R. (1994) Growing up on State Street. -08-10. [Audio] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/afcwip003191/.

MLA citation style:

Buonforte, Al, and Robert McCarl. Growing up on State Street. -08-10, 1994. Audio. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/afcwip003191/>.