This book is about the struggles of Italian immigrants in Hartford, Connecticut back in the 1930 s and growing up as the son of Italian immigrants. It s about coping with poverty and a hostile environment and surviving. It s about family love, parenting and instilling sound principles in our young. It s about self-reliance and self-esteem, establishing worthy goals and working hard and applying raw determination to attain those goals. It s about the importance of education and the need to become directly involved in local government and community affairs. It s about laughing, learning and improvising. It s about community theatre, about searching for and developing hidden talents, about devoting untold quantities of energy and applying imagination and fantasy to the creation of theatrical illusions and imagery. It s about the immense satisfaction one can derive from striving to become proficient as an actor, director and producer of live theatre. And, finally, it s about magically transforming the flaccid and inert written word into vital third dimensional action and, from the empathy thereby produced, experiencing the exhilarating power and gratification returned by an appreciative audience. "