I am truly blessed, I have two people in my life that embraced the meaning and the idea of what it is like to live where social, and ethnic differences were the cornerstone of their lives.
My grandfather, Francis “Frank” Sees, Sr. was born in 1922 in Philadelphia, Pa. His father was a German Protestant and his mother was Irish Catholic. What an ethnic combination! As a young boy, my grandfather developed a friendly personality that engaged everyone. “He was very well liked,” my mother Barbara, recalls. As he grew older, he moved into a diverse neighborhood in another part of the city; this area was a mini United Nations filled with Italians, Irish, Germans, and Ukrainians.
Because of his great personality, my grandfather quickly adapted and become friends with everyone. “He took everyone at face value. He didn’t care what you looked like or where you came from,” my mother said. My grandfather held a great fondness for a man who he reveled as “one of the great peacemakers of all time.” Gandhi was the man this World War II navy veteran admired. “My father respected the teachings of Gandhi and what his peaceful nature meant to the world,” my mother said.
Just like my grandfather, my father-in-law, Salvatore “Sam” Ferraino Sr., also grew up in the melting pot of Philadelphia. “I grew up on 4th and Manton streets,” my father-in-law told me. “There were mostly Italians on my street, but if you went into the surrounding blocks there were Jewish, Lithuanians’, Irish, and Germans.” In most Italian families, boys with the name Salvatore usually got the nickname “Sal” bestowed upon them, but since my father-in-law was palling around with kids in his neighborhood, his Jewish buddies not call him by the traditional name ‘Sal.’ “They gave me the nickname of Sam, and actually, I was called ‘Sam Spade’ after a character on an entertainment program. “
Even though he no longer goes by the name of “Sam Spade,” and it is just Sam, he relishes his memories of growing up in what he refers to as a “multi-ethnic” environment. “I learned about different religions and foods, and was able to have friendships with everyone,” he says. “No one rejected you. It did not matter where you came from.”