George Italiano
George Italiano was close with Louis Ferris and made Syrian bread with his mother, who was a Syrian immigrant. This bread was often gifted to Italiano and his family. This was a blessing to them because they were quite poor, but so was the Ferris family.
Transcript
Location: 1519 George Street
George Italiano: Louis Ferris, when I was born, he was seventeen years old at that time, living right next door to me, just the next house South of mine, probably 1519 George Street. Louis’s house was a single family, and he had a lot of brothers and sisters. Louis had talked a little bit about what Syria was like. They were looking at a life of poverty if they would’ve stayed there. Here, they could do things and become better. We became close, not only him but his mother especially. She not only had me come into her basement kitchen when she was making her Syrian bread, and usually, she’d have a few of her daughters down there as well. And we loved Syrian bread, my family did very much so. And it was a situation at times where we were quite poor and she would give us not only Syrian bread, but she’d give us things from her garden. They were not rich at all, but she knew if we were having problems, she’d want to help us. My name is George Joseph Italiano.
