Giovanni Bernardi

Born Feb. 6,1931

Giovanni’s Story.

• Giovanni was born in Ripi, Italy. In his home he had 4 brothers, and 3 sisters, all the boys slept in one room, and all the girls slept in the other. Giovanni moved to North America because there was little or no work in Italy, So at age 21 Giovanni got on a boat and went to Quebec.

The move.

• The hardest part Giovanni said was learning how to speak English, He spoke French and Italian, but no English. In 1955 Giovanni married his wife in Canada, at the age of 25. At the age of 27 he moved to CT with his wife. “I was very excited to move to the U.S. from Canada.” Giovanni said. He learned english shortly after moving to the U.S.

Home land.

• The thing that he said that really got me was, I asked if there was anything different in his new home then his home in Italy, he said, “Yes, there was no indoor plumbing in my old house in Ripi.” He said that his family just got plumbing in 1967. That’s one thing that really shocked me. I Didn’t think that Italy was that much of a 3rd world country.

New Milford, A new home.• When I was speaking to Giovanni

about his new life in America he said he was very excited to move here, he said that he only came here with a hand bag of clothes and his visa, all he wanted to do was make money for his family. He worked at a macaroni factory for his first job and later he worked in construction. He said that he worked 17 years for a stone mason, and finally after those 17 years he started his own business called B&B Stone Mason Supply in New Milford CT, in July of 1974.

Sending home $.

• When I asked Giovanni if he sent home money he said “I sent more money then you can even start to imagine.” And when I heard that I gained a lot of respect for Giovanni, not that I didn’t respect him before because I did greatly. After visiting Italy in 1969 Giovanni wanted to become a citizen of the U.S. He became a citizen in 1970. Now Giovanni is living in New Milford, CT and he has 3 sons, and no he has 2 great grand kids, which he loves greatly.

Giovanni Now…Giovanni lives happily in Bridgewater, CT, he has a very loving family who visits him and his wife on a almost daily basis. Along with Giovanni bringing him self to America he brought his 2 sisters, and his 3 brothers to the new country, they are very successful like Giovanni is, He said that coming to America was the best thing that he ever did, and if he could, he would do it 10 times over again.