Guido Calenti

Guido Calenti, (picture taken March 1944) was born to Achille Calenti and Felicia Tavellotti on 21 Nov. 1890 in Spinetoli, Marche, Italy.

My Grandfather told us stories over and over, with a thick italian accent and wild gestures. Mostly he loved to tell about the many fights he would get into. He would stand in his living room on Taylor Ave. and relive those fights, throwing the punches and swinging imaginary pool cues that he had swung 60 years before. His voice would get agitated and his already thick accent get even thicker as he remembered. "....I wenna BANG anna BOOM an I hitta da son a ma bitcha good.." A very religious man, he would never take the Lords name in vain so in the passion of these stories he would substitute "God dastala" for "God damn" and "Jesus Clebela" for "Jesus Christ."

Guido Calenti was born on 21 Nov. 1890 in Spinetoli del Tronto, Ascoli Piceno, Marche, Italy, the youngest of five children of Achille Calenti and Felicia Tavellotti. In Italy, his family had resided in the same home for 300 years.

Guido had three older brothers and one sister. Not much is known of Guido's years in Italy growing up, but we do know that Guido passed through Ellis Island along with millions of other immigrants seeking a better life in America, arriving on March 8 of 1906 aboard the ship Sicilia sailing out of Naples. Many years later, Guido told his wife that the trip had taken 13 days and had cost $35. A transcription of his Ellis Island record follows, along with information about the Sicilia.

The ship's manifest lists a Mr. Tavelloti (his mother's maiden name) from Spinetoli, so Guido was probably not travelling alone to the new world. We don't know specifically how this man was related though. Awaiting Guido in America were his brothers Giovanni, who was about 26, and Angelo, who was 17. According to Ellis Island records, they had arrived in 1904 and 1905 respectively.

After being processed through Ellis island, Guido took a train to Newburgh, N.Y. where he met Giovanni.

According to his wife, Guido returned to Italy ~1910 for three months and had to report for army duty. He wanted a deferment because of a bad knee. After keeping him in the hospital for 3 days without food, they released him and he returned to the U.S. Thirty years later he had his knee operated on by a female physician at St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie N.Y. According to my grandfather, she did a "damna good job." This trip is verified by a record of his passing through Ellis Island once again.

Guido worked where he could after returning from Italy, mostly in the brickyards of Kingston along the Hudson River. Barges would take the bricks to NYC and then out to whereever they were needed. Guido soon built a reputation as being a hard worker and having a short temper. His nickname at the brickyards was "pugnetta" italian slang for "little dagger." At 5'1", he feared no one. During the winters when the Hudson froze over, the brickyards closed and Guido headed to Pennsylvania to visit his friends and look for work. He once rented a pool hall in Norristown, but had to give it up after the owner complained that there were too many fights every night.

Again in ~1918 or 19 Guido returned to Italy and had to report for army duty. Given the choice, he elected to fight for the USA so he headed back to America. Two days before he was to report, the armistice was signed, ending WWI. It was around this time that he met Perina Costa. She was 13 years old and he was 28. Perina went to live with her sister in New Haven Conn. for a year, but in 1920 she returned. They went on two dates, the first to the movies accompanied by the entire Costa family. After the second date they were engaged and two months later they were married on Halloween, October 30, 1920 at St. Colemans Church in East Kingston. According to Perina, the wedding almost didn't take place. Guido and her father got into an argument and her father threw her wedding dress, still in the box, into the oven and said he didn't want her marrying Guido. Perina's mom convinced him to pull the dress out of the oven before it was damaged. Apparently, Guido was a gambler, and when his future father in law found out, he called off the wedding. Guido arrived later with a bottle of wine, and after the two had polished it off, they were friends again. Guido promised his father in law that he would never gamble again if he would be allowed to marry Perina. He told his grandson Mike 60 years later that if his father in law had asked, he never would have had another drink again either. The wedding went on as planned. She had just turned 15 two weeks before. He would turn 30 the following month.

Before he was married to Perina, Guido spoke mostly english to her and spoke it quite well. After they were married he spoke mostly Italian. When Perina asked him about that he said "I already caughta da trolley, I don' needa to chase it no more."

After marrying, they lived in a house which they rented from the owners of Washburns brickyard in the town of Ulster, which my Grandmother always called "East Kingston". It was only a few houses up from where she had lived with her family before marrying, and was a large, new 6 family house. Her sisters Luisa and Lil were on the same floor as she and Guido, and three other families lived upstairs. According to my grandmother, this was a wonderful house. Rent was $5. per month, and rent was waived completely during the winter months when the brickyards closed. When electricity was installed in 1925, it added another $1.25 to their rent. In 1922 their first child was born. She was named Felicia, after Guido's mother. Achilles F. followed in 1923, and Carmine in 1925. Winters must have been a financial drain on the couple. Around 1925, Guido took his wife and children to N.Y.C to earn money shoveling snow during the cold months. This arrangement was very difficult however, and they only tried it one season. It was also about this time that the Washburn brickyard was meeting increased competition from newer brickyards 15 miles up the river in Malden. These yards were more modern and were opened year round. The Washburn brickyard closed in 1925, and Guido and Perina moved their family to Malden. My grandmother Perina said she cried for two hours when she saw the dilapidated house they were to move into in Malden. The owner of the brickyard (Staples) did not keep their houses nearly as nice as those in Washburns brickyard. Never the less, they persevered and eventually fixed the house up. Perina boasted that other than the owner of the brickyard, her family was the first to have running water installed in their home. Apparently the foreman, a Mr. Street, liked the hard working Guido and convinced the yards owner to install a pump for the family. Guido and Perina supplemented their income by selling chickens, fruits and vegetables, and ice cream from his truck. At one time they had over two hundred chickens. Perina would kill and cook them to order. They purchased a still and Perina would make and bottle beer, wine and whiskey while Guido was at work. Their attempt at bootlegging was rather short lived as professionals moved in, under cut their prices and promised home delivery.
In 1928 their daughter Rosalie was born and Guido became a U.S. citizen. He hadn't done it earlier because "it was too mucha troubla." Interestingly, when Perina married Guido in 1920, she lost her American citizenship and didn't reapply for it until 1961 when the pair took a trip to Italy, the first time Perina had been there.
1929 was a tragic year. Their oldest daughter Felicia, age 7 died suddenly of a ruptured appendix. In 1930 their last daughter was born. They named her Felicia.

In 1934 the depression was in full swing. The brickyards started closing and Perina and Guido moved their four children to Poughkeepsie N.Y. in October. They rented a home on Verrazano Blvd. They were there for about three years and it is from this time that we have the earliest pictures of the Calenti children. In about 1936 or 37, the owner of the house evicted them to make room for his sister. After much difficulty, they found a home on Dutchess Ave, behind the old Andy and Steve's, and they lived there until 1948. Guido wanted no part in owning a house, he thought they were too much trouble and he had never owned property before, but with a $1,500 down payment from his son Carmine, they purchased their first (and only) home on Taylor Ave.

Guido officially retired from the laborers union in 1955 at the age of 65, but continued working for private contractors until he was 80. This writer remembers in 1971 when he was building a patio at his parents home. I called up my grandfather the day the cement truck was scheduled to come. I had already laid out the forms and recruited two of my friends to help with the pouring and smoothing of the concrete. I was hoping my grandfather would be able to give us a few tips on doing it right. He arrived about an hour later (he walked over, about a mile or so) with galoushes in hand and when the truck arrived he was right in the middle of it all with the rest of us, shoveling the concrete, pulling up the wire mesh reinforcement and smoothing the concrete. Eight hours later my two friends and I called it quits. We were exhausted and went upstairs to get a few cold beers from the kitchen. As we drank them we looked out the window to see my grandfather still out there in the middle of the concrete, on hands and knees smoothing and edging the patio. He was 80 years old and had outworked all three of us and we were less than 1/4 his age.

Guido died in 1981 at the age of 90. He was surrounded by his wife, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Guido and Perina's Children.

Felicita, (b: 23 Jan 1922. d: 23 May 1929)
Achilles FrancisCalenti (b 6 Oct 1923)
CarmineCalenti (b 16 Jul 1925)
Rosalie CALENTI Paganelli Martell, (b 27 Apr 1928)
Felicia RoseCALENTI Falconi (b 26 Jul 1930)