AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP

After WW I my father decided it was time to settle down and get married. In those days it was common to get married within your own ethnic group. So he travelled back to Albania to find himself a bride. He visited a family known to have daughters of marriageable age. As was the custom the family trotted out the eldest daughter but my father insisted he see them all. As he tells it he was instantly smitten with my mother. She thought he was handsome enough so it was all arranged. On his way back to Jamestown, N.Y. where he had a job in the mills he stopped off in Boston to introduce his new bride to his sister. When my mother discovered an established Albanian community in Boston, that was the end of any further travel.

Although my mother was married to an American Citizen, she herself was in the “Green Card” status. So after her last child was born (that was me) she decided she wanted to be an American Citizen. Now there was an obstacle in the way. In Albania she received little schooling. Women didn’t need an education…finding a husband and raising a family didn’t require one. When she found out our Representative James A. Condon was having English classes for immigrants in South Boston she enrolled. After cooking, cleaning and settling the family for the night she trotted off to class. She struggled but managed to master it “to a degree”. When she found out that Condon also had arranged for classes to become an American Citizen…she quickly enrolled in that as well.

Who was the first President, what are the Branches of Government, what is the Constitution, the Bill of rights etc.?..questions my mother had to master. This was quite difficult for her but she had set her mind to learning and committing to memory the answers. The big day came for the oral and written exam. She had studied so hard, she just could not fail. She didn’t. Her proudest moment was when she raised her hand and pledged allegiance to the United States of America.

To this day in my opinion, James A. Condon was the better Representatives that Southie ever had. He saw a need in the community and felt his duty to meet that need. I was only a small child when all this happened but even then I knew greatness when I saw it. That is Condon back row far right.