Tito P. Acevedo

Tito C. makes the following notes 6/08... Dad always had a stern look and was a hard working man but when he laughed it was a roaring hardy laugh. He even would sneeze very loud. He told me of how he got to the US. He was born in Moca, PR. and for the day had a regular education of a "campesino". He also had to help out in the fields and or the general store that the family ran in this little town. I believe when he reached the age of 18 he starting thinking of what he was going to do and had been saving money and decided to find his fortune in Cuba. He bought a ticket on a boat and he sailed to Cuba. He has told me of this trip many times and all he went through during his stay in Cuba. When Dad originally spoke to me about his life we would be sitting in his room at the Fourth St. house. Having a cup of Maxwell House instant coffee (strong) and he loved maccaroons. As time went by and he would retell the story and he would talk to me about OUR trip because I was with him and we had gone through it togetter. Even though he knew I was his son he would talk about the things we did on the boat and in Cuba. Back to Dad.. While on board he met an elderly woman that was also traveling from PR to Cuba. She was very frail and was in a wheel chair. She was a Spaniard. She had a lady that helped her but Dad would help her get around the ship. It was a couple of days trip so he would help her to dinner and some deck walks. Dad was always well versed in respect and doing the right thing and I believe the elderly lady took a liking of him. He helped her off the ship when they arrived in Cuba and said their goodbyes. Dad was heading inland and had a job lined up a good train ride away. When he finally got his bags and found out about the train scedule he had lunch and went to wait for it. The train would leave today and make a run to the other end of the island. That would take a day and the next day it would come back. I don't recall if Dad had to wait a day for the train but when he got there the elderly lady was there and going on the train. Dad helped her on and they made the trip together. She got off the stop before him and because the train would sit and load and/or unload it would take a while. He helped her off the train and she had him take her to where her family was waiting. She introduced them to Dad and told them all that he took care of her and that if Dad ever needed anything they should help him out. Dad says that it was a very nice but short meeting because he had to get back on the train. The job was only the next stop on the line and Dad settled in to his work. He was educated and as we all know pretty smart so he worked in the office of sugar growers. They liked him and they also let him do whatever he would like to try. He said that he even tried cutting the cane and working out in the fields. I guess when your young you want to try everything. Dad felt that because of his good association with the elderly lady many openings where there for him. During those days there were classes of people and the Spaniard wher the upper class with the cubans next and the foreigners were the bottom. Dad got a touch of Maleria and was sick. They took care of him as best as possible at his room but got so bad that they told him to go to the medical place which was in the previous town. So dad got on the train and pretty much knew that he was going to have to go to the foreign medical ctr. When the train got there and he got off and was looking around for the medical place when the elderly lady saw him and called him. He told her what was wrong and she took him to her families home. The family saw that he needed medical help so they got him into the Spaniard Hospital. The elderly lady went to the hospital and told them that Dad was her families guest and would be treated top shelf. He spent quite some time at the hospital and when he got better made the decision to head to NY. The experience with the elderly lady was something he was very proud of and would tell me to live my life as a circle because good always works it way back.

Dad didn't say anything about when he got to NY but said that he settled in Brooklyn. They (Mom & Dad) would have stories on how they met at the Brillo Factory in brooklyn. The story goes that Dad spoke Spanish and some English and Mom spoke Italian and nothing else. Mom would come to work with the Italian Newspaper and Dad with El Diario (I believe). They began swapping their papers and talking to each other. I guess thats when love began to bloom. Dad was an avid reader and mastered all three languages. He and Mom could read, write and speak all three languages. People that came from Italy would not believe that Dad was not Italian by the way he spoke the language and could communicate fluently. My mind doesn't hold many memories of my youth. The pictures bring back certain things we did. Trips to Fort Greene park. Then later on (age 5 or 6) we would be taken to this wonderland of Coney Island. They also took us to what seemed a foreign country of NJ. Zizi had bought some property in Keansburg, NJ and we would summer there. I remember moving into 158 North Elliott Walk (the projects) and living on the sixth floor. The back of the apartrment faced Fort Greene park and the street was myrtle ave. There were Trollies running on the street and there was an elevated train running above the roadway. Boy where they noisey. Then Mom and Dad where able to save enough and they bought a house near Zizi in Flatbush. Dad worked for a Pen & Pencil mfg co. and then worked at Kings County Hospital doing what he was very good at, gardening. He took care of the grounds. Dad had a pace-maker put into him to help his heart coordination. Notes about family... I never recall a seperation of the families, because the Italian and PR families always were celebrating all holidays and special events together. I had a great big family. When we were growing up it would be wonderful listening to us around the dinner table. It was a tri-lingual table. when you spoke to Mom it was in Italian and when you spoke to Dad it was in Spanish and when the brothers spoke to each other it was in English. This was during a single subject or conversation. the language you spoke depended on who you were speaking to. It was wonderful. I will never forgive myself for not continuing that practice with my children. The house in Flatbush was a little run down and not up to the cleanliness standards that Dad wanted. He was a Mr. Clean person. The house was a three family house and we moved into the first floor apt. which was a four room apt. It was tight but it was ours. We slowly were able to get the people that were living there to move out and started doing some repairs. The basement was a major cleanup problem because there were rooms that were for the tenents and it was filthy and full of bugs. We cleaned it out of the bins (rooms) and cleaned and painted it. I became the underaged electrician of the basement and put in ceiling lighting and I believe did a pretty good job because it lasted quite a while without problems. I never will forget after we cleaned up and out the basement there was still a big Dumb Waiter in front of the stairs when you got down into the basement. I don't know who made the decision but I remember the boys (Tony & Pete) putting a sledge hammer to the cinder block wall and taking it down. It looked great without anything infront of the stairs. Everyone was flexing their muscles and patting themselves on their backs at the great job WHEN all the doors in the house on ALL floors were getting stuck and could not be opened. God Blessed us with Uncle Floyd. Tio was a master of all trades and it didn'r make any difference what the problem, He had the answer and could fix it. I can't forget when he walked in and asked "What are you all CRAZY" do you know that the cinder Block Dumb Waiter from the 1st 2nd and 3rd floor is falling to the basement and all the old 2x4s that were in the walls of the bins where holding the rest of the house up. He took over like a madman. He ran out and rented three or four house jacks and I don't know where he got the 4x4 beams and blocks of wood. I stood in awe as in a few days he had the jacks under the center support beam for the house. (Before the entire house fell into trhe basemant). He ordered four lolly columns of steel which took a while because he had them made to order. The house was saved but the dumb waiter problem still existed. The handling of this problem placed Tio Floyd as my # ONE problem solver. Don't know where he got a telephone pole and cut it to size. Then built a platform for the weight of the Dumb Waiter from above and with the house jacks lifted the blocks to where they where before the take down. He then slid in the telephone pole and the house was again level and safe. This was a fantastic save and taught me so very much about construction. He was a wonderful man. This became our den, movie room Where we put our RCA Black & White TV and party room, We put in a stove , sink, washing machine. We worked well together.

I remember how much of a Mr Clean that Dad was because I would be home from school and would do my homework inside so that Mom could clean the kitchen and when Dad came home he would walk in and say the the floor was sousio (dirty). He would get two rags and a bar of Kirkman brown soap. He would get on his hands and knees and hand wash the floor. Both rags were damp and one was with the soap and the other to wipe it clean. We would have dinner after it dried. The floor had been washed twice in a few hours. I guess that cleanliness was Dads little quirks. Mom would just grin and shrug her shoulders.

I was very fortunate because I was able to go with Dad on a couple of trips to PR. I went with him to the town where he was born and did meet many of our relatives and enjoyed a few weeks there.

We finally talked them into selling their house in Bklyn and move. They picked NJ and bought a house around the corner on 3rd street.

After Mom passed we built and addition on the house on 4th street and Dad moved in with us. There we spent many afternoons sitting at the table in his room talking and having coffee and maccaroons. Dad was an avid reader and would always have books and be up on all current events. He was an American and believed that his vote was secret and didn't talk politics but would vote on every election.