NOW LIVING IN NEW JERSEY. SHE WAS BORN IN GREENWICH VILLAGE BUT GREW UP ON STATEN ISLAND WHILE IT WAS STILL FARMLAND. SHE RECALLS WORKING IN OFFICES ON WALL STREET IN THE LATE 20S WHEN PREDJUDICE WAS HIGH BOTH FOR ITALIANS AND WOMEN. SHE SLAPPED THE GUY WHO PINCHED HER AND ALMOST LOST HER JOB.
Nina Diorio Interview
October 21, 2009
PK: Okay, it’s the 21st of October 2009. And I’m here in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey with Nina Di Iorio and you’re real name is [PHILOMENA ?].
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] Philomena. Philomena.
PK: Philomena, Philomena.
NINA DI IORIO: It’s much prettier. [LAUGHS]
PK: There you go. And tell me a little bit about where you were born, about your parents, where you first lived and some of your earliest memories.
NINA DI IORIO: I was born, I was a twin, and we were born in Greenwich Village just about 10 minutes from Washington Square Park. And my parents decided that… well I had an older brother, three years older. My parents decided New York wasn’t… Manhattan wasn’t the place to live with three children. So they moved to Staten Island, which was unbelievably rural. It was farmland. Just absolutely amazing.
And the town we lived in was so pretty. It was called [ARACAR ?] Park. Matter of fact I was told it was written up in National Geographic, I don’t know, long time ago, as one of the prettiest places in the country. If you saw it now you’d be heartbroken but it was wonderful growing up. It was just wonderful. We had to walk every place, which was great. We walked like half a mile to school, we had to walk to church, walk to the library. Nobody had cars. There was one man who had a car and then he… we got a ride and it was a thrill. You had to crank the car, you know, it was fun.
But we had to walk to school and one really snowy bad day my sister and I walked to school and got home as usual. Mom said, was it easy getting to school, did you have a problem? We said, yeah it was tough getting up the hill mom. She said, I’ll come with you. Well you guessed it. We ended up pulling her up the hill. [LAUGHTER] But it was wonderful. We’d come home from school, pick wild violets, wild strawberries, daisies. It was just really incredibly [SIMPLE?]
PK: [OVERLAPPING] Now how did your parents find it? How did happen to move out there?
NINA DI IORIO: They had a cousin – I don’t know how the cousin found it – but my mother had a cousin. As a matter of fact she had a large house which was heavily mortgaged but that’s a whole ‘nother story. And she had an apartment that we moved into, my cousin’s apartment.
PK: And what year was that? What year did you move from Greenwich Village?
NINA DI IORIO: Oh I think I was about a year old.
PK: So that would have been 1912.
NINA DI IORIO: 1912, about.
PK: And when you… Tell me something about your parents. Where were they born and how did they come here and so forth?
NINA DI IORIO: They were both born in [NAME ?] Southern Italy. I guess it’s, what, [BUSALACA ?] is that it – whatever.
PK: [OVERLAPPING] Right.
NINA DI IORIO: And my father had four sisters and a young woman couldn’t get married unless she had a dowry. And they were poor so he… Well I’ll back up. He left school when he was in third grade because he had to help his father on his farm. And then later on – I don’t remember the sequence – but he was in the army at one point and he was the only one who could write. Where he learned to read and write I’ll never know.
PK: Now this is the Italian Army, just so we [CLICK ?]–
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] Oh it is… writing was… I have report cards from first through eighth grade which he signed. And they’re just a work of art, which… And then I don’t know whether he went to the army first. Yeah, he left Venezuela. Oh no, oh yeah. He joined the Venezuelan Army.
PK: He left Italy and went to Venezuela.
NINA DI IORIO: He left Italy and went to Venezuela to earn some money to send home so he could… they could have money for his sisters’ dowries. And they were picking… in Venezuela they were picking people off the street to serve in the army. So he decided he better get back to Italy and the climate didn’t agree with him. But while he was there he learned Spanish.
PK: Excuse me. He didn’t actually serve in the Venezuelan Army, he –
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] No he didn’t –
PK: [OVERLAPPING] He was afraid he was going to get –
NINA DI IORIO: He got home, he left before he was drafted.
PK: [OVERLAPPING] Right, right.
NINA DI IORIO: And he went back. And I don’t know how long he stayed in Italy but he was about 18 – do you… you know a lot about this.
PK: Well I heard he like 21 or 22 when he finally got in here.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] When he came here.
PK: He had trouble getting in and he went to Venezuela first.
NINA DI IORIO: Right.
PK: And then he didn’t like Venezuela so he went to back to Italy.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] He went to Italy. And then he left Italy to come to America. And he had a brother here, Uncle Jim. And he stayed with his brother’s family. But the day –
PK: Where did they live?
NINA DI IORIO: In the Village, Greenwich Village.
PK: In Greenwich Village.
NINA DI IORIO: There was one… I think Thompson, Bleeker and Sullivan was all Italian. And he…
PK: So he came to the States in what year do you think that was? I was… You were born in 1911 so it must have been some years before.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] I can’t remember. I don’t remember. Oh yeah. But the day after he got here the first thing he did was buy a newspaper. He thought he wanted to learn English. I don’t know if thought he’d learn English looking at… It turned out it was German paper. [LAUGHTER] But, you know, he was an incredible man. I think about these people who were big huge Visa, I mean credit debts, bad credit, losing them.
He learned three languages – English, Spanish, Italian. Was fluent, read and write all of them. Loved crossword puzzles. I never saw my father sitting in a chair… either reading a newspaper or doing a crossword puzzle. He was just amazing. And he started his own business. I don’t know how he got into cork business but maybe it was because he knew Spanish and knew some people who imported corkwood – who knows? But he was, you know, reasonably successful. It was tough at times. He’d come home and worry about meeting the payroll but, you know, we were all comfortable.
PK: Where was this that he opened the factory?
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] In Brooklyn.
PK: In Brooklyn.
NINA DI IORIO: In Brooklyn.
PK: Where was it in Brooklyn, do you remember?
NICK RUSSO: You have the ruler? Cork [UNINTEL – OVERLAPPING]
PK: [OVERLAPPING] Hmm, Mrs. Di Ilorio came and got a small wooden ruler that says on it “Continental Cork Company. For extra select corks try our continental brand.”
NINA DI IORIO: Extra select.
PK: [OVERLAPPING] And the address –
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] I don’t know where he came up with that.
PK: The address is probably 397 Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn, NY.
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah.
PK: So he had a cork company. This was your father.
NINA DI IORIO: Yes.
PK: And this would have been in the 20s or earlier? You were –
NINA DI IORIO: You know, I was so little I didn’t know what was going on.
PK: Yeah, so but –
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] I didn’t know what was going on.
PK: But he kept that business –
NINA DI IORIO: Oh right till he died.
PK: Okay, so did he go through the Depression with that business?
NINA DI IORIO: Yes. He wasn’t affected though. What did affect him was Prohibition. It got very tough. But then he would get business from… pharmaceutical companies and –
PK: Oh yeah.
NINA DI IORIO: He struggled a little but he wasn’t affected. Luckily they repealed Prohibition and that’s how… why he voted for FDR, wasn’t it?
PK: Okay. Yup, your dad’s… [LAUGHS]
NINA DI IORIO: I was upset because I didn’t like him.
PK: Did like FDR?
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah.
PK: Now let’s come back a little bit now.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] But anyway, that’s…
PK: So you were born in Greenwich Village but you were raised in Staten Island. And did you graduate from high school there?
NINA DI IORIO: Yes.
PK: And what high school was it?
NINA DI IORIO: Curtis, I have a picture of it. You want to see it?
PK: Sure. So now were you still living in the rental apartment in cousin’s house during all this time?
NINA DI IORIO: Yes. Oh no, no, no. We moved to another apartment and it was very, very comfortable. There was only one other family, the owner, and they practically adopted us. We used to call them Nonna and whatever the word is for grandpa in Italian. But it didn’t have central heating and you had to put a quarter in a meter to get gas. And then when the gas… when you used up your quarter you had to keep feeding quarters.
PK: Oh. Now… so paid rent to the –
NINA DI IORIO: We paid rent. And then my father decided we should move to… there was a new two family house built and it had central heating. So, of course, we moved.
PK: Now when you think that was, roughly?
NINA DI IORIO: That was about… I was about six or seven years old. About 1918. A little before because 1918 was the pandemic. And my mother, incredible lady, went around nursing her friends who had the flu. But that was 1918.
PK: But she didn’t get it I take it.
NINA DI IORIO: No. I can remember… I can go back to house we lived in at the time, my father was standing here, I was standing here, my mother was cooking dinner. And my father said, you should not be doing this, you’ll bring home the flu to the children and you’ll get it. None of us got it. And I have good immunity now as a result of that.
PK: So this was… 1918 was also the year that we got into the war.
NINA DI IORIO: That’s right.
PK: The First World War. Do you remember that at all?
NINA DI IORIO: Very vividly because I came home from school, we were into… I was going up the steps to the apartment – we had moved into the central heating apartment then – and we had just – funny I should remember this. My mother… my father had just bought what was called a victrola. It wound up. I still have some of the records. And Caruso, she has it on, Caruso was singing “Over There” when I went up the steps.
PK: A World War I song, fight song.
NICK RUSSO: Yeah, yeah.
PK: That was written by Irving Berlin I think.
NINA DI IORIO: Yes, yes.
PK: Maybe you’ll… you remember, if you remember, you said grandma and grandpa went to the opera and they heard Caruso.
NINA DI IORIO: Oh they –
PK: And they bought his records, which were one-sided records.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] That’s right. They would go. And oh they got so dressed up. It’s so disillusioning to go even to theater now. People in jeans and sweatshirts. But it was a beautiful time to grow up. My mother would get very dressed up and she had a bird of paradise.
PK: Bird of paradise hat.
NINA DI IORIO: No hat, no just the feathers, the birds [UNINTEL – OVERLAPPING]
PK: [OVERLAPPING] Oh yes, yes, yes.
NINA DI IORIO: It was amazing. It was amazing. And they bought the records and then every Sunday morning my sister and I would get in bed with my father, he’d read us the funny sheets and then we’d have the records on from the opera of the previous night. And my sister and I had to get turns getting out of bed to crank the phonograph.
PK: [OVERLAPPING] The victrola. [LAUGHTER] So now… But they actually went to the opera. They dressed and they went to the opera.
NINA DI IORIO: Absolutely.
PK: That was a long trip from Staten Island I bet. How did they go? They probably took the ferry and then the subway.
NINA DI IORIO: The train. Walk to the train, only about a five minute walk. Train and then ferry and then –
PK: Subway.
NINA DI IORIO: Subway. Or did we have trains? Either the train or the trolley, yeah.
PK: You had a train in Staten Island ‘cause I remember… which isn’t there anymore.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] We had a train and a ferry, yeah, oh yeah.
NICK RUSSO: That used to be down [UNINTEL – OVERLAPPING]
PK: [OVERLAPPING] It may have been trolleys rather than a train.
NICK RUSSO: There was actually a train. It was like the Long Island Railroad, I even remember it, yeah. ‘Cause I remember –
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] You know, I think… I don’t remember… This is kind of… I don’t know, it isn’t relevant maybe but I remember… Thinking about it… I look at television, I see so many fat people. I thought there were only two fat and not obese but fat overweight people in all the time I went to school. But we all had to walk every place.
PK: Yeah.
NINA DI IORIO: That’s part of it.
PK: Yeah, that was the idea.
NINA DI IORIO: And we didn’t have ice cream stores. We didn’t have candy stores. Matter of fact, fish was delivered with a horse drawn wagon. Ice cream, when it was spring the ice cream man came around, rang a bell. But –
PK: But now where did you do you shopping in those days? There was no such thing as a grocery store was there?
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] They came to the door. We had one grocery store, it was a combination grocery store and butcher – one. And that was it.
NICK RUSSO: Didn’t you have the man come and deliver the chickens live? The chicken man?
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah.
NICK RUSSO: Tell about that.
NINA DI IORIO: And fish.
NICK RUSSO: Okay.
PK: Live chickens?
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah.
NICK RUSSO: Didn’t your mother kill them?
NINA DI IORIO: Yes, ooh, don’t remind me. [LAUGHTER] She’d go down the basement and she’d hold it between her knees, her legs and I would have to hold – or my sister – the feet. And then she cut the… ooh… [LAUGHTER] When she cut the head off I could, you know, oh it was… I didn’t eat it. I hated chicken for the longest time. Plus after she killed it you boiled water and all the feathers had to… Ooh, the smell of feathers. I didn’t like chicken for years.
And then connected with the killing chickens, I mean they’d [UNINTEL]. When we were in the Canary Islands my husband was the power plant specialist and we would… he was doing a water desalination plant in the Canary Islands. And my son and I spent a whole summer there with him. And Frank, young Frank, my son, saw these ladies walking around with a basket and a live chicken in them. He said, mom what are they going to do with that chicken? You won’t believe this. He was about 13 years old. I said, they’re gonna take it home and eat it. He said, eat it? He’d go… packages, all meat comes in a package.
PK: Right.
NINA DI IORIO: And when I told him what the procedure was he said, ooh. And then you should have been there.
PK: That’s funny.
NINA DI IORIO: But it was fun, it was fun.
PK: So now you went to high school, you graduated from high school in Staten Island. What did you do after that?
NINA DI IORIO: Oh that was 1929. I was supposed to graduate in June of ’29 but I was in an honors English class and I only needed one… some more credits or whatever. And the head of the English department made me her secretary so that could count for stenography. So I graduated luckily just before the Depression. But I had a terrible time getting a job.
And I finally got one and the man for whom I worked was an insurance broker but he didn’t want to share an office, he wanted his own office. So it was a one man… me and this one man. But he hired me on a six-month trial basis.
PK: What was his name?
NINA DI IORIO: Robert Powell. Robert Powell.
PK: So he was an insurance broker. Was it down on John Street or [UNINTEL – OVERLAPPING]
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] It was on the corner of Nassau and… Nassau and Broadway.
PK: Yeah.
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah. But after six months he asked me… he gave me a raise in between –
PK: What was the salary?
NINA DI IORIO: $18.00. Which was good. My friends that were working for the Met for $12.00 and I refused to work for $12.00. If things got desperate I probably would have. So he… No he gave me twen-… $18.00. And after a couple of months he gave me $20.00 because he was pleased with my work and whatever. But after six months he asked me whether I was willing to stay there. And I said, yes. If you’re happy, if you’re satisfied. He said, well I have to tell you why I hired you on a – did I ever tell you this?
NICK RUSSO: No.
NINA DI IORIO: On a –
PK: Temporary basis.
NINA DI IORIO: Temporary basis. He didn’t have to tell me this but he was such a dear man. He said I didn’t hire you because you were Italian extraction. And it was not only that… and he apologized and whatever. But I thought that was probably why I was being reviewed. Even later on when I got another job. If you were Italian and Catholic you had two strikes against you.
PK: So but after six months he liked your work and he –
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah and yeah. So he gave me another raise and –
PK: And how long did you work for him?
NINA DI IORIO: Let’s see, till the crash, the stock market crash.
PK: So it was ’29.
NINA DI IORIO: October 29.
PK: Oh so you were there for less than a year.
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah. And he got a request for money. He had bought all his stock on margin so he was wiped out.
PK: Oh.
NINA DI IORIO: So he got the telegram that informed, gave him the bad news, had it framed. He said, I’m going to keep this over my desk. It’ll teach me a lesson. But he wrote letters to 40 of his friends and business connections, got me a job which I had for 13 years.
PK: Oh isn’t that wonderful. Where was that?
NINA DI IORIO: Originally it was 233 Broadway, the Woolworth Building, which I think is the prettiest building in New York.
PK: It is and what was the company you worked for?
NINA DI IORIO: National Electric Products Corporation. And later on we became part of Phelps Dodge but the president of National Electric liked being independent so we broke away from Phelps Dodge. But I was there a long time, long time.
PK: And during the Depression you were single. And what was your salary?
NINA DI IORIO: Let’s… oh when he… I can’t remember but when he was looking…He knew I’d be looking for work, he gave me another raise. I said, well you don’t have to do that, I’ll just tell them I’m making… He said, I wouldn’t want you to lie. [LAUGHTER]
PK: Oh that was nice.
NINA DI IORIO: He was such a –
PK: So you could go looking for a job with a higher salary?
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah. I forgot what it was but I got the job at a higher salary. And he was so nice. He was a bachelor and oh I have to backtrack a little. When my father and mother heard I was working in an office with only one man, they said don’t tell anybody you’re working for an office with only one man. My father said he wanted to meet him. [LAUGHTER] Did I ever tell you about this?
NICK RUSSO: No.
NINA DI IORIO: And I thought it was okay. I probably should have been embarrassed but I was, you know, this is what Italian people do. So [LAUGHS] my father had his business in Brooklyn, he took the subway, came into the office, talked to him, they had a lovely visit and that was it. And my employer, Mr. Powell, respected the fact that my father was concerned about me. A little bit different, a little bit different.
PK: So during the 30s you worked for National Electric – what was it called?
NINA DI IORIO: Products Corp.
PK: Products Corp. And you were still living at home in…
NINA DI IORIO: I lived at home till I was married.
PK: Uh-huh. So that was all through the 30s. Now your father’s business you said suffered during the Prohibition because people didn’t put corks in bottles. They didn’t have bottles to put ‘em in.
NINA DI IORIO: Right. But then I remember when synthetic –
PK: Tops.
NINA DI IORIO: Tops came I remember when he… a bottle of wine at the table and looking at the synthetic thing and having a fit. Why are they using this stuff? He used to be very upset.
NICK RUSSO: I’m surprised. I didn’t think they had synthetic corks when grandpa was still alive.
NINA DI IORIO: Not too many but some of them were.
NICK RUSSO: OH really.
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah, yeah.
PK: Probably screw on mostly.
NICK RUSSO: Maybe.
NINA DI IORIO: Or with synthetic…
NICK RUSSO: Really?
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah.
PK: And so during the Depression he did okay because –
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah.
PK: Alcohol was back and popular and so forth.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] Right, yeah, yeah.
PK: And did he have new partners in his business or –
NINA DI IORIO: He had a partner but he had a 51 percent interest. And he found that… I don’t remember the details but his partner was trying to cheat him and I don’t know how it was resolved but my father bought him out. And it was completely on his own after that.
PK: And so during the 30s you were working –
NICK RUSSO: Can I jump in a second?
PK: Yeah.
NICK RUSSO: There was story that I heard that you may be interested in that when your father was operating his business the unions wanted to take over and –
NINA DI IORIO: Oh yeah.
NICK RUSSO: Are you interested in this?
PK: Sure.
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah. And he used to play cards once a week with a group of men and it turned… one of them had a produce – but this seems irrelevant but it’s leading into it. This man was in the produce business as I said. And it turned out he had Mafia connections. Did you know that?
NICK RUSSO: Well keep telling the… I’m not there yet.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] Yeah, so –
NICK RUSSO: [OVERLAPPING] I know about the Mafia –
NINA DI IORIO: They were playing cards and then they would have a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and socialize a little. And my father must have mentioned the problem he was having. He didn’t know this man had a Mafia connection. This man said, don’t worry about it, Mr. [SPINA ?] I’ll take care of ‘em.
NICK RUSSO: But wasn’t there also… didn’t they come in and break his machinery? Somebody came in and broke his machinery ‘cause I heard that story.
NINA DI IORIO: I don’t remember that.
NICK RUSSO: You don’t know that? Okay.
NINA DI IORIO: You probably know some things I don’t know.
PK: But they were basically trying to unionize his shop and they… this friend of… card player took care of it.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] took care.
[LAUGHTER]
PK: So were living at home and working. Did you have other interests during that time? Did you go to the movies? Did you –
NINA DI IORIO: Oh we went to the theaters as often as we could afford it, which wasn’t too often. [LAUGHS]
PK: You mean the legitimate theater.
NINA DI IORIO: Pardon?
PK: The theater, plays, not the movies.
NINA DI IORIO: Oh yeah, plays, oh yeah, theater. I was one of eight members of a sorority –
PK: This was high school sorority.
NINA DI IORIO: No it was a college sorority but everybody but me had gone to college. But they wanted me in anyway. And we met every two weeks or something and I guess I was the treasurer. We’d put a quarter in the kitty. When we had enough money I would get seats for any play they wanted and I always tried to get the first row back of loge. That was the cheapest seat and I was always sure to remind my sorority sister how people ahead of us are paying a $1.60. We’re only paying $1.10. [LAUGHTER]
But, you know, they were all unemployed school teachers. I was the only one who was making a decent salary.
PK: So this was to go to theater. And what type of things did you see?
NINA DI IORIO: Oh I’m so sad I didn’t save my –
PK: Programs.
NINA DI IORIO: Noel Coward. We saw, I saw Gertrude Lawrence, Helen Hayes – oh what was his name? You name it, I saw them.
PK: Barrymores, the Barrymores?
NICK RUSSO: Barrymore?
NINA DI IORIO: Oh yeah, I didn’t like her too much. Maybe it was the play. [LAUGHTER] But all the… all the wonderful plays.
PK: So if you went out for an evening with the girls where did you eat?
NINA DI IORIO: Well there was a restaurant in the Time and Life Building. By that time the company I worked for had moved to Rockefeller Center. They were one of the first… one of the original tenants.
PK: The company you worked with.
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah, National. And right in the building on the main floor, on the ground floor was a restaurant the name of which I don’t remember. We had the most amazing dinner including a champagne cocktail for $1.10.
PK: And that was during the 30s would it have been or the 40s?
NINA DI IORIO: I would say late 30s and 40s, early 40s. Well when did Rockefeller –
PK: Rockefeller Center was built in 1930.
NINA DI IORIO: Okay. In the 30s definitely, the 30s. So we could afford to go. Dinner was a $1.10. The theater ticket was $1.10.
PK: And what was the… and the ferry ride was a nickel.
NINA DI IORIO: Five cents. [LAUGHTER] The subway was five cents. The train was eight cents. But for $1.00 I could have round trip transportation and lunch. And the morning and evening newspaper.
PK: Now the… tell you recollections of the second war because you were working in Rockefeller Center during the 30s. And in 1941 the war began. What were you recollections of that period?
NINA DI IORIO: You know, interesting enough maybe when you’re… I don’t remember too much about it.
NICK RUSSO: You don’t remember Pearl harbor being invaded?
NINA DI IORIO: Oh yeah. I mean we were sitting in the living room with my mom and dad and the radio was on. I think grandma was knitting or whatever. And then we heard FDR come on. I get goosebumps thinking about it. I mean we were, of course, in shock like everybody else. But I don’t remember too much else except seeing a lot of servicemen around and service… the women… part of the army.
PK: [OVERLAPPING] Women in service.
NINA DI IORIO: WACs and what was the other?
NICK RUSSO: WAVES.
PK: WAVES and WACs. But during that it didn’t affect your work. You continued to work for that company.
NINA DI IORIO: No, no, it didn’t continue, it didn’t affect us at all.
PK: Okay, now coming back a second to the Depression, your father did well but I imagine a lot of his friends did poorly.
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah. Well interest… His closest friends all had their own business and they weren’t too badly affected. The upholsterer, one was an upholsterer – the sofa your sister has was…
NICK RUSSO: Oh.
NINA DI IORIO: The frames were made by him.
NICK RUSSO: Listen I have one of those chairs.
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah he made those frames, walnut hand made walnut frames.
NICK RUSSO: [OVERLAPPING] Beautiful, really.
NINA DI IORIO: But –
PK: Did he have a place in Staten Island or Brooklyn?
NINA DI IORIO: Yes.
PK: Staten Island.
NINA DI IORIO: He had a place in Staten Island. But the other people didn’t… they all seemed to manage. They mostly didn’t have very heavily mortgaged houses and very little debt. So whatever they –
PK: Many of them rented I guess, probably didn’t own too many houses.
NINA DI IORIO: No. That’s the interesting… I was thinking back, I was talking to Eileen about hat one day. All of my mother’s, father and mother’s friends owned their own houses.
PK: But they still rented.
NINA DI IORIO: No they were one family.
PK: Oh when did they buy –
NICK RUSSO: [OVERLAPPING] They eventually bought. You didn’t get to that yet I believe. You didn’t get to the point where they bought their own house in Staten Island, your mom and dad.
NINA DI IORIO: Oh my mom and dad.
NICK RUSSO: Yeah, yeah, you didn’t mention that yet.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] Oh I thought you meant friends. They bought… my mother… We lived in that central heated apartment and mom used to look down at this lovely little house with a nice yard. And the all… the [CHARLAMASH ?] – are you familiar with…
PK: Oh yes, yes.
NINA DI IORIO: He wrote them. He and his wife and three children lived there. And we went to school with their daughter. And my mother loved that house.
NICK RUSSO: It was right beyond their house where they were renting – right?
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah, right in the back yard. You’re the [UNINTEL] [CHARLAMASH ?] house, I’m the other house.
NICK RUSSO: Right.
NINA DI IORIO: And my mother loved that house. And [CHARLAMASH ?] wrote play which was considered immoral. And he had to leave the country.
PK: Really?
NINA DI IORIO: Isn’t that incredible.
PK: What was the play?
NINA DI IORIO: I don’t know. I don’t know. But they put the house on the market and we bought [UNINTEL]
PK: [OVERLAPPING] What year was that?
NINA DI IORIO: I was 12 years old when we moved in.
PK: Oh so it was very early.
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah.
PK: So that was in the early 20s.
NINA DI IORIO: 1923 I guess that would make it – right?
PK: And so if you moved in 1923 do you remember, or you probably don’t, do you remember what the house cost?
NINA DI IORIO: $10,000.
PK: $10,000. And your father got a mortgage and put up a little cash?
NINA DI IORIO: He had a mortgage, he put up I don’t know how much cash. But I also remember the day he paid off the mortgage and we were sitting in this grand dining room table and he held it up and he was so happy. He was just so happy.
PK: And that was probably before the Depression maybe.
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah, yeah.
PK: So going forward, so during the war years you continued to work in the city, you were still single. Now there came a –
NINA DI IORIO: Single forever.
[LAUGHTER]
PK: And so there came a time when you met somebody that you thought you might be interested in. Tell me about that period. When was it and how did you meet your husband?
NINA DI IORIO: You’re not going to… you sure you want to hear this?
PK: I want to hear all, I want to hear everything.
NINA DI IORIO: This is the… I went to this school –
PK: Curtis High School.
NINA DI IORIO: Curtis. I was, how old, 18 when I graduated. No I was 14 when I got out of grade school.
PK: Grade school?
NINA DI IORIO: So I went to in the first assembly or whatever – not the first I know. But at one point there was a play and I, I don’t remember the play. All I remember is seeing this tall handsome man and I thought, I, I just… I just liked him. There was just some kind of chemistry. Never met him. Never met him. But I always liked him. And his name was Frank Di Iorio and I was –
PK: What was your maiden name?
NINA DI IORIO: Spina.
PK: Spina.
NINA DI IORIO: And I was in a gym class with Ida Di Iorio, his sister. But, you know, women in my generation didn’t push or try… I never thought, well it’d nice if she could introduce me. I just, I just liked him. And then years later I would see him on the ferry boat. He used to walk around the ferry and I still thought he was… I just thought I’d like to know him. And I never met him, never met him, never met him until 1947.
PK: So ’47 you were 35, 36 years old.
NINA DI IORIO: 36 years old. And I worked overtime one day. At that point I had left National, had a couple of other jobs and I worked overtime and had to… I went on, took the Lexington Avenue train, subway. I walked in the door and I’m looking and Ida Di Iorio is sitting there.
PK: We’re talking about the ferry?
NICK RUSSO: No, the subway.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] No this is the subway.
PK: Ida’s the sister.
NICK RUSSO: Right, the young…
PK: And she was the same age as you?
NINA DI IORIO: A year younger.
PK: Yeah, yeah, okay.
NINA DI IORIO: And she walked, I walked over and sat with her and we hadn’t seen one another in, what 20 years or whatever, since I graduated. And she asked if I’d like to go to the ballet. And she said it was a comic ballet. And I thought, yeah, you know, this is good, good, good, good. And then we continued the friendship and she invited… wanted to know if I was interested in going with her sister Mary, her older sister who was also single, to a Margaret Mead lecture. And said, of course.
PK: Was it up at Columbia ‘cause Margaret mead taught at Columbia? But it wasn’t up there?
NINA DI IORIO: No it wasn’t at Columbia, I don’t know where it was. But the day of the lecture – I was subject to migraine headaches – the day of the lecture I had such a really bad headache. I was ready to call it off. And I thought, well this is a fragile friendship, it’s new, they might think I’m not interested, I better go. And I did. And we got through about… a little after 10:00 at the Staten Island ferry and I thought, oh good we were going to make the 10:00 ferry. The door closed right in front of our nose. Oh shucks.
You know, not two minutes later Frank walked in. He had been bowling with Burns and Rowe people, the company he worked for, and his sisters introduced me to him and that was the beginning.
PK: Oh so if you had made that ferry –
NINA DI IORIO: If I had missed the ferry…
NICK RUSSO [?]: If you had made the ferry you would have missed the boat.
[LAUGHTER]
NINA DI IORIO: It’s a little scary to think how a little thing can just –
PK: You might have met him another way.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] Change your whole life. But it took me all those years.
PK: Yeah.
NICK RUSSO: [OVERLAPPING] Yeah.
NINA DI IORIO: And then later… not too long after he called me at the office and I picked up the phone and he wanted to see me that night. And I said, well I’m not dressed. He said – I should have said not dressed for [UNINTEL] – said come anyway. And I had the good sense to. And I remember hanging up and my office was right outside of the office of one of the men I worked for. And I hung up and I remember turning around saying, I’ve waited that call for, I don’t know, 20 years or whatever.
[LAUGHTER]
PK: So that was –
NINA DI IORIO: And we had a ball. I mean the first date we went dinner dancing at the Hotel Roosevelt.
PK: Oh that was… so that was in ’48, that was after the war.
NINA DI IORIO: ’47.
PK: ’47. And you went dancing at the Roosevelt. That was the first date?
NINA DI IORIO: First date.
PK: So he took you to a pretty classy place.
NINA DI IORIO: Oh yeah. And I didn’t hear from him for a while. And I thought, well that’s that, you know, not the end of the world. But he was traveling a lot out of town, I didn’t realize it. Then I’d get a… Oh then we had a date Fourth of July hiking.
PK: Where?
NINA DI IORIO: Staten Island Code Hill. Rough terrain. And he said, well I’ll pick you up after dinner or something. Cheapskate, he should have taken me to dinner. [LAUGHTER] And I, right from the Roosevelt to do your own dinner.
PK: Right.
NICK RUSSO: Right.
NINA DI IORIO: My mom was out so I cooked myself some sausage and something else and salad. And the sausage wasn’t cooked properly, I had trichinosis.
PK: Oy yoy, yoy.
NINA DI IORIO: So that was the end of the dating. I must have had two or three dates before that. So while I was convalescing he would come to see me and whatever. And, well long story short, we had seven dates. When I recuperated we had had seven dates and he took me to the Waldorf, again dancing. And on the way home before we got in the house he asked me to marry him. So, of course, I said… of course, I said or whatever. And we went in and we… he had never had a Rob Roy. And we had had one at the Waldorf, that was his first one.
PK: Let me… Okay. So you went to this Waldorf and you had the Rob Roy.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] [UNINTEL] and I said, we have to have… But I was so excited that instead of using scotch I used rye. We were, you know, sky high happy so we didn’t know the difference. [LAUGHS] So that was the beginning.
PK: So that was it. And then did you continue to work when you were married?
NINA DI IORIO: No I got trichinosis, as I said, and it was a long convalescence. I lost about 15 pounds, I lost most of my hair and his firm… my husband taking me around to see his… meet his, all his friends, his coworkers and most of whom had introduced sisters or cousins to him or whatever. And they must have thought, he waits all these years, he’s 39, two, three days away from 40 when we were married. Thirty nine years old and this is what he brings, you know.
But a hank of hair and bone. [LAUGHTER] So we were married. We were engaged seven dates later and married… That was in October. On October 2 and we were married the following January 28th.
PK: Where were you married?
NINA DI IORIO: Where?
PK: Um-umm.
NINA DI IORIO: Actually St Joseph’s Church in Manhattan. We lived in Staten Island but –
PK: St. Joe’s church was in the Village.
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah.
PK: So did you have family in the Village?
NINA DI IORIO: Yes.
PK: Tell me about that and where they lived and how they were related to you and so forth.
NINA DI IORIO: Well they all used to live… I had an Aunt Rose who had six children and her father, mother and maiden sister lived with her, believe it or not. And –
NICK RUSSO: And her father and mother were Nina’s grandmother and grandfather. Mama [NAME ?] and [NAME ?].
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah. My grandmother and grandfather and a single aunt lived with my aunt who had six children. And –
PK: Where did they live?
NINA DI IORIO: They lived the same… the whole family lived in the same building on Thompson Street. But they moved to, had a very lovely house on King Street in Greenwich Village.
PK: Did they own the house?
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah.
PK: That was unusual to own the house in those days.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] I know.
PK: And there must… What year did they buy it do you think? Did they buy it before the second war?
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah, it was before the war.
PK: Uh-huh.
NINA DI IORIO: Well during Prohibition and –
PK: So it was during the 20s they bought it.
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah.
PK: And I wonder what… they probably didn’t pay very much for it. Of course, nobody had any money then.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] I don’t know, I don’t know. But he used to… My [LAUGHS] –
PK: What business was he in?
NINA DI IORIO: I was coming to that. [LAUGHS] He had… Did you hear this story?
NICK RUSSO: Yeah.
NINA DI IORIO: He had a bar, a restaurant and they would serve food.
NICK RUSSO: Like a saloon I think is what they called it. A saloon that they called it?
NINA DI IORIO: A saloon, it was a saloon.
PK: In the Village?
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah. Not too… I wouldn’t know where but not too far. But liquor was illegal at the time but they used to store their supply of liquor in their home in King Street. And one of the sons, big husky guy, used to put in the little red wagon, he’d put a blanket over it and Marge would sit on it, his sister would sit on it –
NICK RUSSO: [OVERLAPPING] Little girl.
NINA DI IORIO: And he’d bring the liquor from home to the bar.
NICK RUSSO: Who was that, Louie? Louie?
NINA DI IORIO: No Rocko.
NICK RUSSO: Oh Rocko.
[LAUGHTER]
PK: So that was one of the six children.
NICK RUSSO: Yeah.
NINA DI IORIO: Two of the six children.
PK: Two of the six children. And so he had a saloon during… or a restaurant he used to call it during Prohibition in the Village. So now did you –
NINA DI IORIO: He made out very well too.
NICK RUSSO: ‘Cause he’s selling liquor when it was illegal, he did very well. [LAUGHS]
PK: Now during that period, we’re going back to that period, did you… During the 20s and 30s did you spend much time in the Village or no? You’d go to visit your relatives?
NINA DI IORIO: Oh yeah. Every time I had a date I would end up at my aunt’s house. I’d walk in and find the place asleep. Yeah. And then later on my sister married quite a bit before I did. And they lived just four houses from us which was wonderful. On the same street.
PK: So let’s go now, after the war you were married. You stopped working.
NINA DI IORIO: Well I stopped working after I had trichinosis. I just couldn’t work anymore. I was just worn out.
PK: So you got married at St. Joe’s in the Village. Did you go on a honeymoon?
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah, we went to the Poconos of all places.
NICK RUSSO: Well you had a reception too. Don’t forget the reception.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] In January.
NICK RUSSO: You had a reception.
NINA DI IORIO: Oh yeah. He was three, you were three years, he remembers the reception.
NICK RUSSO: But –
PK: Where was it?
NINA DI IORIO: The rooftop of the McAlpin, which is no longer.
PK: Right, yeah, on 34th Street.
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah.
PK: So you had the reception there and then you went on your honeymoon in the Poconos. For how long?
NINA DI IORIO: I don’t remember. Probably about a week.
PK: And then when you came back where did you live?
NINA DI IORIO: Oh in my aunt’s house in the Village. I had a cousin who lived there. Her daughter, one of… I guess, yeah when her daughter Marge, the one that used sit on the little wagon, was married but she had bought a house in Nutley. So luckily we had her apartment to move right into. And I had family there, family up the street, which delighted my husband because he traveled a great deal. And he’d be away weeks at a time, sometimes months at a time. So he felt very comfortable knowing I had family.
PK: Do you remember if you had to pay rent to your family?
NINA DI IORIO: $60.
PK: $16 or $60?
NINA DI IORIO: $60.
PK: $60 and how big an apartment was it?
NINA DI IORIO: Oh a kitchen, a very big kitchen which used to be a bedroom. Actually and then a room in… it used to be two huge rooms I think but they divided the kitchen and the living room and made a, I don’t know, what we used to use as an office and dressing room with closets. But originally the house was one family. They called it parlor floor basement and then this really nice large apartment with big… two large rooms, separated by a pocket door and a pier mirror at each end. When you opened the door the beautiful mirror at each end with the marble, all the gilt. Absolutely beautiful.
And then they had an apartment up… second floor. But the main floor was the kitchen, two kitchens, a work kitchen, eat in kitchen and dining room. The second floor was the living room and bedrooms for my aunt and then there were two rental floors. And we were on the third floor, which meant we had… And very high ceilings, parquet floors.
NICK RUSSO: And you had your own bedroom too – right? You also had a bedroom in your apartment.
NINA DI IORIO: Oh my apartment, yeah. What was my bathroom used to be the kitchen way, way back. And they had a dumbwaiter to bring the food from the kitchen to the basement.
PK: So tell a little bit about your husband’s job. What did he do that made him travel and so forth?
NINA DI IORIO: He was start up power plant engineer and they were very rare. When I… the last time I talked to the president of his company at a company picnic, Frank had retired, and he told me they really missed him because only 13 people at the time who did the start ups. And he had to be there –
PK: How did he learn that?
NINA DI IORIO: I don’t know. He could anything. I’m not exaggerating. I mean I look around this house, he did… he built closets, he… there was nothing he couldn’t do. There was nothing he couldn’t do except cook. [LAUGHTER] Which probably was just as well. [LAUGHTER] He did… he went [NOISE OBSCURES]. Let’s see… Venezuela – no, no, not Venezuela. He did jobs… Well for one thing he did… Every state in the union they had to inspect all the government power plants. Every state in the union he went to. He did jobs in Greece, was gone over three months. Turkey, Greece, Germany, well Italy before we were married.
NICK RUSSO: Saudi Arabia.
NINA DI IORIO: Saudi Arabia.
NICK RUSSO: Nigeria.
NINA DI IORIO: Canary Islands, Nigeria.
NICK RUSSO: Puerto Rico.
NINA DI IORIO: Puerto Rico.
NICK RUSSO: Greenland.
NINA DI IORIO: Bermuda.
NICK RUSSO: Greenland.
NINA DI IORIO: Greenland, oh that’s –
PK: [OVERLAPPING] He traveled everywhere. And once in a while you would travel with him?
NINA DI IORIO: Well the only good… Well I had a baby.
PK: Oh right.
NINA DI IORIO: I wouldn’t leave him. I was ready to leave him with a nurse who lived in the neighborhood and stay with him in Greece and he had a fit.
PK: Who was he, your husband?
NINA DI IORIO: My husband.
PK: Yeah, sure.
NINA DI IORIO: Which was smart. I didn’t know, I couldn’t even think about it. But, yeah, when summer vacations – we spent a whole summer. And Easter vacation and a summer in Puerto Rico. A whole summer in Bermuda and a summer in Canary Islands. So it had its good points. But it was hard.
PK: So he worked for many years and you raised your son. Did your son go to Curtis High School also?
NINA DI IORIO: No. Let’ see, oh he, no he went to a private… We had a really bad schools on Staten Island, the grade schools. He went a private Catholic academy within walking distance. And then he went to a very good academy in Brooklyn, he had to take three buses. But he loved the teachers, they were great. One of his professors had two doctorates and was working for a third. [UNINTEL – OVERLAPPING]
NICK RUSSO: [OVERLAPPING] That was at [XAVERAIN ?] right?
NINA DI IORIO: It’s still considered a very good school.
NICK RUSSO: Xevarian?
NINA DI IORIO: Xevarian, yeah.
PK: Xevarian Academy?
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah.
NICK RUSSO: But then you moved here.
NINA DI IORIO: He was in his sophomore year when we moved.
PK: Moved here to Franklin Lakes.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] From Staten Island, yeah. But he liked the school.
PK: [OVERLAPPING] He finished here. So now Nick was telling me that you keep active in a lot of political things here in Franklin Lakes. Why don’t you tell me a little bit how you got involved in it and how –
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] Not, not political.
NICK RUSSO: Well the local politics about the –
NINA DI IORIO: Oh.
NICK RUSSO: [UNINTEL] of the seniors facility and things on that order. You go down to town hall and you talk to the…
NINA DI IORIO: Oh. [LAUGHS]
PK: Basically maybe political wasn’t the right word.
NICK RUSSO: Right.
PK: Tell me what keeps you active now.
NINA DI IORIO: Oh well my husband was away a lot and I never drove but my son used to say, don’t drive mom you’ll lose your friends. I have incredible friends. I don’t know how it happened but – oh I know, I joined the Women’s Club. A friend, a woman –
PK: When was this, in the… When did you husband pass away?
NINA DI IORIO: Nineteen… 10 years ago.
PK: So was it before that that you became active?
NINA DI IORIO: Oh yeah, the minute I moved here I became active because he was away so much. Then my son went off to college not too long after. So I kept busy. Matter of fact I thought I might go through this empty nest syndrome. I started to walk up to the high school and I thought I’d get a job. Half way I thought what am I thinking? I turned around and came right back.
But I joined the Women’s Club and it was wonderful. It was small and very friendly and I made very good friends. Matter of fact two of the women I became lifelong friends with. They – everybody is dead now except for all my young friends. But they and their husbands and my husband and I would go out to dinner and do things together, three couples.
Then I met another couple through Newcomers’ Club. That was the start… My best friend I met through Newcomers. And I was told they’d have somebody pick me up for a meeting. And I went to the door for a luncheon or something and there was this tall blond lady and she turned out to be my best friend. I’ve know her for 42 years.
NICK RUSSO: 42… and what’s her name?
NINA DI IORIO: Marion [CAPROWSKY ?]. And she her husband, she was kind of reserved and didn’t mix too well. So she and her husband and my husband and I would just go out to dinner or take dancing lessons or something. But she never, never liked going with other of my friends. And then in addition to Newcomers, Women’s Club was a very… It’s different now. They have a lot of big fundraisers, make lots of money [UNINTEL]. But when I was a member we did things one on one. We went to the health care center, Christian Health Care Center to feed the patients, one of whom asked me to marry him. [LAUGHTER]
And, oh, then we started a one… the Visiting Nurse, I was helping to take care of my mom, Visiting Nurse came to see her and asked me if I’d be… my Women’s Club would be interested in starting a friendly visitors group. So I took it up with the board and they said yes and we started it. And I had eight, I assigned eight ladies to people in Franklin Lakes who were referred by the Visiting Nurse who needed time to go out if they were caring for somebody or homebound. And it was so rewarding, it was wonderful.
The best example I can think of without taking all day was a couple who was celebrating a 50th anniversary. And the woman to whom I had assigned this couple thought we should have a birthday party for them. And the different members of the club – and all the members who were involved with friendly visits brought something. We brought champagne and a cake and presents and chocolate, you name it, balloons. It was just so wonderful. And the lady just sat there very quietly and, you know, and her son came in, he hardly… she hadn’t seen him in a long time, he came to the party.
And a week later we heard she became ill and she was in the hospital. She had brought her chocolate, box of chocolates with her. And I think I’m going to cry… She told the nurses that was the first party she ever had.
PK: Oh my goodness.
NINA DI IORIO: And she was celebrating her 50th. And really I think about what these women are doing writing checks. I don’t like, I like that one on one stuff.
PK: Yeah. You still stay active in any of that?
NINA DI IORIO: Well the night… I took on more than… Well Meals on Wheels, which was a… I did… I probably did more than I should but nobody was doing… Somebody would quit an assignment and I’d pick it up. We had a president who liked being president but he didn’t do very much. So I’d pick up the slack and it kept me awfully busy.
But when I became – what happened to me? Oh I had lung cancer and I was long recovering and I luckily found a very dear friend who’s very, very capable. And she took over I thought temporarily. She sends out the bills, she does the schedules, all the stuff I used to do. So I just, just about a month ago I resigned officially but I did it for 24 years. But it was a really, really good. It was fun. It was fun.
PK: And you don’t have a car. No? Did you ever learn to drive?
NINA DI IORIO: I’m a klutz.
PK: So you never learned how to –
NINA DI IORIO: I’m like my father. You want to get that coffeemaker, top of my cabinet. My father was a very bright man – no question – but he just couldn’t… With me it’s like being color blind. I’ll look at something and I’ll say and a friend of mine will say, just put it together. I can’t, it’s just like being colorblind. I get it from my father.
NICK RUSSO: I’m not sure what you want.
NINA DI IORIO: The coffee, the Italian coffeemaker. It’s on –
NICK RUSSO: Which is where?
NINA DI IORIO: Up there on the left.
NICK RUSSO: Oh in the [UNINTEL]
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] No the –
PK: In the cabinet.
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah, that’s it.
NICK RUSSO: Oh okay. Oh okay.
NINA DI IORIO: Well my mother was visiting her niece in Spring Lake and my father never went to church but his best friend was a Catholic priest. And they would sit up and talk forever. And they liked black coffee.
PK: And this was them in Spring Lake?
NINA DI IORIO: No this… no, my mother was in Spring Lake. This is in Staten Island.
PK: Staten Island.
NINA DI IORIO: So my father and the priest were on their own and they like wanted a couple of demitasse. So my father went and got the demitasse thing. He and the priest couldn’t figure out how to put it together.
NICK RUSSO: And what about you, did you know how?
NINA DI IORIO: I could not figure out how to put it together. You do it.
NICK RUSSO: Oh I know how to do it.
NINA DI IORIO: I mean [NOISE OBSCURES]
PK: Is there… No but it’s very interesting. And is there anything else that you want to tell me about your life that’s of interest? I mean you’ve told me an awful lot of interesting things.
NINA DI IORIO: To me it isn’t of interest. It’s just routine.
PK: Well but it, but it’s true. But you have memories of periods of time that most people don’t remember now.
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah, yeah.
PK: I’m just putting this…
NICK RUSSO: Yeah I guess.
NINA DI IORIO: [OVERLAPPING] Well my first job –
PK: Okay.
NINA DI IORIO: The one man office job, he was very… he was a bachelor and which was another thing that worried my mother and father. But anyway. He used to have lunch dates with many, many friends and they would meet him in the lobby or at the restaurant or something. And he had a date with one of his friends and the friend came up to the office about a half hour before the date. And he walked in and put his arms around me and kissed me.
And, you know, this naïve 18 year old, I panicked. I smacked him.
NICK RUSSO: Where did you hit him, on his face?
NINA DI IORIO: Well that was a natural –
NICK RUSSO: Where did you hit him?
NINA DI IORIO: Smack in the face. I can still hear it. [LAUGHTER] And he left, of course. And then when my boss came in I burst into tears and I told him what happened. And I was afraid he was going to fire me because I hit his friend. But he was so upset. He was so upset. He said, that man is barred from my office. Any time he wants I’m going to meet him for lunch, he’ll meet me at the restaurant. And if anything like that ever happens again, take – we had one of these… an old building with a mottled glass door – he said take a paperweight and just throw it through the door. It gets him…
PK: Get attention?
NINA DI IORIO: But I was just… Then another time when I worked for National we had like a partition, didn’t go all the way up but a little area was partitioned off. We could just wash our hands because it was stock room where we’d send out literature on our many products. And I was in the stockroom getting literature to mail to somebody. I even mailed something to my husband from there when I… years before I knew him. Yeah, but anyway.
And one man came in to wash his hands ostensibly. And he kissed me. So I hauled off and smacked him. Another natural reaction.
PK: Right.
NINA DI IORIO: And he used to bother all the girls. At the file cabinets he’d put his arm around them and sing a… He was absolutely, absolutely… out of order. But he came out, his face was beet red, everybody in the outer office hear the smack. [LAUGHTER] The girls thanked me because he never bothered anybody again. But he had the colossal nerve. He left the company, he was starting his own business, he asked me to work for him. [LAUGHTER] Can you believe it?
NICK RUSSO: Well he knew you were good.
PK: I know what the answer was. Okay, it’s on again. We’re talking about the Wall Street crash.
NINA DI IORIO: Yeah, the… I was the… The day it happened I left, I was walking from Cedar Street to Broadway. I was going to lunch. And there was this beautiful building, I think it’s the Equitable Life on Broadway.
PK: Yeah, 120 Broadway.
NINA DI IORIO: And there were… those beautiful columns. A 40 year old woman had just lost her all money, she committed suicide. I can still see the bits of her body stuck in those columns.
PK: She jumped out a window or what?
NINA DI IORIO: The roof.
PK: From the roof.
NINA DI IORIO: [UNINTEL] That’s my most vivid recollection of that.
PK: Of the Depression, yeah.
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