10-11-74
I walked up to the first crew member I saw who was a big and friendly smiling, gesticulating guy who obviously loved spaghetti and wine and big families more than anything in the world and who immediately dragged me into the galley (not even asking me if I was hungry) and sat me down before a huge frying pan of octopus cooked in garlic sauce and olive oil and proceeded to talk nonstop waving big hands in the air and looking for the right words to say in English as if his big sweeping hand gestures were way ahead of him all along and giving him trouble, but going and going like “Aw, well, what de hell, ehh? Eat! Eat!” and he goes on telling me about his wife and kids in New York and his brother who has a grocery store and a pastry shop and how Greeks were “shit people” and Greek freighters no good and how he couldn’t believe an American like me was looking for a job on a freighter. “I meena you de American boya.. plenty good job fa you at de home” and truly puzzled like he really couldn’t understand why I wanted to work on a ship, which made me feel bad and want to apologize for the thousandth time for being born in America.
But then he was off on something else and I could see that this big fumbling man was free of any kind of malice and really pure and innocent like a child. A great character really, a big simple Dominick. All he wanted was to be back in Italia bouncing babies on his knee while the smell of garlic filled the room and big white sheets flapping around outside the window. The guy had a lot of soul.
Copyright Jonathan Shaw 1974, 2010