PAPA-CHARLIE
PAPA JOE'S
FATHER,
MY GRANDFATHER
He
came to Canada around 1896, several years before
my
Grandmother "Nunna-Michella", who arrived in Winnipeg
about
1900. Papa-Charlie was born in Callanisetta, close to
Palermo,
Sicily. He landed in New York, then went on on to
Boston,
then to St. Paul. He took the CPR Pembina line
to
Winnipeg, Manitoba. Previously he had worked in the
sulfur
mines in Sicily. He was always self-employed as a
fruit
pedlar from a horse and buggy era. The Guarino family
lived
in a settlement of Italian immigrants on the west side
of
Edmonton St. just opposite to where the Winnipeg convention
center
is now located. Then for many years they lived in an old
house
at 458 Spence Street, which had a stable at the rear.