HOMEWOOD, Pa. — From time to time, Frank Tropiano will drive past the tiny structure he called home after he and his parents, three sisters and his grandparents arrived in this country in 1966, a structure that was attached to the rear of the house on 7311 Susquehanna St.
“Our address was literally 7311 Susquehanna Rear,” he explained. The humble apartment was nonetheless a big improvement over the even tinier structure with no plumbing or electricity they left by boat from Siderno in Calabria, Italy.
Comforting Christmas
Although only 10 years old at the time, Mr. Tropiano, now 68, said he remembers it as if it were yesterday, feeling both happy and relieved when, a few days before the family’s first Christmas Eve in America, his mother and grandmother came home from the Strip with baccala and started soaking…
