Charlie’s Letter From The Lower East Side

Dear Brother,                                         4/5/11

When I first got to The Lower East Side I was excited and disappointed. Someone from a settlement house helped us find a home in a tenement. I started working at 14 years old as a peddler and I can’t go to school because I need to help the family. Dad works, mom works, Anna works and I work so that we are able to pay rent. Dad works as a tailor, mom works sewing clothes in the tenement, Anna works in a factory and in a sweatshop. What we usually talk about when we are eating dinner is how much money we are making and if we will have enough to pay rent.

 

All of the family does their part to help out.  Our living conditions are intolerable because the outhouses are very stifling and musty. Most of the time we have to use the bathroom in pots and pans. Another reason it is bad is because the hallways are very, very dark and dirty.  We live on Mulberry Street in the Lower East Side. I am living with mom, dad and Anna. Our apartment is not a sweatshop and we don’t have to take in boarders because we all work hard for our pay.  A few years ago the tenement laws changed and were better for us and our living conditions. The best thing that helped us was indoor toilets instead of outhouses. Another thing that helped us is the tenement owners made the lighting in the hallway better. I would like to be a tenement inspector because they get more money than us and we could use the money to survive.

 

I learned how to deal with the challenges of being a peddler. The hardest parts of being a peddler is haggling because people will ask for lower prices and there are many other peddlers who want to make money just like me. Finally you have to scream really loud to even get people’s attention, so at the end of the day my voice is meek and raspy. In America there are a lot of strikes and unions. I know about them because sometimes when we are eating Anna tells us about the strikes and unions. The journalist Jacob A. Riis described a sweatshop as, “Men staggered along the sidewalk groaning under heavy burdens of unsewn garments, or enormous black bags stuffed full of finished coats and trousers.” After Anna finished in the factory she worked in a sweatshop for 2 hours. After the strike, Anna got more pay and better working conditions.

 

We still eat foods from home, but also tried new foods in America. If I do not sell all the food we eat the leftovers for dinner. My favorite foods from Italy are ravioli and tortellini. I also found good food in America like fish, meat, and chicken. When I finish peddling I see so many other peddlers finishing their day at work and leaving to see their family at home. For breakfast I have a pastry and coffee. For lunch I have  sardines and a sandwich. For dinner I have bread, soup and sometimes fish or pasta. Sometimes I buy raspberries or other fruit from other peddlers.

 

Our life in America started off bad but the harder we worked, the better it got for our family. Every day I see the same things over and over again so I am kind of use to the Lower East Side by now. I am used to these routines every day and I only do them because I need to help support my family. I try really hard to think about others and not myself so this keeps me focused. This strategy has worked for me. I feel happy because it has worked out here but I am sad because my family back in Italy does not get to experience our new life here. Sometimes during my breaks, I play a game of stick ball with other peddlers who have become my friends. Life here has been really, really hard but what I am trying to say is, “If you stick with it, things will get better.”

 

I miss you.

 

Love,

Edwardo Cossi

(Charlie Kregsman)