On November 15, l945 I arrived at Fort Dix, New Jersey for our discharge. From there I went home. After two weeks, I went back to the place I worked before I was drafted and talked to my boss about getting my job back. He told me that someone else had taken my place. After that I went to my union and told them my story. They told me not to worry, that they would get me a better job, so I was sent to a much bigger building. I started working doing the same job as an elevator operator and earning more money and stayed there for a few years.

When I came back from Europe, my parents were still living in the Bronx. Bertha was with them at their house which had seven rooms so we stayed with them for about a month. Bertha’s family came to see us and showed us a newspaper which had an ad with some apartments for low income people but they were in Manhattan on Tenth Avenue. I’m not sure, but it may have been on 46th Street. We went there and visited the office and were shown one of the apartments on the fourth floor. Bertha liked it very much so we took it. We moved in about a week after. The school wasn’t too far for the children to go to, so everything was perfect up to that point.

We lived in that apartment for four years. My parents visited us every two weeks while we were there. By that time they bought a house in Jamaica, New York with the money they had from the property they had sold in Puerto Rico and also another two-family house a few blocks away. One of the floors was going to be available, so when that happened, we moved from the apartment in New York city to Jamaica to live in my father’s house. Finally, we were living closer to each other and so my father was never happier. Instead of paying rent to somebody else, I continued to pay him. We lived there a long time but my father passed away in 1959 and left the house to my oldest brother, my half-sister [Delia], and me. Some time later my mother gave my half-sister one third, so the house then belonged to only my brother and me. Later, my brother retired to Florida so I kept living alone with Bertha. By that time our daughters were already married.

My brother didn’t need the house anymore and decided to sell it so I bought him out and continued living there. So now I was collecting the rent. It helped me pay the mortgage until I retired and sold the house and retired to Florida as well. By that time, the entire family was there.

After the war was over, I was working as an elevator operator. After a few years, I began to know the tenants in the building. I wasn’t earning enough to support my family and one day one of my working companions asked me if I would like to earn some extra money helping him clean apartments. So I started working with him. On my days off one of the tenants sent me to an apartment on Lexington avenue to clean a lady's apartment. This woman’s husband owned a printing shop some place close to Lexington Avenue. Every time I had a few hours to spare, I went to this woman's house and helped her clean her apartment. A few months passed, when her husband started to ask me a few questions about my job, like how much I was being paid at my job and some other questions. I answered every one of them. So I continued helping the lady every time I wasn’t working and they began to know me better.

Her husband called me once more. He invited me to sit at the kitchen table and gave me a pencil and a piece of paper. He started dictating some sentences to me and I wrote them down. It said, "How would you like working in my firm?" I handed him the paper back. He read it and looked at me. Meanwhile, I was wondering what was he up to. But then he came to me and said, "Well, would you?" I already knew he owned that shop, but never thought he would have offered me a job. Well, I accepted it, but I told him that I had to talk to the superintendent of the building where I was working.

When I returned two days later he gave me the address to his place, so I went to see him at his office. He introduced me to some of the employees. They started to train me on one of the proof presses. After a few days, I was on my own.