Flashbacks: From the Other Side of the Tracks: From the Other Side of the Tracks (Growing Up Italian-American)

This book is a collection of personal accounts of growing up in an Italian-American home in an inter-city neighborhood of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s. Accompanying the text are 52 pictures of an historical era many Americans hold close to their hearts and consider the most precious of their lives. The book fondly enlivens themes of America's melting pot.The author, a gifted storyteller, writes about topics that range from his parents' roots in Italy to life in Catholic schools' from how teanagers dressed when he was a boy to how U.S. military personnel are honored in American cemeteries throughout the world. The love of family, regard for old friends and classmates, and the importance of "toots" are threads that are woven throughout the book.

Gino Carlotti is a retired educator who lives in Erie, Pennsylvania. He spends his retirement days doing the things he likes best - writing, lecturing, traveling, and volunteering on a number of projects for his church, his community, and the welfare of school retirees. Proceeds from his writings and honorariums are donated to his two favorite charities: the parish church his parents belonged to in Erie's "Little Italy", and the scholarship fund of the Pennsylvania Association of School Retirees.