I didn't understand my poor, illiterate, Italian immigrant parents. Dual meaning. They couldn't understand me. They were born in Italy. I was born in Canada. They spoke Broken Italian and Broken English. I spoke worse Italian but better English. I never understood who they were and where they came from. Growing up in the '60s, I knew they were different but I never understood the depth of how different they were, how different they had lived, how different they had survived, how different they worked, how different they fought, how different they sacrificed. I never understood what caused the Second Generation Conflict that started in the '60s, until my 60s.
The cover of Leafs Addiction makes it look like a hockey book. It isn't. But the Leafs hockey story is a large part of this story. Like Second Generation Conflict, this book will change you in a way that can't be explained only in words. It takes works. This story is not about the rich and famous; there are enough of those books. This story is about the poor, anonymous,—whom I'm determined to make famous—real-life underdogs who overcame a level of adversity that I can't explain. My parents had to escape Italy and I also had to escape; it's part of the Conflict. This book is part of my life-long investigation to figure out My Blood, my culture, my heritage, my ancestors. Result? Discovering my Italian, history story that solved my Italian mystery.