An Easter Wish

Billy (aka “Billy the West”) the apprentice, is doing one of those “apprentice chores” that you will never find reference to in the training manual.  He has been ordered by his journeyman to keep his eye out for the huge and reportedly menacing bull roaming the pasture where the well they are working on is located.  Giuseppe, the journeyman, is working feverishly to install the electrical device at the well before the bull notices them.

Billy has only worked for our company for a few months.  Giuseppe on the other hand is a valued employee.  It had not always been so…

Giuseppe came to us as a young man, “just off the boat”, so to speak.  He had fallen in love with an American girl while she was vacationing in Italy and she had brought him home to a none-too-happy-to see-him Mamma and Pappa.  He spoke very poor English.  That’s how he happened to come to our shop looking for a job.  My father was the only Italian speaking electrical contractor anyone at our contractor association offices could think of, so they sent Giuseppe to us.  My dad hired him on the spot, although he had absolutely no qualifications or experience.  Dad was like that.  Unfortunately, it was I who had to figure out just what we would do with this young headstrong Italian kid. 

It was a rocky road from the start.  We had some definite cultural differences to overcome.  For example, Giuseppe started out as a delivery boy for us.  After a couple of speeding tickets and two fender benders, I showed him my frustration at his unwillingness to slow down and be careful.  He looked at me and asked incredulously, “Whatsa matta, you no got any insurance?”  I wanted to hit him over the head with a pipe, but even back in the 80’s that kind of thing was frowned upon.

Another time he stormed into my dad’s office and angrily cried, “I justa found out I’ma no gonna get any paid vacation.  That’sa no legal, is it?”  Dad explained that this was not Italy (where 3 weeks of paid vacation is automatic), and that his entry level pay package did not include vacation pay.  Giuseppe stormed out, furious.  Dad just chuckled.

Giuseppe moved from driving delivery to working as an apprentice, where he began learning the electrical trade and doing quite well.  There were a few “misunderstandings” with foremen, but all in all his hard work began to make him a favorite for many.  Nevertheless, he finally became so frustrated with things in this Country (and I am sure was more than a little homesick), that he decided quit his job and move his wife back to live in Brindisi with his mother.  Most of us were sorry to see him go, but we knew he was not really happy here, so we wished him well.

Less than six months later he was back in our office.  Apparently, “everything had changed” in Italy.  “And…”, he smiled as he noted, “…everything there gotta smaller!”  He decided the USA was a pretty good place to live and work, and most importantly, to raise a family.  If he had been a good employee prior, he became a great employee from that day on.  Within a few years, he was a journeyman electrician and soon became a valued foreman.  At the same time, he became a wonderful father to four beautiful daughters.  He and his wife, Lisa, bought a small house on ten acres in the country and life was good.  Over the next twenty years or so, he and I became close friends.

Giuseppe and his youngest daughter, Cassia



I should also mention that Giuseppe had a nickname for almost everybody, whether they liked it or not.  Billy the West earned his by showing up in a cowboy hat for work one day.  Billy hated the nickname and never wore the hat again.  But for the year or so he worked for us, he was known to all as Billy the West.  Which brings me back to where we left off our story of the bull by the well.

As the bull approaches, Billy the West taps Giuseppe’s shoulder and whispers, “Giuseppe, the bull is coming over here.”

“Only onea more minute”, Giuseppe answers without looking up, “I’ma almost gotta this thinga done”.

“But…the bull..”

“Stoppa buggin’ me.  Thirty more seconds anda we go”.

“…is getting really close”.

“OK, OK, I’ma almost finished, don’ta panic onna me”.

“GIUSEPPE, THE BULL!”

At this point Giuseppe says he turned to see the huge animal about 20 feet away, snorting and scraping his hoof, readying his charge.  It was about fifty feet from where Giuseppe and Billy were working to a cross fence and safety.  A carpenter eye-witness told me the sight of Giuseppe and Billy running for their lives from the charging bull, with their electrical pouches bouncing on their hips, diving over the barbed wire fence a half a step ahead of the pursuing beast was one of the funniest things he has ever seen in his career. 

When Giuseppe came into the office and told the story of he, Billy the West and the bull, he was so animated and excited that he had all of us laughing for days.  I still chuckle when I think of it.

My Easter wish is that Giuseppe was here today to share the joy of Easter and perhaps to raise a glass of vino and tell this story himself.  But, two years ago, my friend Giuseppe lost a tough battle with cancer.  He was 48. I woke up with him on my mind this morning.  I miss him sorely.  Thanks for letting me share part of him with you.  Happy Easter.

Footnotes:

1)    Some twenty or so years after the incident with the bull occurred, I got a phone call from a “William Somebody-or- other”.  I could not place him.  He explained several jobs he had worked on…still, nothing came back.  He finally said sheepishly, “Billy the West”.  I knew who it was that instant.

2)    Last time I was in Sacramento visiting my office, Giuseppe’s oldest daughter, Gabriella, was sitting behind our reception desk working part time answering our phones while she finishes up her last year of college.  On her desk, she had a photo of her dad holding her as an infant.  In the photo, she was wearing one of those one-piece baby outfits.  On it was our company logo.  As a friend once wrote, "What goes around comes around on Once Around."