Bertha June Ast Garofalo: My Mom

Mom

Bertha June Ast Garofalo
April 8, 1921 -- February 12, 1994
Born in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Her father was Robert Ast.
Her brother was Bob Ast-Blaize

Family moved to Los Angeles in 1928.
Her Mother, Mabel, married Roy Blaze.
She grew up with three brothers: Bob, Bill, Eugene.
She graduated from George Washington High School.

She married Michael James Garofalo in 1943.
We lived in Bandini, ELA, 1944-1964.
She was a hardworking housewife and mother.
She cooked Midwest style, Italian, and Mexican foods.
She taught us how to live properly and be good persons.

 

 

She raised three boys: Michael, Paul and Philip.
Sent her children to St. Alphonsus Catholic School.

 

Karen, Alicia, June

 

She lived in Hacienda Heights, 1964-1994.
She did not drive until she was 55.
She had many friends in the St. John Vianny Women's Guild.
She traveled the USA in a trailer with my dad.
She went on all our camping trips. She was a walker.
Karen and I lived next door and helped care for mom and dad.
She helped her grandchildren 1982-1994.
She loved reading mystery, suspense, and American West novels.
She was more a Lutheran than a Catholic.
She suffered from and died from bowel cancer in 1994.
My dad died from heart disease and stroke in 1996.

We sold the Hacienda Heights house in 1997.
Karen and I moved to Red Bluff in April of 1998.

Father's Day

Michael James Garofalo (1/10/1916-4/2/1997)

My father, Michael James Garofalo, died on April 2nd, around 3 am in 1997.

He had a series of strokes, beginning in 1992, and then, due to complications from diabetes, increasing dementia, old age, inactivity, overeating, a broken hip from a fall, and congestive heart failure ... all led to his death.

In his youth, he was always strong, active, hard working, diligent, and demanding.
He built himself the three houses in which he lived, in starting in 1945.
He and my mom, June, raised three sons.
When he retired, at 62, he was the Chief Piping Engineer at the Fluor Corporation.

He was a Catholic believer. His outlook was conservative, Republican. He worked with all white men in a non-union workplace. He did not think well of people of other races and creeds. He thought all poor people were just lazy and stupid. Compassion and kindness were not high on his list of virtues. He also had a low opinion of women rights. His income was sufficient to provide for us when growing up.

I'd say he was an untreated manic-depressive. After he was 65, he resisted all my many recommendations to consult with better physicians or a counselor. He could be quite stubborn at times with not complying with medical recommendations. 

He paid to send me to Catholic Schools, 1st to 12 grade. I was indoctrinated properly by nuns and priests. It was just "get good grades, study, obey, do what we say" everyday. 

He liked to travel in the Western Regions and Deserts: Southern California, Nevada, Mexico, Utah, Arizona. 

For more Information about my Dad.

He did not read very much. Listened to sports on the radio and right wing talk a lot. Not conversant much with modern thought, and viewed the 1960's changes a low class sinful rot. He spoke in stereotypes and racial slurs a lot. His Italian identity, was touted a lot. Also, he enjoyed bossing others around a lot.

After he retired, he mellowed a bit, and he was really a good grandfather with our two children.

My wife and I cared for him every day, he lived in a Granny Flat apartment next door. We helped him daily from 1993 to 1997. 

Frankly, for me, he was hard to love or like at times very much. 

I thank him for paying the way in my youth, providing for decent room and board, a good education, a safe home, and providing me with a useful inheritance from him from his final estate. 

I'd say he was a decent father, a good provider, but a friend to few. 

Yes, I loved my Dad - with Reservations.

Happy Father's Day

A day to say "Thank You" to all the good fathers in our lives, our communities, our nation, the world.  Their hard work, generosity, kindness, courage, and steadfastness have helped us all lead better lives.  The good men who have supported, nurtured, raised, and properly educated their children (their own offspring or children they have adopted) are very important in our lives.  These good fathers (past, present, and future) deserve respect and praise. 

For those men who have been poor, bad, absent, or evil "fathers" we shake our heads with disapproval and disdain.  They squandered their opportunity and left the challenge to other women and men to do good towards their children and our communities.  Their irresponsibility is so shameful. 


So, to all these good men, "Happy Father's Day!"  
You deserve the praise. 
Three Cheers to You All !!! 

My own father, Michael James Garofalo (1916-1997) provided well for his family, was very hard working, and was very reliable.  He stressed giving a full effort as a worker, fulfilling one's duties, obedience, and respect.  He was a hard taskmaster at times, but I learned a lot from living with him.  He was a decent man, and a fine grandfather. 
After he retired as the Chief Piping Engineer at the Fluor Corporation, he and my mom enjoyed traveling in their trailer in the Southwest.  

My father-in-law, Delmer Eubanks (1912-2002) was a good father, grand-father, and great-grand-father.  He worked as a Union Millwright in Los Angeles. He was a decent man and friend of many.




The above family portrait was taken around 1987.
Yes, being a good father and grandfather was and is important to me.

Father's Day, 2018, Vancouver, Washington.



Lifestyle Advice from Wise Persons

Happy Father's Day, Michael James Garofalo

My father was Michael James Garofalo.  He was born in Los Angeles, California, on January 10th, 1916.  He passed away on April 2, 1996.  He had been raised, educated, worked, raised his family of three children, built 3 houses, enjoyed traveling in the Southwest, prospered, retired and lived till he was 81 years of age in Los Angeles County.

My paternal grandfather, Anthony Garofalo (1881-1931), and his father Demetrio came to Los Angeles from a town in Sicily called Pino dei Greci.  They were in the LA fruit and produce transportation and wholesale business.  Since my grandfather Anthony died of cancer when my dad was 15, my dad never experienced an adult relationship with his father.

My father grew up in Los Angeles during the Great Depression of the 1930's and World War II.  He lived and worked during the economic boom years from 1950-1980 in Los Angeles County.

My mother, Bertha June Garofalo (1921-1994), and my dad were married in 1942.  He was then a University of Southern California student and civilian draftsman employed by the U. S. Army Air Corps.

My dad and I were born in the same hospital: The White Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles.  We both attended The University of Southern California.  

He worked his entire professional career for the Flour Corporation.  He retired in 1978 as the Chief Piping Engineer at Flour.  Flour designed and built oil refineries and chemical plants all around the world.  

My dad's Flour office was near the corner of the Washington and Atlantic Blouveards, less than a half mile from our small home in Bandini, unincorporated East Los Angeles, just another ELA barrio adjacent to industrial, manafacturing, retail, railroads, and slaughterhouses.  This area later became the incorporated City of Commerce.

I worked for the City of Commerce Public Library from 1963-1969.  I was attending California State University at Los Angeles at the time, paid for by my dad.  My dad worked at Flour back then, and we were moving to the new house that my dad and my two brothers had built in Hacienda Heights.  I worked hard at the "Ranch" most weekends building the garage, house, pool, and landscaping from the age of 10 to 21.  My dad taught us the building trades.  

My dad was a Catholic.  He paid for me to attend Catholic School at St. Alphonsus Grammer School (K-8) and Cantwell Catholic High School (9-12), both in East Los Angeles.  He supported the Catholic Church, its outlook on life, their schools, and their sacraments.  My mom was the quiet Lutheran, acting like a Catholic.  

My dad was a Republican.  He was a professional engineer in a non-union workplace.  He would not be thought of by others as a progressive, liberal, or libertarian.  He liked the Moral Majority attitude.  A prim and proper attitude, hard working, clean cut, Catholic, bourgeois, conservative, mainstream, married ...  Ronald Reagan was his favorite President.  

My dad was a savy investor, very hardworking, and frugal.  He left me with an inheritance that enabled me to move to Northern California in 1998.  I worked part-time from 1998-2017, and enjoyed life as an educator, fitness instructor, and semi-retired bohemian gentleman gardener on 5 acres in a rural area.

I can't say my Dad and I were good friends.  It was probably somewhat my own fault, but he frequently was, for me, not a likeable sort of fellow in some ways.  He tended towards an authoritarian and bossy manner.  We did not share the same opinions about many issues of our adjacent generations or about different outlooks on life.  

I could always count on him for help and guidance, and tried to reciprocate in kind over our lifetimes.  I respected him in many ways.  I admired his accomplishments.  I thought of him as a strong, decent, hard working man.  I wished him well for him for 52 years.

He told me many times, "You are a good son."  He choose Karen and I as his caregivers and personal managers after he had a stroke in 1992 and my mom died of cancer in 1994; and, choose me as the Executor of his estate.  We honored all his last wishes.  

We both enjoyed traveling in the Southwest from 1950-1993.  He took our family on many trips in the West from 1948-1966.  My dad and mom owned a Ford 350 truck and a 20" travel trailer.  He drove that rig across the USA and down to Mexico City.  

So I tip my hat to my Dad, Big Mike, my Father, Michael James Garofalo, and my good memories.

Happy Birthday, Dad