Document text
?ElL.CNAL urn %LIMY
Gus Constantin 0eraris
Greok Restaurateur
107 N. 4)troet
nisabeth City, C.
U. Launders
Infr 0 WY ORX URA=
?et, has a great little restaurant. if. buys his
steaks from a Chicago paoker cpeelalizing in "top *Mice*
ribs and loins. He uses a fine blend of (soften and
serves real ernes with is Goff**. Cold storage eggs
and ersatz butter never enter into his euisine• His
fixtures are modern; his kitchen a model of orderliness
and °Moloney. And ;Pete is forever busy. When he isn't
waiting on tables, ringing up sales or inquiring after
the pleusure and comfort of patrons, he is filling up
sugar bowls and salts and peppers, packing his butter
tray, soalding out the Gaffes urns, replenishing his,
lee oubes, folding napkins, polishing glasses, mopping
up, putting things generally to rights. I had to get
his story in broken Installments.
Drawing himself a oup of (toffee during a morning's
lull he dropped Aown beside me at the lunob oounter.
*Are you always busy like this?" I asked him.
*Always," he replied; "there is always something
to do in a dining room if you try to run a first °lass
place and hold customers. I learned that long ago on
an °clean liner and I have never forgotten it.
"I was dining room helper on this liner. One day
after lunoh, when ell the dishes had Leon taken back to
the kitehen, the table cloths changed end the sideboard
put in order, I sat down and opened up a magazino.
"'rho head steward clams along and faked no what I
meant by sitting down with a magazine?
sI told him I thought I was throut i4th q wink
until the next meal time.
*Us said to as, 'Your work is never dons in a din.
lag room as long as you keep your eyes open.'
Always something to do as long es you keep your
ryes opera It is true. I never forgot that.*
In a eueoession of such interviews I pissed to.
gather this personal life history of a typical Greek.
Amerloan restaurateur, vuoh a fellow as on. will find
in almost any small town or oit7 in Amerioa. His story,
interspersed with lore or less of his comment on its
and its livers, *Ikea uP like this:
N2y family name is ;Istrakisi everybody Galls me
?ete for short. When rot me, naturalization papers in
19215 I gave ;lets as my first name.
was born in the village or Dervenion near the
ancient arose, oity or Corinth. Dervenion was a rural
village uhere the people lived by sgrioultura and fishing.
My people, like not villagers, grew fruity and vegeta.
blee and raised flax from which they spun and wove
their own linen and made the °loth, on hand looms, from
whioh most of our clothing was made. *r:le made wine and
olive oil and oared raisins, nuoh of whioh we sold for
oash. Our food was simple; broad and °Mose, fruits
and vegetables, with occasional meat or fish meals.
"When I was 12 yeary old I went to ?imams the
seaport town of Athens, to live with an unele. Ho was
LL pbr3u31t and I or:: In A.E! 4rw, etcre. It
no confectionc los, !to novelticia.
"At Axaous ships clime fru!1 l!irto ot;'Be
e; rto soda fountftin, ciAr^r counter,
lrawi% 1.oy ith lotp
our osity atout the
kl'orld of which 1. hld rned !::11e. In school cwald
nordly oso4pe the call of the eau -t Asaeus. :hen
wur. 14 yeurk,. old 1 miared on o British 3ter bound
for ;,ulltralia.
For six yeqrs I r.4od the seven seftv on every-
thing fml trRap freichters to 0040u4 ;.iners. I crossed
the ;Al ntic 17 times, wont twice around Ctillo Horn,
crossed the ;'noifie three time*, visited first and last
20 countries, I 'orLrd io coal :lessor, firemen, dec..-
hand and dinine room "helper.
Once 'oat lost my life. it ,,ac on t Ertttah
steamer, lo ded wtti unitions, bound frol. ey!- York to
lievre in 1.:ctoLor 117. G ware tor7mlood by a Go -man
aubmarino without :4rniT. ilift :our *cloc one
tout halNAy tho tl4ntic l'hare \Awe L
:,,en on board. :,11 junled Into thfl nany without
othf4r t1nn thv clothes the, !Atilt !at. o ttle to low
or 4 t Lot orfind n 1t preserver. y clinging
to dieces or' tilabuw th-tt floated tU sinking
17 o utraanaeed to 7,Turvive rind we rescued 4 an
beira. in the vater for 49 hours.
L
.4
laricn 1!,e
troyer after
.e tore nearly frozen rAnt'! dead frort the waist to. .0
4
had been in the chilly closer more then two days without
food or wettc.. They had to revive us !lowly, so nearly
frozen rare we. One of our nor died cfter being taken
from the wafer,
"I mode 'jowl money in years ef see. races were
usually goal end the tips were coo 4 rhen I ot Into the
dining saloons. On a trip from Cape Town or Lingapore
to Liverpool the tips would sometimes amount to 20
pound 4 or slut 100 in Amerioan *ow.
"But money warn't all I fzot out of my seamiltame1
it we, an eduontion for as, teeing net- lands and mset•
ing strange people, tnkine in their custors, their sum.
norm and their ways of Urine. Vy mathemetios was help,
ed too, laernine the rate!. of grebe:rige nnd how to figure
in the ourrenoy of the natty eountries r visited.
"And, believe no, a fellow travelinr all around the
world hes n lot to learn. I had to Inern that N M. in
Orimee meanr one thinr, and in Mnglard the opposite
tiin. ot shorn lerve one day rrcym my ehip at Liver'.
pool. I inquired as to when the ship was to sail so I
wouldn't ove.. stay my leave. was told the ship mil*
ed at 6 74. U. U00 in my Gauntry Mani Before Nocag
but in Blarland it 'twins After I pot back to my
ship's dook about midnight to find that the ship had
sailed six hours earlier. And there Y wen stranded in
Livernool without money or a Mange of clothing. But
found another Greek fellow who took no to the Greek Cone
puler agent who helped me out and got another berth for
AO
',what wee the greatest thing I learned in all my
travels? well, maybe, it VOW that people are just people
wherever you find them; black men, yellow mem, brown men,
white men all just hunan. Al] eat, sleep, love women,
love babies, like their run and trent you right it you
treat than right. I have never found but one roes of
people I dun't like, and don't dislike all of than.
They are the peolle New t in% they are better than ovary..
one elate; they push, they shove, they more they want
more for their money than anybody else. If I had to ds.
pond on their trade I would aloes up my business.
"How 1 oamo to looate in Amerioa mum like this. I
was a member of the International r'eaman's Union. The
union willed a strike on my ship which cloaked at Norfolk
in 1921. While we were still on strike the ship got an.'
other craw and sailed. I was stranded in Norfolk.
"I oouldn't get another berth right away but I had
a little money; 044 in teat. I was 25 days out of
work and had spent $25 when I got a job driving a bread
wagon for a areek bakery. I had learned to speak a
little tInglish. I drove thet bread wagon for six years.
I had only 15 restaurants on my route when I started.
When I left I had 111 restaurants on my route and was
making $175 a month.
"In those days, Making good money, I tried to live
like a big shot; I owned a big oar, gambled, played the
ponies, thought nothing of taking it day off to see a
prize fight. Dat I found it didn't pay; that 14 awe,
get ahead that way. I wan making the mistake that most
people in this oountry make .0. spending more than I
could make.
"For three years I attended an Amarloanisation
night aohool in Uorfolk, learning to speak English. The
principal of thd school told 244 I should take out *Ms.
zenothip papers. I was afraid to do this. beeause I had
entered the country Illegally. But the principal of the
school, a niehty fine woman, told me what I should do to
get my papers and helped me to make up my record.
"I *am* to North Carolina in 1932 to help another
Creek that I had struek u a friendship with in Vorfolk.
I came to help him for two weeks in his restaurant and
stayed with him six years. I worked hard, saved my money,
made friends and went into the restaurant business with
a partner in 1936. my 2artner knows the kitohen end; I
knowts tlning roam end; we have been very sueeessful.
People have been very kind to me."
"Tell me I asked: wrhy do so many Greek people
oome to America: and go into the restaurant business?'"
"As staple as hot sakes,* he replied. "A Greek
ousios to America; he can speak little English; he ftesn't
feel himself above any kind of work. /u looking about
for a Job he finds dish washers in demand. He gets a
Job in a hotel or restaurant kitchen washing dishes. He
learns to eooks He gets five or nix hundred dollars
ahead and opens a little restaurant of his own.
'Ts are used to work, used to long hours, we are a
sober people, our eyes are bright, we don't always
waste money. The Ahepa tells us that no member of its
soeiety has ever died in the eleetrio Chair or served a
life tern in arisons"
"And what is the Ahem?" I asked.
"The Ahepa is the American Hellenic Adueational
Progressive .1,asooiation. It aids Amerioan eitisens of
Hellenie disseent to become better Amer/Gans. The Abele
strives to bring the best in Hellenism to the solution
of the problems of &merles. It teaohes loyalty. It
tries to keep our peorae from being a Relief Problem,
it is building homes for the aged and orphans in Yloridal
it maintains a fine tubsroulosis sanitarium in New Me
loo and arovides 4200 for every family of doeeased
mmmber. It's a fine order; it keeps us Greek Americans
on our toes.
"I mewed the Atlantio my last time in 1937; I
went bask to visit my old homs and my people for the
first time in 21 years. Everything had plunged, szoept
the leople.
"Men I left home as n small boy we hud no autome..
bil a, no eleetrio lights, no telephones, no rouge, no
lipsticks. All this had *hanged; automobiles, busses,
trucks, electric lights everywhere. The telephone and
telegraph had eons to or village. The girls wits* using
8
ri4gele and lipsticks, Just as in ;Aeries.
"But the greatest alliance had eons in ,Jur government.
Our aountry was' ruled by riah men when I was a boy. In
our village, for instance, five or six rioh men living
in their palsoes took almost everything the people nedit.
The people were always in debt to then. They owned the
stores and we hnd to buy from them at their own primes.
When we sold our olive oil, our wine, our raisins, our
fruits and our vegetable's them, rloh men got together
and fixed the Irises they should pay us. ';,(11 were always
in debt to them. They charged high rates of interest.
"All this hue changed. The government now lends
money to the little nan on the fern. The draohna has
been devalued. ?Ivo draahleas wort, worth a dollar in
American money when I left has. "hen 1 went beak a
dollar would buy 108 or 112 draohmas. ;.nd the gove..nm
moat had said to the rioh men thut they must Remelt the
'draohma its old value in paynents on debts, and give
the debtor 12 years to pay. I saw some of these big men,
living in ;mimeos, golnr to work same as little man.
The little man ie no longer bound to thu ?lob men. Ho
doesn't have to boll his fruits and vegetables, his wine
and olive oil, to a few rich men who fix prism; otor
trucks take his produoe to the markets in Athens.
44) "Another tang I found Greeks end Turks who were
ono. always at war with one another, now living on terns
of pesos and like good neighbors.
411.1any wise ohanges have been made by our min governm
9
aent. Any Loy out of high school could go to oollege
and study to be a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher or an
engineer. losult was too many doctors, too many laws
yore, too may teacher*, too many engineers. Not all
of them oould mak, a living; sone of them beoame crooks.
"Now the government fixes the quotas, how many
lawyers, how many dootors, how many teachers, how many
engineers the colleges nay turn out. Only the students
who :lake tho highest marks are *sleeted to fill the
quotas. -;ouldn't that be a good tin g tor Amerioa to
oopy? ,ouldn't we have fewer crooked lawyers, fewer
°rooked doctors and fame teaohers and originalities of what
you call medioore ability?"
"Do you Ilan to go bask to the old country to spen4
your last years?" I asked.
"flu; I do not think I shall go book; I am used to
Amerloa and %.marican way* now; and it is so muoh easier
to mar a living in America. A Oro* can make enough
in one week over here to live a nonth on. One does well
in the old country to naltel enough in a month to live
half as well f4Jr a weak an he could live It :Aortae.
"Amerioa is a land of easy money. 7here is more
noney in Anorioa and, strange to say, moro wafering
than in the) old oountries. The trouble in America is
*ally credit. It is so easy for a fellow making $46 a
week to try to live like a fellow making a hundred
dollarc a week. You oun buy a suite of furnituro for a
10
dollar down asd a dollar a week; a radio or n suit of
elothes the same way. You can buy an automobile on
time, trading in your old oar US down pay4ent. Credit
is too easy.
"This restaurant you sem here represents an invest..
sent of $10,000; ms and my partner had only a thousand
apiece to put in it to start. Ife would hnve had to put
in 45,000 to start a 010,000 business in the old country.
Yes, thir America is a great country.
"Nol I don't thin. I shall ever go book to the old
oountry except for a visit. It has nothing much to
offer me since became aeoustomed to the 4mierican way
of life.
"till, m old oontry has its good points. If we
°rooks are a law.abiding peoge it is because we have
lived all (,:r lives under strict laws. Our le are not
loot o ut in ;erica. aar towns and villagtJe don't sake
their own laws; all laws are Federal laws; all our judges
are Federal judees; even the polioemen aro Federal map.
ployees. J federal judIAD tri-a youlbr even a petty
demeanor, 2.nd to keep our judges free fram personal bias
and favoritism, they shift the judgea from province to
province, never letting n judge stay in one town lone
enough to form friendships that might warp his judgment.
The same way with polieemen; they ars not kept long in
any 040 plat's.
"IAA we Greeks uro in oome ways a Arouliar people.
U.
If any person offends or insults us, or wrongs us in any.
way, we never have anything lore to do with his. No say
beg our nardon a thousand times, and we may forgive his;
but we nevc have anything to do with his any sore, for
the son who insults you, abuses you or lies to you in by
nature an ignorant or .an 'arson that you oan not afford
to trust or reepect* Vs don't take any more ohanoes
with an ignorant or evil fallow when we -et what you
eall it his numbor*"