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Guy and Leonard about 1924 |
| Len ("Nardu" or "Narduzzu", as our mother called him) was the family's "rolling stone". In 1930, at age 14, he literally ran away to join the circus! Family lore doesn't recall the details, but on June 23, 1930, the Ringling Brothers ~ Barnum and Bailey Circus visited Buffalo. So it's not hard to imagine that, tired of school and not looking forward to another summer picking beans at Musacchio's farm in North Collins, young Leonard hopped into a circus boxcar and rolled the rails with the circus to Rochester, Albany, and points East. | |
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Leonard joined the Navy before WWII, and missed being at Pearl Harbor during the Japanese surprise attack by one day. After serving in the war, he returned home for a while. A bachelor, he later re-enlisted and served in the Pacific once more, in and around the U.S. territory of the Island of Guam. Home in Buffalo again, he had our mother's "green thumb" and love for gardening, and planted many flowers, shrubs and fruit trees around our house at 56 Ritt Street. Periodically, the wanderlust would strike, and he'd take a job in New York City, or Chicago, or parts unknown. |
| Joe Merendino, Len, and Joe Calcaterra | |
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Leonard's second "Working Papers" as a dishwasher at the Swan Restaurant. |
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