In September of 1931, Frank Chiarelli was born in the apartment above his Poppa’s grocery and butcher shop on ‘The Corner’ of Rochester and Pamilla Streets in Ottawa’s Little Italy. His older brother and sister were born in Italy. He was the first born in America. There would be four more children.About twenty years later, the store and much of Little Italy were expropriated by the federal government and were demolished by a brigade of bulldozers. They were replaced by an array of shiny new buildingsWhile this demolition ended Chiarelli’s life in My Little Italy, it also coincided with his flight to a U.S. College as a student athlete on a scholarship. This memoir is exclusively about Chiarelli’s life during this twenty year period with the predominance of the following. Sexual largesse was rampant, so were crap games, so was breaking and entering, so was brawling, so were assaults, so was voyeuring, and so was forced labour by Poppa on Frank and his older siblings for work in the family businesses. These pages overflow with truly fascinating stories and events.Father Jerome, Pastor of St. Anthony’s Italian parish, provided bountiful funding for hockey, baseball and football teams which were instrumental in keeping his boys out of jail.This is Chiarelli's seventh book.
In September of 1931, Frank Chiarelli was born in the apartment above his Poppa’s grocery and butcher shop on ‘The Corner’ of Rochester and Pamilla Streets in Ottawa’s Little Italy. His older brother and sister were born in Italy. He was the first born in America. There would be four more children.About twenty years later, the store and much of Little Italy were expropriated by the federal government and were demolished by a brigade of bulldozers. They were replaced by an array of shiny new buildingsWhile this demolition ended Chiarelli’s life in My Little Italy, it also coincided with his flight to a U.S. College as a student athlete on a scholarship. This memoir is exclusively about Chiarelli’s life during this twenty year period with the predominance of the following. Sexual largesse was rampant, so were crap games, so was breaking and entering, so was brawling, so were assaults, so was voyeuring, and so was forced labour by Poppa on Frank and his older siblings for work in the family businesses. These pages overflow with truly fascinating stories and events.Father Jerome, Pastor of St. Anthony’s Italian parish, provided bountiful funding for hockey, baseball and football teams which were instrumental in keeping his boys out of jail.This is Chiarelli's seventh book.