Sal Valente
Maria Valente
Maria and Sal only represent a small part of their large family. Their family has consisted of Sal, being the only boy, and then four other girls, including Maria. Sal Valente has lived a very exciting but difficult life, installing televisions for a friend's small business in South Philadelphia and serving in World War II. Maria Valente, on the other hand, worked for the government and inspected combat boots.
"My car could go 72 miles per hour down Broad Street."
As Maria Valente talks to her friend, I ask Sal what life was like growing up with four other sisters. "Never had to wash the dishes ever," he says, beginning to laugh a lot. "My sisters and I argued from time to time." Maria overhears me asking him about his childhood and chimes in saying, "He was so annoying. My sisters and I would have to walk to school in the morning and Sal would drive his car. He would pass us on the street and toot his horn, beep beep! Yep, he was a doozy." That comment makes Sal have another laughing fit. "The walk did them good," he says to us. I asked him what car he had. "I had a 1929 Hupmobile. It had four doors," he says with pride. He continues to brag and say, "My car could go 72 miles per hour down Broad Street." I search "1929 Hupmobile," on my phone and show it to him. A big smile spreads across his face, "Yeah, that's it." You could tell he is remembering his high school years with that car. He tells me how for freshman, sophomore, and junior years of high school, he had all A's, but when he got that car his grades fell. We all laugh.
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Maria says, "He had an airplane too, you know." Sal beings to talk about how every weekend he would fly his plane to Atlantic City. "Only 25 minutes, you know," I ask him what model plane he had. "It was called a Swift. A 1940 Swift. And it had retracted wheels," he brags. Maria says, "he never let us fly in that plane." I can begin to picture exactly what they were like as teenagers.
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We start to talk more seriously about Sal's role in World War II. "It was scary," he says. He was sent out to Germany and Holland around 1945. One of his jobs was determining how deep trenches and rivers were. I can see that he likes talking more about the happier parts of his life.
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Sal shares about his experiences traveling around the world. He talks about going to England twice in a fan club for Laurel and Hardy, a popular comedy duo in the 1940s. He says that his one regret was never going to Scotland.
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Maria begins to talk about a boyfriend she dated for around 50 years. Sal begins to shake his head. "I didn't like him," he says, disapprovingly. Her boyfriend fought in the war too, and with Maria, he would inspect uniforms. "He took me to his hometown in Italy and to Paris," she defends. Sal still seems unconvinced.
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