"My life as an Italian began at about age twelve in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where my father operated a seasonal produce business–The Michigan Fruits Company. It was a seasonal business because originally my father handled produce from the world's largest open-air farmer's market in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Produce was shipped on boats from Benton Harbor to Milwaukee, where my father acted as a broker.…
Most of the men who worked for my father were Italians, and they took me in hand.… And I see in retrospect that Sam [one of these men] became my surrogate Italian father, though he was the opposite of my father: short vs. tall; dark vs. light; smoker vs. nonsmoker; pleasure oriented vs. work oriented.…"