Ledo Lucietto (LL) and Anne Lucietto (AL)
LL: My father’s name is Luigi. He was a mechanical engineer. We used to call him Louie or Louis.
AL: And, when I was a little kid, he came and hung out with you guys at the shop. And I was there some of the time wasn’t I?
LL: You were there many, many times. You’d go to say, ‘Hey Nono,’ that means grandpa, ‘What is that? What are you doing? And how’d they make it.’ That was great.
AL: It was wasn’t it?
LL: Yeah.
AL: So tell me when you first thought that I should be an engineer…
LL: Well, I have to say that it was right around when you were probably five years old. You started to ask me many many questions. First it was, ‘Can a girl be an engineer?’ And I said, ’There’s no question why they should not be.’ And, uh, we’d go to the zoo. And the zoo was not quite the thing for you. You wanted to go to the Science and Industry Museum. And, we had to drive a good hour in order to get to it. But we went there as many times as we could. And, uh, you were interested in taking stuff apart.
AL: So, what did I take apart?
LL: Oh, little toys, little things, it was very elementary. And then one day you started to look at a clock. You wanted to take it apart. Sometimes you’d take something apart, and I’d sit there and wonder, ‘What in the world did you do here?’ And then I’d talk to you and you’d say, ‘Well, I took it apart…daddy fix.’ You remember that phrase?
AL: Yeah, but did you ever watch when you fixed it what I was doing?
LL: Well, you were watching every move.
AL: I was watching real careful so I could put it together myself next time.
LL: Right.
AL: Did you ever notice that I followed you around the shop watching?
LL: I thought there was a magnet hooked up to me and you. You followed my footsteps and I thought it was great.
AL: Did you ever realize that I copied you in just about everything you did.
LL: Everything.
AL: Do you realize I walk like you too?
LL: Yeah, I know. I really… it’s a laughing thing, because when I remember back those are memories. I really like every one of them. It was fun.
AL: So when you laugh, what are you thinking of?
LL: When I laugh, what I think is the results. You became an engineer. And you know how many people said to me, ‘What do you want to send her to college for, she’s a girl they’re only good for making babies.’ But I always told them, ‘That’s my money and I’m going to worry about it.’
AL: That’s right.
LL: So…
AL: So you don’t worry about me anymore huh?
LL: No I do worry about you. You’re my buddy.
AL: (Laughs)