Philomena Luciani and Alison Purcell

“My mother, well, she didn't know how to say 'colander' in English...”

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Philomena Luciani interviewed by her granddaughter, Alison.

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Recorded in New York, NY.

Philomena Luciani and Alison Purcell

Interview transcript

My mother, well she had trouble, she didn’t speak English and one of the incidents that happened she wanted to buy a colander and she went to this variety store and she looked around and the salesman asked her what was she looking for and she didn’t know how to say colander in English so she said “macaroni stop and water go ahead”, and he right away knew what she wanted, “ah,” he said “ah” so he got her the colander and that’s what she wanted (laughs)

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