Connie Constant's visit to her mother's village in Greece more than 20 years ago was filled with pain and promise.
The old woman's childhood home was abandoned and crumbling.But hanging inside was a sack of letters written between 1911 and 1939 by Constant's mother and other family members who had immigrated to America. The letters were brief, but when Constant's sister, Helen, and their mother, Vasiliki Limberopulos, held the fragile pages, the recollections flowed.
The letters moved Vasiliki to tell of her parents' heart-wrenching decision to send her, at the age of age 18, along with her 16-year-old sister, to America. Neither spoke a word of English. But America -- a place they had never seen even in pictures -- was where they could find husbands without a dowry.
The outpouring of memories laid the foundation of a decade-long family collaboration resulting in Constant's book, "Austin Lunch: Greek-American Recollections" (Cosmos, $15.57 paperback).
"Austin Lunch" may sound like a guide to the best burgers in the Texas capital,
but the title comes from the family restaurant, originally on Austin Avenue in Chicago. The restaurant -- open 24 hours a day, every day, during the Depression in the hope of baiting the rare customer -- is the setting.
Although Constant has author credit, most events in the memoir occurred before her birth in 1939. The story is told in the voice of Helen, 14 years older, who grew up in the Austin Lunch.
During her last years, Vasiliki lived with Helen, who intermittently recorded Vasiliki's stories after the arrival of the bag of letters from Greece in the summer of 1984.
The letters hurtled Vasiliki back in time. She remembered what she said then and what she held back. She didn't want her parents to know about the hardships in America, but she told Helen the full story for the record.
It was just in time. She died that November.
Vasiliki's tapes unveiled a reality kept from the children. Streetwalkers,drunks and mobsters prowled the sidewalks outside the Austin Lunch. Her father once concealed a man from a mob enforcer under the lunch counter.
Working on the book for more than 10 years, Constant interviewed Helen and her brother, Nick, and conducted research to corroborate dates. Eventually, Constant realized the story was about more than her own family -- it was about a generation.
The story of immigration is everyone's story in America. If we didn't immigrate ourselves, we are descended from feisty immigrant ancestors.Vasiliki exemplified the heroine with dishpan hands. Her daughters have captured her distinctive no-nonsense voice. She struggled with the English language and with the strictures placed on Greek women of her time, but she was not silenced or held back.
When the Depression came and the loss of the restaurant seemed imminent, she negotiated cheap rent for an apartment nearby, though it meant moving the family to the edge of skid row, and announced that she would replace a paid worker at Austin Lunch.
Tongues wagged in the Greek community. "What does a stupid woman know about running a restaurant?"
But times were changing, and necessity speeded up the change. A decade before Rosie the Riveter, women bent the rules to save their families.
Judith B. Herman is a writer who lives in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, Westways and other publications.
The old woman's childhood home was abandoned and crumbling.But hanging inside was a sack of letters written between 1911 and 1939 by Constant's mother and other family members who had immigrated to America. The letters were brief, but when Constant's sister, Helen, and their mother, Vasiliki Limberopulos, held the fragile pages, the recollections flowed.
The letters moved Vasiliki to tell of her parents' heart-wrenching decision to send her, at the age of age 18, along with her 16-year-old sister, to America. Neither spoke a word of English. But America -- a place they had never seen even in pictures -- was where they could find husbands without a dowry.
The outpouring of memories laid the foundation of a decade-long family collaboration resulting in Constant's book, "Austin Lunch: Greek-American Recollections" (Cosmos, $15.57 paperback).
"Austin Lunch" may sound like a guide to the best burgers in the Texas capital,
but the title comes from the family restaurant, originally on Austin Avenue in Chicago. The restaurant -- open 24 hours a day, every day, during the Depression in the hope of baiting the rare customer -- is the setting.
Although Constant has author credit, most events in the memoir occurred before her birth in 1939. The story is told in the voice of Helen, 14 years older, who grew up in the Austin Lunch.
During her last years, Vasiliki lived with Helen, who intermittently recorded Vasiliki's stories after the arrival of the bag of letters from Greece in the summer of 1984.
The letters hurtled Vasiliki back in time. She remembered what she said then and what she held back. She didn't want her parents to know about the hardships in America, but she told Helen the full story for the record.
It was just in time. She died that November.
Vasiliki's tapes unveiled a reality kept from the children. Streetwalkers,drunks and mobsters prowled the sidewalks outside the Austin Lunch. Her father once concealed a man from a mob enforcer under the lunch counter.
Working on the book for more than 10 years, Constant interviewed Helen and her brother, Nick, and conducted research to corroborate dates. Eventually, Constant realized the story was about more than her own family -- it was about a generation.
The story of immigration is everyone's story in America. If we didn't immigrate ourselves, we are descended from feisty immigrant ancestors.Vasiliki exemplified the heroine with dishpan hands. Her daughters have captured her distinctive no-nonsense voice. She struggled with the English language and with the strictures placed on Greek women of her time, but she was not silenced or held back.
When the Depression came and the loss of the restaurant seemed imminent, she negotiated cheap rent for an apartment nearby, though it meant moving the family to the edge of skid row, and announced that she would replace a paid worker at Austin Lunch.
Tongues wagged in the Greek community. "What does a stupid woman know about running a restaurant?"
But times were changing, and necessity speeded up the change. A decade before Rosie the Riveter, women bent the rules to save their families.
Judith B. Herman is a writer who lives in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. She has written for the Los Angeles Times, Westways and other publications.
