I was born in a village named Avlona, situated in the province of Messinia, located in the southwestern part of the Peloponessus. The original name of the village was Karamustapha, which was the name of a pasha who had made his headquarters there during the Turkish occupation. To more fully describe it, it is about thirty miles south of Olympia, ten miles northeast of Kyparessia, elevation 1,600 feet, and built on the top of a mountain which is shaped like an egg. The territory around it is rugged. The main means of livelihood for its inhabitants was raising wheat and corn, and grazing sheep and lambs. There were also a few olives from which they made oil and a few grapevines from which they made wine and food. Frankly speaking, if you were to give that type of land to people in this country, you would never get them to exist like our people did all those years. It's beyond me how they survived.

My father was a humble man. He made a meager living selling a little surplus wheat for the essentials of life. I remember as a youngster when we were out of school, I helped plant the seeds as he was plowing the field for corn. The sections that each of the villagers worked were small. The terrain was full of rocks. Terraces and walls were built with rocks every so many feet on the side of the hills in order to prevent soil from running away during the rainy season.

After going through grammar school, which in those days was a four year period, I went to what we called in Greece, "elinikon scholio," more or less junior high school. Since there was none in our village I had to go to another village, which was a two-hour, walk from our home. The only means of transportation was to walk to it, or to ride a horse, a mule or a donkey. I graduated from this junior high in 1907.

The following fall I applied to go to high school in Kyparissia. It was the biggest town in the area and had the only high school in the district. I passed the exam and was admitted.

In those days high school students or I should say their parents, had to pay tuition for high school. After I was at school for about 2 or 3 weeks, my father, God bless his soul, came and gave me the sad news that he could no longer pay for my room and board and for my books and tuition at school. The reason was that my eldest sister, who is still alive today (1968) and about 80 years old, was engaged to be married. There was a custom in Greece that before any girl is married the father of the bride must negotiate with the father of the groom and give a dowry in cash or in property. My father told me that an arrangement had been made where certain sections of land worth certain amounts of drachmas were to be given to my sister. The balance of the dowry was to be paid in cash when the wedding took place.

After the agreement was made the so-called future husband of my sister went to serve his military duty with the Greek government. After he had fulfilled his military obligation and had returned, the groom's father reduced his estimate of the value of the property and increased the amount he wanted in cash for the dowry. At first my father refused to meet this demand which he considered outrageous. An ultimatum was given to him that unless he met these terms my sister's fiancé would leave the country and immigrate to the United States.

In those days it was considered, and still is in some remote parts of Greece, a disgrace for a girl to be engaged and for the engagement to be broken off. This was true even though the bride and groom hardly knew each other and had never met unchaperoned. No other man would consider marrying the girl after the engagement was broken. Threats were made by my mother's brother and by another uncle of mine, both of whom are now dead, that unless the wedding took place under the original terms and conditions, there would be bloodshed. If the groom tried to leave the country, they would guard every road and they would assassinate him. Fortunately, someone in the village interceded and brought about an arrangement whereby the wedding could take place. My father told me that rather than have blood shed and have my mother's relatives go to jail for committing murder, he preferred to pay this penalty and see it through.

As a result, I was asked to leave school and went to work to help pay the dowry. My father promised me that he would probably be able to send me back to school the following year. What could I say to my father? I knew that if I stayed away from school for a year with no means to follow my studies, no books to read, no library for studying, that I would have difficulties passing the exams if I applied again next year.

Arrangements were made for me to work in a dry goods store in the city of Kalamata, which is the capitol of the province of Messinia. At that time, Kalamata had a population of about 15,000. A man who was cunning and thrifty, but completely uneducated owned the store. He could hardly read or write. It was an arrangement made, not by the day or the month, but by the year. The salary that I was to receive was 100 drachmas a year, which at that time was equivalent to $20.00 in American currency.

I worked in that store for four years. I must say that while I regret that I was taken out of high school, and I'm not bragging when I say that I was one of the top students in my class, this store was another school for me. I learned discipline, I learned how to be obedient, I learned how to meet the public, and I learned the value of money. This man was so strict that my four years of working for him were equivalent to being in the army. I worked from daylight until late in the evening every day of the year. I never went out of the store except for business. I slept in a room in the back, upstairs. I was not allowed out to a theater or anyplace else. Whenever I needed a haircut I was instructed to tell the barber to use the clippers. It was cheaper.

During my employment, I went from an inexperienced clerk, and there were always two or three of us working there, to become the senior clerk. I kept books for this man, did his buying and received all the merchandise that came from various sections of Greece to the customs house. During certain parts of the year, there were fairs held in nearby villages of the area. I would lug merchandise to those fairs on mules. I would sell what I could, return the unsold goods, and account for the monies I had collected. Everything was in my trust.

After working there for four years, my father came and took what little money I had earned. I realized that I had no future there and that I would never get anywhere or accomplish anything. I looked at my employer, an uneducated man, and I knew that, if I had the financial backing, I could open up a store and do much better than he did. I knew the business better and was a better salesman. I made a lot of money for him. I was worth fifty times the amount of money he was paying me, but he refused to pay me more.

During the early 1900's many people from Greece were immigrating to the United States to find work. From their earnings, these people sent money back to Greece for their parents and relatives. As a result, mighty providence prompted me to decide to leave Greece and to emigrate also.

I communicated with my father and told him I no longer wanted to remain in Greece and that I wanted to immigrate to the United States. My father and mother agreed. They both asked me not to forget to return home. My ambition was to stay in the United States, probably for a few years, and earn some money, say, approximately $2,000. Then I planned to return to Greece and follow in the dry goods business, which I felt I knew and at which I could succeed if I had money to start a store of my own. When I told my employer that I was leaving he was very much put out and peeved. Probably he knew that he was losing a person who was valuable to his business, though he was never willing to compensate me accordingly. I never forgot this lesson when I later had my own business.

I went home. After a few days stay, I left to go to the port of Patras together with two other persons from my village. There we boarded a boat that was to take us to the United States.