Lucy Anbrosino Palo

Interview Description

Oral History Interview with Lucy Anbrosino Palo

Lucy Anbrosino was born in 1919. Her childhood in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn was plagued by the loss of her father and the family's poverty. With her family unable to care for her, she was institutionalized during the Great Depression; within that time she was misdiagnosed as insane, although she likely suffered from a severe learning disability, and spent much of her teens doing chores on a farm in rural New York State. After release as an eighteen-year-old, Anbrosino returned to Coney Island and took on jobs including mangler work at a laundry, adding frills to dresses, and adding color to artificial flowers. Later factory work included the manufacture of sweaters and clothespins. In the last few years of World War II, Anbrosino joined her brothers in war-work; she was a spot-welder on battleship hulls in Port Newark, New Jersey, then measured bullets and anti-aircraft cannons at a Brooklyn factory, and also attached buttons to Navy pea coats at another factory in the city. Also in the 1940s, she met her husband while working at an apple coring facility in Manhattan. She took his name, Palo, and had children. Lucy Anbrosino Palo died in 2011.

In the interview, Lucy Anbrosino Palo begins with the story of her parents meeting and describes the family's difficulties in her childhood. She talks about her institutionalization at a few facilities and overcoming a learning disability. Much of the discussion revolves around her hard work during the Second World War. With short detours into other topics along the way, Palo delivers many details about her spot-welding work on battleships, being treated for poisoning from galvanized steel, what workers drank and ate on breaks at the Port Newark shipyard, how she was paid, and her mother's collecting of the adult children's wages. Additionally, Palo describes other war-related work on anti-aircraft guns in a Brooklyn factory and remembers how society took on a different look during the war. Palo also delves into her personal history; such as her life during the Great Depression and living with a difficult husband who died at an early age. Palo's son, Michael (also an oral history narrator in this series), makes a few comments during the recording. Interview conducted by Sady Sullivan.

The Voices of Brooklyn oral histories: Veterans and wartime series features a dynamic range of narrators. Some are well-known figures in their community and others are well-known in their field. Many share their experience or insight into life in the armed services. Some also recall life as a civilian during times of war. This ongoing collection focuses on Brooklyn history and the experiences of these narrators document national and international history as well. The oldest narrator in this collection was born in 1910.

Citation

Palo, Lucy Anbrosino, Oral history interview conducted by Sady Sullivan, December 15, 2008, Voices of Brooklyn oral histories: Veterans and wartime, 2008.031.7.007; Brooklyn Historical Society.