Marie Josephine Fuss (nee Cariola)
Did you know Italian?
Yeah, I knew a lot of it then, but now I've forgotten.
So would you talk to her in Italian or would you speak to her in English to her….
--She understood English. She lived in Louisiana many years…I think she was born in Italy and then when she married, uh, that asshole of a grandfather--I couldn't stand him, he was awful--and then I don't know why they went to Louisiana. It's too bad that I didn't ask a lot of questions later on, because people ask me and I say, "Gee, I don't know." Those days you don't think about asking questions, you just go along with the flow.
I bet you wish you could have interviewed your grandma, huh?
Yeah!
When you were around 12 years old, it was around the 1929 stock market crash, do you remember hearing anything about it on the radio?
I heard that it crashed, but I didn't know anything about it.
Did you hear your mom talk about it; was she worried?
No, she never invested anything in stock.
Did you experience any problems during the Great Depression?
No, never. They used to say people were starving in the streets and losing their homes-- my mother always worked! She worked in a clothing factory, she used to sew buttons on men's trousers and men's, uh, clothes, jackets…I used to help her thread the needles. We had to put wax on the thread.
Would you go to the factory to help her, or would you help her at home?
I think a couple of times after school, I went there, and then when she was all finished we would walk back home again. I didn't go very often.
Did your dad live with you during the Depression?
No, she was divorced.
So it was just you and your mom?
Just the two of us.
Did you ever have to get a job as a kid?
Not as a kid…but when I was a teenager, I got a job, a job downtown working at the store, it was called…it was a clothing store.
So all the time that you were a kid, your mom was able to provide everything, she worked and she kept food on the table…
Oh yeah! We never starved, never.
I remember you telling me when you just finished your junior year and you had one year left of school….
And I quit.
What made you decide to quit?
Well a lot of my girlfriends were gonna quit school and get jobs you know and bring money home, so I can buy this and I can buy that. And I went along with it and did the same thing. But you know I'm surprised, I had so many uncles you'd think they'd say something to me. You know…. "Don't do that, you're going to regret it." Nothing.
They just let you go off and do it.
They just let me do what I wanted to do.
What do you wish you had done?
I just wanted to graduate. And after that I got a job as an usher at the Lowe's Theater.
Was that fun job? Did you enjoy it?
I enjoyed it! Because the manager he looked at me and said, "Hmmm, she's very attractive. Don't let her go upstairs; let her be downstairs. Give her the flashlight and show all the people." The theater was totally dark when the movie would go on. So they always made sure nobody's going to fall down and get hurt. So when somebody came in I'd say, "How far forward please?" And they'd say where they… "I want to go in the (front, in the middle, or the back)" and I'd flash the flashlight and they'd follow the light to where they wanted to go. "How far forward please"…that's what I had to say.
And you had a lot of people flirting with you?
They used to put notes in my hand; (that said) Can I see you after the theatre closes? Minga, I don't even know these guys. I said "No, sorry." "Can we get a drink or something?" "I'm sorry, no."
And you were about 18 years old at the time?
18...
At what age were you when you met your husband?
Mmmm... I think 21.
And how did you meet him?
I had these girlfriends they said "Hey, there's this handsome guy, he's got blond hair and blue eyes and he's got a good physique on himself, I want you to meet him." And I said, "Huh?" Yeah, my girlfriend Toby and she said, "We're going to have (uh)-we're going to go the beach", she says and um, "I want you to meet him." and I said, "Ok." So Toby and I took the bus down to, um, Lake Ontario beach and he was there with some of his friends and he was very handsome. I looked at him and I went "OH my god!" (Laughs) that's when I thought, "He sure is handsome!"
So how did ya'll start talking?
She said, "Fred I want you to meet Marie, Marie Fuss" …(shakes her head) I mean Marie Cariola, that was my single name, Marie Cariola and he looked at me up and down like that and I looked at him up and down. Then we went into the water, of course I couldn't swim, so I just went just so far…and he took a fish and put it down the back of my bathing suit. And I went "Oh!" I said, "What did you do?!!" And he said, "Oh, I'm sorry", so he put his hand way in the back and he took it out.
Ohhh really! That's getting pretty fresh, did you want to slap him or did you think it was funny?
(Laughs) I thought it was funny. From then on we kept dating. But my mother didn't like him when I finally brought him home
Oh really, why didn't she like him?
Because he was of Polish descent; she wanted me to go with somebody Italian.
Even though she didn't really care much for him and would have rather you date someone Italian…did they get along ok, could they talk to each other?
Oh yeah, He was there for dinner, sometimes, meatball and spaghetti dinner.
What attracted you most to him?
He had a good sense of humor and he was handsome.
What was he doing when ya'll met; did he have a job?
He worked in a factory or something…I can't think of the name.
How old were you when you got married?
I was 21.
How long did you know each other before you got married?
Not very long, because my mother didn't like him. When he came knocking on the door she'd give me a look like this (frowns) "He's here again"…it got to the point where she would say things, you know, to embarrass me in front of him--so we decided to elope.
Did your friend (Toby) witness the wedding?
No, my sister-in-law. I went to her and said, you know, what I said, "We're going to have to go a justice of the peace and get married." I said, "Because my mother…my mother she doesn't like Fred. She wants me to leave him but I can't leave him, I'm in love with him." So we went to a Justice of the Peace and got married.
What did your mother say when she found out?
I had to call the neighbor next door to tell her that I'm not coming home anymore, that I got married.
Why did you have to call the neighbor, did you not have a phone?
Because I didn't want to call her myself.
Oh, were you afraid of what she would say?
Yeah, we didn't talk for a long time.
What happened when ya'll finally did talk?
Well it was a long time, then my husband was the one that went to her house. Cause we were having a party….and, uh, to my surprise I see her walking in I thought, "Wow, what happened here?" So he went to my mother's house he said, "We 're having a birthday party for your daughter and I came to pick you up, you gotta come." First she was a little reluctant, then she said, "Oh, ok" so she did. Then we started talking.
So when Pearl Harbor was attacked, how did you hear about it; how did you know?
It was on the radio, and um, I already had 2 children, I had Marie and I had my son (Fred). And uh, the three brothers (Fred and his brothers) got together and they said, "It's our duty to defend our country, so we better enlist." So the three of them enlisted. It was my husband, his brother Bernie, and older bother Edward. The three of them enlisted in the Navy. First they want to San Francisco for training and then to Pearl Harbor where the Japanese bombed in Hawaii.
Did you think that the whole country was going to be attacked; were you in fear for your life?
I just knew that we were going to be safe. In the mean time everybody thought it was terrible that the government--they took a lot of people that were already were American citizens but they were Japanese American citizens. They would put them in extra housing, because they couldn't be trusted. Even though they American citizens, they could, you, know do something or say something...they were suspicious. So they put them in separate houses government houses but they took care of them and everything, and after the war was over they released them.
Did you know anyone who had to go into one of those?
No.
When your husband decided to join the Navy, did you try to convince him not to go, were you scared for him to go?
Yeah, I didn't want him to go, but I knew he had to do his duty. It wasn't just him; it was his other 2 brothers' too.
So what did you do?
I took all of my furniture and put it in storage, and I went to live with my mother-in-law Grandma Fuss.
Did you have to get a job while he was gone?
No, I just stayed home with the kids, and my mother in-law worked at the school, she was a cleaning lady at one of the high schools...so she'd be gone all day long and when she'd come home we'd decide what we'd have for dinner. She loved my children. She loved Marie and she loved Skippy (baby Fred).
When the war was over, what was your reaction?
Well, everybody celebrated.
Was there a big party on the block?
Yeah, outside everybody was, "Hey Marie!"… (They were) Waving the flag, hugging one another "Our guys are coming back now! Our guys are coming back!" Great big party…in fact at home I still have the paper, it says the war is over...it's all yellow now but I still have it.
Did you participate in any of the war efforts... like collecting things, or donating materials…?
I didn't do that. But during the war, we were always afraid of being bombed; my mother-in-law, Grandma Fuss, she uh, used to walk up and down the street making sure all our lights were turned off, and if somebody had their lights on, she'd come knock on their door, and she'd tell them to turn their lights off. 'Cause we were thinking if planes came by and they would see a light down there they'd (bomb)….it never happened, but it was better to be safe than sorry. But she used to do that; I didn't do it because I had two kids at home.
What did you tell the kids when your husband left?
They were pretty young and they didn't pay too much attention to what's going on.
Did you and your husbands correspond? Did he write you letters while he was gone?
Yeah, once in awhile he would have a leave of absence and he would come home and the kids would see him and they would say, "Who is this person?", they didn't know him.
You told me he was sent to the Philippines did he have to fight there?
No, he stayed on the ship.
When he came back, was it hard to have him around? Did you have to get used to each other?
Oh yeah…in fact, you know what…I started to smoke…so when he came home and he happened to see a pack of cigarettes and he said, "What's going on here?" And I said, "Well, I was always so nervous I thought I'd start to smoke." (He said) "Well you're not going to smoke anymore…and he took the cigarettes and put a thumbtack on it and he put it on top of the wall above the stove. And said, "That's a reminder for you not to smoke anymore."
FIN
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Photographs and/or documents on this website were provided by Kathy Quinn , daughter of Marie Fuss (photo of Marie at 18 and Fred in Navy uniform) and Nancy Fuss, daughter-in-law of Marie Fuss (photo of Marie and kids).
