I was born two weeks late on the 29th of October. I had an older brother and sister. We lived on Webster Street in Schenectady, NY. My brother was 4 years older than me and my sister was 7 years older than me.

The house we lived in my parents bought it around 1960. It was on the verge of being condemned. My dad paid $3,000 for this two story, 3 bedroom jalop. My dad was very gifted with some awesome talent of fixing and building things. His main trade was painter and paper hanger. Everyone knew him to be "a jack of all trades"! He worked his regular job Monday thru Friday. After working all day he would come home to eat dinner with us and then work on the house, fixing it up, until midnight or 1 AM, and every weekend for several years. He was still working on it when I was born. I think his final year of working on it was about 1968.

My grandparents, my dad's parents, lived 6 blocks from us on Davis Terrace. My Uncle John, my dad's youngest brother, bought that two family home for my grandparents. He lived upstairs, and they lived downstairs.

My dad was born to Anna Torelli Alvarez and Manual Alvarez on October 4th, 1933. He had a younger brother John born October 22, 1937 and an older brother Manuel, not sure of his birth date. They first lived on Barrett Street in Schenectady, NY where they grew up, until my Uncle John bought my grandparents the house on Davis Terrace around 1959. All three boys went into the service. My dad and Uncle Manuel, we called him Uncle Manny, was in the Navy and Uncle John was in the army.

My grandfather was 17 when he left his home in Spain to come to America. He was the only family member that I know of that came here from Spain. When he got here, he fudged his birth certificate to say he was 18 so he could join the Army. He did his service.