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Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
1
Paola Onesto: Yeah, hi Renee. Uh, I, uh, you said you’d call back in about half hour.
Renee Zita: Oh! I’m sorry, okay well I have, is it good right now?
Paola Onesto: Yeah, I can talk with you at this time.
RZ: Okay, this, I have um, David Geen on the line as well, he’s the gentleman who’s going to ask you
some questions…
PO: Okay.
RZ: …About Saugatuck.
PO: What is his name?
RZ: David.
David Geen: David, David Geen.
PO: Gene? How do I spell it?
DG: Geen. G E E N.
PO: G E E N, okay. David Geen.
DG: That’s right and I’m here, I’m here with you, Paola Onesto?
PO: That is correct.
DG: Okay, and you’re on the phone here from the, from the old schoolhouse in Douglas and today is
June 6th 2018, and this oral, this oral, I have to read this for us, this oral history is being collected as part
of the Stories of Summer project which is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for
Humanities Common Heritage Program. So, I’m so glad to talk with you today, Renee told me that we,
we had to have you as part of our program. So, so, I’m just interested to learn more about your family
history and your experiences of summer here in the Saugatuck and Douglas area. So, but first I want you
to tell me, how do you spell your last name?
PO: My last name is spelled O N E S T O.
DG: Okay.
PO: First name is, my first name I spell P A O L A but I pronounce it Paula.
DG: Okay. Like the Italian way, Paola?
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
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PO: That’s right.
DG: That’s right.
PO: Well you know the era in which I as born, um, I have to assume that ethnicity was not something
that wanted to be encouraged, uh, everybody had to become Americanized.
DG: Hm, interesting.
PO: And uh, so my mother gave me the Italian spelling, but she gave me the English pronunciation.
DG: Okay, so your mother, your mother was? [Pause] Who was your mother?
PO: Oh! [Laughs] Alright, my mother and father uh, my mother’s name is uh, Vacco V a c c o.
DG: Mhm.
PO: First name is Irene, I R E N E.
DG: [Speaking over PO] Oh yeah. Okay.
PO: and my father’s first name was James.
DG: Okay.
PO: We called him, he was called Jim.
DG: So, did you grow up in Chicago?
PO: Oh yeah, on the west side of Chicago in the Austen area.
DG: Okay, and you’d come to Saugatuck in the summer?
PO: Yes we did. Mhm, ever summer.
DG: When did you start coming? Do you remember what year sort of that was?
PO: Well, I’ll give you some of the history that I am aware of, uh, I know that my parents had come up
here probably in the late 1920’s early 1930’s.
DG: Wow.
PO: and uh, they, my mother and father and my mother’s sister Anna, and her husband John decided
they wanted to buy a piece, they wanted to uh, buy a piece of property and come up there for the
summers and uh, so she, my mother had told me, now this is oral history.
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
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DG: Yep.
PO: Obviously. Uh, and my mother had told me that uh, they bought a home on the, uh, [inaudible] side
of the, of Saugatuck. On the western shore.
DG: Yes.
PO: And, and, um, she said that she, they had a small it was a small cottage um, and she said it was filthy
and she and her sister worked a good part of the summer trying to get the place just habitable. In any
event, while they working on it a lady approached them, a woman came down and she said her name
was Hannah Mueller.
DG: Okay.
PO: She’s important because she owned a lot of property here at Saugatuck, and she said “Instead of
trying to fix that place up”, she said “Why don’t you buy your own property and then build a place that
you would like?”
DG: Okay.
PO: And that’s exactly what they did do. They bought the location where our cottage is now situated
and uh, they had the cottage built. Now I do know that the cottage was built in 1931.
DG: 1931, was the cottage.
PO: Yes.
RZ: [Whispering] What’s the address?
DG: What’s the, do you remember the address of that cottage?
PO: At that time?
DG: Yeah.
PO: Uh, I don’t even think they had addresses.
DG: But it was on Park Street.
RZ: What is the address?
[00:05:00]
PO: It was, it was, it had several different names. One time it was Ferry Street, one time it was Park
Street, so uh, what we, since we never got mail delivered there we always went to the Post Office to get
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
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our mail, and my mother I remember we had a Post Office Box, and we would get the mail, you’d have
to pay for it for the season of course, and we would get, go there to pick up our mail and eventually uh,
we didn’t even bother doing that because we’re no longer getting a lot of mail, and we would go directly
to the window and we’d ask for, if there was any named, if there was any mail for the Vacco’s, that was,
and I was one of the kids that had to do that.
RZ: Well what’s the address now, Aunt Paola?
PO: Uh, 856.
RZ: 856, Okay.
PO: Park.
DG: Okay, so in the ‘20s and 30s would your parents drive around from Chicago? They drove up here?
PO: They were driven up here. My, neither of my parent drove, they didn’t, they never knew how to
drive a car. They were always driven up here.
DG: [Speaking over PO] So they had a driver.
PO: I’m sorry?
DG: They had a driver.
PO: Right. We’d always have someone drive us up, and it usually was a relative.
DG: Okay. How did, do you know how they found to come to Saugatuck?
PO: That I can’t be sure of, I, I do know a couple of names uh, but I’m not, I’m not really sure how they
were introduced to the area.
RZ: I thought it was through Uncle Aldo’s um, symphony friend?
PO: Yeah, his name was Robert Mcdolum, McDonald, Robert McDonald was a concert pianist, my uncle
was a concert violinist and uh, through them, my uncle, uh, was the one that came up and he probably
had my parents come as well as his other sister, Anna and uh, um, but see that is a history I really really
do not know anything about. But I do, I have some pictures, oh god where are they, uh, I have some
pictures of them sitting on the um, embankment that was in front of our cottage.
DG: Hm.
RZ: [Whispering] that’d be interesting.
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
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PO: Now the people who, our next store neighbors was a man by the name of Kasparik, I can’t
remember for sure if [inaudible] I know he’s in the historical book because I’ve seen his picture in that.
DG: What’s his last name?
RZ: Kasparik.
PO: Kasparik. K A S P A R I K, I believe. And he was a bachelor and he lived there with his sister, uh, uh,
uh, her last name was Romaine but she was married and a widow. Uh, and I think it was R O M A I N E,
romaine, this is romaine and they had that gazeebo, which is still in existence, if you take a walk down
that way. They, they would spend the summer nights sitting there and uh, enjoying the fresh air and I
would go down, go down because there are 42 steps to our cottage, if you’ve seen it.
DG: Okay.
PO: And uh, as a child I would go down and I would visit them, we would sit there and talk.
DG: So when you were coming up in the, in the, the I guess 30s and 40s and all that?
PO: Oh yes.
DG: What was the, what did you, what was your day like, uh when you came up during the summer for
that?
PO: Well, this is, these are my brief memories okay because can’t think, have a continuity with it. I know
it was born, it was built in 1931 because that was year I was born.
DG: Okay.
PO: And, um, the, I also know that my uncle John, because he was the only one who could drive. When
they decided to by the property, he came and put down a, what do they call it, earnest money?
DG: Yes.
PO: He came and he spoke with Hannah Mueller and put down earnest money and the amount of
earnest money he put down, can you think of how much it would cost to buy that piece of property?
DG: I don’t know.
PO: Any idea? [Laughs] He put down $1.
DG: $1!
PO: [Laughing] $1!
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
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DG: Oh my gosh, as earnest money.
PO: $1 secured the property.
RZ: Didn’t Hannah Mueller own all the lots, that the um….
PO: She owned most of that property, yes.
RZ: All along there. Okay.
DG: All along Park Street.
RZ: So she owned where the Browns cottage was, and the Diffenderfers, and….
PO: Correct, what they, well, no, in their case, they originally came down and they would pitch a tent, in
the area of Mount Baldhead.
[00:10:04]
DG: Oh.
PO: and they, they did that for several years. Now not my parents, but uh, our neighbors and eventually
they bought the property and had the cottage built, the Diffenderfer cottage and the Pilkington’s
cottage.
DG: So what do you remember doing when you came here in the summers when you were younger? As
a kid?
PO: Oh well, when, well when I was a kid, uh, I, I marvel at this because uh, my mother would rent a row
boat, I can’t, for the season.
DG: A rowboat?
PO: And my brother and I would go out in the rowboat and we’d row across the river and we’d go into
town.
DG: Mhm.
PO: And, well that when we were older, of course.
DG: Yeah.
PO: And uh, we would rent bicycles and we’d go bike riding around the area.
DG: Oh! Okay.
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
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PO: That was one of the things we did.
DG: Mhm.
PO: Uh, the other things was that uh, we had a potbellied stove to keep, for, for heat!
DG: Okay.
PO: And, uh, we had to supply the wood. By we, I mean my brother [inaudible] and I, and we would go
out into woods and we’d look for a deadfall. We’d find a tree that we could carry back to the cottage.
DG: Oh god.
PO: Then we’d have to put it on the horses, wooden horses and we’d have to saw it into the right size
plank, lengths so that it would fit into this potbellied stove. After you did all of this, you would make,
make sure you had to have it stacked and piled up in a, in a certain place.
DG: Okay.
PO: So that they had easy access to it. So, we did that.
DG: Did you go to the beach?
PO: Yeah, we did, um, but not every day at that time, not early on, let’s put it that way. Uh, and it was a,
I can remember uh, I can remember walking on a dirt road where it’s just now, where they have the
Oval, the road to the Oval Beach.
DG: Oh yes.
PO: And I can remember walking down the road and I remember resenting, my sister, who was, who
was able to get a ride in a, in a, in a little cart that was called a, what the heck was the name, [inaudible]
but it was a little, a sulky. It was called a sulky and it wasn’t pushed it was pulled.
DG: By a person? Or by a horse?
PO: By a person.
DG: Oh!
RZ: Up to the beach.
PO: It was just, it was just big enough for a child and Anna, my sister, got a chance to ride it, but because
of the distance was so long and it was not convenient because it was a dirt road, and it was not easy to
travel, uh, we did not go every day. That I do remember.
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
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RZ: Didn’t you do the, um, the Red Barn Playhouse, Aunt Paola?
PO: I’m sorry?
RZ: Didn’t you participate in the Red Barn Playhouse?
PO: Oh yeah, but that was much later I was in my teens, I was was in maybe 17, 18 years old when they,
when the Red Barn was erected, or was bought I don’t know, I, or rented, I don’t know whether it, how
it started and, uh, became a theater, and uh, I tried out for a part and I got it and then, uh, for several
years during the summer I would come up to Michigan and I would participate in the plays.
DG: Oh! That sounds fun.
PO: It was, it was, it was a great, thing for me because it, I had, I got to meet the people in the theatre
and find out what type of people they were and uh, and also it gave me a big opportunity to be involved
in something I enjoy doing.
DG: Mhm, did you go out to eat in Saugatuck?
PO: Very rarely.
DG: Rarely.
PO: My mother did all the cooking and the washing, initially we did have hot water.
DG: Oh.
PO: At the cottage. There was no hot water and I have memories of my mother putting big pots of water
on top of the cook stove, kitchen stove, and um getting it boiling and then throw it into the bathtub.
DG: Oh.
PO: Well of course by the time the water got into a cold bathtub it was none too warm by this time but
we bathed in a very small amount of water and uh, that’s what that was done until much later um, but I
can’t, I cannot tell you an exact date when we got a hot water heater, um.
DG: How long did you come up for? Did you come up for two weeks, or a month, or the whole summer?
PO: The whole summer.
[00:15:00]
DG: Well where did you get food? Was the grocery store here?
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
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PO: Oh yeah, there were two grocery stores in town, and we rode, as I said my brother and I would row
across the river. We would dock at some point wherever we could find a place to tie up the boat and
then we would walk into town and uh, we were given chores to do uh, at, if weren’t, ah, one of the
things I told you I think I mentioned that we would rent bicycles but afterwards we were given chores to
do and one of them was to go grocery shopping and then we would walk back to where the boat was
and put all the grocery’s in the boat and row back up.
DG: What was name of the store, do you remember?
PO: No I’m sorry, I do not.
DG: But it was in Saugatuck, the grocery store.
PO: It was in Saugatuck and where, where they have um, oh god what is it, my, you’ll have to excuse my
memory.
DG: That’s okay.
PO: Where we, where we get the sandwiches on the corner of main street there?
DG: Oh.
PO: Ask Renee, Renee would help me with this, where we get the cinnamon rolls and the….
DG and RZ: Pumpernickels!
RZ: Pumpernickels?
PO: I’m sorry?
RZ: Pumpernickels? It use be like a candy store before that?
PO: That was a grocery store.
DG: Oh! Okay.
PO: It was one the grocery stores. We also had, in Saugatuck um, right across the road on the river side
there was a small store that also was a place for these, the family [inaudible] lived. It was a large family,
by that, by that I mean they had many children.
DG: Yeah.
PO: and they had basic groceries there and uh, again that was within walking distance and this was
directly opposite where your mother’s cottage was Renee.
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
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RZ: Oh the Ferry Store.
PO: The Ferry Store.
DG: You never took the chain ferry across? You always rowed your own boat?
PO: Uh, at that time, yeah, we always used our own boat.
DG: Okay, did you ever do anything at Oxbow? What was going on there since you were at Park Street, it
was kind of close? Wasn’t it?
PO: Yes, no, I never got involved down there.
DG: Never did anything there.
PO: NO, because we were, you have to understand that with a cottage vacation you have a lot of
visitors, I mean, everyone would come up and uh, the, and they would bring children! And we had all of
our cousins would be there, we’d be climbing Mount Baldhead and we, we’d be hiking through the
woods, and it was all outside activities.
DG: There were steps going up to Mount Baldhead at the time?
PO: For me, yeah.
DG: Always steps.
PO: Yeah, mhm.
DG. Yeah.
RZ: Do you remember when the radar tower was built?
PO: I don’t recall, I’m thinking it had to be in the war years.
DG: In the 50s.
PO: 40s.
DG: 40s.
PO: I’m guessing, now this is a sheer guess. Only because of the necessity to have some, uh, something
there to protect us I guess. If there as a, if there was an attack of some kind I, I mean, I was a kid.
DG: Yeah, you’re not, yeah.
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June 6 2018
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PO: So I, I, I really didn’t pay any attention to it but I think it was built in that era. I can’t be sure, so I, I’m
just, my memories of seeing it, that is all l can give you.
DG: So when you got a little older and you had your own children, what did you do with them?
PO: Same thing, pretty much. We, well now of course we’re driving so were going to other towns and
visiting and uh, uh, we, and basically when the children were little, they loved going to the beach so
that’s what we did, we went to the beach. We carried all the paraphernalia of toys and this and that and
the other thing down there and uh, uh, um, we hiked, we walked constantly to the old harbor, uh, we
we often would go to the old harbor because uh, we knew the way there and it was sort of um, an
escape from the crowd of people that would be at the Oval Beach. It was not always called the Oval
Beach, I don’t think that came until, um, maybe the 50s. I’m not sure when they called it that, it was
always a dirt road and then eventually obviously it was paved.
DG: Where’s the old harbor?
PO: You don’t know where the old harbor is?
DG: No.
RZ: You don’t? It’s the old harbor that the boats used to come in on.
DG: Oh!
RZ: Where Oxbow is.
DG: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s where you’d go, that was the river though right?
RZ: Yeah, well.
PO: Well, what it was is it originally it had been a um, lumbering town.
DG: That’s right.
PO: And then the sands shifted, the water shifted, and it became closed off, it was, you could not travel
the, I guess the….
[00:20:09]
DG: Oh.
PO: …boats would come in and go up the river via that channel but it when the water got so shallow,
obviously.
DG: Yes.
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June 6 2018
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PO: That was no longer, they were no longer able to use it, and however the water was warm.
DG: Okay.
PO: It was always fresh. So, I mean Lake Michigan you could always rely on and uh, um we would love to
go there to swim….
DG: Okay.
PO: …because the water was nice and warm….
DG: Warmer.
PO: …and again we had a, again it as very private and not too many people were aware of it….
DG: Oh, okay.
PO: …and let’s see.
DG: That’s the oxbow lagoon, sort of now.
PO: That’s probably what they call it now, yes.
DG: Oh! Did you go out, did you, when, did you go to the Old Crow? No.
PO: Oh yeah, um, for, for dinners or going, if you wanted to go out for an evening when we were older,
yes. Um, but our children made good use of the Old Crow, you can ask Renee about that.
RZ: Yeah.
PO: They would, they would uh, they got to know all the bouncers there.
DG: That’s right. .
RZ: Especially your daughter, Irene. [Laughs] Kevin! Kevin Mariani that was his name.
PO: I’m sorry, Renee?
RZ: The boy that Irene liked, Kevin Mariani or something, right?
PO: I don’t know, I can’t, I can’t remember their names. All you kids had a slew of boys following you
around and my husband was on guard duty all the time, he made sure that they behaved themselves.
DG: That’s right.
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
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PO: Because, uh, he, one night he threw them out of the house [Laughs] and uh, because they came up
around 11 o’clock at night.
DG: Oh.
PO: Do you remember this, Renee?
RZ: No.
PO: No, well. They came up to the cottage about 11 o’clock at night and uh, one of them, I can’t, there
was about four of them and one of them came in with no shirt on, but what people now call a dago tee I
think.
DG: Yeah.
PO: And and a can of beer, an open can of beer.
DG: Oh.
PO: And uh, my father, my father. My husband took one look at them and he knew them!
DG: Oh!
PO: Because they’d been around before and he said, “You, you, you get the hell out of here!” he said “If
you come calling, you come at a reasonable hour and you don’t come dressed like that!”
DG: Oh my gosh.
PO: and he, so now we have tears. All the girls are crying.
DG: Oh, they’re all crying.
PO: [imitating the crying] “Oh, but, we won’t show ourselves on the beach anymore”.
RZ: [Laughs]
PO: [More crying noises] …. Harold says “forget out it”.
DG: Oh my gosh.
PO: So the next day, they, we were on the beach, I wasn’t but Harold was and he said uh, one of the
young men came up to him and he said, “Mr. Onesto I want to apologize for last night” he said, “These
people don’t understand about Italian families.” [Laughs]
DG: Oh.
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
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RZ: [Laughs]
PO: He says, [inaudible] He didn’t add that but he said, “I want to apologize, we should not have done
that.” And uh he says, “You’re welcome at any time but come at a decent hour, and dress right.”
DG: Oh my gosh, yeah.
RZ: But now where did, when you were younger, you went dancing at the big pavilion, correct?
PO: Yes. Yes. The pavilion was at that time, oh! That was the other thing, at night my sister and I would,
my mother would give us a quarter and we would have to take the ferry to get into town because she
wouldn’t allow us to row the boat at night and uh, we would, because every night they changed the
movie. So there was a new movie every night and of course, when you were in the movies they would
show a preview of the coming features, so we wanted to go there, so we pretty much ended up going to
town every night and uh, Anna and I, and to, to watch a movie. Came out and it was still light.
DG: Oh.
PO: Wasn’t really, wasn’t dark. But you go to a 6 o’clock movie, but in the movie you got to see the
feature, you got to see the news, you got to see a cartoon and uh, of course the previews of the coming
features.
RZ: Did you ever go dancing there?
PO: Yeah, when, when I got older that was not when we were little, when we were in our probably our
elementary school years.
DG: Oh, so when you were little the movie started at 6:00.
PO: Yeah.
DG: And got done at like, 8:00 or something….
PO: Like 8:00.
DG: And then the dancing was after that.
PO: Uh, the dancing was always there. This, this pavilion was a huge facility.
DG: Okay.
PO: Uh, they had, just the area for the movies.
DG: Oh.
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
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PO: …and then there was this huge hall, at least it looked very huge to me, and it was in an oval shape.
Well it, it was rectangular actually but they had it fixed so that you, that couples would dance around.
Now I can tell you this, my mother said that originally, they’re dancing in formals, gowns.
[00:25:15]
DG: Oh.
PO: Then during the war years, it changed, and they were skirts.
DG: Okay.
PO: and then later on, I guess it got even more casual because they tried to go with slacks, and then
shorts and they, they had a full orchestra at the beginning, I can remember that, and you had to pay 10
cents to dance.
DG: Oh.
PO: There’s that, there was a song called 10 cents a dance but that’s, that was for something else. Uh,
but you, so if you paid 10 cents you could dance with your partner, and you would be, that would give
you probably enough time to go around twice.
DG: Oh.
PO: You do the perimeter, say you were going around the perimeter, you would have an opportunity to
get at least two dances in before you had to pay another 10 cents.
DG: How fun.
PO: Yeah, it was!
RZ: Was there ever anyone that you were ever sweet on? That lived here?
PO: No.
RZ: No?
PO: No. Not till I was older of course.
RZ: But mom, my mom was sweet on, um, who was that? Norm Deen?
PO: Norm Deen was one, he was a nice kid. He’s, I don’t know, is he still living in the area?
RZ: Yeah, yeah. He is. Yes.
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
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PO: And I know I haven’t seen him in a couple of years, but then I haven’t been up there myself. But he
would always ask about the family, about your mother and the uh, oh let’s see, boyfriends? I, I had a
crush on a boy that was also a summer visitor and uh, he lives, he didn’t live in Saugatuck, he lived in this
sort of a, off of Campbell, you know? The area, on the, where, the lakeshore, lakeshore. He lived along
the lakeshore.
RZ: Okay.
PO: And uh, he was from West Point.
DG: West Point!
PO: Yeah, uh huh. We went to the military school.
DG: Oh!
PO: and uh, so I saw him, maybe four times. [Laughs]
DG: Oh yeah?
PO: And I, I, I, I, I had a crush on him. I don’t know why, how this, these things happen, but they did. He
was very nice to me and we had a good time, uh, again, he could drive, and we go to Holland to see a
movie. Holland was very very strict at that time. They uh, would not allow movies to be shown on
Sundays.
DG: Oh.
PO: And uh, dancing was forbidden, so naturally, the kids got into trouble.
RZ: So they all came down to Saugatuck, right?
PO: Mhm, they found a way. There’s always, where there’s a will there’s a way.
DG: Oh gosh, yeah. They couldn’t dance in Holland so they came to Saugatuck.
RZ: They could Dutch dance. [Laughs] Okay, well that’s great.
DG: Wow. Did boats, boats used to come into Saugatuck and bring people over right?
PO: I’m sorry, would you repeat that?
DG: Steam boats used to come into Saugatuck?
PO: Oh yeah, yeah. We would, uh, the um, the Keewatin I can remember it going up the river when it
came in it was a big to-do.
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
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DG: It’s big.
PO: Everybody was standing on the embankment of their, if they had one, or going over to Mount
Baldhead where you could get down close to the river front and uh, because that was public property
and uh, we were, we would stand, well we were fortunate we could stand on our porch and just watch
this thing steam up the river. So we watch it go up, and we watched it sail down. It was an event.
DG: That’s fun.
PO: That was about 40 years, I’d say. It was there a long time.
DG: Yeah. Well I think that’s about everything.
PO: Ah, I’m glad I was able to help you David.
DG: Oh no, you’re wonderful.
PO: So then, as I said, some of the things I know happened that I can’t put pin point a date.
RZ: So I was going to share um, one of the pictures of you and mom on the beach, they’re going to put it
in a book, is that okay with you Aunt Paola?
PO: Oh sure. Oh sure.
RZ: Okay, alright.
PO: I have a, did, did, did you see the picture of my mother, your mother and our two, my two brothers
and myself on the beach?
[00:30:01]
RZ: Oh yeah, I know, I know that one.
PO: You know that one? That’s a great shot.
RZ: Unless you have a better copy, and um you can scan it and send it to me that would be a wonderful
shot.
PO: Okay, I, I will try to do that, yeah. Unfortunately, the picture I have your mother is cut in half and I
don’t know why that happened but that’s the way the picture was dissolved and uh, and she was, she
was sitting on the back of Aunt Tina.
RZ: There’s another one I have of you guys all at the beach, I have to look through the, the photos, but.
PO: Okay, I’ll see if Harold can….
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
18
RZ: You know they’ll also take what they’re doing here complimentary is like all of Uncle Harold’s slides
of Saugatuck, they would put them in a digitable, digital format.
PO: Oh! Okay.
RZ: So if, when you come back up here if you bring all those slides, they will, they will take them, right?
DG: I think so, yeah.
RZ: I think that’s what they’re doing. They’ll take the slides and put them in a, a, on a disc for you.
PO: Okay. Oh that would be lovely.
RZ: The ones he hasn’t done, because I know he’s done.
PO: I’m not sure if he hasn’t got to that himself but uh, yeah, this, this would be uh, quite a, oh you
know where we also went? Goshorn Lake!
RZ: Goshorn Lake?
DG: Oh, yeah. You went up there.
RZ: When the flies weren’t biting.
PO: We spent a lot time at Goshorn Lake, we didn’t always go to Lake Michigan, again the water was
warmer….
DG: Yeah.
PO: …uh, and uh, but it was more dangerous. It was extremely dangerous and uh, because it goes down
at a 45 degree angle.
DG: It’s deep, yeah.
PO: and uh, and I, and the thing is we had all of these children, there was 5 of the Rinaldi’s, there was 4
of us, uh and uh, well and Richard went, my older brother was 10 years older than I so he didn’t hang
around with us at all.
DG: Mhm.
PO: Um, but uh, I remember Vicky this, this scared the heck out of me. Am I, am I giving you, wasting too
much of your time?
DG: No, it’s good.
PO: Um, we were sitting at a, a, you couldn’t lie flat because it was at this steep….
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
19
DG: Steep.
PO: …decent into the water. But it was alright, and I, I was always on guard duty and I didn’t look for
people, I counted head. I was always counting heads, counting heads, and I looked and here’s Vicky,
must have been a toddler or I would say 4 or 5 years old and she’s in the water and she’s struggling
because the water is over her nose.
DG: Oh.
PO: Now she’s standing but she’s probably, she’s probably standing on her toes, trying to get a, a, trying
to get, grip the sand so that she can get out of the water and I have to tell you David, it was, so surreal
for me because I’m thinking, I’m thinking that I’m moving in slow motion. I couldn’t get there fast
enough and I’m thinking to myself, ”She can’t breathe, the water is over her nose, I’ve got to get to her”
and as in a movie, or a scene on television I wasn’t able to move, I was going so slowly to get her, and I
got her of course, I pulled her out of the water but she could’ve drowned in that water and we were all
there! We were all there! And it was, it was, an adult could stand there but a child couldn’t. So that was,
that scared the heck out of me, and so for sure I never, I never, when we went I never, uh, I never laid
out. I patrolled the beach constantly, I wanted to make sure all the kids were okay.
DG: Okay, yeah.
PO: So, but I, she, she scared me and, and, and it was the most eerie feeling. Still feel it today telling you
the story, how I wanted to get to her but I couldn’t get any traction with my feet and I couldn’t get
there, and it, it was terribly terribly terribly frightening for me.
DG: Hm, well you saved her.
PO: I saved her. Thank god.
DG: Good. Good.
PO: But she’s still running around.
DG: She’s still running around.
PO: She’s got a beautiful I understand, on the lake.
DG: Yes she does. Yep.
PO: So.
RZ: Okay, well thank you for your time Aunt Paola.
DG: Yes! Thank you.
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
20
PO: Oh honey I don’t mind, I enjoy talking to, I, probably other ideas will pop up in my head. Like I just
thought of Goshorn Lake, we spent a lot of time there.
DG: Yeah, no this is great.
RZ: And remember to mention if those slides you want, they, they’ll take them and put them in the
digital format, so, if you want to bring them up next time you come.
PO: Okay, I’ll tell Harold, now that’s his domain.
RZ: Alright.
[00:35:01]
DG: Okay.
RZ: Tell him Renee asked him to. Okay.
PO: Okay, I shall.
RZ: He doesn’t have to do them, he just needs to bring them here.
PO: Okay, and do you want some strawberry pop?
RZ: And strawberry pop, that’s right. [Laughs] Okay. That’s an inside joke.
PO: Renee she liked strawberry pop and Harold always brought her a bottle of strawberry pop.
DG: That’s fun.
RZ: That’s right.
DG: Oh gosh.
RZ: Alright Aunt Paola.
DG: Well thank you.
PO: Oh, you know one other thing what we did in the cottage?
RZ: What’s that?
PO: You want me to keep you on the line longer?
RZ: Just, another minute, go on, tell us the story.
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
21
PO: Okay, on, in Saugatuck remember we have no ceilings, over our bedrooms.
RZ: Yeah, we had no ceilings in our cottage.
DG: Okay.
PO: The way the cottage is built.
RZ: A loft.
PO: The roof is our ceiling. But the roof only has walls, they don’t have any ceilings.
DG: Oh.
PO: So as kids we would get into pillow fights.
DG: Oh.
PO: We would throw the pillows back and forth over the walls.
RZ: The rafters.
DG: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s fun.
PO: So, we, until my mother couldn’t stand it anymore and that was the end of that but really that uh,
that was one of the fun things that we would do, crazy things like that.
DG: Yeah!
PO: And uh, but uh, for me they’re great memories.
DG: That’s great.
PO: Glad I got to share them with the kids. Anyhow David, I hope this gives you information….
DG: No, you’ve, wonderful things, I’m sure it will be great to have.
RZ: Alright Aunt Paola, thank you!
DG: Thank you.
PO: You’re welcome sweetheart, and uh, I hope to see you up, when we get back.
RZ: Yeah! Okay.
PO: I can’t tell when, because we see a lot of doctors you know.
�Paola Onesto – Interviewed by David Geen and Renee Zita
June 6 2018
RZ: Okay.
PO: Okay honey.
DG: Okay, thank you!
RZ: Alright, love you! Buh-bye.
DG: Uh huh, bye.
PO: And nice talking to you David.
DG: Same here.
PO: You’re welcome.
22
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Summers in Saugatuck-Douglas Collection
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. Kutsche Office of Local History
Description
An account of the resource
Collection contains images and documents digitized and collected through the project "Stories of Summer," supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant. The collection aims to document the twin lakeshore communities of Saugatuck and Douglas, Michigan, as they transformed through the state's bustling tourism industry and acceptance of minorities.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1910s-2010s
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Various
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/">Copyright Undetermined</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Michigan
Saugatuck (Mich.)
Douglas (Mich.)
Michigan, Lake
Allegan County (Mich.)
Beaches
Sand dunes
Outdoor recreation
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University Libraries. Allendale, Michigan
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Saugatuck-Douglas History Center
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project)
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
image/jpeg
application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Image
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
DC-07_SD-OnestoP-20180606
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Onesto, Paola
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-06-06
Title
A name given to the resource
Paola Onesto (Audio interview and transcript), 2018
Description
An account of the resource
Paola Onesto was raised in Chicago. Her family was among the first to buy land and build lakeshore summer cottages in Saugatuck. Her family home was completed in 1921, and Paola recounts generations of family members spending their summers on the lakeshore.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Geen, David (Interviewer)
Zita, Renee (Interviewer)
Van Orsdol, Mollie (Transcriber)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Michigan
Saugatuck (Mich.)
Allegan County (Mich.)
Outdoor recreation
Beaches
Italian Americans
Dance halls
Oral history
Audio recordings
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
Stories of Summer project, Kutsche Office of Local History. Grand Valley State University
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Relation
A related resource
Stories of Summer (Common Heritage project)
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Text
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
audio/mp3
application/pdf
Language
A language of the resource
eng