From Across the Tracks is a real-life adventure story of a young naïve boy of Sicilian immigrants who grew up on the streets of South Lawrence, Massachusetts in front of the Boston & Maine railroad facing the largest woolen mill in the world. It is a story of survival, filled with pathos and hilarity. The story of a fifteen-year-old school dropout who thought he knew it all until it all caught up to him in the whirlwind of life. Facing the prospect of being sent to reform school, he forged his birth certificate to join the U.S. Army. Thus began his journey through the school of hard knocks into the uncharted waters of the world without a compass to guide him. His is an odyssey that spanned four continents, from the jungles of Colombia to the intrigues of the mysterious Orient and wartime romance with a beautiful Japanese girl, Kuki, and a friendship with the Japanese gangster, Johnny Agata, who befriended him and showered him with money and fancy clothes. And trouble followed Nino all along the way. Was it any wonder the guys in his outfit, Company G 2nd Batt. 27th Wolfhound Regt., dubbed him Maggio, the little wop. He spent most of his time in and out of the Brig on the U.S. Army transport, the Marine Carp. From the Caribbean through the Panama Canal and across the vast Pacific Ocean under the watchful gaze of a young Puerto Rican 2nd Lt. Luciano, who found Nino amusing, but-none-the-less had him on every shit detail to keep him out of trouble. That was easier said than done for he bounced from the Brig to a medieval Korean dungeon and the hardships of an Army stockade and finally to Concord prison. He was torn between his love for music, and the mob who never let him forget where he came from and who he was. His love of Flamenco music brought him to the other side of the world, to Spain and his life among the Gypsies of Madrid. He became friends with two of the world’s greatest Flamenco concert guitarists, Sabicas, and Carlos Montoya, who became his Godfather of matrimony. They would have a tremendous impact throughout Nino’s life. And finally, how he narrowly escaped death in the jungles of Colombia. Come then, sit back comfortably and I‘ll tell you what it was like looking through the window of life From Across the Tracks.
