October, Italian Heritage Month in Massachusetts, is celebrated in different ways by different people. Many in Franklin have immigrant connections dating back to the early 20th and both remember and celebrate moments of survival and some of triumph. Paul DeBaggis, for instance, a former Selectman, recalls the time in the 1970s when the once-powerless immigrant group could claim as its own, every member of the Board of Selectman.

But immigrants of Italian heritage arriving after World War II had a somewhat different experience. Annamaria Bailey, who grew up in Walpole but resides in Franklin with husband Charles, is a case in point. Thanks to modern telecommunications and air travel, the connections to Italy have remained fresh.