During the Great Depression our top of the line favorite lunch meat was Italian prosciutto. Unfortunately, all we could afford was fried rubbery bologna, except for one instance. It was in the early 1930s, when my Uncle Joe from Utah came to visit us. He brought a big home cured “bone in the prosciutto” type ham for all of us to eat. He raised and slaughtered a hog and knew how to make the prosciutto from it, a skill he learned in the old country.

I really indulged in that delicacy and it would be many years before eating it again. I vowed that when I started working I would buy one of those large “bone in the prosciutto” hams and eat it every day. I got my first job in August 1942 on war production at Truscon Steel Co., shortly after graduating from East High School.