With the Italian Festival this weekend, Erie natives sharing stories of what the neighborhood was like more than 50 years ago. Thousands of italians immigrated to erie around the turn of the century. David Cacchione said Erie’s Little Italy is a special neighborhood. He wrote a book about what it was like growing up there in the late 1940’s.

“I look back on those days thinking we had a wonderful time. It was a pretty humorous fun filled time. The tragedies were there but it was mostly everyday humor,” Cacchione said. Cacchione said the neighborhood was divided east and west of the Columbus School. He said things could get competitive.