Uncle Pat’s father was a hard man to live with (as her daughter Ann recalled).   Uncle Pat left as a teenager and went to live in New York City where he remained for the rest of his life.  There he was involved in several interesting pastimes. 

First, he sang in the Opera. My father, Dom, said that he had a great voice and travelled around the country for 10 or more years with an opera company.  Unfortunately, he lost a great deal of his hearing, while quite young, which ended that career.   My father said that both he and his brother Joe had a birth defect that caused a bone to obstruct his hearing thus causing hearing loss. 

Next, he was an artist.  Throughout his life he painted many items.   The ones I remember most were a collection of clown paintings that he had in his home and in Aunt Ann’s house.  I’m not sure what happened to them.   (It’s possible that one of the Turco children have some of these).  Another is a pencil drawing of myself when I was around 5 years old.  It was reproduced from a photo.  I still have that one.  The last one was a mural that he painted on his bedroom wall.  It was an oriental scene.  It was destroyed with the home in the Bronx.   My father recalls a time when he, my mother Rose, and some girl friends from Carteret went to visit Pat in NY.  While they were there Pat takes out some nude woman drawings that he had done (since he knew Rose would find that funny).  The girl friends from Carteret were so embarrassed by these drawings, while everyone else had a great laugh over them.

His profession was as a sheet metal worker.   He worked for most of his life in a factory that formed steel and aluminum sheets into a variety of objects. 

For all of life he was a weight lifter.  Athough he was short, he was covered in muscles.  I was always impressed with how strong he was.  Unfortunately, as he grew old, much of this muscle turned to fat as he was unable to keep up his exercise regiment.  He also is remembered as a great cook.