Mike Albano

Location of Interview
Collection Name

Port of Los Angeles Centennial Oral History Project

Description

The Port of Los Angeles celebrated its Centennial on December 9, 2007.  As part of the Port of Los Angeles Centennial Oral History Project, these interviews feature various members of the Los Angeles Harbor Area community who were interviewed in 2007 to document different eras in Port history.

Interviewer
Transcribers

Jennifer Padua-Valle

Audio
Transcript
Biographical Sketch

Michael Albano was born in Long Beach, California, on November 24, 1947, in Saint Mary’s Hospital. Mike’s grandfather and father were fishermen.  His father immigrated to the United States from Ischia, Italy, between the years 1939 and 1941. His father decided to come to America because of fishing opportunities near Catalina Island. Prior to the Ports of Calls being built, as a child, at nine or ten years old, he and his friends would combine plywood together and float around the water.  The Catalina Steamer was their way of telling time.  It was time to go home when it came down the channel at a quarter to six o’clock. He and his friends would travel to the Fish Market. Some would get jobs after school.  They would make boxes and clean up. Mike worked for his Uncle, Les Esposito, who owned a marine field dock at Burse 78. The marine field dock is where San Pedro’s Fish Market was located at Burse 78 on the main channel. Mike was responsible for tying boats together.  He learned how to invoice and run credit card payments.  He also began to understand how to interact with people. In his later years, Mike became a member of the Polar Bear Club at Cabrillo Beach.  He explains how it started as a dare on New Year’s Day.  To be a Polar Bear Member, you have to dunk yourself into the water and be wet from head to toe. He has been a member for fifteen years.  His children and grandchildren also enjoy participating.  Every year, they pick a king and queen.  They serve hot chocolate, and everyone who participates receives a certificate that indicates the time, the water temperature, and the air.  The kids can talk about it when they return to school after the break. It is a big event and challenge.  They have tables, sell shirts, get donations, and even the mayor participants.

Scope and Content Note
Mr. Albano talked about how his grandfather passed away fishing. He and the crew were never found. They were on a boat called Fidelity.  It was about forty-five feet with eleven crewmembers. Filled with fish, the boats can only run about six knots per hour.  In a storm, the speed slows to three knots. One day, the Fidelity was caught in a storm.  The crew always wears heavy wool clothing, gear, and boots, making swimming very difficult. No one knows what really happened that day when the Fidelity went out fishing, but family and friends pooled money to try to find any survivors. No one was found. Mike recalls how the people of San Pedro were friendly, cared about each other, and the doors were always open, especially during the holidays.  Seafood was very popular on Christmas Eve.  Shrimp, crab, clams, and muscles were the feast.  He said, “You could go to anybody’s house on Christmas Eve and have a drink. The doors were open.” He explains, “You would sit there with fifty people in the house and just have a feast-and-half with all seafood.”  If you worked for the Fish Market, getting a box of shrimp as a holiday gift was common. He explains that fishermen in those days were just genuine family men.  They were workers.  They didn’t go on vacations much; they ate a lot of carbs and welcomed each other on board the fishing boats during lunch.  Mike said that fishermen needed to eat carbs, and spaghetti was the main dish. Fishing boats had cooks, and they would make a big pot of spaghetti or fish supine.  If you did maintenance or fueled the boat (during lunchtime), the men on board would invite you to have wine, French bread, and a plate of spaghetti. Mr. Albano spoke about the importance of the church and education. Mary’s Star was the main church.  “Whatever the church needed, they all participated.” Everyone, including the canneries, pitched in for anything the church needed. In San Pedro, parents wanted their children to attend the Mary’s Star private school. Because fathers fished at night, they could not help with homework since they slept in the day and left home by five o’clock to go fishing. However, as “trustworthy” family men, all the fishermen he knew wanted their children educated. Mike also explained the importance of the fishing fleet. He said, “The fishing fleet was the main source of just about everything from the store selling the groceries.”  The boat cook would order for eleven crew who stayed on the boat for days.  They ordered “loaves of bread, cold cuts, fifteen chickens, eighteen gallons of milk, and don’t forget the wine.”  Businesses like fuel docks, water taxis, ferries, and the canneries thrived on the needs of the fishing fleet.  However, once regulations became strict, the sardines faded away, the canneries moved, and the fishermen could not progress. He sees a comeback, but not on the same scale as it was before. Lastly, Mr. Albano fondly describes San Pedro as a safe environment for schools and kids.  He remembers walking everywhere as a child.  Everyone had respect for each other, and neighbors talked to each other.  Parents always knew where and what their children were doing because it was a small town, and people watched out for each other.


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