MY UNCLE DOM 

Dom and Angelina’s wedding photo

My Uncle Dom was out of place in my blue-collar family. The husband of my mother’s youngest sister Angelina, he had a college associate’s degree and worked as a quality control chemist for Coca Cola. 

He did not own a car and took the subway to work every day. Eventually he became a flavor chemist and was credited on several shared soft drink patents, including the beverage FANTA.

Dom was not a card player or a gambler who followed the daily number and the results at Aqueduct, like my father and the rest of my uncles. He focused on his family — a loving wife and four sons — and he shared a two-story home with his parents in South Brooklyn. 

Angelina and Dom at home, 1978

Dom was my godfather when I made my confirmation and was active in the life of his local Roman Catholic parish St. John the Evangelist. A member of the Men’s Society, he helped with fundraising events and the collection at Sunday masses.

My Confirmation Photo, circa 1958

Not that I understood it at the time, but when I was about 10 years old, I had cryptochidism – one or both of my testicles did not “drop” into my scrotum normally.  I needed a series of hormone shots. To save my family the cost of frequent doctor visits, Dom administered the injections once or twice a week.  Kind and gentle with a frightened youngster, he told me not to worry, that he did not have a large penis and yet “I have four sons.”

The second and even more important time my Uncle came through for me was in 1970. A US Marine Sargent during the Korean war, he wrote to my draft board in support of my conscientious objector application “Although we disagree on many things concerning our government’s policies and our involvement in the Vietnam war, Larry left college one year before graduation to join VISTA so that he could take positive action for peace and helping others.” 

I believe that Dom’s letter was a major factor in my receiving a rare conscientious objector 1-O deferment.

A former athlete, my uncle slowed down in middle age and gained a lot of weight. We continued to share a love of reading and often discussed books like The Don Camillo Books by Giovanni Guareschi and The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. Though usually serious and quiet, Dom’s willingness to act silly and dance made him the life of any party or parish dance. 

Angelina and Dom at their son Tom’s wedding, 1982

At a parish Dance, 1982

Dom did not survive a massive heart attack in December, 1984, and is buried in Green-Wood cemetery. I still miss talking with him.

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Larry Racioppo’s new book is Here Down on Dark Earth: Loss and Remembrance in New York City (Fordham University Press), photographs by Larry Racioppo, text by Clifford Thompson and Jan Ramirez.

Racioppo’s photographs are in the collections of the Museum of the City of New York; the Brooklyn Museum; the New York Public Library; the Brooklyn Public Library; El Museo del Barrio, New York; and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, New York.