by Frank Cornacchiulo
Many teenagers, like myself, were prone to think about, what if? As a teenager
one of my dreams was about cars. The one I admired the most was a British
sports car, Jaguar XKE. Many boys my age, where into fantasizing about having a
sports car that was way out of any financial possibility for us to purchase. It was a
great fantasy for me to wish for something well out of my range. I shared my wish
with a childhood friend, Gabe Peluso who thought as I did. It was fun to share our
what if stories, with each other throughout the years.
This story is about how sometimes your wildest dreams can come true. I shared
my dream car fantasy with my girlfriend Frances. She was a student at the Bay
Ridge High school in Brooklyn NY and she had a part time job at the Metropolitan
Life Insurance Company in Manhattan. Every day after school she would commute
to work at a part time job at Met Life. She shared my story with some of her
coworkers about my fantasy car. Several years later, after graduation, she had a
full-time position at Met Life. One day at work, her supervisor Mr. LeMay gave her
a magazine with a beautiful photo of the Jaguar XKE on the front cover, because
he knew about my fantasy dream car. Years went by and I never thought about
the magazine photo again. One day while sitting in my office in New York City my
real estate broker, Evelyn Webster, called me to show me a large house on the waterfront in
Bellport NY. I told her why are you calling me, you know I cannot afford to buy
this house? She went on to tell me that the owner was selling the house along
with his Jaguar XKE sports car.
I made an appointment to see the house and the car the following day. Much to
my surprise there it was with those gleaming spoke wheels. The car of my dreams
at a price that I could afford. Thinking back at the circumstances which led me to
this car, I realized that sharing my story with many different people over the years
gave me the opportunity to purchase my dream car. The moral of my story is that
sharing your dream can sometimes open an opportunity to achieve your goal of
making your fantasy come true.
Meanwhile, we lived in Bellport, N.Y. sixty some odd miles away from my office in Manhattan. So now we had two cars, one, an old Chevy II, for me to commute to the train station in Patchogue, NY for my early morning ride to Penn Station, so that I could walk to my office on fifth avenue in Manhattan. I couldn't take a prize 1969 Jaguar and leave it at the train station (exposed to the elements) all day, while I was at work. So my wife, Frances was at home with our two children, Frankie and Patrick with my two plus two, Jaguar XKE, to fend for themselves.
Frances completed her Masters Degree and now she could teach full time at one of our local Elementary schools. At that time we also had a real estate business which Frances would manage, with rentals. Oh, that's on top of our party business (like Tupperware) called Gallery Glassware which Frances Managed at night. I'll cover this story in a separate post.
It was a chaotic time in our lives. Then one night she told me that she went to the doctor and he confirmed that she was pregnant. Another challenge for us to fit into our crazy schedule. Bottom line, I knew at this point that we had to make some changes like my Jaguar XKE dream car had to go. I enjoyed four years of having my dream car and it was worth $$$ a lot more than what I paid for it initially. So we sold it and purchased a used Chevrolet Station Wagon for our growing family. When I look back, thank God we were young at that time in our lives, otherwise we would not have been able to withstand this crazy schedule. Our entire family also spent time serving our community through the South Country Lions Club. Like food drives, driving the elderly to visit their doctors, Eye exams and glasses for poor children in our local elementary schools, we even managed to build a float for the fourth of July parade and got first prize that year. Every family has to make adjustments for the unexpected challenges, but with a little luck and hard work we prevailed to the next chapter in our lives.
Comentários