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Joseph Ferranti

Golden Anniversary of Joe & Pauline Ferranti in Monterey, CA

Pauline & Joe Ferranti were married for over 50 years! To the right is a picture of them on their golden anniversary on April 28, 1985.

Narrative by Ron Ferrante as of 20-Nov-04: My dad, Joseph Ferranti, was born March 13, 1913 in Pittsburg, CA and grew up both there and in Monterey, CA. Both of his parents were from Sicily. He was the fourth child and only boy in a family of six. He learned his preferred livelihood, fishing, from his father and made a good living from it during the sardine abundance of the 30s and 40s. He married my mother, Pauline Moore, on April 28, 1935 and eventually fathered a family of four boys and one girl. To support a growing family, he got into the building trades, learned fast and in a few years became a master carpenter. Many of his weekends were still devoted to the activity he loved best, fishing. He had his own boat and would often bring home catches to supplement the family food supply while selling or giving away the excess. He was well known around Monterey and made dozens of friends among other fishermen. Dad enjoyed being around extended family and would often bring us kids to visit his sisters and their families in Monterey and Pittsburg or invite them over.

Dad had a good ear for music and could often be heard whistling or singing lines from “old standards.” Personally, I miss hearing the melodic whistling he’d do through his teeth. He had several old 78s we’d often play as kids.

Some of his favorite TV programs included the Gillette Friday Night Fights, The Dan Smoot Report, Have Gun Will Travel, The Untouchables (which he also called “The Italian Hour”), The Twilight Zone, Gunsmoke, Sergeant Bilko, Ed Sullivan, Jack Benny and Oprah Winfrey. He had a preference for game shows.

Dad took us on many drives and vacations. Some places he drove us included Carmel Valley, Arroyo Seco, Avila Beach, Big Sur, Pinecrest, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Glacier, Banff and Crater Lake.

At age 62, he retired from Construction in 1975. Afterward, if he wasn’t fishing, he enjoyed getting up at the crack of dawn and meeting some of his fishing buddies for coffee at the Monterey Denny’s. Often times, one of those fishing buddies turned out to be his nephew by marriage, Billy Hayden, Joe Hayden’s late father. They both had a passion for fishing. Billy would often visit his Aunt Pauline and Uncle Joe and stay overnight to go fishing with Dad the next day.

Dad was a lifelong Democrat. I’ll never forget how all of us stayed virtually glued to the TV set on the night of November 8, 1960 watching the popular vote updates between Kennedy and Nixon. Needless to say, Dad was very pleased at the outcome. One of the stories he told me of his younger days was having talked to former Congressman and White House Chief of Staff, Leon Panetta’s father, circa 1941, in downtown Monterey while the latter was “holding little Leon’s hand.”

Besides fishing, some of Dad’s favorite activities included gardening, improving his property and doing a prodigious amount of reading. I remember he had Tarzan books, National Geographic magazines and Reader’s Digest, among many others. He also liked doing crossword puzzles in the Monterey Herald and became quite good at it. He had a few culinary specialties including cioppino, spaghetti sauce (with Italian sausage or chunks of browned roast beef) and barbecued fish with a scrumptious homemade tomato/lemon/oregano sauce.

Dad succumbed to prostate cancer at the age of 76 on August 7, 1989. His oldest sister, Jenny, died exactly one week later. His youngest sister, Angie, born in 1919, is the last survivor of Dad’s original family.