The Frank Gigliotti Story

June 30th 1971
Dear Pioneers:

   Today I had a very interesting conversation with Frank Gigliotti who still lives at 37352 N. Sierra Highway here in Palmdale. Frank was born in the southern part of Italy Sept. 12th 1894. When he was about 11 yrs. old he told his father he wanted to go to the next towns to visit and look for work. So his father gave him some money and started him off thinking that he would be gone only a short time. But the wanderlust urge was too great and Frank kept going north and gradually got to Southampton England.

   There he got a job as a mess boy on a passenger ship bound for Canada. Once in Canada he "jumped ship" and found a job as a "Water Boy" on one of the street construction gangs in St. Johns New Brunswick at $1.00 per day.

    Then he wrote to his father and told him where he was. So the father came over to bring his son home. But the demand for workers was so good that they worked on the new railroad jobs for four years before going back to Italy. They went back to Italy in 1910.

    However, by 1912, the wanderlust was too much for this now young man and he returned to the United States. Getting work as a gardener for the wealthy people, in and around Long Branch, New Jersey as well as jobs in the local factories.

    Frank was drafted in 1918 (W.W.I.) Going into the Heavy Field Artillery of the 7Bth Division. they were in all of the major battles until the Armastice. After discharge at Camp Dix New Jersey, he again had the wanderlust and got a job with the Harvey House Restaurants that were then strung all along the Railroads from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

    After several other wanderlust adventures he came to the Antelope Valley, got a job at "Harold" which was the old R.R. Station, worked for a man named Ward. Frank had been a bugler when he was in W.W.I. with the 78th Division so was musically inclined. During his early days with the Road Dept., he helped form a "Palmdale Band" that played at dances and civic functions. Also the "Palmdale Band" was in the Pasadena Tournement of Roses Parade several times representing Antelope Valley. He worked for the water dept. and then the Road Dept. He learned how to operate heavy equipment and when the Second World War star ted, he got a job with the U.S. Engineers operating heavy equipment and was sent to Kodiak Island in the Aleutians. There, under fire from the "Japs", he helped prepare the landing Strips for the Air Force that drove the Japs out of that War theatre. After several other very interesting experiences, he returned to Palmdale.

    In 1946 he bought the 7.9 acres where he now lives. To show how prices of land have changed in the last 25 years, he bought the property for less than $5,00Q. Recently sold the same property for more than 20 times what he paid for it.

    But that is the story of Antelope Valley. It's always a pleasure to see and hear of "Old Timers" making a profit from their land that they bought so many years ago. Instead of some undeserving speculator making the unearned profit.

    Thus this is a short and very incomplete story of Frank Gigliotti. Really it is an "Incredible Tale".

Reported by Shelton Gordon

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