Fees

Author: Death from Exhaust

Fees

The layout of my uncle's family is similar to that of most middle-class families. There are two floors of lower brick upper wooden houses. The second floor is two bedrooms, utility room and bathroom, and the first floor is a connecting kitchen, living room, and the master bedroom where my uncle and aunt live.

Usually, there are many people living in this house, including Bill, the three brothers and sisters, uncle and aunt, as well as the uncle's son, Anthony Conte. Today, they held a family gathering, and more people came.

Bill pushed open the door, and sixteen pairs of eyes around the dining table immediately turned to the door.

"Come on, I'll wait for you."

"My aunt has specially left you two serving noodles."

Bill glanced at him and knew that his grandfather's relatives were basically here, including his second aunt and family of five, his aunt and family of four, his grandparents, his uncle's family of three, Bill's sister and brother, these sixteen people were waiting for him to arrive and eat together.

It is a habit for Italians to kiss relatives who have not seen each other for a long time, so Bill, who walked to the dining table, kissed the cheeks of the eleven people who came to my uncle's house one by one.

He didn't say why he was late. Bill only told his uncle who was cooking that he had eaten outside, and it was enough for two bites.

So the reasonable uncle stood up silently, took away the plates left for Bill, went to the kitchen to divide most of them, and then brought them back.

During this process, fifteen people chattered around the dining table and said their own words. After listening to a few words, Bill found that the main topic was the two aunts and aunt criticized cousin Anthony Conte for mingling with the gangster, and the second uncle and uncle scolded their daughters for their early love.

The matter of Bill’s sister Dorothy’s going to school has not become the main topic. I think this group of people basically don’t understand college.

This is also the traditional skill of Italians. Once they start chatting, they can change a few more women from the love letter Michelangelo gave to their ancestors to their neighbors’ homes. In short, it’s nonsense.

"What do you know? I'm called Johnny the Bone Brokener now. When I get to my partner, the whole guy on Bath Avenue will have to listen to me."

Perhaps because of the useless derogatory of being degraded by the female elders, cousin Anthony suddenly became excited, waved his hands with chicken feet gestures, and tried to brag about himself in front of his aunt and aunt.

Anthony is also a typical Italian New Yorker. When he was a child, he didn't study hard, and he spent all day with gang members, buying newspapers, running errands and buying hot dogs, and helping deliver things. When he got older, he could play with guns, and was absorbed by gang members as gang members, doing things to curb the market, dealing with street disputes, and collecting money from offline.

During an accident last week, Anthony broke the troublemaker's arm in front of one of their partners (understood as the leader of the community), and made a big splash. The partner gave the title of "Bone Broken" Johnny.

Anthony himself thought that the mixed club was promising, but although the Conte family had a little, they knew that the mixed club was not a good way out, so they strongly opposed Anthony's choice.

"Look at Dorothy, who can do so well in public schools, now you're getting an offer from that university. Look at you..." My aunt refused to give up.

Although she couldn't even name a well-known university, she didn't know that her niece Dorothy hadn't started applying yet.

Fortunately, my uncle came back and stopped the quarrel in time. After waiting for Bill for a while, everyone was hungry. The whole family made neatly prayers before the meal.

“…Thank you for the gift of my Lord Christ, Amen.”

Sixteen people neatly drew crosses on their chests. Although Bill didn't believe this, he also drew crosses in order not to see the abnormality.

During the meal, we still had to quarrel. The two cousins ​​who fell in love early were attacked by their uncle and second uncle. The aunts and aunts might think that Anthony was helpless, and the disease of premature love could still be cured, so they also criticized their daughters and nieces.

One of the cousins ​​who was scolded, Sofia Conte was naturally reluctant. She called back: "Why don't you talk about Enzo, who is still in junior high school, and just scold me and my sister."

Boys have an advantage in love early, and girls have an advantage in love early, so adults can naturally distinguish these. Aunts and aunts are very wise not to mention this, but only criticize girls.

Bill sat a cousin, Vincent Conte, who was also one of the family's early love groups.

After all, the probability of finding a virgin in a high school in the United States is lower than that of a black man with a father.

The elders' criticism of their cousin also made Vinson a little nervous. He finished the noodles in a few bites, and then stared at the aunt with the strongest firepower, fearing that he would be named too.

Bill was his sister, Dorothy Ferrari, a strong woman of 1.7 meters. Fortunately, Dorothy's facial features are pretty, and her pair of oversized black-framed glasses finally gave her a hint of student temperament.

"What are you going out to eat? The family has been waiting for you for a while."

Seeing that his brother didn't speak much, Dorothy took the initiative to raise the topic.

"Hot dog, who eats more with me? The winner gets fifty dollars. You know that fat Winter, right? He ate twenty-five, he is such a pig!"

Her stomach was still protesting, and Bill didn't want to speak, so he briefly told his sister about the past and consequences.

"What's wrong with you, brother. We didn't have money at all, and you lost another fifty dollars, that's fifty dollars!"

When Dorothy heard this, she stopped eating noodles and turned her head to stare at her brother, as if this would allow this illiterate brother who dropped out of school to know how much fifty dollars is.

Bill snorted coldly, took out the three bills from his pants pocket, swayed in front of his sister, and then said proudly:

“I ate twenty-seven.”

Dorothy's expression suddenly became complicated, three points of surprise, three points of contempt and five points of helplessness after being teased.

She glared at the old man and buried her head in eating noodles.

The dishes on the dining table were gradually cleaned up, and the meal ended with the elders' criticism of early love and school teachers.

The uncle cooked, the second aunt and aunt washed the dishes, and Dorothy also went over to do it.

After dinner, the atmosphere in the whole room was more lively. To be precise, there was no restraint of the bowls, plates, and the body movements were more abundant.

After all, if you tie the Italians' hands, it is equivalent to blocking the Italians' mouth.

What's more, there is an unfilial son Anthony, who is so ruthless. His uncles and uncles surrounded Anthony in front of the TV. Bill seemed to see someone pulling his leather belt, as if he was going to add an entire childhood to Anthony.

"Don't you know that being a gangster will kill people?"

"How did I teach you, have I taught you to hang out with those gang members?"

"You can make a lot of money without following them. As long as you concentrate on entering the factory, then who will go to Japan's factory, and now it's a month..."

When Bill listened to these 40-50-50-year-old immigrants, he knew that this group of people really had not received much education. The reason why they opposed Anthony's gangsters was that it was easy to die. Not most of the gang's behavior was illegal, and it was easy to join and difficult to quit.

Even if you don’t have the perspective of a time traveler, you should also know that with the background of a gangster, it is not easy for descendants to remove traces and enter the middle and upper class controlled by the "white rules".

Let me give you a very simple example of the rise of the Italian family: Rudy Giuliani, born in Brooklyn, went all the way from high school to Manhattan College, then to New York University School of Law, and then into the prosecutorial community.

There is no need to mention the brilliant achievements of this gentleman during his tenure as a federal prosecutor and a prosecutor in southern New York. Everyone only needs to know one concept. He broke the five major families of the New York Mafia and then served as mayor of New York from 1993 to 2001.

If it weren't for the extramarital affair, vision and mistakes in the sidelines, Giuliani would have the possibility of attacking the commander. After all, he was beaten up in the 9/11 incident and was called the "Mayor of the United States."

Bill was still thinking about how to embark on the road to success, the hustle and bustle in the room pulled him back to reality, and seven or eight Italian chicken feet were waving in front of him.

He stared at these dancing hands and decided that he should say something.

"Okay, OK, Anthony is just a bragging gangster. Why are you chasing him?" Bill pointed to his sister Dorothy who was wiping the table. "Aren't we discussing how to go to college today for Dorothy?"

Now it is September. To be honest, early November is the deadline for ED (early decision). ED simply means batching schools in advance, which are generally better schools. Early January is the deadline for ED2 and RD applications.

From early December to March and April of the following year, the admission results will be announced one after another. By the fall of the following year, the admitted students can enter school normally.

As far as Bill knows, although he was studying in a public high school, his sister's SAT (scholastic assessment test) scores are quite good. SAT simply means the American college entrance examination, which is a necessary score for applying to American universities.

Her community experience is also quite rich, and the principal of the high school is also happy to write a letter of recommendation to Dorothy, who is from a lower class. According to the admission practice of American universities, her sister can go to a very good university.

There are two Ivy League schools in New York State, Columbia University and Cornell University. Although they are both private universities with super expensive tuition fees, Bill thought he could go to it.

Or Princeton University in New Jersey next door is not bad either.

As far as Bill knows, Princeton University's tuition fees reached $74,230 per year in the 1920s, and two Ivy League schools in New York State also accounted for $50,000.

But this was in the late 1970s, and the US dollar had not been flooded yet. He estimated that the tuition fee of about 10,000 US dollars per year was definitely enough.

Several elders stopped criticizing Anthony and sat on the sofa to discuss the issue. The latter quietly stayed upstairs and gave Bill a grateful look before he disappeared.

"Doros, we don't know much about college. You say it will cost hundreds of dollars."

The highest-ranking grandpa, Husse Conte, said.

Dorothy, who was talking and laughing with her aunts and aunts, heard the male elder calling her and walked over to the sofa where the men were from the chair near the dining table.

"Grandpa, that's right. I'm going to apply to a public university in New York State. The tuition fees for such schools are relatively cheaper, such as Buffalo, Binghamton..."

Dorothy began to tell her grandfather and uncles about her initial plans.

State universities in the United States often give students in their state more tuition fees, and the schools listed by Doroth are quite good.

For example, the State University of New York at Binghamton is called the Public Ivy.

Let’s not mention the system of the State University of New York. The State University of New York is the largest higher education system in the world and the largest and most comprehensive state university education system in the United States. It has a total of 64 member branches and has nearly 470,000 students, which can provide students with various types of educational opportunities.

"...It's about two or three thousand dollars in tuition." When it comes to tuition fees, Dorothy's voice was reduced.

It’s not her fault, who made this family basically the lowest class!

Seeing that the elders looked at each other at the tuition fees of thousands of dollars, the sensible girl immediately added: "But please don't worry, I'm going to apply for a student loan, so you don't have to worry about the tuition fees. You only need to bear the books and miscellaneous fees, as well as accommodation and food costs."

"Loans? That's a scam. Salesmen who don't say the truth will only tell you the benefits and will not tell you how the bank cheated your property."

My second uncle was the first to object.

As an authentic Italian immigrant, he almost frantically rejected everything in non-Italians.

The other elders meant this, and they nodded while giving their own solutions.

"I think it's better to find a godfather with such a large sum of money. I heard that he can find someone to borrow money."

It can be accustomed to be an Italian who believes in Catholicism, so he must have a godfather.

The Catholic godfather refers to those who give the name of the religion and guarantee the responsibility of their religious education when infants or young children are baptized.

In the Italian community in Brooklyn, the godfather often has a gang background, and the people he recommends to borrow money must be loan sharks.

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(End of this chapter)
Chapter completed!