Denison Press
April 21, 1946

DENISON NATIVE OF ITALY AND 35ths MASCOT MEET
by Nelle McCune Dowd

Two Italians who came to this country when they were 13 years old recently met and compared their reactions to leaving the land of their birth and coming across the Atlantic to an adopted home.  One was a boy just arrived from war-torn Italy, the other a man who has come to know Texas as his home.

Louis Boarey, who came to Denison from Italy a generation ago to join relatives here, drove to Waxahachie greet his fellow-countryman, little Johnny Camera, who arrived here in February.  They talked of their native land, both in Italian and in English.  Johnny could speak English before he arrived.

Johnny Camera is the 13-year-old boy who stowed away on a troop ship to follow his friend, Sgt. Claron Thompson, to Texas.  He had followed the 36th Division, as its mascot, through Italy until the troops were sent home.  His parents and three sisters had been killed during the shelling of Salerno, and another sister was when she and Johnny were fleeing from the fighting.  Having no family, Johnny sneaked aboard a ship and came to his Yankee friend.

But the reactions of the two were entirely different upon arriving here.  Mr. Boarey says Johnny was fleeing from sorrow, cruelty and hunger, and the warm welcome of old pals of the regiment in Dallas and of the Thompson family in Waxahachie, coupled with his knowledge of the language, made his arrival a joyous occasion.
But not so with Mr. Boarey when he came to this country.  His relatives welcomed him enthusiastically, to be sure. But he had left an Italy at peace, had left his mother and father, and brothers and sisters at the old home.  He can still remember the loneliness and fright of an alien boy so far from home.

Making the trip to Waxahachie with Mr. Boarey were his cousins, Mrs. Josephine Slewter, Miss Madeline Pastore and Ronald Pastore, son of Mrs. R. Pastore, 213 West Gandy.

The group talked of the warm welcome that Johnny had received.  He told them of his joy upon being permitted to stay with the Thompson family.  He said he thought one of the reasons he was allowed to come to Texas was the greeting he gave the Attorney General Clark when the attorney general, a native of Dallas, interviewed him at Ellis Island.  Upon the arrival of the official, Johnny, leading a chorus of boys he had previously coached, sprang to his feet to sing "The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You."