Wisconsin Roots Too; 107; Galanos

Immigrants to this country learn to accept severed family ties for Madison's great newcomers the focus became planting old ways in a new land. They came to this country seeking their fortune expecting someday to return to Greece. If you did just Galanos came to Madison and became involved in the candy business his son Nick now owns and operates that same business the badger Candy Kitchen where we have come to discuss the history of Madison's Greek community. Well my dad left groups at a fairly young age. He was the youngest of four brothers. He and the other three brothers all the kings of the United States for an economic reason. There was no opportunity for them in the small village that they came from and they came to the United States originally. To make their fortune and get some money and probably go back and buy a piece of land so that they could continue in the in the farming that their fathers and forefathers had done. So they had no intention of staying. When they first came I doubt that any of them had any idea of staying they had very little education and they didn't think that far ahead. They knew that there was a place where they could get a good work of some

kind and they could save money. And the standpoint of eventually being able to go back and buy a piece of land what did they do when they first came to Madison. Well my dad got to Madison via farm like and I think a large number of the Greek community here in Madison trace their roots back. As far as coming to Wisconsin. The final auction final act at that time was we're talking back around 1915 1014 was population wise almost as large if not a little larger than Madison this will surprise a lot of people because now they think of for like a very small city. But you have five railroads that came in the front line and the railroads needed help. The Woodworking that was still available the force had not all been cut up in that area and there was not a lot of woodworking in fact. Probably at that time most of the windows and doors. Saying that everything that were used for the whole state of Wisconsin were made on the line. So just closing up the final act and said hey.

This might not be a place for you to not be a bad place for you to come and they were there for a couple of years and one of my dad's cousins actually my grandmother's first cousin came to Madison back around 1913 1914 and his name was Russa's. And Mr. Rufus was instrumental in probably a dozen other families that ended up coming to Madison is that traditional whereby one would come in and another would it would come later. Oh definitely. You had to have at least a little bit of help when you got into an area you had to have someplace to hang your hat coat for a few weeks or whatever until you got settled and this was true I think not just in Madison but in any Greek community. The church in Madison What role did that play for the Greek community. Well I think it was a it was a. Once it was established and once we we we've got a church in Madison become It became the cultural cultural center. Of the Greek community in the. US and. It. Gave me the religious and some of the

theological training and some of the historical training of the Greeks who got a culture that goes way back and they don't lose it when they go to another country and we're fortunate in that because even though they blend they become part of a country. The fact that they can remember the glories of Greece and the fact that Greece was the first democracy you know. That they gave. All of Western Europe and. In consequence all of the United States something the marker see a way of organizing. Political Life. If it weren't for the fact that the writers of the Declaration of Independence have studied. Ancient Greece and had studied the Marcus years to do that come with it. I don't think the Bill of Rights would have come out exactly the way it did so they had a lot to be proud of and a lot in common even though they were language wise a completely different world. And it gave me something and I hoped would give my children something that they will remember as if it's our. Common background and the fact that we have a way of tracing ourselves back to. A

proud time. Time in world history what contributions do you think. Yeah Greig's to Madison Wisconsin society. Yeah. Well. You're talking about a pretty small. Group of people. You're also talking about one of the last group says immigrants. I think the Italians and the Greeks were probably two of the last two large groups that were the United States. They got here they found the Irish should come long before the Norwegians the Germans and so forth to tell us and the Syrians and the Greeks. Here in Madison that. We still were. We were group of ethnic people and I think. We became sort of a melting pot a sort of oh my god. Cause I'm of the United States when when I went to school and that was back in the late 30s early 40s we had Italians Assyrians the Greeks the Jews do negroes and we were all disadvantaged and I we had

parents who could not really or. Did not have education did not have. I could not give us all the material things but they could give us a lash and moral training and the fact that you got along with the other people and we did the people who I grew up with and went to school here in Madison and the Greeks contributed. One of my best friends in high school there is a fellow by the name of Emmanuel Peroni who I'm sure talking to the times you're in town you've run across a man whose father was an engineer from MIT Lee who started the Methodist Church in Madison Wisconsin. And man I sure we were tired we were greeting we star you and at least. We got along it was democracy working and we had we were disadvantaged and didn't know it I guess we were fortunate because. All of us became involved in learning of bettering ourselves our parents. I think all of the immigrant parents had the task of devotion to.

Education. And to discipline and to order. Didn't go home and say the teacher picked I mean you didn't go on and say oh there was a policeman and he told me I couldn't do that or something like that because when you went home as an educated it is these immigrants who were they they respected. Political authority religious authority schools for the education. There was nothing more important to their education than we got educated and we probably don't have all the. Trappings of. Of education that you have now. But I think. When you go back to the classes of Central High School like the 30s and 40s. Those of us that went on to university in a large proportion did wouldn't have any problem taking freshman math or freshman English and thinking back that when we started in school I think most of us were. Bilingual and certainly English was not her primary language. It was either Greek or Italian or

whatever happened. We got to school we learned and I probably stimulated our intellect a lot more. It's a way of life it's it's. All seriousness that one minute. Ability. To. Just let go and live it up. And I guess it took Telly Savalas coming into television to give some people idea what Greece was like and also the fact that a lot of people managed to travel over there. Now. There's. There's a hospitality there's a zest for life and the fact that these people have got something. Gosh I know it's a spark. It's there and you're kind of proud to have a part of that spark in you. And therefore you want to pass it on. Well you sure do.