When I was growing up in Macomb during the 1950s and 1960s, as well as in my business career beginning in the 1970s, one person who impacted me more than any other was my father, James R. Pumo. He was the nicest and most honest man that I knew. He related events from his past that impacted his life which allowed me an understanding of how these affected him and his attitudes and behaviors.
Born in Crystal City, Mo., in 1919 and was variously known throughout his life as Jim, Jimmy, or Jay. He was the son of Joseph Pumo, an immigrant from Siculiana, Sicily, who arrived by ship as a 16 year old, alone, in 1906 at Ellis Island. Joseph was a quiet, stern man not given to conversation, but dad always related the circumstance in which grandpa attended concerts by the great singer Caruso. The trip from Crystal City, Mo. to St. Louis was made by train and Joseph saved enough money to buy a ticket. Joseph attempted to make the trip in his purchased seat but was made to ride in the baggage car by virtue of his ethnicity.
Italian Catholics, especially Sicilian Italians, were discriminated against at the time. Neither Grandpa nor my father ever forgot the incident.
Making a living was difficult in Missouri for Dad’s family, so to try to provide a better life for the family of three boys and one girl, they moved to a farm in northwest Indiana.
Dad was just a toddler at the time but did start school there.
He remembered riding double with one of his brothers on a horse each day to school.
After just a few years on the farm, Joseph gained employment at the National Plate Glass factory in Naplate, IL, a town owned by the factory, and the family moved there, subsequently moving to Ottawa IL after a short period.
Dad was a true depression child as he was just 10 in 1929.
While that circumstance affected him, he always felt it was character building and delighted in some of the scarce jobs youths found. His favorite entailed swimming the Illinois River with a dry bundle of clothes held above the water to a rural area on the other side. Located there were illegal casinos run by the Chicago mob. Dad worked any job they gave him busboy, dish washer, janitor. He learned early on how the world worked as the local sheriff or deputy would arrive at the close of businesses each night to collect their “fee” and give the youths a dry ride home. Dad always felt lucky that they were the well off family in the neighborhood as Joseph was working three days a week at the glass factory and could afford a radio. It was nostalgic for him to relate the gatherings of neighborhood folks on his family’s front porch and lawn in warm weather to listen to the boxing matches of the day. As a teen Dad became a prolific dancer, ballroom, jitterbug. Etc., but also on roller skates, which how he met my mother. Dad and Mary June Moreau would ride their bikes to the dam across the Illinois River at Starved Rock, walk across, and for 25 cents dance to the big bands out of Chicago.
After high school Jim had a job at the same glass factory where his father was employed. A wildcat strike closed the factory, and he was lucky enough to find a job in the advertising department at the Ottawa Times. He always felt that this was his best break in life as this job translated into an opportunity to work in the advertising department of the Macomb Daily Journal. As newlyweds in 1941, Jim and Mary June moved to Macomb. Always expressed his feeling of being discriminated against upon arrival. Because of his ethnicity and religion, the couple could not rent an apartment or buy a car. He always felt that they treated him like a “damn dego.” Mr. William Rudolph his employer, interceded on Dad’s behalf and acquired those items. Jim respected and admired Mr. Rudolph and always had kind words concerning him.
Jim was drafted into the Army in 1943 and was sent to the European theatre. Dad was one of those veterans of WWII who rarely spoke of his experiences. When I pressed him for more information he simply said, “when you wipe your buddy’s brains off your face there is nothing more to talk about.” I respected that choice but always was curious about his service. Dad paid a high price for his service as he received two purple hearts, the second of which put him in the hospital for over a year and almost resulted in the amputation of his right leg, which after recovery was 1” shorter than the other. The damage left from an “88” shell burst resulted in numerous holes in his leg in which my curious friends and I would stick our fingers. When Jim passed away at age 91 in 2010 I discovered that he had won the Bronze Star which is given for acts of heroism on the battlefield. It was never revealed why Dad received it as he never related the circumstance, and his VA record were lost in a fire at the St. Louis facility. Jim’s war service had a huge impact on his life. Dad rejected any VA benefits for many years he would say that he was just doing his job, but he would never allow me to possess even as much as a BB gun growing up.
I believe that his war service generated an intolerance for stupidity and for those who were given jobs and performed them badly. On the other hand, Jim would go to any length to help someone, no matter their circumstance or color, if he felt that person was trying their hardest. When Dad was on your side, he would do anything in his power to help. I think his military experience brought this feeling to bear.
Jim returned to Macomb after discharge to become the advertising manager of the Macomb Daily Journal. A job which he was well suited as he never met a stranger and could strike up a conversation with anyone. This gift rewarded him many friends and one of those, Pete Andrews, a principal in the Andrews & Sears Insurance Agency offered him an opportunity to buy into the business. Jim availed himself of this offer and spent the rest of his business life there, retiring in 1984. He brought me into the agency in 1974 and later his grandson. Today it operates as the only locally owned insurance agency in Macomb.
Insurance is a tough occupation, but Jim operated in it with diplomacy and friendship. He told me often that we were agents for the customer, not the company. I always admired his willingness to “get up on the roof” with adjusters and contractors to be sure his customer got what they paid for.
Jim loved Macomb. I believe that he tried throughout his business life to make the community a more welcoming place than he encountered upon his arrival. Dad was one of the original Macomb Downtown Development board members, and he was on the McDonough District Hospital Board. Also, he served as Scoutmaster of Troop 332 during my scouting years, he was a Chamber of Commerce board member, Elks Lodge Exalter Ruler, and (the position he loved the most) State of Illinois chairman for the Elks Crippled Children’s Commission. He never forgot the impact his injury had on his physical well being. Jim was a suit and tie guy in the thriving years of the Macomb downtown square.
He was part of a group I think we would be well to remember for their work ethic and honesty in business dealings.
I can’t think of a nicer, more honest or giving man, and I am grateful to have learned life lessons from this true gentleman.
