Survey #59: Seaman Third Class, John Cicatiello

John Cicatiello

Survey #59 | Seaman Third Class, United States Navy | World War II Veteran

For John Cicatiello, the years following World War II were filled with possibility. After spending twenty-one months in the Pacific, he returned home with money in the bank, confidence in his abilities, and an appetite for whatever life might offer next. He had survived the war, learned how to make his way among strangers, and developed a personality that was anything but timid. Those qualities would help him find employment, establish a career, and, through an unlikely contest involving clothespins and a milk bottle, meet the woman who would become his wife.

Cicatiello's wartime service took him to the Pacific, where he spent nearly two years away from home. His broader account of naval service includes work as a stevedore on Guam, Saipan, and Tinian, as well as witnessing the 1946 Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests. Those experiences placed him in the midst of an extraordinary period of American military history, from the final stages of the Pacific war into the uncertain beginning of the atomic age. Yet when Cicatiello spoke about the years that followed, he was just as interested in the friendships, adventures, and unexpected opportunities that shaped his civilian life.

One of his most colorful memories involved gambling during his time in the Pacific. With the war over, Cicatiello and a fellow serviceman became partners in an informal gambling arrangement. Each had a different talent. His friend was particularly skilled at dice, while Cicatiello preferred cards. Together, they visited places where other servicemen were gambling and used their respective abilities to win money.

Their partnership was remarkably successful. Cicatiello recalled returning home with approximately $3,120 in his bank account, a substantial sum at the time. He spoke about the experience with unmistakable amusement, remembering how he and his friend had accumulated more than $3,000 apiece. His father was not entirely pleased by the circumstances, but Cicatiello regarded the winnings as evidence that he had done rather well for himself. The young sailor who had gone to the Pacific had returned with enough money to give himself a meaningful start in civilian life.

Money, however, did not eliminate the need to find a job. Cicatiello's father expected him to get to work, and he began looking for employment. One opportunity involved a sales position with Pep Boys, the automotive parts and accessories company. Cicatiello remembered walking into an office where several other men were waiting to be interviewed. Rather than quietly joining the group, he approached the employer, a man he recalled as Harry Gross, and announced that there was no reason to continue interviewing the others.

He told Gross that although they had never met, his experience in the South Pacific was reason enough to give him the job. He suggested that the other applicants could be sent home. It was an extraordinary opening for a job interview, but Cicatiello delivered it with the confidence of someone accustomed to taking chances.

Gross was intrigued. He invited Cicatiello to sit down and explain himself. Cicatiello remembered that the employer liked his boldness and decided to give him a trial. The other applicants were dismissed, and Cicatiello was sent to one of the company's stores.

The assignment proved fortunate. The store manager wanted him to understand the business thoroughly, so he instructed Cicatiello to open every cabinet and become familiar with everything the store sold. For several days, Cicatiello systematically explored the merchandise, learning where items were kept and what was available. He also began assisting customers during the lunch hour.

By the time the initial training was finished, Cicatiello knew the store's inventory well enough to help customers confidently. His willingness to learn, combined with his outgoing personality, made him a valued employee. He remembered becoming one of the store's favorites. What had begun as a daring interview became a genuine opportunity, and Cicatiello took pride in having earned his place.

His career at Pep Boys eventually intersected with questions about advancement and opportunity. Cicatiello believed that the company's leadership favored members of the founders' families and their established business circles, limiting his prospects for promotion. Although a colleague encouraged him to remain and promised to help him advance if he eventually became president, Cicatiello did not want to wait indefinitely for that possibility.

He left Pep Boys and entered the insurance business. Years later, the former colleague reminded him of the promise and suggested that he should have stayed. Cicatiello acknowledged that the man had meant what he said, but he did not regret leaving. His career had worked out, and he was satisfied with the decision he had made. The episode reflected a pattern in his life: when he believed an opportunity was worth pursuing, he preferred to act rather than wait for someone else to determine his future.

Another opportunity emerged through sales demonstrations. Cicatiello worked as a brush demonstrator, presenting Stanley brushes to groups of potential customers. The demonstrations were social occasions as well as sales events, and he developed ways to make them entertaining. One of his favorite activities was a contest in which guests attempted to drop small clothespins into a bottle.

The game sounded simple but required considerable luck and coordination. Participants held a clothespin near their hip and attempted to drop it into the narrow opening of a bottle positioned below. Cicatiello had practiced the game many times and knew how difficult it was. Even with experience, he usually managed only two or three successful drops, occasionally four.

At one demonstration in New Jersey, a young woman attended as a guest of a friend. When her turn came, she astonished Cicatiello by dropping four clothespins into the bottle. He had rarely managed that result himself, despite all his practice.

He asked whether she had played the game before.

She told him she had not.

The answer made an impression. She won the prize, but Cicatiello remembered something more important than the contest. He wanted to know who she was.

The woman was the person he would eventually marry.

Their first encounter did not immediately become a romance. Cicatiello continued conducting demonstrations, meeting customers, and going about his work. Then, at Christmas, he received an unexpected card from the young woman and her sister.

He was accustomed to meeting many people through his demonstrations, but guests almost never sent him Christmas cards. This one stood out. He remembered telling someone about the card from the girl who had impressed him at the contest. The response was straightforward: he ought to get in touch with her.

The card gave him a reason to renew the acquaintance. Their relationship developed through further meetings, including a visit to Philadelphia connected with her sister's plans to marry and live there. Cicatiello remembered those events as the beginning of their real relationship.

The year was 1948, a date that remained vivid in his memory. He connected August 16, 1948—the day Babe Ruth died—with an important anniversary in their story. The coincidence gave him another way to remember a moment that had become personally significant. History recorded the passing of one of baseball's greatest figures, while Cicatiello remembered the beginnings of a relationship that would shape the rest of his life.

As he recounted the story, his wife was present, occasionally helping him remember details or correcting the sequence of events. Their conversation had the easy rhythm of two people who had told and retold the same stories over many years. He remembered the demonstration, the contest, and the Christmas card; she supplied details about family visits and the circumstances that brought them together. Their memories overlapped, sometimes differently, but the affection beneath the exchange was unmistakable.

Cicatiello took particular pleasure in the improbability of their meeting. He had conducted countless demonstrations, played the clothespin game with many guests, and received little personal correspondence from the people he encountered. Yet one young woman had beaten him at his own contest and then taken the unusual step of sending him a Christmas card. That combination of chance and initiative changed his life.

The story also reveals how Cicatiello approached the world after returning from war. He was willing to introduce himself, take risks, and act on opportunities. He had walked into a job interview and confidently told the employer to send the other applicants home. He had left a promising position when he believed his future lay elsewhere. And when a woman caught his attention at a sales demonstration, he remembered her long after the event was over.

Those choices were not necessarily grand decisions when he made them. They were the ordinary actions of a young man trying to establish himself in postwar America. But taken together, they created the foundation for a working life, a marriage, and a family history that Cicatiello could still recount with enthusiasm decades later.

His memories also offer a glimpse into the social world of returning World War II veterans. After years of military service and separation from home, they entered a country adjusting to peace and expanding economic opportunity. Jobs in sales, retail, and insurance offered ways to build civilian careers. Social gatherings and home demonstrations created opportunities to meet people. The future was not guaranteed, but for someone with Cicatiello's confidence and energy, it was full of possibilities.

What makes his recollections distinctive is the pleasure he takes in the details. He remembers the amount in his bank account, the names of people who gave him opportunities, the arrangement of merchandise cabinets in the Pep Boys store, and the number of clothespins that fell into the bottle. These are not incidental decorations. They are the elements through which he understands his own life, the small events that became important because of what followed.

Cicatiello's wartime experiences form an essential part of his history, but they do not define the entirety of it. His story continues beyond the Pacific, beyond the Navy, and beyond the end of World War II. It follows a returning serviceman into the uncertain and sometimes humorous business of building a civilian life. The same young man who had spent twenty-one months in the Pacific came home to discover that a bold job interview, a Christmas card, and a game involving clothespins could be just as consequential to his future as the events that had taken him overseas.

For John Cicatiello, the years after the war were not simply a return to ordinary life. They were the beginning of a new adventure. He found work, made decisions about his career, and met the woman with whom he would share his life. His memories preserve the confidence, humor, and resourcefulness of a veteran who returned from an extraordinary period of history determined to make something of the years ahead.

And among all the events he remembered, one of the most enduring began with a narrow-necked bottle, a handful of clothespins, and a young woman who managed to win a game he thought he knew better than anyone.