Massaro, electrical engineer, discusses immigration from Italy, his father's work in the coal mines, and life in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Chicago. He discusses life in Springfield: high school, working in the coal mines, the mine wars, Depression, Prohibition, and bootlegging; education at Springfield Junior College and the School of Mines at Rolla, Missouri; employment in engineering department at Emerson Electric, assayer for Utah Copper Company, at Allis Chalmers, and at Springfield's City Water, Light and Power; WWII; Japanese Americans; the growth and development of Springfield: CWLP, CILCO, White Oaks Mall; and social changes in Springfield: women's roles, ethnic neighborhoods and businesses. Also discusses Reservoir Park, Carpenter Park, and the Sangamon River. Also mentions his family and his son's experiences in the Navy and Vietnam.

17 tapes, 1440 mins., 4 vols., 364 pp. Interview by Lee Nickelson Jr., 1979 OPEN See collateral file: interviewer's notes, photographs