Tony's Mom, Betty, was born in Wigan, England in 1927. Lying at the west extreme of the Greater Manchester County, Wigan is probably best known for its coal-mining, its Rugby League, and for the reference to its famous Pier by George Orwell in his book about working-class life in the north in the 1930s. Once a major northern coal producing town, (records show that the first coal pit was begun in 1450), Wigan has developed into a modern town with many attractions. Once Wigan boasted over 1000 pit shafts within 5 miles of the town centre, but these have all gone and the over 2000 acres of industrial dereliction which they created has been cleared and redeveloped in the past few years, and slag heaps have given way to landscaping and green developments.
Tony's Mom grew up on Teck Street in St. Patrick's Parish. She met Tony's Dad, an American GI, during a blackout in WW II. They married at St. Patrck's after the War and moved back to the US, settling first in St. Louis, where Tony was born, and then moving on to Southern California, where Tony's siblings were born and all still reside to this day.
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